I’M DONE!

With another book, that is. This one has taken me a long time. There are a couple of reasons why. For one thing, my new book is a traditional fantasy except that it’s in first person, and so I had to get back into including a bit more description than in my last few action-oriented books. Not that there isn’t action in traditional fantasies, but the world building is more involved and lush.

The other reason this one took so long is because in the middle I got really discouraged. The good news is I’ve had multiple agents reading my manuscripts. The bad news is none of them ultimately wanted any of them. I know if agents are reading my stuff I can write. I know that. Intellectually. But each rejection still makes me feel like quitting, if only for a moment. So I took a break from this book and wrote a bunch of shorts, getting my publishing fix.

So I finally finished. And in doing so I’ve come to understand an interesting thing about how I write. I do lots of different readings for editing, one of which is searching for my favorite words. Every writer has them. My favorite words all have to do with expressions, body parts, and the involved muscles and tendons. What I realized is that even though conversations are "heard" in my head I also see them, and when my people talk they are constantly smiling, nodding, gesturing, walking over to one another, etc. I "see" my people so clearly that when I write all that visual stuff goes in there.

That’s the way people really communicate, but of course, in many ways writing isn't real. I like to say writing is a glorified representation of real, in the same way I wouldn’t put a whole scene about brushing teeth unless it added to the plot. Understanding how and why I write allows me to edit my work more efficiently. Now I only use those visual indicators sparingly: instead of conversation, for emphasis, or when I need to identify the speaker.

I wondered why visual is so important to me and I've come up with some probable reasons. I’m a psychologist by training and as such have spent many years watching for those sorts of non-verbal communications. I’m also an artist and would describe myself as a visual person. I think it might be a good practice to contemplate what sort of writer you are; do you hear conversations? See them? None of the above? Maybe both? I’m not sure how other methods other than visual might play into composition, but it sure would make a fascinating study.

On to the next book.

Tinkerbell, Holidays,and Editing...

Oh my. As in lions and tigers and bears. :-)

It just worked out that way, but here I am, knee deep in holiday magic and the joy of editing. You may detect a tinge of sarcasm. You'd be right.

I love writing. I'm happy it's my new career with all its ups and downs. I'm thankful I have the opportunity to be creative. But humans, including this one, will always display a certain amount of griping no matter what.

So here I am, almost done with a new book, and now I have a whole 'nother list of Yuletide chores that happily distract me from editing.

I was looking around you tube the other day (another distraction), and found this cute video of Tinkerbell. This one is good because it captures all of Tink's moods...happy, sad, mad, irritated, giggly, joyous. Just like how I feel during the holidays. And about my writing.

Here's to a good start of the season...

Editing and Underwear

I can only hope this post did not come up on some weird internet search. But I believe in the comparison.

I hate spending money on underwear. I know some women love it, but for me anything frilly, fancy, and sexy means scratchy, impractical, and uncomfortable. Basically, I want my undies to be functional and disappear from sight and my mind when I put them on. In conclusion, my idea of good underwear means if they are doing a good job I shouldn’t know they are there.

Same with editing. I’m in the midst of editing my newest book, Chimera. I won’t say how much I detest editing again. Oops. :-)

Editing, if done expertly, should never make itself known. Doing a good job means no one knows you spent hours doing it. It’s sad contemplating all of that toil is never noticed unless you miss something, much the same as a trying on a million bras only to discover it shows through your garment, but that’s the way it is.

And that goes for over editing as well. Yes, I believe one shouldn’t use too many words such as “was,” but sometimes, as Freud would say, a was is just a was. Even though it’s subtle, “was walking,” is slightly different than “walked,” especially when using first person.

Ditto for fancy verbs, again, especially using first person narration. Since you are writing as if inside a person’s head think very carefully before using too many interesting words. Would a normal person say “I galumphed over to the closet?” Probably not, and that verb would be distracting to the reader.

Just like underwear, functional practicality wins over lacy and racy. Usually. The mark of a good writer is knowing when to pull a surprise out of the drawer. Heh heh.

More Favorite Things

No, this is not another rant about agents. These favorite things are mine and mine alone, although all writers have them. I’m talking about over used words, phrases, and constructions. Everyone is guilty.

I’m back into editing that last novel. It’s not my fault. See, there were all those holidays. I started another book. And I had some other money making work to do. All big fat juicy excuses. So now here I am again.

In a nutshell here is my editing process. I first read it over for big hunks: obvious mistakes, errors in continuity, dumb conversations, unneeded paragraphs, additions that perhaps were in my head but never made it to the page. Then I read it again for grammar, spelling (no, spell check doesn’t get them all), and punctuation.

Then comes my absolute favorite part, searching for overuse. I begin with what every author should look for, such as “to be” verbs. Sometimes was is just a was as Freud would say, but often you could use a more interesting verb. But you can’t go too crazy, especially with conversations or if you are writing in first person. No one says “I ambled to the grocery store.” Another look-see for any writer is too many descriptors. For example, sometimes “slightly” is needed, such as “she turned her head slightly and at that moment I knew a gun was in her pocket,” but most times you can safely eliminate those sorts of adjectives.

So I do that. Then I come to my personal favorites. Because I use first person a lot, I’m especially fond of human action words instead of conversations: smiled, nodded, frowned, bit her lip, shrugged, crossed arms, and the like are all overused by yours truly. A sprinkling of them, fine, but when my characters are constantly head bobbing and crossing and uncrossing their arms it can be distracting, not to mention messy from all those bitten lips. So I search for those. Sometimes a nod conveys so much; too embarrassed or overcome to speak, or simply the natural flow of conversation. We humans use lots of non verbal communication. However…I’ve noticed that sometimes a nod is a lazy way out when a conversation would have worked much better.

And after all of that I get to look for my favorite punctuations and sentence constructions, because I have them too. Sigh. It’s hard work, but very necessary. Favorite words and sentences take your readers out of the story.

And so contemplating the above paragraphs, your heroine bit her lip, slightly stretched, and got back to work. She frowned. Editing was not fun. But necessary. She smiled and nodded to herself. Soon the book would be finished...