Tag Archives: revisions

Works, Technique

How do you write?

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I have to admit it: I’m one of those writers who doesn’t really do much of anything until I absolutely fall in love with an idea—anything from a character to a scene to a setting. My ideas come from dreams, friends, books, movies, TV, etc. But until an idea really grabs me, I can’t sustain my interest enough to spend three or four months on drafting.

light fire matchesBut man, when that idea strikes, it’s hard to make myself do the normal day-to-day, keeping-the-house-clean, being-a-mom stuff. All I want to do is write, and yet no matter how fast I write (my record is 5000 words in a day), it’s not fast enough. The rest of the book stretches out in front of me, scenes and lines and snippets that threaten to slip away before I can get there. So I race on.

An idea struck three weeks ago. So far, I’ve gotten down almost 23,000 words. (Woot! Check out my progress bar in the sidebar.) I’m excited to be drafting again (first time since April), and if I finish the draft by October 21, I’ll have drafted three books in a year. That’s pretty cool.

It’s interesting how different each book is, you know? Not just plot-wise or character-wise (although these three books have the same hero/heroine), but process-wise.

This time around, I’ve accepted that what I like to get in there are people, action, dialogue and plot twists. Cool. On my last MS, I tried to get everything in there on the first draft—sensory details, settings, character descriptions, etc. etc. This time, I’m embracing my favorite parts—I mean, I’ll put in the other stuff as needed, but if a scene is all dialogue/action, and it takes place in a vacuum, I’m not going to cry about it in this draft.

inspireFor me, that’s stuff I can add later, in each layer of editing. In fact, I’m taking this week off drafting to go back to the first MS I wrote during this year to add in more of those descriptions and sensory information, since the second half of the book is rather bereft of those (silly me, thinking all the character and setting descriptions were established in the first half, and we wouldn’t need anymore after that!).

How about you? What inspires you? Do you try to get everything in one draft—and if not, what do you leave out to add in later?

This week is probably going to be a bit of a catch-all week as I try to get things done between editing bouts and housecleaning—and, of course, working on the PDF from our website series. But next week, we’ll start another new and awesome series. I think 😉 .

Photo credits: matches—Kicki; inspire—Mark Brannan

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Works

July Writing Challenge Results

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Last month (is it August already?!), I participated in a writing challenge hosted by Tristi Pinkston. Well, actually, I did almost no writing, unless you count rewriting, but then again I did have two family reunions, a road trip, moving my sister and a long visit from my family in July, so I tried to take it easy on myself.

Yeah, apparently I don’t know what that phrase means.

So I had to lighten my own load with revised goals the first week of the month—and I’m glad I did.

  1. Edit 350 pages of my MS. Woot! I mentioned this before, but not only did I finish the two rounds of editing, I added a bunch of words (side note: once I had a writing client inform me that you cannot use “not only” without the accompanying “but also.” Riiiight.). I’m still working on cutting. Well, not really. I’m working on getting chapters to critique partners, still. My mom read it and liked it, though 😀 .
  2. Read my library books:
  3. Read at least one book off my Summer Reading Thing list.: Lockdown, reviewed last week! Hm. . . . two challenges this summer. Have I ever met a challenge I didn’t like? (Oh yeah.)
  4. Continue to mull over the exact plot, premise and motifs for my next WIP. (If I’m feeling really ambitious—or, y’know, stuck on a long road trip—even outline one book or the full story arc.) Mulled like cider, baby. (Um, wow . . . let’s just move on.) I have most of the book outlined, though I still need to clarify a few things and work on the conclusion. Still doing a lot of research in this area, and I definitely want to brush up in the genre before I nail down the characters and events, but I’ve already written a little of the opening. It was tough going, though, and I don’t like fighting with my writing from the beginning, so we’ll see.
  5. Stay current on critique partners’ edits. Thankfully, there wasn’t much demand in this area.

Even if you weren’t part of the challenge, how did your writing (or your vacation 😉 ) go for July?

Photo credit: Richard Dudley

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Works

Dance of joy!

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Coming up this week, more deep POV techniques: conveying the view from inside your character’s head and doing that in “real time.”

Woot! I just finished the latest round of revisions on my current project. I’m really glad I undertook this latest round (although actually it was two rounds at once—not my best idea ever; very easy to forget where you are in the book that way!). I’ve made some semi-major changes and strengthened and clarified a lot of things. It’s a stronger book for my efforts. And I switched the titles for the sequel and this one, since I think they actually fit the books better this way.

But now I have another problem: it’s right around 101,000 words. In seven or eight rounds of revisions, I’ve added 12,000 words. So my next goal is to trim it back to 95,000 words, max.

Sigh. It’s such a burden to keep having good ideas 😉 . I’m surprised that I’m still having ideas on this book, since I finished drafting so long ago (or it feels like it’s been so long). I’m starting to wonder if it’ll ever be “finished,” or, like George Lucas said (quoting someone else), it’ll be abandoned, never finished.

Do you find yourself having to cut or add words during/after revisions? What do you think is the best way to cut—go through and take out a few words here and there, or cut whole scenes? How do you know when you’re done? How is your writing progress coming along?

Photo credit: Richard Dudley

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Works

Progress report

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Note: coming up in our deep POV series this week: Getting into our characters’ heads in two different ways!

Well, we’re almost a week into Tristi Pinkston’s July Writing Challenge. I admitted when we started that my goals were rather lofty, especially given that I’ll be spending the rest of the month with family in town. Plus, my library due date is fast approaching. So I’m revising my goals a bit, and reporting on the progress I’ve made so far.

  1. Edit 350 pages of my MS:
    • Go through my writing partner’s notes on the last ten chapters. Down to the last five!
    • Go through the second half of the book last eight chapters again to make all my planned changes, add two scenes one scene to go! and cut out the parts people skip
    • Get as many chapters to my critique partners as they can stand. 😉
  2. Read my library books:
  3. Read at least one book off my Summer Reading Thing list.

  4. Continue to mull over the exact plot, premise and motifs for my next WIP. (If I’m feeling really ambitious—or, y’know, stuck on a long road trip—even outline one book or the full story arc.) (Mulling away!)
  5. Stay current on critique partners’ edits.

Even if you’re not part of the challenge, how is your writing (or your vacation 😉 ) coming along?

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Works

July Writing Challenge

Tristi Pinkston is hosting a July writing challenge! For the month of July, we’re setting goals for what we’d like to accomplish in our writing projects, whether that’s words written, pages edited or even research done.

July is set to be a pretty busy month for me—festivities for the Fourth of July (seriously; my husband just called and said he got us tickets to four different events next week), my family here for most of the month, two family reunions, a road trip. . . . I think I’m getting a little ambitious. But we’ll try, anyway!

  1. Edit 350 pages of my MS:
    • Go through my writing partner’s notes on the last ten chapters
    • Go through the second half of the book again to make all my planned changes, add two scenes and cut out the parts people skip
    • Get as many chapters to my critique partners as they can stand. 😉
  2. Read my library books:
  3. Read at least one book off my Summer Reading Thing list.

  4. Continue to mull over the exact plot, premise and motifs for my next WIP. (If I’m feeling really ambitious—or, y’know, stuck on a long road trip—even outline one book or the full story arc.)
  5. Stay current on critique partners’ edits.

This is a great way to help us reach our goals. By writing them down, we have something concrete to work toward. And part of the challenge is checking regularly at Tristi’s challenge blog, where you get accountability and encouragement. And at the end of the month, we report to Tristi for our final dose of accountability. All of these things can help us achieve our goals.

So what are your writing goals for the next month (well, five weeks—my goals start from today for me)? Share them in the comments or on your blog to participate in the challenge!

Photo credit: Richard Dudley

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Technique, Works

Editing ambivalence

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This month’s series will be on creating sympathetic characters! But that’s for tomorrow.

I love editing. I love eradicating errors (where did all those typos come from?!); I love finding better, more vivid ways to say things; I love rewriting scenes on the whim of inspiration for something that is much, much better.

On the other hand, I hate editing. I hate slogging through my book for the third fifth eighth time only to discover that it’s still not perfect; I hate feeling that I don’t know whether this latest change is any better than the last three versions of this sentence; I hate getting directly contradictory opinions over something I’m torn about myself.

This is the definition of ambivalence. (Go ahead, look it up—ambivalence means feeling strongly both ways about something, although the common misusage has naturally bullied its way in to many a dictionary. Ambi in Latin means ‘both’—like ambidextrous—and valence comes from the Latin verb meaning ‘to be strong’—the same root as valiant, for example.)

These days, however, my scale is starting to tip towards hate more and more. I think I’m burning out on my latest round of revisions. This will be my third round in two months, so I suppose fatigue is only understandable. But I haven’t written anything new in almost as long (aside from new/rewritten scenes), and that’s something that I really need to do.

Unfortunately, none of my many ideas is screaming “write me now!!!” at the moment. But rather than run myself ragged on revisions, I think I’m going to try to start on another book—just the first three chapters. The big risk here is that if my idea isn’t really ready, writing is like wringing blood from a stone—it’s just as tiring as another round of revisions.

Do you have a love/hate relationship with editing? How do you avoid editing burn out?

Photo credit—Book heart: Piotr Bizior; screaming: ralaenin

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Technique

Self-editing and Revision presentation by Julie Coulter Bellon

Highlights of the presentation by Julie Coulter Bellon

CLAW—the 4 secrets for self-editing

Check off your basic editing checklist
Let someone else read it for you that will give you good feedback
Always print it out and read a hard copy
Walk away for a few hours, days or weeks and come back with fresh eyes.

Check off your basic editing checklist:
Never rely solely on your spell/grammar check (“Misspellers of the world, untie!”; see also “Always print it out and read a hard copy”). Watch your tenses and subject/verb agreement.

Avoid too many adverbs/adjectives [emphasis mine: some people read this advice without reading the examples and think you can never use adjectives or adverbs. Also note that repetitive adjectives like “green grass” below are also something to watch for]—laundry lists of description: Julie called this “the laziest writing”:

  • “It was a beautiful sunny June day and the lush, emerald green grass reflected the bright yellow sunlight and hurt my eyes.”
  • “She desperately wanted to kiss him passionately.”
    • Telling versus showing!

Shun redundancy and repetitiveness [I am HILARIOUS]—on the micro level (crutch words, using obscure/unusual words over and over, and empty words “just,” “actually,” “really,” etc.) and the macro level (do you have two chapters that serve the same function? Cut one).

Balance: break up really long paragraphs (never more than a page!!), balance narrative and dialogue. (But leave out unnecessary dialogue tags.)

Let someone else read it for you:
Get more than one brutally honest reviewer—no mothers or grandmas!

Always print it out and read a hard copy [To which I add: read it OUT LOUD.]
Changing the font can be helpful [Also helpful, from Stein on Writing: change the author’s name to one you either love or hate.]

Have a pen with you to jot down notes as you read [and also as you were writing—change a character’s backstory on page 127? Make a note of things to fix and fix them in this edit].

Walk away for a few hours, days or weeks and come back with fresh eyes
Take time to enjoy having finished. [Dance of joy!] But seriously, leave it alone—the changes will come to you.

Leaving it can also give you the emotional distance necessary to cut anything that doesn’t advance the story, even if it’s your favorite part. (Julie points out that you can put deleted scenes on your website!)

Now what?

The deep edit: down & dirty with the editor’s checklist

Looking at the big picture with the editor’s checklist:

  • Show us what your character is experiencing in that moment
  • Avoid passive voice
  • Stick to one POV per scene, please!
  • Make sure you have hooks to keep them turning pages, especially at the beginning and end of chapters
  • Does each character have a motivation? (villains, MCs, not so much a concern for secondary characters)
  • Does the setting contribute to the piece?
  • Is the story timeline consistent?
  • Does the conflict keep the tension throughout the story? (don’t resolve things too quickly)
  • Natural flow—nothing contrived [no deus ex machinas!]—to keep believability, don’t pull the rug out from underneath your readers. [That makes people throw books.]
  • Is there a balance of narrative, action and dialogue?

The drive-thru edit vs. the seven-course meal edit
The combo meal story: a string of clichéslike ordering your usual at the drive thru: you hardly have to look at the offerings anymore. It’s like an editor’s slushpile. They will spot your combo meal story a mile away.

Critique partners/readers describe it as “familiar” and “predictable.” Lots of unnecessary “fat”—characters that aren’t vital, characters that are one-dimensional, too much description, loose ends.

To fix the combo meal story: give it a twist, dig a little deeper. Expand your writing menu. Conversely, be prepared to cut extra words, descriptions, narrative, even characters, even if they’re good. Instead, use active, powerful scenes and action verbs.

On the other end of the spectrum: 7 course meal story: some of later courses smelled so good your mouth watered, but you couldn’t enjoy it because you were too full. Lots of characters, twists and turns, complexities—lots of places to lose your reader (and yourself in your editing!).

To fix the seven-course meal story: Again, cut unnecessary words, descriptions, narrative and characters. Strive for simplicity and clarity—and focus on the compelling story. Maintain a character notebook.

When do you stop editing?

  • When you’ve done CLAW and a deep edit
  • When you’ve addressed your readers’ concerns
  • When you’ve gone through it for plot, continuity and characterization and setting errors
  • When you’re sick of it.

Find a happy medium

  • enjoy what you’ve created
  • dont’ beat yourself up over mistakes [Do you get the self-referential joke I put in there? Totally on purpose 😉 ]
  • realize that the writing and editing process is a journey and some trips are longer than others.
  • Keep learning—figure out your weaknesses and now to combat them—be willing to do the work

A polished piece with an author who is still teachable is valuable to an editor, agent and publisher. [Aside from the great editing advice, the word teachable was my biggest takeaway from this session. It’s something I know I need to work on—and I guess acknowledging that is a good start!]

I put my MS back together—where do I go from here?
Pat yourself on the back, remember that writing—and editing!—can rejuvenate and SUBMIT IT!

About the conference: LDStorymakers is a writing contest geared to LDS writers. The conference covers both the niche, regional publishers that cater to the LDS market as well as national publishers.

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Works

The run up

I’ve been gearing up for the LDStorymakers Conference tomorrow. I registered after encouragement from Annette Lyon online and off, and I’m getting excited (even though I’m a fairly shy person and a little nervous about meeting new people).

So I’m thinking about what I’m going to do with this site. So far I’ve used it as mostly a writing journal, chronicling the biggest milestones in my manuscripts. (On that note, I got Duty back from my critique partner on the third and finished the latest round of revisions on Tuesday.)

I’d like to do more with the blog portion of the site. I’ve had a few ideas for posts on grammar mechanics and writing technique, as well as some fun activities. I’ve been holding off for a formal “launch” for the website. Subscribe to the blog to get RSS updates (or email updates) so you don’t miss anything!

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