Writers Need to Rethink Rewrites

How to Revise your Manuscript: First Draft to Final Draft – by Lisa Poisso…

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

Writing a novel is such a minuscule part of writing a novel. People who’ve never written anything longer than a school paper have a hard time imagining that pouring all those words onto the page isn’t the major part of the battle.

Experienced authors know better.

Writing the manuscript is just a fraction of the process of creating a novel.

The writing process hogs the spotlight, but learning how to revise your manuscript will allow the story inside to bloom.

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Novel Editing Mistakes to Avoid

Uninspired Writers

Good morning, superstars. I hope you’ve all had a brilliant week.

For me, it’s been another week of editing. Does it ever end? With editing on the brain it seemed only appropriate for this weeks blog post to focus on editing. And so I’ve made a list of novel editing mistakes to avoid. Take a look…

1. Not editing
The first, and most simple point; not editing is the biggest mistake you can make. Hemingway didn’t tell us “the first draft of anything is shit” as a joke. Even if you are a writer who edits as you write, your novel will still need further editing. Perhaps not as much, perhaps just as much. But when you write a novel the story changes as you go, and mistakes and plot holes lurk in everybody’s early work. There is no shame in needing to edit. The greats all have to, and…

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Writers: Don’t Edit Away Your Voice

Uninspired Writers

Good morning wonderful writers, I hope you’ve all had a great week.

This week I finished another set of edits, which I think puts me on draft…7? 8? I’ve lost count! Since I finished my first draft almost a year ago, it has been not stop edits. It’s safe to say my story is a lot more well rounded and polished now.

Yet I’ve been thinking a lot recently about all the advice we writers are given in regards to how we tell our story; show not tell, don’t use this word, don’t use that word, don’t write like this or like that…and it’s difficult because we are also given the almost contrasting advice to break the rules, to be unique, to write the way we want too.

Editing, I’ve learnt, is about finding the balance to strengthen your writing, while staying true to your voice. Writer and blogger K.M.Allan

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The Two Scenes in Your Novel That Will Need the Most Rewriting – by Ali Luke…

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

On Aliventures:

Novels are tricky. There’s so much to juggle that no-one gets it quite right the first time round … and most authors end up doing wholesale rewrites, rather than just making a few editorial tweaks.

I’ve come to accept that rewriting is just part of the process of creating a novel. Each time I start work on a new book, I want to be a more efficient writer – and while I have found some things easier, I still end up doing a lot of rewriting and reworking.

Maybe it’s the same way for you.

Whether you’re working on your first draft of your first novel, or you’ve completed a bunch of novels already, there are two scenes that you’re likely to spend a lot of time rewriting:

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Thoughts on revisions and self-editing #amwriting

Life in the Realm of Fantasy

New and beginning authors often (loudly) assert their ability to edit their own work. If you are “editing” your own manuscript, you have a fool for a client. There is no such thing as self-editing—the best you can do is make revisions and admire your work. For that reason, we need other eyes on our work.

As authors, we see what we intended to write rather than what was written. We misread clumsy sentences and overlook words that are missing or are included twice in a row.  If you are in a critique group, you have a great resource in your fellow authors—they will spot things you have overlooked your work just as you do in theirs.

The first draft of any manuscript is the story as it flowed out of your mind and onto the paper. Yes, there is life and energy in your words, but your manuscript is not publishable at…

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Editing Tip: Common Consistency Errors You Might Be Making

A Writer's Path

by Emily Nemchick

When you check your own manuscript for errors, you are probably looking for misspelled words, dodgy grammar, and the inevitable typos. Those are all things you need to correct—but you should also be aware of pesky consistency errors that are commonplace in poorly edited manuscripts.

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Self-Editing: 7 Tips to Tighten the Story & Cut Costs – by Kristen Lamb…

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

A fallacy among many emerging writers is that authors only write the books. Then, once finished, agents will fall in LOVE and someone else will do ALL the editing.

*clutches sides laughing.*

Yeah…no. And woodland creatures don’t help with housework. Sorry to break the news. Bummed me out, too.

The hard truth is the onus is on us (writers) to make certain our manuscript is properly edited before sending a query. Remember, agents are actively searching for reasons to STOP reading. Self-editing skills can mean the difference between a sweet deal or a spot in the slush pile.

Even if the story is amazing, agents know editing is time-consuming and costly. This means they’re more likely to wait for another ‘amazing story’ that doesn’t cost as much as a Caribbean cruise to get bookstore ready. They’ll be far more likely to sign an author who possesses solid self-editing skills.

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What Should Your Characters Talk About? – by K.M. Weiland…

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

On Helping Writers Become Authors:

Dialogue is the best part of stories. (Yes, even better than Dickensian narratorial diatribes about crooked politics.)

But it’s tough to write scintillating dialogue when you find yourself asking that fundamental question: “What should your characters talk about?”

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An Exciting (Scary) New Venture

Author Don Massenzio

I launched my author blog about three years ago and have watched it grow beyond anything I’d hoped. I’ve met many great people as I’ve made some friendships and have helped some authors along the way.

As luck would have it, I lost my day job about two months ago and I’m still in search of regular employment to keep the lights on and put food on the table.

The silver lining that emerged from this is that I’m embarking on a new venture. During the past year, I have edited books for a few select authors as kind of a pilot and test launch of a set of services that I hoped to turn into a business. My extra ‘free time’ and my need to generate some income, I’m launching a book editing/formatting service formally as a separate WordPress site.

For authors that take advantage of these services, I’m…

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