Editing: my four (well, five) writing weaknesses
Posted: September 6, 2013 Filed under: On writing | Tags: aussie-owned, editing, writing 11 CommentsBefore we start, have you guys read my interview with the awesome Steampunk writer Jay Kristoff over at Aussie Owned and Read? If not, it’s here. Go on, I can wait.
An overworked train metaphor, chugging away… (Image via Wiki Commons)
Since I finished my most recent work-in-progress, I’m back on the editing train, steaming my way from the tiny villiage Stream of Consciousness to the (hopefully) shiny metropolis Compelling Prose.
(Fact: sometimes “steaming” can also be applied as an adjective to my first drafts!)
One of the things that makes you a better editor of your work is to know your writing weaknesses—the crimes you commit against the English language when you’re caught up in the initial drafting rush—so you can spot and fix them. Here are a few of mine, to give you an idea of what I’m taking about.
I LOVE the word “that”. Love it. In my first book, there were hundreds of unnecessary uses. I’m getting better but it’s still a problem. I use it when it’s necessary, when it’s unnecessary, and when it’s just plain wrong—for example, when I should instead say “who”, I say “that”. Every time. When I finished my manuscript a fortnight ago, I did a search for the word “that” and checked each usage.
It took hours.
I describe impossible bodily actions. My characters’ eyes do all sorts of things they shouldn’t. They roam the room instead of staying in their sockets where they are meant to be, the cheeky little sods. So I search for “eyes” and make sure to change it to “gaze” (or similar) when I’ve used it in that context.
As an aside, I’ve seen a senior editor suggest the word “blush” causes a similar problem in first-person books. Blushing is actually a reddening of the cheeks, and the first person character can’t see her own cheeks to know they reddened; she feels her cheeks burn, but can’t see it. This editor consequently said not to say “I blushed”. One to watch out for.
I describe redundant body parts. “He shrugged his shoulders”; “she nodded her head”. Given these are the traditional body parts to use, mentioning them is redundant. The only time you should mention the body part in these cases is when the character is using an atypical part—for example, nodding a hand during a puppet show.
Likewise, saying a first-person (or close-perspective third-person) character “saw” or “heard” something is almost always unnecessary. Given they are telling the story, if you describe something to the reader it’s implicit that the character noticed it.
He said, she said. When I’m describing dialogue between two characters in the first person, I can go for ages without mentioning the name of the second character. It’s all “I said, he said”. My solution to this is, again, to search for the character name and scan through the section of dialogue. Word 2010 highlights any found words in yellow, so if I see a whole page with no yellow, that’s a sign it needs review.
Complex sentences. I love these too. I go nuts with the ands, commas, dashes and semicolons to link ideas together. Sometimes it’s not a problem, but other times—such as during fight scenes or other adrenalin moments—a long sentence slows the action down. When I edit, I find these scenes and chop the sentences up, sometimes even into fragments.
So, those are my main writing sins—and yes, you got five instead of four. Counting? Me?
What are your writing weaknesses?
Cover Reveal and Excerpt: ‘Finding Home’ by Lauren K. McKellar
Posted: August 30, 2013 Filed under: On Books | Tags: aussie-owned, book covers, contests, small presses Leave a commentI’m thrilled to be a part of the cover reveal for Finding Home, written by my dear friend Lauren K. McKellar. Also, the excerpt gave me goosebumps! I can’t wait for this release!
Synopsis:
Moody, atmospheric, and just a little bit punk, Finding Home takes contemporary YA to a new level of grit…
When Amy’s mum dies, the last thing she expects is to be kicked off her dad’s music tour all the way to her Aunt Lou in a depressing hole of a seaside town. But it’s okay — Amy learned how to cope with the best, and soon finds a hard-drinking, party-loving crowd to help ease the pain.
The only solace is her music class, but even there she can’t seem to keep it together, sabotaging her grade and her one chance at a meaningful relationship. It takes a hard truth from her only friend before Amy realises that she has to come to terms with her past, before she destroys her future.
Finding Home, Lauren K McKellar’s debut novel, is coming October 1, 2013. Add it to Goodreads today.
Click HEREto enter a giveaway celebrating this sexy new cover!
Excerpt:
‘Look, I have to go. Can we talk about this later?’ Dad was asking Mum. Joe had shut the door behind him, and it was a good thing he did too, because when Dad had finished speaking, Mum picked up an empty bottle of Grey Goose vodka and threw it at his head. She missed, missed by a mile, but that didn’t stop the bottle hitting the wall behind him and shattering into thousands of tiny pieces.
‘Jesus!’ Dad exclaimed. He turned around, surveying the damage.
‘Oh, look what I did! Can’t have clean-cut Stevie D trashing the green room. People might talk!’ Mum’s voice dripped with sarcasm. It sounded hoarse, no doubt a result of the hours she’d spent alternating between crying and screaming up until now.
‘Even if this was our bloody lounge room, I would still be furious! You can’t just throw s**t like that.’
‘I’ll throw whatever I want to throw!’ Mum yelled. ‘You’re so uptight.’ She walked up to Dad and put her hands on his shoulders, shaking them. ‘Give up this stupid dream already.’
‘And do what? I can’t afford your habits any other way. If I don’t sing, you have to get a job.’ Dad shook his head.
I inched around behind them and started to pick up the pieces of glass. They were all different sizes, and some had gotten stuck in the carpet. They required a bit of twisting to retrieve, but the others I could pick up with ease and place in my hand.
‘What do you want me to do? I don’t have any skills. And there’s clearly only one thing you think I’m good at these days,’ Mum said, leering. She pulled at her top, exposing her décolletage.
I focused on the glass again. I counted each piece in my hand. Thirty-six, thirty-seven, thirty-eight. On the fortieth piece, a shard broke through my skin, spilling bright red blood. Funny. I hadn’t thought my skin would be so thin.
‘Amy, you’re hurt!’ Mum pushed past Dad and came to kneel next to me. ‘What are you doing?’ She knocked my hand with her own, and the pieces of glass flew up into the air and landed back on the floor.
All my efforts — ruined.
‘Let me see,’ Dad said.
‘Get the hell away from her!’ Mum yelled, raising her voice again.
‘Do we have to do this in front of Amy?’ Dad asked. I felt them turn to look at me. Did they think I hadn’t heard? That the fights they’d been having all day in the adjacent hotel room hadn’t resonated with a hatred that travelled through walls?
‘Please don’t,’ was all I could say. But it was enough. Dad left the room, and Mum tended to my hand, spilling some vodka to cleanse it before wrapping it in a spare t-shirt.
‘I’m sorry, baby,’ Mum whispered to me. ‘I promise, things are going to get better.’
Only they didn’t. They got much, much worse.
Find Lauren McKellar at her website, or on Twitter or Facebook.
A big moment for me…
Posted: August 21, 2013 Filed under: On me, On writing | Tags: aussie-owned, Interview, university, writing 3 CommentsMany years ago, I did professional writing at university. I landed there because in year twelve I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life, and a very lazy career adviser said, “Well, what classes do you enjoy?” and I said, “Um, English?”
I also enjoyed computing, so if the career adviser had asked a slightly different question or if I’d mentioned the other class first I might be a highly paid IT nerd right now. I’d still be writing, regardless, but maybe not quite as well. (Much love to any IT nerds reading this. My boyfriend is one; I mean no disrespect.)
As it was, I got a degree that was broadly applicable to every job I had — I draft a mean minute — but only became specifically applicable in the last five years when I landed my precious editing job, and started writing again.
The head of the course — let’s call her Janey — was a huge fan of literary, feminist fiction. Genre fiction fans like me didn’t get a lot of credit from her, and the male genre fiction fans in the class got even less. She also believed in what she probably would’ve called tough love, but what I secretly believed was her way of trying to scare us all into not bothering to write so that she had a better shot at getting her own Great Australian Novel published.
I remember one lecture where Janey was talking about the Australian publishing industry. She told us there were maybe half a dozen Australian fiction writers who could make a living off their work, that they all wrote literary or mainstream commercial fiction (ie they were Bryce Courtenay), and that we should all give up any hope of ever being successful enough to pay a mortgage.
Especially us genre fiction writers.
I have no words
(Note: Her advice is both good and very crappy. Kids, don’t give up your day job to write unless you are independently wealthy or you’re already earning enough from your existing royalties to pay the bills and save for your superannuation. But don’t believe it’s not possible to achieve the latter with a lot of hard work and persistence, either.)
Anyway, a few years later I discovered Kate Forsyth.
Kate is a Sydney writer. She writes speculative fiction. She is very good at her job, and she makes a living from it. When I read her high fantasy series The Witches of Eileanan, I loved the story — but who Kate was and what she was doing was, simply put, a revelation.
And yesterday I got to interview her over at Aussie Owned and Read.
Take that, Janey.
Struggling, and zombies
Posted: August 12, 2013 Filed under: On me | Tags: aussie-owned, real-estate, The Zombie Project Leave a commentI’ve been struggling a bit the past couple of weeks. In my defence, I’ve had a lot going on: we (well, I) packed, then moved into my parents’ house, and then my son and I both got the flu. Now I’m house hunting, which involves spending every Saturday driving around, and dodging overly friendly real estate agents who suddenly lack any customer service skills when it actually matters.
Anyway.
This is why I haven’t been blogging much the last week or so. I’ve managed to meet my weekly writing goal, and even to catch up on what I should have written when I was too busy packing to write. But this last week I’ve been back at work and I’ve only met that goal by the skin of my teeth.
Forgive me?
There are a few exciting things coming up though. I’ve got two AWESOME interviews lined up for Aussie Owned and Read in the next four weeks. One is with an Australian speculative fiction icon, and the other with a hot new (relatively speaking) Aussie writer. Stay tuned for details!
I’ve also got an excerpt of a new release, and a gorgeous cover reveal. It will BLOW YOUR MIND!
Plus my contribution to The Zombie Project goes live on Sunday 8 September. Yes, that’s the day after the Australian federal election. (Seems appropriate somehow.)
Don’t know what The Zombie Project is? A bunch of fantastic writers (and also me), brought together by Twitter and a love of braaiiiins, are doing a collaborative short story project. Instead of just being your typical anthology, the stories are all set in the same world. The only rule is that each story must contain an element from the preceding one.
Awesome, right? The stories are being posted at Chynna-Blue Ink — scroll down to the first and then read them in order.
Go on. Why are you still reading this? Shoo!
Why editing is like streaking
Posted: July 19, 2013 Filed under: On writing | Tags: aussie-owned, editing, guest post, writing 4 CommentsI’ve seen a lot of writing metaphors in my time. But this one is totally new to me. I hope you enjoy this guest post by Lauren McKellar!
If you’re a sports fan you’ve no doubt seen a man naked before. Of course, I’m not referring to the locker room or some more extreme version of sumo wrestling, but more to the one sport that seems to get everybody talking: streaking.
Recently, us Aussies watched a rugby league game where two of our fine states went head-to-head in a battle to win the shield. Or it could have been a plate. Maybe even a trophy. Have I mentioned I’m an editor, not a sports journalist?
So, they battled it out to win. It was the series decider and the question on everyone’s lips was: Will Queensland take it out for the eighth year in a row?
Yet the day after the match the winning state wasn’t the most reported on topic of conversation; instead, it was the guy who streaked.
Which got me to thinking (and I should warn you, this is a stretch): editing is like streaking. Do it well, and you notice it. Fail to have it, and you’re left with a lack of exposure and no chance of going viral.
That’s not where my loose connection ends. When preparing your book for an editor, there are a few leaves you can take out of the streaker’s book to enable your expert to focus on the bigger elements at play. These tips include:
Shedding those outer layers, baby. If there’s one thing a streaker does well, it’s delete excess items of clothing. You need to ask yourself if, as a writer, you have any.
Is every paragraph, every scene, every chapter moving your story forward? Are you telling us some new information we need to know with every sentence you craft?
Because if not, it’s time to make like a streaker and delete, delete, delete! Your editor will thank you for it.
Break the rules. Yes, there are rules of grammar and no, you don’t want to look like an idiot and use ‘there’ when ‘their’ would have been a better choice. Still, there are times in writing when you’re allowed to break the rules.
Technically, you’re not supposed to start a sentence with the word ‘and’,
And I guess you’ve never done that, right?
If there were a naked man at every game we’d quickly get bored and lose attention. But a well-timed streaker can take a rugby match from dull to damned interesting in a heartbeat!
Sometimes, being a literary badass can give your writing character and help get your point across. Go against the grammar grain and run naked across that football field; you deserve it.
Eliminate the backstory. One of the most common editing issues I come across is excessive chunks of backstory just vomited throughout a manuscript.
I have to confess; I am guilty of committing this crime in my own work. I’ll be all ‘What? No! Never!’ and then look at the highlighted paragraph in question: a quick little explanation on my childhood best friend, my family dynamics throughout history and a short snippet on how I used to be a nerd but now I’m a crime-fighting superhero, and realise I’m guilty as the next person.
Search your manuscript for backstory and include it naturally through relevant dialogue, pertinent flash backs or a subtle sentence here and there. Remember, as readers, we’d like to think we’re pretty smart. We get it, already.
And how is this like streaking? Well, just like you don’t want to have too much backstory on the record in your manuscript, a streaker doesn’t want to have too much of a streaking history on his criminal record. After all, get caught streaking once, face a hefty fine. Get caught for streaking twice…now you’re a crazy man who thinks he’s the emperor wearing a new suit.
Lauren McKellar is a freelance editor currently taking on new clients for late August and beyond. With over six years publishing experience, she is currently a Senior Editor for digital romance house Entranced Publishing. For more information on her services, visit her website here.
Nominate the best people-free YA or NA book cover
Posted: July 7, 2013 Filed under: On Books | Tags: aussie-owned, book covers 11 CommentsLooking at my Pinterest account made me realise what a sucker I am for a cover with a pretty boy or girl on it. I’m not sure whether that’s because I look at a lot of YA covers, and most of them feature people, so my collection is reflective of what’s out there—or whether it’s due to my own biases. But to try and address this, my post over at Aussie Owned and Read this month will be a poll where we vote for the best YA or NA cover that has no people on it. I’m extending this to include bits of people, such as eyes, or silhouettes of people. (Animals, however, are fine.)
But in order to vote, we first need covers to choose from, so I’m asking you guys to nominate your favourite covers first. Post in the comments with your favourite cover, and make sure to include a link to the cover you mean so I get the right edition. Then on 25 July come on over to Aussie Owned and vote for your favourite! The winner gets bragging rights.
Here are a few gorgeous covers to get you started.
Rhyming for Ull, and a plea to vote
Posted: July 2, 2013 Filed under: On Books | Tags: aussie-owned, contests, poetry 2 Comments
I mentioned the other day that I was part of Team Ull. If you didn’t see the post you might want to have a look, because otherwise the rest of this won’t make much sense. Go on, I’ll wait…
I was struggling a bit with what I could contribute to our little Nordic cheersquad. I wasn’t able to contribute amazing graphic design skills (K. A. Last has that well and truly covered!), but I have contributed something else.
Limericks.
Yeah, you heard me. Limericks. That ancient art of Nordic poetry*.
So here are my four limericks, again turned into images by the aforementioned K, for your amazement … or amusement. I don’t mind which.
All I ask is that you CLICK HERE and vote for Ull. Go on, click it! Kthxbai!
* Just go with it.
Team Ull
Posted: June 25, 2013 Filed under: On Books | Tags: aussie-owned, contests 3 Comments
Those of you that follow the goings on over at Aussie Owned and Read will know that we’ve been chosen to advocate for Ull in the NA Crush Tourney. Ull is the hero in ST Bende’s NA romantic fantasy, Elsker. Not only is he a Norse God but he’s also a fierce Asgardian Warrior. Despite his violent job, Ull is a sweetheart when it comes to his girl, Kristia.
I confess, I haven’t actually read Elsker yet. My copy of the book is travelling across the seas (probably on some sort of heroic, Nordic adventure) as we speak. But you know how I know I like Ull? Because the author based him off Alexander Skarsgard of True Blood fame. Wooh! *fans self*
Now, because Alexander Skarsgard would quite rightly get tetchy if we started plastering his picture all over everything without permission, we’ve found a very nice looking young man (whose image was purchased legally via a stock website, in case you’re wondering), who will be playing the part of Ull for us here.
Did I mention “wooh”?!
Ull. It rhymes with drool.
(The image, by the way, was done by the amazingly talented K. A. Last.)
You may be wondering what I’m asking of you in exchange for my generous sharing of this serious hotness. Well, on Tuesday 2 July, Ull will be going head-to-head against some wimpy, girly-man named Drew (who I know absolutely nothing about!). The contest will be resolved via voting. I would have preferred some sort of Greco-Roman wrestling, but nobody asked me…
So, uh, yeah. On Tuesday, I’ll be asking you to get your click on. It won’t take long. If you want to see who is participating, click here. Just remember: vote for Ull.
(Also, if you want a chance to win an ebook copy of Elsker, click here.)
Pitcharama: what influenced my selections
Posted: June 19, 2013 Filed under: On writing | Tags: agents, aussie-owned, contests, queries, small presses 2 CommentsThe Pitcharama first-round selections were announced today over at Aussie Owned and Read. There are some great pitches there, although I’m sad we couldn’t take everyone through to the final round. (However, as I said yesterday, it’s not too late: the pitch-a-mate round opens tomorrow. Keep an eye on the blog for details.)
My three selections (in the order they were submitted) are:
- No Such Thing by Sarah Glenn Marsh
- Off Campus by AJ Albinak
- Barely Imagined Creatures by Pete Catalano
You’ll see that I chose two young adult manuscripts (both urban fantasy) and one new adult (an m/m romance). There were a few things that influenced my decision.
1. I love urban fantasy.
I write it, I read it—it’s hardly surprising that I would lean toward choosing it. This should give you an idea of how subjective this process really is.
2. Word counts were a big factor.
YA can run from 50k to 80k (or up to 100k for fantasy, but better to keep it lower than that for a debut novel). I chose pitches for manuscripts in that ballpark. If you want to read a great blog post on word lengths, this is the one I use as my rule of thumb.
Some of the digital-only presses may care less about word count, since they don’t have to pay the larger cost of producing a fat novel. I don’t really know much about that, though, so I assumed the normal conventions would apply in this case.
3. I looked at the participating publishers’ preferences.
We have several presses looking for romance (at least one of which publishes m/m—I checked!). We have several that publish paranormal, UF and dark fantasy. So I tried to choose pitches that I thought those presses’ acquiring editors would be interested in, to give “my” three authors the best shot.
This, by the way, is the same process you should go through if you’re pitching to presses or agents directly: look at what they buy or represent. Look at their website to see what they’re after. Most of them are pretty upfront about it, and it saves you from wasting your time and theirs. And, even better, saves you from the heartbreak of a rejection you could have avoided.
Anyway, that’s it. Looking back over the post, it doesn’t seem like rocket science to me, but maybe it’s helpful to someone out there. A big snuggle-y thanks to everyone that has participated thus far!
Thoughts on pitching contests
Posted: June 18, 2013 Filed under: On writing | Tags: agents, aussie-owned, contests, queries, small presses, writing Leave a commentI’ve got a new-found respect for agents.
Those of you who’ve been reading my blog for a while know that I highly rate pitching contests. They are a great way to hone your pitch, query or first pages. And, just as great, you can get in touch with what I’ve discovered to be a supportive community of fellow writers, many of whom have great advice to offer or are just happy to be a cheer squad. I wouldn’t be here now if it weren’t for Pitch Wars (if you want to know why, I blogged about it here).
And if you’ve been reading my blog for only a little while you’ll know that Aussie Owned and Read has been hosting its first pitching contest, where people can submit a 250 word blurb for their young adult or new adult manuscript. In the first round, the eight bloggers at Aussie Owned choose their favourites to progress to the final round. That is where we have eight small presses (nine editors) who will swing by to request the ones they’d like to see more of. (In the second round you can pitch your friends—that starts on 20 June so if you missed the first round it’s not too late!)
The first round closed last night and choosing three pitches from those that entered was SO HARD IT HURT MY BRAIN! Not in a bad way but in an “aaaah, I can’t choose” way! My original shortlist was 50 per cent of the total. I loved them all, and wanted to take them home with me. Like, really. I have a newfound respect for people like Brenda Drake and the writers who help her; she runs Pitch Wars and Pitch Madness. Our humble contest is only in its first year so we didn’t get nearly the number of entries she’d see in one of hers. (Not that I didn’t respect her before, but Oh. My. Gods!)
And that’s why I also have a newfound respect for agents. In a way they have it a bit easier than we did in choosing our pitches, because most of them request at least the first five pages, which gives them an idea of the voice and execution. But in another (much bigger) way, they have to read thousands upon thousands of queries a year. And they don’t even get paid for that part of their business, not until they choose a client and then sell their client’s work.
Wow. Just wow. You seriously have to love books, love stories and tales well told, to dedicate that amount of time to it. Because while all the pitches we saw were good, the same cannot be said for agents’ slush piles (or so I hear).
Agents, I doff my hat to you. Or I would if I was wearing one.
I doff my imaginary hat to you.
One more thing. If you’re reading this and you entered Pitcharama, I also wanted to say that, whether you’re one of my final choices or not, I respect the courage it takes to put yourself and your work out there. I know how stressful it is. Don’t give up.
Cassandra Page 