Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘editing’

ROW80 Check In and More on NYC

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on June 12, 2011| 9 Comments »

I didn’t get much editing done like I planned, but I did get some done. We were just getting in too late every night and I can’t write when I’m tired and sleepy. The editing I got done was one afternoon when I had free time, and I got a few chapters editing. The good news is that when I was reading over it, I didn’t feel like it needed the major overhaul I was afraid it would. Someone had already told me that, but I wasn’t sure. LOL

I’ve really had a good time in NYC, even though I didn’t get to see the things I wanted to. All the brunches, lunches, and dinners have been great and everyone here has been so gracious. I think there’s a misconception in the south that people in the north are rude and unfriendly. This is not true! (Except maybe when they get behind the wheel, LOL.) I got to see the Queen’s Botanical Garden yesterday, and they are VERY green there. I wish I had time and space to elaborate on that. I was supposed to go to the NY Botancial Garden this morning, but I woke up with a migraine and didn’t make it. 😦 I’m going home this evening, and I’ll really be glad to get back to my hubby whom I’ve missed terribly.

I hope everyone else is doing well!

Read Full Post »

ROW80 Check In and Wedding

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on June 6, 2011| 10 Comments »

I haven’t done any editing for almost a week. With my son’s wedding coming up, I was in a tizzy. LOL. Last night, I was really going to edit, but my power was off, and I don’t like to use the computer in the complete darkness. It hurts my eyes. But this week, I’m going to get back on the editing track. I want this novella published by the middle of June.

As for the wedding…it was beautiful! The preacher who conducted the ceremony was actually the one, along with his wife, who brought the two together in the first place, so he was able to tell a few good stories during the wedding. That made it fun. Then, my son cried during his vows, which made me cry. That was so sweet. Everything was perfect, and the bride was beautiful. I am one happy mom!

Read Full Post »

ROW80 Check In 5/29

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on May 29, 2011| 6 Comments »

I finished my novella on Thursday. I decided to take two or three days off before getting seriously into editing. So my new goals are:

1) Edit Dark Relic for an hour a day (or at least most days) until it’s done.
2) Get The Last Cabbandeum formatted for print for Jonathan Eli (I think this is mostly done).
3) Get Haunted Lake formatted for print.

The editing starts tonight (yeah, I know, I meant to start last Friday), so I’m going to shoot for that hour.

Read Full Post »

Now the Editing Begins….

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on May 26, 2011| 10 Comments »

I finished up my novella last night Yay! Now the editing starts. The bad thing is that there are more problems in this story than there have been in my previous ones, at least in my opinion. There is one major problem that I see, and my friend and cover designer, Anya Kelleye also saw the same thing. I need to figure out how to fix that. There are also some characters that need fleshing out. I have a bad habit of ignoring minor characters because I don’t care about them. I’m kind of like that when I’m reading, too, so it naturally sneaks into my writing. But I’m not sure how much one needs to know about a minor character. Do readers really care about them? Does it depend on how minor they are? When there are a dozen characters in your book, how many of them need back stories? So many questions. Grrrrrr!

Anyway, the editing process begins. After that, final proofreading. I hope to have a few other eyes on this story before I take a final look. I wanted to have this published by the beginning of June, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. But, if I’m lucky, it will be done by the middle of June. By that time I’ll have my son’s wedding and my trip to NYC out of the way.

Read Full Post »

What Do People Expect From Indie Books?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on April 7, 2011| 17 Comments »

I usually don’t show my book reviews in my posts. But I found this review on Goodreads for Guardian Vampire and I think it points out what’s wrong with a lot of indie published books. Here is an excerpt (the review was much longer, but I just wanted to show the pertinent parts).

“Whenever I buy a PubIt! ebook, the quality is going to be hit or miss. Guardian Vampire surprised me in a way no other PubIt! ebook has ever done before: it was well edited both in grammar and content. This is rarer than you might imagine.

I read this little 192 page novella in one night of insomnia. It was quick, action packed, and enjoyable. So I’m surprised it doesn’t have higher rating especially when compared to othe PubIt! ebooks like ****** which made me want to rip my hair out with the lack of content editing and flat characters.”

I blanked out the name of the book the reader mentioned out of respect for a fellow author. But this just shows what people are expecting out of indie authors. That’s why it’s so important to have good editing. I know that people have found a typo or two in some of my books, but I agree with the author of this review. There are very few indie books I’ve read that had good editing. A lot of them have so many typos that I can’t believe more of them weren’t caught. Professional indies like Zoe Winters, Susan Bischoff, and Kait Nolan (I know I’m leaving some awesome authors out, but I’m just giving three examples of authors with well edited books) always make sure their books are as good as they can be before putting them out there. But I’ve found that this is a rare exception. I know not everyone can afford a good editor at the beginning, but if you have several sets of eyes on your book, the chances of bad grammar, typos, and incorrect punctuation get slimmer and slimmer. So let other people read your books before you publish them. Have both beta readers and proofreaders. That will help you put out a better product. If there’s a typo or two, it’s not the end of the world. But when there’s 20 (or about 50, like a couple I’ve read), that’s just not good.

I know the reviewer mentioned editing for “grammar and content”, but I know she probably also has experience with typos and bad punctuation in indie books (I have). So this post really encompasses all of it.

Read Full Post »

Trudging Along

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on December 9, 2010| 6 Comments »

I’m still working on editing Guardian Vampire. I found one chapter where I used the unnecessary “that” multiple times. It makes it sound clunky or something when “that” is used so much. A couple of years ago, I probably would have never caught that problem. I feel like I’m getting better at the editing process. I found a couple of discrepancies that I need to fix…just minor stuff. It’s so much easier to catch things when I load the book onto my Kindle.

I’m about 1/3 way through editing Jon Eli’s crime novel. I HAVE to get this done before Christmas.

I’m also working on a set of “Twelve Days of Christmas” eggshell ornaments to put on my Etsy website. I doubt I’m going to get these on in time for Christmas. 😦 Maybe if I offer two day priority mail service for the price of regular mail….

And I don’t have my Christmas shopping done!

Read Full Post »

Things

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on November 11, 2010| Leave a Comment »

This post may be mostly rambling about assorted things.

My inner editor finds it very hard to just write crap during NaNo. Every single chapter I write, I go back over it and check for typos, misspelled words, wrong word usage, plot contradictions, etc. I can’t help myself. I’ve always done it that way. The good thing about that is that it has to go through fewer edits afterwards.

I often wonder who’s right when people critique something I’ve written. I can remember when I wrote my first novel and was sending it out chapter by chapter to a couple of people to crit. One of them said I had too much description, the other one said I didn’t have enough description. So what do you do then? One of my biggest weaknesses is that I sometimes have too many thoughtlogues. I know you’re supposed to show instead of tell. I’m trying to get better at it. But there are just sometimes, when the MC is alone, that you can’t really show exactly what they are thinking. And I realized something yesterday. I’m reading a book by the well known author, Mary Higgins Clark. She uses more thoughtlogues than I do! So if her editors let her get by with it, why can’t I do it? LOL

I got two good ratings yesterday, one of See Me and one of Club Blood, on goodreads.com. It still amazes me how people can have such differing opinions. Good, bad, good, bad, it goes on and on. The bad ones don’t bother me like they used to. Especially when I have a 2 star review and that same reviewer gave J.R. Ward’s books a 2 star, too. Hahahahaha.

Okay, I’m done now.

Read Full Post »

Being Lazy

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on January 11, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I have a novel and two novellas to edit.  So why am I procrastinating?  Why am I reading Stephen King instead of reading ME?  I need to get this done.  I need to begin to think of it as a job rather than a hobby.  That’s hard to do sometimes when you have a full time job already.  I wish I could devote most of my day to writing.  If wishes were horses….

Read Full Post »

It’s Finished!

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on October 5, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Finally, finally, finally I’ve finished the first draft of my second novel.  I had put it down for a really long time, only lacking a few more chapters.  I finally got back on track and finished the rest of it in a matter of a few days.  Or maybe a week.  But it’s done now!

The next steps are 1) Edit, edit, edit, and 2) Find an agent.

Finding an agent will be a long, grueling process.  The trick is to make sure you query agents specific to your genre.  It makes no sense to write, say, a romance novel and query agents who specialize in science fiction.  So do your homework.  There are websites to help you.  Preditors and Editors are brutally honest about agents that they recommend and DON’T recommend.    What I like to do is go to agentquery.com to find agents specific to the genre, then go to Preditors and Editors (anotherealm.com) and find out what is said about that agent.

However you choose to find an agent, please don’t get discouraged  by rejection.  It’s part of the process.  Keep at it.  Never give up.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts