Lou Paduano | Urban Fantasy Novels | Sci-Fi Crime Series

Signs to Step Away from a Draft

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Let’s be honest, there are times when it feels like a story will NEVER come together. In some cases a narrative refuses to click into place, that final puzzle piece has somehow managed to fall off the table, slide under the carpet, never to be seen again.

When this happens there are few positive reactions to share with friends and family. But is the problem truly with the narrative or the amount of time spent putting it together?

Self-Editing Round 124… 125… 126…

It’s an endless battle, beating your doubts and your draft into submission. You want the best story possible, action-packed, descriptive, punchy dialogue – the works. Yet edit after edit goes by and you can’t help but feel it’s not quite there yet.

What do you do?

3 signs you should take a step away from your draft

  1. You start questioning the original intent of the piece. It can happen. And sometimes for the right reasons. But if you are finished with your draft and in the editing phase you tend to know what the theme or the purpose is behind the work. Rethinking concept is a natural sensation. Worry it might not be a strong enough connection with the reader is a completely rational thought. Not at this stage of the game. Here is the time to refine not rethink, tweak not toss out. Which leads me to my next point.
  2. Let’s rewrite the whole story…AGAIN. You know you’ve thought the same thing. You’ve tweaked and prodded the story in a certain direction and now you’re not sure if you’ve been on the wrong track the entire time. So why not start again? DON’T! Your story is there. Something in that massive draft is a problem but the narrative itself will work itself out if you don’t succumb to those doubts at the back of your mind.
  3. What if I can’t find the solution to my problems? It happens. Writers get tunnel vision, only allowing their thoughts to travel down a certain path for a story. It flows in their mind like a river, yet rigid and regimented in accordance with the original draft. An unending problem isn’t cause to cast the work aside or toss it in the junk heap of lost causes. You merely need to open your eyes to alternative paths and thoughts.

Solutions when it comes to unending self-edits

Let someone else read it! Alpha readers are crucial to the editing phase. There are only so many times you can read the same draft, edited or not, before the narrative becomes mundane in your eyes. Where it loses that excitement that drove you to write it in the first place.

Sending it to close family and friends for initial feedback not only allows you to share the hard work you’ve endured for months, but also brings back that critical feedback to drive you forward in your own efforts and point out potential pitfalls to revisit.

Create a post-mortem of questions and concerns. This is tied to my last thought. When I send a new draft to readers, be they close friends or family, I write down every question that’s bothered me during the editing process. Any issue I foresee or that has hindered me from hitting the publishing button in my brain.

It may be plot related, setting oriented, or even something as obscure as formatting. Write it all down to ask.

Save it until after they’ve read it. If the questions force them to read through again, they will do so with more perspective than the first which can only add to their feedback.

Let an outside perspective open new avenues of thought. This can have positive and negative connotations with your readers. Opening up your narrative for them to influence, be it plot, character or structure, can assist in providing new avenues of thought when you self-edit.

It can also steer you down paths you never wanted to travel in the first place.

All are worth exploring, though your readers may be upset if you choose not to follow their path. Remember, this is your story and while they may have worthwhile commentary on the subject it has to fall to you for the final decision.

No surrender, no retreat.

Walking away from your draft in the editing phase is not surrendering. It can’t be. Not after so much labor and love poured over a word processor for months or possibly years. Don’t let that happen.

Take a step back but never retreat from making your book the best it can be.

Thanks for reading.

Self-Editing Tips – 5 Areas to Question

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I’m in self-editing mode again. While trying to tie up the first half of the Greystone series with a nice ribbon, I’ve been staring at the same passages for weeks asking questions on top of questions. In my search for answers I realized that there are specific areas I tend to look at when looking over my work.

Five areas to question when self-editing

  1. Perspective – I tend to stick with a third-person limited perspective and only follow one character’s train of thought per chapter. Because of this I am constantly questioning the choice of that character on a chapter by chapter basis. Does this moment work best following Loren or Soriya? Should it come from Soriya because she is more emotional in this moment or should it be Loren because of his more methodical thinking? Sometimes I’ll play with it both ways to see what works best but usually I’ll know before I start – either through an action in the chapter or a line of dialogue – the best angle to approach the scene.
  2. Setting – Why here? Why now? There is a scene in The Medusa Coin I circle back to when it comes to setting. Soriya is on the roof of the Rath Building and she summons Loren for a conversation. He hates heights and she does this anyway. It’s a moment of control for her at a time when she has none and it was important to have that piece in the background of their discussion. The setting for each scene should help build the action, build the image of the world in the reader’s mind. Question each choice to find the best option available that makes sense for the narrative and realize why it is the best choice.
  3. Tension – Is there enough? Does it filter in at the right beat or does it come too late? Does the scene start too early and needs tightening to punctuate that tension? Conflict and drama are key here. I like banter. When I write a Ruiz/Loren chapter there is always banter between them. It works for them. But any scene with Mathers involved? There’s no playing around. It’s anger times ten right at the start and it gets worse as the scene plays out. Knowing the narrative, knowing the direction of the conversation before you set words to the page allows you to play with the timing, the flow of the dialogue – all leading to a natural explosion of conflict between characters. Hold off too long or spring it too quickly and the reader will catch it.
  4. Advancing the Plot – Why is this moment necessary? Do we learn something new? Is there another way to tell this moment or wrap it with some other event to tighten the pace of the narrative? Each beat requires purpose. If Loren finishes his shift and heads to a diner for some eggs there better be a reason behind showing it to the reader. The diner is a haven for a local drug lord involved in one of his current cases maybe? A girl he likes works there? The victim ate there recently and ended up decking his waitress for poor service? Plot based or centered on character (or hopefully both), there has to be a reason for the scene to exist. If not? Fold it into another narrative beat. He doesn’t go to the diner alone, Ruiz is there too and the two talk about the case only to meet the waitress the victim decked right before the end. That way he doesn’t have to catch Ruiz up in the next scene, both beats are right there for the reader and that advances the story to the next action.
  5. Narration – This is the most difficult for me and can be connected with the questions pertaining to perspective. It typically boils down to one thing for me – What is the mental state of the perspective character at this exact moment? Where are they in their overall arc for the novel? Are they reeling from a recent loss? Are they cold or too warm, pissed or calm? Action, tension, and setting all play a role in this. Each feeds into the mental state of the character that will drive the action for the next narrative beat.

Question everything

If you ask me I will tell you the truth when it comes to self-editing. I don’t like to do it. At all. It is painstaking and the questions never truly end.

Does it help the work? Of course it does. It is the most important step in the process and should never be skipped.

Question every choice you made. Defend those you can without a doubt. When doubt does come into play? Realize it and make a change. Play with different outcomes, different situations or dynamics. Switch the perspective.

Make choices and question those.

Eventually you’ll hit that sweet spot and hit the send button to your favorite readers. Eventually.

Thanks for reading.

Self-Editing Tools – AutoCrit

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I mentioned AutoCrit during my last post so I wanted to go into it a bit further. I became a member earlier this year after test driving the program. They offer a 14 day money back guarantee to give some time to work through the huge helping of reports offered to assist in improving your writing. Or at the very least, a second set of eyes on your manuscript that really fleshes out where you need to focus when it comes to self-editing.

I loved it. My pride though, thought of it as a cheat. It’s not. Pride was shown the door. Quickly.

What is AutoCrit?

AutoCrit is a critiquing software able to point out the inherent flaws of your manuscript while also giving you tons of positive feedback for the few things you’ve managed to kick ass on during the drafting process. It has a ton of functionality so you can view the manuscript as a whole or broken down by chapter with the ability to shift from chapter to chapter with the touch of a button instead of scrolling through pages and pages of text.

To get started with the program all you have to do is upload your text. There are two options for this that include cutting and pasting your work from a Word document into the editor or you can upload it.

autocrit menus

The menu is broken up into tiers. The top tier are categories and the bottom runs specific reports within the main topic. The Home tab offers a summary look at your work, but where AutoCrit really gets into the nitty gritty of your manuscript is the other categories.

 

Pacing & Momentumautocrit pacing

This category is great at figuring out where your manuscript slows to a crawl or if it is plagued with verbose sentences that need to be cut down and repositioned so the overall piece reads better. I tend to look at the Pacing report first to see if there are inherent weaknesses in the structure of my work. AutoCrit highlights paragraphs of text that could slow down a reader. This might be the intention of the author for a specific beat but more often than not there is something breaking the flow of the chapter and needs to be looked at.

A chapter with a lot of exposition has a tendency to weigh the rest of the manuscript down if not paced well and this report helps point out blocks of text that could potentially slow down the momentum of your tale.

Dialogue

The reports in this area help clean up conversation pieces within your manuscript. How many times did you write that someone asked a question instead of leaving it with a simple question mark? Did Loren reply to the question sharply, curtly, aggressively, sleepily or dumbly? Is the adverb necessary to the scene or does the dialogue itself carry the message across to the reader? These reports are great to assist in cleaning up unnecessary and overused tags and adverbs.

Word Choice

I only use two reports under this category (so far). Sentence starters is something I’ve ignored in the past but ran it out of curiosity on my last project. Very glad I did. Especially after getting an earful from my wife about my use of And at the start of my sentences. Here I thought I was being dramatic. Oh well.

Generic Descriptions is a fun little report as well to help beef up your prose. It calls me out on my use of the words Great and Looked and forces me to remember there is an entire English language of colorful descriptors to utilize.

Strong Writing

autocrit passive voice

Strong writing is where I tend to spend many hours during this part of the self-editing process. Every report under this category is crucial to making your writing pop off the page for the reader. Tightening up the language through the Adverb, Redundancies and Unnecessary Filler Words reports are my first stop at this point. From simple things like writing Loren stood instead of Loren stood up. (Maybe he stood down? Idiot!) My favorite part is that I have already made a pass of the work at this point and still missed things like this…

Where I typically spend a full day is with Passive Voice and Showing vs. Telling. If these reports are showing anything then there is work to be done. I love these two reports because they call me out on my own laziness and push me to rework my sentence structure in ways I never would have imagined before signing up for this service. Making my work more active and more vibrant, which I hope shows in the final product.

A great weapon for your writing arsenal.

AutoCrit really is a fantastic tool to add to your writing arsenal. A second set of eyes that, while not as nuanced as a beta reader, will give you things no reader can give you as thoroughly. A complete look at your manuscript with detailed reports on where you rocked it and where you need to improve.

Invaluable.

And priced as such.

Now, full disclosure. When I signed up for the service AutoCrit’s monthly plan was only $12 per month and they were offering a discount on an annual membership for $97. I almost walked away at that point. However, AutoCrit offered the use of a free sample through their homepage to test drive their service and a 14 day money back guarantee so that won me over in the end.

Unfortunately, prices have increased since April so once again I will have to question the money issue and the importance of the product when renewal time comes up next year. Plans now start at $29.97 per month with an annual membership going for $359.64. That’s quite the price hike and something to consider when weighing your own membership.

Take a closer look at the service and all of the details here.

Thanks for reading.

Self-Editing – Treating Your Writing Like a Professional

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Everyone writes. Don’t deny it. Even the weekly grocery list counts in this regard. Seriously. You make your grocery list and what do you do with it before you go to the store? You look it over. Double checking every item. (Or triple checking it if you’re like me. Then leave it at home like an idiot.) You remember something you need. You realize three tubs of ice cream probably aren’t necessary and make it a more advisable two. That is self-editing at its core and it is the most crucial part of the writing process.

I’ve shared my feelings on self-editing previously. It’s no secret I find it extremely painful as a process. But a completely necessary one. Self-editing is the true first step to turning your favorite Buffy fan-fiction into a dynamite draft ready to be seen by others. Not publication (HECK NO) but a step closer. And it’s because self-editing forces you to look at your work like a professional.

Those that can see the flaws and find solutions to them are the ones ready for primetime. Defending your first draft, riddled with typos and logic problems will not help you succeed. It will hold you back. It did for me for a long time.

How did I learn to cope with self-editing?

I developed a system. The same way every writer should. For EVERYTHING. Plotting. Drafting. And especially Editing.

With a first draft I do a cursory spell check, cursing at Word for wasting my time. Then I print the bugger off and tuck it in a three-ring binder. I used to just paper clip sections of the behemoth – not a smart way to go – so I have to thank Joanna Penn for the binder idea. From there I start my first readthrough.

First readthroughs are scary. You’ve spent months putting your draft together and aren’t quite ready to pull it apart yet. You gloss over grating details and choppy sentences because you KNOW they work. Except they don’t and you hover over them for a full minute (more like ten) trying to figure out what the hell you were talking about.

Highlight it. Underline it. Question it.

self-editing
My favorite is when a minor character’s name changes halfway through the story…

Question Everything.

That’s the key. Question everything. Setting. Staging. Movement. Motivation. Dialogue. Dialogue tags even. If questions come up for you, even small ones, they will definitely come up for your readers.

Note funky sentences, poor transitions, generic descriptions of locations and characters you probably haven’t thought enough about yet. Most importantly take your time with it.

Once the first readthrough is done I go through everything and make my changes. Easy ones first. Changes that require a major overhaul or solving a logic problem I typically highlight for a second pass. It gives me time to think about the best approach depending on the situation and doesn’t hold me up from other corrections.

Circle back to your highlights when the answers are clear. You may have broken more than you fixed but solving the fundamentals of your draft, the logic of your story is critical to moving forward with the next pass (or three).

Save constantly and under a new filename. For every draft. And keep the physical copy of that first draft. You will not regret this.

A second set of eyes

For a second full pass through the manuscript I use AutoCrit, a handy tool I will be talking about in detail on Monday. I upload the revised draft into their system and run every report imaginable to clean up my prose. I would be lost without this tool and it really helps me catch overused words and other silly things I should be able to realize on my own. (I’m getting better at it, dammit.) It also keeps me from passing it off to my wife to clean up. I’m sure she appreciates the reprieve.

Three is a magic number.

The third readthrough occurs on the computer. Sometimes I print it out and work it the same as the first. It depends on how confident I am about the draft. Sometimes it takes four or five or twelve passes but by this time I’ve typically hacked the crap out of myself and am working on the nitpicky (yet still incredibly important) parts of the narrative.

Was Soriya injured on her right side or left? Did Loren shave today? Who is holding a gun and who has the ice cream cone? (Two ice cream references? I should probably eat before I write these posts…)

Once again, it all comes down to questions. Never be afraid to ask them and never back away from every potential answer. If something is holding you back from passing the draft off to your beta readers there is a reason behind it. You may destroy that “perfect” first draft, that heavenly vision you held in your mind for your book but it will make it stronger in the end.

That’s how you take your writing to the next level.

Thanks for reading.

Balancing Your Love/Hate Relationship with Self-Editing

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You did it. The draft is set. You’ve typed The End and can finally put this beast of an endeavor to bed. Never to be plagued by its myriad paths, the subtle turns or its exceptionally developed characters again. Time for your readers to see your masterpiece and shower you with praises.

Let me know when you wake up from that dream. That wonderfully, deceptively, beautiful dream. Take your time. I can wait.

Sigh.

You know what comes next. What has to come next. It’s painstaking. It’s torturous (not for all but definitely for some). The self-editing process. (dun dun DUN.)

It’s necessary. Absolutely necessary. Some walk away from the work for awhile, focus on other things – blogs, cooking classes, those pesky kids that haven’t seen you clean shaven in three months – and then come back to the draft refreshed and energized. Some barrel in, list in hand at the problem areas they noted during the first draft. How you do it and when you do it are dependent on you.

But you have to do it.

Self-editing is crucial.

And when it comes to that time it is important to remember your attitude. In my case? I hate editing. Not because I’m so great it isn’t needed, though early on I thought this (a topic I’ll be chatting about soon because of how unprofessional it made me at the time and how it stymied any and all growth as a creator). No, I dislike the process because it is SO needed with my work. I hate catching errors in story logic worse than catching the flu. Typos? Missing words? The multitude of grammar errors? Fine. So be it.

But the big ones? The ones that make you question the entire work? UGH. That’s why I do it though. I have to. It bolsters everything else up. That brilliant reference to Krypton exploding might be the best quotable in the manuscript but if your character says it while being choked to death IN SPACE, it might not work.

You should love your writing, in as much as you love the art OF writing. Not your genius at solving racial discrimination in Chapter 314 of a 900 page opus. Just putting thought to paper (digitally is preferred these days though I love a good legal pad) is such an accomplishment in and of itself. Walking away from a draft thinking it is plated in gold and should be hung on an altar surrounded by statues of you is where most writers get off track.

Hating yourself helps a little.

Cursing the inconsistencies, screaming at the lack of logic, is the best thing for your book. And for you. Fiction, be it short or epic, is the ultimate word problem. (Math, I know.) It is though. Looking at it from a critical standpoint first – noting every question, every leap that fails to land – gives you your starting point for your self-editing. Love blinds you to this but hate, a true critical outlook – brings the work back to earth and you can see the places that need work.

Love comes back into play for revisions. You’ve pulled it apart. You’ve ripped your greatness to shreds. Now it’s time to put Humpty Dumpty back together again and the hater has no place in the equation.

But balance is the key.

Pull it apart. Put it back together. Do it enough times and you start to ask less questions, your notes lessen until it is all nit-picky garbage that is only keeping you from moving on. Getting to that point though takes time, time necessary to build a better book, a more powerful tome for your readers to enjoy.

And that’s why we do this, right?

Love your work. Hate it too. You’ll be better for it. And for the love of God hire an editor when you’re done. They make everything even better.

Thanks for reading.

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