The Pain of Editing
Nobody tells you about the pain of editing. How frustrating that ‘one last revision’ gets when you find another truckload of bad prose, poor punctuation and downright dumb dialogue. No one says the creative process is easy.
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Editing
A Strong Opening Chapter
A question or an obsession; how do I write a strong opening chapter? How do I hook the reader and keep them turning the page? I spend more time on opening chapters than anything else. Here’s my compilation of tips from writers and coaches from the last three years.
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What’s Taking So Long?
Endless posts on writing but no sign of publishing a novel; what’s taking so long?
It’s not one novel but three in a series; plus a novella to offer as a reader magnet*.
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Revision Planning with Troy Lambert
One of the sessions of last year’s writers’ summits covered revision planning with Troy Lambert. At Daniel David Wallace’s Revising and Editing Workshop, Lambert presented a solid and concise approach to revising a novel.
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Editing the ‘Crutch’ Words
Sooner or later in the process, every author faces editing the ‘crutch’ words. These are the habitual words or phrases used like crutches to prop up one’s prose. In speech, we rarely notice them; in prose, they become a hallmark of poor writing. Top of the list? Like, seemed, look, decide. And adverbs. Mostly.
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The Professional Working Draft
Never mind that I’m 65% through editing and still don’t know if the novel is any good: do I have a professional working draft?
A professional working draft comes at the end of one or more rounds of internal edits; no copy editing, line editing or proof reading. We’re still in the early stages. In short, does the manuscript work?
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How Many Drafts?
How many drafts does it take to get out of the edit toward a published book? Book One is still in the edit, and here’s why; it’s only on its’ third draft.
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It’s All in the Edit
I appreciate what people mean when they say ‘it’s all in the edit.’ Of the three book series, Book One is in serious need of editing.
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How to Fix a Bad Scene
How many times do you edit and revise, and still wonder how to fix a bad scene in your manuscript. Been there, struggled with that. You don’t always know why it doesn’t work, but that feeling won’t go away. …
How long is a paragraph?
A dense wall of text with little or no white space sends readers running; so how long is a paragraph?. Online and digital devices mean short paragraphs are the new standard.
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