editing

My Week as @WeeklyScribe

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For a REALLY long time, I didn’t have a Twitter account. I had no idea what I’d even do with one. Then my favorite TV show got cancelled, and Twitter seemed to be the main avenue for fans to protest this development and try to bring the show back. Being the devoted fangirl that I am, of course I had to fight against the unjust cancellation of something great (#SaveForever!), so I signed up for Twitter. And even though our campaign eventually failed (cue the heartbroken sobbing), I did have tons of fun connecting with other diehard fans of the show. Just knowing how many people loved Forever helped ease the pain of its loss.

In the years since then, I’ve continued to use Twitter to fight the good fangirl fight. Sometimes we won (#SaveLucifer, yeah baby!!!), other times we lost (I’m so sorry, Limitless – I tried!), but it was always amazing to have a voice and join forces with other fans in support of a common goal.

Having a Twitter account came in handy for other purposes, too. For example, I linked my Twitter to this blog, so whenever a new post goes up on here, my Twitter followers (all twelve of them!!) can see it. Being on Twitter also allowed me to participate in several Chicken Soup for the Soul book release parties, where I made some awesome connections with fellow CSS authors.

But the best was yet to come. In the process of trying to get some much-needed reviews for my novel, I contacted Crowvus Book Blog (https://crowvusbookblog.blogspot.com). To my delight, one of the authors, Judith Crow, agreed to read and review my book (you can read Judith’s review of Even Heroes here: https://crowvusbookblog.blogspot.com/2022/02/book-review-even-heroes-by-g-bassier.html). A few weeks later, Judith contacted me about a new program initiated by Crowvus: a Twitter account that would be curated by a different author each week. It would be a chance to get more exposure for my book, and network with other authors and readers. How could a girl say no to that? 🙂

Thus, for one crazy week back in the spring, I was the curator of the @WeeklyScribe Twitter account. To say it was an amazing experience would be an understatement. At first, I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to really do a great job and provide top-notch content. I was, after all, the first American to curate the account, the first person not associated with Crowvus to curate the account, and I think basically the second person to do it ever. So I wanted to really represent their brand in a respectable way and not do anything to horribly embarrass or offend anyone.

Initially I had a very strict schedule of Tweets laid out. I was going to do two or three posts on a specific topic each day. They were all pre-written. Once I dove in, however, I started to remember what Twitter immersion really feels like. My rigid plans quickly started to loosen up, and I really began to interact organically with other authors. I noticed that polls got a nice response, so I added a few more than I planned. And, while I made sure to post new content every day, I ended up finding more pleasure in reading other people’s Tweets and commenting, liking, following, and sometimes even Re-Tweeting.

I dove happily down the rabbit hole, responding to Tweets about plot, characterization, favorite books, indie publishing vs. traditional, editing habits, etc. I shared quotes and details about my novel, and eagerly read passages posted by other authors – their opening lines, banter between their characters, even silly things, like their main character’s favorite brand of soap.

This may not seem like a big deal to you, but as a writer, I’ve basically been wandering alone in the desert for three years. And suddenly, I was swimming in a lake of writing advice, shared experiences, and jokes about the dreaded synopsis that only other authors would understand. It was heaven! It reminded me just how much of a geek I am about writing. How I could talk about it all day long and well into the night. How it keeps my heart pumping in a world that sometimes feels dead.

I really, really needed that reminder.

In the months since my time as @WeeklyScribe, I have mostly crawled back into my cave, content to be a Twitter hermit. However, I do actually come out into the sunshine once in a while, and when I do, I enthusiastically start checking every hashtag to do with writing (my faves are #WritingCommunity and #writingquestion). And then I start reading those Tweets, and liking, and commenting, and following. I don’t want to lose that lifeline to people who “get” me, now that I’ve finally got it back.

Also, maybe even more significantly, this experience inspired me to start writing again. I am happy to report that I have completed the first chapter of a brand new novel, and Chapter Two is in progress. Slow progress, but progress nonetheless.

So, that was my week as @WeeklyScribe. If you are an author interested in curating the @WeeklyScribe account, I have three words for you: GO FOR IT!! You’ll be so glad you did. I know I was.

Find out how to be the next @WeeklyScribe here: https://www.crowvus.com/rooks

Perfectionism, Writing, and You

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It’s almost New Year’s Eve, but you’re not waiting for the ball to drop. You’ve already made your resolution: 2019 is the year you’re finally going to write that novel. Yay!

Of course, in all honesty, you’ve made this resolution before, haven’t you? (Come on, just admit it already.) But this time, it’s going to be different, right? No more excuses. No doubt about it. That bad boy is getting written!

Well, good for you! That’s a great goal and I wish you much success in your endeavor. However, before you go prancing into 2019 with big plans and high hopes, perhaps you should take a minute to consider why you haven’t written that future bestseller yet.

Maybe your idea for your novel is so blindingly spectacular that you’re afraid whatever you actually put down on the page will never measure up. Maybe you did start writing, but after three migraine-inducing hours of staring at a blank screen, you only managed to produce two sentences. And they both sucked. Maybe you even sweated and cried and bled your way through an entire chapter…only to chuck the whole thing out later because it wasn’t “good enough.”

If this sounds like you, then you may be a perfectionist…and it just might be crippling your writing.

First things first: if this is you, don’t despair! You can overcome the obstacles perfectionism presents and even learn to use it to your advantage.

The hardest – and most important – thing any perfectionist must do when writing the first draft is to let go. Your first draft will not be perfect. It can’t be. It shouldn’t be. Rage at the heavens, sob uncontrollably, binge-eat chocolate-covered pretzels – do whatever you have to do to help you come to terms with this painful truth.

Give yourself permission to be messy, to color outside the lines, to melt six different crayons together and make a new color. Letting go is terrifying, but it can also be incredibly freeing. Just ask the blond lady on this water bottle:

In case you can’t see it in the picture, the water inside this bottle actually IS frozen. Cute, huh? 🙂

The first draft is the time to lock perfectionism in a cage. I mean, definitely give him some food, a bowl of water, a chew toy, a blankie, etc. – you don’t want to kill him. You just want him to take a nap for a while. He’ll probably whine a bit, but don’t worry – he’ll settle down eventually.

Here are a few practical tips for combating perfectionism in the first draft:

1.) Throw it all out there.

In the photo at the top, the author is having difficulty deciding which verb to use. She’s trying to choose the “perfect” word for the way Miguel moved down the hallway, and she’s stuck on that sentence because she can’t make up her mind.

Wanna know something cool? She doesn’t have to make up her mind! The author can simply write out several options, leave them all in the sentence, and move on to the next one. Then, during a later phase (usually the first round of editing), she can choose which word feels the best…or maybe come up with something else even better!

I do this all the time when I write. Indecision is a progress-killer, so if I can’t decide, I just throw it all out there. You can do it with single words, or with whole sentences and paragraphs. It looks like this:

Miguel walked/strolled/moseyed down the hall, unconcerned about the envious stares following him.

When I go back through to edit, the perfect word will usually jump out from the pack.

2.) Just skip it.

Remember back in high school, when you were taking a math test and didn’t know the answer to problem number five? What did you do? You didn’t spend your entire hour agonizing over that pesky fifth question, leaving the other thirty-five unanswered (at least, I hope you didn’t). No, because if you did that, you’d fail the test. So, you just skipped it, moved on to number six, and then came back to five later, if you had time.

That same strategy can work for writing. If you’ve been working on the same passage for days or even weeks, and just can’t get happy with it, my best advice would be to skip that passage and move on, knowing you can come back and fill it in later (thankfully, writing a book is not a timed test).

I did this with one scene in Scars – the part where Jack tells Lily about the werewolf attack. I just could not get through that scene. Everything I wrote seemed like crap. It was holding up the whole rest of the story. Finally, I just skipped over it and came back at the end. And guess what? It was totally fine. 🙂

The skipped scene DID get written and the story got published in this lovely book. It all worked out! 🙂

Of course, in order to do this, you must have a general idea of what’s going to happen in the scene, because it impacts the rest of the story. E.g. if you’re skipping the chapter where Rosario tells Kevin she has heat vision, then don’t write him as completely shocked/flabbergasted in the next chapter when she melts the tires on the bad guys’ getaway car.

3.) Free Writing

Think about this like a mini NaNoWriMo. Set a timer for five, ten, twenty minutes – whatever fits your schedule – and just write the whole time. Don’t go back and make corrections. Don’t stare at the page thinking about the perfect phrase. Your keyboard should be clacking the entire time. Or, if you’re old school, your pen should be scratching the page continuously. If it’s totally quiet in the room, then you’re not writing.

It may not be pretty, but for extreme cases of perfectionism, this will at least get words on the page. Words that can be rearranged and molded into something beautiful later. If the blank page is your worst enemy, this exercise can help.

Once that brutal first draft is done, you can finally let perfectionism out of his cage for a little while. Let him run amok all over your book, gobbling up those nasty typos, poor word choices, pointless paragraphs that don’t move the story forward, etc. He’ll be thrilled! Just don’t leave him out too long. If he can keep you from writing your book in the first place, he can just as surely keep you from ever submitting or publishing it.

Learn to know the difference between editing something and editing it to death. (If you’re re-reading for the fiftieth time and obsessing over the tiniest phrases which sounded good ten readings ago, you’re probably in “death editing” mode.) Remember how hard it was, in the beginning, to accept that the first draft wouldn’t be flawless?

This part is even harder, because now you have to face the fact that your novel will never, no matter how many times you and your editors go over it, be 100% perfect. Because you’re not perfect. And those tiny little imperfections you’ll never completely erase? They might just be what your readers relate to and fall in love with.

So, when the book is finally the best you (and your crit partners and betas) can make it, it’s time to do that scary-wonderful thing again: let it go.

The year 2019 is coming. You’ve already made the resolution. Now, you have to decide: Do you want to be the person who had a fantastic idea for a novel in 2019? Or do you want to be the person who actually wrote one?

Best wishes in the New Year!

~Gretchen

 

 

Writer, Edit Thyself

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Self-editing. Some days, it’s a pleasure – like sharpening your brain’s claws on some rough, craggy tree bark. Other days, it’s pure torture – you can feel every slash of the red pen as though it’s a scalpel ripping at your flesh. One thing’s for sure, though: no matter what kind of day you’re having, self-editing is an important part of getting a piece ready for its journey out into the publishing world. So here are a few articles to make the process less painful, more productive, and – yes, I’m going to say it – more fun.

The first article, “The 7 Deadly Sins of Self-Editing,” comes from the highly-useful archives over at Writer’s Digest. Reading about these common self-editing pitfalls can help you identify your weaknesses when it comes to your own writing – and maybe, just maybe, learn to overcome them.

As far as my own self-editing experiences go, I’d have to say that “Gluttony” probably tops the list. Sometimes, I fall in love with a fancy bit of phrasing or a long, flowery paragraph that simply has no place in the story. Sometimes, the thing that needs cutting is the scene that was the inspiration for the whole chapter, or even one of my precious cool things. It’s hard for me to cut those things, even when I know I should. That’s why, in addition to self-editing, I also rely on outside readers for valuable feedback. My writing group doesn’t know or care how many hours I slaved over a particular paragraph. All they know is that the paragraph breaks up the flow of the story, and needs to be removed. When I see that fat red Sharpie “X” scrawled across the section in question, my heart can finally accept what the back of my brain knew all along – and I can, with one last wince of hesitation, finally hit the delete button.

The second article, “Picture Books: Plan, Polish and Publish,” comes from children’s author Dori Chaconas. She takes you through every step of the creative process, from the initial birth of an idea, all the way to the final polishing of the story prior to submission. Chaconas shares her own personal strategies for self-editing, complete with wonderfully-vivid “before and after” examples. She demonstrates how to refresh boring clichés and really make your language sparkle with originality. She shows you how to trick your brain into thinking you’re reading your story for the first time (and not the fiftieth), and even discusses her policy on accepting criticism from her writing group.

I came across this article years ago and instantly saved it on my computer because it was just so chock-full of useful strategies and tips. It was written as a guide to picture book writing, but the bulk of the information applies to all forms of writing, and authors in any genre will be able to find something to take away from this excellent piece.

So, go forth and read! Take notes! Copy and paste! Figure out what your self-editing weaknesses are and how to overcome them. Learn how to take a seed of an idea and turn it into the most original, sparkling and polished story you are capable of writing.

And then…submit it :).