What They Didn't Tell Us (About Being A Writer)

I adore author and speaker Rachel Held Evans and I read her blog regularly. She doesn't usually talk much about writing, but today she posted about the things she never knew when she was a little girl attending writing camps for kids and dreaming about one day becoming an author. Some of the lines really resonated with me:

They didn’t tell me that I’d be working in my pajamas most of the time.

(c) Horia Varlan

They didn’t tell me how lonely this work can be.

They didn’t tell me that I’d go from loving my manuscript to categorically abominating it within a matter of hours. 

They didn’t tell me that this work—this life—would become such a part of who I am that even when it makes me crazy, I need it like I need water and sunlight and love. 

Read the rest at Rachel's blog.

It's so true . . . especially the love-to-hate bit. That is exactly where I am right now.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, and happy writing, NaNoers!

It was the Best of Times, It was the Worse of Times: Editing

So, I wrote another book over the last 3 weeks.

And now I'm editing it. 

Editing is a strange animal. I've edited (pauses to count on fingers) 5? books at this point (I've completed I think 9 novels, but not all of them made it to the editing stage), and no two editing experiences have been alike. With some books, I know there's something wrong but I just don't know what. With some books I read them through, mainly correcting small things like grammar and syntax, and with others I rearrange chapters, cut large portions, or add additional subplots. Every story is different. 

I'm also reading through both Self-Editing for Fiction Writers and Writing the Break-Out Novel right now as part of my self-assigned writer's homework. The Self-Editing for Fiction Writers is proving more helpful for this stage (although I'm getting some great pointers for my book from the Maass book too, particularly when it comes to my characters and my story's ending, which both need a little tweaking right now.

Anyway, I was wondering. What do you guys do when you edit? Do you have any helpful hints or secret strategies that work for you?

My plan so far:

1. Let book sit for a week or so, work on other projects. Gain emotional distance from the piece. CHECK

2. Let 1-2 beta readers at it, hear their suggestions and comments. CHECK

3. Re-read story, trying to think as a reader. SEMI-CHECK?

4. Brainstorm story as a whole. What works? What doesn't? Are there any unresolved issues, any characters that faded into the background, any problems with pacing or proportion? SEMI-CHECK

5. Apply changes, add necessary scenes, subplots, descriptions as necessary (NOTE: I almost never cut anything as major as a chapter or subplot, but generally I add at least 5k to the MS in edits. Sometimes I add as much as 15k in edits. I tend to write spare and lean, fleshing the story out as I reread and rewrite. I'd rather add than subtract, it's less emotionally exhausting to me.)

6. Re-read story out loud, checking for dialogue awkwardness, typos, and flow problems.

7. Submit back to betas.

That's basically my process. It works pretty well for me, but I'd love to hear suggestions about what anybody else does. Thoughts?

Continuing My Writer's Education

I am all about making goals. I am slightly obsessed them. For some reason they motivate me really well ... maybe it's because I feel like I'm in competition with myself? I'm not sure, really, but I know they work for me.

So today I made a new goal, in effect immediately, that I hope to continue every year for possibly the rest of my life.

I was on Amazon, looking for a book on editing that I could read while I'm revising the current WIP (which is almost at 30k now, and *fingers crossed* I'm hoping to have it almost finished by next week, and ready for revisions before the end of June. I'm writing about 3k a day in it. Mind you, the only reason I've been able to maintain this blistering pace? I'm not working this summer.)

Anyway, so I was looking for a book on editing, and I was blown away by all the writing books.

Now, I've read several books on writing in the past ten years or so, sure, but looking at all those rows of tip-stuffed tomes, I could've slapped myself.

Why am I not delving into this vast spread of knowledge and expertise all the time? It's right there, just waiting for me!

To be honest, I think one of my weaknesses is my tendency to assume I've reached a plateau, and in a sense "arrived." I still have TONS of room for improvement. I will always have room for improvement, even when I've been writing for 40 years.

To be REALLY honest, sometimes I get a tad bit arrogant and decide I don't need to read books on writing anymore.

This mindset is SILLY. Not to mention WRONG.

So new goal! Read 5 writing/editing/some other writer-related skill-improvement books a year.  5 is a nice, solid number, not too many, but enough that I'll be semi-saturated with writing advice throughout the year, especially all those things I technically already know, but tend to forget (like over-using "to be" verbs).

I'm also contemplating writing up posts about the books I read, and how helpful they were for me.

I think it's totally doable. My husband is a bit wary (he says I'm already really busy). But I think I can do it. This year (since it's already June), I'll test out 3-4 and see if that's too much.

In slightly related news, I'm also contemplating doing a "1k a day" goal next year. That's 365,000 words total. Just the thought of that makes me salivate. I KNOW I can do 1k a day. It's so manageable. That's the beauty of the whole thing. 365k sounds monstrous, because it is, but 1k? No sweat.

SO. Back to writing books. Anybody have recommendations for me? What's the best writing (or editing) book you've ever read?

The Five Stages of Writing a Book

1. The Idea


One of the most magical times for the writer, the idea phase can include daydreaming, staring off into space, goofy smiles, and ecstatic babbling to friends and family. The writer is hopeful, confident, and convinced that this idea is THE. BEST. IDEA. EVER.

No, seriously.

2. Writing

 Now the rubber meets the road, and it usually isn't pretty. There are sleepless nights, screams of frustration, and occasionally entire ice cream cakes consumed. Some writers grimly park themselves in front of the keyboard and type until they have met their word count goals, while other writers employ brilliant strategies of procrastination, like cleaning the garage or mopping the floor or working on other writing projects. Somehow, painfully, the book is written.

3. Editing

Although complete, the book is inevitably a disgusting mess of run-on sentences splattered with adverbs and dripping with excessive similes. The writer must now take a knife to the precious manuscript, ruthlessly killing his or her darlings with the stoicism of a Roman soldier. More ice cream cake is consumed.




4. Self Doubt

This stage may actually appear during many of the other stages. In this stage, the writer may lie on the floor and moan, curl in a fetal position, or obsessively search Monster.com for alternative jobs. Self doubt can be particularly acute during the editing stage.

5. Bookmoon

The bookmoon stage can occur before or after editing, when the writer feels that the manuscript is complete and perfect and unlike any other manuscript ever born from a writer's sweat, tears, and over-consumption of ice cream cake. Like a honeymoon, the bookmoon is a time when the world is viewed through a glow of happiness and the illusion of perfection.The bookmoon phase often lasts until querying begins.

When it melts like cotton candy in the sun.


At this point the writer may feel somewhat disillusioned. She realizes the story is not the most special story ever written. It may not even be brilliant. Just good. Maybe even just good enough. She comes to terms with this, and moves on. She feels mature, grounded, and worldly-wise.

And then, the writer gets ANOTHER idea ...

And it's the BEST. IDEA. EVER.

The Joys of Editing

I'm not really a fan of editing. I guess it's sort of a letdown after the rush of finishing something. HOWEVER I am a "fan" of editing in the sense that I think it makes everything way way way better. So it's good and necessary. But it SUCKS.

Right now I'm editing The Curse Girl, my first indie project. I'm feeling especially pressured to catch all the typos and problems that normally I wouldn't be as worried about, since I'm not going to have an actual editor to help me some day before it goes out to the reading public. I'm in the thick of things right now, and as usual, I feel the tiniest bit overwhelmed because there's a sea of words and only one me.

So I wanted to ask you guys ... how do you edit? Do you read through first and then go back and change stuff? Do you break it into chunks or try to do it in one Red Bull-fueled, fell swoop? I've been all over the board with editing through the last year years, and I'm trying to come up with a solid strategy for myself.

Advice?