Word Count Going Up - AFTER EDITING

You know how when you edit, you are supposed to cut words? Well, I trimmed A LOT. Yet, after this  version of editing, my word count has gone up from 94119 to 94574. Not a big change no - but it's much bigger change when you consider that the original draft was about 89000 words.

However, I know exactly why this has happened, so no panic necessary. My first drafts, and especially my speedy first draft (this was for NaNo) are always sparse. Description especially is usually quite lacking in these drafts, so that had to be amended. On top of that though I deleted several scenes, I also ended up adding a few, so overall, the numbers make sense. 

What about you? When you edit - which way does your word count travel? 

All About Editing - Emily Gee

I first came across Emily's book in a random browsing session on Amazon, but since then I have bought all her fantasy books, and absolutely love them, so today's post is all the more exciting for me. 

Here is Emily's post:

Do you love editing, or hate it, or somewhere in the middle?
I wouldn't say that I *adore* editing, Dolly, but I do enjoy it. There's a lot of satisfaction in tinkering with paragraphs and sentences--moving them around, cutting a bit here, adding a bit there--until they read the best they possibly can. (Can you tell I'm a word geek? )

Do you edit as you go? Or do you start only after the first draft?
I edit as I go. For my latest book, I tried not to edit at all during the first draft (i.e. the Fast Draft method), in the hope that it would help me write faster, but the end result was that I was much slower! It took many, many more passes through the book to pull it all together and to get some spark on the pages. So I've gone back to editing as I write. Yes, the first draft takes longer, but on the flip side, it's pretty polished and doesn't need a huge amount of editing.

Any tips you've learned from your experience? Different methods work for different people. Some writers swear by the Fast Draft method (i.e. don't edit at all while writing the first draft), others (like me) work best by editing as they go. My advice would be to experiment. Discover what works best for you. Don't stick with one method just because other people have said it's the best one!




My only editing tip would be to print out your work. You see so much more when you're holding the pages in your hands than you ever do when you're reading on screen. Yes, it uses more paper and ink, but the end result is a much better book!

All About Editing - Lorraine Mace

Do you love editing, or hate it, or somewhere in the middle?

I hate the thought of it, but love the process. Before I get started it always seems as if I have a mountain to climb and I put it off as long as I can. Once I get going I love it and can never understand why I didn’t just get down to it straight away.

I am a serious underwriter, so the editing process allows me to put in all the settings I tend to miss out in my rush to get the story down. That’s also when I fix the dialogue and characterisation. I look on it as a chance to turn dross into gold – that’s the idea, anyway.

I’ve recently rewritten a crime novel and added 7,000 words to the original draft, most of it to the ending because it was too abrupt.

I suppose, for over writers the editing process would allow them to remove the surplus and make the writing leaner. I’ve never had that problem, so can’t be sure. If I tried to trim my work, I’d end up with chapter headings, a synopsis, and not much else.

Do you edit as you go? Or do you start only after the first draft?

I used to edit as I went along, but found I’d get too hung up on making the opening chapters perfect and never actually finish a book. Now I get the first draft down before even thinking about any serious editing. Having said that, what I do is read through whatever was written the day before and fix any glaring errors. Reading only the previous day’s work also helps me get back into the story without being sucked into trying to perfect the writing from page one.

Do you have a definite method for editing? If so, would you like to share something from it?

I print out my ms – always. I find that editing directly on screen means I miss too many errors that leap out at me on the printed page.

Once I’ve got the ms in hard copy, I hide away from everyone, put on some soft music and disconnect the phone. Then I go through the ms with a red pen (literally). I scratch out, add in, and make notes and diagrams all over the place. Then, when I’ve scribbled over the entire ms, I go to the computer and work through the edits page by page. I add in sections, move others, whatever needs to be done, by referring to the hard copy, which sometimes has so much red ink I can barely see the type underneath.

Any tips you've learned from your experience?

Yes, when you think you’ve nailed it, print out another copy and go through the entire process all over again – and again. The first edit is just putting the flesh on the bones – all subsequent edits are the ones that will turn a manuscript into a novel.

Anything else you would like to add - pet peeves, things that make you want to pull your hair out (editing related), joys and wonders of the process?

Yes, I want to tear my hair out when I’ve realised mid-edit that the plot hole I thought I’d be able to get away with has turned into a massive crater. I’ve learned the hard way to listen to the nagging voice in my head that whispers: this won’t work!

Lorraine Mace, a Writers Bureau tutor, is humour columnist for both Writing Magazine (UK) and Connexions (France). She is also deputy editor of Words with JAM and a competition judge for Writers’ Forum. She has written for magazines and newspapers in the UK, the USA, Australia, France and the Republic of Ireland.

Author of the Writers Bureau course, Marketing Your Book and co-author of The Writer’s ABC Checklist (Accent Press), Lorraine is leading a residential course in France.

Lorraine Mace: www.lorrainemace.com

Flash 500 Fiction and Humour Verse Competitions: www.flash500.com

Blog: http://thewritersabcchecklist.blogspot.com

Writing for Magazines Course details: http://thewritersabcchecklist.blogspot.com/2011/03/residential-writing-course.html

All About Editing - Nancy Haddock

Do you love editing, or hate it, or somewhere in the middle?

I adore editing! I especially love finding cliches I've used and twisting them into phrases that are more vivid and/or fun. To search for and re-weave dropped or dangling story threads can be a bear, but it's also exciting to make a story as tight as I can in the moment. 

Do you edit as you go? Or do you start only after the first draft?

I do some editing as I write, but try not to over-revise early on. I can kill my creativity if I listen to my internal editor because nothing makes her happy! :) Normally I write 5 to 10 or more pages, print them, and then edit on hard copy.

Do you have a definite method for editing? If so, would you like to share something from it?

I've never thought about having a definite method, but working from hard copy is an absolute must for me. I have to find and get into the flow of the characters and story in the first few pages, then be sure the flow carries through the first few chapters. Flow is a feeling beyond than the words themselves. Once I'm riding the wave, I edit mainly for picky stuff - typos, grammar, awkward sentences, etc. If I can quickly rework a cliche or another element, I do, but I don't let myself get bogged in daily editing.    



Any tips you've learned from your experience?

I have a critique partner who is marvelous about pounding me to add emotion, so I've learned to layer in more emotion in first drafts. I've also learned to trust my process, no matter that it may sound haphazard to others. Writers know what we should look for in editing, but it make take multiple passes to sharpen each element - without over-editing! And, yes,  errors do slip by us. We're human. 

Anything else you would like to add - pet peeves, things that make you want to pull your hair out (editing related), joys and wonders of the process?

I'm laughing because I've caught myself reading a sentence and thinking, "What the heck was I trying to say here?" It's not that the passage sounds frou-frou "writerly." It's that the passage doesn't communicate. Ack! On the flip side,  the process of layering elements like emotion and mood-setting can be magical. I love it when that happens!

Thanks for the opportunity to share with you and your readers, Dolly!

All About Editing - Joanne Hall

Do you love editing, or hate it, or somewhere in the middle?

That depends what stage the editing process is at! I usually write first drafts by hand, then type them up, so by the time a story on novel reaches the computer, I’m already on the second draft, and editing as I go. That’s my favourite stage of writing. It’s like the first draft is a formless lump of clay, and the second draft shapes it into something that actually resembles a real plot. There’s where all the character development and description comes in, and where the weird little tangents emerge that make writing a novel so exciting.

Once that’s done, the plot is set and all that’s left is polishing, that’s when I find editing becomes a chore. It has to be done to smooth out the rough edges, but it also means mercilessly exposing and pruning all the bits that aren’t very good, or that got skipped over because they were hard to write. It’s a real dent to the confidence to discover a paragraph that you thought was good is, in the cold light of scrutiny, complete rubbish. This is also the stage where you have to “kill your darlings” – that scene that was so much fun to write suddenly adds nothing to the plot, so out it goes!

The one stage of editing I really hate is the final copy-edits before a book goes to print. They’re time consuming, take great concentration, and by that stage I’m usually on to writing another book, and I’m so sick of reading and re-reading this one that by the time the final copy-edit is done, I never want to read it again! Also, that’s the stage where the only changes you can make are small cosmetic ones, so you’re stuck with the plot you’re so bored of reading. But it’s all worth it when you finally have a well-edited book in your hands.


Do you edit as you go? Or do you start only after the first draft?

Because I do my first draft by hand, my notebooks are full of crossings out and marginalia, usually along the lines of “THIS BIT GOES EARLIER” or “RESEARCH!” (that one crops up a lot!) As long as I’ve made a note of which bits need editing as I write them, that seems to be enough and I can fix things on the second draft. The initial writing is done very fast. I find editing as I write by hand takes my attention away from what I’m writing, so I save the bulk of the editing for the second draft. After that, unless there are any glaring problems, most of the rest of the editing is just tweaking what I already have, and cutting out the waffle. I tend to over-write, so there’s always plenty of waffle to trim!


Do you have a definite method for editing? If so, would you like to share something from it?

I’m not sure I have a “definite method”. It varies from book to book, and there are as many different ways to approach writing as there are writers, so what works for me may not work for someone else. The two things I can recommend that always work for me are not to get so hung up on getting the first page/paragraph/chapter perfect that you never get beyond that point. Get it written first, then get it right. Getting it right is what drafts are for, but you can’t edit a blank page.
The second thing is not to try and edit when you’re tired, because you will miss things. Try to come to it with, if not a fresh brain, then at least a strong cup of coffee on hand!


Any tips you've learned from your experience?


Always try and persuade a second pair of eyes to look through your writing, to pick up things you might have missed. Sometimes you can get too close to what you’re writing, but a fresh reader will be able to spot where you can make changes and make suggestions for improvements.

Anything else you would like to add - pet peeves, things that make you want to pull your hair out (editing related), joys and wonders of the process?

Pet peeve – that it doesn’t matter how many times you read through a story, or how many other people read through it, there will inevitably be a glaring 
typo at the bottom of page 46 that, after it’s published and too late to do anything about it, every single reader will not only notice, but take great delight in pointing out to you!

I know some writers hate editing, but I really enjoy the process of taking a shapeless, rambling story and turning it into something I can be proud of, and something I would be willing to share with other people. It’s very exciting when a story starts to take shape and fall into place. It’s even more exciting when you get your hands on the finished, polished product!

Learn more about Joanne at her website: www.hierath.co.uk

All About Editing - Juliet E McKenna

Do you love editing, or hate it, or somewhere in the middle?

To begin with, I think we need to define our terms when we’re talking about editing. There’s line editing, which is the fine detail stuff; making sure there are no confusions between ‘there’, ‘their’ and ‘they’re’, checking in case you’ve used the same adjective twice in successive paragraphs, making sure attribution of dialogue is clear if ‘she’ is talking to ‘her’ and all that kind of thing.
Then there’s the structural editing, which is to say, the rewrites and revisions that are essential to turn the first draft into a finished book. Some writers do this working alone while others send their rough draft out to test readers and/or their editor and then work on refining the text on the basis of that feedback. Though a writer who does those rewrites alone will still need feedback from a fresh set of eyes to tell them what needs polishing up in a final pass. I work like that and the comments I’ve just had back from Jon Oliver at Solaris, on the draft of Dangerous Waters, may have been less than a page’s worth but every word was useful and pertinent.

Love editing or hate it? I’ve found my attitudes to both these essential processes changing over the years that I’ve been writing. Initially, detailed editorial feedback was essential at an early stage, to highlight where I was going off track. I was tremendously lucky in my first editor Tim Holman at Orbit, who taught me a great deal. Since I don’t generally need telling something twice, the amount of rewriting I had to do once he’d seen the first draft, got less and less with each book. Which isn’t to say I don’t still do a lot of rewriting between first and final drafts. It’s just that I don’t need an editor to tell me where I’m going wrong; I can spot that for myself now and generally avoid heading down a dead-end or an unnecessary diversion.

I used to find that rewriting a real trial though. Necessary but such hard work after the fun of writing the first draft. Nowadays, I want to get the first draft down as quickly as possible so I can get on to the rewarding business of those rewrites, really refining and shaping my story. Similarly, I used to find the line-editing/copyedit phase rather dispiriting. It was like getting homework back from teacher covered in red pen. Nowadays I see that as my chance to put the final gloss on the story and that’s far more satisfying.

Do you edit as you go? Or do you start only after the first draft?

I start each writing day by re-reading what I wrote the day before and as I do that, I will almost always do some line-editing as I go; cutting out repetition, clarifying descriptions or information, generally tightening things up. I do my very best to resist ripping up huge chunks and starting again because I could so easily end up just going in circles. Even when I really don’t think a chapter is working, I tell myself to leave it lying and move on. The real work starts once I’ve got that first draft completed, so I can take a step back, see the big picture and then go back in to fix the issues which I now see with the benefit of that greater distance. Trying to do major structural edits as I go would be impossible; I couldn’t see the wood for the trees.

Do you have a definite method for editing? If so, would you like to share something from it?

The further I get into a first draft, the stronger the temptation to break off, go back and rewrite becomes. Because when you’re on Chapter 18, you’ll realise you can add bits to Chapter 3 foreshadowing this event. Or you realise that what you need Our Hero to do now contradicts something he or she said in Chapter 12, so that needs sorting out. To avoid doing that and getting distracted from what I’m actually writing at the moment, I make notes as I go, to remind myself what I need to look for in the rewrites phase. I refer to those notes, and add to them, when I go back and re-read that first draft in one hit. Then I’ll make a list of points to address as I revise the draft and that really helps me focus, as well as often flagging up new things I hadn’t spotted.

Any tips you've learned from your experience?

I don’t expect to get it the right first time anymore. As a journalist pal tells me every time I whinge over coffee about a chapter that’s not flowing, ‘don’t get it right, get it written.’ Once you have something to work with, you can always make it better and it’s all part of the process. Following on from that, I know there’s nothing to be gained, and a lot to be lost, by getting defensive when you’re getting feedback.


I’ve also learned to be ruthless discarding chunks of prose and even whole characters in those rewrites. Earlier this year, I binned a five thousand word chapter between the first and final drafts of Dangerous Waters, because once I’d addressed some issues with the beginning arising from a change of focus towards the end, that chapter was simply no longer needed. Worse, if I’d kept it in, it would have slowed the plot and distracted the reader from the overall narrative. So it was left behind like an oxbow lake when a river in spate cuts a new course.

Anything else you would like to add - pet peeves, things that make you want to pull your hair out (editing related), joys and wonders of the process?

In a dozen books so far, I’ve only ever followed one piece of editorial advice and regretted it. My then editor felt really strongly that Irons in the Fire needed a prologue to help new readers into this world and to set up the events of The Chronicles of the Lescari Revolution. I wasn’t convinced but he really was and since he was coming new to the world whereas I have it all at my fingertips, I agreed. Since then, I’ve read so many reviews liking the book but wondering what’s the point of that prologue...? Ah well, we live and learn, and I’ve no qualms telling people that if they don’t like prologues, they can just skip it.

I owe my regular copy editor Lisa more than I can possibly say. She’s worked on all my books one way or another and again, she’s taught me a tremendous amount. Her eye for detail and continuity is awesome, and she’s saved me from making a fool of myself a good few times. To give just one example, in The Swordsman’s Oath, there’s a duel and afterwards, Ryshad, the swordsman of the title, goes to strip down and wash himself clean of blood and sweat. Only there’s a fresh alarm, so he grabs a weapon and heads out. Lisa pointed out he didn’t actually put any trousers on first. Did I really want him naked for the rest of the chapter? Er, no, and I am so glad she caught that!

Narrowing Focus

One thing more frustrating than setting goals is changing goals. Unfortunately, I am finding I need to do a lot of changing. 

WIP 2 counter on the left has remained pretty static. Actually word count is quite a bit more than what it shows here, but all that is hand-written, so I don't know how much exactly. But I have decided for now, to put it on hold, and just focus on editing WIP 1. 

There are two reasons for this. One because I am much busier now at my day job. Hardly a minute to sit still, so I am far more preoccupied it even when I am home. It also makes me more tired. So it does have an impact on writing. But also, more importantly, I really want to give this one-book-at-a-time thing a go, and see if it improves my focus and makes the end result better. Because my theory is, focusing on one book would mean I would be stewing over just that one story, one cast of characters, instead of spreading focus over several.

Of course there are no guarantees that I won't start writing again soon. I guess I'm just in a frustrated circle of figuring out what works for me. But for now, at least for a next month or two, this is the plan. 

With editing, I can see improvements, though progress is slow. Because I am focusing on every sentence, every paragraph, changing and chopping things. But I can see it getting better, so it makes the effort worth it.

How about you? How are your projects coming along?

All About Editing - Mike Shevdon

I approach editing with mixed emotions. It's a chance to get the exact nuance of meaning I want onto the page, to resolve unwanted conflicts, eliminate mistakes and polish what I've written so that it is worthy of publication. My early drafts are definitely not worthy - they're messy things with trailing threads and sticky blurry edges. Taking those and polishing them so that they shine is rewarding but also frustrating because it's a task you can never complete. There is always, always more that you could do, and deciding when to stop tinkering is part of the skill.

My interest in writing began as a critical reader, so I already knew that it wasn't a one-pass process. The idea that some elements wouldn't quite work or didn't evoke the atmosphere I wanted was already there, but even so I had a lot to learn. I learned by doing, highlighting the problems I perceived in other people's work before I started on my own. Finding other writer's issues and mistakes helped me to learn to identify my own. Even so my early edits were full of flaws.

So it's a love-hate relationship. I prevaricate before editing, but then when I get started I can't stop. I'll edit many thousands of words in a session to the exclusion of everything around me. If I'm lucky, sympathetic family members will bring tea at regular intervals. 

As I said, for me it's a multi-pass process and I edit for different things in different passes. I edit as I write, partly to make sure I know where I'm going and what I've written makes sense in terms of what's happened and what's going to happen. For me writing can be like time travel - I can zip back and forth along the time-line, changing things that will have repercussions in the future or will bring into new significance things in the past. Even simple things like changing a character's name can have surprising consequences. You find new resonance, an alternate twist that sparks new insight.

So I write forward, then I edit back through what I've written when I reach a natural break. Stories are complex to me. Any person, any event, can influence the world and change what happens. Small things can snowball and before long I'm dumping whole chapters of work because they no longer fit. I keep the fragments (that's what I call them) because sometimes I can re-use pieces of things, but I've learned not to force that. If it happens, great. If not then I leave them.

I tried going for a full first draft, which some authors can do, but found that the impact of changes were too disheartening. Rewriting a chapter is not so bad. You have the foundations to work from and you know where you need to be so you can go ahead and write. If you have to scrap half a book, though, it brings you down to earth with a bump. There's a lot emotionally invested in the writing and there will be pieces you love that have to be binned. This is what is meant, perhaps, by killing your babies. It takes a surprising amount of courage and faith to write well.

By limiting the edit horizon I can work through the impact of changes as I go. I still trip over my own shoe-laces, but the fall isn't so far. Of course, I can still find the flaw in the plot many chapters later, but that's life. You just have to be philosophical and start again.
Once I have a draft, though, the game changes. Hopefully, by that time, I have a working plot and everything ties together. A full read-through comes next, and I'm looking for a number of things - characters out of voice, phrases that jar, the inevitable spelling and grammar mistakes, clichés and gotchas - pieces that don't quite work. In this pass I'll be deleting more than I'm adding, and that can be hard. It feels like I'm going backwards, but at this point less is more. It's a quick process and I can edit five thousand words at a time, so it's a few weeks work at most.

Speaking of backwards, I've also gone through chapters backwards looking for mistakes, which are easier to spot if you're not following the narrative, but that's a painful way and with practice you get better at not making mistakes in the first place. I also do automated checks - I do a word search for certain words - 'form' for instance, which I seem destined to type when I want the word 'from'. I do a consistency check for capitalisation of certain words and spelling of names and places, plus usage and style consistency checks.

Then I leave it alone for a bit and work on something else. It's very easy to get word-blind when editing - and your own mistakes are the hardest to see. An external viewpoint is good, but I'm not quite ready for beta readers at this point. It isn't polished enough and there's no point wasting a reader's time on things you can do for yourself. I step away and get some perspective.

When I get back to it I do another full read-through, this time out loud. Reading out loud is a skill in itself and one that's practiced much less in school these days, which is a shame. It engages different parts of the brain and allows you to discover things that are otherwise invisible to you. Also, if you can't read it, there's a fair chance no-one else can either. It engages rhythm, tone and timbre which are missing in a silent read-through. I'm looking for an immersive reading experience, so anything which throws the reader out of the story is challenged. 

At this stage I'm still finding mistakes and non-sequiturs but I simply note them to be dealt with later and keep reading - I'm looking at the big picture, not the detail, and I'm watching myself for the emotional response, breathing and reaction. This is hard because I get drawn into the story, but then I lose perspective and have to do it again - this is good and bad. If I get drawn in then there's a good chance the reader will too, but if I lose myself then I'm not editing, I'm reading.

Once these changes have been rolled in, I ask myself if I'm happy with what I have. If not I'll go look for the thing I'm not happy with, which can be a nuance of character interpretation or a complete change of a plot-thread. I can still be making quite large changes, even at this stage, but I have to remember that once it's published I can't change anything, so it's worth getting it right. If I change anything then I need to read through again. By this time I have all the versions of all the plot threads that have been included or deleted in my head. I'm no longer seeing things and the edit process is starting to break down.

This is when I send out to beta readers. For me it's a finished work and I can't make it any better. I am expecting that they will enjoy the read, but at the same time I want them to critique. Anything that throws them out of the story, any factual error, any personal knowledge or insight - I want all of it, so it's not like reading a book for pleasure, and my beta readers know that. Their reward? Well, you 'd have to ask them that. I regard it as a personal favour to me and hopefully they get something out of it.

When the reading copies come back in I go through each one separately. I note every comment, but I don't always change things. Sometimes I place it on the concerns list - which I keep for things that aren't wrong, but might be clearer or may simply be addressed in a later comment. "I didn't understand this" can be followed four pages later by "Oh, NOW is see where you're going," which can be fine. Hanging questions can't be left hanging, though, and some quite big issues can come out at this stage hat you just didn;t see before.

Beta readers can take anything from three weeks to three months to come back. Each copy has to be worked through and then they all have to be taken as a whole. I've never scrapped a book at that point, but I suppose it is possible to have to go back to the beginning. The earlier work should mean that can't happen, but there are loads of things in the world that can't happen and then unaccountably do.

Depending how confident I feel, I may phase beta readers into two passes, one to get the early comments and ask specific questions and then a general read to get the full picture. On The Road to Bedlam I also had readers who had not read book one, so that I could check that the book worked for readers who picked up the second book first. That's a new challenge.

I do a last consistency grammar and spell-check and then it's submitted to the publisher who may request their own revisions, but assuming it's all okay (and mostly it is) it goes to copy edit, final changes and print. That can take three months on its own.

If you're thinking this takes a lot of time then you're right. It takes me more than a year to write a book. We haven't even touched on plotting, characterisation, research or any of the other aspects of writing a book, but that all has to happen too, so if you're wondering why the next book isn't on the shelves yet then you have some explanation right there. For me, though, it's part of the creative process to challenge your own work and have other people challenge it too. It means that when a book does hit the shelves I know it's the best book I could write at that moment. 

Each time I go through this I learn more and develop as a writer - each time I get better. Hopefully the books get better too. If you ask me whether this is the process I'll be using in ten year's time, then the answer is that I don't know - ask me in ten years. I do know that it helps me get what I want on the page so that when my readers pick up my books they know they'll have a reading experience to remember and want more when they're finished. It's that experience that is my ultimate goal and the prize I try and keep in mind when I'm knee deep in edits and changes.

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BIO

Mike Shevdon lives in Bedfordshire, England with his wife and son, where he combines his various interests of writing, cookery and technology with the study of martial arts, particularly archery.

His blend of real history and folklore was launched on an unsuspecting world with his debut novel, Sixty-One Nails, published by Angry Robot Books.  It interleaves forgotten legends and faerie tales with real history and ancient rituals that are still performed at the core of the realm to this day.

A refreshingly different take on Urban Fantasy, The Courts of the Feyre is a series exploring humanity's relationship with the creatures that inspired the oldest of stories, weaving a modern faerie-tale into the fabric of reality. The sequel, The Road to Bedlam, was published in Autumn 2010, revealing more of the relationship between the everyday world and the secret world of magic and darkness beneath. Book three is in progress, with book four planned to complete the series

Mike's books are available in good bookshops around the world as well as online and as eBooks. You can visit Mike's website athttp://shevdon.com where he shares tips and insights into writing, thoughts on life, and articles about interesting bits of history and folklore. You can also find Mike on Facebook and on Twitter as @shevdon.

All About Editing - Jamie Debree

Do you love editing, or hate it, or somewhere in the middle?

It kind of depends on what day you catch me. For the most part, I don’t mind line-edits, but I’m not fond of revisions. It’s too much like real work. ;-) When I’m close to finishing edits on a novel-length work, I hate them with a passion, because I’m completely sick of the whole project by then and just want it to be over so I can move on.

Do you edit as you go? Or do you start only after the first draft?

As far as storyline and plot points go, I try to edit as I go. I try to make the first draft as free of plot holes and things that might need major revisions as possible. I’ve even gone so far as to move the plot in a different direction if it’s heading for something that will require major revisions to earlier scenes. As for line editing, I have to be able to read it without cringing too badly so I do pay attention to basic spelling and grammar, but I’ll leave that at “good enough” until the draft is done and I can get some space from it, and have other eyes helping me spot problems.

Do you have a definite method for editing? If so, would you like to share something from it?

After I finish a draft, I send it out to beta readers and ask for revision notes. While I’m waiting for those to come back, I have the story on my kindle and do a read-through, making my own revision notes. Betas are welcome to send line edits too, but I’m really after big-picture stuff at that point...does the story work, did I leave any gaping holes, are the characters in need of “whatever”. Once I get those back, I go through and revise all the big picture stuff, fixing whatever line-edit level items I come across as well. Then I send it to my editor, and she marks all the nit-picky grammar/typo/technical stuff (and deletes a ton of commas), as well as any final problems with continuity or plot she sees. Then I go through again and finish the edits from that. I do a final proofread as I’m formatting the books for publication, and I send out reader copies to friends for proofreading as well.

Any tips you've learned from your experience?

It’s pretty much pointless to line-edit before revisions, in my opinion. It’s inefficient to work on prose at the sentence level if those sentences could be cut in the revision process.

I absolutely cannot edit my own work to a polished form - I need other eyes on it to catch everything I simply don’t see. There are people out there who claim to self-edit, but I wouldn’t, personally.

No matter how much you revise and edit, there will always be a mistake or two that makes it into the finished book. It doesn’t matter how you publish either - odds are very good something will be overlooked. That’s just how it is.

Anything else you would like to add - pet peeves, things that make you want to pull your hair out (editing related), joys and wonders of the process?

My biggest pet peeve is that my comma splices aren’t considered proper grammar. LOL I love the sentence structure involving comma splice (ie... “She raised her glass, then looked at him over the rim.”), and hate that I either have to take the comma out, or add an “and” to make it correct. And I rant about it every chance I get - because dang it, I want to use that structure! But I change it anyway, because the prose needs to be transparent to the reader if possible, and most readers get hung up on the lack of “and”. I do try to draft without them now, but they still slip in...a habit that is extremely hard for me to break.

My greatest joy is when I’m line editing, and I actually hit on the *perfect* wording and structure for the emotion I want to convey at that point. Most sentences are just...well...sentences, but every once in awhile there’s just that perfect turn of phrase that I can’t believe I wrote. I love that. :-)

Thanks so much for inviting me to participate, Dolly - this was fun!

A full-time webmistress by day, Jamie DeBree writes steamy, action-packed romantic suspense late into the night. She resides in Billings, MT with her husband and two over-sized lap dogs. Her latest book is Desert Heat, available at http://brazensnakebooks.com , Amazon and Barnes & Noble. For more information and to connect with her via social media or email, please visit http://jamiedebree.com.

All About Editing - Brooklyn Ann

Do you love editing, or hate it, or somewhere in the middle?

I'd say somewhere in the middle. When I've received specific feedback on a project, I'm usually full of awesome ideas and excited, but some days, I got nothing. Theres one chapter I've been agonizing about for months. I know it sucks but I don't know how to fix it.

Do you edit as you go? Or do you start only after the first draft?
I will cheat and edit a teeny bit as I go, but I do most editing after I finish the first draft...and the 2nd, and the 3rd.

Do you have a definite method for editing? If so, would you like to share something from it?
I follow Stephen King's method. I write the 1st draft as quick as I can, put it away for a month and then edit it. Then I send it to my critique buddies and edit again from their feedback. Then I send it to more critique buddies and edit again until I'm satisfied.

Any tips you've learned from your experience?
You need a method. Whether you edit as you go or do what I do, you need something. If you don't, you'll be intimidated and unproductive.

Anything else you would like to add - pet peeves, things that make you want to pull your hair out (editing related), joys and wonders of the process?
I HATE typos. I'm a spelling and grammar nazi, so I find technical errors to be extra humiliating. I also hate when there's something wrong with a scene and I can't figure it out. What I love is when I write an new scene that fits into the story like a missing puzzle piece and when a disorganized jumble turns into a beautiful coherent story.

BIO: I'm a paranormal romance author represented by Tribe literary agency. I also write a weekly blog on writing for FROM A WRITER'S POV magazine and my own paranormal romance blog: SUPERNATURAL SMUT http://brooklynann.blogspot.com

All About Editing - Adam Slade

Do you love editing, or hate it, or somewhere in the middle?
Somewhere in the middle. I like the thought that I'm improving my work, but I find it can get tedious fast. By the end of a project, I often find myself sick and tired of working with it. The more I edit though, the longer I can stave off the hatred. ;-)


Do you edit as you go? Or do you start only after the first draft?
I make a point of not editing a single word until the first draft is complete, otherwise I'd never make it to the end. Without the separation of writing and editing, I can't fully concentrate on either, and it takes me forever and a day to get anything down. I admire those who can, but I ain't one of 'em.

Do you have a definite method for editing? If so, would you like to share something from it?

I wouldn't say if was definitive, as I'm always on the lookout for other, better ways, but I do tend to stick to the same routine now. After finishing the first draft, I'll leave it alone for at least a week (ideally more), so as to gain some distance from it. Then I'll read it through without making any edits/notes, so as to get a good idea of the direction and flow of the story. Next is the editing. Rather than doing a pass for spelling, one for grammar, one for flow, etc., I try and grab them all together.

Any tips you've learned from your experience?
Read the piece before you begin to edit, and don't stop writing, as it's a bugger to start up again after (for me at least).

Anything else you would like to add - pet peeves, things that make you want to pull your hair out (editing related), joys and wonders of the process?
I am the king of repeating myself. I've lost count of the number of times I've had to slash out sentences that repeat the information of the previous sentence. Many are the repetitive sentence I've been required to cull! :-)

The result of a caveman breeding with an ingot of un-distilled sarcasm, Adam Slade was always going to go places. Some days he even makes it as far as the kitchen. Adam is an author of fantasy and humour works, and when he's not writing, he's reading or goofing off on the internet. You can read about his exploits on his blog, Editing Hat, and on his Twitter.

All About Editing - Nik Perring

Do you love editing, or hate it, or somewhere in the middle?

Good question, Dolly. It’s such a massive part of the writing process that I don’t think I could still be a writer and hate it. It just wouldn't work. For me, editing is all about making the story better, and that has to be a good thing. What I do hate (and I don’t mind admitting it!) is when, no matter how much editing I do, I can’t make a story work – that’s frustrating. (But again, writing things that aren't any good are a part of the process too…)

Do you edit as you go? Or do you start only after the first draft?

After the first draft, usually. All my first drafts are written in notebooks so editing those as I went would be messy and difficult (crossing out rubbish words/sentences/paragraphs/pages aside) . The editing starts when that handwritten draft is typed up – typing it up gives me a half-edit as I’ll change things as I type.

Do you have a definite method for editing? If so, would you like to share something from it?

While my writing method is quite rigid and works for me, I’m always wary of telling people what they should do; writing is such a personal thing and I think that people should find what works best for them.

But for me…

1.       Write the story longhand.

2.       Type it up (editing as I go).

3.       Print it out and edit on the page.

4.       Repeat until I’m happy it can’t be improved on.

5.       Read aloud, and edit that.

6.       Record what I’ve read and listen to it back, again, editing as I go.

Any tips you've learned from your experience?

As I say, I think people have got to find what works the best for them.

Editing though, is a huge part of the writing process – you’ll, unless you’re very, very good, spend more time tweaking and rewriting than you will actually getting that first draft down. And there’s so much to watch out for. The story has to be good and well told, the dialogue and characters believable, and the spelling and grammar and punctuation correct – but there’s also the rhythm of the sentences and words that needs to be right – never under estimate the power a comma can have to change something.

Anything else you would like to add - pet peeves, things that make you want to pull your hair out (editing related), joys and wonders of the process?
I think the joy of editing comes when you turn something good into something great. That’s where the magic is and where the real satisfaction lies.

The trick with editing, I find, is to be thorough. And in order to be thorough I think it’s important to take your time. The aim should be to make the story as good as it can be, and not to work to a deadline. There’s no point in rushing, and no need to either.

I guess my pet peeve would be (and this is wearing my teacher’s and editor’s hat) seeing a story I know that can be great but the author has been too keen to say that they’ve finished it. While it’s true you can edit something too much, I think a good chunk of people don’t do quite enough. I suppose then, the real trick with editing is keeping at it even when you don’t want to. That, and knowing when you’ve done enough!

BIO

Nik Perring is a writer, teacher of writing, and editor from the UK. His short stories have been published widely in places including SmokeLong Quarterly, 3 :AM and Word Riot. They’ve also been read at events and on radio, printed on fliers and used as part of a high school distance learning course in the US.

Nik’s collection of short stories, NOT SO PERFECT is published by Roast Books and is out now. Nik blogs here (http://nikperring.blogspot.com) and his website’s here (www.nperring.com). He offers short story help here http://thestorycorrective.com/

WIP 2 - 10K Mark

Small steps certainly do add up. Since starting WIP 2 on March 1st, I have kept up with daily goals, and so now the book has reached 10K mark, which I am very happy about. If I stick to my word count, then by end of March, I should reach 20K. Well, my goal is 19500, but I will try for 20K anyway. 

While I have been writing this WIP, I have incredible urge to do a hand-written first draft. The main reason is because this is a half-and-half. I am writing whatever I can during my commute in the morning on a notepad, then I type it up. It seems bit of a waste of time, because I am not editing at this point, simply auto-typing the words. But I feel that since I have already got this WIP going on computer, I don't want to stop typing up. 

However, I might try writing a next WIP first draft only by hand, and see how that works out. I have never done that. It's always been bit of a mix and match. 

Anyway, so at this rate, I am hoping to get first draft finished by end of July. 

How are your WIPs coming along?

New Guest Post Series Coming Up

Since I am in the middle of editing, it is natural that editing is in forefront of mind. I like to read about it. I like to talk about it. And on good days, I like to do it as well.

 

So I am going to have some wonderful guest bloggers here - all published writers from different backgrounds, which includes fiction, non-fiction, freelance, poetry etc. - to talk about their editing methods, or their editing loves and hates.

The series is titled: All About Editing

First post, coming up this Friday 

I hope you will find it informative and entertaining.

Editing Officially Begins Today

Yesterday I finished read-through of my NaNo 2010 novel, so today Editing officially begins. This is an important event for me. Up until now, I have edited books to various level, but I have never yet finished complete edits and revisions to get a book to submission level. This book is going to be the first one to achieve that. 

So as I begin editing, I am also going to be paying attention to my process, what works for me and what doesn't. I don't expect to get it right in the first instance, but I am determined to try, and more importantly, I am determined to FINISH this book. 

So wish me luck...and let the editing begin!!!

NaNo 2010 - Bending The Rules AND all about WIP

As most of you are probably aware (at least those on facebook) I've been wondering whether to do NaNo or not, since I was also wondering what direction revisions in my current WIP were going to take.

Well, now all decisions have been made, and you are the first to know :-)

This year, I'll be bending the rules of NaNo. Instead of writing a new project, I'm going to rewrite my current one. It requires a complete rewrite, and here is why:

1. Change of POV - instead of multiple third person, now it will be first person. That not only means a complete rewrite just because of that - but also because any essential information that was given to the reader during other people's POV while MC was absent, now need to be delivered through MC.
2. Plot - while main plot remains the same, due to POV change, and just few other ideas, several things change
3. Character Cutting - I've gotten rid of few of the minor characters, and reassigned new roles to some of the existing characters. As a result, their scenes change.

Of course I haven't come to this decision lightly, since I was actually planning to complete this book by end of October, and start a brand new project for NaNo. I have spent enough time going through my WIP, and I actually did a completely revised outline. But now, I am convinced that this is much better, far closer vision of my book that is in my mind. First person narrative focuses more attention on MC, and as a result makes him more active. Other characters were stealing too much attention through multiple POV and it wasn't suitable for the scope of this book.

There are a few things I still have to sort through in the new outline - again, result of all these changes, so I've decided to make this my NaNo 2010 project.

Because this is not a brand new project, I will be aiming higher than just first draft. So this is my goal:

• Complete rewrite of the whole draft (current version which is multiple POV stands at just over 98K words. This one should be at least 90K)
• Clean rewrite. Not just superfast mad race, but as good draft as possible
• Finish the rewrite by/before 15/11 and start revision
• Second half of NaNo month should be spent on revision

I love the challenge of NaNo, and participating with so many other writers, so I absolutely did not want to miss that opportunity. And there are times when we just have to do things our way, so I am skipping the rule book, and doing it my way. Goal after all is to accomplish something, and that's what I hope to do.

Looking forward to sharing NaNo experience with many of you again.

Editing - Full Steam Ahead

Editing of my NaNo2009 novel has started again with daily productivity. I never stopped working on it, but to get back to working on it daily is great. It's made me get back into my story properly again. I would love to have it finished by November, but I am more concerned about quality than deadline, so I will do my best to have it ready by November, but if I feel it needs more work then it will get more work.

First half is all quite solid in plot-terms so that needs more cosmetic edit now, and a good polish. But in the second half, especially towards the last third of the book, I am including new scenes, so depending on what happens there, might change things in the rest of the story. I am hoping these scenes are going to make the climax more exciting, as currently, things are perhaps not as hard as they could be for my characters :-)

Oh yeah, and I love these people. And their world. I want to live there. Hell, I want to be them!!

Back With a Blast - Finding Balance

You may have noticed, my poor blog has been quite silent for last month. I had decided my fitness regime (or lack of it) needed drastic attention so I was obsessing over that. The problem with obsessing is that it's hard to do that on more than one thing, so alongside my second mission was to find a balance, and try to bring some discipline into my routines that I could focus on various important issues instead of writing like a woman possessed or doing something else like a woman possessed. Of course, only having limited time doesn't help either, but I knew it wasn't impossible. So that was my hard journey. 

But finally, this weekend, things clicked into place, as they do. I reassessed my yearly goals, revised them based on current time, progress and changes, and found my centre again. It's a great relief to feel in control of all my goals, as opposed to just one at a time.

So now, you will be seeing regular posts here. Not one every day as I did a lot before, but definitely regular.

In news, the fitness obsession did work, and I am AMAZED to say I am now a regular exerciser (is that even a word? - it should be if it's not) :P and I don't even eat Pizza every week, let alone several times a week.

Reigns of editing my NaNo2009 novel have been firmly gathered, so editing is hopefully speeding up again.

And alongside, slowly - very slowly, I continue to work on first draft of my Bristol Fantasy.

All the other drafts have been put aside for now, as I have got my handful with just these things and all the other stuff I need to do. Journaling blog will be getting regular attention too.

How have you guys been?