Re-editing: A Seemingly Never Ending Journey

I did it. Faced my fears and dived right in. I opened up Only Human, my first completed 115,000 page novel and got to it.

Two days later, with tired eyes and increasingly large dark circles, I'm starting to feel the worth.

I've known ever since Christmas Eve when I first posted my book on Amazon that another edit at some point in the future was an order. I had a deadline - getting it done in time to be a Christmas gift - and I made it. Unfortunately, I had to sacrifice some things along the way.

Up until a year and a half ago, writing had been a casual hobby. I told friends and acquaintances I wanted to be a writer but past that, I had no expectations and very little knowledge about what it entailed. Even today, I'm not sure I understand the full extent.

Being a writer for me isn't something I can do five minutes a week and expect good results. It's not cathartic or relaxing - a way to get my thoughts out there. It's hard work. Rewarding work when you can sit back and admire your project but hard!

I don't like to use big words (please ignore my use of the word cathartic :) but I tend to ramble. A lot. Reading OH after the merciless editing/deleting I've been doing on my novella was like watching a horror film. Every two paragraphs I wanted to scream and cover my eyes. I put Only Human out there, believing it's a good story. I still believe it's a good story but my 'diamond' is surrounded by a ten foot layer of rock, making the beauty difficult to admire. Editing is my jackhammer.

The first thing I noticed is my habit of over describing. Three to four sentence paragraphs were used to describe locations or random thoughts of my MC and I had multiple uses of three to four commas in a sentence. YIKES!

I didn't want to do my find and search of the words 'like, that, was,' and 'there', knowing it would be painful. I started with 'that', coming up with a whopping 1567 times. I'm at 295 now but I'm hoping to get it down even more. I started on 'like' today but my starting point was 525 or something so it should take less time. I'm sure 'was' will be in the two thousands - I overuse it a lot!

A few scenes read stiffly which I'd felt in my initial release but hadn't had much time to remedy. Now's the time for book surgery! I have to be daring and dive in!

I haven't worked on my novella in over a week and should get back to it before I get to caught up in OH. It's a cute little story and with a few more changes, I'll be pretty proud of it.

Way Too Much Information!

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been doing a lot of research on editing and how to properly present a book. With every discovery made, I want to get my hands on Only Human and rip it apart! It needs so much work!

There seem to be several general rules of editing and then everyone's personal rules that they hold themselves to. A few things I've learned/am learning:

• Telling rather than showing: This shows up quite often in books, especially with first person manuscripts. The biggest way for me to identify my own 'telling' is by going through sentences and getting rid of an overabundance of the word 'was'. "I was looking down into the dark, sad eyes of a young boy." The sentence is okay but gives me more the feeling of being told and not shown."I looked down into the dark, sad eyes of a young boy," has a much smoother flow with the removal of one word! It was an exciting and scary thing when I learned this and did a find and search of my 30,000 word manuscript. 'Was' appeared 400 times!
• Omitting Five Senses: When going through my first edit, I have to get rid of a lot of 'He said, she said,' and turn things into what's known as an action beat. The reason for doing so is simple. Too many descriptions can bog down a book and distract from what should be quick dialogue. In my instance, I tend to forget to include the five senses. My characters 'feel bad', 'feel angry', 'feel hungry', etc. but they don't make use of the senses that we as humans do. I know dinner is being cooked because I smell it, not because I walk down the stairs into the kitchen and see Mom holding a pot. 
• Flashbacks/Back-story: Again, this has to do with telling instead of showing. I've read several books where the characters have flashbacks or the impromptu telling of their past that jolts me from what I'm reading into three pages of explanation. I can't be too harsh since I've made this mistake myself but I do recognize it interrupts flow and interest. The easiest way to get around both of these things is to reference things in conversation or a strange comment your character might make that alludes to something that happened to them in the past. Rachel hated listening to classical music since it reminded her of all those nights home alone, listening to the neighbor's Bach album that did little to cover the terrified screams. You could do this since you're not explaining everything but it's an overload of information. I would write the scene rather like this: Rachel shuddered as classical music filled the room, trying to force her thoughts away from the terrifying nights alone and the sounds of screaming. Since I'm still a newbie writer, it's obviously not perfect but much closer to what I'd enjoy reading. You want your readers to ask questions and be at least a bit in the dark about the characters past. Cliche, over explained characters come off as 2-D and contrived.
• Too Many Thoughts: I write first person 90% of the time. It's very easy in the telling aspect to constantly be going into the characters head and hearing their thoughts about what's happening. I have to resist! No one wants to hear all those thoughts that should be obvious from the MC's reaction anyway. I have one book  where the girl thinks a lot of cynical things she doesn't actually say but even with that, I have to ditch a lot of the thoughts and show how she's thinking in her reaction.
• Cut The Boring: If it's boring for me to write, my readers don't want it. It can be hard getting rid of stuff you've spent hours, days, maybe even weeks working on but if you get rid of the slack, you'll get closer to the core of your book. Only Human had a lot of baggage - repetitive scenes, useless dialogue, over long explanations, etc. The comment I've gotten from everyone who's read it is how hard it was to put down. I'm in no way a professional writer or even a great editor but I learned to be harsh with my book. I'm getting ready another round of editing and I'm sure more dead weight will be cut away.
• Favorite Words: Everyone has their favorite words and they show up in their writing. Favorite words are great in moderation but they can get old really fast. If the word is unusual, you should only use it once or twice in the entire story. With Only Human, my Aunt pointed out my constant use of the word 'gingerly'. My characters would 'gingerly get off the chair,' 'gingerly take a sip', 'take a ginger step', and so on. It's a good word in moderation but overuse is just me getting lazy.
• The 'ly' rule: Words like suddenly, gingerly, happily, excitedly are so easy to throw into a sentence for me. I didn't know until two months ago that it was even wrong to use them too often. Using words ending in 'ly' is a lazy way to describe something. 'The man gingerly stepped forward, not wanting to hurt his leg anymore'. I would change that to: 'The man took care as he stood, favoring his uninjured leg.'
• Consistent Character Speak Patterns: All my characters have a different way of reacting, speaking, and understanding. In Only Human, Connor is likely to use proper words and the correct grammar while Zack is sloppy and uses more slang. If Zack said, "I would like to have a drink of water," it would sound out of character and stupid. If Connor were to say it, it would be much more accepted. Zack is more likely to say "Get me a drink before I hit you."
• Over-describing Characteristics, Features: I read a lot of teen books and most of them are filled with romance of some type. One of my personal pet peeves is the constant description of 'chocolate brown eyes', 'powerful physique', 'soft looking lips', etc. Give readers a few pointers as to what the world in their head should look like and move on. Say that a certain character has chocolate brown eyes and then don't say it again. You might mention the occasional, "His dark eyes turned to meet mine," but past that, don't repeatedly make your reader feel stupid by jamming down their throat what the characters appearance is. In first person, it's also a no-no to have a sentence like this: "I pushed back my mid length, golden brown curls, tucking them behind my elf like ears." Yes, it might give a better picture but I don't think of my hair color when I'm pushing it out of my face. If it were me, the sentence would more like this: "I pushed back the golden fuzz of curls around my face, tucking it securely behind my ears." If I'm tucking back my hair, it's either out of habit or because it's fuzzy and annoying me.

There are so many things to learn in order to craft a good novel and these are just a few things. I'm sure in a few months, I'll look back at my lack of knowledge and shudder again. For now though, I'm working with what I've got. 

On a side note, I've been thinking recently about how awkward most romantic scenes in books are. I think a lot of times it's because the author is describing too much of what's happening and it makes you feel like you've crashed a party you weren't invited too. So many authors talk about the 'earthy scent' a man will carry, or the smell of his aftershave. Maybe it's because I don't live in romance land but I don't notice a lot of distinct smells from people. If I do notice the smell of a guy, it's not usually a pleasant smell. Of course, sweat and unwashed socks wouldn't sound too romantic now, would it?

The biggest instance of over telling and awkwardness seems to be in kiss scenes. I don't write kiss scenes for a variety of reasons but if you read books with any romance, they are almost guaranteed to occur. Some are fine, they happen and you hear more about the reaction of the character than anything else. Several are just plain embarrassing with way to much info as to what the kiss felt like. I'm sure that's something to contemplate if it's happening to you which is the effect the writer is going for but to me, it often just makes me feel grossed out and lose any sense of romanticism at all!

-Anna Leigh

Future Projects

It's been an even crazier month than I thought it would be last time I wrote over a month ago. Reading back over my previous posts, I remembered I'd posted some of my character blurbs to a story that's, well, been kind of thrown away.

It was a difficult decision to get rid of six chapters worth of work but seemed to be the best choice in the end. I've since started over but am having a hard time being motivated which means Human Nature is getting shelved for three weeks until I can get my head back in the game. The good news is, shelving my sequel gives me the time I've really wanted to work on all the other books I've started in the last year, namely four that have been calling my name. Since I'm writing today about my other books, I thought it'd be interesting to do a bullet point of all the books I've started writing and a brief description. Names in descriptions are subject to change, as well as POVs.

• Walking Among Us (WT) 2014: Rose's family is forced by the government to have an alien from DA1 live with them for three months. Rose's father would never have allowed such a thing but it's been several years that he's been imprisoned, leaving her as head of the household. The clash of cultures is evident and Rose is curious as to how an alien can look, talk, and occasionally act like a human. Is the government she's working for really telling her the whole story? (First person)
• Younger Brother (WT) 2014: Ali was only a little girl when her father brought boy, small and with a mysterious tattoo, into their house and declared him one of the family. Ali felt protective of the younger boy and did her best to take care of him until he was sent away to learn the inner workings of their business. Now eighteen, he's returned to the house to participate in a competition her father set up, a fight between her two biological brothers and him over who will get the business. In the middle of the only three people she really cares about, Ali has to make a decision that will change her future. (First person)
• Penalty (WT) 2014: Lana is beautiful and talented in many areas - except the one place she really wants. Lana's dream is to become a writer. After losing a bet to her published boss, she is forced to write the sort of story she hates: a romance set in another country. Not only does she have to write it but she also has to obtain a critique from a renowned magazine, one with a critic who is famous for his bad reviews, and get him to love it. Following a friends advice, she hires a native from the country, only to find he's more of a handful than her boss. Will she succeed with her mission or will her dream to become a published writer remain unreachable? (First person)
• The Outcast (WT) 2012: Jenny wants nothing more than to blend in but her father's fame makes it difficult. She's been in love with Calvin St. Clair since she was twelve years old, only to recently discover he's avoiding her like the plague and his normally cheerful demeanor seems forced. With public events coming to introduce her into the business and the probability of Calvin's engagement to another girl coming up, Jenny's outlook on life is bleak. To make matters worse, Calvin's younger brother, obnoxious and brutally honest Johnny, is constantly calling her out on what she wants in her life. Her eighteenth year is sure to be unforgettable, if she makes it out. (First person, possibly switched to third)
• Assisted Dying (WT) 2014: Violet is a teen girl living a hectic life. With both grandfathers dead, both of her grandmothers are living in the same assisted living and filling her days with their very different problems. Grandma Jane is anxious worrier, only interested in her life and the things that affect her. Grandma Anne is a sickly women who hates the burden she is to her granddaughter and wants her to get out more. Violet's life is rapidly spiraling out of control and the resident do-gooder, a endlessly cheerful guy who visits residents without families, seems to think she's cynical. With everything that's happened in her young life, shouldn't she have the right to feel sorry for herself once in a while? There's no way a cheerful smile and endless optimism of a guy without a care in the world would change that. (Third person)
• Makeover (WT) 2014: Carrie is fine living off the profits of her father's construction business - until he sends her out to a remote location to have her help remodel an old cabin. The workers couldn't care less who she is or if she has to break a nail to help out. It's either buck up or get laughed at for the girl who loves order and cleanliness. (First person, possibly third)
• Vanity (2014): In a society where no one is less than perfect and beautiful lives Aria Mason, an all natural plain girl. If it weren't for her parents connections, they would have been banished from Cumulus as soon as her plainness became evident. Her coming out year has arrived too soon for her liking and everyone is treating her like she has a disease, including her match who only makes evident he isn't interested. When Aria runs into a talented performer, she's unwillingly dragged into the gossip that surrounds him. Things get even more out of hand when they are trapped on a salvage shuttle headed toward Earth, the place that doesn't know of their existence. Will Aria be able to find her way back without the humans finding out who she is or is their life doomed to be discovered? (First person)
• Fame (2012): Lexi is probably the only girl on Earth who remembers Jackson Park, a one hit wonder who was famous the same year her parents were killed. Moving to a new city with her older sister and determined to have a fresh start, she gets a shock when she runs into a delivery boy with a striking resemblance to the singer who helped her through the hard times and who goes by the name Jack... (First person, possibly third)
• First Impressions (2014): Carla Marcus lived a normal life until her sister and brother-in-law were killed in a car accident. Left with Taylor, their six month old baby, she is forced to endure the judgmental stares and harsh words from strangers who think she's a teen mother. An innocent day out shopping lands them in a bank being held up. Her and the baby are kidnapped by men with mixed intentions and with police hot on their tails, Carla worries for the safety of herself and the baby she promised to protect. (First person, present tense)
• Heart (2013): Bare bones outline. A girl who's lived her whole life with a defective heart gets a transplant. Things have only been good since then, leaving her to live the full life she always dreamed of. Every time something bad threatens to happen, it's taken care of and she is continuously protected. After a mugger tries to stab her and is stopped by a guy who seems to know her name, she begins to wonder about all the other things in her life that've been mysteriously taken care of. Maybe she has a guardian angel after all... (Idea only, have never written the story)
• Older Sister (WT) 2014: Mia and her family have been having a hard time financially, forcing her to rely on the kindness of the local makeup artist to employ a girl who hasn't even attended beauty school. In a strange twist of events, Mia has to work as a temporary makeup artist for EBOS, a boy band traveling through their city. When a murder occurs and the place is locked down to prevent the killer from leaving, Mia is forced to make unlikely allies as she does her best to protect the people she loves - before the killer chose her as the next target. (First person)
• Books I Didn't Mention: Loyalty (Historical Fiction), A trilogy of retold classics: Robin Hood, Peter Pan, Camelot, Drifting (Contemporary Mystery), Bodyguard (Action/Adventure), 9 (Story about an a girl assistant coach on a men's team), Beaten (Contemporary, a story about a boy whose father beats him and a girl who wants to protect him).

So, I have started a lot of books! I've finished two, a novel and a novella, and am hoping to get back to a lot of these at some points. Several are just a Microsoft Word document with a few facts scribbled in them. Loyalty was one I started a month ago but didn't take the time to write the plot down for. I really have no idea what I was thinking of and have only one page to reference :( A few might be broken down and turned into one book since they are similar to others I have and wouldn't make a strong enough story on their own. I had a genius idea for my Peter Pan remake and my fingers are itching to get back to it. I have way too many in the works to do so right now but I'm still young...

On the interesting discoveries for this month, I have to mention Natural Reader. It's a great program that turns text to speech and has made a world of difference in my editing process. It's so much easier to edit when it's being read to you and computers don't read over miss-spellings or bad punctuation which makes it more accurate than a human.The free version only includes computer sounding voices but the paid version has some very natural voices. I put up with the computer sound since it works find for editing though sometimes the lack of emotions gets to me.

I'll write again when I get a chance about some of the things I've been learning in my editing journey recently. I've read so many different accounts of ways to edit and decided to throw them all at my novella and see how it turned out. With everything new I learn, I look at Only Human and can't wait to get my hands back on it. It gets more embarrassing by the day with some of the things I let go in the editing process!

Anna Leigh

The Fears of Repeating Oneself

So, it's been a while.

My life for the last two weeks has been more than chaotic and I haven't even had much time to write, let alone blog. I managed to start another new book in that time (which I am not working on since I have to finish my sequel) but that was about the height of my creativeness this week in between working and trying to get a full nights sleep.

Anyway, enough about that.

I am filled with two strong feelings every time I pull up my working manuscript for Human Nature. One is excitement; I get to bring back my characters, make them go through new trials, and develop them in ways I never did before. My other feeling is fear. It took me three years to make Only Human what it is and even that seems like it could still use some work. In that time I came up with idea after idea, only to trash them and go with something else. I'm working within a different time constraint with Human Nature. Now I have people who want to read a sequel, people who will forget about the book if I don't have another one done in time and scariest of all, people who have an expectation about my writing. If it's not the same or better as the first one, it will be a disappointment.

I developed characters to a certain extent in the first one but the second book takes it to a whole new level. Connor/Drew isn't just Mr. Impenetrable, he has feelings, thoughts, and wants. Abby isn't the same scared, naive girl she used to be, she realizes there is more danger than she thought and feels a responsibility for helping out the others around her. Zack isn't a robotic bully, he has a purpose to his life and things that hurt him in the past. Callie isn't just a friend, she is a friend willing to die to protect Abby. Abby's Dad isn't dead, he's out there somewhere.

The above ideas fascinate me while terrifying the inner writer. They have to continue to develop, they have to seem real but...how?

I liked Abby in the first book, I want to LIKE her in the second book. There were times when I wrote her not going quite as far as the new Abby is willing to go to protect the people around her. Not only has she grown in learning, she's met Drew. What he is and what he believes, much like her friend Callie, has become a part of her.

There are things that always seem to make their way into my book. Main characters getting injured and having to be patched up by another character. It always sneaks its way in! Male MC protecting the girl verbally/physically at at least one point during the story. Little cliches work their way into my writing because it's what I like. Unfortunately, if done too often, especially in the same series, it's going to just be repetitive and boring.

Human Nature is a fresh start, a new book to continue the story but add new twists, new characters, and new cares. The last thing I want is for it to become an updated version of Only Human because I'm now three years older.

Anna Leigh

The Joys and Pains of Editing

I made a hard, fast rule when I finished Only Human. Any book I write now has two word documents associated with it; one for the story I'm actively writing and one labeled with the name and then 'edit' next to it. Every thousand words or so, I cut and paste what I've just worked on into editing and don't look at it again until I'm done with the book. As I write, names and ideas change and I leave random notes scattered through the edit document to remind myself what I want to change it to be.

As I've mentioned before, I read the blog Go Teen Writers a lot and learned from Mrs. Stephanie Morrill that it's best to leave your manuscript for a bit before starting the editing process. She recommended six weeks after your original manuscript is written but I would personally go for a month since it would be difficult for me to wait that long.

Human Nature is only a few months old and already I have at least a dozen notes of changes I've thought of as I've been writing. Today was a particularly painful day in which I wrote over a thousand words, realized the story line was falling flat, and proceeded to delete my last weeks worth of work (About a chapters worth). It's painful but I realized it had to change and there was no point in keeping everything I just wrote. It's much easier to delete words several weeks after you've written them since you're not quite as attached after that amount of time but I just went for the whole thing today, ripping the band aid off without a second thought instead of waiting and fussing over it for a few days. This book as been much better about presenting ways out of writing corners than my last one was. I tend to think I'm a lot more experienced and probably the fact I'm writing so much right now and constantly coming up with new ideas makes a writing dry much harder to come across. Whenever I'm feeling particularly uninspired, I hit up the free kindle books on Amazon which immediately make me want to go back to my own writing. Not that they're are terribly, some are actually quite good but...I know I can do better than that, even if it means I'm only selling a 0.99 book which is quite possibly. Hardly anyone paid that much when Only Human was on sale. I know that it's a new book and an unrecognized author and all but it's still a bit discouraging...

Lately, I seem to be bursting with ideas for random novels. I have a bunch started but am forcing myself to work only on Human Nature unless I have an idea I just have to write out in one of my other books. Every time I think of an idea, usually when I'm washing dishes or on a car ride, I make a document for it, date it, and write down all the ideas I've had. At some point, those book ideas will either be deleted or I will collect enough information to turn them into my next project. It would be nice to start on a fresh project since I've spent so long on OH and now am tied to writing the sequel. Not that I don't enjoy it but I'm feeling more in the mood for fluffy contemporary with cute settings, quirky girls, and guys who are both amazing and good looking than writing thought provoking science fiction.

On a random note, I was reading GTW today and Jill Williamson was covering the subject of writing a good love triangle, something that definitely needs to be addressed in today's writing/film world. I personally dislike love triangles with an intensity but considering my intense like for Asian dramas, especially of the Korean variety, I watch more things with love triangles than not. I thought she had some good advice on what to do and will definitely keep it in mind if I ever go crazy and decide to put one in my book *shudder*.

Write again soon. I meant to write earlier than now but it's been so crazy busy this week and I've spent a lot of time babysitting my niece. Hopefully this week will be a bit calmer...

Anna Leigh

Busy!

Short post today in between cleaning the house, making meals, and writing my book. I'm trying to get my word count up since Go Teen Writers is having a word war from today until Monday. I've already put two thousand, three hundred and something into my book today but I'm hoping to do a bit more. I was randomly typing and my fingers brought me to a new plot twist before my brain caught up! That's been happening more and more lately. In the last week I've added another character, randomly written out another one, and added a plot twist which will bring in some characters from my first book! I'm at the exciting stage of writing and I hope I don't EVER hit the bored, blocked for ideas stage.

I did something different with this sequel which I've never done before. Instead of just coming up with ideas as I write and having all sorts of repeats and awkward moments to edit out later, I actually came up with a layout for the book which is pretty much complete. I was feeling really awkward about continuing my character for Drew but as I was working today, my fingers were flying and I was liking what I wrote. I hope my sequel is twice the book my first one is (not that that's difficult to do).

I officially decided that my second book is going to be much scarier than the first. I don't want it to be stupidly scary or seem like a horror book but I want the feeling of the stakes being raised, including people getting hurt a lot worse than in the first one. I think Drew spent most of the first book getting hurt at one point or another :)

I officially have fun writing obnoxious girls! I know, that leaves me open for a lot of comments but I added this annoying girl to my second book to advance the plot and it's kind of fun to write her snippy comments. I tend to like my characters having quick and witty comebacks but I often end up editing a lot of them out since my character ends up sounding more brash and annoying than I want them to be. With Steph, my new character, she's supposed to be unlikable so it makes life easier. Today I had to balance a scene with her, Abby, and four other male characters. Interesting how I had to keep the dialogue going and feeling like the individual characters and not like the same guy. Zack is angry in the conversation and gives short, somewhat biting remarks. Matt is a little uncertain, Won is confused, and Drew is calm and collected as always.

Have to go, dinner calls :) I'll write again soon!

Anna Leigh

A Book and its Setting

I like talking about writing characters, it's no secret. If you've read any of my blog, you'll know how much time I spend with my characters, coming up with them, fine tuning them, and stressing about them. Characters might be my strong point or just my downfall because I worry about them too much. Besides the characters, the setting of a story is REALLY important!

My stories always seem to take place in a small town. It's not like I agonize over the setting and decide to put it there or like I even live in a small town. I live in a county with upwards of nine hundred thousand people. I was talking with my sister about it one day and I realized part of my attraction to writing about small towns is because I have a relatively small social circle I spend time with and not having a job outside of the house or going to high school, my life does exist in a small town type setting.

In Only Human even if Abby had lived in a big town, she lived in a small town in her head. I like the idea of the local gossips to avoid, seeing the same people a the local diner, etc. In my novella, the small town emphasis is much more in the story as the stories about Cameron have spread around to everyone and Maggie being sick effects everyone Alex knows. I've decided along with a book being written in third person, I need to write a book without a small town emphasis.

In the Partials Sequence, Dan Wells paints a very good picture of our world in ruins. It was fascinating and often scary when he described places that had been abandoned and destroyed; places that we frequent today. I thought he did a great job in world building in his book and definitely would like his talent for doing so. I often wonder if my settings feel forced or like an afterthought. His book though is a great example to me of how a setting can really give a book life. His characters are good too which always makes things better :)

I had a great day today in my book history. I got my first review from a stranger, a girl named Alyanna who runs a blog where she reads and reviews books. It was funny reading her review and thinking about the fact that someone in the Philippines is reading my book. The internet is an amazing thing. 'http://bookbuddiesph.blogspot.com/2014/04/book-review-only-human-by-anna-tuckfield.html 

Write again soon!

Anna Leigh