Hooray, he final edits are now complete and, if I am allowed to say so, I enjoyed reading my draft again, especially the moments of humor. The end-twist was a nice surprise and I hope you agree. Who doesn’t love a good novel – one that comes from the challenges of life? My first novel – 3 WISE MEN – was less polished than I would have liked but, at least with self-publishing, I had the chance to reprint and improve it. My father (pictured here) was an avid writer and taught creative writing. I can still hear the tap, tap,tap of his golf-ball typewriter as he plowed into another short story (with no Word docs in those days). He survived WWII and had lots of stories. I am sure his writing became cathartic for him. His library was full of interesting books and these gave me plenty to devour in my spare time. Now, back to finding my cover designer!
editing
The Motivation to Self-Publish
Writers are increasingly frustrated by the lack of any feedback from literary agents or publishers – who have little to no time to do so. This can take authors down the self-publishing route. I am at the stage where I have a stronger motivation. Yes, I have tried and tried and tried again, with input from two (very helpful) professional editors, to break into the traditional publishing world. Submitting a query letter to potential agents helps hone the writing craft and adds fire to writing “the hook for your book.” But, I have now reached the stage where I owe too much to the wonderful people who helped me research the background for my new novel – arranging visits to Museums, providing accommodation and encouragement. I owe them a finished work after all they did for me back in 2019. They will be thanked in the introduction to my new novel. Meanwhile, the final editing continues and I will shortly outline the next steps, including cover design and conversion of my word docx to the printing format.
The Edit Continues…
Well, dear readers, I am now midway through my final edits. I know that it is impossible to write a perfect novel, but I hate having glaring errors – even after a few years of writing and editing this one. What surprises me, is that every chapter has needed improving in some way – either grammatical or plot related. An interesting fact is that the word count has now dropped below 100,000 and I had the same experience with my last book.
Oh well, I must continue to finish editing and get this book ready to print. I have been unable to convince an agent to take me on, though one did ask for the full manuscript. Therefore, I plan to give details about the self-publishing process in this blog to help others who may be on the same journey.
A Rule of Finger
Well, I’m back again and in the middle of my last major edit before going to print. There have been quite a few changes and I don’t want to bore you with them. However, I have an important lesson to share and this could well be a “rule of thumb” but I prefer to call it a rule of finger – just in case it was not significant. Here goes:
When editing your script,
- If the text is too complicated, you need to cut some of it out and,
- If the text is too simple, you need to add details.
My major edit involves a close read through each chapter – all 87 of them – while paying close attention to the two rules above. With complicated text I mean text that lacks cohesion or unnecessary ‘fluff’. I have discovered that the best way to deal with this is to look for complete sentences to take out or simplify. If the text is too simple (aka boring) then changing a weak word will sometimes help, but most often a more dramatic item is required. The rule of thumb rules, but the finger rule helps.
Ah, the Plot Thickens
You reduce the sauce on the stove and it thickens. Wait a while longer and it thickens even more. I found the same principle in my writing. Time spent editing, re-writing, with more input from beta readers, etc. and the plot thickened.
Now, I have reached the point where I am ready to take my manuscript “off the heat” and send it out to a few select literary agents. Has anything changed? Yes, plenty – and especially the main plot. It is far better and brings together the key elements of my story in a more powerful and complete way.
Are You Ready to Query Agents?
The following chart is an excellent one for new authors to follow before submitting their queries (thanks to Ed Wilson of Johnson and Alcock publishers) Note: I got tangled up in the threads a while ago, but now feel ready to query.
What to do when your writing sucks
It’s a common problem – the writing is flowing and the ideas are getting put down onto your draft manuscript. However, when editing, you come across awkward text – difficulties in the character development, plot or setting. What I have learned (the hard way) is that the best action in this case is to cut the text. That’s right, by cutting the text you eliminate the obstacle and help the flow of the book. If it’s not necessary, then get rid of it! From my experience, authors need a good editor to point out what is not working. When they do, it’s time to erase the culprit, reduce the word count, and move on. Do the same with poor storylines and out-of-place characters. My TIP: if you can’t afford a full editing service, at the very minimum get a professional editor to check your first few chapters.
Perspective-Part I
It’s been a while since I last posted, but a trip to Europe and some more professional editing has taken up much of my time. I should be ready to try querying agents next week for my new thriller. Until then, I thought it worth mentioning character perspective in a novel. Perspective is, per the definition, a point of view. However, I think we often ignore or gloss over perspective in our writing. For example, perspective changes with age, gender and upbringing. When my wife and I were in France, it was easy to spot the tourists – they were the ones trying too hard to look French! How so? By wearing berets and looking ‘different’. From their own perspective, they were trying to fit right in, but from our perspective, they were decidedly foreign. So, I have been working harder on correcting the perspective of my characters and fleshing out details to engage the readers’ interest in the plot.
People Watching
So, the vacation comes to an end – well, soon. After a month in Europe it is a relief to be heading home with many new experiences to build into my next book. The main goal on this trip was not to produce another novel, but a photo book entitled “Faces of Europe.” I have accumulated a large number of “people photos” to add to the book, but the time away has also given me space to think about “Faces of Europe” is more depth. In fact, people watching is really observing a reflection of life. Europe is not just about Europeans; it is about the melting pot of Asians, Africans, Chinese, Indian, and Western and Eastern Europeans; it is about war and power struggles – D-Day celebrations and the war in Ukraine; it is about a cold war and a hot summer; of high prices and low wages; Olympic celebrations and the struggle to survive; it’s about Palestinian protests and threats of terrorism. “Faces of Europe” has become more complex than I imagined. There is nothing simple about Europe and it will be a challenge to assemble my photographs to reflect the joy, struggles and diversity I noticed through my lens. During my short stay in Europe I did manage a little minor editing on my new thriller, and even visited Menton – a place on the French Riviera that features in my first thriller, 3 WISE MEN. However, I didn’t feel that any changes needed to be made to the Menton details.
The Inverse Parabola
The more I write, the more I find myself believing in the inverse parabola. What do I mean? It’s like this—writing a novel keeps adding words and as the words increase the number of chapters grow too. words–>chapters–>book. At the peak of the writing output (the vertex if you like) the book is finished. But when the editing takes place, the number of words decrease again, like a descending parabola. From my own experience, this editing reduces the word count and often the number of chapters too. This reduction is sometimes painful, cutting out unnecessary dialogue/action/description. What is left is tighter writing, more immediacy and greater tension. Show me a writer who is increasing their word count and I can guess they are still working on an unfinished draft; show me a writer who is reducing their word count, and I know they are heading for a finished finished draft, ready for their literary agent and/or publisher.