ugh I'd like to start by saying that I've become a really big fan of the American expression a hot
mess because it is hot and I am a mess but I'm feeling kind of accomplished about the book AKA
one crisis at a time AKA I made a shorts series and then people said but it's a book right? and
then I said no but I guess I could give that a go and here we are this is basically a recruitment
video sorry but to make it up to you I will be sprinkling in quotes from the second draft
which I thought were funny. "Rosamund decided to have one more try it's just not reasonable that
Queen Eudosia is sending me with a single guard very single Caroline interrupted your hot enemy
is neither married nor involved with anyone else Rosamund gave up does this hot enemy have a name?
Captain Collins Caroline replied of the Queen's guard. over the course of the last few weeks
but particularly in a four day sprint last week because the Monday I had to paint my ceilings as
you do I have produced what I think is a working second draft of Caroline and Rosamund's Adventures
to whoever said that writing is rewriting you're correct I just wish to file a complaint
but having got myself a working second draft I am now going through and trying to copy and
line edit it myself a bit to a place where it's not so bad which means reading it out loud and
rewriting sentences and pruning the vast Thicket of adverbs I'm not saying that I like adverbs a
little bit too much but I might like adverbs a little bit too much. the second draft will be
available for patrons and channel members before the end of June so if you're looking for that
that's where you'll be able to find it and let me tell you it is quite substantially different
to the first draft let me explain by way of numbers I started with a manuscript of about 63
000 words but if there was a section in it that I thought I want to cut this out but there might be
a good line in there somewhere that I could steal for later I would just cut the whole section and
paste it into a notes section on scrivener this did not include when I just deleted a paragraph
and rewrote it for example but if it was fairly substantial I would do that there are 11 000 words
worth of things that I cut out and decided to save in case there were some good lines in there
yeah so that takes us down to 52 000 words except the second draft is 61 000 words long which means
I have written at least 9 000 new words not to mention the substantial percentage of the 52 000
Words which got readjusted re-edited just deleted and Rewritten it's been a time this is where my
patrons and channel members come in because obviously can't really be making videos when
you're doing a writing sprint as well it doesn't really work like that so thank you for giving me
the space to just focus on this thing and try and get it done the scene around the captain froze as
Caroline inserted herself into the world good day Captain Collins in order to or politely but
said nothing wondering what she had in store for him this time he hoped it was less ambiguous than
her previous request which had been "could you maybe smoulder a bit more?" my plea for patrons
and channel members who read the second draft is the thing I would like you to watch out for
is when the characters are featureless faceless blanks with no discernible hair or eye colour and
when the characters are standing in a featureless void because I I have trouble with description
you know it's a thing let's be real I have other significant writing issues as well but this one
is easy to pick up on so let's go for it in this revision I have been taking into consideration the
advice of not one for three different people who work uh as book editors so that wasn't on purpose
but it was very much appreciated so here we are I once had a leader who insisted on referring to
everyone by their first names to improve morale he offered Rosamund looked intrigued did it work
no your Ladyship, because he kept getting them wrong I was Landon for my entire time there and
he kept asking if my wife was well a smile played around the corners of Rosamund's mouth I take it
your name isn't actually Landon. He couldn't help but smile back no your ladyship it's Leo and I've
never been married either but having taken all of these suggestions on board including feedback
from the first draft from my patrons and channel members here are the things that I now need first
I need a copy and line editor some people have already contacted me via the contact form on my
website some people who are patrons and so have my email address have contacted me via email that's
wonderful here's what I'm thinking for this because I don't know what's going on I am one
person and I'm a little bit overwhelmed right now if you wish to be considered as a potential copy
line editor for the book email me via my website and I will send you a copy of the second draft
like the whole thing and you can edit a little bit of it or comment a little bit of it do do your
thing on a small section of it like the whole of the first chapter or you know one scene from each
of the Viewpoint characters or something I don't know you do as much as you think you need to to
demonstrate what it is that you would do for me with this book and then you also tell me how much
it would cost for you to edit the book how long you think it would take and any other information
that you think is relevant I guess and then I'll look at my options and see who I'm vibing with
and then I will get in contact with that person I realize that this is in fact asking you to do some
free work and you know you don't have to if you don't want to obviously but I don't know how I can
possibly choose I don't know why I can possibly choose who to work with unless I know what it is
that you're actually gonna do for me so that's how we're going to try to do that same thing for type
setting I have a book which has four different kind of things in it the real world in which
Caroline and Henry and various other characters but that's not important right now I live there is
the manuscript that's where Rosamund lives oh wait it's five because there is the meta where Caroline
and her characters talk to each other there are the comments that Henry and Caroline leave on the
manuscript and there are text messages which Caroline and Henry send to each other I think
these different parts of the story can be nicely and aesthetically differentiated from each other
without everyone going mad but I don't know how to do that last thing is I'm also looking for a
cover artist uh I'm not gonna say it's the same principle applies because that's not quite how
that works but if you would like to be considered as a cover artist then again email me you can also
send you the manuscript if you want me to give me a link to your work give me an idea of the sort
of thing that you think would make a good cover I have put some suggestions on my community posts on
YouTube this is a great picture which I thought was very much how Caroline would want her actual
cover to be and then this is really really cool as well I just really like the Grand Theft equine
Vibes that we could possibly get if we're doing a hardcover I'm working on that I'm working on that
message from Henry a masquerade from scratch in four days at lunchtime his phone buzzed message
from Caroline you're no fun message from Henry I'll have you know I'm a renowned party animal
it was a brief suggestion that Caroline was typing a reply then nothing
Henry not wondering with some anxiety of flirting with your authors constituted sexual harassment
decided not to think about it I'm going to be publishing through ingramspark and KDP both of
these are print on demand and I think at least Amazon so KDP offers a hardback option I think
Ingram's Park as well so we'll see how we go there but let's get the book finished with the writing
first you know sentences are very hard lastly thank you for your patience because obviously I
can't really make my regular content to my regular schedule while I'm trying to get this thing done
but when I'm able to hand the book off to a copy and line editor for them to look through it I'm
gonna have a little bit of breathing space so I can make some regular videos again which will be
great news for everybody who does not care about the book I did also promise Zac Evans that we'd
make a video about A Knight's Tale and I haven't forgotten Zac honestly I promise I did buy the
Blu-ray and everything I just want this to be done and be good so that you can buy it and hopefully
like it that's all writing is difficult but you know we're getting there anyway I'm gonna go and
lie down now possibly later on I will watch a bunch of videos about useless words and how to
remove them from your manuscript and how to make your sentences better but for now probably going
to take a nap thank you once again for your patience thank you to my patrons and channel
members who are basically propping me up while I try and do this thing and I'll see you all soon