Editing: Your New Best Friend

Hello all!

Sorry I haven't had much to say since last post, but I had to take care of some finals midway through the month, and I also prescribed myself some serious relaxation time with the family. Gotta love Christmas and the holiday season in general!!

So in light of all the essays I had to write (one of them was twenty pages, holy heck) and the after-Nano November writing I've fleshed out, I stumbled on some advice for every writer's problem: How do you properly edit your own writing?

I know you've all thought about this, especially those of you writing essays and get them back with lots of grammatical issues circled that you should've caught. I know I certainly have, because when I am ready to start sending out my work to other publishing companies, I don't want them to think I submitted a retarded first draft!

I stumbled upon a LinkedIn group chat about the subject, and one girl in particular offered some great advice.

1. For one thing, try to at least ask someone else to read it over. Having someone else willingly and intelligently read your work is priceless! Ask them to look for specific problems other critics have noticed in your work. Are you a comma splice queen like me? Do you confuse tenses of your verbs? Are you worried about the flow of the piece overall? If they're really nice or efficient, they will definitely bring up enough issues for you to tackle. The more, the better, right? TAKE THEIR ADVICE. Especially if you hire a professional. They know the rules enough that your work will look and sound professional. 

2. When you're writing, leave it alone for the day and then go to edit it. If you finished a chapter, look at it a day later and you will be able to find inconsistencies that you wouldn't have found earlier. Maybe the pace is off, or the dialog needs to go in another direction. Maybe there's a better way to make your point in an essay. Make the changes, or leave notes for yourself in track changes for bigger issues that you want to get to later (HALLELUJAH AMEN THANK YOU to whoever invented track changes in MS Word).

3. When editing, don't try to polish everything at once. That means, read through your work look JUST for grammatical issues, sentence-by-sentence and ignore everything else. Then go through for spelling. THEN, read through paragraph-by-paragraph to ensure that everything is flowing well. Sometimes we tend to ramble and we want to check that what's there on the page is necessary, especially for essays! At this point, you might want to move paragraphs around and double-check topic sentences of each paragraph to ensure they match the rest of the paragraph. If you are writing a novel, make sure that loose-ends are tied!

4. If you're editing your own writing, read backwards. You heard me. You've probably read it over five times and you think you can't find anything else that could possibly be considered a mistake. Take a complete section of your writing, like a chapter or sub-topic and start from the last sentence. Read just that sentence and look for all those grammatical issues you know you have trouble with. One it's improved, move to the second-to-last sentence and repeat until you're done with the section. You're not looking for the big idea here, just issues on a sentence level. Your writing will look different this way and you won't be able to gloss over things.

Anyway, hopefully these points help. You probably won't catch every tiny little thing, but if you're serious about good, quality writing, you'll produce the best writing you possibly can. Consider these points depending on your project and their deadlines.

Good luck with your 2014 projects! It's a new year to reach those writing goals! 

Recovery

word count: 50,285
page count: 85

Oh my gosh, that's a true statement all right! Yup, I managed to succeed in this year's NaNoWriMo challenge. I apologize for those of you who were wondering where the heck I disappeared off to once November drew to a close. As some of you know, it's already a bit stressful trying to write a novel's first draft during the busiest month of the college semester. Sooo, once November ended, I picked up the pace to keep up with my studies.

But here's the story:

Over the entire month of November, I ended each day questioning myself, "Why are you doing this, anyway? The book won't be done, anyway, plus you have so many other things that deserve your attention. What's the point?" I'm glad I didn't give in, even though there were days where the words didn't come and I wasn't focused on the plot or characters at all. But on the last day of November, I found myself sliding across the finishing line! For those reasonably skeptical folks out there, you're probably like, "So how do they even know that you wrote all those words anyway?" Well, they have a word counter thing and to validate your manuscript, you copy & paste your work and their word count is apparently different from the word count used in Microsoft Word, because they thought I was 100 words or so behind! That didn't stop me, so on the last day, I wrote almost 300 extra words so that I could satisfy the word count. And it felt great! My brainchild and I survived!

 So what's next you ask? Well, even though I won the challenge, I probably won't use any of the "winnings"—that being all the various resources where I can self-publish my novel in e-book format. I don't want to give out a first draft of ANYTHING I write, and the novel itself still isn't done, believe it or not. I have this great relationship between two characters that spans over a few years and I want to make it seem real rather than a "So we just met, wanna get together?" type of thing.

 It's not the end of the world; I won in many ways, because I have a new novel which I didn't have a month ago, and I pretty much proved to myself that any excuses I make up about not having enough time to read or write for pleasure are just bogus. So I hope to be able to still right every day—maybe not the same intensity—but I'll get somewhere with this project and my other project that has taken me years to get about 300 pages fleshed out.

 If anything, take my advice when I say: if you have a goal or a hobby, if it's that important to you, than it deserves your time and efforts. I always think "Oh, I'll have time to write over the summer or during the holidays" but I don't get as much done as I hoped I would and I always think that I'm too busy or stressed to write during school. Everyone has their own way of prioritizing their lives and how they use their precious time, but if you have a goal, it's important enough. That means not always listening to others who think that you should spend more time with studies or work or something. It's not like I didn't go to classes or finish my school work for the sake of this novel—ugh, my parents would kill me—but I made sure I had two solid hours each day to write and I found ways to get everything done. It just happens; you get smarter about your planning and prioritizing and everything falls into place.

 So if you're a writer and time doesn't seem to be on your side—try to make it work, anyway. You really get better at it every day, and taking time to think about your project and what you want to say is really beneficial.

 So write on, people, write on.

Plot Twist

Word Count: 40,266
Page Count: 73

You probably never saw this coming, but today I managed to write 2,200 words. It's great news for me, because this entire month I have been perpetually behind by 1,500 words and lately it has whittled down to just about nothing. My fiancé just told me to bulldoze through the 300 words that I needed to catch up today, but my brain was acting all lethargic and constipated. By that point, I wasn't even half-way through the words I needed to write for today.

Well, it just goes to show--this NaNoWriMo project is possible to achieve when you're lost in a scene that just writes itself; I don't have to be extra wordy just to make the count, it just comes.

I hope that happens for you, fellow writers! If you're stuck somewhere in a narrative, but that on hold--what scene are you really wanting to write? Is it the climax? Is it meeting a new character? Is it the ending? If it's about to explode if you don't do something with it, forget working chronologically and get your words out so they can finally have some life.

Only a week left! Here comes 10,000 ish more words!

introducing you to the madness

Word Count: 30,586

Page Count: 56

Would you like to know what I’m actually writing about? I suppose I can wonder the same thing! Today is day twenty of the NaNoWriMo challenge, and I thought today’s better than never to tell you about the story that’s been on my mind all month.

I am writing a modernized fairytale. Before you roll your eyes at such a cliché move to make, I’m sure you haven’t actually heard of this fairytale: "The Wild Swans."

Thanks to my Danish heritage, I have an obsession for anything Danish—H.C. Andersen being top of my list. He’s the one who wrote “The Little Mermaid,” “The Ugly Duckling,” and “The Snow Queen.” Did you actually know that Disney’s new movie Frozen is based off of that story? You better read up before you go see it.

But back to this NaNo nonsense. I really liked this story, but like many other fairytales, I thought a lot of crucial details were missing. Here’s an excerpt of my book where my main character, Lotte, summarizes the story for you:

"Once upon a time, there was a beautiful little princess and she had seven—or was it eleven?—older brothers. Her mother of course died, and so she got a new one, an evil stepmother that didn’t like her brood of stepchildren. So much in fact, she turned the strapping young lads into swans and turned the little princess out—which sounds nice compared to almost killing her in a bathtub.

The little beautiful princess sure was sad, and all she wanted to do was save her older brothers. In a few dreams, she found out that in order to save her band of brothers, she had to sew them shirts out of the prickliest nettles growing in the woods and she couldn’t talk. How she got the dreams, I have no idea, but she of course went right to work on a project that took her years on years to accomplish.

And what happens to this quiet little teenager in the woods? Why, the king happens to ride by, and thinks she’s so beautiful, that he whisks her away to his handsome castle and she becomes his bride. Some first date, huh?

Well to make a quaint story short, the archbishop thinks she’s a witch, so she is sentenced to burn at the stake—and she obviously can’t vouch for herself; one word spoken would kill her swan brothers. Just in time before the flames rise up, a bunch of swans swoop down (the swans obviously the princes in disguise) and the little princess throws the shirts up at them, and they try the prickly shirts on for size and poof! they become princes again and the curse is broken! The princess is innocent and she gets to still be queen. The end."

For the non-snarky version of the story, click here. 

So how do I possibly write a modernized fairytale about a princess who sews little nettle shirts for her swan brothers? With lots and lots of imagination, no doubt.

Like my main character, Lotte, when I read this story, I wanted to know all the in-between details. Like, how do you fall in love with someone who can’t talk? And I mean, did the princess know how to write or anything? How was the king able to love a person he met in the forest without even being able to ask her name?

I decided to put those details in myself through a modern retelling of this story. Liselotte (Lotte) Nielsen starts out as a high school senior and she gets out of a complicated relationship with Chris, her ex. She breaks up with him because she’s tired of feeling like he’s being overly manipulative and condescending. He’s obviously not happy with that, but Lotte doesn’t expect that he would curse her for it.

The curse goes something like this: if she says a word, laughs, or even scoffs, her brothers grow feathers. And it hurts. She’s worried that if she talks too much something very weird will happen to them, so she stops talking so she doesn’t cause harm or discomfort for her five (yes count ‘em) brothers.

Throughout the book, she has to come to terms with the fact that Chris somehow has magic and she pretends that she lost her voice from an accident instead of telling people what really happened.

But she’s not about to spend the rest of her life writing little messages on her whiteboard. Her brothers help her figure out how to free them of the curse for good and in the meantime, Lotte goes off to college and tries to live without her voice. She takes it a step further and learns sign language so she can at least express herself somehow. During that time of learning ASL, she meets Dan* who’s in her class . . . and you’ll just have to find out the rest of it, of course!

I’ve had this idea for a couple of years now and it’s exciting to finally put it all down. Hopefully it fills 50,000 words! Anyway, have a great week and read up on some great fairytales.

 

*I’m still on the fence as to whether or not I like that name.

sweet glory, hallelujah

Word Count: 20,773
Page Count: 38

Oh yeah! I'm feelin' the burn. It's like a marathon run...I have to keep telling myself that I'm HALF WAY DONE. Well, half-way minus 2,000 words. I tell you, this week has been so insane. All I can say is, school is kicking my trash at the moment. You know, people sometimes assume that as an English major, I have all the time in the world to read or write for fun. Yeah, until I have free time, I'll be using all my time going to campus for classes, going to work and working on five simultaneous projects.

The fact that I was able to write 1700 words today was a miracle. I'm already behind 1.5 day's worth of writing and I can't afford any more slip-ups! But I managed to get everything done today that needed my immediate attention and magically had two hours left for this NaNo madness. I tell you, this is so hard but so worth it.

I think over the weekend, I'll try to screw my head on straight and then I can actually share with you good people what I'm actually writing about. I hope you find the concept remotely interesting.

It's just funny how when you have buttloads on buttloads of things to do, you manage to take two hours of your life to help someone else without being asked and still find the time to get your stuff in order. I don't know about you, but I believe in a higher power, and He's got my back on this one.

Motivation...

Current Word Count: 17,282
Page Count: 32

Holy heck, Leute.

Just to let you know, in order to make the cut by the end of November, I must write roughly 1,600 words a day, or three pages of writing. It's a lot, but so far, I'm somewhat on track. I'm actually (blarg) 1200 words or so behind because I was sick. So now it's time to play catch-up.

Writers, how do you keep your butt glued to the seat to write when you'd much rather enjoy the nice weather outside, communicate with other people, or literally do anything else, like clean the whole house, rearrange all the wall décor or go save Gotham City?

It's probably not as bad as it looks; I mean, did you see how many words I've written in the past eleven days? That's right, it's the twelfth, but I haven't gotten around to today's 1600 bit.

Anyway, for your fun-filled enjoyment, check out the cover I designed for my book! I must give credit to kechake-stock for the picture of the girl in the cute lace shirt.

Fight the good fight! Write it 'til it's over!

Give 'em a Name

Writers,

Have you ever had a difficult time trying to find a reasonable name for your new characters? I mean, you don't want it to be cheesy or anything, and let's be honest, "Harry Potter" is already taken. So you have to be a little creative.

These people are practically your newborn children; you can't go giving them lame or dull names. You have to let their names speak for them.

A friend of mine passed this article along to me, and I thought it was super helpful: http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/the-7-rules-of-picking-names-for-fictional-characters

Here are the main points, but go read the article for yourself:

1. Check root meanings.
2. Get your era right.
3. Speak them out loud.
4. Manage your crew appropriately.
5. Use alliterative initials.
6. Think it through appropriately.
7. Check ’em again.

For writers wanting to find accurate names for various nationalities, I would highly recommend http://www.behindthename.com This is an awesome website with thousands of names with origins, meanings and what have you. It's super awesome, especially if you're tired of using the same names or you think the ones you have just don't have enough "ummph" to them.

Once you find the right name, you'll know. Just say "yes" to the name.

50,000 Words? Challenge Accepted

Well hey!

 
Most of you that are reading this probably want a quick & easy reason as to why you want to read—and keep reading—this blog. It’s quite simple:

I’m trying to complete the NaNoWriMo challenge among other challenges that I want to accomplish as a writer & editor.

What’s NaNoWriMo you ask? You can check out http://www.nanowrimo.org, but it’s a challenge to celebrate National Novel Writing Month. SO, the challenge is to write 50,000 or a novel (whichever comes first) during the month of November.

I want to post a bunch of cool stuff that I do to make this goal. AND, I feel like if the entire Internet comes together to hold me accountable for this goal, then I can’t back out or give up so easily can I!

In posts ahead, I’m going to divulge my ideas for the book I’m writing—because it isn’t just a word count; it’s an idea that took root in my brain like, two years ago and I’m taking the challenge so I can see the darn thing on paper for once. Yeah, that’s the prize—I get my own paperback copy! ONLY every author’s DREAM!

Does anyone have writing goals they want to accomplish? Have you ever wanted to write a book, and if so, what is it about? I hope to pass along ideas that I’ve used in keeping the dreams alive and having fun with writing. It’s a beast; but you can pet it like a kitten.