The Editing Process

Debra is deep into edits, revisions, and rewrites.

It's been a long time since I've been so immersed in the editing process. I guess that's what happens when you haven't been writing for a long time...no words on the page equals nothing to edit. LOL

But over the summer I really dug in and committed myself to finishing the first draft of my current mss. About midway through August I got to what, then, was THE END. It felt great. After a long dry spell, to have actually completed an entire full-length (65K) word mss was nothing short of miraculous.

I really thought I'd set the mss aside for a bit, what with heading back to work I really didn't feel like I'd have time to work on it. And as I mentioned in last month's post, I was still trying to figure out what to do with it. Where I was going to submit it. Then along came my local RWA chapter's 90 Words in 90 Days Challenge. #CN90wordsfor90days For me the Challenge is doing just what it was intended to do: get my butt in a chair with my fingers on a keyboard or with pen in hand each and every day.

With the long weekend (It's the Labor Day Holiday here in the States.), no major plans, and allergies that are keeping my indoors a good deal of the time, I cranked out over 100 pages of edits since Friday night. I got to the end of the mss yesterday afternoon. I edit in hard copy, printing out a copy of the mss and putting it in a binder, always with sticky notes, highlighter, and scratch paper close at hand.

Now, most of my pages look like this:

I'm in the process of transferring all of my written notes to the computer. Along the way I'm still employing plenty of sticky notes to mark sections needing a tweak or some added research. Last night I was so pumped up and motivated to keep moving that I got through about 80 pages of transfers. Sometimes it goes quickly. Other times trying to decipher the notes written any which way in the margins is quite difficult. And, once I've added lines to various pages, the page numbers no longer match those on the computer doc, so finding my place each time isn't always easy.

I also have notes, scribbled on anything I can find lying around when an idea strikes, tucked into the front and back pockets of the binder. I'm trying to keep everything in one place.

One thing I've discovered is I need to replace the notepad next to my bed. I used the last sheet of one a couple of weeks ago and could only find a tiny pad (like we're talking two inches by three inches) in the drawer the other night. Which, I've used several times when I was desperate to not forget something that popped into my head.

I've found several places where there are some fairly major gaps in the story. This is what happens when you're a pantster and, to top it off, don't always write chronologically. So, I definitely will be doing more writing to add to the story. I've also found places where the characters' actions and reactions aren't quite 'right' for a particular scene or moment, again due that whole writing-out-of-order thing I do.

All in all, I'm having a blast with this. It's really, really nice to feel like a writer again. And for the moment, I'm keeping up with work, other projects, and writing. Hopefully that will last. I'd like to say my goal is to have this done, polished, and submitted before the end of the year. That seems like almost too much time, but I really want to make sure this one shines, so I'm going to take my time with it and not rush to get it done. Which, at this point, is really hard to have the patience to do sometimes. I keep envisioning it all done and on the shelves. Whether that's cyber or real is still yet to be known.

Until next time,

Happy Reading (or Writing or Editing),

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

Y is for New YEAR'S Eve Revisions

Debra is working on edits and revisions.

Well, I'm supposed to be working on edits and revisions. Over a month ago I received my first edit for New Year's Eve at The Corral back from my editor. It was accompanied by this note:

I enjoyed this but didn't get the satisfaction I get from your others. In such a short space you weren't able to fully develop the characters. Ideas: More physical contact while decorating in that opening. Maybe everyone sits to eat before the crowd starts arriving--even if it's lunch instead of dinner. Not sure what to suggest. Did you have a beta? Was he/she happy with it as-is?

I did not use a beta reader...I rarely do which is probably something I need to reevaluate and perhaps do more of in the future. It is shorter than my other stories - on purpose - but maybe it's a bit too short. And while it's good to know she really liked my past work, obviously this particular one needs a bit more...something. So I told her I would see what I could do. I also told her I was busy with other things and wanted to do it right and that it would take more than a weekend or a week to figure something out. She said that was fine.

To be honest, I haven't done much with it aside from taking a passing moment or two and asking myself how I'm going to add some oomph and character development to this story. Between the end of the school year and some other projects I've been working on, writing has taken a back seat. (In fact I totally forgot about the release date for Fourth of July at The Corral until it was literally a day away.) This isn't unusual, I feel that my writing career goes in phases of spurts and stops from time to time. And to be honest, I'm okay with that. I always seems to have ideas in my head for stories, but I don't always have the drive to get them down in written format. When I do have the drive, I go full steam ahead.

Yesterday, however, I got a 'checking in' e-mail from my editor asking how it was going. It had been over a month since I'd been in contact with her, so she probably was wondering if I'd dropped off the face of the earth. I told her it was coming slowly (if a standstill can be considered 'slow') but now that summer vacation had officially started I had time to dedicate to the project.

So...today I'm doing a read-through. It's been a while since I've read the story, so hopefully coming at it with fresh eyes will help me to see opportunities to strengthen the story, more fully develop the characters, and really make it pop. I feel like I know my characters pretty well, since they've been appearing in the other books in the series for a few years now, but obviously a reader picking up this story for a read-alone is going to need a bit more to go on.

And so there's Goal Number One for summer writing.

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

M is for Merry Christmas (and Mixed Up!)

Debra is two rounds into holiday edits.

Outside, spring is springing. Tulip and daffodil leaves are peeking out of the soil. The grass is getting green in spots. The weather is warming up. (Not quite as warm as the Caribbean, but that's another story...) It was nice enough yesterday to take a drive with the top down on my convertible.

Inside, however, snow is falling. Wreathes decorate doors. Presents are being wrapped. And candy canes, not jelly beans, are the candy of choice.

My seasons are definitely mixed up at the moment. But that's okay, because I'm in the second round of edits for Christmas at The Corral. The title will release for the holiday season later this year. And when I write a holiday story, I like to pile on the holiday cheer. I've read so-called Christmas stories that if it weren't for the word 'Christmas' in the title, I really would have no idea they were supposed to be holiday stories. People won't ever make that mistake with a holiday story of mine. I include as many cozy, holiday details as possible. I want my readers to feel as though they are immersed in the holiday, experiencing it for themselves.

In Christmas at The Corral there's holiday music playing at the bar, poinsettias decorate the tables, the bar mirror is draped with holly and garland. My hero and heroine cut down a Christmas tree and decorate it. A light dusting of snow covers the ground, and Main Street is decked out with twinkle lights. I've even used Christmas references to compare things when I'm in my heroine's POV: Like...The euphoria and aura of contentment from their dance vanished quicker than fifty percent off Christmas items from the shelves on December 26. Or...The scent of his aftershave sent her pulse skittering like Santa's reindeer on a slippery roof.

We have a tentative tag line of: Is the magic of Christmas enough to bring two reluctant hearts together?

I have more holiday stories planned for this series (Fourth of July, Valentine's Day, Halloween, New Year's Eve) and you can be sure they'll be as chock full of holiday references as this one. It's just the way I roll. :)

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

Galley a Go Go

Debra is one step closer to finishing the final stretch of things to do on One Great Night.

Over the weekend I received the galley files for One Great Night from my editor. I was a little surprised, because I thought I'd be seeing the project in pre-galley format first, but I guess we skipped that step. Now's the time for looking at minute mistakes: misspellings, grammatical errors, misplaced punctuation, etc. Essentially line edits. It's not the time for changing anything about the story or even rephrasing lines or substituting words.

It's exciting and scary all at the same time. It's exciting because a galley is almost the last step before getting a release date. (I'm still waiting on a cover, too.) It's a bit scary because the time for tweaking and changing has passed. The story won't be changing...even in a small way...at this point. It is what it is.

Because of that, I approach this step of editing in a different way. Instead of reading from the beginning to the end, I read from the end to the beginning. I start with the last page. This way, my mind is not wrapped up in the story, and those pesky errors I mentioned tend to stand out more. Another way to do it is to read all of the odd pages and then all of the evens. Anything that breaks the flow of narrative.

I think no matter what the stage, everyone has their own system for editing. I've been to lots of sectionals and heard lots of presentations on it, but it really all comes down to finding what works for you. Writing is a very personal thing. Even in the editing stage.

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

Warp Speed?

Things are moving along quickly with Debra's One Great Night.

Received contract signed by the owner of The Wild Rose Press. check

Received, filled out, and sent Manuscript Information Sheet and Cover Art Information Sheet. check

Received first round edits from my editor. check

Worked through her suggestions and sent them back. check

Received second round edits from my editor. check

Looked through them. check

Will work on my end of second round edits when I return from being out of town. in progress

Yep. Things are scurrying along. Good times!

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

Making More Progress

Debra is pleased with what she's accomplished with her WIP.

This week I had the highlighters, pens, and sticky notes out. I did a read-through of the mss for "One Great Night", marking and noting things along the way. Since then I've gone back and added things to places that needed additions and tweaked things that weren't working, whether it was a phrase or the overall feel of the scene. For the most part, I feel the story is in good shape. Having written it all out of order, I was pleased to find there were only two scenes that needed to switch places.

I also spent some fun research time looking up quotes from Eighties Movies. My characters have a little game they play back and forth. I had left notes on the mss like, 'need a movie quote here', so it was a blast to hunt down just the right one and put it in the context of the story.

Now that all of the hand notations are done, I'll take the mss and transfer the pen markings to the computer version. After that it will be time for 'one-at-a-time' edits: going through the mss using the find function and eliminating and changing certain over-used words. Once that's complete, I'll go through the formatting steps from my publisher. In the meantime, in addition to getting the revisions transferred, I need to be working on a synopsis as well. These used to scare me, but I found a system which gives me a pretty good handle on them.

Then will come the moment of reckoning when I send it off to my editor. The project will be in her capable hands for a while, after which she will hopefully offer me a contract. After which a whole new process will begin.

Fun times!

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

Family Secrets - coming August 1 - available NOW in paperback from The Wild Rose Press

Polishing Things Up

Debra is delighted with all of the changes going on around her.

Earlier this week I received the second round of edits for Family Secrets. My editor did a once-through a couple of weeks ago and sent the file back to me. I went through her comments with a fine toothed comb and make corrections, deletions, and additions where necessary and sent the mss back. This time through, the mss looks a little cleaner. It's been put into a different format and most of the track changes have been hidden. This makes it far easier to focus on new things that need to be attended to. I've done a cursory glance through and will sit down and tackle things in earnest over the weekend. But things are shaping up and looking great in the editing and polishing department.

On the home front I came home today and found my hubby had cleared out, cleaned, and scrubbed the upstairs bathroom. He'd also repainted all of the trim and the ceiling and is now working on the walls. This is a much needed polishing up, as the room was beginning to look a bit dingy around the corners. Now if I can only talk him into putting in the new floor...I just don't like the tile in there...this weekend, things will be jolly all around.

Pencils, pen, paper, and computers are the tools of my trade. Brushes, cloths, and cans are the tools of his. Each produces a lovely finished product. And isn't it so awesome to see the fruits of your labor shine? Pretty soon I'll have a brand new book ready to head out to my faithful readers, and I'll have a sparkling new bathroom, too. Gotta love it!

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

Is There Such a Thing as a Final Edit?

This morning I completed my edits on the galley for This Feels Like Home. This time through, we weren't looking for editing choices, but formatting and other errors. Even at this stage of the game, the mss has been through several other rounds of edits, I found a few mistakes. That always amazes me, because it seems like no matter how many sets of 'eyes' look at a mss, it never seems to be enough. I feel fortunate that my books go through many rounds of edits with my editor at TWRP. With Home, not only did it go through the regular round of edits, it also went through several rounds of revisions before being offered a contract. And of course before I even submitted it, I went through it several times with a fine tooth come. But, no matter how fine the teeth, something always seems to get through.

For each round of the official, post-contract edits, we look for different things, so perhaps that's what gets in the way of finding those lingering pesky errors. In the first round, in addition to correcting typos and such we were also making changes to phrasing and story continuity. The second round was a bit more of the same. Both of these rounds are done with the 'track changes' feature in Word, so perhaps that's why some of the misspellings and incorrect punctuation slip through. It's sometimes difficult to see those kinds of mistakes with all of the strike-throughs and comments on the page as well.

After that we got to the pre-galley stage. Here we were focused on mainly spelling and usage errors, but if I really, really wanted to edit/revise something, I could, so long as those types of changes were kept to a minimum. In the galley stage it was strictly for errors. No revising allowed. I found an extra set of quotation marks around some dialogue, the word glace instead of glance, a blank line, and two places where italics should have been used but hadn't been. Now the italics should have been fixed in the pre-galley and weren't, but no biggie. And the blank line was simply a formatting issue. But the misused word and the extra punctuation...how in the world had those been missed when I've looked at the mss a million times, my editor has looked at the mss a million times, and the copy edit department had a read-through?

And of course I found places where I wanted to change something, but knew at this stage that I couldn't. At this point, the story is told and nothing about that is going to change. This happens with every story, right? Eventually you just need to let it go and send it out into the world. If we were allowed to, I think we'd keep editing and revising and editing and revising forever...and then no one would ever get to read our books. And wouldn't that be a sad state of affairs?! :)

My editor thanked me for taking the time to go through the mss so thoroughly again. The next step will be to send it to production for the PDF of the final release format (There may or may not be an approval step in there.) and a release date. Yippie! (The galley showed a copyright of 2014, so I'm guessing early next year.) I know I'll be tempted to look through that ready-to-be-published copy when I get it, and I'm sure I'd find a few errors that were missed. But, at that point it will be too late to do anything about it. If there are mistakes, I guess I have to chalk it up to everyone's human and everyone makes mistakes. And I know for a fact my book won't be the only one out there with errors. I'll just have to grimace and bear it when I do my first read-through of the book when I have the paperback in my eager little hands!

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

A Difference of Opinion

I am knee deep on my first round of edits for This Feels Like Home. In the long run I don't mind edits because the end result will be a better book, but this is my first time through working with a new editor, and that makes things, shall we say?, interesting. In my time with TWRP this is the third editor I've worked with, and each one has created something of a new learning curve as I get a feel for their preferences and style.

My current editor doesn't like too many pronouns.

My first editor did not like the conjunction 'and' as she said many times two particular actions can't always be happening at the same time. She closed the door and sat down. Which makes sense. So with her, I used a lot of 'then' structures. She closed the door, then sat down.

My newest editor is the opposite. She does not like the 'then' structure, but prefers the 'and' formation. (Or the 'take your pick of another conjunction' formation: and then, but, so, :, two separate sentences.) Most of the comments on the mss state 'Use a conjunction'. At this point, (I'm about halfway through) if I hit a page when I don't see that phrase, I am literally jumping for joy.

She's also removed some wordiness and taken out some of the description of action type lines. She said it's nice to lend authenticity, but to stick with things that really show character. Whenever she deletes something, she leaves a comment explaining why. Some phrasing simply needs to be tightened or rewritten. In these spots she's offered suggestions, but has ultimately left it to me to make the decision. She also told me if I ever disagree with something she's changed or deleted, to add a comment (Edits should always be done with the 'track changes' feature on.) explaining why I want it to remain. There are a few changes/deletions that I do disagree with and will let her know, but I am picking and choosing those that are most important to me.

Although the edits seem to be taking a long time, just by virtue of the fact that I have little time each day to work on them, I know in the end I will have a story that's the best it can be. From round one we'll continue to round two and so on, each time tweaking a little something more, until we get to that final stage of approving the galley. Which is always exciting.

In other news I am still waiting on a cover and release date for The Vampire and the Vixen. When I asked my editor about it a couple of weeks ago, she said the cover was coming 'momentarily'. Apparently our definitions may be crossed on that term. But I'm trying to be patient. Working on Home has been a nice distraction.

And speaking of, I need to get back to work on that mss...

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com