Words and Coffee

It is oh so nice to have a group of people standing by to read your work and give feedback. But be warned: If you give them something that is not the best it can be at the time, you may find your feedback relates more to the superficial stuff .

I have some folks lined up and thought I’d be ready to go after I finished the 3rd draft of The Cloud Chamber.

Then I read my manuscript. Hoo boy.

Sometimes it feels like these are more appropriate for editing than a red pencil

It occurred to me that those reading would stumble on the same things I was stumbling on as I read through my latest draft.  I didn’t want my beta readers to be looking for misspellings or grammar mechanics so much as the big picture stuff like story, character development, pacing and so on.

A blogging friend recommended Self-Editing for Fiction Writers when I trolled around for good books on writing. I’ve read it twice in the last year and will probably hit it again soon. I find that self-editing, like writing, is best learned by doing it. Over and over.

If you’re looking for some good online resources to get started, check these out:

1. Writer Beware™ Blogs!: The Importance of Self-Editing
2. Writers in the Sky Ezine: How to Write Tight – Self-Editing Tips to Make Your Manuscript Ready for Publication
3. The Editor’s Blog: How to Self Edit
4. Women on Writing: Self-Editing for Fiction Writers

That ought to give anyone enough to get started.

In the meantime, I’m finding that I very much enjoy editing though it is a slow process. It’s gratifying to see things come into focus with some cutting here and adding there. And when I’m done with this round, hopefully it translates into a better experience for my beta readers.

Wherein the writing process is steeped in the confusion of a thousand vectors pulling against each other. Well, two really.

Spent last week getting into the swing of the new part time gig and then jetted off to D.C. (drove actually). We got back last night and I was back at it again today.

I’m still adjusting to the work schedule, which is fairly fluid. There is no down time, although it feels like I’ve been down for quite a while.

What day is it?

Soooo… I’m going to settle in with a homebrewed Belgian Dubbel — delivered fresh this afternoon by a friend who’s taking good care of my homebrewing gear and putting it to way more use than I have in the last five years — and get my edit on.

Crikey.

The first of many.

This week I reached two writing milestones: I submitted my first fantasy short story, The River Lords, for publication and I began revising the first draft of my first novel, Shadow of the Black City. Each of these milestones represents something different.

The River Lords represents completing a project and putting it out there and, most importantly to me, moving on to the next thing.

The next thing is revising the first draft of Shadow. I’m about 10-15% into revisions and the process is confirming what I suspected — This revision will be more rewrite than revision. I’m okay with that. The important thing was for me to get the story down in all its rambling, hackneyed glory.

The original story arc holds true, it just needs pruning. I foresee combining characters to simplify the story, tightening the original conflict and changing the age and circumstances of the main character — so far. I’m sure there will be more, but that’s cool. I’ve explored the subject of writing and first drafts enough to go into this with my eyes open. Truth be told, I’m excited to refine this work.

As one who loves to read about how people approach the various parts of the writing process, I’ve been around the web and bought books. I read Natalie Whipple’s blog post today regarding writing a first draft and thought it may have best captured the most essential nugget of any part of the process –Write how YOU write.

Ultimately, the process is about me sitting at the keyboard and working through however many iterations of my novel until I like the story I’m telling. Yeah, it’s simple to say, but you’d be surprised how many people have a hard time doing it.