So I just read the critique of Chapter 10 from one of my peers; she has actually read my novel from the start and been one of my main and steady critiquers. I value her opinion. She mentioned that it was the final chapter she would get to see, since class is almost over and graduation [for me] looms ahead. She included her personal email address and invited me to continue sending chapters for critiques – which I will – it was a generous offer, I feel and as she’s been following the story from the start, she has a pretty good feel for my style and voice.
Two of the things she pointed out, I hadn’t realized were difficult to visualize; those I will go back to and work on, later tonight. Some of the spelling ‘errors’ she pointed out are really not errors, per se, but the Scots spelling and part of my Scots family dialogue – so those will remain, as is. The spellings were looked up via a dictionary of Scots phrases and spellings, and changing a characters dialogue changes the character, in my opinion… they speak how they speak. If a character has been known to say things like, “I ain’t gonna do it an’ ya can’t make me” [not representative of the Scot, just an example] it would give a very different view of the character if that same sentence was changed to be something like this, “I shall not do that. No, you cannot change my mind” or even, “I can’t do it and you really can’t make me.” Each one gives the reader a different feel for the character speaking.
The book is almost finished. I will admit I’m kind of stuck currently, trying to figure out which way to handle a situation. Instead of writing, I have been concentrating on homework [only two more weeks till graduation!] and poking around Facebook a bit [my daughter’s dog Elsa just had her first litter of twelve pups! :^0] and she’s really hoping I’ll take a pup… as much as I love puppy’s, it is a pitbull and I keep thinking these dogs were created specifically to fight. Not my daughter’s, the breed, in general. *sighs* But I love puppy’s…. *shaking head* Gotta get images of puppy’s out of my head, this post is on writing!
As a side note on slacking, I have been doing better on the dragon game. I basically log in to do the time sensitive stuff and wait till later in the evening, when I’m done with writing or homework, to do the time consuming parts. This followed a single day of not logging on at all, kind of a cold turkey thing, and I’ve been doing the two-part login for two days now. *shrugs* It seems to be working. It’s allowed me to write my homework and read my required stuff; I just haven’t added anything original/new to my novel – but like I said, I have other issues with that.
So, a somewhat timely post – check; homework and critiques for this week – check; reading for next week’s class – check; email and daily duties – check. Watching a “B” flick on Netflix, then back to my laptop. Oh, I need to research why it freezes/stops responding on a nightly basis, too. My desktop and other laptop do not do this, well, desktop for sure… the other laptop I don’t use quite as often and not typically during the time period when the newest one acts up. It’s a conundrum.
M’kay, I am so outtie….