New puppy pic and Misty's Writing Update!
Nov 03, 2023 9:39 pm
Hi friends,
Some of you were wondering how the new puppy is doing, so here's a little snippet:
Rosie is a 3-month-old mini goldendoodle that we got from a friend of a friend.
We were looking for a small indoor dog to be a friend and mental health support to my youngest daughter who we joke is the lone extrovert in a house full of introverts. With all her much older siblings leaving home, she's suddenly down to a single teenage brother to play with.
So after years of her begging for a dog, we finally go her a new sibling, Rosie.
She's such a fun and fluffy little puppy. The whole potty training thing is not fun, so feel free to send me tips on helping it to go faster. We're looking forward to being able to let her run freely anywhere in the house once she's trained.
For now, we've got a big pen and we let her roam around with us for a bit right after she pees outside.
Scroll on down for a fun pic of her as well as an update on my writing - lots is happening!
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Tons of Excellent SFF Adventures!!
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This is Rosie. Isn't she a cutie?
In between puppy training session and after three long weeks, I am on my last day of editing Emerging Rebel, the second book in the Shieldwall Academy series. It will actually be a bit longer than the 700+ pages of the first book. Crazy!
What does editing look like for me?
Here's a peak behind the scenes:
- First, I read the comments on Royal Road and Patreon and fix typos and plot holes that are mentioned. I note down suggested story fixes on the header of the correct chapter so I see it when I get there.
- I open each chapter in Google docs (I edit about 6 a day or ~17k words of editing)
- I turn on the ProWritingAid module.
- I read each chapter out loud while fixing typos, grammar stuff, and any plot issues I have noted.
- As a last step, I run ProWritingAid's echo tool to fix words that are repeated too close to each other.
- Do this for 6-7 hours a day for three weeks to get through the entire book.
- On the last two days, I review my really long to-do list and address anything I noted during the last three weeks to check or fix.
- Final day - go through my common mispellings list, punctuation and simple error clean up list (like double spaces, two periods, etc.)
- I do a final Google Docs spell/grammar check.
- I export to Microsoft Word and do a final spell/grammar check there. (Yes, it finds different errors than Google)
- I format the document into a pdf and deliver it to JS Arquin, my narrator.
- Time for a nap. I'm looking forward to getting back to writing new adventures after almost a month of editing long hours at a frantic pace.
p.s. For publishing there is another whole process involved in formatting the book for publication as an ebook, paperback and audiobook. I'll give you the rundown on that around December when the publication date gets closer.
p.s.s. I'll be sending advanced review copies (ARCs) out again about three weeks before publication to anyone willing and able to post an honest review of the book - email or msg me if you'd like to be added to the list!
I can't believe Emerging Rebel is almost ready for narration! Thanks for everyone's support!
- Misty :)
p.s. Follow me to get updates from Amazon here: Misty Zaugg Amazon Page
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