Writing to the End

Seems like my book sales always tail off in the first part of each month. I am not sure why, but there might be a reason. I am not much of a self-promoter and usually see an uptick after I do some type of live presentation. I do not have thousands of follows on Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus or all the other social media sites like many writers do. My numbers have grown the past few years slowly, as I usually hand select which one’s I want to refollow.

Six Books Down - Two More Coming Soon

It is embarrassing how slow I have been in getting new books published. I get down to the last few edit, revising and first reader steps and then start something else, or stall out on a book cover. I have always enjoyed writing the words, not so much with selecting or building book covers.

The last few weeks have been full of meetings, travel, Dr. appointments and bad weather for us. Those seem to be pretty good excuses for my slow down.

And, at times, heavy cross traffic slows me down

I read an excellent post recently about plotting or not plotting when writing a novel. It always interests me when I see how others go about putting a story together. I start with an idea, usually an event. In the two books that I am working on covers for, here are the ideas I start with. With my children's book, book three of a series, It was easy, the entire series has a theme. In my newest, my three protagonist kids meet up with a vampire. This follows the theme of the first two where they met up with a ghost and a zombie.

My historical fiction is a bit more complicated. In the first of what will be four or more novels with protagonist Blade Holmes, he gets involved in a real mystery following bad guys back and forth from Laramie City to Fort Laramie Wyoming. The second book, also partially set at Fort Laramie ends with the Ghost Dance in the Black Hills.

After I have an idea, with nothing else to go on, I write the first chapter, letting my mind take it where it may. After that, I put together a few notes on where I want the story to go. With these notes, I will often write down scenes and places I want to include. Then I start writing. I never pick an ending at the start, often half way through I know how it will end, sometimes I end in a place and with an event that surprises me.

Love to hear from others as to how you put a tale together.

Meanwhile - keep on writing and keep on writing. 

You can take a look at my Amazon page here.

I Only Know Three Things About Editing

First - Print it out and edit from the paper copy

Editing from the screen has become the method of choice for many writers, and will work if you plan to send it off to a professional editor afterward. If you do not have the time, or money, for a professional editor, you must edit from paper.

The last time I posted about not hiring a professional editor I got quite a few comments from writes saying a book should never be published without proper professional editing. This is wonderful advice if the writer can afford the over $1,000 needed to get a good job.

As I have stated here before one of the problems in editing, and the writing business in general, is finding a good editor. Book doctors and editors need only to advertise and they are in business. Sad, but there are some real scam artists calling themselves editors who may or may not run your works through a quick editing program and pronounce it edited and ready for publication.

Second - Read it aloud

Reading out loud will let you find, bad punctuation, poor word choice, awkward sentences and sometimes tense changes. The good news here is that programs are available that will read your work. They will sound like a computer reader, odd, but maybe not so odd since it is the computer reading.

I like to read it myself and listen to myself, which sounds a bit full of myself, but it works. Wives, husbands or friends reading your words to you works great.

Third – Look for overuses of easy/lazy words. Here’s my list.

That, stuff, things, very, got, all, every, seem, almost, sometimes, big, little, have got, just - and the dreaded, was-is-are-am

It is simple to use the find and replace editing function to pick up these and at least, attempt a fix.

There you have it the only three thing’s I know about editing, not much.  Must be why I am looking out my window at a foot of new snow instead of writing today.

Oh- don’t forget to spell and grammar check, often.

Professional Edit or Not

How many times do I need to write the same book? Have you, like me, ever asked that question? I have a novel that I have went through six times and am still not willing to attempt to publish it. Why? Because it is not ready. No, not because the book sucks. I feel like it is a very good story. But it needs work. What have I learned by this process, two things?

The best edit is still with a red pen on paper. The last edit is reading the text of the work aloud. I have edited, to death, on the computer and still recommend it for the first go through. On my new work I used a red pen edit for my second edit, a red pen edit by someone else for my third edit and a read through, oral edit for my final.

No professional edit? I don’t think so, not for these works. I may seek additional input from another outside, non-professional, editor but have decided to go it on my own. I have published numerous short stories and at times, must admit, when I read the published version, I found something I wish I had edited, either more or better.

Why all this? I tried, in vain, to find a professional editor and could not. They charged too much or too little, wanted to change too much or too little. Makes me sound a bit like Goldilocks from, The Story of the Three Bears, I just couldn’t find a, just right, fit.

Will it work? Not sure. Remember in the old days when people said, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained”? Guess I will find out. I spent years doing content edits and rewrites for graduate students while teaching in Laramie, but never edited grammar or punctuation unless it was so bad even I could see it. Until a year ago I still did some editing for two print magazines.



View of my little part of the world from Roundtop Mountain, three miles from town.

There is my unedited story about editing. My conclusions, do it the best you can, or until you feel good about it, then be done with it.