Completing a Project has Never Felt Better!!

A year came and went and I managed to FINISH MY EDITING!  The feeling of accomplishment is overwhelming, really.  Writing for pleasure is one thing, but rewriting is another.

After completing what I thought was my last edit, I was informed that re-outlining the text would be necessary.  Boy, was it ever!  Once I was able to walk away from the book and revisit it with the intention of outlining it, the gaping holes were so blatant.  I had no idea there were so many gaps in the flow and that certain items would require additional explanation.  Outlining it allowed me to really focus on the content and not just the flow of the words.  I saw areas where huge improvements were required.  It was a little embarrassing at first too.  I had put something out into the world that was not at its best.  But now?!  Woohoo!  I know the quality is much better and I can sell with confidence.      

I am positive the text is not perfect and there will always be room for improvement, but getting it to this most recent stage simply feels divine!  I am once again really proud of myself and happy to see a project to its completion.  If you are in a slump or know a project is simply sitting there waiting to get done, I can only recommend you start today!

CC

Order 

The Proposal to Ever After: A Guide to Marriage and Community Property Laws in Louisiana by Camille Carter

today!! 


http://amzn.com/B008A0UVPG

Rejuvenation! The Great Rewrite of 2014

Happy 2014!  I am over the moon excited about this year.  All of the work done in 2013 just HAS to pay off in 2014.  But, to get that mojo going, I am putting in the necessary work to make sure it happens.  The one way I absolutely have to do this is by writing again.

Yes.  That is correct!  I have been rewriting the book and it is going swimmingly.  Seriously, the best advice has been to outline after your write.  The holes were absolutely glaring.  Errors just pop off the page.  It is a little embarrassing considering how much I had already put the book out there, but it will be beneficial now.  To have a professor of marriage law give me FREE advice and the tools to make major improvements and I don't finish the work?  That would be a travesty.  That would be such a waste.

I am so inspired and ready to make the changes.  There was a LOT of procrastination happening.  At first, I did the easy part.  I took out a pen and reread the book making notes in the margins and in a notepad.  The hard part was actually opening the computer file and starting to make the edits.  I like what I had written.  I like the funny anecdotes and what not.

Reality hit me: if it doesn't work, don't force it.  Delete it, move it, reconsider the way you said it.  Just because you said it once doesn't mean it couldn't be said better in another way.  I am looking at my work differently.  I have to see it as "in progress;" always needing improvement.  Others will not love it as much as I do.  There is no way.  Especially if it is not jumping off the page for the reader.

My only issue now is that I want to rush the process.  You know?  I want it to be over, like, tomorrow.  I want to just say, "Rewrite!....Done!"  I need to look at this like the marathon I know it to be.  I must be careful in order to not make errors.  Errors such as not referencing a point or deleting chunks of text and then forgetting to reenter the notes elsewhere.  Just sloppy editing is my part.  So, I am just focusing on one day at a time.  I will continue to put in the necessary hours.  I hope to be done by the beginning of February.  Matter of fact, I will set the deadline for Mardi Gras.

Yay!  Back to rewriting for me!!

CC  

Writer's Block

I cannot believe the wall I have hit.  I have gone through 2/3rds of my book re-outlining as recommended and I have hit a wall.  I basically have to rewrite the entire thing.  I essentially have to start all over.

I know I have made a mountain out of a molehill, but I am pissed off.  I wish I had done this when my momentum was there.  When I was so hyped, I should have done this.  Now, I have peal my lazy ass of the couch and rewrite the entire fucking thing.

FUCK!

I need to draw on my time management skills for this.  Mandatory 1 hour everyday until it gets done.  I can do this...I can do this...I can do this...

And it is Nanowrimo and I have not written at all.  What is wrong with me!!!!

Blechblahblahbleh- Pity party for one please.

CC  

When It Rains, It Pours

Okay - So the meeting with the National Association of Professional Women was by far the most rewarding experience on this roller coaster to date.  First off, let me say that the meeting was comprised of some amazing, talented, wonderful people.  There was my friend Richard Perque who is running for Traffic Court Judge here in New Orleans, a woman running for the Sheriff of Orleans Parish, a man who work at Saks Fifth Avenue, an Assistant Dean, and so many other professional, experienced people.  Even the creators of What the Sleepy Animals Do at the Audubon Zoo were in attendance.

Having the opportunity to discuss my process and progress to date felt great, but the feedback was especially appreciated.  Regarding the cover: we all agreed there is room for much improvement.  The recommendations were to find a freelance artist to help me.  I know I have been trying to do this on the cheap and on the fly, but paying someone to help me with the creative end is more likely the necessary thing.  At first, they recommended stock-art (I think that is what it is called).  Stock photography.  Basically, there are these online services that will sell you a downloadable image.  They have lots of them.  For anywhere from $50 to $150, you can purchase an image.  But I don't know what file size I need or how to make the changes necessary.  At least now, I will have a graphic artist who can figure that all out for me while I focus on the content.  I also want them to figure out how to get the words exactly down the spine.  Again, something I do not feel like dealing with.

This leads to the next best thing out of that meeting.  The Assistant Dean recommended I give the book to a Community Property Professor at her institution.  I thought that was a great idea, but I actually gave her a free copy of the book and asked her to deliver it.  And...she did.  She actually dropped it off and the professor actually read it.  We scheduled a meeting.  It was amazing advice.  She said, "It lacks connectivity."  In other words, the advice was strong, but if I were to outline the content, I would be see where improvements could be made.  She said it is especially true where there is brevity.  For example, when I discuss someone being married to another person at the time of the second marriage, that is not a very common problem.  It is frankly very rare, but should I gloss over it?  Not really.  That was an area she thought could be improved.

Her recommendation was to re-outline the entire thing.  Absolute genius.  Throughout my education, I was taught to outline my content prior to writing, not to write the content and then outline it.  That was one item I was able to really jump into and the issues simply pop off the page to me.  It is simply a refreshing perspective for the original writer.  It has opened my eyes and I feel very rejuvenated!

Let's get this work improved!  I simply have to time-manage again.  I have to actually take this advice and move forward.  It is going to take some work...

CC

Mini Book Tour!

Last night was my first presentation of my book.  My friend and colleague invited me to speak at her local National Association of Professional Women (NAWP) chapter at their monthly meeting.  I was very unsure about what I was going to discuss, until a single word was identified by my mom.

The NAWP's mission statement is, "...to provide the most advanced forum for members to connect with like-minded professional women to develop innovative business and social relationships. We continuously offer our members the resources and benefits necessary to foster professional and personal success."  Their M.O. is empowerment.  Empowering professional women through relationship building and networking.  It is a great group of women.  If it wasn't for the $500+ annual membership fee, I would join...

Thus, night before my presentation, my mom called me (as usual) and asked what I was planning on discussing.  I started by saying that I believed it really began for me in 1997 with the Publishing Course I had taken at the University of Colorado.  During that course of study we worked on Tuesdays with Morrie, and ....

Mom said, "No."  And I am glad she did.  She asked who the group was and I explained their concept was empowerment, yada, yada, yada.  "That is what you should talk about.  Your book is designed to empower women with knowledge about marriage law and their rights within their union."  

Eureka!  

She was right (as usual)!  Sometimes, when you are so entrenched in a project, you forget the essential element that got you to where you are.  The whole point of this project is to empower women and to provide them with the necessary tools to make the right decisions for themselves.  I was too focused on the non-emotional part.  The reality was that the component of empowerment was right before me - EMPOWERMENT.

So, my discussion began there and the rest went very smoothly.  I hope the audience enjoyed me brief talk.  It felt good too to really let the spotlight shine.  In our day-in-and-out lives, we lose sight on our need for attention.  And, damnit!  It felt great to be the center of it for once.  I am so fortunate to have been invited to speak and I really cherish my friendship with my friend.  What a great opportunity she provided for me :)))  I also got some great contacts for design help and outreaching to local professors - I feel like I might be on my way here...  

CC

"A formatting we shall go, a formatting we shall go, hiegh-ho, the dairy-o, a formatting we shall go..."

The one bane of my self-publishing existence thus far has been the annoyance of not being able to line up the indented material in my text.  Since my book is legally based, I reference a lot of case law.  Any quote that is longer than three typed lines requires special attention.  It is called block quotation or long quotation.  As you recall from English class, you make a small paragraph with smaller font, indent it, and then return to your regular text.  It looked great in Word, but when I posted the book onto Kindle or CreateSpace, it looked all out of whack.  

Here is what I have been dealing with ever since I first posted my text on these sites (see where it says "Marriage is one...":

As you can see, I have set the Microsoft Word options to show me the formatting.  The arrows are tabs and the backwards P means paragraph (to figure out how to do this on your own computer, simply use your Help options when in Word or search online).  Clearly, there are tabs where tabs should not be.  What would make these tabs move all over the place?  I mean, I did not put the tab there in the first place!  What would make it do that?  Hmmm...

  A-Ha!  I needed to end each line with an "enter".  I needed to create little paragraph to set the boundary on the line for the CreatSpace software to comprehend where to end.  Can you see the difference?  Tab - > Text PARAGRAPH.  

On and on, I feverishly ran through the text.  Once I was done, I cleaned it all up a bit:

 

The finished product looks soooo much better.  Huge improvement.  I really think it will improve the readers' perception on the quality of the work.  I am sure if I picked up a book and saw lots of inconsistencies with formatting, I would question the reliability of its contents.  

It took me a couple of hours to really get the formatting problems down.  For anyone using the CreateSpace service, you should just keep plugging away with these minor details.  Personally, this was a MAJOR accomplishment in my own book.  I feel so much better knowing I took the time to get it right rather than just letting it look a mess.  

I have just reloaded this file into the Kindle edition.  I hope to see that this improved the formatting issues there as well.  This is so much fun!  

CC  

  

Judging a Book by Its Cover

After refreshing the interior of my book, I believe it is time to look at its jacket.  Does my cover really work for my book?  Here is the original cover:

I liked it because the peachy colors made it very feminine and the type was the same as the interior.  I designed the ring using stock imagery and the circle tool in Microsoft Publisher.  Very inexpensive and, I think, it conveys the interior's content.  But does it work?

Short of returning to college to study cover art, I did a simply Google search.  Here are some of the useful tips I discovered:

Inspiration

The following link shows very artsy, fartsy covers.  Clearly, these people have Adobe Photoshop.  Although I will never be able to create letters out of water, I do find these images to be refreshing and inspiring.  Also exceptionally well thought out...

"50 Best Book Covers Of 2012: Design Observer Announces Winners"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/27/best-book-covers-2012-_n_3509364.html

To Serif or Not to Serif 

Serifs are the little flairs on fonts, such as this Times New Roman Font.  Non Serif fonts are like this Ariel font.  Serif'd fonts are the easiest to read and the most commonly used font in books.  Either way, the font chosen can really make an impression on the reader, especially on the cover.  This begs the question, should I use a serif font or not?  Here is an article that I believe has some great ideas on this point...

"5 Great Fonts for Book Covers"
http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2011/08/5-great-fonts-for-book-covers/

I like that article, but it doesn't really help me with my topic, legal - So, I just typed in the Google search engine: legal book cover art.  What appeared in the Web search field is the issue of copyright laws.  This is not what I had in mind.  So instead of changing my search terms, I decide to click the Images tab.  What I find there was most interesting:

I am not sure if you can see that, but a majority of the book's titles are in ALL CAPS.  Hmmm.  That is an option I am going to try now...

I LIKE IT!  I think it really conveys a new look.  Much more dignified.  Reserved.  Trustworthy.  I even did the whole INCREASING THE SIZE OF THE BIG WORDS.

Finally, the colors.  As much as I like the peachy-ness of the other cover.  I kind of want it to go to another place.  However, when I change the color of the font, the title seems weak against the white cover.  Now, I am thinking a black cover with a colored font on top, but I like the image of the ring (blue diamond, gold band).   Thus, I have filled the text box black.  Should I do blue letters?  No.  Should I do gold?  Well, what does the color wheel say?

According to HDTV's color instruction, blue is a primary color and orange is its secondary color:
http://www.hgtv.com/decorating-basics/color-wheel-primer/index.html

For my needs, I am thinking I should go with a more reddish-orange than gold.

Are you ready for the before and after?  I am!  Let me see...

 And now...

Wow!  I think I really like it!  The difference is amazing.  The ring really pops and the font looks...sexy.  Yeah, I said it.  I think it is a great change!  I will have to order a copy to see...I think the background is a little dark, but I think it works...

Exciting changes before the weekend.  Have a good one!

CC