IWSG: Second-Guessing Your Work

 Summer seems to leave as quickly as it comes. Here we are at August already, which means the school year will be starting soon for many children. Of course, we must mark the new month with another post for the Insecure Writer's Support Group. If you're not already familiar with them (though I assume most of you reading this post are here because of the IWSG), you can learn more about them on their website or Facebook page.

Our hosts this month are Kate Larkindale, Diane Burton, Janet Alcorn, and Shannon Lawrence.

Here's our question for August: Have you ever written something that afterwards you felt conflicted about? If so, did you let it stay how it was, take it out, or rewrite it?

I think it's quite common for writers to feel conflicted about their work, particularly if they're writing about something political or controversial. One example from my writing career comes from Twinned Universes. In an early draft, the quartet of main and secondary teenage characters experience an episode of casual racism. (Two of them are obviously biracial and one is less obviously multiracial. While they're shopping for clothes, the store owner assumes they're planning to steal from her.) My white editor thought this kind of thing didn't happen, and I rewrote the scene to remove the incident. Several years later, it finally occurred to me that due to white privilege, she wouldn't have personal experience with this kind of racism. I debated restoring that incident but decided it didn't work as well anymore in the revised scene. However, the heroine of my Abigail Ritter Cozy Mystery series is half Filipina, and I do include in this series incidents where she wishes she was blonde or where other people don't believe that she was really born in a small Wisconsin town. 

Have you changed your work due to someone else's suggestion and then wished you hadn't? Feel free to talk about it in the comments.

 

 

 

Continuity Crises

The final eBook of Murder at Magic Lake is due Saturday for Amazon. My proof copy arrived last week, right as work got extra busy. I finally finished reviewing the proof last night. As you can see from the photo below, I have quite a few corrections to make. 

Besides catching typos and tweaking phrases, I also use the final draft to catch continuity errors. For example, did I spell a person's name the same way throughout? Did I change a description or number from one page to the next? These may be small details, but they're noticeable, whether the book is traditionally or independently published. If you're not careful, details can change between book to book, or even in the same paragraph.

When I first started writing, I kept most of my world-building details in my head. These days, I try to be more diligent about writing them down in a separate document. When all else fails, I'll search my story if necessary to make sure my details are consistent.

What's the strangest or funniest continuity error you've noticed in a book, either in your own or in one you've read? Feel free to share in the comments.

Proof Copy--Before and After

Last Saturday, I received the proof copy of Summon the Seasons:

This is what it looked like about a week later: 

The good thing about being an indie writer is that you can make changes all the way up to the deadline. The bad thing about being an indie writer is that you can make changes all the way up to the deadline. While I did find a few typos, missing words, and other issues that really need to be fixed, the majority of the changes amount to a second line edit. (The Post-It notes on the side of the book aren't things to change, but possible pull quotes to use in promotion. The note color is irrelevant.) Unfortunately, there are some formatting issues with the front matter to fix as well.

I'm confident I can make the edits by October 5th, when Amazon needs the final version for the eBook. Those preorders should be fine. (Let's hope I'm not jinxing myself here.)  I'm debating if I want to order a second physical proof or review it online and try to get physical books for an event on October 14th. The risk there is that the books might not be formatted properly--after all, I went through multiple rounds of online reviews before I thought I had the front matter set up correctly. In the long run, however, it's probably better to do it right than do it fast.

What's your proofing process? Feel free to share it in the comments.

Insecure Writer's Support Group: Pet Peeves

Every month, writers at all stages of their careers discuss an issue that affects them all. To learn more about the Insecure Writer's Support Group, visit them on their website, Facebook group, or Goodreads Book Club. The hosts for this month's discussion are Christine Rains (no website available), Dolarah, Ellen, Yvonne Ventresca,  and LG Keltner.

We've been posed the following question this month: What are your pet peeves when reading/writing/editing?

Reading: People talking to me when I'm trying to focus, seeing mixed-up homonyms like "phase" and "faze,"  inconsistencies with details, and inaccuracies.

Writing: Being interrupted when I'm writing or trying to write, having Microsoft Word (particularly on my netbook) be unresponsive when I'm trying to type and ending up with gibberish (uninstalling or inactivating programs I didn't want reduced the frequency of this annoyance), and having the cursor bounce around onscreen when I'm trying to write in a moving vehicle.

Editing--Finding mistakes after multiple rounds of editing. Double peeve points for mistakes that end up in the published story.

Feel free to share your own pet peeves in the comments below.

Got a Guest Post or Something to Promote?

Remember how last week I blogged about outlining my next urban fantasy series before starting to write it? Well, I do have some notes on the final book, but I couldn't resist diving into the first book, currently called Dryads to Discover. I'm not very far into it, as I haven't got much writing done at home the last few evenings. Still, it's a start. I'm also working on three crochet projects (I need to finish two Star Wars characters by this Saturday and a blanket by Labor Day weekend) and going through Summon the Seasons again for another round of edits. All of this sure keeps me busy, though it doesn't necessarily inspire me with interesting material for the blog. So...anyone else want to propose topic for a guest post? Or do you have a science fiction/fantasy book you'd like to promote? Please let me know in the comments. In the meantime, I have some writing and crocheting to do.

Editing Quotas

Although I have a new story in progress, I'm actually spending most of my writing time editing Summon the Seasons and the Young Seasons short story collection. It's hard to gauge progress when you're editing. While you can aim for a consistent number of new words when you're drafting something new, editing isn't as straightforward. I'm not only replacing text, but I'm also removing some scenes entirely. (The current word count for Summon the Seasons is about 91,000 words, down from about 95,000 for the first draft.) Some scenes also require more extensive editing than others. While I'm spending a lot of time revising the opening of the book, I don't anticipate changing the ending so much. Maybe this is why the do-it-yourself MFA I discussed last week doesn't mention editing what you write.

Instead of trying to set a daily page or word count for editing, I'm going to set goal dates for myself. I'd like to finish editing Young Seasons by the end of March and Summon the Seasons by the end of June. It's up to me to determine how to spend my writing time to meet those goals, especially since I also have to factor in the first draft of the new story and all of my other non-writing tasks and goals. We'll see if I can make those goals.

Do you set editing goals for your own stories? If so, what criteria do you use? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Kindle Editing

I've decided it's time to start editing Chaos Season, the next book in the Season Avatars series. The first step I take in editing is rereading the entire work. These days, I like to do that on my Kindle. By sending it to my Kindle, I can read it in a different format so I can read it with a fresh eye. I can also check formatting at the same time. Whenever I see something I want to add, change, or delete, I highlight it and type a note. It works well for line-item edits but not so well for larger edits, which is what I should really be working on at this stage. However, I can at least take mental notes of sections I want to change. Even though I need to revise the opening chapter (it currently starts right at the end of Scattered Seasons; I need to move the action forward a bit to skip some of the less interesting bits), I still wound up making a lot of line comments on lines that will probably be deleted. It may not be the most efficient way to edit, but I may be better at seeing smaller issues than larger ones. I may need to outline the current draft to check for other plot problems before I revise.

How do you edit your work? Do you use a Kindle or some other way to view it differently?

Line Edits: Eight Ways to Reduce Your "Buts"

I had Monday off, so even though my son was home too, I managed to finish the first set of revisions of Scattered Seasons. (It's with beta readers at the moment. I already heard back from two of them, and I should get the rest of the comments by next month.) Most of the revisions were minor, but I had to remove a lot of "buts," not just from the middle of sentences, but also when I used it as the first word. The reason I wound up removing "buts" is because there were places where I used three or four of them close together, and it distracted my beta reader. All before and after comparisons listed below are from Scattered Seasons.

Most of the time, "but" is used to join two independent clauses into one compound sentence. In those instances, there are three obvious ways to eliminate the "but":

1. Split the compound sentence into two simple sentences.


(Before) “The Hall of Records in Wistica sends us information about future Avatars when they're born, but we’ll have to search through her office for the records.”   


(After) “The Hall of Records in Wistica sends us information about future Avatars when they're born. We’ll have to search through her office for the records.” 

2. Replace the "but" with a semicolon. (This may change the relationship of the sentences. Some people feel that semicolons don't belong in fiction; I say they can work if handled properly.)

(Before) She must have done it in other lives, but would she be able to do it in this one?

(After) She must have done it in other lives; would she be able to do it in this one?

 3. Replace the "but" with a semicolon and a "however," with a comma after "however." (This approach keeps the meaning intact but still bothers the semicolonphobes. I'm sure I had an example of this; however, it would take too long to find it again.)

If you're willing to rewrite your sentences, you can come up with some other ways to remove the "but."

4. Rewrite one of the independent clauses. (In the example below, I moved a phrase from the second sentence to the first. I had some other examples where I made the second clause dependent on the first.)


(Before) Aunt Gabri joined them as well. Her color was too pale, but she watched Kron as if she shared Gwen’s suspicions.


(After) Aunt Gabri joined them despite her pale complexion. She watched Kron as if she shared Gwen’s suspicions.

5. Change the "but" to an em dash. This may require a rewrite.


(Before) She wished she could study the pot close-up, but she wasn’t sure if it was safe to do so. 

(After) She wished she could study the pot close-up—if it was safe to do so.

Finally, you can remove the word (6) (if it's at the beginning of the sentence), one of the independent clauses (7), or the entire sentence (8). Here's an example of number 7:

(before) I understand, dear, but you keep driving and driving yourself without a break. 

(After) You keep driving and driving yourself without a break.  

I wound up removing between a third and a half of the marked "buts." Of course, I'm still sensitive to the word and keep finding more instances that no longer feel appropriate in context.

Are there any particular words that bother you when they're used too much?