Editing, the Process: Finishing a Story

First of all, before I start posting, I would like to point out a few key points.

• These posts are just my opinion. This is what works for me, and may help you along, but you do not need to follow them like they are a guide. I don't believe that there is only one way to edit.
• These posts are for novelists. Not that I don't think they would work for a short story, I've only ever used this method with longer works.
• These posts are ordered the way that I have done them. I thought this process through carefully, knowing what would help the most at the first and last stages of editing. Keep this in mind when you are editing. Everyone is good at different things, and you need to take your strengths and weaknesses into consideration while editing.

Okay, now that all that is over, I will get on with my post.

One of the most important things you must do when you are considering starting to edit is to finish your story. It seems like such an obvious thing. Sadly, though, I have fallen prey to the write some, edit some technique and it did more harm than good. I have to start small when I move from editing to writing, writing blurbs, reading others' works, working my way back up to novel-ing (Yes, I'm pretty sure its not a real word.). I can't switch back and forth between the two with any amount of ease, and I've found that aside from hitting dead ends and finding where I need to cut back to, I cannot do any editing until my story is finished. It may be the same for you. Another really great thing about finishing the story before you start editing, is it gives you an amazing boost, almost like a high that pushes you to continue.

After all that effort, I like to read what I wrote, then convince myself not to throw it away. I take my time with that first read-through. I make tons of notes along the way. I also try to correct any spelling errors and major grammar blunders along the way. This takes time. My first draft of "A Place Called Earth" was only 50,000 words long and the first read-through took me nearly a month. I was working on it for at least a couple hours a day. When you aren't paying attention to these things when you write it, it gets written quickly, but you find out after that, there is a lot of deciphering involved. Lastly, I try to make notes of anything big I want to change, or important details that I think I need to add. Of course, the more important details come later. Other things I try to consider on this read-through are things that look more like telling (the ultimate writing boo-boo), and POV issues. "How would he know what she's thinking?!"

Finally, something I find important in this edit, is referencing. When I start a story, I don't create a plot line. I give myself the beginning and let it go from there. I do, however, do extensive character outlines. Someday I will show you my questionaire. Anyway, the reason I do these things at the beginning, is because once I know the things like place and hair-color and whatnot are right, I forget about them. One less thing for me to worry about!

There are tons of great word processing programs out there. My favorite is Microsoft Word. In this edit, my favorite thing to do is use the red bubbles to keep notes (almost like sticky notes) and the highlighter to keep track of where I have a word repeated too often.

This whole little process, I find takes me a while. I disect every paragraph before I can move on. If you do happen to follow this, expect this step to take at least a month, maybe two. Don't be disappointed when it seems to take forever. The next time you read through, it will make more sense and will look exponentially better.

TOMORROW: Post two of this series about narration and setting! Until then. :)

Character Interview Blogfest

After a lot of arguments with all the voices bouncing through my head about who wanted to do the interview and who I wanted to do the interview, I've finally managed to get Joanna to semi-cooperate for the Character Interview Blogfest. Joanna is the MC of a unusual story. Not many would consider her good. In fact, you may remember her from the Bad Girl Blogfest. This was our first interview where I realized there was a little more to Joanna than meets the eye.

Me: Tell us a little about yourself.

Joanna: This is ridiculous. I'm not doing it.

Me: We agreed.

Joanna: *sighs* fine. What do you want to know?

Me: Where were you born and have you moved around a lot since then?

Joanna: I think I was born in Manhatten. I can't be entirely sure. I like the New York area, but I've also lived in London and Paris. Bigger cities are definitely preferable to small towns.

Me: Why is that?

Joanna: For obvious reasons.

Me: Umm... that was insightful. What do you do for a living?

Joanna: I rob banks.

Me: Wow, so forthcoming. Why do you rob banks?

Joanna: I always had this desire to be more notorious than the greats. Jessie James, Bonnie and Clyde. But its more than that. If I do it once, then I have the opportunity to outdo myself over and over again.

Me: Aren't you worried about going to jail?

Joanna: *smirking* I've got nothing to fear from jail. It is just a small slice of forever.

Me: Interesting. So, what else have you done in your life?

Joanna: I used to be a part of a feminist movement. Suffrage and all that.

Me: You don't look more than 25, how could you have been a part of that... that was decades ago!

Joanna: Time means so little to me anymore. A year for you is like a blink of the eye for me.

Me: How old are you exactly?

Joanna: Hmm... I believe I was born on Valentine's Day in 1941.

Me: How is that possible?

Joanna:  Time passes quickly when you're immortal. I was just a baby when Pearl Harbor was bombed. It didn't mean much to me, even though my dad died in that war. My mom was never the same after that. She didn't really care what we did. My older brother took care of me. Introduced me to his friends when I was twelve or thirteen. I liked them. They didn't treat me like a kid. They let me help them. One of them showed me how to do a lot of the little things I know how to do today. Of course, we didn't have things like security cameras back then. It was much easier to get away with robbery.

Me: So, when did you become immortal?

Joanna: A few weeks after I had turned twenty-one, I was the lookout for a job. It was a cold night. A beautiful man came up to me. He looked like he was hurting. He kept complaining about the thirst. I hd no idea what he wanted to drink was me. I tried to give him change. Even though his face wasn't like anyone's I had ever seen, he still reeked of death and looked like a bum. He attacked me when I put a dime in his hand. I thought he was crazy for biting me, and I tried to fight him off. It didn't work. He killed me. I don't know why he changed me. Brought me back to life with his life-blood. I've never seen it as a curse though. I love this new life. I love the power. I love being able to do whatever I want.


Well, that's it for now. There's more interview there, but I didn't want to go on for the other six pages. Anyway, I hoped you liked the interview.

Family Vs. Writing

I have a few things to get through in this post, so bear with me. I have one post request from Harley D. Palmer, not to mention I will be doing my first blog schedule for some posts I'm planning for next week! So, let's get started!

Harley asked me to do a post about dealing with character that won't shut up and taking care of my kids. For those of you that don't know me from WDC or Twitter, I have four kids. Two boys, 10 and 7, and two girls, 6 and 3. My youngest daughter spends all her time with me, while the other three kids, have a different parent that they spend half their time with. Its complicated. I love my kids. And they're a lot of work. For those of you who are non-parents, being a Mom or Dad is definitely a full-time job. Four is utter chaos most of time. Between dressing, feeding, bathing, school, and the bed time routine there isn't a lot of time for much else. Especially when they don't like doing the same things. I'm lucky if I can find a movie that all of them are willing to watch!

I've always been a story-teller. The best proof of this I can give was my accomplished skill as a liar at a young age. Since I moved out of my parents house, that skill has turned into something good. I can create people in my head and worlds that I see in my dreams.Characters are, by far, my favorite. When I'm thinking about characters, it seems to me, more often I think about thier personality before I know what they look like. I've never been great at visualization. I still remember when the teachers would tell me, "Close your eyes and imagine..." Umm... no. I can't see without the color. A lot of times when I imagine things, my eyes are wide open and a specteral image is floating before me.

I sometimes worry that I am losing my mind a little with my characters. They just don't shut up until the story is done. To this day, I have at least three voices that are with me constantly. Even now, Vera is saying, "That's right. And you best not forget it."

For me, it isn't really about finding balance. When I start a story, it stays with me. If I have some amazing breakthrough for the plot I don't forget it. The characters themselves are there to remind me that this is what we agreed on. Yep, its that bad. I have to run it by them before I can write it. Usually with some explaination as to why they are going to be suffering at my hand. Sadly, the family has witnessed this, too. Everyone in my house, and a few of my closer friends have learned not to interrupt me when I'm having an arguement with myself. "Just leave Mommy alone for a few minutes and she'll stop." ;)

I try to keep it to myself while the kids are awake. I write notes to myself, excuse myself to my bedroom so no one has to see it. My youngest thinks its funny. Hey, whatever I can do to amuse her is worth it. Even if it calls into question my sanity. But that's saying that I was actually sane at some point... After its all said and done, my writing occurs after my kids are asleep and when the boyfriend is at work. This gives me about 4 hours of writing time on nights that I have to go to bed early for work and about 6 hours other nights. That is... when I'm not goofing off. :)

Anyway, I have a schedule for next week. I need to take a few days off of blogging to finish up this edit because it's going really well. When I come back, I want to discuss the whole process. I'd love feedback from everyone about how they do it too! I think it helps other writers to know what is and isn't working for their peers. So, keep an eye out on these posts and have some ideas ready of your own.

Monday, June 14th - Finishing a story.
Tuesday, June 15th - Narration and Setting
Wednesday, June 16th - Second Read and Revision
Thursday, June 17th - Passive Vs. Active Voice
Friday, June 18th - Beta Readers

This schedule will show up on the side bar of the blog before Monday. I don't know exactly what time these posts will be published. It depends on my schedule at work. I will try to have them up before 8 pm each day. That's the best I can do.

Practical Joke Blogfest

So, we've all had a month or so to prepare for this event. The Practical Joke Blogfest is here! I'm excited, aren't you?

I couldn't find anything in any of my own writing that was worty of the blogfest so I decided to come up with something special. Here we go.



Maya looked around the small room, noting just how thuroughly her mother had cleaned the bathroom. She gingerly prodded her nose, noting the rubbery texture. With a small grimmace she shook her head and clambered into the cupboard under the sink. She snorted. Can't believe I still fit in here.

The movie was almost over. She strained her ears to hear the credits, ignoring the throbbing in her knees. Joe would be coming in at any moment. She watched him squirming in his seat for nearly ten minutes. She excused herself, unable to watch anymore of the gore-fest. Her teeth ground together at his loud guffaws. She couldn't wait to see his face--to see who would be having the last laugh.

The door swung open. Joe's rubber-soled shoes squeeked on the tile floor, getting slightly louder the closer he came to her hiding spot. Her heart throbbed in her ears. She stared wide-eyed at a small splinter of light coming through the door. Her breathing hitched and sped wildly. Prodding slowly along her temple, she found a seam. Digging her long finger nail in, she peeled a portion away from her hairline.

A sigh issued from outside the cupboard. Joe's booming voice startled her as he yelled. "Hey Mom, where's the TP?"

Maya pushed the small plastic-wrapped package forward. Her mother's voice carried to her muted by the layers of wood and drywall between them. "It's under the sink."

The door swung away from her. Joe's thick face appeared in front of her. She forced a strangled gasp from her throat and tore at the green mud mask the clung to her skin. It crumbled and peeled away from her face. Joe's eyes widened and he backed away. He didn't seem to able to look away. His mouth fell open, but no noise escaped him. His feet shuffled back until he hit the tub and he toppled over into it. Flopping around for a moment, he finally managed to get to his feet and with a small glance over his shoulder and a whimper, he fled from the room. "Mom! HELP ME!"

Maya crawled out from under the sink and collapsed on the floor clutching her side while the laughter bubbled up from her chest.



Hope you all liked it! Now you should all go check out everyone else that signed up!

Rant/Confession

Sadly, I have no questions to answer for today. If you missed my last post, you should check it out and throw in some questions about my personal life for tomorrow. They would be greatly appreciated. Just a quick reminder before I get to my real reason for posting.

Here it is. Work. I don't really talk about work for a variety of reasons. The biggest being that I signed a form when I started prohibiting me from really talking about the place. Which is fine (I won't use a company name). I am a manager at my store and basically make sure that a few shifts a week run smoothly. It isn't difficult with the few people that I interact with on a regular basis, and the rest don't know me well enough to push limits and regulations around me. And although our handbook boasts promoting from within, I'm one of the few that has actually been promoted. Lately, it has been fellow management that has been my source of stress.

I am still "new" as far as the workplace goes. Even among many of the lower level employees, I haven't been there as long. Sometimes I feel that other people at my pay grade have felt they could use this to take advantage of me. I work a lot of opening shifts so it is usually my duty to get the store ready to open every day, including counting the previous days cash, taking deposits to the bank, pulling toppings, and doing prep. While it is not okay for me to leave until all these things are done, it is okay for the closing manager to leave me things to put away the next morning without so much as a note saying why it didn't get done, or (regretfully) an apology. Sometimes I'm busy, I understand that I'm not alone in that, but at least have the courtesy to mention these things, like I've done for them when the occasion called for it.

Communication at work is awful. I feel like I'm the last person to hear about new deals for customers or new procedures. The most recent is having our delivery drivers take food and coupons to local businesses. The drivers for the most part don't mind this so long as they are being compensated for the time in some way. I found out, though, that as managers, we can't be doing this and getting caught doing so would result in being terminated. What's my problem with it? My drivers are tipped employees. They make less than minimum wage and are expected to claim enough tips at the end of their shifts to get them to or above federal min. wage. Sadly, many of them do not reach this amount, being that we're in a college town and over half of the city is gone home for summer vacation. So what happens when they don't claim enough in tips. By law, payroll is required to pay them extra so they are making minimum wage. But when this happens, they get their hours cut for the next week.

So, in short, the drivers have to take these freebies to local businesses while they are on the clock making less than minimum wage, not be compensated, and expected to claim tips for that time even though they can't possibly be making money doing it. Then to top it all off, if they don't lie, they lose hours. I don't think that many of them even know this! Sadly, in this industry, many of the employees are seriously undereducated. And without some secondary education in business law or accounting, how would they know what's happening is illegal! What has higher management said about this? "Claim the correct amount of tips, and it will all average out in the end."

I don't know what to do about this situation. I know I should say something to someone, but I want to give the people higher on the food chain a chance to explain themselves or change the policies before I go to drastic measures. Therefore, I've been spending my time over the last couple weeks looking up payroll laws for tipped employees. I've been checking laws regarding whistle-blowers. I want to make sure that I'm not going to lose my job, and that my employees are getting what they deserve.

Sorry, I rambled for so long. What do you think about this? What would you do if you were in this situation?

Empty Headed

Sadly, there have been a lot of things going on in my life lately that are out of my control. Its made it difficult for me to really focus on my writing and blogging. Even poor Twitter has suffered my absense. :: mutters apologies to Twitter :: Anyway, I have nothing. No ideas really to speak of. As I say this, I know I could open up "A Place Called Earth" and get going on that rewrite, but I can't let myself become too involved with the computer screen right now. So I've decided to leave things up to you, the readers/followers/potential stalkers. What do you want to know? What have you been dieing to hear about from me? I'm giving you a whole week to get in as many questions as you can. They can be about writing, or about me (although I reserve the right to keep some things personal, thanks), or anything really. Sadly, I don't know how to solve for time travel, but if you want to ask me about that, I'll be happy to BS my way through it. :)

So here it is, the schedule of events for the answers:
Wednesday, June 2: Any question about writing will be answered.
Thursday, June 3: Any personal question will be answered.
Friday, June 4: Questions about my sanity will be answered. (-aka- any other questions)
Saturday, June 5: Any posting requests will be given a schedule date.

Also, I would like to remind everyone that the Practical Joke Blogfest is coming up in a couple weeks! If you haven't signed up yet, you should do that right now!

Check these out!

Sorry, I already need to get off topic... Even just reading it and knowing its not quite the same, seeing (or hearing) "Check it out!" always makes me think of "Sonny with a Chance." I love that show. Also, because I want you all to realize just how big of a dork I really am, I like "Wizards of Waverly Place" too. Why? Because they're honestly good family shows that teach you something. There is always a moral in each episode. It is exactly for this reason that Power Rangers and Spongebob is not allowed in my house. (Okay, there may be some bias going on there too... hard to say)

Anyway, now that I've gotten my distraction out of the way, I need to tell EVERYONE about a couple of blogs I stumbled on today. Both of them are sponsering really great giveaways of ARCs of soon to be released novels! How awesome is that? I want, I want. I really shouldn't even mention it, all the more chance for me to be a winner and not you. But, I'm just not that selfish.. So, here they are.

The first I stumbled upon was for Kiersten White. She's giving away a copy of her novel,  PARANORMALCY. I wish I could say I was surprised by the number of people that have already entered her contest, but I'm not. In fact, I'm a little surprised there aren't more. When this book hits shelves in September it is going to be a huge hit. JMO.

The second contest/giveaway is over on Frenetic Reader. An extra ARC of Nightshade by Andrea Cremer is up for grabs. From what is posted in the blog, it looks very interesting. Unfortunately, I don't know many details about this one, but still... I wants to win.

So, you should all go check these out, and maybe you'll decide that I should win and consider having these ARCs sent to me if you win. ;)