Details, Details, Details
Hi all, sorry for missing last week. It was a rough week all around; this semester, graduate school is kicking my patookie. In fact, I'll probably have to go on a hiatus for a while.
In class, we've been talking about details: relevant vs irrelevant, and how they can alter the power of your story. I tend to rely on details. I over-write during my first draft and then filter out what isn't needed in later drafts. As long as the details are important both to the character and the plot, they stay in... otherwise, it just has to "feel right." There's no other way for me to explain it.
Other students in my class feel it's a bit arbitrary, how they decide whether ideas are relevant or not. How do you determine that your details are relevant?
A Tap on the Wing
"A book is like a man - clever and dull, brave and cowardly, beautiful and ugly. For every flowering thought there will be a page like a wet and mangy mongrel, and for every looping flight a tap on the wing and a reminder that wax cannot hold the feathers firm too near the sun."
- John Steinbeck
There comes a time when you realize that there will be weak points in your work, and there isn't much you can do about it on your own. What do you do when this happens? Some writers turn to trusted friends, family members, former English teachers. Some writers turn to other writers to act as beta readers. Some writers join local writing groups.
As a graduate student, I have the rare opportunity to work with a published author this semester for graduate credit. I'm incredibly lucky, excited, and terrified about this opportunity to take an "advanced creative fiction" course.
And there's a catch: I'm not allowed to write historical or romantic fiction. I'm also not allowed to work on a novel-length work, which was kind of my plan... to work on the sequel of Trentwood's Orphan, Trentwood's Heir. I can have a romantic theme, perhaps, but I'm expected to write literary short fiction.
So for the next couple of months, I'll be writing about my experiences. Any advice that I learn from my professor, I'll send it on to you. I will suggest that you all go and buy Writing Fiction by Janet Burroway. It's as good as Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, though it does take a little dig at genre writing now and then.
So I modify my suggestion. If you're open to learning about writing creative fiction, and enduring a dig now and then at genre fiction, pick up this book. You won't regret it.
Surface Edits
I'm plugging away at the final surface edits for Trentwood's Orphan during my winter break from graduate school. It's fast-going, and I'm surprisingly pleased with how the story is coming together. There are, of course, some chapters that got a little jumbled, but I assume that's because not only was I retyping the entire book after hand-editing it, but I was converting from present-to-past tense at the same time. As such, some of my tenses got a little weird.
But other than that, I'm kind of excited. One of my friends pressured me into letting him read it, despite the fact that I'm not done with the surface edits, so he's getting it in pieces.
Shocking though it is, not only does he like it so far, he converted the first chapter into a podcast. And it sounds super professional! If I self-publish, it will definitely go on the website as a sample of the book.
Which reveals my next thought: I'm wondering whether I'd like to self-publish this book, as I did my first, or if I'd like to try to go through a small publisher, like Five Star Publishing. I read one of their books in my genre and I know I could have written it, so there's always that.
Anyway, things are coming along nicely. I hope to have these surface edits done by January 10 so I can send out the manuscript to those of you who offered to read it. As I mentioned before, I wouldn't expect it back until May, so you have plenty of time to read and make comments.
Tell me, how are your projects going?
How to be a Computer-based Beta Reader
Please excuse another post off the Tuesday/Thursday schedule.
From August 22 to August 31, I'll be without ready access to the internet and I need guest bloggers! If you would like to be a guest, contact me by Thursday, August 21, with your guest post. Guidelines here. If I don't use your post that week, don't worry. I'll definitely use it later and will notify you the week I use it.
Now that we're all connected using Crit Partner Match (if you haven't joined, you should!), it occurred to me that many of us are computer-based beta readers, which can be a monumental task. So today's tidbit will provide useful tricks in Microsoft Word 2003 to help you become a more efficient and productive beta reader. If you use a different program, comment with your reviewing hints to help your compatriots.
First: What is a beta reader?
I'll admit to not knowing what this term meant even a year ago. A beta reader is the new term for a critique partner, it seems to me, and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Wikipedia states that a beta reader is a reader who looks over a written work with a "critical eye with the aim of improving grammar, spelling, characterization, and general style of a story prior to its release to the general public."
Some beta readers do more than others. Some refuse to edit your grammar, because that's basic stuff. Others will get so nitpicky you'll want to tear your hair out. So make sure to discuss your writing and editing styles with whomever you pair up with (and this can be a one-to-one, one-to-many, or many-to-many relationship).
In comparison, the alpha reader is the writer or author of the written work.
Now onto the editing.
Microsoft Word 2003 is the software I'll talk about today because it's the one I have the most expertise in. For the record, Word 2007 has the same features, but the buttons to use them are in different locations (the ribbon).
Track Changes: Deletion
Sometimes when you're reading through the work, you have to delete a sentence or paragraph. But how do you do this so the alpha reader knows the change you made? There's this awesome module called Track Changes that will note every change you've made to the document by adding a sidenote that you can hide or show at will. See an example screenshot. To use Track Changes, do the following:
- Click View » Toolbars » Reviewing in the menu bar. This will give you a new toolbar that gives you the option to make comments, track changes, and highlight.
- Click the little icon that looks like a piece of lined paper with a tiny sun in the top left corner and a pencil in the bottom right on top of it. If you hover your mouse a little tooltip should appear saying "Track changes." This is what you want.
- Now, any change you make to the document will be recorded.
- If you don't want to see the tracked changes, you can click the Show button which allows you to select what is visible and what is hidden.
- If you hit Track Changes again, it will stop recording all your actions after you hit the icon. It does not get rid of the changes you made previous to hitting the icon, however, so don't freak out.
Track Changes: Rewording, Reorganizing, Adding text
Follow the same steps as the Track Changes: Deletion section. Tracking the changes will also note any additions you make, and I think will also note if you move something. Maybe. If it doesn't, then you always have the option to comment.
Commenting on the Work
This is my new favorite toy in Word 2003/2007. Using the same Reviewing toolbar, you can comment whatever text you've selected with your mouse. It adds a rounded rectangular bubble to the right of the page with a line to the text that you selected for the comment. See an example screenshot. To comment, do the following:
- Click View » Toolbars » Reviewing in the menu bar. This will give you a new toolbar that gives you the option to make comments, track changes, and highlight.
- Click the little icon that looks like a yellow/tan-colored Post-it note with a tiny sun in the top left corner. If you hover your mouse over the icon, a little tooltip should appear saying "Insert Comment." This is what you want.
- Now, a bubble should appear to the right of your text, with a blinking cursor.
- Type your thought.
- When you're done, click outside of the bubble. Now, if you hover over the text you selected to comment, you should see the bubble highlight itself. You might also see the text from your comment hovering above the text...it depends on how you do it.
The really neat thing about this is that if someone else opens the same document with your comments on their computer, and they start to add comments, Word will tell there is a difference. To account for this difference, the colors of the comment bubbles will change depending on the computer/owner of the Word program.
You can also navigate through the document based on previous/next comment. Pretty cool, huh?
Networking for Writers: Crit Partner Match
Hi all, I know I'm disrupting my posting schedule, but this is too cool to pass up. Zoe Winters, our guest blogger today, clued me in on a new networking opportunity that is both fun and useful, too. It's called Crit Partner Match, and the premise is that it's like eHarmony.com or Match.com... but for writers looking for a critique partner. I've already set up a profile and wrote my introduction in the Historical forum.
So join us at http://critpartnermatch.ning.com/. I hope to see you there, no matter your genre!
And make sure to read Zoe's wonderful post on changing your mindset so you can acually accomplish your goals.
What Happens to an Author When She Finishes Editing?
Last week, I finished the paper edits of First Draft B. Cue the fanfare, tears of happiness, and confetti. Now it's time to pull off the gloves and re-type the entire thing with the new edits to see what we've got. And so begins the Second Draft.
Now, there are multiple things an author feels once she or he gets past another stage in the writing process...
- Fear that what you wrote stinks beyond belief.
- Elation that you finished it, you really finished it.
- Depressed that at some point, you're going to have to let someone else read it and tell you exactly what they think about it.
- Proud that, upon reading over it, you like more than you hate.
I know some of you are reading this now because of my editing workshop, and I bet you're wondering if I followed my own advice.
Yes, I did print it out, put it in a binder, and not look at it for a month.
The month I finished First Draft B, I graduated from my engineering program, moved back home for a summer internship between undergrad and graduate school, and visited with family for two weeks. So I didn't have time to edit.
Lack of time didn't stop me from lugging the binder everywhere in the desperate hope I'd sneak an edit in, though.
I was brutal with edits.
As soon as I had to read something twice, I either cut it out or re-wrote it. I cut an entire chapter because it dragged the plot and made Mary look whiny, which she isn't. I re-wrote at least three chapters because they head-hopped, were disjointed, and didn't make sense.
My biggest writing vice is that I tell too much.
This is a problem because I write historical fiction, and I know more information than will show up in the final product. I had paragraphs that sounded like I was channeling a history professor. Yikes.
To combat this, I read a number of books set in the same time period to see how other authors handled the problem.
I then went through a quick bout of depression because I felt like I couldn't do it as well as the other authors. Turns out I needed more sleep, because once I got a good nine hours, I was ready to edit again.
I wrote First Draft B, a whopping 99,899 words, in present tense.
Yes, Trentwood's Orphan is historical fiction. Yes, I know "history" implies "past." No, I was not dropped on my head as a child.
I wrote in present tense because I couldn't get into Mary's head. She's the opposite of my last heroine, Veronica, who was impetuous, a bit ditzy, funny, and determined to get her way. Mary, on the other hand, is quiet, cautious, analyzes everything, and does her accounting when she's stressed. I'm more like Mary than Veronica, so Mary should have been easy to write. She was surprisingly harder. By writing in present tense, I felt the immediacy and was able to gauge Mary's reactions much better.
I also wrote in present tense because it cleaned my writing. There is no "had had" syndrome in present tense. The action either happened, is happening, or will happen. But now that the experimentation phase is complete, I need to re-write the entire thing in past tense.
(Need help discovering passive writing? The Writer's Technology Companion wrote a tutorial to highlight passive writing in Microsoft Word 2003.)
What are some of your writing rituals? Do you have a trick that you use to improve your writing? Are you finally convinced I'm insane? Let us know in the comments!
Focus on those Nitty Gritty Details
Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming.
Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.
Finding Nemo
I hope you're following Dory's advice and staying persistent... just keep swimming (writing)!
I'm not sure if you've noticed yet, but editing really is my favorite part of the creative writing process. I know I might be alone in this, and that's ok. My goal this week was to help you see that editing is not as hard as it seems... it just takes patience, persistence, and motivation. Today I want to leave you with some ideas to help you edit on a very detailed level. Beware, those faint of heart and annoyed by long posts, as this just might be my longest ever.
Timeline
Set up a timeline for editing your book. Do you want to finish editing a chapter a day? Whatever it is, make a pact with yourself to go through your draft once only. Be determined to catch every mistake the first time through. This will keep you focused and efficient.
Give yourself a break if life gets in the way of your editing timeline, too. There is nothing worse than feeling guilty about not working, and worse yet, the more upset you are with yourself about not working, the more your guilt will build. To the point that you won't want to edit. Always, always, always avoid feeling like you don't want to touch your work.
Editing the Beginning
This is by far the hardest and most frustrating part of the book to edit, it seems. Therefore, I'm going to apply this week's editing tips to the introduction of my first book. That way you can see an example of how I'm thinking, and hopefully find similarities in your own work to know how to edit.
I started my first book, Catching the Rose, with narrative description because I read classics when younger and that's what I was used to. It never occurred to me that reader preferences would change in 100+ years.
Silly me. Today's readers expect to begin with action, whether by/to the main character or by/to a character who will affect the main character later. So let's see an example of what my first paragraphs were, and what they would be if I were writing the book now.
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