Got the proofs back for Under the Western Sky. Why do you always catch those repeated words and phrases when you get those back, instead of when you do your final edits before sending the story in the first time?

I didn’t find any actual typos in the story — they did a good job setting it up. I do wish I could change a couple of lines though!

The best way to edit your story or proof is to print the thing out. This is the step I skipped because my printer was acting up that week. Somehow, printing the story makes it easier to find typos and wrong word choices. Start at the end of the story and read backwards, looking at every word until you get to the beginning. Misspellings leap out this way, as do grammatical errors of most kinds and repeated words.

I’ll get you a link to the finished book once it’s out on the market. We’re hoping for a November release. I’ll be entering the story in the Peacemaker and Spur awards, too. Probably never going to win since it’s not a “traditional” Western (my protagonists are unrepentant outlaws), but …

Nobody likes editing. We’d all rather be writing 24/7 but editing must be done in order to produce a finished work. Here are some quick tips to get you started.

1. First Pass: Spelling

Make one run through your work and check just for spelling. You can use a spell-check program or do a quick read-through. A read-through will also catch words that are spelled correctly but used incorrectly, such as your for you’re or two for to.

2. Second Pass: Grammar

This one’s a bit tricker, since you do have to read through the work to catch incorrect grammar. If grammar is your weak spot, this would be a good time to pass the work along to a professional editor. Check for verb tense, dangling participles and other common problems.

3. Third Pass: Word Repetition

Make a pass for one common problem we all have: our favorite phrase. If you don’t know what that is, you might try plugging your text into a tag cloud generator. That’ll show you any words or phrases that show up the most often. If anything jumps out at you, do a search/replace and root out all those repetitions. You might also check for pronoun repetition – paragraphs with too many “he’s” or “she’s” and not enough names (I tend to have that problem).

4. Fourth Pass: Dialogue

Read through your work, focusing on your dialogue. Does each character speak in a unique voice? Can you tell which character is which without looking at name tags? Are your educated characters using longer words and longer sentences than your less educated characters? Make sure your dialogue is believable and logical.

Once you get past that fourth draft, your work is going to be pretty much ready for a professional editor to look at. (Bet you thought I was going to say “ready for publishing” didn’t you?) Never send your work out without having a professional look over it!

Book 3 is finished at last, and I’m doing the first of several edits and polishing jobs. Here are a few tips on polishing your work until it sparkles.

• Read for Flow and Rhythm – do your first pass for the overall story. Does it flow and lead logically from one scene into another? Is it an overall good story or does it lag in spots? Does the tension escalate to a climax?
• Read for Nit-Picks – do another pass looking for those typos and grammatical errors. It helps for this stage if you print the manuscript out and actually “read” it backwards: start at the end and look at every word until you reach the beginning. You’re more likely to spot a misspelling or incorrect word choice that way.
• Read for Dialogue – does your dialogue flow properly, advancing the plot, or does it halt the action and take the readers off on a tangent? Do your characters speak with their own individual voices?

In between your readings, feel free to rewrite as necessary until you have the book you’ve been dreaming of.

First, I must apologize for abandoning my post … sorry for the pun … I’ve been working on finishing up Book 3 and editing Book 2 and working on a new book for the Western Fictioneers and serving as judge for the Peacemaker Awards. That’s meant a LOT of reading and writing going on, and I just let a few things slip by the wayside. Mea culpa.

We’re also updating the website, so it’s going to have a different look in a short while — hopefully more user-friendly. We’re making progress on the upcoming newsletter database. You’ll soon be able to sign up for a monthly (or quarterly? perhaps I should be more realistic) letter detailing what this author is up to, what’s going to be published when, and how you can meet up with me. And I’ll be giving away a free booklet to everyone on the mailing list!

Keep watching this site – upgrades and updates coming soon

So you hit 50,000 words in November — or maybe not quite so many. Now what?

Once you’ve got your first draft down — or at least gotten a good start on one! — what should you do now?

• Put the blasted thing away – you heard me. Put it into a drawer and forget it for a few weeks. Close the file (remember to save your work!) and start something else. You need a bit of time before you can start editing your draft, so you’ll see it with fresh eyes instead of overlooking things because it’s old and tired to you right now.
• Start something new – edit an older draft. Start a new project. Do something completely different. You’ve been cooped up with that draft for 30 days now, and both of you need some space. Shake things up and do something else for a bit.
• Focus on the holidays – did you forget it’s December? You’ve got decorating to do and gifts to buy and traditions to uphold!

Book Two is finished … well, the first draft is done

This is only the beginning, though.

• I’ve got the first edit to do – go through reading for continuity and flow.
• Rewrite as needed from that edit
• Then I’ll do a dialogue edit to make sure all the dialogue sounds good and matches the characters
• More rewriting as needed
• Then there’s the (possibly first) professional edit to see what I need to fix
• Then there may be yet another rewrite … maybe even several

Then, and only then, will I send it to my agent to see what she thinks. It’s not a short process.

How many edits do you go through before you publish?

Editors for Hire (Chantelle Aimee Osman)

Once you’ve written “the end,” the journey is only half over. You must put out the best book you can – if it’s not, you might sell it, but they won’t come back for more.

A clean, polished manuscript can make all the difference – a copy editor is a must if you’re self-publishing and even if you’re going the traditional route, I recommend having your first 5-6 chapters gone over by a professional.

How much editing do you need? Most professional authors might get by with only one edit. Some people need 4-5 edits.

Do a read-only edit yourself before sending it to the editor – catch major errors and over-arching story problems before you send it off for a line edit or line and content edit.

 

The thing everyone is looking for is your passion on the page. Never write just for a trend. Write what you love to read, what you love to write.

Know your genre – don’t write a zombie vampire YA mystery with Western overtones.

The first two and last two chapters of your book are the most important – have a hook at beginning to make them need to turn the page – no backstory.

Style issues:

• awkward phrasing, repeated phrasing
• do not try to have a unique voice – just write your way and the voice will show through
• the tighter, the better – cut unnecessary words
• preaching is a no-no
• watch for changes in tense or POV

 

“good dialogue is one of the most difficult and challenges a writer has”

Dialogue problems:

• fake dialogue – not using contractions, very formal, awkward
• dialogue to obviously advanced the plot “radio drama dialogue”
• forced dialogue – do your research
• too many trendy words date your work
• show, don’t tell
• make sure characters have distinct speech patterns
• Read your dialogue (and everything else) aloud

Descriptive problems:

• using the protagonist’s senses to relate information is a better way to show instead of description
• avoid general descriptions (beautiful, nice, etc)
• avoid laundry lists
• watch out for repetition – favorite phrases and images, sentence structure – “crutch words”
• combinations of words with the same meaning
• a set of fresh eyes are valuable in catching these things
• adjectives and adverbs – don’t use too many, never more than one together
• cut 10-15% of your words
• watch “to be” – try to avoid if possible (passive sentences)
• no qualifiers like very or really
• cliches (that also includes cliched descriptions and situations)
• wrong word choices (towards instead of toward, affect/effect, etc)
• watch for sentences with more than two commas – maybe two sentences instead
• now it’s one space after a period
• double check for possessives and plurals

“Punctuation is like a throw-pillow.” Doing the job without calling attention to itself

Errors in character:

• characters must be unique, bring the readers back
• know your characters well, give them clear motivation
• must have goal and clear reason to work toward that goal
• characters must grow
• no stereotypes
• outlandish names – names often paint a better picture than descriptives – you don’t want something that reader must stop reading to figure out how to pronounce it
• misplaced or overly long backstory

Plots:

• if characters just go along without anything interesting happening, there’s no emotional attachment
• every book should have basic essential question (who/what/where/how/why) – know what that question is and be able to resolve it in the end
• don’t write about something you don’t know about
• know your genre!

The End:

• almost as important as the beginning – what’s going to sell the second book
• resolution must make reader feel something
• don’t keep readers wondering in a bad way (forgetting a plot point)

Now you’ve just started on your journey of queries, rejections, edits, cover designs, etc.

Social Media 101 for Creative People (Alison Sky Richards):

3 Points:

1. Website (your store front)
2. FaceBook (your billboards)
3. Twitter (your conversation)

There are around 328 highly utilized social media sites – around 600 total

 

FaceBook:

1. Create an author (or book) page
2. Create an author voice

Twitter:

1. Be careful who you follow/allow to follow you – spambots and trolls
2. Build dialogue and communication – look for your favorite authors and create communication
3. Hashtags #amwriting, #amediting – scroll past photos to get to # feed at bottom of screen

Grab your author name on major social media sites – and URL

Websites:

1. Responsive design – allow for different devices
2. Visual design – images get 10% more response than text
3. Appearance – NO Comic Sans! Need an easy to read font like Verdana or Arial – nothing too trendy or crazy. Use tinted background instead of plain white – easier for most people to read. Red is also very visually attractive, but not fire-engine red
4. Have your social media integrated
5. Search Engine Optimization – takes a lot of work! Need to get a lot of people to look for a specific phrase and click on the website.
6. Constantly re-evaluate your website. Check content for freshness and readability – average reading level is 8th grade – recommended website level 6th. Rebrand website to be most effective.

Revision can be tough. Sometimes it’s hard to take a good, clear look at what you’ve written.

Here are some good tips to get you started on the revision process:

1. Start at the beginning – Editing is easier when you follow your story the same way your readers will. Starting on page one will not only help you to catch typos, but allow you to check for plot holes, continuity and characterization.
2. Highlight all passive verbs. Look for is, are, was, were and has/have been. If the sentence can be rewritten into active voice, do so. If not, consider eliminating the sentence entirely. You do need passive voice occasionally, but keep it to the bare minimum.
3. Get rid of the cliches. HERE’S a great list by Writer’s Digest of the most commonly used cliches. Do a find-and-replace search to be sure none of these have crept into your story.

Once you get into Edit Mode, you’ll find that it flows right along.

Susan Cummins Miller gave a great talk at the Tony Hillerman Conference. Here are the highlights:

A Baker’s Dozen: Common Writing Mistakes

1. Starting at the wrong point – usually it’s too early. Start just before the really interesting part, or the inciting incident
2. Lack of dramatization – beginning writers tend to “tell” instead of “show.” Get rid of “telling” adverbs and adjectives and “show” the action and reaction, and give the dialogue.
3. Poor plotting – beginning writers often mistake a great premise (the 2-3 line pitch) for a great plot (what actually happens between Chapter 1 and The End. You should know what your characters want, and make them work for it, with a primary objective plus some smaller sub-goals. Each scene must have conflict, a climax, and resolution, and each incident must have repercussions and reactions.
4. A contrived ending – let your characters interact and lead you to a logical ending. That needs to grown naturally from the building blocks of your scenes.
5. Point of view errors – remember that, whichever point of view you choose, it must emotionally pull the reader into the story. Avoid the authorial voice (“telling”). Also, be sure that the reader knows whose head they’re in. Don’t switch point of view within a scene because that’s too confusing.
6. Ineffective dialogue – dialogue should support and develop the plot, or give a little bit of backstory. Check for stilted or uninspired dialogue, or for cliches. Enliven your dialogue with revealing details.
7. Weak characterization – no cardboard characters allowed. Your characters must be three-dimensional and emotional beings.You have your entire novel to reveal backstory, so avoid the temptation to tell everything about the character all at once. Give small, specific details a little at a time instead. Know what makes your character travel (physically or emotionally) toward their goals and remember to place them in stressful situations.
8. A pointless story – this is when your reader finishes the book without having an “aha!” moment. It usually means you’ve either failed to define your objective, or neglected to show the development of your protagonist. The solution is to make sure that every action has a reaction and leads inevitably toward the climax and resolution.
9. Flat writing – this is caused by “playing it safe” and not digging too deeply into your own emotions, or by fearing the logical reactions in your story. Cut narrative or dialogue that has no relevance to the plot, and be sure that you’re showing instead of telling.
10. Lack of vivid, realistic settings – instead of giving paragraph after paragraph about your setting, choose one or two small but vivid details that will stick with your readers.
11. Too much backstory and exposition (the dreaded “info dump”) – choose what’s important and present it in “dribbles and drabbles” in a vivid way. Keep in mind that backstory, if used correctly, can actually increase tension by slowing down the pace and delaying the crisis.
12. Failing to listen (to what people say about your work) – Susan recommends that you have a first reader who knows what they’re doing, or that you join a good critique group that will actually provide useful criticism.
13. Submitting your work too early – don’t send out your first draft. Be sure you’ve edited and polished until you’re sending out the very best you can produce.

 

More from the Hillerman Conference to come!

The manuscript is back from the copy editor already!

I think that’s a good thing. She said it was a good story, and this is a PhD in English, so I’m going to believe her and start working on those query letters!

A few niggles – some instances where I spelled a minor character’s name one way in one chapter, and slightly different in a later chapter, some words I hyphenated one time and didn’t hyphenate later – that sort of thing. And, of course, the inevitable missed comma errors (I tend to add too many) and misspellings that the Spell-Check doesn’t catch because they’re real words (just not the word I intended to spell).

Overall, I’m satisfied that “my baby” is ready to send out into the dangerous world of Publishing. I never had kids, so I don’t really know, but it feels less like sending a child off and more like entering a science project in a huge science fair and hoping for a prize. I did my best work – and I know that will improve as I keep practicing the craft! – and now it’s time to let the judges see what I created.

Keep your fingers crossed!