Karen Sandler

Tag: NaNoWriMo

  • I Love You, You’re Perfect…Now I’m Gonna Revise You

    rewriting_265x265This week, with November and NaNoWriMo in the rear view mirror, YA Highway’s Road Trip Wednesday asks, How do you approach editing/revising?

    So, here’s the first most important thing about revising. You should write your draft knowing that you not only don’t have to get it perfect the first time through, you’re not expected to get it perfect. That’s one thing about NaNoWriMo that’s pretty great. The demand is so enormous (having to average close to 1700 words a day, every single day of November), you can’t possibly revise as you go. You just have to barrel ahead, getting the words down. But you have that freedom every time you write. You can always fix it later.

    Here’s the second most important thing–nothing that you’ve written is sacred. Nothing. Nothing. Every chapter, scene, paragraph, word, even character must be subservient to the story. If something doesn’t work, even if it worked at first, but in the course of revising is no longer relevant, that beautiful chapter, scene, paragraph, word, or character must go. And you must be ruthless in cutting out that dead weight.

    Here’s the third most important thing about revising. You must approach your revisions as if you were the editor rather than the writer of the book. You must go in there looking for trouble, not expecting a masterpiece. And you should never take it personally. Even the best manuscripts go wrong sometimes.

    Now that we’ve got those three basic musts down, here are a few other things I’ve learned over the course of writing and revising 20+ books.

    1. Give it a rest. After you’ve finished your manuscript, give yourself some time so you can return to it with a fresher eye. How much time? I personally don’t like to go longer than a week, and it’s usually just a few days. But you might need a couple weeks or even a month.
    2. Give it a read and think story as you go. Are the story questions answered? Are all the setups paid off? Is there extraneous material that doesn’t move the story forward? Are there characters who don’t pull their weight? This is where your major revising will be happening, where your bigger problems are solved.
    3. Give it another read and look at characters and details. Are your characters’ actions & dialogue consistent for them? Have you introduced word or phrasing repetitions in the course of your first big revision? Ditto for typos?
    4. Give it a final read. Are there any parts that just don’t flow? Awkward phrasing, expository dialogue, settings that are either overly detailed or not detailed enough? Anything confusing that you think a reader might stumble over or have a problem following?
    5. Let someone else give it a read. If you have a critique group or a beta reader, preferably someone who has never heard about the story, ask them to read it. It has to be someone whose opinion you completely respect and trust. And you have to be open-minded about their feedback.
    6. As needed, give the manuscript one last revision based on reader feedback.

    So is it a hard and fast rule that you must give your book three (and only three, no more, no less) readthroughs? No. But is it necessary to pay attention to all of the above elements while revising? I’d say yeah. If you can do that with one pass through the book, that’s great. As long as you’re reading with an editors eye, and are brutally honest with yourself about what’s working and what’s not.

    Happy revising!

  • RTW – Writing Books & Writing Advice

    This week,  YA Highway’s Road Trip Wednesday asks us to Share your most inspiring and/or motivational video, book, or quote on writing. All those NaNoWriMo participants out there nearing November’s half-way point could probably use an extra push toward the finish line.

    I have not read very many “inspirational” writing books. Back when I was just starting out, I tended to buy the nuts-and-bolts how-to books, read partway through, or just bits and pieces, then set them aside. I did read The Elements of Style (by William Strunk & E.B. White) cover to cover many years ago (it’s a real hoot), and back in 2000, I devoured Stephen King’s On Writing. I highly recommend both of those.

    There are a couple of inspirational/how-to-write books that most people rave about, Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott and Story by Robert McKee, that I started but couldn’t finish. I’m a severe plotter who does lots of advance prep. Then when I finally start chapter 1, I switch gears and become a very instinctual writer. Lamott’s and McKee’s books just made my eyes glaze over. However, many, many people have recommended these books, so I’m sure they have much of value in them. Just not for me.

    Now on to some writing advice. The first is from romance goddess Nora Roberts, and came to me via a talk given by the incomparable romance author, Anne Stuart. Back when I was writing romance, I belonged to Romance Writers of America, and Anne came to speak to our local chapter. She quoted something Nora Roberts had said: I can fix a written page. I can’t fix a blank page. This one piece of advice has pushed me through book after book, shutting up the little editor in my head with the clear knowledge that I can fix it later. Nothing is set in stone. Nora said so.

    As a companion bit of advice, Anne herself said something that night that has bolstered me many times when I have struggled to write even one page, when the words sit sullenly at the back of my head and refuse to step into the light. Anne said (and I paraphrase here), If you look the pages that were like pulling teeth to write and compare them to the pages that just flowed easily and beautifully, you won’t be able to tell the difference between them. In other words, even though you’re certain that pages you struggle to write are awful crap, they’re not. They’re just as good as those breeze-to-write pages and just as ready to be “fixed” as advised by Nora.

    If I may, one bit of my own advice. As I mentioned, neither Bird by Bird nor Story resonated with me. By the time they came along, I already had a methodology that worked. I’ve tweaked my writing method over the years, but the basic system has remained the same.

    If you’re just starting out as a writer and checking out various methods/structures to find what works, that’s great. But every writer is different. Some things you try will not work for you. Other methods that you find are perfect for you won’t work for others. Never judge yourself because you’re, for instance, a pantser, when everyone else in your critique group insists you should always plot first. Don’t freak out when you go to a conference workshop and the speaker tells you about a work style that doesn’t sync with yours. You’re not necessarily doing it wrong just because you’re doing it differently. The only real must is to continually improve the quality of your writing and storytelling.

    So how about you? What books or advice have inspired you?

  • RTW – Staring Down the Deadline Monster

    This week, as November looms, YA Highway asks the question, Are you doing NaNoWriMo, or have you ever? Does having a deadline inspire you?

    No, I’ve never done NaNoWriMo. By the time the National Novel Writing Month came along, I’d already been published and was regularly writing books under contract. I was too busy working on those contracted books to take the time to start something new in November as NaNoWriMo requires. Me starting a NaNoWriMo book would have been a little like a busy home construction contractor in the middle of building a house dropping everything to run off and build a little cottage somewhere just for fun.

    Deadlines, on the other hand, are an entirely different beast. That is, I worship at the feet of the deadline monster. It’s not so much that deadlines inspire me, but I respect them completely. Those deadline monsters are very much the boss of me. They stand by my bed in the morning, glaring at me to get up. They point their monstrous fingers toward my desk and demand that I turn on the computer. They keep their beady eyes on me to make sure I’m producing sufficient wordage each day so that I can reach their lofty goals. And heaven forbid if I take a peek at Facebook when I’m supposed to be working. The deadline monster never believes me when I say, “But I’m just doing some research on the web.”

    So, yeah, deadlines are a powerful influence on me. I have only slipped a deadline a couple of times, both times by less than a week. I do try to front load success with my deadlines, negotiating with my editor for a reasonable amount of time to finish a given book. But I take them seriously and keep my eye on the calendar as I work.

    I kind of suck, discipline-wise, if there is no deadline. Right now, I’m between books. I’ll have to start working on Revolution, the last book of the Tankborn trilogy, the moment my editor gives the thumbs-up. Once that happens, I’ll be busy-busy-busy for close to a year. But for the moment, the only thumbs doing anything are mine, twiddling.

    Yeah, I could work on a spec book I’ve got that needs editing. I could even write some short stories like my son suggested. But it’s really hard to muster up the gumption to write. I can be a real slug when the deadline monster is taking a sabbatical.

    So, although I’ve never done NaNoWriMo myself, I’m a big believer in the concept. Because it gives you a deadline. You have only the 30 days of November to write those 50K words. That’s quite a lot of work, a lot of words to write per day to reach your goal. And working fast like that, you learn a valuable skill–how to turn off the editor and just write. That one ability, to temporarily silence your internal editor, will get you to THE END, to a completed manuscript, better than anything.

    So, are you doing NaNoWriMo this year? If so, much luck to you. And be sure to stock up on the deadline monster treats. All that glaring and pointing are hungry work.

  • RTW – The Evil Blue Pencil Lady as Writing Coach

    I got the nickname “Evil Blue Pencil Lady” from my kids back when I was homeschooling them. It wasn’t that I was a meanie when I would edit their work (I critiqued the writer and not the person), but I was a pretty strict coach. As a consequence, both my boys are excellent writers, my older son Eric as a novelist and my younger son Ryan as an economist.

    Since those days, I’ve coached many writers, giving them feedback on their manuscripts, synopses, or query letters. I’m not much of an Oreo coach–say something positive, point out a problem, finish with something positive. Instead, I’m a problem-solver. I get in there and untangle what’s not working for me and suggest ways to make it work.

    So, if you’re NaNoWriMoing, my encouragement will probably not be gentle. You want to whine at me? Whine all you like, but it won’t change the fact that the words need to go on the page. Too tired, too sad, too uninspired? Then write some tired, sad, uninspired words. Just get them on the page and later you can fix them. As Nora Roberts so succinctly said, I can fix a bad page. I can’t fix a blank page. Nothing you put on that page is set in stone. You have complete freedom to write crap and later transform it into beauty.

    So, yeah, I’d be demanding you run laps despite that sore ankle. And I’ll also be the first one doing the Snoopy dance of joy when you get The Call. Because I believe in you. And I know you can do it.

    So get writing.