Notes from New York: Introduction

Hello friends! The Heroes and Heroism series is over, but now we have a whole new series to look at, this one more editing focused!

I meant to start this series earlier because, you know, it would be fresher on the mind. But, while I had a very productive writing life over the Summer…not so much with the blogging. Kind of fell off the wagon with that one. But let’s jump back in shall we?

One of the reasons I fell off the wagon with blogging in the first place was because during the spring semester of last year I was in New York City! The Big Apple, City that Never Sleeps, etc. The program, through my school, focused on viewing art, music, theater, dance and film all throughout the city, as well as completing twenty hours of internships a week in order to gain work experience in our chosen fields.

So, of course, I decided to pick up two internships at Literary Agencies: Defiore and Co, and McIntosh and Otis. As a writer, the publishing process is often an ‘other side’ that we never entirely understand. That’s why we have our lovely agents to guide us along and help us through the trickier parts. It was bizarre to really be on the other side of the trenches where I queried for so long, and it definitely gave me some insight into the process.

While I interned at these two places I:

Read the slush pile

Read partial and full requests and wrote readers reports

Also read client manuscripts and offered feedback

Compared contracts

And did some fun office work like mailing, copying and filing (fortunately that was a small part of my internships)

I also got to observe real literary agents as well as their assistance in their natural habitat, which involves a lot of emails and editing and calls and over all hard work.

And I think that’s the most important thing: Literary Agents work really hard. They are constantly juggling projects and clients in addition to reading the slushpile. But there are only so many hours in the day, so they only have the time for stuff that wows them.

So how do you wow them? How do you really stick out in that slushpile. And what kind of pitfalls should you avoid. I hope that I’ve gained a little insight into that and in this series, I hope to cover some editing tips for you as you’re fighting through the trenches.

Until next time, happy writing!

Edit 10: The Final Once Over

Edit 10: Final Once Over

Here we are. The last once over. The final step of editing. After this magical step, all the editing is over and done with at last.

Kind of.

This is a kind of vague step because it doesn’t focus on a specific element. It is sort of the final read through of your book to make sure everything is in place just the way you want it. But here’s the thing: maybe everything won’t be in place.

Sometimes fixing some problems just cleans up the manuscript enough for you to see new problems. Sometimes you need to do another few edits to be satisfied. Sometimes you need to do a few final once overs because you’re bad at catching grammar and spelling mistakes and it takes you a million times to get things perfect and even after the millionth time there are still errors and its just so frustrating!

Yeah… I mean… hypothetically speaking.

The final once over is a nice title for it, but is the editing ever really done. Maybe not. But hopefully with this step you’ll finally be happy with what you’ve got.

And ready to send your MS into the jaws of your critique partners. And that my friends is a whole different monster.

Edit 9: Punctuation

We’re almost there. Now down to the bare bones of the final line edits, we turn to one of the smallest but most important elements of a polished manuscript: punctuation.

I hate punctuation. Not that I don’t acknowledge its importance but I’m just so bad at it. Commas are my mortal enemy, and every sentence feels like a puzzle. A puzzle full of questions like what punctuation goes here? Two or three commas in this sentence? Semi colon or period?

Dialogue punctuation is the worst as I have to meticulously comb through and make sure I’m using commas and periods in the right places.

I can only assume that my deeply rooted hatred of punctuation came from the fact my teachers never taught me the exact rules of punctuation or grammar in school. See I was in the advanced classes as soon as I hit middle school and apparently teachers assume that you already know the basics if you’re in advanced classes so no one ever told us how to place commas. I had to learn that stuff on my own, and it was not pleasant.

Now I am at least clear on the rules, but it’s not instinctual for me to implement them, so this edit may seem simple, it’s a time consuming one for me.

But at least I can see the finish line!

What punctuation mark is the bane of your existence? Let me know in the comments. 

Edit 4: Side Characters

Back with another round of edits! Last week we talked about the Main Character edit here. To sum it up in a few words, the main character is the driving force of the plot, so it only stands to reason that they get their own edit to flesh them out and strengthen their arc.

But the side characters are just as important. If main characters are the entrée, side characters are the starters, sides and desserts of the meal that give it an extra flavor. No one wants to read a book about just one person. One of the joys of books is the relationships formed between different characters and how they bounce off each other. Characters help to drive the plot and character development of others around them.

But at the same time, they need to have their own distinct arcs. I read a quote once that says “treat every character like they think the story is about them”. Because everyone is the main character of their own story, are they not? Besides, my favorite characters in books are almost never the main characters. A well written side character can snag your reader’s heart and leave them wanting more. And think of all the delicious feels when you kill their favorite side character off!

So I do an edit with the side characters, mapping out their arcs and checking their actions and reactions just as I do with the main character. This is mostly the same practice of edit 3, just a little less in-depth because the other characters don’t have as much page time. Not to mention, you can pick and choose which part of their arc to show. Since they are not the focus, you aren’t expected show every detail of their arc.

As a side note, the villain of your book can fit into this category of character, but depending on their involvement, you might want to do a separate edit just for the villains. As the driving force of the conflict, they often take more focus that side characters. In the case of my book, the villains are currently in the background and I can fit them in with the side characters edit. But there are some books where I can benefit by a villain edit.

Cause villains are awesome

That’s about all for now. See you for the next edit and happy editing!

Edit 3: The Main Character

Back with the ‘How I Edit’ series, now with Edit 3: The Main Character. It goes without saying that one of the most essential ingredients to a novel is the main character. They are our view point into your world. They are the one we are closest to. This especially holds true if you’re dealing with first person. The reader is going to be in your main character’s head. So while editing, I dedicate a whole edit just to the protagonist.

This edit focuses on characterization, consistency and story arc. Before even diving into the edit, I map out what I want my character’s arc to be, I.E, where they begin, how their world is thrown of kilter, how they deal with it, and how they end up. In creating this map I can use it as a guide as I edit through the novel.

I also make a list of everything I know about my character: their fears, their hobbies, their dreams, their quirks, their favorite foods etc. For a main character, this should be a pretty hefty list. You might not use everything on it, but little details here and there help to make the MC more authentic.

With the arc and list made, I dive into the writing and focus only on my main character as I read. I make sure their thoughts and actions are in character. I look at how they react to certain situations. I make sure they remain consistent throughout the story. And I also make sure I’m not dumbing them down for the sake of the plot, which is something I could do a whole post on, and probably will at some point. To keep it short for now, you don't want your reader to do this while reading your book:

My current MS is unique in that it’s a sequel. My MC has already been introduced in the previous book and has already begun an arc that must span a whole series. This presents a new set of questions. Does the character have a fresh arc in this story? Do they backtrack rather than moving forward? What is their new internal conflict or are they continuing to get over the same internal conflict from the last book? None of these things are necessarily right or wrong if they make sense in the context of the story. But no one wants to see an MC learn the same things over and over again. They should be constantly growing from book to book.

This is a fun edit for me as I love my characters and I love spending time with them. This is a welcome break after that world building edit. What questions do you ask yourself when writing and editing your MCs? Let me know in the comments!

Edit 1: Plot and Story Structure

Well, since I just did a post about my 10 round editing system and I'm now implementing said system on my manuscript, I figure I might as well blog about it as I go. If I do one edit a week, my manuscript might be well edited by spring. And when it comes to the smaller edits, I can probably do multiple in a week. So let's get this MS into shape!

Today's edit focuses on Plot and Story Structure. As mentioned in my previous post, this is the most involved edit of the story. It involves adding scenes, deleting scenes, switching scenes around, and even restructuring the entire plot. How well the plot is thought out to begin with determines the difficulty of this edit.

In my case, this edit isn't as difficult as it could be, mostly because I'm a die hard outliner. I outline before I ever start writing and usually my plots stay about the same. I don't start writing unless the plot seems feasible and is well paced in my head. So I usually don't have to restructure a lot of the meat of the story.

With the exception of openings.

Oh openings. You devils you. I cannot for the life of me write you well the first time. There is nothing more difficult to me than writing an opening that is well paced and gives just enough information to hook in a reader. The only time that I have written an opening that I have liked from first draft to last is in HOUR OF MISCHIEF. I guess its no wonder that's the book that got me my agent.

I'd been hoping for the same magic with the sequel, but nope! It looks like I'm going to be doing a lot of fixing and restructuring on the first fifty pages. I guess I should be used to it by now.

Me guzzling water and pretending its alcohol. Cause I can't drink...yet

This edit will also involve me adding scenes because at only 58,000 words, the book is shorter than I want it to be. Adding is almost as difficult as cutting sometimes, so I'll be combing through and seeing where I can add scenes and character developing moments. Though I'll focus on the latter more in my character developing edit.

So what about all of you? Which parts of your manuscripts always need the most reworking when you edit? Anyone else hate openings like I do? Let me know in the comments and happy editing!