Editing Your Book - A Loathsome Task or An Opportunity to Make YourBook Shine?

You've just finished your first draft of the most amazing thing you have ever written and now it's time to edit.  You think, "this can't be hard, I'm a talented writer who knows what they are doing".  Then you start reading your work of art only to realize that your fast typing fingers have made weird mistakes that spell check didn't catch and there seems to be a few words missing that are important to the sentences.  That's when you realize, "Crap, now I have to pay attention to every letter on the screen to make sure that this book makes sense."  Welcome to editing your own book.

Editing is torture for most writers and not just because we see our errors or have to take time away from writing the next great tome, but because it is very difficult to review your own work.  You know the story, you know the dialog, you may have even acted out some of the scenes in your car or in the shower, and that is the problem.  You know what the story is "supposed to say", but your reader doesn't.  The reader has to rely on your sentence structure, your descriptive words, your story lines, and your plot twists to know what's going on.  If any of these elements have mistakes, the reader will be lost and confused, and ultimately give up on reading your masterpiece.  (We won't even mention the reviewers who will not be kind to your work of art.)

While it's suggested that you find a reliable editor, the reader still needs to review their own work before sending it off to someone else.  Even the editor needs to understand your objectives and goals.  They aren't miracle workers with crystal balls who can figure out what you "meant" to say versus what is written.

A book should go through at least three drafts according to time old traditions.  Personally, I edit and edit, until I'm happy with it.

1) Start with the first draft, where you write with wild abandon and let "future you" worry about the errors.  Creativity flows and the muses bow to your whim as you invent amazing lands and fantastical creatures.  No one in the history of time has ever written something this amazing!

2) Then comes the dreaded second draft, where "future you" kicks herself because your writing is riddled with problems.  You think, "Was I actually awake when I wrote this part?"  "It sounded so much better in my head."  "Was my brain impaired when I wrote, "The Quick Brown Fox Jumped Over the Lazy Dog" in the middle of the fight scene that I stayed up all night writing?"

You question "past you", who wrote with wild abandon.  "Why didn't you have spell check running the whole time?"  "Why didn't you pay attention to the grammar check when speeding through your action sequences?"  "Why in the world did your brain translate "don't" into "do", or forget that "your" and "you're" are two completely different words?"  It's frustrating to see these errors, but you must accept them and move on. 

The second draft is where you fix the structure sentence problems, the bad spelling, and the incorrectly used words, but most importantly, you have to deal with content of your story.  If you only edit using spell check and grammar suggestions, you are cutting out a crucial step. You need to ask, "Does the story make sense?" 

If you were smart when you started writing, you used an outline to set up your plot, your characters, your story lines, and your twists and turns, but even when using an outline, you tend to get caught up in the moment and write about too many extraneous details.  The problem is, while these bits are fun or entertaining, you have to ask, "do they enhance the plot and move the story along"?  If not, then these extraneous details need to be left behind.  The second draft is always the hardest because writers have to cut out parts of the story that slow down the pace, or take too much time away from the main idea.  This is the time make hard decisions.  You have to ask, "Does this paragraph match the tone of the scene?  Does it make sense or does it serve no purpose, even though it's funny?"  Writers complain all the time that they to chop their book apart but unfortunately, it's a necessary evil. 

Here are my suggestions for when it's time to make the hard decisions and remove content:

- NEVER enter this phase when you are tired, upset, or unfocused, because the results will be disastrous.  This is the book that you love.  When editing with unkind eyes, you may remove important details just because you are angry that you have to cut something. You may be frustrated with the process and chop out too much. Think of a rose garden.  Gardens need to be pruned to take away the dead leaves and branches so that the garden can bloom and live up to its fullest potential.  Gardeners take away anything that will harm the garden or keep it from being beautiful.  If they started hacking away at it without regard for the blossoms or the lush greenery, they will be left with a dead mass of thorns.  You wrote this wonderful tome; make it the best version possible, and edit with care.  Read the story paragraph by paragraph to see if its transitions properly.  If a paragraph doesn't fit or doesn't further the story, remove it or reshape it.  You want the best from your work, so take the time to cultivate your sentence structure, and review your story lines for timing and pace so that one part doesn't drag.  Make sure there is a flow that keeps the reader moving through the story.

- When deciding if a chapter is working and progressing the story properly, read it through and think of it like stepping stones.  Start the chapter and see where each paragraph takes you.  Does each point of the story connect, or did the information fall off somewhere, leaving you stranded?  When a chapter isn't living up to its potential, it's time to re-evaluate.  Decide what information needs to be given and what points need to be highlighted.  There may be certain dialog that is critical or major character interactions the need to happen, but the structure isn't as tight as you wanted.  Maybe you've had too much fun with the dialog and things got sloppy.  I suggest using One Note, Word, or paper and pencil to jot down the objectives of the scene.  What needs to be said?  What needs to be done?  What critical plot points need to happen here?  Jot down only your important ideas.  Now, review them and rearrange them, if needed.  Change the order to create a better flow, or condense some of the ideas into the same paragraph, rather than taking multiple paragraphs and dragging out the information.  Once you have your structure, then add the fun bits back in.  It's doesn't have to be dry just because it's been reordered.

Example:  My Angel of Death wakes up to meet a boy whom he has never met before.  He has been captured and has lost hope.  The boy turns out to be more than just a kid off the street.  He has some knowledge of Death and knows more than he should about Death's world.  Personally, I had way too much fun with this scene.  Death is snarky and fun, and has some of the best lines.  My problem was, I couldn't convey all the information I wanted in a concise manner because I was having way too much fun watching these characters interact.  I finally had to sit down and reorganize my thoughts.  I had to state the key facts needed to progress the story and explain critical plot points while still having fun with the interaction between the characters.  It felt like a jumbled up mess, but once I came at it from a different perspective, I was able to get a handle on it and fix my mistakes.

3)  Finally, you have the third draft, where you are confident in your story line and have fixed most major pitfalls and mistakes.  The third draft is the polishing stage.  This is where you want your story to shine.  You need to do a final read through to eliminate any more sentence problems, or missing words.  When looking for the mistakes, give yourself time to improve on a word or a description.  During the first draft, you were were so concerned with your characters battling the giant monster, that you forgot to mention the color of the creature, or what it smelled like.  Clothing options, drape color, weather conditions, are small things that can enhance the reader's experience so that they can imagine exactly what you see in your head.  This would be an excellent time to pull out, or load, a Thesaurus.  Let your creativity from the first draft come through and "paint" your final creation with vivid colors and details.

Once the final draft is complete, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, have someone, or multiple someones, edit your work.  No writer will catch every error.  We are too close to it.  We will still complete the sentence in our heads without realizing that there is a missing "to, for, a, and the" in the sentence.  You need someone who knows more about grammar than you do, or who loves to read and understands the qualities of a good book.  Find a editor who is experienced in your genre.  Not every editor is the right editor for your book.  Find someone who will give you a God's honest opinion, but no matter what any of these people say, you have to be willing to listen to advise.  Again, as writers, we are too close to the story.  We have blind spots for our beloved works and sometimes we have to accept that something isn't working and be willing to deal with it.

After I went through MULTIPLE edits on my first book, I knew deep down the beginning wasn't as powerful as the rest of the book, for multiple reasons, mostly because the dangerous characters hasn't been introduced yet.  My friend, who is an AVID book reader, with strong opinions, read my story and the first thing she mentioned was the problem with the opening chapters.  I sat down with her and talked through her thoughts.  Some thoughts were her personal opinion, which I knew wouldn't detract from the book, but the parts that I felt shaky about, she agreed needed help.  After she left, I went straight to my computer and rewrote the beginning.  While the plot stayed the same, I changed the tone of the characters and tightened up a few things.  I took out some of the "fun" aspects that I loved, and made the hard decision to reshape the section.  I let it sit for months.  I wasn't ready to review it.  Finally, when I was in the right frame of mind to tackle it, I ran through it again and felt more confident about it.  I rounded out the tone by adding a short introduction of the one of the dark characters and stated very clearly to the reader what the main plot was, without giving away any details.  I felt much more confident about it in the end and was grateful for my friend's suggestions.

In the end, you have to be happy with what you wrote and be confident that readers will see the book through your eyes.  If you have doubts, ask for help.  Reach out to other writers for advise, or do more research on what you are having trouble with.  Find readers, reviewers, and editors that you trust to help you on your journey and be willing to accept that not everyone writes an award worthy story on their first draft.  It takes time, patience, and the willingness to change what isn't working.

Writing Problems: Organizing Timelines, Character Histories, or Complicated Fight Scenes

When writers create their stories, they may or may not have an outline of what they are going to write. Typically, they start with an idea and the idea grows and grows until it turns into a story.  The problem comes when the story becomes too big or complicated to remember every little detail.  When writing a series that has a 12 book story arc, mistakes are easy to make and searching for previously written "facts" can be time consuming.  The worst thing that a writer can do is corrupt their timeline or mix up the histories of their characters.

Continuity problems are a way of life when writing complicated histories for characters that have lived for centuries and it is easy to lose sight of what was written in an earlier book.  I know that every writer uses some kind of tool to chronicle their facts whether it's hard notebooks or programs/apps.  I used to make notes and stack them on my desk, or worse, write random notes and save them in different sections of a future book so that I would remember them later.  I found this process to be completely maddening and decided that a physical notebook was a waste of my time.

Aside from using Microsoft Word to write my books, I use Excel, Powerpoint, and OneNote to try to simplify my data.  (I think I would have lost my mind if I hadn't accidentally opened OneNote and rejoiced in its beauty.)  I have created everything from maps of the Realms of Torture in Hell, to layouts for the rooms of my characters for the sake of continuity. Using different programs may seem overwhelming, but I found it to be immensely helpful.

Excel:  I am writing a 12 book series concurrently with no less than 212 characters or places across all of the books, and I'm not nowhere near done creating characters.  I made a list of all of the character's names, descriptions, titles (angels love titles), who they are loyal to, which books they are seen in, which books they are mentioned in, and if they died.  The information is in a giant grid so that I can quickly see which books the characters are in.  This is helpful, not only for timeline purposes, but I find that I don't duplicate character names or use too many characters with the same first letter.  It's easier to see all of the B characters so that I can avoid Brend and Brent.  It has saved me a few times.

I also have multiple timelines in Excel.  I have a history of human events, such as wars, because one set of characters will reference these events, and I have the history of the fallen angels who appear in the series. There have been many times when these timelines have saved me from making huge mistakes.  A character can't talk about their experiences in the 1500's if they weren't alive at the time.

Powerpoint:  I am a very visual person, and it helps if I can see a room, or a set of characters.  For every character I have, I Googled an actor or a model, or some random dude and associated a specific picture with that character.  It can be hard to find the right photo because I want it to express the emotion of the character, more than the physical features of that person.  Once I have my photo or photos, I write out descriptions for each characters, including their personality traits and quirks.  For example, one of my characters has a tattoo on his inner wrist and loves guns.  I have a random photo of the tattoo that I found and added photos of the specific guns he uses.  It tends to give me a better feel for the character and helps me remember what color eyes he has, since it can be hard to keep track of 20 sets of eyes! 

Creating fully furnished rooms with decorative windows is fun when you use the photo settings in Powerpoint.  I created a 3-D room using various photos from online catalogs.  One room has a bed with black satin sheets, a black Barcalounger, a carved wooden chest, a vanity with a water basin, a book shelf with handmade maps, and a stained glass window of a sunset sitting over a ledge with a red cushion.  I can remember all of this, because I have seen the room.  The odds of remember what this bedroom looks like once I get to Book 12 are slim, so I find that taking the time to construct this room will save me having to open up Book 2 and find where the room is and search through the text to remember what color the cushion was.

Aside from the character descriptions, or the room layouts, I also use Powerpoint for hierarchies.  When dealing with the Celestial Warriors or the Overseers of the Realms of Hell, it helps to know who out ranks who, since there are power struggles occasionally.  I used the "organizational chart" to map out my chain of command, which is great because it allows for thumbnail photos to be viewed next to the titles.   

The most complicated "slide" I have in Powerpoint is the map of Hell.  I used the drawing tools to create the Realms and color code them.  Then I added a thumbnail photo of the Overseers in each Realm or area, then used the "text box" to add descriptions.  It's definitely easier to remember the names of the Overseers and which Realm they are in charge of when I can see it at a glance.  In my ever expanding Hell, it helps to know which realms are near the Caves of Winds so that the character can take the correct path to the castle.  Without the map, even I'm lost.

OneNote:  I cannot say enough positive things about the program.  I was losing my mind one day working with Powerpoint because as much as I love it for certain things, it can be tedious when you are short on time.  I don't want to have to stop and create a text box every three seconds.  I knew that there had to be a better program to jot down notes and write down ideas aside from virtual sticky notes, so I went through all my Microsoft programs and found OneNote.  I had never heard of it before, so I opened it expecting to be disappointed, and instead it changed my life.

The screens in OneNote are a blank slate, just like Powerpoint, but you can click anywhere on the screen and make a note.  It blew my mind.  No more tabbing in Word, or inserting Powerpoint, or moving cells in Excel.  I could insert a photo and write all the notes I wanted and move them anywhere on the page.  I was in heaven. 

The fun part about OneNote is that I can "bookmark" any idea and see a synopsis on the side.  I can write notes anywhere on the screen, but I can tag them for later so that I can "remember" them, or "question" them, or "make a check list".  The possibilities are limitless. 

In OneNote, I have each Book in a Notebook, and inside each Notebook I have my ideas page where I list the things I have still have to deal with, like finishing out a plot line, or throw in a photo to remind me to deal with a specific character.  I have my chapter outlines where I can drop in photos so that I remember which characters interact in that chapter.  I also have my Continuity Notebook where I write down specific "facts" that carry across the series.  If the Angel of Death was once known as the Angel of Determination and it influences his character in some way, I had better remember that he was Determination.  I don't want him to be the Angel of Cautiousness in a flashback.

The best thing I have done so far is create an entire fight sequence.  I have 2 different settings where 20 possible Celestial Warriors are battling about 15-20 creatures, all of whom are named.  Since I have my photos of each character, I can build my battle scenes and move around the photos like a chess board.  I can see where each of the creatures dies and where a Warrior is hurt.  I no longer have to find the piece of paper where I sketched out stick figures to try to remember which Warrior killed which creature.  I now have a battle plan that I can refer to during the editing process.  There would be hell to pay if I forgot to kill off one of the creatures.  I find it easier to keep track of everyones movements when I can see each piece of the puzzle.

Writing a series is hard enough, but without the right tools to help organize my thoughts, my books would be a rambling mess of continuity problems.  I truly have no idea what I would do if I had to rely on being organized on lined paper and Post-It Notes.  I am the first one in line to try out a new program to see if it will help me streamline my writing process or help me remember which book someone died in.  I know that I wouldn't be able to accomplish such a large undertaking without some kind of digital assistant.  If you have a favorite program, let me know and I will try it out!