There are many, many topics to talk about in the writing world. There’s lots of advice to be asked and given. Some issues just keep on turning up like bad pennies. For example, authors behaving badly has turned up more than once in IU posts. A few authors behave badly, it seems. But another topic that keeps rearing its ugly head is…*lowers voice and mouths exaggeratedly*…e-d-i-t-i-n-g. Just when you thought you’d said your bit on the subject, along comes another shambles of an unedited book, so off we go again… Continue reading “Here we go again…indies and their editing (or not)”
Tag: Editing
On Your Mark … Get Set: Wait Am I a Starter or a Finisher?
Are you a Starter or a Finisher?
To some degree, you’re probably both. However, I’m sure you lean one way or the other. It’s important to look inside and ask yourself that question. It could save you a lot of headache down the road.
If you’re a starter, you always come up with new ideas, new projects and a great new story. You jump in with both feet and pound out something amazing … until the moment you realize you have to finish. The details of finishing are what slow us down. You’d rather be starting a new project. Continue reading “On Your Mark … Get Set: Wait Am I a Starter or a Finisher?”
How to Write a Clean First Draft
I had to open my big mouth, didn’t I?
A few weeks back, in the response to a comment on one of my posts here at IU, I remarked that I save a lot of time in the editing phase by writing “really clean first drafts.” Of course, somebody had to go and ask me how I do it.
That meant I had to deconstruct how I do what I do. First, I found a calm, quiet place, and sat there with a meditation pillow and a candle, and communed with my muse for a while. Then I had a glass of wine. Okay, maybe I had more than one glass of wine. Anyway, I came away from it all with the conclusion that it’s a whole host of things. Here, as best as I can, is my prescription for writing a clean first draft. Continue reading “How to Write a Clean First Draft”
A few personal editing peeves.
I have a touch of OCD, not debilitating, just annoying. One of the milder rules it makes for my life is the necessity to finish one book before I’m ‘allowed’ to start another. I suffer terrible guilt if I leave a book unfinished but it does happen, usually because I’m reading a first draft, not a finished product. I sometimes read reviews on Amazon that say there were some editing/writing/grammar (pick your poison) problems with a book but the story drew the reviewer in anyway…which might be fine for that reader but it won’t work for me.
It amazes me that some authors seem content to appeal to a minority of readers. One more edit or a bit of advice-taking and I might go on to read everything else they’ve written, instead of moving on. I know criticism is rough, so here’s how I learned to take mine on the chin. Continue reading “A few personal editing peeves.”