Tag Archives: editing

Looking Back to Look Forward

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Last year I set some fairly high goals for myself. And now I’ll go over what they were and how I did.

  • Write Dragon Story – This I managed to do early on in the year. I plan on making this a series, however this was a neverending story, so I need to reassess this story and find a cut off point and decide what I want to keep and what can go into the next book.
  • Write Faith’s Story – This I achieved as well, in early October.
  • Write another story – in November I wrote and completed Hope’s story in the Racing Harts series, so really pleased with this.
  • Edit Second-Hand Daughter – not only did I edit this, but I published it as well in May 2024
  • Edit Compromising Positions – edits were completed and was published November 2024
  • First draft edit of Finding Sam Healey – These I started, but I haven’t completed them yet. I have a date with the editor for March 2025, so it will be published next year.
  • First draft edits of Carol’s Christmas – this hasn’t happened, but I’m not too upset about that.

    Overall, that isn’t a bad year considering I was working fulltime for most of it. The results are pretty epic. At this stage, I have yet to find another job, so I now have to have a real think about what I want to achieve heading forward. I would love to be able to quit work and write fulltime, however I have some limitations as far as that is concerned (will talk about in a future blog post), and to start making money from my writing, I might have to write to market, which isn’t where my heart is. I want to write what I want to write, and that means that I need to find readers who want to read my work, and that proved elusive this year. I guess I could focus on writing in the first quarter of next year and really push my publishing timetable, but I also don’t want to burn out.

    It’s a fine line between doing something you love for money and doing something you love for the enjoyment of writing. I guess it is something I really need to work out over the next couple of weeks as we start the full on countdown to Christmas.

    Reading, Writing, Editing and Planning, Oh My!

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    I finished Hope’s story on Thursday, much to my relief. Because coming up to Christmas things will start to get really busy, even if I’m not working.

    I’m hoping to start Grace’s story in January, because when I write, I like to keep the flow going by writing every day, and with Christmas, then New Years, there would be too many disruptions for me to keep the continuation of the story. And as I explained last week, Grace’s story is actually going to be the second story, even though I’ve written it last. There is an overarching story over all three stories, and threads of that will need to be woven in with Grace’s story and then continued on when I edit Hope’s story. This is the story of their dad, who left the girls when they were young, after their mother died. I also plan on writing a prequel novella and sequel novella to wrap up the story.

    And talking of stories, I’ve headed back into Finding Sam Healey and reworked my first chapter or two. The first part of the book are letters, so that part has been edited. And now I’m into the diaries part. I’m enjoying what I’m reading and sometimes surprise myself with how much I like what I’ve written.

    I’m toying with my next few stories and starting to think about my plan for next year. There will be at least two books published, possibly three, but we’ll see how we go. Planning the next twelve months will be fun.

    And the Edits Start

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    Last year I wrote Finding Sam’s Family, which I changed the name to Finding Sam Healey, to reflect the Finding Yourself series which started with Finding Amy Archer. I thought having the surname worked better than ‘family’. While I’m editing, I refer to my book by the initials, in this case, FSH. FAA was Finding Amy Archer. It’s just something I do.

    When I’m editing, I do a quick read through, taking notes on post its before I sit down, with said post its and work through the story, and incorporating any of the changes I thought of. This might be as simple as ‘change the start of the story’ to ‘first person POV (point of view). Once I’ve worked my way through some of the edits, I will bundle up a bunch of them and send them to my critique partners for them to read and make sure that it makes sense, that they like the characters, and the storyline follows logic.

    Once I get the critiques back, I work through them and make any changes that may be needed. Sometimes it can be hard to swallow some of what the partner’s say, but sometimes it is crucial to the story, so changes are made. If both say the same thing about the same part of the story, then I know that something needs to be worked on.

    Once I’ve edited the next section, I send away to the critique partners and I get it back, and this continues until the story is edited thoroughly. I then put it through a spell / grammar check, and I listen to the story being read back to me. It’s surprising how many words are missing, or wrong words used until you hear it back.

    Once that’s all done, I normally book it in with my editor, unless I have already done that. But a novel can take me a couple of months to get through, so even though I’ve started editing, it might not be finished until January, all depending on how I go.

    At this stage, I’m looking at booking the editor for February, and hopefully release Finding Sam Healey May next year.

    At this stage, I haven’t started writing anything new. I like to have a break, plus still trying to work out if I want to do NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November. I’ve done it before, and I’ve done Camp NaNo, which I also won. I like to have a break to allow my creative juices to flow, and they are flowing. I have about five story ideas lurking in the depths of my brain.

    Hope you all have a lovely week. Take care out there.

    I’m Finished. Now What?

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    I finally finished Faith’s story this week. Oh, how that woman tested me. I certainly was losing Faith, but I knew how I wanted the story to end. And dammit, I ended it my way.

    So now that’ I’ve finished Faith’s story (one of three sisters who are into racing, hence Racing Harts being the series name), what do I do with the story.

    Well, I let it sit. For a while. Some authors jump straight into editing, but to be honest, I kind of like to let mine sit for a bit longer, normally about six months. Then I will pull it out, do a quick read through, making note on sticky notes (which I LOVE), and then I work through and start editing, changing bits here, things there, adding in a dash of spice, a touch of pepper, stir and mix. Then I send it to my critique partners. The read through it, laugh out loud then confirm that it’s a bunch of bullsh!t and I feel terribly bad. No, seriously, by the time I’ve edited it the first time, I think it’s crap. My critique partners come back with thoughts, any comments about plot holes – (what happened to this guy in your story?), and generally their opinion about the story. These are actually very helpful, and after drinking plenty of whisky, I actually allow myself to sit down and read what they’ve said.

    The final part of my editing process is going through the story AGAIN, and then listening to it being read on my computer. It really picks up lots of errors and missing words that others had missed, because we sometimes all know where the story is going.

    Once I’m happy with the story, I send it to my lovely editor who reads it through and then comes back to me with edits that may be required. Mostly they’re grammatical errors, because for some reason writers write, they don’t talk or do grammar. (Writers don’t math well either.)

    So, there you go, that it what happens to my story from start to finish, which generally takes a year from starting writing to publishing it.

    Now, I’m not doing much writing, because I am in the process of formatting Compromising Positions and getting it put up for pre-order.

    I hope you had a great week. Take care out there.

    Catherine

    Critiquing (or Beta) Blues

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    I sent off the first eight chapters of Finding Sam Healey to my critiquing partners the other day. The results were mixed; one was confused about who died, they loved Tom (Sam’s husband), and one edited the entire section.

    It’s quite scary to let a piece of your story go, and to have others look at it for the first time. By the time the book is up for sale, it’s been through a few hands, so it’s not as frightening to let others read it. Hopefully, by the time it’s published, it is polished and ready to go out.

    The critique manuscript is first or second personal edits. It hasn’t been in the hands of the editor, or your ARC (Advance Reader Copy) team, its straight out of your brain and onto the screen.

    When you critique, or beta read, these terms can be interchangeable, you’re looking for any basic problems with the plot and structure of the manuscript. You’re looking to see if the characters are likeable and readable, if the story moves forward, if there is a storyline, a theme perhaps.

    When you get a script back which has lots of comments on it, you know that something isn’t right, and if the comments are in the same place, you know you have a problem. Mine came back with lots of comments, but not all in the same place. The funniest one was that one of them got so confused in the beginning about who died that she wasn’t sure who was who anymore. The other reader didn’t have that problem, so I’m presuming that isn’t a general problem in the script. However, some legalese that I had in there, was a problem, so that is something I need to work on.

    It’s only the first eight chapters, which is mainly letters anyway, but it can be painful and disheartening to read through the comments at first, until you give it a day, and remember that it is MY story, and I can take what they said to heart and accept it, or I can just flatten out those mistakes and move on.

    I’m choosing to fix the mistakes and move forward – otherwise no one will ever get to read Finding Sam Healey.

    The light at the end of the tunnel

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    After four weeks of illness, I think (touch wood) that I might finally be starting to feel better. I’m running on 80% at the moment, but that is way better than I was.

    I have to say that I managed a walk yesterday, and while the wind was cold, and it made me cough, it was nice to get out and about. The previous week, I couldn’t wait to get home, so that’s a win for me.

    I have also finished editing Compromising Positions. It just needs a final grammar / spelling check and then it is off to my editor. I’m excited about this story, but also a little nervous. I hope that I managed to get a decent romance coming through. I love the story and the dance of the three main characters and how they interact.

    I’m hoping that I will get back into writing next week and I can knock out the last bit of Faith’s story in Racing Harts. I’ll also get to start on my first edit of Finding Sam Healey, which is in my Finding Yourself series.

    So how was your week?

    Peace and Quiet

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    It was all go until 31 May, now it is quiet. And tomorrow is King’s Birthday weekend, so a long weekend to relax.

    I’ve finished my assignments and handed them all in.

    Second-Hand Daughter has launched.

    And I have so many things I could be doing, and I really don’t feel like doing much. I’ve spent time in the garden weeding, planting and trimming, and napping.

    I haven’t written much or edited. I’m just enjoying having some quiet time after a busy few months. It doesn’t mean I’ve given up on writing, or crafting, it just means that I’m having a week holiday. I will back into editing this week, with Compromised Positions being the next up, and that will be released later this year! So excited about that.

    But in the meantime, I’m relaxing and taking some me-time.

    Deadlines

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    This year, I’ve been trying to adhere to deadlines. I’m the kind of person who likes to get things done and not have to get extensions to get assignments / manuscripts done in time. And up until now, I’ve done alright.

    I decided to do my last Organic Gardening course through Open Polytechnic in February to give myself a break over the holidays, but then I wasn’t counting into that Apple packing, which last year I did every alternate night. This year, I’ve done it Monday to Wednesday night, and as a result I’ve been exhausted Thursday and Friday, so I’ve only really had to the weekends to get anything done on my course.

    The assignments are due in May – I’m not sure when, but they are due. I’ve completed the course, I just need to fill in the gaps on the assignment and do some practical courses. Like making compost. Testing Soil samples from different sites, and determining what the make up is of each site. These things are proving difficult to do, and my compost pile is being stubborn. I had to remake my compost so that they knew what I knew what I doing. The problem is, we’re going into winter, and the compost heap isn’t heating up like it should. Which means that it isn’t breaking down.

    I can use my existing compost for some of the tests (seeing how many radishes come up compared to weeds) but I need to show them that my compost is working and breaking down things.

    I also asked my editor to edit Compromising Positions at the end of June. And I don’t think I’m going to get it edited by then.

    I don’t like breaking my deadlines, but I’m not sure that I’m going to get my assignments or book edited in time.

    I will push on, and hope to get the assignments (three of them) finished by mid May, and I will try and get my story edited, but I might have to push that deadline out, if my editor is okay with that.

    How has your week been? You have any deadlines that are pressing on you at the moment?

    Take care out there.

    Catherine

    Feeling Fatigued

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    What a week. I’ve worked two jobs from Monday to Wednesday, one job on Thursday and Friday, been to Pole class, working on study, cooked, cleaned and done edits and continued writing on my Racing Harts series. No wonder I am tired!

    On Saturday, I slept in until 7am, because Lunar doesn’t believe in having lie in’s. I got up, fed her and crawled back into bed, and proceeded to watch a couple of Youtube videos until I fell asleep again about 7:30am, and woke up at 10am! And I still felt tired. I had an afternoon nap and finally felt like I’d caught up on sleep, so all up, on Saturday, I slept approximately 12 hours.

    That’s some serious sleeping time on a day off. That’s half of Saturday that I slept! But Saturday morning, once I got up, I cooked some tomatoes for tea, made some lemon quencher and reset some heat packs, and on Saturday afternoon / evening, I finished all the edits on Second-Hand Daughter, so now I only have a couple of small tweaks to do, and then I have to format the story and have it all ready to be released on 31 May 2024. And I might also have some print books available by then too.

    I only have four more weeks of apple packing to go after this week, but the extra money is handy, and I can’t wait to get my teeth sorted out and have that 100 watt smile back.

    Much Excitement Abounds

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    By the time you’ve written your story, rewritten it, edited it and re-edited it, it just feels like something isn’t right with it, or that it’s crap. That is how I felt when I finally sent Second-Hand Daughter off to my editor in February. I was pleased to see the back of it.

    Then I spent weeks wondering if the editor was liking it or having to drag herself through pages of mud, just to edit the story (hopefully she would have said as much as not continued editing) but of course, that is what you think.

    Then you get an email from your editor with this little gem – “I’m on track to have your edited manuscript back to you by Friday. What a great story – very emotional and intense! I’m enjoying it so much.”

    Which is great to start with, but then you start to wonder if she actually means that. And whether she’s just trying to be nice.

    And when the manuscript arrives back, there is this note on it. “I thought the overall arc of Peyton and Sylvia’s character and relationship development was done extremely well! I absolutely love how close they are a year after … and how Peyton found what could be considered her real family. Just excellent!“

    And then I went into the manuscript, and I was blown away. There are a few changes to make, but other than that, it seems that I have an actual story that people may actually enjoy. And so now, I’m at the excitement stage of fixing the problems and getting it ready to publish on 31 May 2024!

    It’s surprising how you can write something, edit it within a hair’s width of its life, hate it, and it comes back polished and shiny and new. I wish I had more faith in myself, but it seems I’m not the only writer who thinks a story is stink once they’ve sent it off to the editor!

    How’s your week been? Have you had an exciting moment happen?

    Take care

    Catherine