☀️It Dawned on Me… {#19}
We all need a soft place to land @incourage; a new desktop wallpaper; editing the second draft; currently reading, watching, listening
We All Need a Soft Place to Land at (in)courage
Have you ever had a really rough day (or week, or month, or year), but had to just keep plugging away at life while wishing the world around you knew, and would take it easy on you? We can never truly understand what the people around us are going through.
Please join me at (in)courage for We All Need a Soft Place to Land:
I made this desktop wallpaper for you in the spring, and then forgot to include it in the newsletter. Twice. I photographed these water lilies at Gibbs Gardens in Ball Ground, GA.
This photo, minus the verse, has been my iPhone lock screen for years. For a while, I had pics of my grandchildren. As more came along (the current total is seven), I knew I could never be fair with that, so the water lilies stayed.
Editing the Second Draft: Killing My Darlings
I wasn’t familiar with the phrase “kill your darlings” until I started writing fiction, although apparently there’s a movie with that title. To kill your darlings means to eliminate parts of your writing—passages of prose, characters, entire scenes—that you especially like, if they don’t serve the story as a whole. It’s hard to do (hence the phrase), and a primary reason I followed the Stephen King advice to walk away from your first draft for six weeks before editing.
Now, I’m eliminating sentences, phrases, and paragraphs that I couldn’t cut the first time around.
I’ve finished the second draft of my first ten chapters and when I finish the entire second draft, I plan to send it to beta readers and apply for a service that offers manuscript assessment, book coaching, and help finding a new agent.
There’s my book update!
Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📖
I’ve read as much as I’ve written this year! I go through phases, but I’m definitely in the summer beach read/romance category at the moment. Here are some recent reads:
Mayluna is the story of a writer and the lead singer of a band she’s sent to write a story about. It’s currently free on Kindle Unlimited.
I submitted a summary of my book to a writing podcast in May. At the end of each month, there’s a bonus episode where a woman who works at a D.C. bookstore helps authors find comps (comparable titles, to include in the query letter that helps you land an agent) for their book.
Based on my summary, Will Leitch was recommended to me and I read How Lucky, the story of a young man with a physical disability that confines him to a wheelchair, struggling to communicate, who witnesses a young woman’s abduction near the University of Georgia campus. WOW!!! So good.
In Funny Story, my first Emily Henry book, Daphne’s fiancé leaves her for his childhood best friend, who leaves behind her own ex-fiancé. The two abandoned exes become roommates and try to make their exes who left them jealous.
Happiness for Beginners was the first book in a series of three I read where a younger man connected by family (brother’s best friend or best friend’s little brother) has a crush on a girl, she grows up and marries someone else, the marriage goes bad, and she winds up with the younger man in the end.
They made a Netflix movie of this one, but it annoyed me after reading the book; they changed too much. Read the book, skip the show.
I met Annabel Monaghan recently at a book signing and brought home her new release Summer Romance. I loved this book, which gives me hope you can publish a successful romance without so much explicit content. You’ve gotta love a relationship that starts when the female protagonist’s dog pees on the male protagonist’s shoe. 😂
In the podcast episode I mentioned above, I was also referred to Kristy Woodson Harvey’s books as possible comps for mine. Under the Southern Sky is the third in my series of “younger man has childhood crush on girl who grows up and gets married, divorced, and eventually ends up with him” novels. (Random coincidence I read three in a row, but clearly this is a popular theme.)
In The Five-Star Weekend, a few months after a woman’s husband dies in a car crash, she gathers her best friends from each life stage (teens, twenties, thirties, and midlife) for a lavish girls’ weekend. Lots of drama, friendship clashes, a big surprise, and ultimately healing take place.
I read another Annabel Monaghan book, Same Time Next Summer. In the acknowledgements, she mentions how the movie The Philadelphia Story inspired her, and now I want to watch it again. It’s an old favorite!
In theaters, we’ve recently seen A Quiet Place Day One, Despicable Me 4, and Fly Me to the Moon. They each received fewer than 7 stars on IMDB, but I liked them all. 🤷♀️
A Quiet Place Day One is the third in the series, but it’s first, as far as the timeline goes, so you’d be okay to watch it even if you haven’t seen the other movies. I love that my 19-year-old daughter still loves Despicable Me movies, so it was fun to go with her. Fly Me to the Moon was about the first American moon landing. It’s a cute romantic comedy.
Music-wise, I’m playing my usual book playlists. No new music. I’d love to hear your suggestions!
As always, thanks for reading!
Blessings,
Dawn