The Revision Diaries (5)

sometime late last night, i tweeted something that looked a little like this:

I fixed it I fixed it IFIXEDIT!!!

except it wasn't bold or in massive type, because - dang it - twitter doesn't allow us to express ourselves through font!
but big and bold is how i felt after getting past a major hurdle in my line edits.

and really, "line edits" is a bit deceptive here.
often, at the line edit stage, and editor will have a few additional suggestions for revision. one such suggestion, for me, required a lot of pacing around the house and muttering to myself. i avoided the scene for a couple days - if you can call obsessing about it, emailing about it and jotting down notes on it avoiding. what i mean is, i didn't touch the scene in my manuscript. i worked on everything else - the actual line edits, the moments that needed rewording and other minor fixes that were easier to tackle. but i was afraid to mess with this one scene for fear of screwing it up.

over the weekend, i finally ran out of other edits, and i knew i had to face my fear. today, i want to share with you how i faced it and what i learned from it.

face the fear:
- my paralysis came mostly from the fear that the manuscript is pretty well polished, and this edit would require me to tear apart some of those polished pages. to help curb that fear, i took the chapter that would be mostly changed and copied it into a new word document. this way, i could mess it up all i wanted, and the original chapter would remain untouched in my ms. - a small, obvious, solution probably... but it really helped me relax.
- in fact, i liked working in this new document so much, i made THREE of them. and i started to write 3 different scenes - each with a different approach to the "FIX." one scene fell apart so fast and furious, i deleted the whole document. it wasn't even worth archiving under "experiments." the other two scenes worked a little better, and i treated them both like rough drafts - i gave myself freedom to make mistakes ranging from typos to total character revisions.
- then i did what i would do with any rough draft. i sent the scenes to one of my crit partners. with her notes, i was able to see which scene was working. i rewrote that scene, revised it again, then took the now-polished chapter and plugged it back into the manuscript.

lesson #1 - the domino effect:
- as polished as that chapter was, i had created changes that required me to now go through the rest of my clean ms and start mucking things up again - the one thing i wanted to avoid!
but now that i knew i had "fixed it," the other changes weren't so scary. i went backward from the scene to plant some clues of the scene to come, and i went forward in the manuscript to create a few moments that would be altered by the new scene.
- the lesson for me was - no matter how much i tried to isolate the issue, to make it this one small fix in this one small corner of the story - the fact is, any important change will have a domino effect throughout your story, even if the change is small and at the almost-polished stage of your revisions. if the change doesn't ripple through the entire manuscript, it probably wasn't that important to begin with.

lesson #2 - don't be afraid to TRY:
- i agreed with my editor that we needed this "fix," but i wasn't sure if her suggestion for fixing it was the right way. i got it all stuck in my head that i could fix it another way - a way that i had already tried and that wasn't working but that i was sure would have a different result if i kept doing it. hello, definition of insanity!
- the scene i wrote first was my own solution. i wasn't happy with it, but i couldn't figure out how to fix it. so i told myself, just TRY to do what your editor suggested.
well. yeah. my editor - she's a pretty smart cookie.
i liked the second scene so much better. i knew this before i even sent the scenes to my crit partner, but i wanted an outside opinion. ...and that opinion was a clear smack down on scene one and hearts for scene 2. lesson learned: even if an idea doesn't sound like the right solution, just try it out. you may surprise yourself.

so i tweeted to the world that IFIXEDIT! and now i can start my final pass through the manuscript, making sure everything is still polished. of course, it's always possible my editor will say:

Yo. You SO did NOT fix it.

(well, no, that's not actually possible, because my editor is much more eloquent than that - but you get the idea.)
if that happens, you'll know, because i'll be back here with another round of the revision diaries.

but for now:
Line Edits. Conquered.

The Revision Diaries (4)

i got my line edits this week, so you know what that means...
we're in for another round of:
The Revision Diaries: Confessions of an Author on a Deadline!

first, a brief word about line edits, for those not in the know. (those of you who are in the know, feel free to nod your head all, y'know, knowingly as we go along.)

line edits come after an author has done most of the major revisions. instead of big story or character suggestions, your editor will focus in on smaller moments on the page - bits that aren't working or need rewording, beats that are missing, moments that need to be amped up, and of course, lines that need fixing.
the accompanying editorial letter is probably shorter, but the manuscript pages probably have more marks. it's the detail work.

so i have had my line edits for all of 24 hours, and of course, i have already busted out the colored Post Its, consulted with my crit partners and sent one - possibly deranged and definitely way-too-long - email to my editor.
now i am ready to begin the work.

here's all i know for sure about the work that is to come:
it doesn't necessarily get easier.

when you are revising a rough draft, you can take a sledgehammer to that thing. you can go all demolition derby on it and rebuild from scratch.
when you get to revisions with your editor, it's more like tearing down a single wall and building it back up in a different spot, with better support beams and a fresh coat of paint.
and now i'm learning, when you reach line edits, you have to trade that old sledgehammer for a scalpel.

(yes, i know my architectural metaphor just turned surgical. i would fix that, but i'm saving all of my editorial skills for the manuscript right now. thanks for your understanding.)

what i'm trying to say is this step in the editorial process is all about being careful. there may be a scene to add or rework here and there, but mostly my job is to make the fixes without mucking up the manuscript too much, since it's so close to being done. it's making me just a little bit afraid to touch the page, for fear of smudging what is already polished.

as soon as i get over that fear, i'll be back with another installment in the revision diaries!

The Revision Diaries (3)

this week's installment of the revision diaries (confessions of an author on a deadline!) reads a little like a Goofus and Gallant episode.

side note -- Goofus and Gallant, for those who did not grow up with Highlights magazine, are two boys who get placed in a situation with choices. Goofus always chooses the irresponsible path, while Gallant is more thoughtful.

side note to the side note -- as a kid, i always pronounced it Goofus and Gal-AHNT, because i'm fancy like that.

totally off-topic tangent -- when i was growing up, G&G were drawn with pencils in black and white. but i just checked out the website for Highlights magazine, and those boys are full-color computer graphics now! and guess what else? you can totally play a G&G "choose your own adventure" game online! i played it... twice.

okay, back on topic!

Friday, i was oh-so GalAHNT. i wrote and revised and wrote and revised again. new scenes. reworked scenes. continuity checks. word choices. i stayed on schedule and did not get distracted. very responsible author this day.

Saturday, i woke up a Goofus. i was exhausted from two full days of revisions and decided to put off writing until the afternoon. i ran errands, did chores, chilled out with Handsome. typical Saturday stuff. except this was not supposed to be a typical Saturday, because the Tic-Tock-Deadline-Clock waits for no weekend!
of course, my day got away from me until only the evening was left. at that point, i had to choose between revisions and poker night with friends.
i won the first game, lost the second. net gain: fifteen dollars.

Sunday, the Gallant on my shoulder came to the rescue. i wrote from practically sun up to well after sundown.
and... i finished.
i know! crazy! i so didn't deserve the satisfaction of being done after my Goofus Saturday, but there it is. i reached The End - again. and then i panicked. Goofus and Gallant were perched on each of my shoulders, having an argument:

Goofus: we're done! press send and let's go celebrate.
Gallant: maybe we should have a crit partner look at those scenes we're still concerned about first.
Goofus: naw! we're tired of revising. let's play some more poker.
Gallant: but we haven't fully addressed that one issue our editor mentioned. let's go back to page one and --
Goofus: you're boring!
Gallant: maybe i am, but if we work just a little harder, hopefully no one will say the BOOK is boring.
*poof* Goofus disappears in a ball of smoke.

actually, i compromised. Gallant isn't always right, and he is a little boring sometimes. so i sent the questionable scenes to a crit partner and took Monday and Tuesday to be a Goofus. i hit the gym, hung out with my gal pals and relaxed with Handsome.

Wednesday, i spent all night dealing with that issue Gallant had mentioned until i was satisfied.
Thursday, i thought long and hard about a possible big change i had proposed to my editor and ultimately decided against it (because, among other reasons, i realized my editor is much much smarter than i am.) i tossed out my outlined changes and polished up the newly revised manuscript instead. and THEN i pressed send. Goofus and i are going to have a blast this weekend.

so that's the end of the Revision Diaries for now.
i'm in uncharted waters on this path to publishing, but i hear there are often several rounds of revisions, then copy edits, then bound pages, ARCs, etc... so i expect this "author on a deadline" will have more confessions to come.

The Revision Diaries (2)

...week two in the chronicles and confessions of an author on a deadline!

so, as promised (to, um, myself), i truly began revising on Sunday. it was going great. i was trucking along, knocking down those skinny little post-its page by page for a couple days - until i hit a scene that stopped me in my tracks.

this scene needed a fix similar to a scene i'd already revised, so i attacked it in the same way - trimming back paragraphs here and rewriting the language there. but it wasn't working the same as it had worked for the other scene. and no amount of shaking my laptop could shimmy the words into their proper place.
so i got up and walked away for the first time since i'd really started revising.

but unlike with first drafts, or even revisions for my agent or crit partners, when i can walk away for as long as i need to... i knew i couldn't pause for too long. when writing/revising on a deadline, you can only let something sit and stew for so long before - in the immortal words of Tim Gunn - you have to "make it work."

so even though i wasn't sitting at the laptop, whatever i was doing, i forced myself to be thinking/scheming/mentally revising. i schemed while i played iSlash on my phone. i thought hard while watching the Real Housewives of who-knows-where. and i mentally revised while making dinner with Handsome.
(isn't it funny how much thinking/scheming/mentally revising all have in common with procrastinating? huh. wierd.)

but seriously, it was during one of these moments of obvious procrastination that the lightbulb went off. i knew how to fix the scene. i had to completely rewrite it - my first big full-scene makeover in this revision.

but AH! here was a new problem.
i am not one who can edit a single scene in multiple sessions, bouncing in and out of the chapter over the course of a few days. i have to do things in chunks. i needed a good block of time to write the scene AND make sure it was polished, so it wouldn't read like a first draft. but at this point, i was thick into my work week with other obligations looming, and i had not budgeted my week-day writing time for a marathon session - merely for a few sprints.

so with that deadline clock Tic-Toc-Taunting me, i set aside the manuscript for two whole days.

fortunately, i was able to use vacation days from work during this revision period, so i started again Thursday, with 4 full days of nothing but writing time stretching out before me.
and oh boy, did i rewrite that scene! it took the better part of my Thursday and kept me away from the gym and other chores i had hoped to slip in on my day off. but i got it done, and then i went back to sprinting - and smashing those post-its.
today i have a new scene to write and another scene that needs a big re-write, so i hope to be as productive as yesterday.

the only hiccup in my plans will be the carpet cleaners i scheduled to be here this afternoon.
but even if i only write 5 words while they are here, i'm sure i'll still get more done than if i had spent the entire day off cleaning the carpets myself.

i'll be back next week with another installment. (and probably sometime before that when some other random blog post inspiration strikes - i.e. when i need to walk away from the revisions again.)

The Revision Diaries (1)

OR: Confessions of an author on a deadline!

you know what you should do when you get your editorial letter? you should totally, ABSOLUTELY, commit to a new blog mini-series.
because that's responsible.
and a good use of your time.
ahem.

here's the deal. i thought it might be fun to share my editing crazies with all of you here on the blog. this is partly to make sure i AM, in fact, blogging during this time and not letting the space go dark. it also gives me an excuse to blog exclusively about revisions, which will be all i can think about for awhile. prepare for the descent into madness.

The Revision Diaries, Week 1:

my ed letter arrived on a friday, while i was at SCBWI. everyone told me you should let the letter sit and sink in for a few days, so i figured that was perfect timing. i'd just get started when i got home.

48 hours later, i was skipping the one free meal at the conference and an entire afternoon of sessions in order to sit in the lobby for a few hours, reading my manuscript and taking notes. (guess i'm not one for sitting and stewing!)

i spent the first few days back at home doing the same thing - reading and taking notes. all of this prep work is good, i told myself. i'll really be organized and ready when i actually start to edit.

eight pages of handwritten notes later, it was time to get back into the book and really start to work. BUT WAIT! the manuscript pages with my editor's notes had just arrived. naturally, i had to write out all new notes for myself based on those pages. really, you can't be too prepared.

the next friday, i talked to my editor on the phone to discuss revisions and bounce ideas back and forth. it was a great convo. i took lots of notes. i am so ready to start working, i thought.
(meanwhile, somewhere in the background, a deadline clock is ticking away. one week gone.)

finally, saturday arrived. my first full day to devote to editing. but i was TOTALLY UNPREPARED! i simply HAD to rush over to the office supply store to stock up on multi-colored Post-Its in all sizes. and as long as i was there, it made sense to pick up a 3-ring binder and new red pens and highlighters.
now i could REALLY get organized!

i spent a good half hour using a hole-puncher on my pretty manuscript pages. then i used my fancy new Post-Its to color-code my manuscript, page by page, with each color representing a different thread of things that need to be changed.

look how pretty! you can see how much work went into all this, right?



and do you know how many words i had actually edited in my manuscript at this point?
zero.

on the one hand, i do think it is CRITICAL to organize and prepare. at this point, i have my letter and my notes memorized, which should make the writing part much easier.

on the other hand, i confess, this first week was partly an exercise in procrastination. i find it very difficult to START revisions, because it means taking that polished manuscript - the one with every word spelled right inside of its perfectly-formatted one-inch margins - and tearing it apart. it's hard to take the thing you once called "done" and go back to calling it a "work in progress."

but it's time. i could not possibly be more organized. today, the REAL editing begins.

evolution of a query, part II

yesterday, i posted a "before and after" of my first-ever query letter. (that is, before revisions and after revisions.)
the idea is to use queries as a small-scale example of why revising is so important. this importance is only magnified when applied to a full-length piece of work!

today, i'm going to show you the different stages my query for BUTTER went through before i actually sent it off to agents.

this is draft 1:

Six summers at fat camp, 423 pounds on the scale and one dangerous defining moment.

A boy everyone calls “Butter” is about to make Scottsdale High history. He’s going to eat himself to death live on the internet – and everyone is going to watch!

My 51,000-word young adult novel “Butter” explores what happens when you get so big people can’t see around you and start looking right through you. It’s about just how far some teenagers will go to get noticed, to feel in control, to be somebody.

Butter is fed up with a dad who won’t talk to him, a girl who won’t look at him and a whole school full of kids who don’t even know his real name. If it weren’t for mom’s waffles and his saxophone, he wouldn’t get out of bed in the morning.
When the syrup comes off the waffles and the obesity makes it hard to play the sax, Butter decides to stop waking up altogether.

He announces his deadly plan to an army of peers and expects pity, insults or even indifference. Instead, he finds morbid encouragement.
When that encouragement tips the scales into popularity, Butter has a reason to live.
But if he doesn’t go through with his plan, he’ll lose everything.

As a journalist, I write facts all day, every day. This is my first work of fiction.

I would love to send a partial or full manuscript of “Butter” for your consideration.

just like yesterday's query, it's a little long. or at least, i thought it was only a "little" long. when i posted the first draft on Absolute Write for feedback, i learned it was a LOT long.
the good folks at AW also let me know they'd rather see a character introduced in the opening line.
so i revised and came back with this second draft:

A boy everyone calls “Butter” is about to make Scottsdale High history. He’s going to eat himself to death live on the Internet – and everyone is going to watch.

Butter is fed up with a dad who won’t talk to him, a girl who won’t look at him and a school full of kids who don’t even know his real name. If it weren’t for mom’s waffles and his saxophone, he wouldn’t get out of bed in the morning.
But mom starts taking the syrup off the waffles and obesity makes it increasingly harder for him to play the sax, so Butter decides to stop waking up altogether.

He announces his deadly plan to an army of peers and expects pity, insults or even indifference. Instead, he finds morbid encouragement.
When that encouragement tips the scales into popularity, Butter has a reason to live.
But if he doesn’t go through with his plan, he’ll lose everything.

My young adult novel BUTTER is 51,000 words about a 423-pound boy, six summers at fat camp and one dangerous defining moment. It explores what happens when Butter gets so big people can’t see around him and start looking right through him.

As a journalist, I write facts all day, every day. This is my first work of fiction.

I would love to send a partial or full manuscript of BUTTER for your consideration.

still too long, and you can see i merely moved my first line down, instead of deleting it. i think this is happens a lot with first revisions on novels too. writers can have a hard time letting go of the words they've created. they're not ready for the delete button.

so i was encouraged to "murder my darlings" (delete my favorite bits) and reminded that if the book sells, i can use those favorite lines later for promotion, etc...

so i offered this third draft:

A boy everyone calls “Butter” is about to make Scottsdale High history. He’s going to eat himself to death live on the Internet – and everyone will watch.

Butter is fed up with a dad who won’t talk to him, a girl who won’t look at him and a school full of kids who don’t even know his real name. If it weren’t for mom’s waffles and his saxophone, he wouldn’t get out of bed in the morning.

He announces his deadly plan to an army of peers and expects pity, insults or even indifference. Instead, he finds morbid encouragement.
When that encouragement tips the scales into popularity, Butter has a reason to live.
But if he doesn’t go through with his plan, he’ll lose everything.

My young adult novel BUTTER is 51,000 words about a 423-pound boy and one dangerous defining moment.

As a journalist, I write facts all day, every day. This is my first work of fiction.
I would love to send a partial or full manuscript of BUTTER for your consideration.

you can see it's finally getting shorter!
this time, the squirrels (as the query critters are affectionately called on AW) told me i had too many details that weren't essential to the nut of the story. -get it? nut? squirrels?- anyway... they suggested a few more cuts, and now that i'd exercised my "delete" finger, it wasn't hard to keep chopping.

so i ended up with this final draft:

A boy everyone calls “Butter” is about to make Scottsdale High history. He’s going to eat himself to death live on the Internet – and everyone will watch.

He announces his deadly plan to an army of peers and expects pity, insults or even indifference. Instead, he finds morbid encouragement. When that encouragement tips the scales into popularity, Butter has a reason to live. But if he doesn’t go through with his plan, he’ll lose everything.

My young adult novel BUTTER is 51,000 words about a 423-pound boy and one dangerous defining moment.

As a journalist, I write facts all day, every day. This is my first work of fiction.

I would love to send a partial or full manuscript of BUTTER for your consideration.

and that is the letter that got four manuscript requests from my first round of agent queries.
for all i know, that request rate would have been zero without revisions.

so whenever i get frustrated with book revisions, i look back on the evolution of my queries to remind myself that revising - while hard work - always pays off.

evolution of a query, part I

i can't speak for all authors, but for me, revisions are not "fun."
(wait, the title of this post is about queries. yeah, i'll get to that. stay with me.)

first drafting is fun. pure creation and freedom with no pressure for perfection.
revising is work. confined within a mold already created and with a LOT of pressure to perfect.

but as much as first-drafting gives me pleasure, it's revising that gives me pride.
revisions are hard work that pays off, because when they're done, you look back and think, "now that is good."
that first draft was fun, but it's an embarassment at this point. the revisions - the hard work - are what made that stinking pile of crap something to be proud of.

i started thinking about query letters and how they go through a similar evolution. the first drafts are fun to write, but they often need revising before they're good enough to present to an agent or publisher.

i thought it would be fun to share a couple of my own query letters, from the first stage to the last, to see how "ho-hum" turns into "hey now! that's not half bad."

today, i'm sharing the query for my trunked novel, LOSERS.
this is the first version of the query, which i shared online in a contest on fabulous-former-agent-with-five-million-blog-followers-who-shall-not-be-named's blog:

Today, a bully broke a kid’s nose against a urinal; a rebel wrote her high school hit list; a sci-fi dweeb got caught with porn in class; and a social pariah got humiliated in the girls’ locker room.
Tomorrow, they’ll all be in deep trouble with no one to turn to but each other.

LOSERS is a 50,000 word young adult novel about isolation, friendship and discovering who we are through the people we connect with. Trapper, Andi, Boston and Tuna are four teens with nothing in common, until they witness a police officer committing a crime. Scared for their lives and caught up in the excitement, they hit the road until they can figure out who they can turn to for help. The novel takes place over a 24 hour period, and by the end, they learn exactly who they can count on – each other.

I wrote this novel because, while I never experienced death or drugs or other untold horrors in YA novels these days, I DID experience the daily abuse that can define a teenager at the most vulnerable time in their lives. I wanted to tell a story that every young adult can relate to.

As a journalist, I write facts all day, every day. This is my first work of fiction.
I would love to send a partial or full manuscript of Losers for your consideration.

*cringe*
well, okay, it's not ALL bad. it's very long, it's vague on the storyline, and i got shredded in blog comments about that "i wrote this novel because..." paragraph. big no-no. but as far as rookie mistakes go, it wasn't the worst one i could make.

i ended up winning a query critique from fabu-agent, so i did a second draft to tighten things up, get more specific, and of course - i deleted that cringe-worthy paragraph.

this is the version i sent him:

Today, a bully broke a kid’s nose against a urinal; a rebel wrote her high school hit list; a sci-fi dweeb got caught with porn in class; and a social pariah got humiliated in the girls’ locker room.
Tomorrow, they’ll all be in deep trouble with no one to turn to but each other.

LOSERS is a 50,000 word young adult novel about isolation, friendship and discovering who we are through the people we connect with. Trapper, Andi, Boston and Tuna are four teens with nothing in common, until they witness a police officer committing a murder. Scared for their lives, they hit the road until they can figure out who to turn to for help.

A corrupt cop may be the catalyst that brings these teens together, but as they make their escape, they discover what they’re really running from are the inner demons that so many teens have to battle in high school. Some Losers just have more demons than others.

The novel takes place over a 24 hour period, and by the end, our Losers discover they may not be able to fight the law, but there are a few fights they can win.

As a journalist, I write facts all day, every day. This is my first work of fiction.
I would love to send a partial or full manuscript of Losers for your consideration.

honestly, it's still a little long, but at least all the words are now spent on the story and not wasted talking about things that don't matter to a potential agent.

and guess what? instead of a critique, i got a partial request! it was my first-ever agent request, and the manuscript wasn't even finished at that point.
i never did query that book, or i suspect the letter would have gone through even more changes.
but the experience did teach me revisions get results.

tomorrow, i'll share the evolution of the query that landed an agent!

the importance of distance

when i hear writers talk about discipline, the advice is usually some form of "BIC" (Butt in Chair): sit down and write, even when you'd rather watch TV or play outside. force yourself to write.

this is excellent advice IN GENERAL. (i think i've already both applauded and criticized the BIC method in this blog.)
but i've realized over the past month that sometimes discipline is forcing yourself to NOT write.
when i got my incredible first beta notes on BILLY D., i was eager to jump right in and start fixing things. that's how i did it with BUTTER - got right to work, and it turned out well - so that's how i should do it this time, right? well, the same method doesn't always yield the same results.

after tearing apart BD's plot (working every day, morning and night, for weeks), i grew so frustrated, i nearly considered trunking it. i was unable to let go of passages i loved, so i squished them into new scenes where they didn't belong. i shoved my characters into situations and conversations they wouldn't naturally be in, so their voices didn't ring true. basically, i was making the book worse, because i was trying to force the manuscript into shape under some crazy self-imposed deadline instead of slowing down to let the first draft speak to me.

finally, after weeks of stress, Handsome said to me: "I think you need to get off books for a few days."
just like that. like books/writing are a drug you can overdose on.

well, Handsome is very wise, so i followed his advice. i took a whole week to clean the house, catch up on TIVO, chat on twitter - anything but touch my writing files.

when i did return to writing, i still felt a knot in my stomach about BD, so i worked on SOMETHING ELSE. i fleshed out the outline for GRIM, wrote a couple scenes and let myself feel the freedom of first-drafting.

once the wheels were spinning, i returned to BD, and surprise! it didn't seem nearly so daunting. over the next 48 hours, i deleted like crazy and churned out about 5,000 new words. that got me to a point in the manuscript where i know what needs to be added and which upcoming scenes need to go. i'm back in the groove, because i forced myself to walk away and come back later with a fresh perspective.

so, yes, "Butt in Chair" is good advice.
but so is getting your butt OUT of the chair and walking around in the real world for a little while to clear your mind.

reading, writing and resolutions

well, hello there, 2011!

you know why 2011 is awesome for me? because as of today, when people ask me "hey, when does your book come out?" i can say, "next year!" which sounds a lot sooner than "2012." :D

so i've never been much for resolutions. they're hard to keep, and they usually end up making me feel like i failed in some way. i tend to think of the new year as more of a fresh start in general. it's a good time to look at your life and consider what you might want to change. i, for one, like to start a new year with a clean house and something healthy on the plate for dinner. (not exactly resolutions to stay on top of my chores or go on a diet, but to just be more mindful of those things.)

however, i see no harm in making some writing and reading resolutions! so here they are:

Reading:

*i will read more adult books this year.
with maybe 2 exceptions, adult books got put on hold in 2010. i didn't know how behind i was on my YA reading list until i joined the blogosphere, so i had to do some catching up this past year. i still plan to read plenty of YA, but i will break it up with some good adult reads too.

*i will read outside my favorite genres.
i love me some dystopian YA, but i should really see what's so great about all the contemporary teen romances everyone's excited about right now.

*i will read more ...period.
i always thought i was a voracious reader, but when i look at other bloggers counting up their 2010 reads, i'm stunned. i don't think i can read 100 books in a year, but i can sure read a lot more than i did last year!

Writing:

*i will try writing something outside of my comfort zone.
i sometimes get elaborate ideas for fantasies or post-apocalyptic stories, but i never write them past a few chapters, because i get overwhelmed or distracted. this year, i will stretch those creative muscles, even if it's just for my own reading amusement.

*i will write something without curse words...
...maybe. i'd like to try writing middle grade, and i know the biggest challenge might be removing all the F-bombs from my arsenal of words.

*i will edit edit edit! ...without sacrificing writing.
with my editorial letter for Butter incoming and my beta notes for Billy D likely to follow soon after, i know the next few months will be all about revisions. i will try very hard to find time for fresh writing in there, to keep my creative wheels spinning.

i hope 2011 is full of fabulous ideas, beautiful stories and lots of writing for all of you.
happy new year!

forest for the trees...

...or something like that.

i figure the post-NaNo glow is a good time to talk revision.

first, let me say - i suck at it.
that is, i suck at doing it on my own. last year at this time, i was finishing up the first draft of BUTTER, which - to tell the truth - didn't look that much different from the draft i sent to agents. i used a few suggestions from early beta readers and did a serious line-by-line edit, but i didn't make any big-picture changes... because all i'd heard was that people liked it, and hey, i liked it too, so what's to change? (ha.ha.ha.)

it wasn't until i got revision notes from agents that i could really see what needed to be changed. i also got a serious beta who wasn't afraid to tell me when those revisions weren't working and to give me big-picture critique like "cut this entire boring chapter." (i'm paraphrasing. Gem is honest but much more eloquent than that.)

anyway, as much as i loved the praise of my alpha readers, i found my motivation to edit came from publishing pros and other writers who basically said, "i loved x,y and z, but these other bits really suck."
it worked for me, because it made my stubborn little writer heart say, "oh YEAH? well watch this!"
and suddenly i learned how to revise. i found the courage to press the delete key on an entire chapter. i managed to shuffle up scenes, change the timeline of major plot events and still sew everything back together. what a breakthrough! now i'll be able to hack up my next book all on my own!

not so much.

it turns out i still need that feedback. i thrive on the criticism. a one-line crit comment can cause an entire new chapter to explode open in my brain. But without that input, i stare at my chapters all cozily knit together and can't see how to rip them apart.
so i'm settling for my line-by-line edits on BILLY D, then rushing this baby to betas, so they can tell me what sucks and inspire me to start hacking.

...and i suspect my biggest revisions may still be to come, when i get my editorial letter for BUTTER.

what about you? at which stage do you do your biggest revisions/rewrites? and how many do you do? as varied as the writing process is from person to person - i'll bet we're even more diverse when it comes to revisions.

word count wednesday - fifth and final

it is the morning of December 1st, and that means some of you may still be sleeping off your NaNoWriMo hangover.
some others of you may be pointing and laughing at the folks with the NaNo hangover, saying "see? glad i didn't do that this year."

as for me, i hit my 50K on Sunday.
finishing a few days early is like drinking a lot of water and taking advil before you go to bed. it helps prevent the hangover, so i'm feeling pretty good. ;)

my final word count in the NaNo validator was 50,950 !!!

since i had written nine chapters of this book prior to november and because i went on a writing spree monday on my day off to finish the whole darn thing, my total WC for the full manuscript is almost 72,000, including these two words: "THE END."

so yeah, of course i'm feeling all kinds of cheery about that, but here's what i really want to say:
whether you have 72,000 words or 7,200... YOU should be celebrating too!
i've mentioned before that BUTTER was a NaNo novel last year, and i didn't even get halfway to the goal before it got derailed. and as you know, that all worked out okay.

so if you didn't hit 50K, i hope you will continue to work on whatever projects you started in november. if you DID hit 50K, i hope you'll come back to your MS after a few days or weeks off and sit down to revise Revise REVISE. because as we writers all know, the first draft is just the beginning.
we also know that november may be a whole lot of fun, but writing is a year-round job and a lifelong passion.

take that momentum from NaNo and use it to propel you into the new year. however many words you wrote... you are that many words closer to making a dream come true. keep the momentum going!

best of luck. you are ALL AWESOME, regardless of word count.

word count wednesday 4

HOME STRETCH!

my word count: 42,845
words left to "win" NaNo: 7,155
estimated words left to finish the story: 11,000
words to erase and rewrite after NaNo: 10,000 ...at least.

that's a little secret no one talks about at the beginning of NaNo - how much you are going to write after november. all those words you wrote this month - whether it's 50,000 or 10,000 - are just a fraction of the words you will write before that book is done. whether you have more to write, lots to rewrite or just several waves of revision in your future, chances are you will write many more thousands of words - just for this one book.

but really, who has time to worry about that when we're still trying to finish THIS race, right?! so get typing; take a break for turkey; then get right back to typing!

i'm taking a little blogging break over the long holiday weekend. hope you all stuff yourselves silly. :)

research

i hear stories of writers who spend years researching a topic before starting a story - who interview experts, read text books, etc... to absorb all the facts they want to put into their fiction.

other writers i know make it all up as they go along in the first draft and save the fact-checking for revisions, which i imagine can mean lots and lots of rewriting, depending on which facts they got wrong.

i think i fall somewhere in the middle - researching as i go.

for my current WIP, i had to do quite a bit of preliminary work, because i knew before i started that one of my characters would have Down Syndrome. i had to compile medical notes, research family dynamics and do a lot of observing.
it's probably the most research i've done before actually putting fingers to keyboard.

what happens more often is a situation arises in the story that requires me to know what i'm talking about. if i can see this coming, i'll stop, do a day of research, then get back to writing.
(example: i had a quirky scene that required one of my characters to know a little something about small towns and geography. i decided to make that quirk a thread throughout the entire story, but i had already used up the limited facts i knew in one scene. so i had to stop writing and spend some time expanding my knowledge base in order to pull the thread through.)

occasionally, i'll fall into the pantser category, when the writing is just going too fast and smooth for me to stop. who can be bothered with research when the facts i'm making up work so well?!
i don't let myself get too far, though, because i don't want to rewrite thousands and thousands of words all based on a mistaken fact. what i'll do is stop at the end of the chapter and do some fact-checking. then, if i got anything wrong, i'll fix it. but sometimes even waiting a whole chapter is too long.
(example: i had an entire chapter and plot development that hinged on a certain type of government office being open at a certain time of night and operating a certain way. i did some vague research online, but it wasn't until the chapter was over that i actually contacted someone at this office to verify my facts. turns out not only is the office closed and its operations nothing like i described - but it doesn't even exist in the town where i put it! (*&$%$&^#). i couldn't bear to rewrite an entire chapter in the middle of NaNo, but you better believe i spent half an hour typing up a list of corrections and plot changes in my revision notes. the good news is, the changes will make this little piece of plot better anyway.)

since that incident, i've been very careful to check my facts every step of the way - whether it's placing a building on the correct street corner or confirming a state law. but i'm still doing the research as i go, letting the story tell me what it is i need to look up.

i'm curious what other writers do!
*if you do loads of research ahead of time, how much of it do you think goes unused - and do you think that time would have been better spent writing? or do you think having the knowledge still makes the work better/more informed in the long run?
*if you're a pantser and later find a factual error that requires changes in 23 chapters, does it make your revision process more stressful? or do you prefer rewriting later to stopping and starting while in the middle of a first draft?

stuff i learned on sub

the one nice thing about publishing being such a slow business is you have plenty of time to absorb all of the lessons learned along the way - to really let them sink in. but rarely - very rarely - something will happen quickly, and instead of learning your lessons slow, you will suddenly get a crash course in publishing. this was the case with my submission process.
so i thought i would share some of the knowledge i acquired at hyper speed over the last month.

1) you want/need an agent!
at least, i certainly do. (perhaps you are a contract attorney with connections all over the publishing industry. this is more a lesson for the unknown, unconnected like myself.) i knew i wanted an agent before i set off on my path to publishing. it was always going to be my first step. but it wasn't until i went on sub that i truly appreciated just how much i need her. and here's why:
- agents know what editors are looking for. heck, agents know editors - period.
i am 100% positive that i would not have found my publisher without my agent. no amount of research would have landed me this editor at this house with this deal. i needed my agent to make the connection. a lot of people say you have to "know somebody" to get a foothold in publishing. well, that's obviously hogwash. but if you're lucky enough to get pulled out of an agent's query slush, like i was - well now you DO know somebody in the biz - your agent. and she knows everybody else.
- agents understand offers.
all i knew about offers going into sub was that they included an advance amount. i squealed when i heard "hardcover" - that was a term i could understand - but beyond that, i can't count the number of times i asked my agent: "okay, and what does that mean?" and every time she was able to cut through jargon and explain things to me in a clear, concise manner.
- agents are your cheerleaders.
if you read my post a few months back about choosing an agent, you'll know i stressed to the point of making myself sick. i never dreamed i'd have another difficult choice like that ahead of me. but this time i had my agent there to remind me this was all good news and good fortune. countless times she asked me, "are you happy?" - which reminded me to BE happy.

2) a LOT of people need to like your book before it gets published.
i had been researching publishing long enough to know about editorial boards and marketing folks and how they all had input in offers, but i sort of naively pushed those thoughts to the side and told myself: an agent has to like it, and an editor has to like it - the end. HA!
after an agent and an editor, it can go something like this: *editor gets second and third opinions from others (including, most likely, their boss). *all of those readers discuss the merits and drawbacks of the book at an editorial meeting with even more people. *editor takes the book to acquisitions, which includes possibly a whole new group of people who may or may not be more into business than books. they don't just have to like your idea. they have to decide whether they can sell it - and how much they can sell it for. now take all those people and multiply by the number of editors who are interested in the manuscript, and it's suddenly sort of crazy to realize how many people have already read your book!

3) that manuscript you were so sick of editing? yeah, now that you're on sub, you suddenly want to revise again!
that was the case for me, anyway. crazies started to set in like, "is this part realistic?" "did i take too much liberty with the real-life setting here?" and if you're lucky, as i was, to talk to amazing editors and be inspired by their ideas, you'll have to fight to keep yourself from jumping back into the manuscript and making changes right away.
i soothed this urge by starting a new document on my laptop with all of my possible revisions and tweaks - mostly based on my editor's awesome insight - to discuss with her when the time comes.

4) fourth, and finally, not everything in publishing is slow.
okay, that's a lie. everything in publishing IS slow - most of the time. but occasionally you luck out and something goes at lightning pace. i am so fortunate to have had a fast submission process. it saved some of my nails from being bitten down to the quick. it also, admittedly, was a heck of a lot of fun to have something new happening almost daily, which sure beats clicking "refresh" on the email inbox for days, hoping for news.
but the speedy sub also taught me to appreciate the slow periods - when i can stop and smell the roses and all that. and believe me, there will be lots of time for rose-sniffing over the next two years, but i plan to put aside my impatience and savor every minute, because you can only make your first trip down the path to publishing once... so i intend to enjoy the ride.

the never ending story

question for you writers:
when do you consider your book DONE?

i started thinking today about all the times i've called my stories "done" and had to chuckle.
i said, "i finished!" when i ended the first draft of my last book.
i said, "all done!" after red-lining the manuscript (before shoving it into the "trunk").

when i got to 'THE END' of Butter? - "i'm done!"
when i revised and polished and started querying? - "it's totally ready."
when i rewrote for agents? - "finally finished."

obviously, there will be more revisions ahead if this book is ever to become - y'know.. a book. but if i'm so lucky to have edits and copy edits and final drafts and final-final drafts, i plan to say "DONE!" at the end of each one, because it feels so good! every step is an accomplishment. every round of revisions is a project completed. and at every stage, the book really is "done"... until the next round.

and the truth is, if we're all lucky enough to see our books on shelves someday, we'll probably still flip through the pages and think of ways we could revise. because as long as our writer brains are clicking and whirring, there will always be new inspiration and new ideas. but once that book is packaged and sold and sitting on a shelf - we have to take that inspiration and put it into something else... because when a book becomes a book - it really is "done."

head Wall BANG

i went on a tear writing yesterday. i mean, really - i nearly set my laptop on fire!

want to see what i wrote? here it is:

garbage
garbage
garbage
garbage
garbage
garbage
garbage
garbage
garbage
aha! plot! there you are!

...about three thousand words of garbage before i got back to my plot thread. normally, that would make me want to bang my head against a wall and give up on the WIP - okay, actually i STILL wanted to bang my head against a wall - but i did not feel inclined to walk away from the book.

i am generally not of that clan of writers who say "it's okay to write crap." personally, if i'm writing crap, the story is probably crap too, and i get bored of my own crap and move on to something else.
but in this case, i feel deeply committed to the characters and the story. so even though i spent a whole day writing scenes that will probably not even make it to the beta stage of this MS, it doesn't feel like time wasted. in fact, i'm excited to finish and get into revisions, so i can go back and erase all that crap - or at least figure out how to condense it.

i think i've said this before, but for me, the only manuscripts that have any chance of going anywhere are the ones i know i'll be willing to go back and revise a thousand times.
garbage can be rewritten. crap can be erased. hell, plot line can be changed. as long as the story has heart and character, i know i'm still committed.

or maybe i just need to BE committed - because only a crazy person would spend an entire day of vacation writing crap and banging their head against a wall.

p.s. if this doesn't sound crazy to you at all... you are probably a writer too. ;)

learn as you go

my dad (AKA the blogging police) pointed out i've been slacking here.

perhaps that's because i'm in a bit of a "path-to-publishing" lull. the agent search is over; the submission nail-biting has yet to begin. i just don't have a lot of insight to share during this brief limbo stage.

instead, i've been studying and learning. and by that - i mean writing.
i learn something new with every book, and i thought i'd share a few of those lessons here.

Sammy Vegas
the first real novel i ever attempted to write taught me:

• without an outline, my stories amble off course and never get finished.
• writing a book is time-consuming and requires some sacrifices to find that time.
• most important, it taught me: maybe i don't suck at this, and maybe i kind of love it... a lot.

Losers (Rebel, Bully, Geek, Pariah)
the first novel i ever finished taught me:

• a good hook/concept is nothing without a well-planned plot.
• third person with multiple MCs is not the right format for me.
• most important, it taught me: i can get to "The End," and even then the book might not be good enough... and that's actually okay, because i have this other idea...

Butter
the first novel i ever queried taught me:

• how to edit - really edit. cut scenes, re-order chapters, insert new story elements and completely rewrite multiple chapters from scratch... all after i thought i was "done."
• what kind of stories i want to write and what i really want to say.
• most important, it taught me: finishing a book is really just the beginning. and with any luck, this one's not done yet.

Billy D. & the Bully (working title)
the book i'm writing right now taught me:

• not every book gets written at the same pace; not every book is built via the same process (for me anyway).
• writing is the best distraction from all that "path-to-publishing" neurosis.
• most of all, it taught me: ....well, i don't know the "most of all" yet. i'll let ya know when i'm all done. ;)

one of the many things my agent and i talked about before signing was how every book you write is important. maybe it's not the book you query; maybe it's not the book that sells; but you had to write it for a reason. sometimes you just don't know what that reason is until you're done.

what about you? what have you learned from your own writing?

my purpose in life

...is to serve on a jury.
...apparently.

let's file this one under miscellaneous monday, shall we? because i don't have anything in particular to say about writing or publishing today, and there are so many other interesting things to blab about.

#1 being... JURY DUTY.

fact: i am 31 years old.
fact: as of today, i have been summoned to jury duty 7 TIMES! that's right. SEVEN. (more than my father and mother combined)
fact: i have yet to actually serve on one of those juries or so much as get called before a judge and attorneys to answer questions about my eligibility.
conclusion: i am destined to serve on a jury, and the courtly cosmos will continue to spam my mailbox with summons notices until i do.

how, you ask, is it even possible to get called for jury duty an average of every other year? isn't there some stipulation that you won't be called again for three years?
why, what a brilliant question, i say! let me break it down for you:

jury summons #1 - age 18 - municipal court in my hometown in Illinois - went and sat all day until they came out and told us attorneys had settled out of court.
jury summons #2 - age 22 - Tucson court - i called the night before and was dismissed without going in.
jury summons #3 - age 25 - same Tucson court (my 3-year reprieve was up) - by this time i was living in indianapolis, so i had an acceptable reason to decline jury duty.
jury summons #4 - age 26 - Indianapolis court - by this time i was living in phoenix, so i got to decline again.
jury summons #5 - age 28 - Phoenix municipal court - okay, this time they got me. went and sat all day and never got pulled from the holding pen to even see the inside of a courtroom.
jury summons #6 - age 30 - Arizona federal court - (what?? but it's only been 2 years! oh, but it's a different court system, see.) - deferred service to a more convenient week (yeah, a WEEK for federal duty). - called the night before my new service date and was released for the entire week. no need to show up at court.

that was january. fast forward a mere 5 months to today:

jury summons #7 - age 31 - Phoenix superior court
- the last one and the best one. this is where the big cases go, all the ones you see on TV. this is where the judges make you swear not to breathe a word of the case to anyone outside of court. this is where they tell you not to watch the news so you won't be swayed.
now, let me tell you something.
i am a TV news producer. that means it will be impossible for me to follow the jury rules and likely result in my dismissal. which i predict means.... another summons is just around the corner. because clearly, the universe wants me to do this - someday, somewhere, somehow.
however, 7 is my lucky number and the funny bit about all of this is that i would LOVE to serve on a jury - and even after all my summons, i've never had the chance. maybe it's finally my turn.

in other miscellaneous monday news, can i just shake my fist at larry page and sergey brin for a second? i spent hours and hours over the past week tinkering with html code and scouring the internet for blog banners... and TODAY i log in to see there's a new blogger feature for custom designing your page.

seriously.

and, oh fine, for those of you who insist on reading something about writing and/or publishing - i have heard nothing from Agent Almost. it's been 2 weeks since i sent the revisions. every day i wake up and tell myself he is reading it and making notes and will get back to me in due time. then i obsessively check my email 600 times throughout the day and fall asleep reminding myself once again to be patient.

i hope you are all doing something much more productive with your own time.

Beta Series 3: Endings

today we conclude our writer/beta cross-over blog series extravaganza!
i hope you have enjoyed reading about the writer’s side of the story here on my blog and the beta’s side over on Gem's blog.

UPDATE: Gem’s blog is going into semi-retirement, so her original posts on this series are now copied and pasted at the end of each of my own posts. (in other words, we saved you some time clicking around the internet, and you can now read the whole story here.)

Trouble in paradise

...not with me and Gem, but with the book. anyone who’s been reading my blog for awhile will know i struggled with writing an entirely new ending (evidenced here, here and here.) the worst part of this from the writer-beta angle was that i could no longer speed chapters off to Gem. i kept giving her deadlines, then sent her a cliff-hanger, then asked her to wait even longer – before your vacation, i promised – as soon as you get back, i swore – any day now! Really!

Gem assured me there was no rush (a lovely trait in a beta), but she had read so fast for me, i wanted to write fast for her. but the lesson here is to write at whatever speed is best for the story. this was exemplified in the first draft of my new ending. i finished it in an all-night writing frenzy and dashed it off to Gem without even a proper copy edit.

it was too long. it was all over the map. (Gem, fix it!) of course, she had ideas about how to fix it – combine scenes, cut this unnecessary information, move this bit here. but even better, she found even more problems – out of character behaviour, something i’d left out that Agent Almost wanted, an idea to give the last few lines more impact.
it was the direction i needed to reshuffle, rework and rewrite. and this time i worked fast. Gem put her stamp of approval on the second draft of the new ending (with just a few more tweaks), and i sent it off to Agent Almost.

The ending that’s really just a beginning

as relieved as i was to reach “the end” (again), i was sad to see the beta process coming to a close. i’d really enjoyed the creative back and forth.

but i enjoyed the personal back and forth as well, and at this point it’s clear that’s not going to end. we are both back in limbo waiting on agents. no one else can quite understand that particular level of hell, so of course we need each other to speculate and gripe and wait and hope. plus, i am dying to hear every detail of a new adventure she is about to embark upon, and i can’t wait to share the next story with her.
(and of course, if she ever needs a beta, i’d love to sharpen my editing skills and pay her back for all the help she’s given me.) but in the meantime, i’m just happy to have a new friend and the knowledge that i’ll never be lost and looking around for betas again. once you find a good one, you hold on with both hands!

4: the # of months it took me to write Butter and get it off to agents
2: the # of months it took to reshape the MS with Gem’s help
1: the # of irreplaceable new friendships formed

if you are searching for a beta, be patient. and be picky.
if you already have one as awesome as mine, find a way to say thank you – a million times over,

thank you

and now from Gem's beta perspective:

Beta Series Part 3 – The End…..but not really

THE END (last four chapters) of ‘Butter’ was tough for EJ as this was the biggest part of her revisions. See her blog for her view. I hoped never to pressure her to send me THE END, and the only deadlines that she was under were her own (and she did keep setting them on her blog!) But I was happy when I finally got those last chapters.

As THE END was so important and it was a complete rewrite, we did two rounds on the editing. I suggested rearranging some of the scenes to help with pacing and noted some world-building issues on my first edit. What surprised me was the different effect that the second version had on me. Even though I now knew how ‘Butter’ ended, the changes EJ made and the new beautiful last line, really affected me. I got teary-eyed – in fact, I’m welling up now when I think about it!

Getting to the end of any good book is bittersweet – you feel excited for the climax, then pleased to have your questions answered, but then you feel a little down because the journey is over. EJ and I may have finished this journey, but I’m sure that this is not the end of our relationship. She can’t get rid of me now, even if she wanted to – I’ll stalk her blog to get to see her next project first this time!

Summing up
By no means was my offer to beta ‘Butter’ altruistic. Beta reading is time consuming and takes away from my own writing – I have to be getting something out of it as well to make it worthwhile.

Benefits for me as the beta for Butter

•Improving my own writing skills. EJ is awesome some of the things I struggle with namely pacing and voice.
•Reading a boy book – I’m just finishing a first draft of a contemporary YA boy book where the main character is the same age as Butter
I got to know the ending!
•Making a new friend with common interests (not just writing)
•My career aspirations are as a literary agent/editor/anything publishing related and I’m currently working as an intern at an awesome NYC agency, so any editing is great practice for my future.
There are bits of Butter that made me cheer, bits that brought a tear to my eye and one bit where my mouth literally fell open. Butter is an amazing character and I feel truly privileged to have got to know him and learnt his story. I know that it is something we will see in print one day and my one hope is that EJ will be kind enough to sign my copy when I buy it!

And so we finish this series looking at a new definition of me as a beta reader – ‘a girl who stalks the writer of an awesome piece of unpublished fiction because she has to know THE END, offers her help without being asked and looks for copy edits and Agent Almost changes – with the ultimate aim to ensure awesome writer gets agented by Agent Almost and a 7 figure book deal! Added bonuses are friendship and knowing I’ll always have someone if I need my own beta!’

update from EJ: if you have any questions for Gem about the beta process, leave them in the comments, and i will track her down for the answers. ;)

to read the entire cross-over beta blog series, here are the links, in chronological order:
part 1
part 2
part 3

Beta Series 2: Evolution

welcome to part two of the writer/beta cross-over blog series extravaganza!
i’m providing the writer’s perspective. even more fascinating is the beta’s side of the story.

UPDATE: Gem’s blog is going into semi-retirement, so her original posts on this series are now copied and pasted at the end of each of my own posts. (in other words, we saved you some time clicking around the internet, and you can now read the whole story here.)

picking up where we left off yesterday...

Building a relationship

i eagerly fired off the first half of the revised manuscript to Gem. i sent her everything i’d already rewritten, and that’s when the beta system took on a life of its own. emails became less formal, as we tossed ideas back and forth. the correspondence evolved from long thought-out messages to more of a conversation. (though the emails were still long. we are wordy girls!) Gem suggested writing exercises to help develop character motivation. i would fire back a revised paragraph (is this better?), and so on...

at one point, we had sent so many emails (more than 100!) that my gmail hit the fritz, and i had to start a new mail thread.
of course, not all of those emails were about Butter anymore. they moved from this story to writing and publishing in general and finally, to life at large. we were getting to know each other as people, not just writers.

Honesty and trust

i think that getting-to-know-you part is important, because it helps build trust and gives betas the freedom to be honest. and i needed Gem’s honesty, as we were getting to the tough part of the manuscript.

Gem helped identify where the story slumped, and as a result – i cut entire chapters and built new ones from scratch. I had never overhauled a story like that, because i’m one of those writers that’s too attached to her manuscript to “kill her babies” (i hate that expression, by the way – but it’s often used by writers to refer to having the strength to cut good scenes or writing that don’t help the overall story.)
i know, without a doubt, that i would not have cut the soup kitchen scene (sorry, mom! i know it was your fave) and would not have added the bucket list chapter if not for Gem.

the trust was also important, because i knew if Gem was that honest with her crits, that she was also honest with her praise. it made the positive comments even more flattering and helped me identify threads that were working throughout the story and that i should include in the new ending.

and the ending would be the most critical part – of both the book AND the beta relationship...

(to be continued)

and now from Gem's beta perspective:

Beta Series Part 2 – More Please!

Well, that was hardly a suspenseful ending as this wouldn’t be a mini-series if EJ hadn’t sent me more chapters. The same day as sending over my first three chapter notes, I received chapter 4-17. I was so excited and she was very complimentary about my notes. Phew! Very relived person this end I can tell you.

And so to the middling part of the beta reading process – see EJ’s blog for the writers perspective.

It’s always great to get over that awkward politeness with a new beta/writer relationship. You initially start emails with ‘I’m sorry’, ‘I hope you don’t mind me mentioning’, ‘I hate to say’ etc. But then you get to the moment when the other person knows you well enough to understand the way you mean the comments and your emails become much more informal.

Comments/notes
For a writer, doing a revise and resubmit often means moving chapters around which can lead to timeline and world building confusions, so this was something I kept a close eye out for as well as looking for the particular points that EJ’s Agent Almost wanted changing. Sometimes my comments would be about character motivations and asking to get inside the character head a little bit more. Sometimes they would be about jarring sentences and bits I didn’t understand. And often times my comments would be ‘OMG, this section is awesome’.

This brings me to a good point. While, it is important to point out in an honest way any negatives, it is also important to comment on the awesome. I described my feelings as a reader when a section made me teary-eyed, or angry, or shocked. I hope that this helped EJ to see which parts really resonated with me – it can be hard to see the emotion with your own work.

EJ was always great at thanking me immediately for comments and saying how helpful I was being. I know from experience that this isn’t always the case as some writers can take things to heart, so it was great to know that she appreciated my time and that I was actually helping.

We really hit our stride once we got to chapters 12-17 and we bounced back and forth over one hundred emails over the whole process – and these weren’t short emails, neither of us can write a sort email! Were they all about ‘Butter’? Of course not. We got to know each other, chatted about vacations, discussed Grey’s Anatomy, celebrated and commiserated the up’s and down’s of publishing and advised each other when one of us had an attack of the crazies (a common writers ailment).

And so we neared the end of Butter’s journey. This was where the major revisions took place. I read up to the climax and then waited patiently for my last few chapters.

Continues tomorrow.