AP2 DRAFT 7: COMPLETE!

I finally buckled down to solve the ‘should character Z survive the book’ problem. If you recall, I was going to ask Kim about for help at my 30th high school class reunion. Here’s a picture of the event, by the way. See? I’m right there in the back almost smiling.

Kim was not feeling well, so she wasn’t able to go. It was a bummer, but I was able to talk to a few other people instead. Like Andy, there in the front surrounded by women. 😐

I also got a free T-shirt! Or a $40 dollar T-shirt, since that’s how much this little shindig cost. I made sure to take as much food to-go as I could to prove to everyone what a master mooch I had become. 😅

ANYway, back to Abandonment Party 2 and the problem of the alive/dead character. I did make a choice on my own, but I’ll keep it a secret for now. And it did give me a bit of extra work. Just about one page of explanation about how ‘character Z’ survived/died, but it didn’t take too long.

The only thing I really need to do now is check all of the pronouns to make sure they’re all consistent. For example let’s say I’m checking ‘hex door.’ I’d open up the ‘find and replace’ feature and type in ‘hex door.’ Then I’d slowly go through to check every time that term appears and make sure I didn’t do something weird like put in a hyphen or capitalize it. (There’s an option to ignore capitalization when searching for the words. Very handy.)

There’s also a good amount of numbers that I’ll need to double-check. I’m terrible at numbers so I should probably quintuple-check. That’s seven times, right? 😅

THEN I’ll have to actually upload everything to Amazon and have fun remembering how to even DO all that again. I hope they still have the ‘check to see how everything looks on Kindle’ program. I’ll have to read the entire book on there at least once to make sure it’s all working correctly. (Even though David said his Kindle version of the first book was wonky in places. I could have been his settings, and no one else complained so I really have no idea if it’s something I can fix.) 🤔

Now, let’s get to Stargate SG-1.

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AP2 Draft 7, chapters 19-27: COMPLETE!

And here we are again: at the chapters leading up to the book’s finale! I made some cuts, but not many. I have also not solved the problem of ‘should this one character die or not.’

As of now, the character lives. And there is nothing this character does following the event in which they may or may not die. Not in this book. Which means I can still have them die or live without making any major changes.

This is also a secondary character, but their death would affect one of the main characters. So I have that to consider as well.

I’d normally ask Kim about this problem, but she’s also having a brush with death at the moment with her rare cancer. Maybe I’ll try asking anyway. I haven’t been able to visit her, either. I’ve tried to visit twice now, but she always says she’s worried about germs and turns me down.

Kim DID decide to go to our class reunion next month. 30 years. Maybe I can talk to her there. Continue reading →

AP2 Draft 7, chapters 11-18: COMPLETE!

I separated another chapter into two. The book is flowing well; it’s just that one chapter was way too long.

Otherwise, I’m just polishing away at everything.

Now, time for twenty pages of stuff I’ve been watching! 😅

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AP2 Draft 7, Chapters 1-10: COMPLETE!

There’s almost no need for AP2 news at this point. It’s just ‘I’m fixing minor mistakes and making small tweaks everywhere.’

Although I suppose there is news with my editor friend Kim: she got diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and has to have chemo treatments for six months. I guess that’s why she hasn’t felt like editing these latest drafts. 🙁

She wants people to pray for her, so please do so. I’m sure someone is reading this, right?

Anyway, let’s start the reviews. Continue reading →

AP2 DRAFT 6: COMPLETE!

I love it when a book draft gets to this point. I mean, it’s only happened TWO times now but it’s still exciting! Now every re-read from this point on will go at top speed, with very little downtime spent altering content.

As far as the book content is concerned, there is still one ‘problem’ I haven’t yet figured out how to solve. Either I’d better come up with a solution SOON or I’ll kick the can down the road to the next book. I’d rather not do that—but hey! If I put all my brain power into one problem it can’t be too hard to figure out.

Now on to the Stargate stuff.

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AP2 Draft 6, Chapters 20-28: COMPLETE!

Once again, it feels good to be able to move quickly through the chapters. I can experience the flow. Pacing, as I’m told it’s called. 😅

In the early drafts there is very little flow. I always have to stop and shuffle paragraphs around. Then I go backwards and read things again. It’s like I’m stuck in a time loop, and I’m changing the past to alter the present.

But now the timeline is complete and I’m cruising straight through the book’s climax! Continue reading →

AP2 DRAFT 6, Chapters 8-19: COMPLETE!

Ah, it feels good to be blazing through these chapters so quickly. Low on problems, high on entertainment! About the only thing slowing me down at this point are good, OPTIONAL ideas.

I will have to go backwards a bit to implement one good idea, but it shouldn’t take long. This ‘new thing’ is actually a solution to something Kim complained about a while ago. She thought a character’s behavior was boring and that I had to do better. I thought it was fine at the time, but gosh, working on the same book for years really gives you an opportunity to think. 😁

Okay, here’s what I’ve been watching/playing. I took a break from Mewgenics, but I’ll be back for more later, just like Guillotina. 😅 Continue reading →

AP2 Draft 6 – 1-7 COMPLETE!

Okay, I got back to work. Things are picking up.

I’ve been using Google Docs and I recently noticed a little ‘notes’ tab on the right side of the page. So I’ve been making notes with helpful things on the OFF CHANCE my iron-clad memory fails.

Y’know, stuff like what each character is wearing for every day of the book. Mean has quite a few outfits in this one, and fashion isn’t exactly my strong point. It was easier in the first book since there weren’t as many characters, but now there are three times as more. And zounds, even Dark might change up his look this time. 🤯

Otherwise I’m making good progress. The chapters aren’t taking me too long to go through, and I’m not seeing any major problems. Things are flowing well, and I’m enjoying the near-complete work. I just love that feeling of being surprised and moved by something I wrote myself. (Okay so maybe my memory does fail sometimes.) Continue reading →

Oops, I didn’t do any book writing this month. Part of it was because of the Christmas season, and part of it was because I was waiting for Kim to read draft 5 before I started the polishing process.

But she didn’t read it, so I’ll just go on without her after I’m done with this post. Sorry, Kim; Abandonment Party 2 must be finished and released. It’s amazing, and my millions of fans shouldn’t have to wait another year. I must not disappoint them! 🤩

Okay, so here are the shows/games I’ve been watching/reading:

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AP2 DRAFT 5: STILL COMPLETE! BUT EVEN MORE SO!

I made a list of details and events that NEED to go into the book somewhere. “XXXX needs to witness XXXX happen at some point” for example. Or like “Add a scene where the mechanics of hex doors are completely explained.” And when I finished draft five, I notices that there were still about eight things on the list. 😅

And I added it all in. I searched the whole book for JUST the right place to put all of these vital ideas. Eh, except for one. I might need Kim’s feedback first. (It’s the part where I’m trying to decide if a character dies or survives the book.)

I did send the draft to Kim, but I haven’t heard back from her about it yet. Gosh, I should check to see if she actually received my email. It might have gotten sent to her spam inbox. Totally unintentional, I’m sure. 😑

Okay, I drove to her house after I got done writing this post. She did get it, but didn’t look at it yet. I’ll just send her this updated version then. I also taught her how to buy games on Steam. Continue reading →