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Manuscripts breath life for themselves

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I apologize for not updating my blog since late October or November. I had gone through a few things emotionally with my mother’s death and cleaning up my mental state and having to let go of a few things.

As you can see in the photo above, I have been working on book 3. As you can see, I breezed through to chapter five faster than I thought it would happen even with all the notes I have. But, yeah know, being sick with a cold twice really is the pits. Your brain doesn’t want to work and yet you yearn to writing the next chapter. If there’s one thing writers/authors can’t afford is sick days. We need our minds to push out our manuscripts at any cost.

Book 3 Soul’s Little Lie: Echos of the Lost is going to be quite a lot larger than the first two I think, however, I’m starting to think that I’ll have to take book 1 and 2 and put them into book 3 in chronological order of the story. Book 1 would be in the middle and book 2 would be right after that or so and kinda close to the end of it all. In other words, ‘book 1’ isn’t finish after all.

It’s not a bad thing. It just means that this novel(s) was wanting to be written differently. There’s no harm in that, I’ll just have to make sure I arrange the manuscripts correctly in a more constructive way with a few added paragraphs to connect a few areas. If all else fails, I’ll just have the professional editors take care of this rearrangement of the story. At least I have a very good idea how this will all be constructed. This form of editing won’t take too long I don’t think.

In other news, my three beta readers have read the 2nd book. They couldn’t put it down, but they also gave me a great amount of notes to fix up a few areas. This manuscript wasn’t that bad in lack of errors. A lot less than the first one by far. And they told me that the ending was a bit short, rushed and airy. This is what made me think that I should connect the first 2 manuscripts closer together for the 3rd one. I’m willing to do it if I must.

For those who might want to read an excerpt of the second manuscript, I’m sorry I can’t afford to do that right now as it hasn’t been fully edited and I’m more interested in wanting to send the first manuscript out, but if it comes to it, which it looks like it must, I’ll just have to rearrange manuscript 1 and 2 into the 3rd and then send it off. No, I’m not confused, this first time novel is a complete learning experience and never ever are any two manuscripts ever written the same.

Oh, more last thing, as for fan art of book 4, I haven’t touched those five art pieces in a year at least. I have three left and I fear I may have messed up the third one a bit and may have to start over. And, I’ve gotten down a fair amount of notes for book 4 and I can’t wait to get started on that one out of all the others. Been wanting to work on book 4 for nearly five years now. It’s driving me crazy, but I’m being very patient about it. I can’t jump from one book to the next haphazardly like some authors can do. I’m still learning and I don’t want to screw this up.

As always, you can find me on Facebook and Twitter if you ever want to talk to me about writing. Takes for tuning into my blog tonight. I’ll try to keep to a once a month blog as much as I can. Thanks and take care.

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Power of Words: Old Style vs New (A Comparison)

Which is best: modern dictionary with thesaurus or old; well loved thesaurus publication? Here are some examples as I thumbed through both.

The New Roget’s Dictionary & Thesaurus Form – Edited by: Norman Lewis (edition 1931, 1936, 1959, 1961, 1964 by: G.P. Putnam’s Son

idol: n. – image, golden calf, graven image, fetish, (worship); beloved, darling, dear (love)

celebrity: n. – luminary, personage, notable (fame)

 

The Little Oxford English Dictionary and Thesaurus – 2003, 2008 copyright

idol: n. -1)  icon, effigy, graven image, fetish, totem 2) hero, heroine, star, celebrity, favorite, darling; inf. blue-eyed boy

celebrity: n. – star, superstar, personality, household name

 

While I compared the two widely different examples, I noticed something very disappointing: the English language is diminishing before our eyes. The language in which we speak is losing its luster and stamina.

While editing my novel “Soul’s Little Lie” I noticed something about my writing from the early stages. I repeated what I was taught in simplicity of word style. The words I used in how I wanted to express the feeling of the story and character interactions were weak; had no power to hold up against the pages. While using my old 1930s Roget’s Thesaurus I learned of words I never knew existed or the context in which they are used. My eyes, my mind expanded to a whole new (perhaps old) world. I dove into this new found adventure and began adding what I had now learned.

There are ways to to use words in explaining a time period or a type of character in how they speak. Say, in the 18th century a character would speak in a more colorful manner. So using, ‘older style’ words would be appropriate. However, that’s cheating us out of the beauty of words. I would ravel in the joy of using ‘notable’ than ‘superstar’ to describe an idolized person.

The way words are used today are extremely simplified so much that this generation and the next will not know the art in which words are created. There are many words in different languages that mean the same thing  just like the English language does, too. The difference is, older cultures try to keep to the same ways of language as long as possible. More modern, faster growing; expanding countries like the United States throw away or shift words around too much. Everyone seems to want to keep everything around them fresh, ‘novel’ as though they can’t sit still long enough to enjoy what they already had.

I ask you now, readers and writers alike: Open your old, beloved thesaurus with renewed vigor. Dive into those dust stained pages. Let your fingers do the walking. Play with the idea for a while in what new; old words you can use in your future works. You will not be disappointed. I promise you that.

 

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