Four Tools for Revising Your First Chapter by Crystal Collier

Welcome Crystal Collier here today to share her new book and some writing tips!

In 1771, Alexia had everything: the man of her dreams, reconciliation with her father, even a child on the way. But she was never meant to stay. It broke her heart, but Alexia heeded destiny and traveled five hundred years back to stop the Soulless from becoming.

In the thirteenth century, the Holy Roman Church has ordered the Knights Templar to exterminate the Passionate, her bloodline. As Alexia fights this new threat—along with an unfathomable evil and her own heart—the Soulless genesis nears. But none of her hard-won battles may matter if she dies in childbirth before completing her mission.

Can Alexia escape her own clock?

BUY: Amazon | B&N

4 Tools for Revising Your First Chapter

Thank you Misha for having me here today!

We all struggle with beginnings. Let's face it. You've got an epic story, but that first sentence is the toughest to get on the page.

My advice?

Skip it.

That's right jump over that first sentence and just write.

What?!? Here's the deal. It's almost guaranteed you will come back and restructure your beginning. Hovering over the first sentence is like worrying what flavor of icing you want before deciding the flavor of the cake.

When you come back to revise, start as late into the story as possible. No traveling to the place where the story starts. No sitting and pondering the upcoming trouble. As a writer, it's your responsibility to drop us into a boiling vat, right from the get go. (Meaning trouble--not necessarily climactic action.) What inciting incident sets the characters on a journey? Start us there.

So if you're at the point where you're ready to revise and make your beginning kick trash, where do you start? Good editing is about asking good questions. Here are some aspects you should question about your beginning:

(Disclaimer: I will be using examples from my books, not because I hold myself as an authority, but because this is a blog tour for my new release. Now BUY MY BOOKS. *winks*)

The first sentence: We appropriately put weight on this one line, but it doesn't have to be a mind-blowing literary masterpiece. What it does need to accomplish is AT LEAST two of these things:

• Introduce a question or problem.
• Show us the viewpoint character. (Including the perspective of the story--1st person, 3rd person, etc.)
• Establish the mood.
• Give us a snatch of the setting.

Example: (MOONLESS) Alexia was reasonably confident that exiting the carriage was the equivalent of stepping into Hell. (Character, mood, setting, and problem.)

The first paragraph: By the end of this paragraph (or two), your reader MUST be asking a question. If you've done your job right, the reader will be immersed in drama, care about your character, and be anxious for the next line.

Example: (SOULLESS) Alexia’s eyes snapped open, heart thundering. Well, she wasn’t dead. Yet.

The reader might wonder, "Why does she think she's going to die?"

The first page: By the end of the first 250 words, the reader needs to be grounded with the basics:

• Who--is this character? (Name, gender, age, occupation, ethnicity or culture, orphan or surrounded by family/friends.)
• Where? Physical location, time, etc.
• What--is the problem?
• Why--should I care? (Did you hook the reader on this character?)
• and How--is the character going to face/overcome this problem?

If using an "all's-well" opening (where we KNOW life is good and it's going to be disrupted), there had better be a hint of trouble either foreshadowed or mentioned.

The first chapter: At this point, we all hope to have a bear trap clamped around the readers ankle. To do this, we need 1. a character they want to root for, or 2. a problem they need to solve, or 3. a metaphorical rug that got ripped out from under their feet. (Preferably, all three.)

1. This making us like the character, how does that work? Blake Snyder calls this the "save the cat" moment. The character has been placed in a circumstance where they have to show their inner convictions. In the first chapter of Soulless, Bellezza shows up to murder Alexia. Yay. Not only does Alexia escape her murderess by using her ability to freeze time, but faces Bellezza to interrogate her. (All while suffering through a blinding migraine caused by using her gift.) We see that she is angry and injured, but a person who confronts her fears rather than running away. There's something to root for.

Source

2. A problem that needs solving. We are all creatures of comfort. If there's a problem, it creates discomfort in the reader's mind, and a need for resolution. In the first chapter of TIMELESS, Alexia is battling the Knights Templar...eight months pregnant. (Yup. There's the problem.) They have hunted her and her companions from one place to another...all while facing the inevitable deadline of birth. Which could happen on the battlefield. Get to solving, Alexia!

3. The rug ripped out from under your feet. This is that moment, that last line or thought that makes you go, "Brrr?" The first chapter of Moonless ends with a mystery. A man straight out of Alexia's nightmares has appeared at a social gathering--the man she saw in her most recent dream standing over her dead host. Who here has met someone face to face who first appeared in their dreams?

In the end, formulating the perfect beginning is just about hooking your readers. Do that, and you've got it made.

What is your favorite/least favorite story convention for hooking readers?

Crystal Collier is an eclectic author who pens clean fantasy/sci-fi, historical, and romance stories with the occasional touch of humor, horror, or inspiration. She practices her brother-induced ninja skills while teaching children or madly typing about fantastic and impossible creatures. She has lived from coast to coast and now calls Florida home with her creative husband, four littles, and “friend” (a.k.a. the zombie locked in her closet). Secretly, she dreams of world domination and a bottomless supply of cheese.

Find her and her books online HERE.

(Email address is required for awarding prizes.)

Looking for Critique Partners for the IWSG Competition

Even though I despaired of ever writing anything related to The War of Six Crowns in fewer than ten thousand words, I've managed it.

This weekend, I finished the rough draft of The One Who Would Wield the Sword in about 5000 words, although I'll probably be adding a thousand more in edits. (I'm the consummate adder-inner. You know... the kind of writer who adds in words while editing. As supposed to the bodily organs of a snake. That would be weird.)

Wow. Let me rein myself in and get back onto the topic before I digress way too far (as happens when I blog this close to my bed time.)

Ahem.

Okay.

I'm going to do rewrites and edits this week, but I would ideally be looking for some extra pairs of eyes on my works (metaphorically.) before I submit my entry to the competition.

Which made me think I probably wouldn't be the only one.

So if you're looking for someone to trade short stories with, get in touch with me at mishagerrick(AT)gmail(DOT)com. I'll make the exchange on a first-come, first serve basis.

And, if you don't have time to read my short story but still want me to critique your story, I'm currently doing full critiques of short stories for $5 (and a service review) per story on Fiverr. It's a sale I have going to build up my track-record there. Fiverr accepts PayPal, and you can change the price into your own currency.

To qualify for the sale, you have to be one of my first 100 customers there (which is a distinct possibility.) and PM me from the site I linked you to. (There's a big green button that says "Contact me.")

Anyone entering the IWSG competition? Looking for critiques for your work? 

Thursday Feature: M Pepper Langlinais

Hi everyone! It's that time of the week again. Every Thursday, I like to host another writing blogger either with a guest post or an interview. Today, M Pepper Langlinais is stopping over to do an interview with me. (My side of the interview is bold.)

Welcome to The Five Year Project! First things first. Why don't you tell everyone a bit more about yourself?

Thanks for having me. I'm an author and also a playwright and screenwriter. I've had one play produced at two separate venues, and that play was then turned into a short film that premiered in San Diego last November. On top of that, I write Sherlock Holmes stories and have just had my novel The Fall and Rise of Peter Stoller published by Tirgearr Publishing.


More personally, I grew up in Texas and attended UT Austin. I did the Shakespeare at Winedale program there and later used what I'd learned to teach Shakespeare at summer camps. I also interned on the film set of Hope Floats. Then I went to Boston to get my graduate degree at Emerson College, and that's where I met my now husband Scott. Boston is great in a lot of ways, but driving in snow and ice gave me panic attacks, so we moved to California, which is where we live with our three kids and a hamster.

Sounds like you've had a very interesting life. Tell me a bit more about The Fall and Rise of Peter Stoller. What's it about? What inspired you to write it?

The book is set in the 1960s and is about a gay British spy (Peter) whose lover is accused of being an enemy agent. Peter manages to escape with Charles, but then he begins to wonder whether the accusations could be true. When he's offered a chance to return to the Agency, Peter uses that access to try and discover the truth about Charles.


I'm not sure what inspired the story exactly. I think the story started as I was brainstorming new Sherlock Holmes ideas but then morphed into something else entirely. The first part of the book came spilling out quite rapidly. The rest took much longer. All told I spent almost three years on the whole thing.

Sounds like a fascinating project. What's your favorite aspect to the story?

I'm primarily a character writer. I love exploring the depths of people. When I write, I fall a little bit in love with my main character(s), and so Peter himself is one of my favorite aspects. The way he thinks, the deep well of his feelings . . . There is a scene in which he comes home to an empty flat (apartment) and thinks Charles has left him, and his response is, I think, beautiful. A testament to how quickly he fell for Charles, how important Charles has become to him. That was a tough scene to write because I had to feel everything for Peter and it was painful, for him and me!


So this is no fast-paced James Bond of a story. It's more psychological. I liken it to John Le Carre's works.

I also hurt for my characters when they're in pain. How do you approach your stories? Do you plan ahead or do you go by instinct?

I have a weird hybrid of planning and feeling it out. I go in with usually only two things: 1. A scene that I've played over and over in my head until I'm ready to write it down, and 2. A vague idea of how it will end. The middle is always mushy and up for grabs. It's sort of like having two points on a map but it's up to me to figure out how to get from A to B.

And the scene I have might not even be the first scene. So I'll write it, then decide what, if anything, needs to come before. So what I've really got is a point in the story and an end point, but I sometimes still need to find a starting point!


It's not the most efficient way of writing, but it's the only way that works for me. I can't outline. I can't work under too much structure. I do, however, keep a notebook beside my computer, and I will write down plot questions and then answer them so I can understand WHY things are happening. I think motivation is important. That's a character thing again. I'm really all about character.

So I take it you have substantial edits by the time you're done with your rough draft?

I wish I were a fast writer who could spit out a first draft and then get down to editing. I really do believe that's actually the best way--just get it on paper and then perfect it. Alas, I'm not that kind of writer. I can't speed through the first draft. I pick at it and fret over it. I want it to be perfect the first time, and then of course it isn't and still has to be rewritten.

When I finish a draft, I have to give it to others to read. I'm too close to the material; I won't see the flaws as clearly as they will. My husband reads it and so does my critique group. I ask them to mark anything that doesn't make sense, anything that slows things down, whatever. Most of them will also mark spelling and punctuation, but that's not crucial at this stage. Then it might still be a while before I'm ready to tackle the story again. I'll usually try to go write one or two short stories, a short play or something between novels.


Right now I'm doing a rewrite on a YA fantasy. One of my critique partners slashed whole chapters at the beginning because she wanted to the book to get to the action more quickly. It was valid, and I think it makes the book better, but it was still painful to hear that I needed to cut huge chunks of material! Back when I was an editor, we would call that a "bleeder" because of all the red marks on the pages.

I also swear by having my books critiqued. What's your best advice for finding a critique group?

I lucked into mine. I met someone at a writers conference who turned out to be from the next town over from mine, and she already had a group and they invited me to join. We meet weekly which, based on what I hear from other writer friends, is more than many groups who meet maybe once or twice a month. But of course all of us might not make it to every meeting either. It's very fluid and comfortable and I can't imagine a better group.


If I were going to go looking for a group? It's easier, I think, to start online. But the person-to-person aspect is important, too. Body language sometimes says a lot more than words being spoken. And you can hug one another if you're face to face! So I would check with local libraries to see if there are any groups, or maybe post at the library to start a group. Local bookstores might also know of writing groups, and certainly there are local chapters of writing associations (here we have the California Writers Club). They can usually hook you up with a critique group if you become a member.

Good tips. :-) Last but not least, where can people find you and The Fall and Rise of Peter Stoller?

Well, my main site is here. I'm also on Facebook and on Twitter at @sh8kspeare.

The best place to find The Fall and Rise of Peter Stoller is on the publisher's website. There's an excerpt there and all the buying links for various formats/e-readers. It's only available as an ebook for now, but if it does well enough the publisher says it will consider a print version.


You can also find all my books on either the Shop page on PepperWords, or on my Amazon author page.

In 1960’s London, British Intelligence agent Peter Stoller is next in line to run the Agency—until he falls in love with cab driver, Charles, and his life goes off the road. When Charles is accused of treason, Peter is guilty by association. Peter manages to extract them both, but the seeds of doubt have been planted, putting Peter’s mind and heart at war. Is ignorance truly bliss or merely deadly?

Thanks again for hosting me!

You're most welcome! 

Anyone else wanting to sign up to be featured is more than welcome. (Regardless of whether they're published or not.) All you have to do is mail me at mishagericke(AT)gmail(DOT)com with "Thursday Feature" in the subject line. 

Who else gets empathetic pains when their characters suffer? 

Editing and Warm and Fuzzies

First things first: Let me start with a quick flash of admin. In case you missed it, I'm still looking for critique partners to help me edit my Historical Romance, so if you think you might be interested, please head over and check it out. (I do return the favor if you help me.) 

Secondly: The Vanished Knight is being featured on Andrea Washington's blog. She's a bit new to the community, so I'd love if you said hi. 

Okay? Okay. Now let's get into today's post.

(How's that for a smooth segue, eh?)

After putting out a call for critique partners for that romance, I decided to open it up one more time before it went out for a critique. The last time I had time to do so was in April.

I'm actually glad I waited so long, because I have a rather interesting relationship with ES1. See... this is the first book I ever tried to write when I seriously became a novelist. Then stuff happened and I moved on to greener pastures. The book stuck with me, though. Again because of a character walking into my head while I was reading. (It happens to me a lot. The Vanished Knight started in much the same way.)

I kept coming back to it, though. Even working on it on weekends while working on the beast that would become The Vanished Knight and The Heir's Choice. (Yes, it was once one book.) In other words, ES1 became the second book I ever finished. Then I rewrote it and lost the entire rewrite the day after I finished it.

I know. It was horrible. The loss, I mean. The book was (I think) good. Hard to tell. See that draft is a lot like a dead person to me. You know how dead people suddenly become saintly and perfect after they died? Yeah... like that. There's this part of my mind that keeps clinging to the idea that that draft was simply marvelous. Even when I never even edited it. Seriously, it was the worst time to lose a draft. Right after the high from finishing it.

Needless to say, I didn't have the heart to start again, so I put the story on the back-burner and worked on three more books. It took me a year, and when I came back to the rough draft, I realized that it was a mess.

Which meant one thing. Redraft. I went through the book and basically split it in two. Don't worry, these stories won't end in a cliffhanger. It's just that I had a huge cast of characters. I split it in two, which allows me to tell two previously competing plot arcs as stories in their own right. (I still need to write the second one. It's on my to-do list.)

This time, I loved the story as I wrote it. I loved my rewrite even more. After the pain and slogging that goes with writing the War of Six Crowns series (no seriously. I take four times as long to rewrite any of the books), ES1 was a joy.

So when I read it two months after the rewrite, I still had the warm and fuzzies.

Six months later... Not so much. Okay, okay I'll admit that it still makes me go "AWEEEE!" every now and then. It's just that now that I've been able to look at it without my other writing experiences coloring my vision, I'm noticing things.

Things like: I deviated far from the genre norms in certain places. (Which is fine. I do it all the time. Just wondering how it's going to go over with the readers.) Or... I noticed I glossed over a lot of scenes. Which now makes me wonder if I'm being overly critical (glossing over boring things is a good thing), or if I really didn't put enough attention into some aspects of the story.

I'm mulling this over for now, and will continue to do so while the manuscript is with my critique partners.

Do you also suffer from warm and fuzzies after finishing a draft? How long do you have to wait to make them go away?

Calling all Critique Partners!

It's Friday again and I'm yet again sitting here, shaking my head and wondering where the heck my time went.

It's actually the same with the whole month. Next week is the last week for October, which means that I should have done this a while ago...

Calling all Critique Partners!

I'm currently looking for critique partners for my Historical Romance and am willing to return the favor. 

What I'll Critique for you: Basically, I read almost all genres, but I don't critique MG, Picture Books, Memoirs, Erotica and Horror. Nothing against any of those things personally. I just don't "get" them, which means that I'll be pretty dang useless in reading them. 

You don't need to be ready for a critique to sign up for this, though. If you're still working on something, I do keep a tally of people I owe critiques to, so if you help me now, you can drop me a line whenever you're ready. 

What I'm Good at Critiquing: Plot, Characterization, Dialogue, copyedits. 

What I'm Looking for: Pretty much everything, but just let me know what you're good at so I know when is the best time to send my manuscript my way. 

About the Book: 

It's set in Texas before the Civil War. I'd classify it as a steamy romance. Not too hot, but the love scenes are there. 

A rough idea of the blurb: 

Wanted: A housekeeper and governess for five children. Position requires living on a ranch in Texas. Family welcome. 

Sarah McAllister is out of options. Her husband was killed, leaving her with two children and without any prospects. She's desperate enough to move into the wilds of Texas to save her family. But when she arrives, she encounters: One gunfighter in the making whose best friend is a gambler, one taciturn fourteen year old, twin girls who've been allowed to run wild and one boy who's fixing to be as wild as his older brothers. None of them want her there. Turns out, neither does her employer. 

Yes, Grady Kincaid had asked for a well-bred, well-read lady from back east. Heaven knows his children needs someone capable to get his children ready to meet their grandparents. What he hadn't asked for was a very pretty widow with more guts than sense. It's a nuisance to have her around, especially when his neighbor and enemy is interested in her, but when it's clear that she's in trouble, he can't turn his back on her. So he's stuck with her, which is a problem when he can't ignore his attraction to her...

If you're interested in helping me out, please mail me at mishagericke(AT)gmail(DOT)com and we'll take it from there. 

Have a great weekend everyone!

PS If you could spread the word to people who might be interested? Pretty please with shiny sprinkles on top!

Peeking Out of the Editing Cave

*Blink blink.*

Holy cow it's bright out here.

*Blink blink blink.*

People, things are going rough on my end. I'm having to prep both my books for publishing and grow my business at the same time. Which is why I've been so very conspicuous in my absence this past week.

I'm pushing to get final submission for both done this weekend, though. This is for two reasons: I still have a Europe trip looming sometime around the end of June and I want to give my reviewers a month's time at least to read the books before the official release date.

Right now, I'm doing the final hard-copy proof-read of The Heir's Choice. Basically to check if there are any edits that I've missed or any formatting for the paperback that's gone wrong. Then I just need to implement the fixes and edits. After that, it's the final formatting and adapting the covers to the paperback template, and I'm done.

Sounds easy enough. Just... not so much while my business is taking off at the same time. Because where I used to have plenty of quiet afternoons, now I don't.

Of course, I'm not complaining. It's good to have a thriving business again. And it's amazing to see my books starting to sell once more.

I'm just feeling the pressure right now.

I don't regret it, though. The sooner these books come out, the better. And the sooner I can get back to writing again. I really miss it. Haven't written any fiction since the beginning of May and it's really bothering me.

I just can't focus on writing with my publishing to-do list lurking in the back of my mind.

A bit of good news is that things are currently going very well on Wattpad. Right now, I have two books on writing and The Vanished Knight ranking in their genres. (One book on writing is in the top 100.)

So yeah. That's me in a nutshell right now. How are you doing? Anyone else prepping to self publish? Or entering the query and/or submission trenches?

Mayday! Mayday! (AKA May Update Day)

Hi all! Today’s the last Friday in May, and that means that it’s time for another update for my monthly blogfest. 

For those of you who are new to my blog, Beth Fred and I host a blogfest where the participants list their goals, then post monthly updates on progress. We then go around and cheer each other on or commiserate. Whichever works best. You’re more than welcome to join if you have a huge, hugely important or just plain crazy goal. You can click here for more information and to see who else is participating. 

And now… My progress report. 

Remember when I said that May was just going to be a nice calm month for me? 

Well… Turns out it wasn’t. Because I realized that I’m very very close to publishing two of my books. Which means that I’ve now set a release date for both: 31 June.

I set this goal on 1 May, which is why it didn’t make it into my previous goal post, but it’s had a huge effect. See, I thought that I’m close to finished with the stories, so I should be able to get the final, formatted versions done in no time at all. 

Which was good in theory, but I’m still editing. Why? Because my business is popping back somewhat like a mushroom at the same time. 

Having learned from the great shoe disaster of 2014, I’m trying to keep the growth controlled so that my mother and I (we’re business partners) can maintain a hold on the business without it taking over everything in our lives. 

The thing is, this takes effort too. 

Add to all this a flu that keeps leeching my energy levels and we have a perfect storm. 

Anyway, these are the goals I set, along with what I achieved or didn’t achieve in May:

My Goals for May:

Writing:

1) Write, edit and/or rewrite something every weekday.

There were 21 weekdays in the month, and I wrote and/or edited something on 18 days (although I did put in extra hours and some weekends to stay more or less caught up.)
2) Continuity edits between Wo6C1 and 2.

Just so we’re on the same page, these are The Vanished Knight and The Heir’s Choice. I’m through TVK, but have only just started with THC.

3) Copy edits for BvB1

I sent the version out for critiques yet again, but I’m thinking I’ll just not work on this until I’m done with TVK and THC.

4) Revisions/Edits for ES1 and the Untethered Realms Anthology story I submitted.

Did Untethered Realms Anthology. ES1…no.

5) Finish rewrites to O1.

No.

6) Flesh out concepts for P and my Science Fiction story idea.

Nope

I did, however, also achieve a whole slew of related things that I’ll mention under the Social Media heading. And I finished and posted two back cover blurbs for publishing. Oh AND I sorted out a few mess-ups about my ISBNs.

Reading

1) Read King Lear.

Still haven’t gotten to this.

2) Read something by one of my blogging buddies.

Three words: Mark. Of. Nexus. I’ll hopefully be reading the last book in the series this weekend.

3) See how close I can get to reading 10 books this month.

Currently at 5 books, with me maybe reading the sixth by Sunday. I’m planning to have a lazy(ish) weekend in bed in an attempt to kill this flu bug.

Social Media

This is assuming that Internet and/or my country’s electricity provider actually work like they should…

1) Catch up on blog visits.

This I managed.

2) Catch up on Wattpad Critiques I’ve promised.

This I didn’t.

I did, however, also do the following: 

1) Sort out my author page(s) on Amazon. 

2) Expand my Wattpad readership

3) Start a tumblr blog (mishagerrick.tumblr.com in case you’re interested)

4) Add both the new version of TVK and the first edition of THC to Goodreads. 

5) Reach C in my blog sort out (Yep, still ongoing) and took part in a blogfest that’s not my own. 

6) Post much more regularly on both this and my lifestyle blog than I’ve done in almost a year. 

7) Basically I’ve confirmed most of my blog tour and cover reveal running up to the book releases. 

Life

1) Mainly, my goal is to get back to my happy place this month. (Other than my continuing goal of getting my business back off the ground.)

Happy place mostly achieved, partly because the business seems to be hovering off the ground and ready to fly.

2) Do something artistic or crafty that isn’t writing related every weekend.

Eh…I’ve been driving around a lot to meetings in the week, so I crocheted in the car a lot. So weekends ended up being when I caught up on edits.

Still with me? Awesome. Have a cookie. Don’t worry, my June goals will be quick:

Basically: Yesterday, I realized that I might be going to Europe in June for work, which might make June one heck of a complicated month for me.

As such, I’m going to go the simple route.

Writing:

1) For TVK and THC: Finish everything that needs to get finished for the final formatted submissions by mid-June.

2) Send out review copies by mid-June. (Or a week after that if I must.)

Reading:

Read enough to keep sane, but other than that, no set goal.

Social Media:

1) Get started on the materials needed for the blog tour.
2) Continue with the stuff I’ve been doing because it seems to be working.

Life

Basically to keep growing my business and not go insane while I’m putting myself through a publishing hell of my own creation. Which might mean letting off steam with other crafts.

How are you doing on your goals? Think I’m going to make it or are you finding seats for the possibly inevitable fireworks of disaster?

Just a quick check-in.

I was going to post something I'd written a while back about how I actually work on multiple goals at a time, but I haven't had a chance to visit any blogs since Wednesday, so I don't think it would be fair to subject people to a long(ish) post.

And although it's only 8:30 pm at the moment, I'm exhausted.

It hasn't actually been a really tough week, but I think the change of season has caught up with me with a cold or something draining my energy.

I'm thinking that going to sleep now and sleeping in will probably help me get over the slump. On the other hand, this will be yet another day where I haven't continued final proofreading for The Vanished Knight. 

Or any of the other writing, critique, publishing and/or editing related things I'm supposed to do. And today is half way through this month.

How strange. I thought May was supposed to be my month off.

Anyway. I'm a bit frustrated at the moment. I want to get The Heir's Choice online for pre-orders too. Because until I do, I'm a bit hampered in my marketing efforts. (Hard to point people anywhere when I don't have anywhere for them to go to.)

And my problem is that I'm not getting the blurb the way I want. It's seriously frustrating, because I'm great at helping other people with their blurbs.

My own, on the other hand, are constantly kicking my ass.

So I'm thinking I should just go sleep and start again when I'm refreshed. No point to trying to edit while sleepy.

How are you doing? Do you also have trouble with your own blurbs?

Loud Reading and Preparing for Tomorrow

I've just finished yet another round of edits to The Vanished Knight. It had started innocently enough. I wanted to read it and the sequel The Heir's Choice so that I could actually be sure I didn't screw up anything continuity wise.

But as little as five sentences in, I discovered that I'm not satisfied with the way some of my description was written. Chalk it up to the two years' worth of experience after the last time I edited TVK, but I just didn't feel as happy with it as before. Something felt off.

So I did the one thing I KNOW I should always do, yet always omit from my process. I read the entire thing (all 250 odd pages) out loud.

It's a tedious and surprisingly tiring thing to do, but I broke the book into five 50 page sessions and read out loud. It's amazing how much I picked up this way that passed me, my editor and two proofreaders by back when I published the book.

Which goes to show you that using a publisher definitely doesn't ensure that the quality's better than self publishing. If the book had stayed published, I probably wouldn't really have tried to edit it again.

Anyhow. It's done now, which is good. Tomorrow I can start with The Heir's Choice. I'll probably continue spending about an hour and a half each evening reading out loud. It's a nice length to work on, because it means I stop just before my concentration starts to wander.

Of course, that won't be the only thing I'll be doing this month. I've got a few other goals as revealed this past Friday and then I also have A to Z Challenge. Twice. On top of that, I also have another exciting announcement, but I'll probably wait with that one a bit, until I have more information. I do think it'll be a great step forward for my writing career, though, so watch this space.

In the meantime, it's 09:13 PM, so I think I'm going to turn in. Want to get back into the habit of waking early to get some writing in before work starts. Wish me luck!

Are you also mentally preparing for Camp NaNo and/or the A to Z Challenge? Are you turning in early tonight or waiting for the clock to strike twelve?

Update Day: September Edition

For those of you who've missed these posts, Beth Fred and I host a bloghop once a month where people can share their crazy or crazily important goals with us. Mine is, as stated at the top of the blog, to earn $7500 in royalties per month, every month, for a year, by 2018.

So how am I doing with that?

Well....

I got set back by a lot this year. At first, issues with my former publisher. Now, my business. The wonderful thing about the business is that it's taking off in a huge way and very fast. The bit less than wonderful thing (specifically when it comes to my five year goal) is that it's slowing down my process. By a lot.

I mean, I currently have very little time in which to do edits. Problematic, because I wanted to publish the two YA Epic Fantasy books in my series by 31 October. The problem is that I'm just not happy with the editing to the second one. (As in, I've edited a lot, thanks to some awesome critiques, but I'm still not sure that the story is "done" enough to start with final polishing.)

As such, I'm going to postpone the publication date by a month and see if I can make that. I might. I suspect that those extra 30 days will be all I need. That said, it also depends on the editor who'll do the final copy edits and the cover designer. And of course, given that I'm sending my book out to another round of beta readers, on how long they take to get through the Heir's Choice. Incidentally, if you're looking for a crit partner/beta reader/just plain sounding board/help on finding the flaw in your submission, I'm looking for Beta Readers too. Click here for more info.

Oh yeah. I forgot to mention "formatting two books for publishing." I've decided that I'm just going to have to learn this skill for myself, so you'll probably be reading a lot of grumbly posts on this subject in the near future.

Okay. So let's look at what's been done in September: 

1) I've almost finished the rough edits to The Heir's Choice. I'm hoping to finish them completely by Monday.
2) Got ISBNs for three books: The Vanished Knight, The Heir's Choice and Birds vs Bastards.
3) Gave Birds vs Bastards (and both its planned sequels) an awesome name. Which I'll announce specially when there's not so much going on in a post.
4) Wrote and edited the blurb to The Heir's Choice. At the moment, I'm pretty happy with it, but I'll look at it again at the end of the month.
5) Sent Birds vs Bastards out for copy edits. Yep. This one really is almost publishing ready.
6) Contacted graphic artists to design all three covers.

What should be happening in October:

1) I want to send out The Heir's Choice to beta readers.
2) I want to do the copy-edits on Birds vs Bastards. (Assuming the lovely ladies helping me with this get the editing done.)
3) I want to critique/whatever the exchange is for someone beta reading The Heir's Choice. 
4) I want to start playing with formatting to learn. Birds vs. Bastards will probably be my test subject for this.
5) Lastly, I want to resume drafting my mystery project, the sequel to The Heir's Choice, ES1, SS1, P, MDtS and RH. I want to see if I can finish the rough drafts by the end of the year.
6) I also want to get some reading in. I'm woefully behind, but being honest, this is pretty low on my priority list.

One more thing in October: 

Remember in the beginning of the year when I mentioned writing a story for an anthology? Yup, it's coming out on 14 October. 

This cover really is perfect for this time of year, don't you guys think?

Blurb: 

Twisted Earths is a collection of tales from Untethered Realms, a group of speculative fiction authors. The stories are as varied and rich as the types of soil on this and other planets--sandy loam, clay, knotted with roots and vines, dreaded paths through unexplored planets, and in enchanted forests, lit by candlelight and two moons.

M. Pax, author of the series, The Backworlds and The Rifters spins a tale called Patchworker 2.0. Specialists with digital interfaces are the only ones who can distinguish between biological energy and mechanical pulses, and "patch" AIs, which hold the world together. Patchworker Evalyn Shore meets up with an AI with deadly intent.

Cherie Reich, known for her epic fantasy series The Fate Challenges and The Foxwick Chronicles, presents Lady Death. Umbria, a beautiful and powerful swordsmith, is given an impossible task by her brother Leon when he asks, "You are the assassin. Are you scared to destroy Death when you are up to your elbows in it?"

Angela Brown is the author of the paranormal Shadow Jumpers and NEO Chronicles series. In her story, In The Know, Jacob, a loyal family man is struggling to stay out of debt when he's hired to report on big plans for a future Detroit. He's given a mysterious manila envelope with instructions to "open it alone" or pay the price. With switchback twists you won't see coming, a debt of a much steeper cost is what he just might end up paying for his involvement.

Catherine Stine, author of the futuristic thrillers, Fireseed One and Ruby's Fire, offers The Day of the Flying Dogs, a sinister tale of brilliant, troubled NYC high-school student, Theo. He experiences a day at Coney Island that includes drugs, delusions, a lonely capybara, Nathan's hotdogs and a mind-bending lesson in our very twisted universe.

Christine Rains, known best for her paranormal series The Thirteenth Floor, gives us The Ole Saint, a story at once sweet, horrific and heartrending. Ezra longs to fit in and have boys stop calling him witch and freak, yet his unique supernatural skill sets him apart, and the last gift from The Ole Saint cinches the deal.

Graeme Ing, known for his young adult fantasy, Ocean of Dust, presents The Malachite Mine, a gripping, scream-inducing ride. Whatever was Mary thinking when she accepted her husband's gift of a most terrifying twenty-first birthday celebration in an abandoned Russian mine?

River Fairchild, author of the Jewels of Chandra series, presents A Grand Purpose. Rosaya and her cousin, Drianna are soon to be married off, but Rosaya is unhappy with her assigned match. She's much more intoxicated by the older Firrandor, a wizard she hardly knows. When Rosaya is accused of killing an oracle boy, all bets are off, not only for her love, but her freedom.

Gwen Gardner, who pens the cozy paranormal mystery series, Indigo Eady, adds to her collection with Ghostly Guardian. Indigo and her rib-tickling ghost-busters must travel to a dangerous pirate-laden past in order to unearth a curmudgeonly eighteenth century spirit that is plaguing the Blind Badger Pub.

Misha Gerrick, whose War of Six Crowns series is forthcoming, gives us a story called Red Earth and White Light. Emily, a young ghost bride has long haunted a house. She longs to cross over into the afterlife, but she's trapped in memories of lilies and betrayal.

If that's not awesome enough, check out this offer:



Preorder at: Amazon, iTunes or Barnes & Noble

Wow. This was a LOT of news!

How are you doing? Anyone want to beta read The Heir's Choice?

Cutting Babies and Killing Darlings

As I mentioned on Monday, I'm busy editing The Heir's Choice, which is the second book in my epic fantasy series. (BTW, I also put out a call for beta readers, so if you need a new crit partner and like reading Fantasy, I'm your lady. Click here for more information.)

Right now, though, I'm in the home stretch of my big edits. Stuff like characterization and plot order should be fixed by the time I'm done.

I'm pretty much at the point where I should be winding down my edits. Because usually, my ends are just fine. So are the latter halves of my middles, for that matter.

But not yesterday. Yesterday, I realized that I'd written a chapter in an illogical sequence. As in, something INCREDIBLY important happened, and my main character proceeded to do nothing about it until hours later. Which wasn't a big problem in itself. Except that rearranging the chapter's scenes to make more sense meant that I'd have to cut one of my favorite scenes.

Man. That was hard. All I wanted to do was keep things as they are and get to the last bit of the book. (I only have about 50 pages left.) The temptation was real, though. See, out of the six people I'd sent the book to, only one picked up on the error. I guess I'm just that good at dragging readers into my story. *Wink*

And truth is, I follow Stephen King's advice on crit partner opinion. I have more than four CPs. I give them the work in the exact same stage of edits. And if half or less of them say something needs to change, don't change it.

Which meant that just based on my own editing methods, I should have let that little illogical moment stay right where it was.

But I couldn't. See, I do have an overall picture of what I want to happen and where, and why. But to me, presenting the strongest book possible for my paying readers is the most important thing to focus on when editing. And that moment, that one small moment, weakened an entire section.

So I picked up my scalpel and cut into that chapter without mercy until everything was arranged in a way that made sense. It hurt in the beginning. Especially when I had to rip out the scene I loved. But then something happened. I wrote in a scene that was even better. One that actually does a lot more to progress the story-line.

Needless to say, this makes me a happy writer, and made me think I should share this story.

Because cutting into our stories hurt, but more often than not, it's worthwhile. Cutting out weaknesses gives us space to replace them with something stronger, and if done right, the story is always better for it.

Anyone else find the bright side to killing their darlings? Do tell me about it!

Calling All Beta Readers!

Hey all! I hope you're all doing great.

Me... wonderful. Shoe biz is taking off, while slowly but surely allowing me more time to work on the books I want to publish this year.

I'm hoping to finish my current round of edits by the end of the month, but I don't think I'm going to make my self-imposed 31 October deadline. But that's okay. I've achieved a ton.

That said, I need some help. More specifically, beta readers.

For those of you new to the term, beta readers read over the story and comment on things they liked, or didn't, or things that didn't make sense, that sort of thing. In particular, I'm looking for people who can highlight where I still haven't brought in enough information from the previous series.

And as always, I'm willing to repay by critiquing your work, beta reading, or even searching for and finding what's making a story not work. (I'll try my absolute best at this, of course.)

If you're interested, please leave a comment with info on your book (name, genre etc), what you'd like for me to do in return, and your e-mail address. 

Now, the information on my book:

Genre: YA Epic (Portal) Fantasy
Name: War of Six Crowns: The Heir's Choice
Blurb (still needs editing): 

Sixteen-year-old London girl Callan Blair thought that going to the elves would unlock the mystery around her past. Instead, it thrusts her right in the middle of Tardith’s political games. On the one side are the elves and King Keill, her grandfather. On the other, King Aurek of Icaimerith, who also moonlights as the evil entity that has destroyed Callan’s life many times over.

Aurek is on the edge of erasing the elves out of existence. The only thing that will stay his hand: Callan marrying his heir. Not wanting to let her choice destroy a nation, she agrees.

At least she isn’t going into the lion’s maw alone. Quinlan Westenmere, the Nordian commander who had brought her to the elves, swears to go with her. Only he insists she take more Nordians with her. Darrion and Gawain are tasked with rescuing the Black Knight, Nordaine’s last blood heir, and Aurek has him.

Things don’t get simpler as the wedding approaches. Gawain refuses to support Callan's decisions. She has to betray both the elves and Aurek to help find the Knight. On top of that, her elvish entourage leaves much to be desired.

But nothing compares to her meeting the man she’s to marry.   

So... what do you think? Anyone interested in helping a girl out? 

Update Day!

Wow. I can't believe it's the last Friday of June. As far as my blog hop goes, this is half-way through the year, baby!

For those of you who missed the previous times, me and Beth Fred host a blog hop for people with insane or insanely important goals. Every last Friday of the month, we update on how we're getting along. Want to join? You're more than welcome. Click here for more details and the linky list. 

So, since it's June, I decided to review my goals. But because I was incredibly optimistic last year, the list was long and I decided to post the review on my other blog so I can focus on the blog hop here. Go ahead and read it. You'll probably find that your goal failures don't quite look as depressing as mine. 

Anyway, doing the review was good because it made me realize again that sometimes, life sucks. Sometimes, we don't achieve what we set out to do. Sometimes, just finishing some portion of the things we wanted is still good enough. 

A lot of people have commented on previous posts that I should change my goals, and I basically have. However I will still be using my old list (as seen on the review) for my goal review at year end. Why? Because if I do something for most of those things on the list, I'm still going to be one proud writer. Because ANYTHING I manage to do writing/editing/publishing wise will bring me closer to my big goal.

In the interests of that, this is what I've achieved (in no particular order): 

Started a book on writing craft on Wattpad and got 500 reads without marketing in less than two weeks. (and it's damned good, if I say so myself.) In case you're wondering, I'm not putting it on my timeline since it's really just something I do to get my writing juices going.

Wrote a total of 13k words in rough drafting. (Hoping to get another 5k done by the end of the month.) 

Fully revised The Heir's Choice and sent it to crit partners. 

Goals for July: 

I've shifted some things around on my timeline because my priorities changed. Most of it isn't really important right now, except for the fact that I now have to draft Wo6C3 again. (See the previous post for an explanation why.) 

Good thing, then, that Camp NaNo is in July. And Camp NaNo is what my goals will center around. 

1) To gather a month's worth of writing prompts to get going every day. (Planning to do this over the weekend.) 

2) To edit my two War of Six Crowns books. Book 1 is obviously pretty much done. After all, it was published already. That said, in editing book 2, I noticed some things I should have mentioned in book 1, which is why editing both is on the plan. 

For those of you who don't know, Camp NaNo has a provision where you can convert editing hours into words. 1 hour = 1000 words, 30 minutes = 500 words and so on. I'm going to use it, since I will need to edit and draft in July. 

3) To draft 75000 words, including editing. By my calculation, it means that I'll actually be writing about 50k new words. My priority will be Wo6C3 and the mystery project (MP), but I'll be trying to work on some of my other in progress drafts as well. And... those writing prompts I mentioned. 

4) Reading my drafts in progress. I have five projects in progress except for MP and Wo6C3. Four of them, I haven't touched since November last year. So this weekend I'll be re-reading to catch myself back up. 

How are you doing on your goals? Anyone else doing Camp NaNo? I'm iceangel, if you want to buddy up. :-)

Terry W. Ervin on Five Strategies for Self-Editing

Editing, especially self-editing, is an important component in the writing process. Realizing there are different layers of editing, ranging from structural concerns down to catching typos, effective strategies are important to a novel’s potential success.

One of the banes of an author self-editing is failing to catch what would be easily identified in the work of another writer. The author’s mind knows what was intended. The character voices and narrative are playing out in the author’s head, masking mistakes. Below are five methods an author might employ to overcome this, especially as a manuscript nears the end of the editing process.

Time Between Edits. 

Time away from a manuscript, hopefully working on another project, allows an author to return with fresh eyes and a mindset more attuned to catch errors at all levels. The distance of time, be it several weeks or months, offers a better perspective. 

Reading Orally. 

An author reading their work out loud, while slower than reading silently, will enable the catching of errors, especially missing words or dialogue that just doesn’t sound right. The author may not need to vocalize. Often just moving the mouth and engaging the voice box is enough. 

Changing Font. 

Many authors have a favorite font to write and even edit in. Switching fonts is a trick that makes the manuscript appear a bit foreign and new. It also resets the end of lines at the margins where mistakes are often overlooked as the eye shifts down to the next line. 

Using Text Speak Programs. 

Again, this is a time-consuming process, but the programs are free and improving. While they lack inflection and occasionally mangle pronunciation, it’s like having someone read a novel back to the author. It may even be more effective than reading orally in catching missing words, switched tense or subject/verb agreement, or dialogue that is somehow off. 

Print out the Manuscript. 

Probably the last step, and a costly one in paper and ink. This tactic steps up the changing of font, as it adds a new medium, even a tactile sense that alters the reading experience and engages the critical eye from a new angle. It’s more like ‘reading a book’ old school. 

Yes, having someone else edit and proof a manuscript is invaluable. And the better prepared the manuscript is ahead of time, the better the end product, as the editor won’t be distracted by what the author could’ve addressed.

Terry W. Ervin II is an English teacher who enjoys writing fantasy and science fiction. 

His First Civilization’s Legacy Series includes FLANK HAWK, BLOOD SWORD and SOUL FORGE, his newest release from Gryphonwood Press. Terry’s debut science fiction novel RELIC TECH is the first in the Crax War Chronicles and his short stories have appeared in over a dozen anthologies and magazines. The genres range from SF and mystery to horror and inspirational. GENRE SHOTGUN is a collection containing all of his previously published short stories.

To contact Terry or learn more about his writing endeavors, visit his website or his blog, Up Around the Corner. 

Soul Forge: 

Young Enchantress Thereese lays stricken and silent, her vital essence sapped by the Shard Staff, edging ever closer toward death. Supreme Enchantress Thulease refuses to allow her daughter to fade beyond recovery.

To that end, Enchantress Thulease recruits Mercenary Flank Hawk to accompany her as she seeks the legendary Sleeping Sage, and confronts the secretive Svartálfar, known only for their magical prowess and for their menacing cruelty. 

But first, the mercenary and enchantress, and their stalwart company, must survive brutal beasts and ruthless nomads roaming the Southern Continent’s harsh desert. Then, the untamed wilds of the Northern Mountains must be traversed in a final bid to reach their ultimate goal—the Soul Forge.
Even if Flank Hawk and Thulease reach the mythical forge in time, can its magic revive the ailing young enchantress, the one whose life is somehow tied to the Kingdom of Keesee’s ultimate fate?

Amazon US

Amazon Print US

Amazon UK

Amazon Print UK

Smashwords

Thoughts on editing The Heir's Choice

As some of you may know, I'm busy editing The Heir's Choice at the moment. I haven't really said much about how I'm doing, but let me just say this:

Editing a sequel is hard. 

Especially because the sequel and the first book were two halves (literally) of the same book. See originally, I had this awesome 107k word book that I had to split.

And the approximate split was as follows:

The Vanished Knight: 65k words.
The Heir's Choice: 65k words.

"Hey wait!" you might exclaim. (It's all very dramatic in my brain, I promise you.) "That doesn't add up!"

No. Because in order to make TVK into a book on its own, I've had to add about 15k words to the first half of the original book. Which is great.

Except for the bit where every single one of those changes has to be worked into THC. Which is most of what its extra 15k words consists of.

And then I'm not even getting into the real challenge.

As you might know, I'm going to re-publish TVK and publish THC at the same time. There is a very very good reason for this, but I'm not going to go into it. First, I want to see if my plan works.

But if it does work, most of the people reading THC will be doing so immediately after finishing TVK.

So what's the challenge? (Aside from marketing.)

If I assume that my plan will work, no one will want constant reminders of what happened in TVK. If my plan doesn't work, everyone will want a TON of reminders. Which leaves me with the unique challenge of striking the right balance between too much information and not enough.

While making sure that all the main strings I left hanging at the end of TVK gets picked up in THC.

Simple.

Except.... TVK has a lot of strings.

How are you doing? What are you doing at the moment?

Getting back into the groove.

Sorry for disappearing yesterday. I came down with a bad cold yesterday, which means I slept through most of it.

Luckily I feel lots better, so now I'm back.

Speaking of "back", I can safely say I'm getting back into my writing and editing groove. Yesterday I officially finished my revisions to The Heir's Choice and started sending it out for critique. (Note: done while "dying" of a cold.)

I also edited a short story that's going into an anthology before turning in for the night.

Which means, ladies and gentlemen, that I'll be able to draft again! The last time I actually wrote something was back in very early February, and even then, it was only two thousand (I think) words.

So I'm way past overdue. The only thing is that I'll have to reread my old work in order to pick up all the story strings again. Which isn't always THE best thing to do when I've just come off editing.

That said, I'll just have to suppress the inner editor and get it done. I really do have too much to do and too little time for me to bend to my IE's whims.

But as I type this, I'm getting a feeling of what I want to do above all, and right now, I want to start rewriting the sequel to The Heir's Choice. I had it scheduled for the last three months of the year, but hey, I've got momentum right now. I can always do rough drafts later...

Or even at the same time.

What are you working on at the moment?

It's a trust thing...

So the good news is that I'm getting into edits and writing and thinking about writing etc. once more. Which means that I'm probably going to get back to posting a bit more regularly again. But then I have a bit less time than I'd like, so I might not. I am, therefore sticking to posting as and when I have something to write about. In the meantime, I'm trying to get around to visiting more of you.

In the meantime I'm going to draw some inspiration to an experience I've had while editing on Friday.

Just to recap: As some of you probably know, I had to split my first book into two in order to sign with my former publishing house. Which means that (even though I now have my rights back), I have to make sure that both halves have to stand on their own as stories.

See, for me to put the stories back into one book would require undoing a ton of work, and that's just not my style. As a result, I've had to form a smaller story arch to carry the over-all story that runs through the whole series.

To a large extent, I did this already for the former publishing house, but basically I was told that the story-line wasn't strong enough.

And if you read Wednesday's post, you'll know that I've been grappling with ways I could strengthen the story.

Believe it or not, I published that post, opened my manuscript and made the second change that occurred to me. Even better, I think it works. Better than that, it's truly an elegant solution. It was a simple change, about 1500 words added in, and ever since, the repercussions of the addition have continued to improve the story.

Bet you want to know what I did.

Lucky for you, I'm awesome, so I'm going to tell you.

I took a bit of information that I'd kept for the big shocker reveal at the end of book four, and I put it:

Right. 

At. 

The. 

Start. 

Of book 2. 

Aaaaaaah... the lovely sounds of writerly minds screeching and screaming "what?!"

Now what could possibly incite me to do that? I mean, there's the shock value. The horror. (Because it really is a horrible thing that's going to happen.) All the emotional impact I could have gained! 

"Undo it," some of you will be screaming at your screens. 

To which I say: "You of little faith." 

See keeping information for a huge reveal has its places, I know. But darlings, if something really really big is set to happen, it might just be better for the reader to know it could happen, early on. 

Why? 

Stakes, darling. By showing what could happen, I've set up some huge ass stakes. I've also forced my character into doing something she might have done anyway, but some people struggled to understand before. 

"But still," some might sob. "The big reveal!" 

And this is where the title for today's post is from. See, sometimes, we need to trust that our knowledge about our stories isn't finite. See, I know that by the time I'm at the end of book 2, I will more than set up other HUGE, SHOCKING, HORRIFYING things to happen in the sequels. So taking one and using it for all it's worth isn't a bad idea. 

In fact, it's perfect. Exactly what I needed. 

So if you get stuck, think about revealing your "big reveal" sooner. I promise you that doing so will lift a saggy middle and set up something even better for the end. 

All you need to do is trust yourself. 

Anyone else notice a vast improvement in plot strength from revealing information sooner? 

Some editing thoughts...

I guess I'm doomed to never enjoy simple projects.

Okay maybe "doomed" is a too strong word. I actually like challenges. I thrive on them. That's why the first book I ever finished was Doorways, and why splitting it into The Vanished Knight and The Heir's Choice wasn't daunting.

It's what compels me to buy the finest canvas for tapestry work, what makes me want to do bridgework on cakes and what makes me want to paint complex things in oils on canvas.

However, it's the same thing that compels me to look at The Heir's Choice, know that I need to change something big, and have no idea how to work it into what I've written.

And now, as I'm writing this, I'm sort of thinking that I really don't need to change that thing. Maybe the real change should be something else entirely. Maybe I just wanted to change the impossible thing because it's a mental exercise for me, and not really what needs to be done.

One the other hand.... this something else is promising... hmmm....

Anyone else editing? How's it going?

Lazy day

I'm not quite where I want to be with my editing, but that's fine. I'm finally getting back to working office hours at the day-job.

This isn't really troublesome, since often my job has plenty of waiting periods where I can get some writing/editing/blogging/whatever else I need to do in. (I work for my family firm, working from our house, in case you were wondering how I got this lucky.)

Today, though, is a bit of a tough one because of the cake decorating course I'm taking. Don't get me wrong. It's fun and really interesting. But the classes are long and often require more intense concentration than you'd think.

So tonight... I'm going to kick back and not feel guilty.

I don't need to, because tomorrow's South Africa's presidential elections, which means the whole country shuts down (again). Good for me because it'll probably take me a few minutes to vote, and I'll have the whole day to edit. So I can still finish The Vanished Knight's edits by tomorrow.

Just not by forcing myself to try and edit tonight, and then not concentrating which means I have to redo it all again tomorrow.

Sometimes, it really is more efficient to not work at something.

Anyone else editing? How's it going?

What I'm working on at the moment.

Heads-up: I'll be critting queries, first chapters and or synopses next week at Unicorn Bell. If you've been struggling to get your submission stuff just right, feel free to send all three in and I'll see if I can root out any issues. Please send submissions to unicornbellsubmissions(at)gmail(dot)com. Put my name in the subject line. 

Right. On to today's post. 

At the moment, my biggest priority is to prepare the two War of Six Crowns books for publishing. The first book, The Vanished Knight, basically means that I need to apply all the proof-reading I'd sent in before Etopia published it. Interestingly, though, I'm finding lots of errors that somehow got missed, despite the fact that Etopia has a very rigorous editing style.

I guess that goes to show that no matter how you try, you'll never be done editing.

I guess I could do all this later, but there are some benefits to going through The Vanished Knight before getting into the sequel.

Firstly, it lets me pick up all the strings I left loose for the rest of the series. There are lots of them, and many are very fine and subtle. The other big thing it does is let me get a feel for the narrative voices again. There are five, all are different. And the thing is, I've been working on other stuff in between so it's not just a matter of launching back into things.

That's the thing that I'm worried about most, making sure that the voices keep feeling like they're progressing naturally as the characters develop. Plot and character arcs are easy to keep track of, but voice... voice develops as the stories go on, and it has to feel natural or it won't come across right. Especially when the reader will potentially read the two books sequentially. (Likely when they'll be coming out at the same time.)

And when the sequel requires more revisions and edits, having the voice right is just plain helpful.

So that's what I'm doing at the moment, but I'm hoping that by Wednesday  next week I can start revising the sequel. I want to take about two months to finish those revisions before getting into edits.

I have to say, though, it's just too damn good to be actively working on something again. What are you busy with at the moment?