Zap - there goes another sentence!

Paula is on a word-cutting marathon.   

I finally reached the end of the first draft of Irish Deceptions two days before Christmas and did a quick word count. Nearly 100K words, about 10K more than I was aiming for, but I wasn’t too worried. I’m very aware that I tend to over-write in a first draft, and that my characters sometimes talk too much!

A preliminary ‘quick’ edit of the whole thing brought the total down by about 800 words, but there was still a long way to go. Time to concentrate on each chapter in turn, and see what could be cut.

My main ‘rule of thumb’ is: how necessary is this speech/description/action? Does it add something to the story and/or to the reader’s understanding of the character? Is it repeating something that has already been said? Does it contain a lot of unnecessary detail?

With this in mind, I was able to either cut some of the dialogue in Chapter 1, or condense it. That’s probably the hardest part of editing, knowing what to cut and what to leave in and I’ll admit I tend to rely on my ‘gut instinct’ rather than on any writing ‘rules’. This brought the total wordage down from 4602 to 4396 – just over 200 words cut, mainly (in this particular chapter) by deleting unnecessary details.

The next step was what I call ‘tidying’ up – looking more at the ‘technicalities’ and dealing with unwieldy sentences, both in narrative and dialogue, by careful rephrasing. I also look carefully at dialogue, and try to lose some of the unnecessary words there like ‘Well’ and ‘Okay’. Doing this helps me to tighten up my writing, and I managed to lose another 150 words.

The third stage is to putting the chapter through Autocrit. One useful facility is the analysis of sentence length, and I check out any sentences longer than 30 words to see if I can split them or shorten them. Autocrit also highlights over-used and redundant words, ‘ly’ and ‘ing’ words, and unnecessary filler words like ‘then’ and ‘just’.

Last but not least, I read the chapter aloud, which is the best way of spotting ‘clunky’ sentences or dialogue that doesn’t sound right.

So yes, I’m been zapping a lot of words and sentences, and doing a lot of rewriting, with the result that after 6 or 7 hours work, I reduced the first chapter from 4602 words to 4108. Now I have to do the same with the next 24 chapters!

Z Is For Zip Line

Jennifer talks about challenging herself…

Over the summer, my husband, one of my daughters and I went on an obstacle course and zip line. I have never been so scared in my life. Even though I was attached to a harness, I was convinced I was going to die pretty much the entire time. Although my husband and daughter cheered me on, and were proud that I completed it, I vowed never to go on it again.

At the end of the obstacle course, there was a zip line. I’ve got to admit, it was pretty lame. It was short and boring, but after what I’d just been through, it was perfect. I actually enjoyed that part and it was a relief after the struggle I’d just been through.

My husband and daughter are already making plans to do the obstacle course again. I, most definitely, am not. However, as 2016 ends and I start to look ahead to 2017, the obstacle course and zip line pose a good analogy for my writing life.

2016 was a struggle for many reasons, but writing-wise, there were many ups and downs. Granted, it wasn’t as awful as the obstacle course, but there were many times when I was ready to give up. And then I simplified, readjusted my focus, got rid of some stressful activities that were hampering my ability to write. It wasn’t as easy to do as the zip line, and in fact, I’m still working on it, but compared to earlier in the year, it’s significantly easier.

Looking ahead to 2017, I hope for the zip line—smooth, easy and fun. But I’ve made it through the obstacle course, and while I never want to go through that again, I recognize it’s not impossible and there is, eventually, an end.

Wishing everyone a 2017 filled with love, laughter, health and zip lines!

ZZZZZZZ

Ana's muses on 4 am inspiration.

Lately, as I write scenes, I seem to push ahead of my main characters. I reveal too much too fast, (I think) because having plotted, I know where they are going.

I stopped last night when my hero blurted out an apology to the heroine in a hospital stairwell. His confession reverberated off the smooth stone walls. It was dramatic. But I sensed it was too soon and stopped writing. Uncertain, I decided to sleep on it.

Here's what I think this morning: They are still getting to know each other. Circling warily.

She's camped out in the ICU as her father recovers from trauma surgery. She wants him to recover fully, but knows when he does, he'll be whisked back to prison. She'll go back to regular visitations, only seeing him for an hour every two weeks.

The hero has been ordered to assess how soon her father can be transferred back to prison. But he's secretly stalling. He owes the heroine an apology, and letting her spend more time with her father is how he's decided to ease his conscience. He can't tell her what he's doing.

I shouldn't rush their growing attraction.
Thank you, 4 am inspiration.

Y is for Year in Review

Debra reflects on her writing year.

In many ways, 2016 has been a successful writing year for me.

*I released four (out of the five) novellas in my Holidays at The Corral series. And although none flew off the shelves, it was nice having a release every few months or so.

*In the spring, I participated in the BadRedHead Media 30-Day Book Marketing Challenge which had me create a Twitter account (Which I need to be better at using.) and to rethink how I use my Facebook page (I still need to work on that.) among other things.

*Valentine's Day at The Corral took third place in the IDA short contemporary category.

*This Feels Like Home was part of Amazon's July romance sale, which increased sales on that title greatly. (Still not enough by any stretch of the imagine to consider it to be 'making a living' with my writing, but it was nice to see bigger numbers in sales, at least for that title.)

*A Christmas to Remember was offered for free this past weekend as part of The Wild Rose Press's tenth anniversary celebration. (Always good for publicity.)








*And just this week I launched my crazy #sellathousand challenge for New Year's Eve at The Corral.
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*As always, I've enjoyed blogging here at HWH to share tidbits, insights, posts, encouragement, and excitement with my fellow bloggers. I am most grateful to have you all in my life.

When I look at that list, I feel pretty good. :)

However, the latter part of the year, as I've mentioned before, has been a bit frustrating in the 'getting something written' area of life, but I have high hopes that will turn around soon. It's been really nice this week delving back into 'writing life' as I've worked on getting my challenge ready. And while it hasn't (yet) nudged me enough to sit down and work on a WIP, like I said, in this season of hope and miracles, anything is possible!

As we head into the last week of the year (WHERE did the time go?!) I look forward to ushering out the old and welcoming the new with a bright new outlook.

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

Y is for Yippee!

Paula has finished her first draft – nearly!   

There have been times when I thought I would never finish this story. Some chapters seemed agonisingly slow to write. I always make a note of when I start and finish a chapter, and was quite surprised to discover that many of them only took me about two weeks (plus or minus a couple of days). I could have sworn some of them took far longer than this, but at least the later chapters have only taken about a week each.

I started this story back in January, originally set it ‘somewhere’ in North West England, and wrote five chapters. However, after a discussion with my publisher, I made the decision in early April to ‘move’ it to Ireland as the fourth stand-alone novel in my Mist Na Mara series. It took some mental adjustment and quite a lot of rewriting to make that move from a seaside town in England to Clifden in the west of Ireland, and also to link it to the Mist Na Mara Arts Centre which has featured in my other Irish books.

After I’d made the changes, I continued the story. Inevitably, because of the change of setting, it took a different course from the one I originally envisaged, and also produced several twists that I didn’t expect. Maybe by now I should be used to the characters doing things ‘their’ way since this is invariably what happens when I’m writing a first draft.

Last night, I got within a hair’s breadth of finishing the final chapter. I knew where I wanted to go with it, but it proved slightly more complex to get there than I anticipated (that’s the story of my life – and my novels!). Hopefully tonight I will finish the final scene of Irish Deceptions and be able to write The End.

But, of course, it isn’t the end. For one thing, it’s about 10K words more than I really want it to be. I aim for between 80 and 90K, but this is nearer to 100K. However, I’m well aware that I tend to overwrite scenes in the first draft, and also my characters often talk too much, so I’ll be able to shorten some of those scenes. I also have copious notes of what I need to change, add or delete in the earlier chapters.

Next I’ll embark on the process of checking for factual and continuity errors, and for plot and character development, followed by tweaking and polishing and, of course, watching out for the words and phrases I know I overuse. Last but not least comes the task of going through with a fine tooth comb searching for missed words, incorrect spelling, punctuation errors, and typos.

There is still a lot of work to do, but completing a first draft is always a big milestone. It’s the point at which I breathe a huge sigh of relief – and then settle down to the editing – which I actually enjoy more than the original writing!

Y Is For Yelling

Jennifer talks about the written word…

When my kids text me in all capital letters, I ask them why they’re yelling at me. Usually, they’re not, but they’re too lazy to turn off the “caps lock.” Sometimes they’re trying to make a point. Most times, they don’t know why I’m objecting to the way they’re texting.

When I receive emails from various people, I often wonder if they mean to sound the way I’m interpreting their messages. It’s not the words I don’t understand, but the way they are using the words and the tone that appears to come across the computer screen.

As writers, we’re expected to be word experts. We are supposed to convey emotions through what we write. We try to “show” and not “tell.” It’s a constant battle, and one that requires many rounds of editing until I think I get it right.

Yet in casual written messages—emails, texts, social media posts—I am sometimes misunderstood. So what is the difference? Am I putting less thought into the messages I send to people I care about than the words I write for the general public?  Am I reading too much into the messages I receive? And how do we fix it?

Y do I volunteer?

Ana muses about volunteering in writers groups

I live in a rural area where most out-in-the-open writers look down on romances. Don't get me wrong. They are lovely people who write passionate poems and short stories about lakes and bears, farming and fishing, freezing winters and chemotherapy.
I volunteer as a acquiring editor for their annual anthology. I proofread the layout. I buy several copies. Sometimes I enter.
I'm sure there are a few romance writers hiding in the woods, but they seem to be traumatized. I haven't been able to lure any out into the sun to form an in-person group.

So I joined From the Heart Romance Writers, an online RWA group. I signed up eagerly for their critique loop, and then lurked until I worked up the courage to critique some subs. I offered feedback for others and slowly learned what POV meant. Finally I subbed a WIP chapter. And another.

To my surprise, a year later I was asked to moderate the critique loop. I agreed. (I'm still the loop moderator, and I still critique every sub. I can see how much my writing skills have improved, and I still get great feedback on my chapters. It's a win-win.)

I was added to the board of directors loop. When term limits mandated that new volunteers should step up, I offered to serve as secretary. I shouldn't have been surprised when the position ran unopposed. Getting volunteers is hard.

I served as secretary for two years, and then RWA revised their By-laws so chapter term limits rebooted. I served as secretary again. Then the chapter needed someone to run for President.  I raised my pinkie. The gavel fell.

2017 will be my second term as President. I ran again after extracting promises from the current board to serve a second term with me. On December 31, 2017, I 'll be term limited out. I'll still help with the Pages of the Heart contest. I'll still play in the crit loop in exchange for free line editing and deep POV advice.

I've made lifelong friends online. As far as I can tell, I've banked up more good karma than bad. I can foresee a day when I'll be too engrossed in deadlines to have time to volunteer a lot. This will be okay, too.