Reflections on My Writing Journey - May 2016

Happy May everyone! I just finished writing the first draft of The Fortunes of Ithaca and I’m very excited about how it turned out. It’s the first time I’ve ever written something from multiple perspectives and 3rd person limited. Over the next month I’ll be reading more about this POV so I can enhance those narratives when I return to edit them in June. I've also decided that once a month I would do a mini-reflection on my writing goals for the year (hence the title being something of a repeat from this one a little while back). Let's dive in! 

At the start of the year, I set out some production goals for myself. For 2016 I had a goal to write two novels, a novella, two shorts stories and a poem. As you might have gathered from a few of my posts, I’m about to become a mother again and I knew the majority of my attention was going to be on my new baby so I was trying to establish goals I felt were achievable. 

Still, I’m surprised that it’s only the start of May and I’ve already finished a first draft of each of the projects I listed above. That said, I know it will likely take a while to edit all of this material and since editing takes considerably more time than writing, I’ve decided to write one more novel this year (although I'm still choosing what that project will be). I love waking up and adding words to a new story, so I think continuing to work on one will be good for both me and my family. 

In the meantime, I’m focussing on editing The Wall of Bones—the third book in The Vampire Skeleton series. One thing I’ve noticed this time around is that it really does take me a few days to shift into editing mode after a long and fruitful writing stint. For the first few days of May I felt awful—like I was floundering. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to work on or what I should work on, which made me feel a bit lost. I realize now that this feeling of emptiness surfaces every time I finish writing a first draft and that it’s probably quite a normal sensation. To help manage the effects of it, I did a lot of free writing. This turned out to be both helpful and unhelpful. For example, I started one story and stopped writing it. Then I started another story and stopped writing that one, too. Just yesterday, I finally settled myself into some semblance of a routine and became more focussed on the editing work I have to do. 

It helped that I found an old Evernote filled with editing tips I wanted to try. I don’t know about you, but every edit I’ve done so far has always been a little different than the one that came before it. The basic ideas are the same but the way I execute those ideas varies from project to project. I can already tell that this book will be no different. 

Here’s a quick glance of what I think the process of editing the first draft/writing the second draft of The Wall of Bones will look like this time around:

Basic Steps:

1. Reread the first draft. Make no major changes at this point but learn the story and take note of any issues with pacing, character arcs and plot. 
2. Develop basic outline and make a schedule of edits that need to be addressed related to the above.
3. Establish a second schedule of edits that deals with specific issues one pass at a time: add more sensory detail, search for redundant words, add better dialogue, similarities in how chapters start, creating stronger hooks, themes and motivations.  
4. Edit for spelling and grammar. 
5. Turn book over to first reader.

What I’ve outlined isn’t significantly different from what I normally do when I’m in editing mode but I usually separate these tasks out across several drafts (draft 2, draft 3, draft 4 for example). This time, I’m hoping to simplify the process by having a very comprehensive second draft that I then turn over to my first reader. I’m calling the whole operation: Eight Drafts in One. (Joking. I’m not calling it anything, but basically, that’s what it will be). Should be exciting! My goal is to have worked through the majority of this edit by the end of May. I’ll be sure to post an update on my progress sometime in June.

What about you? How do get yourself excited about and organized for editing? Please share in the comments!

Till next time, happy writing everyone!

S

A Balancing Act: Returning to Work After Maternity Leave

My writing life has undergone many transitions. My twenties were probably the most turbulent. I was in university for most of them and struggling to make ends meet. Back then I would dream about the kind of stability I needed to be a writer. I had a very specific picture in my mind of what it would take and I planned to achieve it by my thirtieth birthday. I knew exactly where I needed to be when I turned thirty—on my own, in a small house or apartment, with a MacBook, surrounded by books. What I didn’t account for, was the fact that the job I had to help pay for the small house, the MacBook and the other bills that come along with life—would take up every waking hour of my time.

It was this commencement speech, given by Neil Gaiman that helped me to realize one important fact—I was writing more emails than I was writing stories. I would spend minutes, even hours poring over the words of emails, briefing notes and press releases. And even though I for the most part liked the work I was doing—I felt like my creativity had been stuffed in a bottle. I felt like my voice had been stripped away and all that was capable of coming out was branded, careful messaging. My projects were likewise impacted by this state of limbo—of wanting to say things but being uncertain whether or not I should. I hid meaning behind meaning and because I only wrote when I thought I had a full day to do it—there were days and even weeks between my writing sessions.

Looking back, I think this was an important thing for me to go through—this uncertainty, this questioning. It helped me to write a totally strange story that while totally strange—was 100% the story I wanted to be writing. It was filled with characters that practically leapt out of my imagination and even though I didn’t do a perfect job of capturing them the first time around—I’ve had four years to do better. I learned—very slowly—how to write a little bit at a time. Stephen King has written about this, but so has Neil Gaiman, in an article where he says that if you write just 300 words a day—by the end of the year, you have a novel. So last April, I decided to try it—to write as little as 300 words, every day. 

I was pregnant at the time and wondering what would happen with my writing once I became a mother. I knew I wouldn’t stop writing but I still didn’t know what my writing schedule would look like. How could I? I’d never really had one. Fortunately, it all turned out well—I stumbled upon the Monthly Writing Challenge community and for the last year I’ve felt more productive than at any other time in my life. Stories are pouring out of me. I developed a solid writing routine. But then my maternity leave came to an end. And I was to return to work—to a job I absolutely love. Would my writing routine crumble again? I was determined that it wouldn’t—that everything would work out fabulously.

And guess what? It did! I admit the first day was hard. Not the writing part—the part where I had to be away from my daughter. I didn’t want to be away from her and I suppose I still don’t. But I really do love and believe in the work that I’m doing. It makes me feel happy, excited and fulfilled. I’m also lucky that my baby is only five minutes away from my work with my partner and our mothers.

So for the last two weeks, I’ve been waking up at 6:30 and writing until I get my 500 words. My work in progress, which I started three weeks ago, has now grown to 17,000 words! I can go to work with a sense of calm—at least in the writing/creativity sense of the word. That calm means a great deal to me. It helps me to keep balanced between being a mommy and being a writer and being a wife and a sister and a friend and all of the other roles and relationships I maintain. And none of this would be possible if my partner wasn’t as awesome and supportive as he is. I am extremely blessed.

Editing remains something of a challenge. I’m working on an edit of my book The Vampire Skeleton right now and reading this book: Rivet Your Readers With Deep Point of View. I can usually only edit for half an hour or so on the weeknights. It takes me about two or three nights to make it through a chapter, if I’m focussed. It’s a touch slower than I’d like to be moving so my goal is to make up for that in 2-3 hour sessions on the weekends but I’ve yet to implement this structure. I know that I can make these adjustments and that it’s okay to take my time. I suppose in summary—I am feeling enormously grateful. Grateful that I’m still writing, still editing, still doing all of these things that I love and that make me happy. Being a parent. A Wife. An Artist. A Language Learner. And taking care not to become a professional email answerer/workaholic.

Happy writing & editing everyone!
S. 

What I've Learned From Editing

I’m working on the fourth draft of my young adult manuscript. This phase of the editing is what my editor refers to as “line editing”. Essentially, that means she read through my entire manuscript and made specific notes about what lines were working and which ones weren’t. This allowed me to see my strengths and weaknesses more clearly. My job in this pass is fairly straightforward—to fix these lines with her support and guidance.  

I previously wrote about the fun I was having with edits and can honestly say my love of editing has only increased. I’ve learned so much and after tweeting about it, a fellow writer in the #MarWritingChallenge suggested I write about it, so this post is my way of sharing some of what I think I’ve learned with you! Hopefully, something in my experience may help you as well. (And vice versa—feel free to chime in with editing tips you love!)

1. Hire an Editor

I know this probably doesn’t need saying but hiring an editor is a really important step and it wouldn’t feel right to not include it. I probably wouldn’t have learned any of the things I’ve learned if I hadn’t done that. So if you can, gift yourself and hire an editor, trade for services, etc. We are so lucky that there are more and more ways to connect with good editors nowadays. It might seem like a big expense but it was such a great investment. Also, it seems like most editors will be willing to edit a few sample pages to let you see what it will be like working with them and if it will work for both of you. 

2. Write it fresh!

There are a LOT of clichés out there and I’m guilty of using many of them. I think when you read a lot, you wind up being naturally exposed to them and so it gets easy for those clichés to find their way into a first draft—where the goal is to write fast and get the story down. In the editing stages, you have a chance to go back and write those clichés in a unique and fresh way. Here are some examples of clichés I found: 

• Her heart sank
• A wave of anger washed over her
• Tears welled up 

These clichés definitely work (they’re cliché for a reason), so finding unique ways to rephrase them is a challenge. Over the last week, I worked through my manuscript, scribbling on a legal pad, brainstorming ways to make them fresher and still true to the voice of my novel. There are a lot of ways to do this—you just have to be creative. Strangely, this exercise made me fall in love with writing—and editing—all over again. You have to really think about language and what it evokes in the mind of the reader. Very cool.

3. Repetitive Body Language

Characters in my book are constantly nodding, swallowing, frowning and smiling. This was placeholder body language I put there in early drafts but in the editing phase it was time to challenge myself and have my characters use other parts of their body to express themselves. For this, I really had to take a step back and watch what people did. Amateur tip? I watched television scenes where people were scared, happy, angry, confused, etc., and tried to think what they were doing with their body that was telling me what they were feeling. I still think one of the best things you can do here to is read. Get ideas about how other people are tackling body language. 

4. Overusing Words

Look. That. There was (He was/She was). Glance.

I overuse all of these words. To correct it, my editor suggested I do a word search and see how many times I did this. Then they challenged me to eliminate at least half of those. I did a word search in this blog post and found I had used ‘that’ three times in the first three paragraphs. If you’re using Microsoft Word as your processor (as I am), I need to tell you the Search Document bar is your friend. It helps you find the words you use a lot and replace them. 

5. Embracing Rhetorical Devices

Rhetorical devices are just plain cool. Up until this draft, I’d never really looked at how rhetorical devices worked and what role they played in telling a story. I have my editor to thank for this one as well. I really firmly believe that the first draft is the all story. I believe that even more after coming this far through the editing process, but I think in later drafts you have the opportunity to include some of these devices and enhance the manuscript in a very deliberate way. It can be a lot of fun to be really deliberate with your writing. I’ve just started using devices so I’m certainly no expert, but so far, it seems to me they work the best when there’s already raw and vibrant text—the device just helps that text stand out a bit more. But I suppose they could also work where something was falling flat. Okay, maybe I have no idea where they work best—the point is, they can add a really sweet layer to your story when you want to try something special. It might be neat to have some of those in your toolbox. (I was using some without even realizing I was doing it—you really do pick up so much from reading). Again—thank you, editor. 

These are the few I started with: Anaphora. Polysyndeton. Asyndeton.   

6. Dialogue Tags 

“This is embarrassing,” she said.

“I know. Don’t worry. I do it all the time too,” he said.

“Can we fix this?” she asked.

“Yes.” He typed furiously on the keyboard. “Just give me a minute.”

“What are you doing?” She peered over his shoulder.

“I’m showing you how to use dialogue tags properly,” he said.

These are important. They don’t need to be fancy, either. Dialogue tags that are tried-and-true and don’t detract from the reading flow are the simple ones: said and asked. Some editors might not mind if you used other dialogue tags but mine encouraged me not to, explaining that they are best when invisible. There are times when I think fancy ones work (there are a lot of fancy dialogue tags in many of my favourite books) but for the most part, I think it was safe for me to lose the fancy tags and amp up the descriptions of the character showing the emotion I was trying to convey through the tag.

These are just a couple highlights of what I’ve learned from this phase of editing. I’d be writing all night if I tried to cram everything I discovered in here and I know we all need to keep working on our manuscripts! I don’t think anything I’ve shared will come as a surprise to anyone—I’m hardly the first person to write about editing after all! But these were small things that I really found made my manuscript stronger. Once I understand why I was making these changes and got comfortable making them, I started to move through the manuscript a lot faster—yesterday, I made it through ten chapters! It feels awesome to clean up my manuscript and learn more about the craft of writing at the same time that I can apply to my other projects. What about you? What tips are helping you with your own work?

Happy writing everyone! (P.S. I've recently started painting again & this is one of my works in progress I thought I'd share. Slowly moving away from my usual crayon drawings!). 

S.

Vampires and Second Drafts

A week ago, I started the second draft of a book I’ve tentatively titled, The Vampire Skeleton. This book sprang from an idea I had while I was researching my short story collection last year. Essentially, the idea was this: what would First Nation vampires be like?

The Vampire Skeleton is about a girl named Rowen who is apprenticing to become the healer in her community. The story takes place in a world where a group of Indigenous Peoples have decided to retreat to a tight-knit community in order to revitalize their languages and ceremonies, essentially eschewing all contact with mainstream culture. The community is separated from the rest of the world by a magical wall built hundreds of years ago. For the most part, Rowen is happy there, but when a vampire attacks her best friend, Rowen has to journey beyond the wall to try and save him. Along the way, her values and beliefs are challenged by the people and situations she encounters.

I had no idea the book was going to be about any of this when I started writing it back in April 2014. I was nine months pregnant with my daughter and had just started my maternity leave. I knew I was going to spend the majority of my time with my new baby once she arrived and I had no writing projects to work on so I thought it would be cool to try writing 300 words of something a day. I kept up with the story after she was born (May 11) and I finished a rough draft of The Vampire Skeleton in mid June.

The only idea I really had in my head was that in vampire genre movies and books, Indigenous Peoples were always shape shifters or werewolves. I had just read the Haudenosaunee legend of the vampire skeleton and thought it would be cool to try and write something where Indigenous Peoples were the vampires. Plus, I love vampires and I’ve always wanted to write a vampire story.

Here’s the thing. I know there are literally thousands of vampire stories in the world. This still didn’t stop me from writing my own, even if publishers and agents aren’t looking for any more stories of this nature. I didn’t write it for publishers or agents. I wrote it for me (that’s okay to do!), and somewhere along the line it became the book that I associate with those amazing first weeks we shared with our daughter, when we were filled with so much love and hope and fear. So I suppose I wrote it for her as well <3! 

I guess what I’m trying to say or what I learned from this experience is that it’s important to write the stories that you want to and that you love—whether they are going to be popular or not. I think I would have a super hard time finding representation for this piece but thats okay—I wrote something that I thought was fun and that I had passion for. That counts as a win to me.

The other reason I’m blogging about this book has to do with second drafts. I’m about nine chapters into The Vampire Skeleton and it’s a bit of a mess in that lovely way first drafts can be. But it’s interesting because even though I had no outline for this story (I pantsed it!), I can really see how the basic outline was created simply through the process of writing. It still needs a lot of work, though. Pantsing was a great experience but as I create the second draft I find myself struggling at the points where I must have been floundering in the initial writing. That’s okay too! That’s what editing is for. Writing. Cutting. Revising. Rewriting. After all, there is no one perfect way to write a novel. Even more important: no one will write a novel, of any genre, the same way you will. So write that story you are so passionate about! Get that first draft down and write ‘THE END’. Then go back and edit and fall in love with your story all over again.  

Happy writing!

S.

Have Fun with Edits

We all know that editing is necessary and while it’s highly unlikely that it will ever be completely pain free, over the last few weeks I couldn’t help but notice how much fun I'm having editing my novel. It made me want to look back over what I was doing that was turning an otherwise dreary task into the part of my day I looked forward to most. Here’s what I found:

I took the anxiety out of the process.

 

It’s inevitable. Some things are going to need to be cut. Saving the portions of writing that you cut in another document or renaming the document lets you preserve the previous draft and gives you a lot of freedom to experiment. Scared to cut something? You don’t have to be. It’s still safe. So chop away. It gets really fun to watch thing disappear and not have to agonize over letting it go. Plus you can always use it later in different ways if you really want to. Deleted scenes become bonus features on DVDs for a reason and deleted sentences might actually just work better in another part of the book or in a companion story. Branch out! Or replace lost text with something mind-blowing that ratchets up the tension and conflict.

I learned things that I can use to make my other stories better.

 

A few weeks ago, I hired an editor to look at the second draft of my story. (I wrote the first draft in August. At that time, I was doing a quick edit of the previous day’s work before continuing. I finished it in mid-September and put it away until mid-December when I edited it again. In between there were two beta readers). The editor had provided me with five pages of sample editing so I could get a sense of their process and decide whether or not I wanted to work with them. This experience was awesome for me because those sample pages helped me to see that there were a lot of little things, tiny rules of writing that I was not applying consistently. One of them was around the proper formatting of dialogue. It amazed me how even the correct application of dialogue tags can make the story stronger. Everything I learned can be applied to my new or existing writing, so that the editing process is a tiny bit easier when it begins.

The darlings died. It hurt. Just not as much as I thought it would.

 

My editor also highlighted areas where things weren’t working. For example, they pointed out parts where the story was lagging or where I was starting scenes in a similar way (I had three scenes that began with my character waking up). People who loved me would read these parts and probably not mind at all. An objective and astute reader would not be so patient. Now, I read the first draft (the all story, as Stephen King puts it) and these lulls didn’t jump out at me. But I’m not an objective reader. I do want to tell a great story though. So if a reader is tempted to put the book down or gloss over parts, it’s a sign to me that I have work to do. Thinking about the manuscript from this perspective helped me to cut things and characters that weren’t vital to the story (even if I loved the way they were written) and move straight into the action and emotional impacts of the main story, which made it far more compelling. So yes, the darlings must die-it just doesn’t hurt as much when the overall book is getting better and brighter. 

I was reminded to trust my instincts – at least about some things.

 

Some (in fact, most) of the issues my editor pointed out were things that had already occurred to me as I was editing the book myself. For reasons that I can’t recall, I chose not to address those changes at the time. Here’s an example: during my second edit I was asking myself whether a character was actually necessary. My editor asked the same question. Turns out, they weren’t. It’s a lot of work to edit out an entire character but since I’ve started doing it, the re-writing I’ve had to do has tightened the story considerably. This taught me that it’s important to pay attention to my instincts. I don’t know where our writing instincts come from but I’m going to guess that the way to keep them sharp is to write a lot and read extensively. Reading helps you get a sense of the possibilities, the tropes, the clichés and how to turn them on their heads.

In conclusion, I suppose editing has been fun because it was hugely empowering. I knew the story needed work (they always will after the first few drafts), and it’s been pure pleasure to weed out the unnecessary bits and let the story grow without interference. Before this, I wasn’t exactly sure how to do the pruning. Over the last few weeks I feel like I’m starting to get a sense of what to look for and how to edit in an effective, expedient manner.

Now, there are some drawbacks to editing being fun. The more I learned, the more I wanted to go and start editing basically everything I’d worked on in the last year. I found myself getting flustered because I wanted to edit several things all at once. That wasn’t good. I mean, it was great to have zeal but I had to force myself to focus on one project because otherwise-it’s difficult to make progress. At least it is for me.

Finally, another thing that can be a challenge is knowing when to stop editing. I haven’t experienced this personally yet but I know that other writers who are just starting out have voiced questions about when to stop editing. I’m not there yet, so I don’t think I can offer much insight. I’m on my third draft, after this there will certainly be a fourth and a fifth (I will complete approximately three revisions over the course of working with the editor I hired). I know a lot of writers who are in their sixth or seventh draft. At some point, you will have to make the call about when the story is done and ready for readers. And this may be different depending on which publishing path you choose. Some people say they know its ready when their beta readers or critique partners have nothing more to add. For others, it seems like the publishing house will give it the all clear. What’s common to both of these experiences is that at some point you will stop editing and you will move on to the next phase of the publishing process. I am so excited for that phase! In fact, it’s the final thing that makes editing fun. Knowing that once the editing is done, the book is almost ready to be shared.  Really and truly.

Happy Editing Everyone!

S.