An Interesting Editing Note

"I was really pissed at _________ for getting ___________ killed, because _________ had a chance of happiness with _____________."

"But ___________ didn't know the zombies were there!"

"_________ sucks. I hope _________ dies. "

hehehee....

I never thought of this particular scene in that way. I love hearing from the editor what she thinks. Plus, she's emotionally invested in the characters so I must be doing something right!

Right?

Editing! The Bane of Writers...or is it?

Long ago, when I was ten, I proudly typed out my first story on an old blue electric typewriter. I handed the finished product over to Mom and returned to my humming typewriter to write my next masterpiece. A few minutes later, my mother handed me my story and told me how much she liked it. I was positively glowing until I saw red ink scrawled all over my precious story.

Mom, the English teacher, had corrected/edited the whole thing.

I was gutted.

"I thought you liked it!" I burst into tears.

"I do! But you need to fix a few things," my mother answered.

And thus I learned the joys and heartache of the editor's red pen.

Years later I pull manuscripts out of the mail with my mother's red ink scrawl littering the pages. I always send everything I write to her. She always tells me how much she loves it. Her red marks show me where I misstepped.

In fact, I have a handful of people armed with red pens (and post its, highlighters, etc) who read through my manuscripts. Each one has their own strength and they do a great job fixing up my goofs and gaffs.

And how do I feel when I see all those tags, highlights and red marks?


Relieved.

Over the years I have learned that I cannot truly edit my own work. I often see what I know should be in a sentence, not what is actually there. My husband has pointed out word inversions, etc that I couldn't even see. I accept my imperfections and that I need to be edited. It is just part of the process.


I am NOT one of those writers who is convinced each word they write is perfection and that to edit their work is to destroy it. I know I'm a total goof that types fast, but has an internal muse that talks faster than my fingers. I'm a good storyteller as a whole, but sometimes I really tangle up words and plot lines and I need someone to tell me how to fix the whole mess.


Yep, folks, I'm a writer who admits that I love my editing notes.


I have had writers tell me that if the editor changes one word of their precious manuscript, they'll walk. I think that is a pretty extreme response, but its not as uncommon as you think.


I'll be honest, sometimes those red notes make me want to tear my hair out. Most of the time the edits are simple ("use its not it's here" "you accidentally put Katie's name instead of Jenni" "they're drinking tea, not coffee"), but sometimes it ends up being a big plot hole you could drive a fleet of tanks through.

But I do believe you can also be edited to the point of 1) losing your voice 2) losing your story and 3) losing your confidence.


A lot of writers have three sets of editors.

1. Their friends/family who proofread their work

2. Their writing group

3. The editor that bought their story



Here is what I have discovered along the way about each of these groups.



The Proofreaders


Make sure that the people you choose to proofread your work are going to kick you in the head with steel-toed boots. They can't be soft on you at all. They have to poke their fingers through your plot holes, tug on broken story threads, and tell you when your characters are coming across like cardboard cutouts. They should be people you trust to give you the absolute truth. They should be able to praise you when you rock and chastise you when you phone it in.

Do NOT pick someone who will shrug their shoulders and say, "It was okay."

Pick someone who is fair, not afraid to point out your mistakes, but will also be honest about if the story works or not.

Writing Groups

I have mixed feelings about writing groups. My own experience was positive, but also short-lived. We mostly pushed each other to write and never really critiqued each other. It was all about getting stories turned out and not putting off writing. It was about dedication to the craft.

I suppose you could consider my original postings online of As The World Dies as a sort of critique group. I received countless reviews and criticism on the work. I learned a lot from those comments and it was a good experience over all.

But I have encountered more than one writer completely gutted and traumatized by their experiences in writing groups. The goal of a writing group should be to help hone the writing skills of a writer and develop their unique voice. If you're not learning about sentence structure, punctuation, proper grammar, and encouraged to bring clarity to your writing style in a positive manner, but instead are ripped to shreds, drop out and find another group. Your work should never be edited down to the point where your voice is lost and you feel like a gutted shell. You should receive both positive and "negative" comments on your work.

THE EDITOR

My experience so far with editors has been positive. I felt Rebecca May did an amazing job editing my short story for Zombology. In fact, I could not really discern what she had changed. I appreciate her hard work.

I did have one experience I would like to share. I submitted a short story for an anthology and had actually tweaked it from its original form to fit the submission guidelines. My husband chastised me for altering the story, but I really wanted to make it into this anthology. When the editor responded, he pointed out the addition to the story as I misstep and I was relieved. I was never comfortable with the change. But he went on to make suggestions that would have completely changed the premise of the story, excised a major character, and completely demolished the heart of the story.

I was gutted.

But I wanted to be published so desperately, I considered his changes. My husband was adamant that I not compromise my story anymore. I finally agreed with him and passed on rewriting the story for the anthology to suit the editor. I returned it to its original form and posted it on my Scribd page.

If you have a piece being considered by a publishing house and they tell you how they want you to change the story to suit their needs and you don't agree with those changes, you can walk away. It may be the hardest thing you have ever done, but that is an option. And I am talking about big changes, removing a subplot, deleting a character, completely changing your plot, etc. If they are asking you to use proper punctuation, grammar, etc., I would suggest listening to their corrections and learning from them.

Your proofreaders, writing group and editors should all be aiming for the same goal: to make your story the best it can possibly be. This may mean a few hits to your ego and learning how to revise your story to make it tighter, but it will be worth it in the end.

I Have Zombie Brain!!!

The last few weeks have been a bit crazy.

First, there was the whole drama of getting As The World Dies: Fighting to Survive available for purchase.

Then Spring Break arrived and we had my nephew visiting for most of it.

And finally, this week just sucked. If I was hard pressed to explain why it sucked, I probably couldn't come up with a very good explanation. It just seemed really hard to get through. Anyone watching my Twitter knows I was pretty grumpy.

This weekend I hope to get a lot of Siege tucked away and work on a few other writing projects. We'll see how it all flows.

Sales this month have been through the roof, so thank you for your support! I will probably be commissioning the new artwork for Siege in April (since I can pay for it) and see where we are at by the end of April. I'll keep you posted as to when we anticipate As The World Dies: Siege going on sale.

Update On As The World Dies: Fighting to Survive

The final requested edits to the cover artwork has been sent to Detra. I'm just waiting for the final version now.

Last night I finished the edits from the first editor and will start on the edits from the second editor tonight. I plan to finish those up this weekend if at all possible. After that, I will do the final formatting on the book and submit it to Createspace.

Once we get the artwork from Detra, we need to lay out the cover and submit it to Createspace for review. If they say both the interior and exterior files are good, we'll order the proof copy of the novel.

What follows after the proof comes in?

The two proof copy editors comb through the book for any last revisions.

What does this all mean?

We're probably on track for an early March publication date.

Can I get an amen?

Edits! Edits! And More Edits!!

Edits are a bitch! Oh, my gawth! Ugh.

But I do appreciate the people who take the time to edit my stuff and give me their opinions. It is very hard to see my own goofs. I often see what I think I should have written and not what I actually wrote. Having three different editors (sometimes four) going through my work is always a huge help. One English teacher, two English majors, and a writer/editor all look at my stuff. They all have their strengths and together I feel they give me a well-rounded critique.

As I have said before, if there is a goof up in any of my novels, I probably missed an editing note. I take the blame there. Since As The World Dies: The First Days was our first book, we didn't have our groove yet, so it may not be as clean as I hoped. But considering the amount of typos and other weirdness I find in all the books I've read lately by major publishers, I don't feel we've done too badly.

Yesterday, I showed my husband where in the book I was reading the main character's name was written two different ways in back to back sentences. He showed me errors in a book that has gone through multiple reprints since the 1950's. The typos were never corrected.

But we do not intend to slack off because everyone else is doing it. We actually hope to be even more stringent with any typos (though creative license is used sometimes to build tension in the story) and I know we did a lot better with edits in Pretty When She Dies and As The World Dies: Fighting to Survive.

Again, my best advice to anyone reading this who aspires to be a writer, get someone else to look it over and listen to their critiques.

One more thing...still have the migraine! So I may be slow in responding to emails and the such. The migraine recedes then hits again. It's really awful. My best friend had one for eight days straight that did the same thing. In Austin its Cedar Fever time, so I think everyone is suffering with extreme allergies right now.

In closing, special thanks to my editors. Connie, Kody, Michelle and Julie you rawk it!