The Long and Winding Editing Road—Condensing

Here's the deal, friends: I know what has to happen during the next draft of my novel, but I don't want to do it. This past semester burned me out emotionally and creatively. It's been nice to blog because I don't have to put as much effort into a blog post as an essay or a piece of fiction. But, my book has been bouncing around in the back of my head. It's been more of a "hey, hey you, hey, you should work on your novel" than an "Oh, boy! I can't wait to work on my novel!" but I'm hoping that talking to you guys about my next step will make me excited to start writing again. 

What is my next step? 

CONDENSING! Right now, this story is over 147,000 words, which is way too long. Before I start hacking my manuscript to pieces with the backspace key, however, I need to outline once again (this book has more outlines than drafts!). I started to outline before last semester got crazy, and condensed the first twenty chapters into fourteen. If I can do the same to the remaining forty chapters, that should cut out a significant amount of unneeded verbiage. 

In addition to condensing my story, Draft Five is going to be the last draft that I edit for major content concerns. After that, I am going to pay more attention to sentence fluency, diction, inconsistencies, and grammatical errors. I'm hopeful that by creating a streamlined outline, my plot and characters will be better developed because I'll have to be efficient with how I use my words. 

My plan is still to self-publish this book at the end of the summer, but if next semester is as harrowing as the last, I may have to push the release date back.

...Well, look at that! Writing this tiny post has boosted by motivation. Talking about outlining has made me excited to outline. I do love a good outline (maybe someday I'll show you the three-page monstrosity I wrote to accompany a 1,300 word essay). I'm even a bit excited to go after my story with the backspace key (don't you worry! I have all previous drafts of this book saved). 

I want to have Draft Five finished by the end of the school year. My semester should be less hectic than the last one, so I have hope that if I'm dedicated to making time to edit, it will get done! 

Knows not where [s]he's going to...

I'm not cut out to be an editor.

My plan was to go to school, gain an English degree, become an editor to pay the bills, and write my own novels on the side.

And then I took Editing and Proofreading.

The class itself was great. I learned a lot, including that I don't want to be an editor anymore.
Before I continue, let me explain the different types of editors that we learned about:

These are the different types of editors that will work on books, but there are also editors who work on technical manuals, websites, and anything else you can think of with words that people will read. All of these editors have something in common, however: they work with style guides.
A style guide is used by publishing houses and other companies to make sure that everything they publish has internal grammatical consistency. In class, for example, we proofread an already-published book from Bethany House Publishers (BHP). BHP has their own style guide which dictates whether three dots in an ellipses is correct or if four dots are needed, whether or not orange-red needs a hyphen, and other nitpicky details.

THIS is why I don't want to be an editor anymore. They say the devil is in the details, and they (whomever they may be) are right. I consider myself detail-oriented, focused, and patient, but I simply don't like making sure that every comma is compliant with each other and with a publishing house's style guide.
I do not enjoy paging—or, in the case of modern technology, clicking—through a style guide to find out whether or not the publishing house wants to capitalize "He" when referring to God.
Although I enjoyed having the power to change organization, sentence structure, and even paragraph organization during our substantive and copy editing projects, I did not enjoy having to decide if strange sentence construction was distracting or if it was simply the author's voice.
I don't like how impersonal it is. Sometimes, an editor never talks directly with the author. If the editor does talk with the author, he or she is supposed to be polite but anything more is not encouraged. I understand that... after all, editing is, in a way, a business transaction. Like any business transaction, it should be polite and detached. But if I love an author's work, I want to tell them that. I want to become their friend and learn what was in their head when they thought of a particular scene or character. I want to tell everyone how much I loved their work. I want to work with them again. More often than not, however, editors and authors don't stick together, especially if the editor is freelancing (a.k.a. not working with a publishing house or company).

So, I'm not cut out to be an editor. As the song says, I "know not where [I'm] going to." If I'm not to be an editor, what am I to do? I asked a very similar question three-and-a-half years ago when I discovered that I was not cut out to be a full time, wage-earning youth/worship leader. It took me over a year to process that discovery, but at the end of that year plus, I decided to go to school to get an English degree. I'm not regretting that decision in the slightest, as I love love LOVE my department and what I'm studying.
But, I also don't know what I want to do with my degree once I graduate, especially since I've added a history minor and what in the world does one do with an English/History/Bible degree in this day and age?? Become a professor, I suppose. I don't know if that's what I want to do, but it's an option that I need to think and pray about.

I don't graduate for two-and-a-half years, so I have lots of time to think and pray.

What about you? What do you want to be when you grow up (even if you are already grown up, you can still answer!)? Have you ever had your plans derailed? How did you set the train back on the tracks again? Leave me a comment and let me know; I'd love to hear from you!

Five Things I Learned About Myself This Semester

1. My body needs at least eight hours of sleep every night.

That's my bed way at the top, two feet away from the ceiling. No, I never rolled out during the night. Yes, we did move it down a few notches for next semester.

This is a lesson I learned spring semester after sleeping an average of seven hours every night and being constantly cranky and sick. This semester, I set myself a loose goal of getting eight hours of sleep every night—or at least to go to bed earlier. My friend and roommate wanted to get more sleep, too, so together we were able to be in bed before eleven most nights. Even if I didn't sleep for eight hours, I made sure to be in bed at least eight hours a night. I was mostly successful, except for the week or two leading up to finals!

2. I like to cook and clean more than I thought.

In addition to having a full kitchen this year, I have a George Foreman and a freezer full of meat. I also have a dining fund that is significantly smaller than last year. I had to prepare a lot of my own meals, and I quite enjoyed experimenting with potatoes and eggs. I even made myself a vat of chicken soup! I surprised myself with how much I like cooking (when I wasn't stressed by other commitments). I also surprised myself with how much I like cleaning up my messes, too. There's something satisfying about seeing the tangible results of wiping up spilled salsa or scrubbing the soap grime off of the bathtub.

3. Listening to live music and walking by water make me happy and calm when I am sad and stressed.

I took a walking class this past semester that reminded me of how much I enjoy walking. Luckily, I live in the land of 10,000 lakes, so there is plenty of beauty around me to look at while I get exercise. Next semester, I want to continue walking several times a week. I also want to continue taking advantage of the concerts and plays that my school puts on while I am still a student and can get them for free! They make me feel alive.

4. I don't take risks if it involves making mistakes or risking confrontation.

This picture has nothing to do with confrontation, but it makes me laugh so I thought I'd share it.

I'm just not a risky person. I learned this through my internship. I was too timid to follow through with many of my ideas because I was afraid they would be taken badly. Next semester, my plan is to take more risks... because if I don't take risks, how will I ever make mistakes? And if I never make mistakes, how will I ever grow?

5. I'm not cut out to be an editor.

Yeah, I'm surprised, too. After all, one reason I chose the college I did was because they had an editing and proofreading class! I took said class this past semester and... really didn't like it all that much. I mean, the class was great, like most classes at my school, but I didn't enjoy the work. So, now I'm at a loss. If I'm not to be an editor, what am I to be?

I don't know, but I've got time to figure it out.

In my next post, I want to talk more about my editing class and share the things I learned and why I don't want to be an editor anymore. Stay tuned for that!

Until then, have you learned anything about yourself in the past few months?

The Long and Winding Editing Road—Did I Finish?

Did I finish the fourth draft of my fantasy novel by June 1?

YES!!!
And one week early, too.

As usual, editing went much smoother than I expected. I changed a lot of major things in this draft from last draft, yet it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be! I had a lot of fun making changes, spending time with my characters (they have become very familiar to me over the past years [even Finn, the little troublemaker]), and just reading through the draft. Maybe next draft I'll pay attention to all of the references I make and put them into a blog post, for I cannot seem to write a novel without including the titles of Beatles songs and other such inane foppery (my favorite was a rogue Tim Hawkins quote. Yes, this is a fairytale-fantasy).

So, what's next? Well, I know that I'm too close to this draft to see any flaws, so I'm going to send this draft to a few friends to read. I'm excited for two reasons:
1) My writing/reading/NaNoWriMo-ing friend/doppleganger from school Abby with No E gets to read it.
2) For ease of reading, I'm ordering two paperback copies of this draft! Eep!!

Here are some stats-
Draft: Four
Started: December 18ish, 2016.
Finished: May 25, 2017 at 10:35(ish)PM.
Worked on: Mostly December, April, and May.
Chapters: Sixty
Word count: 147,839

And, for the first time ever... here is a snippet:

Rozella led Finn and Ronan up the sand dune she had just climbed in her anger. She had found a surprise waiting for her on the other side. Now, she and her friends stood at the top of the dune looking down into a sandy valley. The light from the half-moon glinted off of at least a hundred scaly monsters.

“See, look!” Rozella hissed to her friends. “Dragons!”

Dragons, indeed. Dragons as far as the eye could see! And they were just waking up from their daily slumber. Their backs were easily twenty feet high. They were mostly brown and black, but there were also dark green, blue, and purple dragons. Occasionally a gold or silver dragon broke the monotony. Scales covered their entire bodies and they had horns protruding from their snouts and the tops of their heads.

As the four travelers watched, the dragons became more and more active. The beasts woke, stretched, yawned, and began walking around. Some groomed each other with reptilian-like tongues. Some tasted the air with those same tongues. Some fought. Some flew.

“Look!” gasped Rozella, as the first dragon alighted into the air.

Its powerful wings beat slowly at first and then faster as it rose. Wind from the dragon’s wings hit the travelers full in the face and they stumbled backwards. In a moment, hundreds of other dragons began flapping into the air. The gale force winds forced the travelers back down to their campsite where they hastily extinguished their fire. They desperately hoped that the dragons wouldn’t mistake them for prey.

I hope you enjoyed it! Now, I'm going to read.

The Long and Winding Editing Road—It Begins Again.

~I've been inspired by Katie at Spiral-Bound's "Editing Diaries" posts to do my own editing series. Currently, I'm in the process of editing a fairytale-fantasy novel I wrote in 2014, and I want you to join me on this journey! Maybe, together, we can learn a few things about writing along The Long and Winding Editing Road.~

I figured that Christmas break would be the ideal time to begin the fourth draft of my fantasy novel. Despite a number of major changes to my characters, I had the fanciful idea that I would be able to finish the fourth draft during my three week break. I made excellent time through the first third of the novel; but, the second third took me by surprise. It has always been the most difficult part of the novel as the characters are between quests and nothing much happens. It is a time for character development and a time for me to lay the foundation for things to come later in the story. In past drafts, I have taken out much content from this middle section. This draft has been no different. In fact, I took out two chapters, and allocated their necessary parts to different chapters.
I've never had to make big cuts like this before. It's liberating to highlight several thousand words, hit the backspace key, and see them disappear (don't worry–I have them saved somewhere else!). It's fun to make these cuts, knowing that I am streamlining my story and making it better! I feel like a real writer.
I did, however, run across a roadblock. This roadblock has come in the shape of a character. Surprisingly—nay, miraculously!—the character who is giving me trouble is not Finn. Finn is behaving himself (for once). No, King John is giving me trouble. He's my villain and I've never felt solid with his characterization. During the last draft, I had a better handle on his character; because I was focused on my main characters, though, I couldn't devote as much time to him as he deserved. Over the summer, I wrote part of his backstory in short story form. That helped me understand him better.
Now, I have printed out the fourteen chapters that make up the middle section of my novel. I plan to go through them very carefully so that I can...

-Continue streamlining this part of the story so that the audience doesn't get bored. I want every scene and every character interaction to have purpose.

-Fix King John's character. I want to write him in such a way that the audience feels exactly how I want them to feel about him. This is going to be tricky, since I want them to go from despising him to sort-of liking him to despising him again. Since this is how my main character, Rozella, feels about him, I am hoping that the audience will follow her feelings.

These two goals are going to take precision to complete, which is why I printed out these chapters.

I don't know how much I will be able to work on them during the first eight weeks of school because I have a lot of classwork. My workload drops significantly during the last eight weeks, however, so I hope to work on my story then! I will keep you updated.

Are you writers out there working on anything exciting at the moment?

The Long and Winding Editing Road—Fanfare for the Uncommonly Happy Writer

~I've been inspired by Katie at Spiral-Bound's "Editing Diaries" posts to do my own editing series. Currently, I'm in the process of editing a fairytale-fantasy novel I wrote in 2014, and I want you to join me on this journey! Maybe, together, we can learn a few things about writing along The Long and Winding Editing Road.~

Usually, when you come across writers, they are sullen with a far away look in their eyes, contemplating wayward characters and gaping plot holes.
But, hark, do you hear the resounding BOOM of drums? The clash of the gong? Do you hear the lone trumpet line swell as French horns, trombones, and other brass join the fanfare? They play a fanfare for an uncommonly happy writer. An uncommonly happy writer named Abbey.
Why this fanfare, you may ask?
Because I finished the third draft of my fantasy novel!

I expected the final third of my novel to be the hardest to edit due to the character that I was taking out, but, I was enjoying the story so much that I finished the last twenty-one chapters in five days. The last thirteen chapters I finished yesterday by staying up past midnight. Please don't let me do that ever again.

The character I removed didn't end up being as difficult to delete as I had anticipated. Most of his scenes were in big blocks of text so I could highlight them and press the backspace key. All of his important dialogue I was able to delegate to other characters.

Now, I am going to take a month-and-a-half off from this story while I let some friends read it. What am I going to do while my book is away? Several things:

1. Read a lot. I have three books out of the library that have to be returned soon. Hopefully, I'll be able to speed through them now that I'm not consumed with editing.
Also, I'm still making my way through The Silmarillion and enjoying it very much. I just started Beren and Luthien's tale. Did you know that when Thingol accuses Beren for entering his land and falling in love with his daughter, Beren holds up a ring with two serpents with emerald eyes as protection? This ring is, in fact, the same ring that Aragorn owns in The Lord of the Rings! It passed from Beren through the generations until it reached Aragorn.

2. I might outline a few short stories. I was going to save this project for the summer, but these stories have been nagging for my attention. Who will win: Abbey's schedule or the plot bunnies? Find out during our next WWE (Weird Writers Entertainment) match!

3. Apply for college.

4. Writing blog posts. There are several exciting things coming to the blog in the next few months (unfortunately, a WWE match is probably not among them), so stay tuned!

5. Probably watch some Star Trek. Does it count as research if I'm drawing inspiration from it for one of my plot bunnies?

The brass play a final triumphant note. The drums fade into the distance. The fanfare ends.

The Long and Winding Editing Road—Movin' Right Along

~I've been inspired by Katie at Spiral-Bound's "Editing Diaries" posts to do my own editing series. Currently, I'm in the process of editing a fairytale-fantasy novel I wrote in 2014, and I want you to join me on this journey! Maybe, together, we can learn a few things about writing along The Long and Winding Editing Road.~

In my last editing post I talked about the struggles that my main character, Finn, has been giving me. I was trying decide if I wanted to go back to the beginning and fix his character, or if I wanted to continue editing from where I was.
I decided to go back to the beginning and fix him. I only looked at the chapters that feature his point-of-view. It was interesting to focus so intensely on one character for one week, ignoring everything else in the story. I found that, by focusing on Finn, I got a much better view of his character arc as a whole. Because I had so recently read where he was at the beginning of the book, I could easily pick out discrepancies and character growth. In the end, I was able to move through Finn's chapters quickly and fix him to the best of my abilities at the moment.

Now, I'm moving into the final third of the third draft. This is going to be the hardest third of the novel. The last few chapters have only been through one draft because I didn't write the ending during the first draft. And, I've decided to get rid of a character that joins my characters on their quest in the final third. He's been in the plan for the story longer than Timone (Timone is the one who showed up randomly halfway through the book). I named this character after two special someone's. It's going to be sad to cut him out of all but one chapter. It's going to be hard, too. It's going to be hard to delegate his lines and his actions to the others. Yet, I know I'm doing the right thing. This character has no purpose in the narrative. I can't think of a single reason to keep him around because he adds nothing to the plot. So, as sad and as hard as it is to let him go, I have to do it. And he won't be gone forever. He'll still have a significant informational role in Chapter 39. Maybe I can transfer him to another story in the future.

Have you writers ever had to take out a deadweight character from your novels?

The Long and Winding Editing Road—Finn

~I've been inspired by Katie at Spiral-Bound's "Editing Diaries" posts to do my own editing series. Currently, I'm in the process of editing a fairytale-fantasy novel I wrote in 2014, and I want you to join me on this journey! Maybe, together, we can learn a few things about writing along The Long and Winding Editing Road.~

Finn, oh, Finn, oh, Finn, oh, Finn! Where to begin?
My novel has two point-of-views. One is Rozella, whom you met in my last Editing Road post. The other point-of-view is Finn, and he has given me trouble almost since Day One. I wanted him to be a mysterious, private, slightly brooding hero that makes fangirls swoon, but he ended up being too secretive, slightly whiney, and a know-it-all. It didn't help that I wasn't secure in his past or in his present situation.
Because I was uncomfortable with the original background I had created for Finn, I focused on that instead of Finn as a character. I decided to change his past and he became so much easier to write!
But then I started focusing on the present... What had Finn been doing for twenty years in the dungeon of the king? Why hadn't he tried to escape? I decided to change twenty years to five years and, again, Finn became so much easier to write!
After writing out his character profile, I figured that it would be easy to write Finn in the third draft. And it has been... until I realized two night's ago that it isn't.

Rozella is easy to write. She has a lot of the same insecurities that I do, so it's easy for me make her relatable by writing her thoughts for the reader's to see. To me, she feels like a real character because we see her inner struggles and her decision-making process. Her chapters are usually longer than Finn's and full of character development, while Finn's chapters usually advance the plot. I suppose that should have alerted me that something was wrong. I want to have balanced chapters, or else my readers will get bored with one of the points-of-view.
What made my chapters unbalanced? I thought it was that Finn wasn't getting as much character development as Rozella, so I started adding some. I used the same stream-of-consciousness approach that I had used for Rozella, but it felt wrong for two reasons:

1. If I'm writing both Rozella and Finn's character development the same, they will cease to have separate voices and will meld into the same person.
2. Men don't think the same way as women.

My dad was telling me about THIS video and I realized my problem. I was trying to make Finn think the same way as Rozella, because I knew that method worked. Well, it worked for Rozella, but it wasn't working for Finn, because he's not a woman!
How do I write male characters? I didn't know, so I asked my dad what he would do and what he would think about if he were the main character in my Fantasy Novel. He gave me some helpful comments and also a book to read on how guys think. I read the first chapter this morning and I'm already full of ideas on how to make Finn into a better character. Hopefully, this change will make Finn a lot easier to write! At least, until the next problem pops up.

There's only one last problem... Should I go back to the beginning of the story and work on Finn's character from there, or should I continue on from where I am now? Maybe I need to do some additional research before I mess around with Finn's character. Maybe I should experiment and see what happens. Maybe I need to rewrite his profile. I can't decide, and it's halted my editing, which is too bad because I was really enjoying this draft!
Maybe I'll go fix myself lunch. That sounds like a good idea.

The Long and Winding Editing Road—Characters

I've been inspired by Katie at Spiral-Bound's "Editing Diaries" posts to do my own editing series. Currently, I'm in the process of editing a fairytale-fantasy novel I wrote in 2014, and I want you to join me on this journey! Maybe, together, we can learn a few things about writing along The Long and Winding Editing Road.

In my last editing post, I talked about how I outlined my novel and then rewrote it, focusing on the plot.
Now, I'm working on the third draft of the story. This time, I'm focusing on character development, which is something I've never focused on before.
In my novel After the Twelfth Night, I don't remember doing any character edits, and the extent of my character-building was to write out my character's names, ages, descriptions, and one or two random facts about their personalities and hobbies on a piece of paper.

In the first draft of my fantasy novel, I didn't write anything down about my characters. I had a few vague ideas in my head about who they were, but mostly let them develop on their own. Surprisingly, this worked rather well. By the time I finished, I knew who most of my characters were, and they've stayed relatively the same since then.
There were exceptions, of course. Namely, my main male protagonist and a random character named Timone who showed up halfway through the story and decided to stick around.

Finn, my main male protagonist has gone through the most changes since the beginning of the story. I intended for him to be a mysterious and brooding hero, but he ended up being a secretive and slightly-annoying know-it-all.
He started the story in the king's dungeon and had been there for twenty years, which made me ask, "What has he been doing in the dungeon for twenty years? He's best friends with his guard. Why doesn't he use that to his advantage and escape?" I couldn't answer these questions, and it caused Finn's whole character to crumble under my fingertips. His motivation and personality didn't match his past. I had no idea how to write him.
It wasn't until I was at least halfway through the second draft that I came up with a solution. Why did he have to be in the dungeon for twenty years? Wouldn't five years be better?
"I've made an executive decision," I declared to my parents. "Finn has been in the dungeon for five years, not twenty."
"Okay," they probably replied, unsure what I was talking about, but used to my random outbursts.
Suddenly, Finn was much easier to write.
Funny how one tiny detail can change the way one writes a character.

Timone also gave me a lot of trouble in the beginning. Here is an excerpt from a post I wrote on NaNoWriMo's forums, shortly after Timone first showed up in my story:

"...instead of saying 'Guard, take them to their cell,' like any normal leader, he said, 'Timone, take them to their cell.'

I know, I know... once you name something you get attached... I wasn't going to get attached, but now Timone wants to join my two main characters on their quest and I don't know what to do! I have no clue who this character is! What's his background? What's his personality? What are his motives? Is his name even Timone? I don't know!

What do I do? Should I let him tag along and see if he reveals himself to me later on? Should I tell him to 'stay!' and hope he doesn't follow me home? Should I kill him?

Sincerely,

Someone-Who-Doesn't-Do-Well-With-Unexpected-Characters-Showing-Up-Halfway-Through-The-Novel."

During outlining, Timone decided to reveal his secrets to me. Knowing who he was made him easier to write.

Something else that helped me to understand Finn and Timone was to outline what happened to them prior to my novel. I wrote out their childhoods, teen years, and adult years in chapter synopses [side note: I just found out that "synopses" is the plural of "synopsis"! Who knew]. Now, I have outlines of their pasts so, if I want to, I can write novellas about them to complement my novel.

After writing the second draft, I knew I needed to develop my characters outside of the novel, so I decided to write character profiles.

But I'll save that for the next post.



The Long and Winding Editing Road—What I've Done So Far

I've been inspired by Katie at Spiral-Bound's "Editing Diaries" posts to do my own editing series. Currently, I'm in the process of editing a fairytale-fantasy novel I wrote in 2014, and I want you to join me on this journey! Maybe, together, we can learn a few things about writing along The Long and Winding Editing Road.

In December 2013, I had the first idea for this story (since it is still title-less, it shall hereby be known as the Fantasy Novel). When I started writing in January 2014, I had no outline and only a vague idea of where I wanted the plot to go. I love outlines, but I was curious about where the story would take me if I didn't have a plan.
Three hand-written notebooks and twelve months later, the plot had changed so considerably that I was lost. I needed to go back and plan; so, I spent much of 2015 re-plotting my novel.
I wanted to write a summary of every scene on separate notecards so that I could rearrange, add, and subtract scenes at will, but I soon discovered that writing out every single scene would lead to and overwhelming amount of notecards. Instead, I decided to write out a summary of each chapter as it appeared in the novel at the time:

Much more manageable, as you can see!

Then came the hard part: fixing the plot problems! I rewrote and rearranged countless cards until I was satisfied with the story.
Cait from Paper Fury says that when she rewrites, she starts from scratch and every single word is different. That astounded me—until I began rewriting my Fantasy Novel in the Fall of 2015. Though not every word is different, I changed almost the entire book!
My only previous novel-editing experience—with my first book, After the Twelfth Night—was completely different. With After the Twelfth Night, I wrote the first draft on the computer and the second draft on paper. With my Fantasy Novel, I wrote the first draft on paper, and am working on subsequent drafts on my computer. With After the Twelfth Night, I had an outline from the beginning. When it came to rewriting, I only had to add scenes to make the story better. With my Fantasy Novel, nearly the entire plot had to be rewritten, which is why I changed nearly every sentence.
I finished the second draft in November 2015. I needed to distance myself from the story, so I put the book away during December. I've only just started working on it again, but let's save that for another post, shall we?

If you are a writer, what does your editing process look like?