How To Survive Editing

Very simple.

1. Leave your ego at the door. As matter of fact, divorce your ego. Trust me. Your work will THANK YOU.

2. Break it up into parts. Don't count the red marks all at once. Unless you're a  masochist.

3. Whenever you feel like it is too much, always allow yourself to focus more on the good part of the editing (example in the picture).

4. Author is the creator. Author is the boss. We make the final decision. But we are not perfect; we make mistakes. That's why we need help from others to edit our work. I don't believe in self-editing. It's not a matter of "can or cannot", I'm pretty sure a lot of authors are capable of editing their own work. I just don't recommend it.

5. Always, and I mean always, treat yourself to something awesome and fancy once you've passed (and survived) the whole editing process! You earn it. Big time.

My Lea Amazon

My Lea Kobo

My Lea B&N

My Lea iBooks

My Lea Scribd

My Lea Goodreads

I Won't Break Goodreads

Picture is taken from "I WON'T BREAK" first draft, a My Lea sequel by e. mellyberry.

A Thank You Diorama

When my 8-year-old wanted to give her teachers something as a thank-you gift, she didn't go for card or chocolates and flowers.

She made them dioramas "Thank You for Helping Me Grow."

The first one shows a green caterpillar that transforms herself into a beautiful  (featherly) butterfly.

The next one shows seed in a garden that transform into a tall tree. She used real leaves to make that tree.

I helped!  Cutting and pasting mostly.

What do you think?
You think her teachers would love these gifts?

MG Fantasy : A Dare

I have one particular story idea that's been living inside my head since I was in high school (so yeah, it's been there for like 300 years already).

It's an MG Fantasy thing, you know, with magic, funny creatures, a war between good and evil kind of stuff...

The story has obviously evolved through time, one of the perks of having it undeveloped for so long. This time, I dare myself to 'develop' it into real words and papers and such *cross fingers*

We will get into the head of a fourteen-year-old boy who's pretty confident about who he is, only to find out later that, well, he is not who he think he is. 

Here's one of my favorite scenes when our hero (I haven't found him a suitable name yet) meets an ancient priest after he accidentally set his power off in a battle against the bad guy. Let's just say that the battle didn't end well... thus the meeting.

Hope you enjoy this little sneak peek of THE KORRS :)

The skeleton-look-alike guy didn't open his eyes, which I thought was a bit rude, considering what I'd been through to get here. At least he spoke though. And in a language I understood.

"You must learn your root before you can lead."

"Lead who?"

"Your brothers and sisters."

I corrected him. "Two brothers and a sister." Make it two bullying brothers and one bossy sister. 

He spoke again as though he didn't hear me. "Your other brothers and sisters."

A wave of relief surged through me, and with that, a tinge of disappointment. I had made this journey for nothing. I was not the one they were seeking. "No, I have--" I stopped just as a new dread settled in. "Wait. How many more brothers and sisters I don't know about?" Because three didn't seem to be enough apparently.

The man smiled, showing a row of blackened gum and nothing else. "Deera di paretto."

An ancient language that had long been forgotten. The language of the sky. Scary part was, I understood it well as if it was my own. 

by e. mellyberry