Next Step in the Editing Process

Well, my sweet little manuscript made it to my editor. So, here's what happens next.

I sent the manuscript to my acquisitions editor who in turn gave it to the awesome lady who is my developmental editor. She sent me a very nice email welcoming me to the publishing house and detailed what will happen next. (And I must say, if you ever have a chance to work with Career Press, don't hesitate. They have been AWESOME so far. They keep you in the loop every step of the way and don't mind answering all the stupid questions you send at them) :D

Anyhow, this wonderful lady will be going through my manuscript to make sure I met all my contractual obligations (word count, promised content, etc) and she will be checking on things like my general content, whether or not I obtained any releases or permissions necessary, and that sort of thing.

Then she will send it to a line editor. The line editor will check on all the specifics. Her email outlined things like content, grammar, style, cohesiveness, organization, mechanics, and all that good stuff.

As my book will be released in Jan, it will be heading to the printer in the beginning of December. So anything that needs fixin' will be done between now and then.

So, at the moment, I am anxiously awaiting word from editor 1 before the manuscript goes off to editor 2. Both fun and a little nerve-wracking all at once LOL I'll keep you posted when I hear more!

How is everyone else doing on their projects? Words flowing freely? Queries meeting with requests? Revisions going well?

Thirty Word Thursday

The labour of writing and rewriting...is the due exacted by every good book from its author, even if he knows from the 

beginning exactly what he wants to say.

~ G. M. Trevelyan

Off to the Editor

Monday was a momentous day in the McLean household. My very first soon-to-be-published book was packed up and sent on its way to my editor. I thought you might like to know how the whole "getting the manuscript ready for publication" process works....at least for Non-fiction (in my short experience, in any case).

First of all, after my agent had worked her magic, my contract arrived in the mail. I had a very big SQUEE moment (which repeats every so often as I realize how real this whole thing actually is) :D

Along with my signed contract came a welcome packet from my publisher. This included a welcome letter, an author questionnaire, and information letters from the marketing, production, foreign rights, and editorial departments, with a contact sheet for everyone in the company I may need to get a hold of.

The author questionnaire is a big packet of questions about my book, my intended market, and little old me. I got to write the blurb for the book, a bio for me, some interview questions should anyone need to refer to them, and there were spots for things like publications/companies/reviewers I felt should be made aware of my book, any endorsements I may have received, and any avenues I might have access to (such as radio/tv interviews, conventions or conferences I might be speaking at, that sort of thing).

Basically, they wanted to know about me, my book, and how I might be able to help market my book.

Then, I got down to some serious editing. Before signing the contract, my publisher had mentioned a few changes and additions they wanted made to the manuscript and we agreed upon a deadline for the final manuscript to be sent in. (I am very happy to report that my manuscript is complete early - woohooo!)

So I set about getting my lovely little book all ready. And last week, it happened. The final "i" was dotted, the final "t" was crossed - I had printed the book out, let it sit, and gone through it again, slowly, with a red marker, and made it as good (not perfect, because that will never happen *snort*) as I could get it.

I printed out a nice, clean, and oh-so-pretty copy for my editor's shredding pleasure. Also, I sent a CD that contains each of my chapters and material as separate files. And she's all ready to go:

Once my editor goes through it, I'll get edits. From what I've heard from my writer buddies' experience, these usually appear in the form of a letter (and I suppose the edits necessary will dictate the length of that letter LOL) Another deadline will be set for the new revisions to be completed by, and then, once my manuscript has been approved by everyone, it will go to production.

I'm actually sort of surprised by how quickly the last half of this will take place. My book will be released in Jan. Which means, it will be printed by Dec (at the latest, I am assuming, since my publisher will ship the book to stores 2 weeks before its actual release). My deadline for this first round isn't until Sept 1 (so I'm a month early). Which means, any other revisions necessary will take place between Sept and Nov....which doesn't seem like much time *eep!*  Here's hoping they won't need many changes :D

Anyhow, that is my pre-production experience up to this point. Really, I just wanted to show you the oh so pretty picture of my manuscript LOL I just *heart* it :D

How is everyone's projects going? I am having a blast focusing on fiction again. Juggling two novels and fielding my family's "but I thought you just finished" comments.....poor little darlings.....stuck with a writer as a wife and mom. I think I'll go get them some chocolate :D

Thirty Word Thursday

(first off, happy birthday to my baby! My little Ryanna turns 5 today :) Such a big girl now!)

"The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time...You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping simile."

Robert Cormier

Pre-Editing Problem

In going through my awesome stash of quotes the other day, I came across this one:

"People have writer's block not because they can't write, but because they despair of writing eloquently."

Anna Quindlen

I read that and thought "Oh yeah - that's my problem RIGHT THERE." Well, let's face it, I have many problems (ha!) but this is definitely one of them. I don't think I often have writer's block in the sense that I can't think of what to write. I have a definite overflow of ideas most of the time. But I think I have a hard time OVERTHINKING things. 

Instead of just sitting down and writing, I am constantly editing myself, before I've even put a single word on the page. I'll think of a line and instead of just getting it down, I think "Hmmm, that's not quite the right way to say that. What is the exact right way?"

And I end up with a whole lot of blank pages.

I'm putting the cart before the horse, I'm counting my chickens before they've hatched, I'm eating the cookie dough before it's cooked (oooo....cookie dough....)

I am editing BEFORE I write. And it is definitely something I need to quit doing. It's counterproductive. It's discouraging. And it is a ridiculously effective way of procrastinating LOL

Yeah, it's hard to turn off that internal editor. And yes, editing is a big part of writing. But I've gotta give myself something to write before I edit, instead of trying to get everything perfect on the paper the first time. Of course, knowing this and doing it are two totally different things :D But I can give it a good shot :)

How about you? Do you find yourself editing before you've even begun to write?

No Tears, No Dice

 

I may have posted this quote before, but I think it is awesome enough for a second run.

What lasts in the reader's mine is not the phrase but the effect the 

phrase created: laughter, tears, pain, joy. 

If the phrase is not affecting the reader, what's it doing there? 

Make it do its job or cut it without mercy or remorse.

~ Isaac Asimov

I love, LOVE, this quote. Cutting material is one of the hardest parts of writing. Especially when the stuff you are cutting isn't bad. Sometimes it's really good stuff! But it may not be doing its job for one reason or another and so....it has to go.

When I started out writing (for the purpose of publication, in any case), I had pages - a LOT of pages -  that I needed to cut in order to get the pace of my story moving. It wasn't bad stuff. Most of it was description. Really beautiful description (if I do say so myself *ahem*). But it didn't do anything for the story. It wasn't needed to help the plot along. In fact, I was describing rooms of a house that the character would never go in. It certainly didn't evoke any kind of response in my readers, except perhaps boredom, which I REALLY wasn't going for.

So, it got cut.

Now, that was a more clear cut case - but I've had instances that weren't as easy to spot. I had a conversation in my last book that I really loved. I thought it was funny and showed a playful moment between two of my characters. It didn't move the plot along - meaning, it wasn't introducing any new information about the stsoryline. But I ended up leaving it in the book, with a few tweaks. I did change it up a bit so that there were some plot-moving elements. The main reason I left it in the story was because, after taking a poll of all my readers, I found it was evoking the response I was going for. The parts of the conversation that weren't helping to evoke that response got cut. The stuff that worked, stayed.

Have you had material that you've really loved that you had to cut because it wasn't producing the desired response?  Were you able to save it or did it end up in the great red-marked chop pile in the sky?

Things I have Learned in the Editing Trenches

I now have two finished novels and one almost finished non-fiction book. And I think it is safe to say that I have spent a lot more time editing these manuscripts than I did actually writing them. Though there are times I enjoy editing, sometimes it can be one huge pain in the butt.

However, I have learned so much from this process…mostly from my fabulous critique partners. Things they don’t teach you in writing classes. Things you only really learn when you make the mistake and are lucky enough to have someone point it out to you.

Here are a few things that I have learned while mucking through the messes that are my pre-edited manuscripts:

1. POV –

Point of View…..wow….now this used to be something I was horrible at. Not just mildly bad at with the occasional mistake. Oh no. When I made POV mistakes, they were epic. I literally had four POVs in one paragraph before. And I was notorious for head hopping every other paragraph or so.

My first critique group whipped that out of me. I am now pretty sensitive to POV problems and do fairly well at avoiding them myself. But it took some work. One of my crit buddies told me to imagine a camera on the head of my main character (if that is the POV I am writing in). Then she told me that I couldn’t describe anything that that particular character couldn’t see, hear, feel, think, etc. If I wanted to get in another character’s head, I needed a scene or chapter break. It really helped curb my head hopping tendencies.

2. Getting rid of sentences that start with “I” –

This is something I’ve struggled with lately. My awesome crit partners have been breaking me of this habit. My current novel is the first I’ve written in first person. It’s taken a little getting used to. I start a LOT of sentences with the word “I.” Now, that isn’t always bad. It is in first person, so it’s going to happen.

But I have a lot of sentences that say things like “I felt,” “I heard,” “I saw.” My crit buddies point out that if I reword these sentences to get rid of the “I’s,” the sentences end up much stronger, more active. For example, one of my sentences was:

“I inhaled, breathing in the sandalwood scent of him .”

I changed it to – “The sandalwood scent of him filled my senses, making me slightly dizzy.”

A small change, and the first sentence wasn’t bad or wrong (in my opinion), but the change makes it a little more active…and gets rid of yet another sentence starting with “I.”

3. Telling vs. Showing
This is something I still struggle with. Especially when it comes to emotions. Part of this problem stems from when I write my first drafts. I tend to use a lot of narration and I also use phrases like “I was scared” or “I was mad” as place holders, intending to fill them out more with action when I go back through the second draft. Sometimes I just miss these, but there are a lot of instances when I think what I have is fine on the first read-through, when in reality, I just need to show more and tell less.

Now, sometimes it is actually better to tell than show; you can’t show every tiny thing that happens. But for the most part, if you can show the reader something with your descriptions rather than just spelling it out for them, it will make your book much stronger. (One of these days I’ll get this one down…. :D )

4. The dreaded Adverb

Okay, now don’t kick me out of the writing club, but I actually like an adverb every now and then. One of my dreams is to make it big enough that I can toss adverbs in anywhere I want and not have anyone say a word about them ;-D But yes *sigh* these are technically no-no’s, and in many cases unnecessary.

This was another thing I was horrible with when I first started writing – my first crit group gave me the very unwelcome news that editors didn’t like adverbs. It was a surprise, and not a pleasant one. But I’ve learned to do without them whenever possible. I do like to use them as placeholders during my first draft, but I try to weed them out in subsequent drafts.

Although, to be honest, I left a ton of them in my current book. I like some of them, but I also wanted to see how many I could get away with :D Not many, I’m afraid. My crit buddies have started highlighting them LOL Oh well. Some day :)

5. Repetition –

Again, something I was, and still am, horrible with. Actually, I have gotten much better. But I do tend to repeat words and phrases. And each book seems to have its own group of words that keep popping up. With my first book, it was the phrase “a bit.” I also once had a paragraph where I was describing a table. I used the word “table” six times in that one paragraph. And I was always saying my characters’ names when saying “he” or “she” would work just as well.

With this book, it is the words “though” and “headed.” Every time I have someone going somewhere, I say “they headed.” It’s horrible. I’m working on it :D

What’s interesting to me is that I am now very sensitive to this problem in other people’s manuscripts, and even in my own. Yet somehow, those words crop up and fly under my radar and my manuscripts end up peppered with them. Good thing I’ve got great crit buddies with awesome eyes :D

How about everyone else? What are some things you have learned since you began writing?

How To Show Instead of Tell

Quote of the Day:

Don't say the old lady screamed -- bring her on and let her scream.
~Mark Twain

Okay, this is something I posted a while back, but my poor crit buddies have been hammering me on this lately, and rightly so! My current manuscript is FULL of scenes with way too much telling. Which frankly I find both ironic and hilarious considering the fact that the entire premise of my non-fiction book is the fact that people learn better if you show them how to do something rather than just telling them. Go figure :D

In any case, when it comes to my fiction at least, I need to start SHOWING. So I thought it would be a good time to remind myself of exactly how to do that :D

One of the “rules” I hear all the time is to show not tell. The first time I heard that I thought, “What does that mean, anyways?

Well, TELLING means you are just, umm, telling the reader what is going on. SHOWING means you show them :D Seems easy, huh? Not always. It is ridiculously easy to fall into the habit of telling.

As this is something I still to do….A LOT …it is the problem area I have been working on the most lately. Which again, is why I searched through my files to find this post – I knew I had spent some time on this in the not too distant past and it is obviously time for a refresher course for me!!

When you are writing, you want to draw the reader in as much as possible. Action and dialogue are two elements that really help to keep the story moving, that draw the reader in, make the story exciting, and all that other fun stuff.

So, if you have a scene where your main character is angry, just telling the reader, “Eric was mad,” is okay…but probably won’t be nearly as good as, “Eric’s eyes flashed and the big vein in his forehead throbbed like it was about to burst from his skin.” Don’t tell the reader he’s mad…show him.

In my first book, Treasured Lies, my main character, Min, was irritated that she had fallen in a puddle and made a fool of herself. I had her storming up the stairs to her room with the description, “Min was freezing in her wet clothes and annoyed that she had yet again made a fool of herself.” (Or something to that affect…it’s been a while) :D

One of my fabulous critique buddies pointed out that this was “telling.” She said that I should show my readers that Min was irritated, instead of just telling them. So, the passage was changed to: “Shivers ran through her chilled body as she climbed the stairs. She huffed and kicked at the muddy skirts that tangled around her legs, irritated that she had managed to disgrace herself once again.”

I do tell you WHY she was irritated, but I also show that she is freezing, and show her annoyance with her actions (huffing and kicking skirts). Yes, it takes longer, uses more words, but the result is much more effective.

Now, are there occasions when you should tell rather than show? Definitely. Physical descriptions are pretty difficult to “show.” If someone has blue eyes, it is perfectly acceptable to just say they have blue eyes. And instances like in the above sentence, when you need to explain why someone is acting as they are.

Show the emotion, tell the reason. Show me that your main character is sad by describing her face, her tears, her sobs. Don’t tell me she’s crying…show me: “Laura sat on her bed, her arms wrapped around her legs. Her tears fell unheeded down her face as her shoulders shook.” (as this is just an example, I won’t stress over the fact that I used the word ‘her’ six times in two sentences – but you get the point of the showing over telling). :D

Then you can tell me why she is crying. “Laura sat on her bed, her arms wrapped around her legs. Her tears fell unheeded down her face as her shoulders shook. She just couldn’t believe her mother had forgotten her birthday again.”

As you can see, the sentences “Eric was mad,” “Min was freezing and annoyed,” “Laura cried,” tell us what is going on, but there is no action, they aren’t exciting, they don’t connect you to what is going on.

The new sentences:

“Eric’s eyes flashed and the big vein in his forehead throbbed like it was about to burst from his skin.”

“Shivers ran through her chilled body as she climbed the stairs. She huffed and kicked at the muddy skirts that tangled around her legs, irritated that she had managed to disgrace herself once again.”

and

“Laura sat on her bed, her arms wrapped around her legs. Her tears fell unheeded down her face as her shoulders shook.”

These make me care, they are exciting to read, there is something going on. I don’t necessarily care if someone cries…I do care if they are curled around themselves with uncontrollably shaking shoulders.

Dialogue is another great way to change a telling passage into a showing extravaganza.

For example:

(telling) David and Tony argued back and forth about who was right. = blah

(showing) “You did too!” David shouted, his face growing redder by the minute.
“Oh whatever. I did not and I have witnesses,” Tony said, rolling his eyes.
“Yeah, well I have witnesses too.”
“Liar.”
“You’re the liar! Just admit you’re wrong and get it over with.”
“No way.”
“Yes way!”

= oooo, action, dialogue, something’s going on!! :D

So, bottom line – if it is possible to show something rather than tell it, do so :) But don’t stress over the occasions when telling is necessary, because they will come up. For the most part though, try adding some action or dialogue to really help show the reader what is going on instead of just telling them.

How does everyone else do with this? Is this something you struggle with? What are some things you do to keep from telling too much of your story rather than showing it?

There I am Again

Quote of the Day:

Remember that you should be able to identify each character by what he or she says. Each one must sound different from the others. And they should not all sound like you.
~Ann Lamott

I had a little laugh when I read this quote, because this is something that has been on my mind a lot lately. Mostly because I am now in the edit stage of my YA book and a few of the comments I've gotten from my critters have been things like "teenagers don't act like this" or "why is she doing this?"

Almost across the board, my answer has been "well, I acted like that as a teenager" or "because that is what I would do."

I've started to realize that there may be just a little too much of me in my characters. Now, I'm not saying it's bad to have pieces of yourself in your characters. No matter what I do, I'll never be able to stop doing that entirely. But, I need to be more true to the actual CHARACTER and let them feel and act and speak as they, as individuals, would do. (Because our characters are "real" people right?) ;-D

I need to start asking, "what would my character do in this situation" and stop asking "how would I react to this situation." And it's been really hard for me to do. In my non-fiction, speeches, and just every day interactions with friends, family, and complete strangers, equating situations to myself and my personal experiences is sort of how I connect with people.

But in my writing, having every character react the way I would doesn't leave room for a lot of diversity. Now, I'm not saying I do this with every single character or every single situation. It's mostly when I get a little stuck, when I'm not sure how I want my character to respond to something, that my personal preferences start creeping in there.

How about everyone else? Do you ever find too much of yourself in your characters?

It's Me or Them...Or Maybe Both

Quote of the Day:

Nobody will stop you from creating. Do it tonight. Do it tomorrow. That is the way to make your soul grow - whether there is a market for it or not! The kick of creation is the act of creating, not anything that happens afterward. I would tell all of you watching this screen: Before you go to bed, write a four line poem. Make it as good as you can. Don't show it to anybody. Put it where nobody will find it. And you will discover that you have your reward.
~Kurt Vonnegut

I know I've probably done posts on this before...it's something my friends and I discuss frequently - especially when those rejections are rolling in and we start questioning why, oh why, do we torture ourselves in this hard and sometimes cruel industry.

We've all said that we write because we love it, because we have to, to calm the voices in our heads. All of my friends have said that they'll never give up writing (despite moments of weakness), even if they should never be published, because it's something they love too much, something they just have to do, and no amount of rejection is going to change that.

And I feel the same way. I was lucky enough to get an agent for my non-fiction. And I'm thrilled. But I am fully aware the same thing may not happen for my fiction. And while I enjoy writing non-fiction, it is the fiction I truly love. It's those fantasy worlds and situations that my head swims in all day, those make-believe stories that I can't get out of my head....that multiply so quickly that for every one story I get out, ten more ideas replace it.

I am very well aware of the odds stacked against me...I queried my first novel for two years before shelving it....getting so close so many times....but never once (again, aside from my few moments of sheer despairing insanity) did I consider giving up writing. I've been doing it in some form or another my whole life. And, whether my work ever ends up on a store's bookshelf or not, I'll continue to do it until my fingers can no longer type and my voice can no longer dictate. I'm seriously holding out hope that some incredible genius will invent a device that I can hook up to my head that will just record everything going on in there and spit out a fully written novel in a matter of minutes :D Oooo good story idea ;-D

Which is why, when I came across the above quote I thought, "YES!! EXACTLY!!" Who cares if there is a market for my work? There is nothing like the feeling of getting totally sucked into a story...of seeing the images in my head recreated on paper...of getting the emails and phone calls from my "fans" (thanks mom and sis!) begging me for more chapters...of seeing something that was once only a dream (often literally) sitting in front of me in a big, beautiful stack on my desk...that rush you feel when you type The End...it's incredible - even if no one will ever see it but me...the things I can create when I pick up that pen or lay my fingers on the keyboard are reward enough. They can put a smile on my face years after I write them, even if I'm the only one who has ever laid eyes on them.

And then I thought, well, wait a minute. I do kind of care about markets and possible audiences, and the agents and publishers to whom I will try to sell my book. I mean, if I didn’t care about them, if I was only "creating" for myself and myself alone I wouldn’t bother querying, right? I would just write anything that came into my head instead of trying to pick the story that has the best chance of commercial success.

It’s a fine line, I think. I think you do have to write for yourself. Because if your heart and soul aren’t in your work, it’s lifeless, flat. And, something I discovered while revising my first book, if you focus too much on who will be reading your work, you may start editing yourself and edit the life right out of your story. My first book was a romance, and I kept thinking “My mom is going to read this! I can’t have them kissing like that!!” Yeah…that book was in constant need of help until I stopped worrying so much about what people might think about the book and just WROTE.

But, I think it is wise to be conscious of markets and trends and potential audiences – though not to the point that you start second-guessing yourself and your work. Write for yourself, create something just to create it, write like no one but yourself will ever see it, and if that’s good enough for you or for that project, then great. It really is a truly awesome reward to hold your creation in your hands, whether anyone else will ever lay eyes on it or not.

However, when it comes time to edit…if you decide you do want to aim for that publishing dream…I think it is wise to turn your thoughts a little more outward. Stay true to yourself, to your story, to your voice…but be open to suggestions, to the “rules,” and be willing to make the necessary changes.

I have poems and stories that no one else will ever see. I wrote them for me and me alone. But the books I want to get published…as much as it hurts to “murder my darlings,” I am all for it if it will get me that one step closer. Axing entire chapters and characters may hurt like I’m loping off an appendage, but by golly I’ll do it! :D

How to Walk The Fine Line of Editing

Quote of the Day:

Listen, then make up your own mind.
~Gay Talese

As I am once again embarking on that long road of editing and revising, my mind has been much occupied of late by what my crit buddies will do to my poor little fledgling manuscript. Make no mistake, I want them to shred it to pieces. I want to see it covered in so much red that I think it’s bleeding. Yet, there is always the small hope that they will read it, love every word, and send it back with the caption “It’s perfect! Don’t change a thing!!”

Hey, we’ve all got our fantasies ;-D

While I’ve been writing (rewriting, revising, editing) steadily for the last three years or so, this is only the second novel I’ve ever finished. I’ve got several files containing partially written manuscripts. Most never made it past chapter 3. So, now that I have completed another entire novel, I’ve been thinking back to when I finished my first book.

I was so excited. What a rush! To sit and look at the words THE END and realize you have written AN ENTIRE BOOK. Seriously, very few things in my life can compare to the sense of accomplishment I felt when I looked over what I had done.

Little did I know that the journey was just beginning.

Now at the time, I had no writer friends, I didn’t belong to any critique groups, I had no beta readers, and I was only just beginning to find online writer forums. (The first one I belonged to was so harsh and horrible I almost hung up my pen for good.) I did do some research on query letters, wrote the best draft that I could, and I sent some out.

And the rejections started pouring in. Although, I did get a full request from Roberta Brown, one of the queens of romance writing. I could not even tell you how thrilled I was! Yet, when I think of the manuscript I sent her, I want to hide under my bed, change my name, and flee the country.

I finally found Querytracker.net and became friends with an incredible group of people. I became a part of QT when it was just starting out…had I followed my instincts when I first found them, I might have been the very first person to sign up. But halfway through the register process, my paranoia took over and I decided that it was just too good to be true. A few months later, I got smart and joined up. I also found a critique group, a few good betas, and started the long process of whipping my manuscript into shape.

The point of this long ramble is that when I first started, I was under the impression that everyone else knew better than I did what should and shouldn’t be in my book. I would accept every single suggestion, sometimes even though I didn’t agree with it. I didn’t stop doing this until one day, someone made a suggestion that I really REALLY didn’t want to incorporate.

I looked at the sentence after I had changed it, and it didn’t even sound like I had written it. It did, however, sound like the woman who had suggested the change. And I finally realized that while I was going to get some really good revision ideas, some things just needed to be left alone. I was letting everyone edit the voice out of my book…I was removing what made me the book MINE.

I still have a hard time, sometimes, leaving suggestions alone. I tend to think that if someone had a problem with what I wrote, there must be something wrong with it. But this isn’t always, or even often, the case. This business is one of the most subjective I’ve ever seen. Everyone is going to have an opinion on what they read, and those opinions will rarely mesh.

So my rule of thumb now is to wait on my revisions until all my critique buddies have weighed in (unless what was pointed out is something I whole-heartedly agree with or it’s a glaringly obvious mistake). If more than one person points it out, then I know I probably need to change it. And if it’s something that I still don’t want to change, I wait and see how many people think it should be worked on. If only 2 out of 7 readers think the change needs to be made, I’ll probably leave it alone. If the majority agree on it, then I know I have a problem that needs work.

But deciding what stays and what goes can be a tricky and fine line to walk. How do you handle it?

Lend Me An Ear

Quote of the Day:

An essential element for good writing is a good ear: One must listen to the sound of one’s prose.
~Barbara Tuchman

Several months ago, I had a discussion with a fellow writer who had purchased some software that would read her manuscript aloud. She said that hearing it aloud helped her to catch mistakes. Not only was it easier to hear the some of the typos, grammar and technical mistakes, but it really helped when it came to things like dialogue.

I often read things aloud to myself when I come upon a troublesome sentence, so I was curious as to how many other writers I knew either read their books aloud or had some sort of software that would do this for them. And I was surprised to learn that quite a few of them did.

This has been on my mind again recently, as I am (hopefully) a couple weeks from finishing my current WIP. I have been contemplating purchasing one of these software packages that will read my manuscript to me, so I’m curious again.

How many of you either read your manuscripts aloud as part of your editing process, or have them read to you by your computer or another person? Does it help?

Blog Chain: Heaven Bless My Critters

This week Mary brings us back to some writing basics. Carolyn shared her experiences before me and Sandra will tackle the question next. Mary would like to know:

Are you in a critique group? If so, at what point do you send chapters to the members of your group? How detailed are the critiques you receive and give? Do all members in you group write the same genre?

I am in a critique group, although I haven’t been very active lately. I didn’t have anything to post for the longest time (major writing slump) and in the meantime, several of the people in my group and I started sending each other stuff privately. So instead of a formal group, I ended up with several incredible critique partners. And seriously, I would be completely lost without them.

I used to post (or send) chapters as I wrote them (after a few rounds of my own proofreading - I only rarely send out first draft stuff and only in small chunks, never for line edits, just for general "do you like where this is going?" type comments. I have found that brainstorming certain scenes and plotlines this way can be really helpful if I'm stuck on a problem. It is fun and amazingly helpful to be able to send a page or two to a crit buddy and see what they think and then to hash out ideas until you get that scene. Brainstorming help is just another perk of having a great group of crit partners).

Wow, that was a long "aside." Anyhow, I figured if I had chapters critiqued as I wrote them, by the time I was done with the book, I’d already have edits waiting and everything would go much quicker. What I discovered though, is that I started revising those chapters as soon as I got critiques…so I wasn’t writing any new chapters. I ended up with three fairly clean chapters (for two different books) and was already so burned out on those books I didn’t want to write any new chapters. So now, I save it up until my book is completely done. Then I usually send a chapter at a time, though I will combine smaller chapters.

And of course, this all goes out the window if I happen to query and get requests before things are totally finalized or if I have done revisions that need looking over. Then I send out the full novel with profuse amounts of bribes, begging, and flattery so my crit mates will take pity and crit my whole novel so I can send it out to the agent. But I try not to do this too often :)

How detailed are my crits? Well, most of the time I don’t think my crits help all that much, but I do try to point out everything that confuses me, makes me stumble, anything at all I think might need work. I nitpick as much as possible and point out every teeny, tiny thing that might need fixin'. I tend to be better with the technical stuff; grammar, punctuation, awkward sentence wording, that kind of thing. Which is why it is a very good idea to have more than one crit mate. Because everyone will catch different things…and the things everyone catches are things you know for sure need work.

As for the crits I receive…I am extremely, ridiculously lucky with the people I send my stuff to. I get really detailed crits – again, usually different stuff from different people. One person might catch all my dumb technical errors, another will give great suggestions for improving plot flow, another will find all those plot holes I thought no one would notice :D I really get excellent crits from my partners.

And no, my crit partners do not all write the same genre. Which makes it really fun to crit. I get to read so many wonderful books. Most of us do use similar elements though. I think we all write with at least some elements of romance, and many of us write YA. But the books are all so diverse, from romantic fantasy, to YA urban fantasy, to middle grade novels, to women's fiction, to straight YA fantasy, to historical romances…so many really incredible books to read. And I have one fabulous friend (the always incredible Carolyn) who also writes non-fiction. I am very much looking forward to reading her book (I've read a little already) and hope she will return the favor should I ever finish my non-fiction :)

The genre thing is tricky. It is a very good idea to have at least one person who is familiar with your genre critting your book…because all genres have little quirks that are unique to that genre and it helps if your partners know what to look for, what needs to be added, and what needs to be left alone.

At the same time, I’ve found it helpful and encouraging to have people who are not familiar with my genre read for me. Because it feels wonderful to have someone say, “I never read historical romances, I usually don’t like them, but I couldn’t put yours down!” If you can keep the interest of someone who doesn’t usually go for what you write, then your chances of keeping the attention of someone who IS interested in that genre are so much greater.

My crit partners have been an absolute Godsend for me…I wouldn’t be where I am without them, and I certainly won’t get where I want to go without their help. I love each and every one of them, love to celebrate their successes with them and comfort them when things don’t go just right…and knowing that they are there for me as well, for all my ups and downs, is a gift I will never be able to thank them enough for.

Dumbest Mistake of the Week Award

Yep, that's right, I won it...I am officially an idiot this week :) I was buzzing right along this week, making what I hope are the final round of major edits in my novel. Aside from formalizing the tone of the dialogue I also changed the background of my main character, a change that ended up being a lot more intensive than I realized since every time my character mentioned anything involving her past, I had to change it. Well, I was feeling pretty proud of myself having gotten through 130 pages of my 317 page manuscript in just 2 days.

I went to bed, tossed and turned as I usually do since my brain really takes off as soon as I try to sleep, and I finally figured out what was niggling at the back of my subconscious. While doing this new round of edits, I hadn't come across any of the new scenes from the last round of edits. How I missed this at the time, I have no idea, because the first three chapters of my book were pretty much entirely rewritten - but this is where the idiotic part comes in.

I got back up, (it was now 1am), turned the computer on, searched through my files....and figured out that I do, indeed, deserve the Dumbest Mistake of the Week Award. I had spent the last several days editing THE WRONG FILE!!!! Explaining how this happened would take longer than I have patience for at the moment :) Suffice it to say, many writers, myself included, keep a copy of every version of their manuscript that ever comes into existence. My mistake was naming two of them "Final Version." Although I thought I was safe as I have changed the name of my novel from The Courtland Necklace to Treasured Lies. Yeah...not so much :)

Nope, I opened The Courtland Necklace version (a file I haven't touched in months) and had been happily editing away, while the actual Final Version of Treasured Lies sat alone and unrevised. Now I get to go through and compare both copies (even with the help of the handy Merge tool in Word, this is going to take days) while I make sure that the correct edits are being left and the incorrect are being deleted so I end up with the version I want. :)

Thank you, thank you *she takes a bow*

Stay tuned next week....I'm sure I can top myself ;-)