My editing process

Opening and closing question marks
Opening and closing question marks (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Still have the cold but it’s getting better. I wanted to talk a bit about the process I use for editing. I’m still working on tweaking it some.

Writing – my  favorite part.
Edit 1 – when I write the first draft, I write as fast as I can. If I don’t know a specific detail – I’ll put a couple of question marks in the document and move on. The first pass I do figures out what the question marks are.
Edit 2 – working on tweaking and tuning. Removing any obvious misspellings. If there are any parts that are difficult to read, I work on tweaking those.
Edit 3 – Done by my editor. This stage mostly looks at the overall work. She gives me a list of things I may need to add to (or take away from). Content Editing
Edit 4 – I work on changing things based on my editors input.
Edit 5 – the Line Edits – again by the editor.
Edit 6 – tweaks done
Edit 7 – Final Proofing by my editor.
Edit 8 – tweaks done and final pass.
Format / Cover / Testing and loading.

I’m still working out how to best do everything.  The good thing is with each edits the red marks on my pages get less and less, until the final proofing which usually only has a few minor changes.

Summer Cold

Colds Hold Up The Works. To Stay Fit and Keep ...
Colds Hold Up The Works. To Stay Fit and Keep the War Effort Rolling – NARA – 534133 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Got a summer cold and I don’t like it a bit. I can’t complain too much though, I usually get a couple of colds a year. Usually one in the winter and one in the summer. Not sure where I picked this one up at (my wife is a germ freak).

So yesterday, didn’t get my 3500 words in. So you know it must have been bad. Did manage to make it today.  I’m on the last thread of the fifth novel. At least I think it’s the last thread. I’m going to have to cut some things, because it’s getting a bit long winded. I have introduced a new character in this novel, which I’ve really enjoyed writing.

Got book 2 back from the first edits. Going to work on trying to get four chapters done a day, should have that done by the weekend and then sent back for the next go round. I really don’t like the whole editing process very much, I need to learn how to like / love it. Going to be doing it quite a bit, so might as well learn to love it.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Sunday – 3621
Monday – 3552
Tuesday – 3501
Weds – 1258
Thursday – 3633

Saturday Night Fun

Topographic map of Egypt. Created with GMT fro...
Topographic map of Egypt. Created with GMT from SRTM data. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Been a busy week around here. Hope you’re doing well. I did an experiment. I put my first book on Amazon and didn’t do anything to promote it. Guess what, I didn’t sell a single copy. So now this week we’ll work on promoting it a bit and we’ll see how we do.

I’m working hard on book 5, I’ll call it Egypt. I’m having a lot of fun with this book. Yesterday I wrote the ending bit, why you may ask did I write the ending bit, because I couldn’t stop thinking about it, and so I put it down. So if you get stuck or keep thinking about a certain portion of your novel, do not hesitate to write it down.

Still lot’s of chaos but we’re working on it. You may see a few different versions of the site over the next several days, I’m trying to find a template I love, and haven’t done that yet.

Here’s the words we’ve done this past week.

Weds – 3617
Thurs – 3505
Friday – 3544Saturday – 3517

Book Publishing – Last Minute Checklist

Use Recommendations
Use Recommendations (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So the first book is up on Amazon. One of the things you want to do as an author is work on getting accepted into Amazon’s Affiliate Program. I’m waiting on that before I put up the book links here. Approval takes 24 hours. Any money I make from that I’ll be reinvesting it with my readers. Hopefully we’ll be able to give some gift certificates away before Christmas.

The last week has been a flurry of activity. Here’s what you want to make sure you have ready when you submit your book.
1. Title
2. Categories
3. Keywords
4. Cover
5. Description
6. Price
7. To KDP or no KDP

Since I have some free time now, before I start editing my 3rd book. We’ll have a post every day talking about each of those points.

We’re making some good progress on Book 4. Here’s what we’ve written over the past few days.

Weds. – 3759
Thursday – 3554
Friday – 3634
Saturday – 3619
Sunday – 3561
Monday – 3658
Tuesday – 3508

Book 1 – Alpha and Omega – ready to go

Good news! Book 1 has been through it’s final edit and we should be ready to publish it sometime this week. I have the cover done, I still need to do some work on the site, finish my blurb (better known as a description) and then it’s publishing time. I am a happy camper. The editing bit took a whole lot longer than I thought it would, but hey that’s ok. I just need to figure out how to stream line that process a little bit.

Also, more good news, I just finished Book #4. I finished it on Saturday, and on Sunday I started on book #5.  Book 4 ended up being a little over 90k pages. I actually had to force myself to wrap things up. We’ll see how things go. Again thanks for following the journey with me.

Saturday – 4591
Sunday – 2648
Monday – 3549
Tuesday – 3635

 

Final Edits in Progress Book 1

This is a "thought bubble". It is an...
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The final edits are getting done. I am so happy about it, I am jumping up and down right now. It usually takes a week or so till I get them back, so I’m going to be a busy bee. When I get it back, I want to be able to do the final edits, format it and put it up. I’m not one to make sure everything is perfect. It will be the best I can make it, otherwise I think you get stuck in a continuous cycle of is it good or not. You will be the judged if it works or not. If I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t have written it.

This coming week I want to get done the following:

Cover – I have some ideas. I think it will work. It’s different from other covers I’ve seen, but there is a purpose for them being different. Kind of obtuse I know.
Blurb – the bit you read before you decide to buy. This is a very important piece of the puzzle. I’ll be working on finding some good guidance and sharing it with you.
Website – I need to tweak a few things here. Get it ready for people who are reading the book to visit and hopefully sign up for a newsletter.
Social Media – setup accounts for Social Media. Still pondering on exactly what to do.

In other news – I am almost done with book 4 – will I hit 100k pages. Not sure. One of the reasons I recommend writing on your project every day, even if you only have time to write 500 words, subconsciously when you aren’t working on it, you’ll be thinking about it. I got a killer ending bit for my story the other day, one I would have never thought of doing. Anyway, I am please so far with it, I just dread editing it. But first we need to start and finish editing book 1 and book 2. So what happens when we get done with 4. Glad you asked. We start with book 5.

Hope you have a wonderful Memorial day weekend.

Weds – 3653
Thursday – 3665
Friday – 3621

Editing- not my favorite part of writing

"Quarters of the news editor", one a...
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Hope your week is going well. Been a busy time around here.

 

Book 1 – has finished the second round of edits. I’m now working on it, getting ready to send it back to the editor for the final round. I’m starting to get a bit excited. I know I had mentioned it may be published in May, don’t think that is going to happen.

 

Book 2 – I finished my first round of edits – now it goes to the editor.

 

Book 4 – almost done. I’m at the climax / ending. It’s according to how much the characters play around at the end. They’ve already side tracked me a couple of times, so maybe done this week or not.  Right now it’s at 83k words. The goal I think is 90k. We’ll see how much I get to close to it or not. The good thing about having that many words is you can always remove stuff you don’t like.

 

Editing –

 

I need to come up with a better process. I’m not sure how I’m going to do it. I realize it’s an important part of getting the work out there but I do wish it could be sped up a bit. The goal of course is to have one of my books coming out every month. If it takes more than a month to edit each one, then it’s not going to happen. I need to streamline some things or something. I need to ponder on it some.

 

I think I have the getting the words down pretty good. Most of the time I can get 3500+ words in a couple of hours, unless I have a whole lot of distractions. Sometimes I’ve been able to do it in an hour and half, sometimes it will take me three hours. I’m also figuring out when my most productive writing time is.

 

Here’s the word counts from last time we talked.

Thursday –

Friday – 3553
Saturday- 3550
Sunday- 3562
Monday- 3601
Tuesday-3544

First Edit done – and some punctuation tips..

English: A stack of copy paper.
English: A stack of copy paper. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hope you’re doing well. It’s been a busy time around here, but busy is good. I got my first edit back from book 1 on Friday. I went over the reviews and sent them back. I have two more edits to go. The goal is to get it published this month… hopefully that will work out. I did find out some pretty cool editing notes, I’ll share with you below. I’ve also been hard at work on book 4. I’m about 60,000 words in it. That should be done this month. I also finished the first bit of editing on book 2. Are you confused yet. Here’s what I do.

Write the book – when I write, I go full tilt. If I don’t know something I just highlight it and put a whole bunch of ?? in the text. I read it and clear up the ?? this is my first run through. I then run through it again and correct grammar mistakes, and make sure the hero doesn’t have a burr cut on page one, and long blond locks at the end. I then send it to the editor. She checks it mostly for errors in the framework of the story, and let’s me know if I missed anything that I should have put there. She sends it back to me, I make edits and then it goes back for the final line edits.

Some people after they write, they then only work on editing. I don’t do that. I’m not sure exactly why I don’t maybe I’m afraid my story will go away. So while I’m doing any of the above I will make sure I write my 3500 words a day (at least). I want to write a novel every month, and I’ve told you before I want to write a million words this year. A lofty goal I know, but if you break it down into x number of words a day, it’s not so bad.

It’s not like it’s a chore either, I really love to write, I can usually write the 3500 words in a couple of hours.  Speaking of words and to keep me honest, here are the word counts since we talked last.

Friday – 3566
Saturday – 3607
Sunday – 3531
Monday – 3577
Tuesday – 3628
Weds – 3548

Here were some edit notes I got from my editor – hopefully you can use these tips as well.

Ok, capital letters regarding Mom/Dad etc.

If it is a proper noun, it needs capital letters. If it’s not, it doesn’t. The best way I saw someone explain when to use them and when to not is to substitute the name (Mom/Dad) for a Christian name, eg. Mel/Don

Eg. ‘He had spent the night with his Don’  – this doesn’t make sense, so it shouldn’t be capital letters.

‘He had spent the night with Don’ does make sense so this would be a capital for Grandpa.

So there you have it, a real easy way to tell when to capitalize Dad and Mom.

Scene Checklist for New Writers – Over twenty tips for selling your WIP

The Checklist of Fantastic Literature
The Checklist of Fantastic Literature (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hope your week is going well. Can’t really believe we are already to Weds. It’s been a crazy week around here, working, helping my daughter get ready for Semester tests. I really think I could have passed her History exam with flying colors. I know I should have been putting some good stuff here, but hopefully I will make up for it today, with two awesome bits of information. Note I also use this page as my personal bookmark tool.

First a scene checklist, these are things you’ll want to make sure are in every scene you write. I know you’ve read a book before and were like, lets skip all of this boring stuff. This will help people to actually read your book. Good stuff.

http://writerswrite.co.za/scene-checklist

I’m not sure if I’ve talked about Writer’s Cafe. I will tell you it is a treasure trove of goodness. Not only can you learn from people who are actually selling books, but you can also ask questions, and I really love when someone tells you how well they’re doing. A great post (I think it was from yesterday) about a ton of things you can do in order to sell more books. Here’s the link.

http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,150526.0.html

Hope you have a wonderful day. Below are the writing numbers from the past few days.

Saturday – 3600

Sunday 3567

Monday – 3550

Tuesday – 3677

Weds – 3673

Friday – :o)

English: The First Moviola?
English: The First Moviola? (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Friday, it’s Friday. Hope your week has gone well and hopefully you have a weekend planned full of fun things. This weekend I will be spending most of it editing book number 2. I’m really not that into editing yet, but hey hopefully it will grow on me. The goal of course with editing is to sculpt your writing into something you’ll be proud of and readers will want to read, and of course want to tell someone to read it as well.

Next week we’ll be working on Book 3 and then hopefully we’ll be done with editing for awhile… although I don’t think that will happen.

I found a couple of links you may find fun.

What is your writing like –

http://iwl.me/b/cfe536cd

A very fun little site. Just posts bits of your WIP and it will tell you who you write like – or at least it will try to do that.

If you’re wondering why most of the advice you see tells you something like, “write more books”, this may be why.

http://jeffposey.net/2013/05/02/whats-your-novel-worth-npv-and-cash-flow/

I wrote 3589 words today. Bringing my total this week to – 17899. Enjoy your weekend.

 

Just another Work in Progress