Finished First Draft! Now What? Post by Jessica E. Subject #amediting

 

It’s November, the month of NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. Many authors participate in this event, aiming for 50,000 new words written either on a single novel, shorter works, or to finish up works-in-progress. I am not participating this year, as I finished the second Kaddim Brothers story on October 31, and am busy working on revisions for it. Though I have already started writing the third Kaddim Brothers story, my main focus is getting the second story polished and ready to go. What is my revision process? Well, here goes…

1)      Get the story in the computer.

I write all my stories in notebooks. I’m not limited to writing in my office that way, and don’t worry as much about staring at a blank screen. But, this also means I have an extra step in the revision process. Transferring the story from paper to digital does give me a chance to do some revisions and editing though. Sometimes things don’t sound right, or I’ve spelled a word wrong. And in some spots there are blank lines where I have to fill in after doing some research, or find information in my series bible. I usually try to transfer words throughout the writing of the story, but when I’m near the end of the story, I keep plugging away in my notebook, not wanting to take the time to get it in the computer until it’s finished.

2)      Do a spell check.

This may seem really simple, but it’s an important step for me. When transcribing, I sometimes make typing errors. Also, because I write sci-fi and paranormal, some words and names are not a common spelling. By doing a spell check, and using “accept all” or adding the word/name to the dictionary, I can make sure I’ve spelled the word correctly throughout. Because if it comes up again, it was spelled wrong somewhere.

3)      Print story out for first major round of revisions.

This is where I get out my faithful red pen, and multiple resources to ensure that my story makes sense, and that the reader can see and feel exactly what I do. I add in more descriptive details, make sure I’m showing by using active verbs, and ramp up the emotion wherever possible.

4)      More revisions.

After I enter the previous round of revisions in the computer. I know some things will not flow properly. So, I need to look for those and find other spots that need more work. This step may happen several times until I am satisfied with my story.

5)      Go through and get rid of crutch words.

I have a list or overused/crutch words. One that grows with every story I get back from my editors. I search through my story for these words, making sure they’re not used too often. This part is the hardest for me, as sometimes it’s difficult to find a way to say the same thing but with different words. It’s painful, but it saves time later on, and makes my editors happy.

6)      Digital read through.

After several rounds of revisions, I feel satisfied with my story. But, by this point, I’ve read the story so many times that it is jumbled together in my brain. So, I need to switch the medium on which I read it. I will read it on my phone or on my computer to get a different, and more reader-like read-through of my story. At this point, I usually pick up some misspelled words that weren’t caught by me or the spell-check, missing or incorrect punctuation marks, and other odds and ends. I may even notice some big issues that still haven’t been addressed in previous revisions.

7)      Send to beta reader, editor, or submit.

Yay! I reached the point where I was satisfied and decide to send my story off to someone else. Because no one will ever see my first draft! There will be more rounds of revisions to come, but this is a good start.

Jessica E. Subject is the USA Today bestselling author of science fiction and paranormal romances, bringing to life a wide variety of characters. In her stories, you could not only meet a sexy alien or a pop star tiger shifter, but also unsuspecting clones and feisty omegas. You may be transported to a dystopian world where rebels are fighting to live and love, or to an alternate reality where shifters live among humans. You can find her books on Amazon and other e-book retailers.

NANO AND YOUR SERIES by Marie Dry @MarieDry1

We're happy to introduce our guest, Marie Dry. She's here to talk about her experience with NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, known to the rest of us as November).

NaNo and Your Series

Every year during NANO life seems to happen and I end up barely making my 50k. Then on top of that, when I start editing I have to cut more than half of the story and rewrite almost everything. I’ve heard many authors complain about this.

This year something strange happened. In spite of life happening i.e. two French tests, a crazy busy time at the office and family responsibilities, I made 80k easily this year. It felt as if I barely had to put in any effort to reach 50k and before I knew it I had 80k.

I believe the one reason is that long before my first book was accepted by Black Opal Books I wrote minimum three hours every day. Whenever the successful authors give advice on writing that is the one advice all of them give. Write every day and write with discipline. I followed it religiously and it seems to be paying off. My writing muscles have strengthened.

Before NANO started I went on the forum for Pretoria (South Africa) and asked if there were people near me who wanted to do write-ins. We got together once a week close to my place and it was wonderful. I also joined an online sprinting group that was created for NANO. Waving at the NANOWRIMOERS facebook group!

The one major difference I made with the writing was I decided to not be so focused on the 50k but instead to try and write a tighter novel. Not easy to do for a pantser like me. The moment I decided to focus on the story and not the word count it took a lot of pressure off.

If I had to choose one decision I made this year that allowed me to reach 80K in a month while working full time, it is to work on more than one book. Instead of writing words for the sake of the word count, if I ran into trouble with one book I worked on the next one until my mind figured out the problem. It worked! I now have the rough draft for Alien Resistance, an even rougher and shorter draft for Alien Captured, a good bit of Alien Ruled and the outline for a novella for Alien Rescue.

The support from other writers during NANO is amazing and it has made a huge difference to me. When I joined RWA Australia in 2010, I did online sprints with them and it was the first time I ever sprinted and had company in my writing. It was wonderful. I lived in Spain at the time and it was hot and I remember all of us buying flakes (a brand of chocolate) in our respective countries and putting them in the fridge as a reward for after the sprints. I still like cold flakes because it reminds me of that year. That is also when I finished Alien Mine and yip, I had to rewrite the whole book because I was so focused on word count I didn’t pay attention to the structure of the book.

What I’m trying to say in a very convoluted fashion, is that NANO is wonderful, but if you want to walk away with a book you can sell it is better to have a strategy. My strategy of not even thinking about the word count this year paid off. Maybe it will for someone else as well.

For anyone looking for craft books here is a list of the books that I went through this year before NANO. There are many more but these are my current favourites.

Goal Motivation & Conflict – Debra Dixon

Writing Active Settings – Mary Buckham

Secrets of the Selling Writer – Dwight Swain

Self-editing for Fiction Writers – Renni Browne, Dave King

Writing the Breakout Novel – Donald Maas

Dialogue – Gloria Kempton

On Writing – Stephen King

Below is the blurb and a short excerpt of Alien Under Cover, the second book in my Zyrgin Warriors series. Enjoy.

ALIEN UNDER COVER
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SVEJJ2C/ref=series_rw_dp_sw

BLURB
In a bleak and apocalyptic future, Julia Benzoni flees the violence-saturated world of her mafia family to build a peaceful life in a No Name Town, Montana. Now, while civilization disintegrates into anarchy around her and evil men prey on the innocent, she’s pursued by an alien, whose warrior life thrusts her back into the world where might makes right and violence is the order of the day. Torn, she now has to choose between her need to distance herself from war and violence and the alien warrior who holds her heart.

EXCERPT

The first time he revealed himself to his breeder she fainted.

Zurian caught her before she hit the floor. Left with a beautiful human woman helpless in his arms, he’d laid her down on her bed, covered her with blankets, and left her alone. It had taken a surprising amount of willpower to let her out of his arms.

He was not a warrior known for his mercy. He’d killed and executed many and, for a long moment, while he stood there staring at her soft human face, he’d been tempted to take her to his dwelling despite the fact that she was too small and delicate for life with a Zyrgin. Not taking her as his breeder so he wouldn’t break such a fragile woman had been an act of mercy from a warrior considered the most pitiless in the empire.

In the end he could not stay away from her and, when he revealed himself to her the second time his faith had been rewarded. She’d tried to shoot him. Julia handled the pistol well and, instead of crying when she couldn’t manage to hit him, she was furious. His Julia knew some words his translator did not have the meaning of.

He returned a third and fourth time, cloaked, curious to know more about her. Since then he’d gone to her many times. Sometimes cloaked, sometimes not. She intrigued him with her strange habits. She spent most of her time on the human communication device they called a TC, which seemed to be her means of earning a living. She liked to paint her tiny claws—nails he reminded himself, humans called them nails—many colors. Women on Zyrgin frequently adorned themselves but since no warrior with honor would look at another warrior’s breeder he’d only been vaguely aware of perfumes and lavish clothes during ceremonies.

He thought about her when he should be concentrating on his warrior duties. Curious to see what she would try next, he returned to her impoverished dwelling. She was clever enough to stay out of grabbing range. Sometimes he played with her, pretending he only moved at human speed. Countering her attacks, he grabbed her and enjoyed the feeling of her skin, of her body held briefly against him while she fought and squirmed. Once, she tried to knee him in the groin. Seemingly convinced she could harm him that way. He’d observed some of the women in the raider camps, the ones who were not broken, use that tactic with great success on human males.

It had been a week since he’d seen his golden human. At the back of her small house, in the settlement the human’s called No Name Town, Zurian stepped forward and stopped, his boot lifted. A thin white powder covered the door entrance. Something gleamed on the windowsill and, as he moved to the side, more of it gleamed at the bottom on each window ledge. He pinched a tiny amount of the white powder and tasted it. Salt, the spice the humans put in everything. It had to be one of her curious tricks to try to keep him out.

The first four chapters of my books are available on my website. www.mariedry.com

Bio

Ever since she can remember Marie Dry wanted to travel. She had had the privilege of living in Zambia, Morocco, and Spain and sees herself as a bit of a gypsy. Every few years she gets restless and has to be some place new.

She read romances since she was nine and was fairly young when she decided she would write the perfect story that had all the elements she looked for in a romance. In 1997 she decided to go all out with her writing and to get published. Being published by Black Opal Books is a dream come true for her.

There are several wonderful moments in her life that she would never trade for anything. One of them is meeting President Nelson Mandela and the second being published. Her Book Alien Mine was released by Black Opal Books in June 2014.

Marie's social media links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mariedryauthor/?hc_ref=SEARCH&fref=nf

Twitter:  @MarieDry1

Website:  http://www.mariedry.com/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/drymarie/?etslf=9294&eq=Marie%20Dry

Amazon Author page:  https://www.amazon.com/Marie-Dry/e/B00L2EUX1E/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1

Secrets for Procrastinators & Pansters to Win NaNoWri

By Maureen L. Bonatch

Hey Peeps, it’s November. You know what that means. There’s one thing I’m always eager to talk about. No, not turkey day. No, not Christmas shopping (bite your tongue!) Okay, okay, I’ll tell you, it’s NaNoWri—National Novel Writing Month for those of you new to my ramblings.

I may have mentioned it before, and maybe one other time, and perhaps I couldn’t even stop myself from continuing to rant about it the month after it ended. But I have NaNoWri to thank for multiple finished draft manuscripts. Granted, before I incorporated a few of my following secrets to winning NaNoWri I had several years of failing.

Find Your Peeps

It’s easy to lie to yourself about how many words you completed that day, but not if you have someone to answer to. The year I joined up with other authors in Savvy Authors on a team was the first year I “won” NaNoWri. Since then I’m sure to join up every year. This is in addition to the NaNoWri site where you can find all kinds of writing buddies to cheer you on, but just be sure to give yourself someone to be accountable for a specific goal each day.

Be a Role Model

My girls both like to write and they’ve both participated in either NaNoWri Young Writers Program or NaNoWri for the past few years. The first year we did it together, I failed to meet my goal. That story, The Secrets We Keep, is still waiting to be finished. Every now and then one of my girls will ask me about that story and if I’ve finished it yet. Since then, I’ve put my nose to the grindstone and proudly let them share my journey to the finish line.

Toss Your Dictionary

For that month be sure to totally forget your dictionary. Just get the words on the page. Don’t worry if some sentences don’t make sense, or if you have to skip to another scene, another chapter (I write in highlighted captions such as “Add More Here” or “Move This Scene”). 

Keeping your story flowing is all that’s important. That’s why I emphasized that at the end of NaNoWri I have a completed “draft” because believe me, it needs a lot of editing. But, as I’ve heard time and time again—you can’t edit a blank page.

Time is Irrelevant

You don’t have to set aside hours to work on your story each day. If you have the time, that’s awesome, and get some extra words that day in case you have another day that the words aren’t flowing as well. Although try to fit even a few minutes of writing time in each day to keep the story alive in your mind. If you only have ten minutes to write, take them! Write on your lunch break, or get up a little earlier. Maybe you’re writing an hour a day, but you’ve broken it up into four fifteen-minute segments, and that’s fine.

One Word—Sprints

You can find times sprints at almost any time, or you can start your own, on Twitter. If you’ve teamed up with other writers it’s a perfect opportunity to suggest planned and impromptu sprints. A sprint consists of a determined time frame of when you’re going to just write. No editing, no stopping, no surfing the internet. You just let the words flow and write as much as you can as fast as you can.

Prepare Your Family

This will be my Ninth Year participating in NaNoWri, and I plan for it to be my Fifth Year Winning. There are tons of articles about preparing your family by making meals ahead of time, assigning your chores to the kids or the hubby or eliminating activities you usually do. I don’t do any of that. I should, but I don’t.

I only have one requirement from my family and that is to let me “get my words” for the day. I strive for 1,667 words per day (or more!) to make it to 50,000 by the end of the month. My constant muttering must’ve worked because the hubs is now programmed to ask no questions when I lug the laptop with me announcing I must “get my words.” Then this year, for the first year, before November even arrived hubs said, “Is that NaNo thing going to start again?”

So to all of you who might have a book (or another book) in you, here’s your time to get it out!

Grandma Must Die is one of my Previous NaNoWri Winners!

Get Your Copy Here: 

http://amzn.to/2dpGV6I

Carman has worn out more towns and last names than impractical shoes protecting the secret of her magic blood. But when a friend goes missing, and another is infected with a deadly spell, Carman must choose. Expose her magic blood by curing the spell—or stop the infection from spreading by killing the source…the grandmother.

Besides Thanksgiving, NaNoWri is my favorite thing about November. What’s your favorite thing about November?

About Maureen
Maureen writes stories in the beautiful state of Pennsylvania that boast laughter, light suspense and something magical in the hope of sharing her love of finding the extraordinary in the ordinary world. She writes Paranormal Romance and Fantasy.

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