Going Through Copy Edits!

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My Copy Editor, Kristy Stewart of Looseleaf Tea returned my manuscript this past Wednesday!

As long-term readers and friends may suspect, I’ve been too keyed up to do much new writing (blogging/creative/ect).  But, I committed to post once a week on each of my blogs so let me offer some editing observations.  

1. I am over the moon with excitement.  Didn’t know it was humanly possible to be so energetically happy so long, figured it would burn something in my system out.  

2. It’s taking longer to approve/reject changes than I expected.  Mark up on a word document can be difficult to see if it’s a single comma (and I’m missing a lot of those).  It’s also tedious any time my editor makes a period a comma or a comma a period because I have to approve 3 changes individually (agree to delete the original punctuation, agree to accept the new punctuation and agree to capitalization or lower case of the following word).

3. There're fewer edits than I expected.  Not a knock on Kristy, her work is thorough.  I just mentally set my mind back into English paper mode.  I never scored well on those in school.

4. The recommended edits are a continuation of work I’ve already done.  She suggests a lot of verbs tense change, and I’ve changed a million verb tenses a million times already.  I still missed some or changed them incorrectly.  I would never get these tense right without outside eyes, so that alone is worth my money.

5. There are open-ended comments.  Like “this is confusing for X reason. Consider clarifying.”  

6. I don’t know how/when to hyphen words together.  When I’m done with these edits, I’m rereading those rules.  

7.  Even though she was copy editing, there are little gems that show what a strong grasp of character and plot Kristy has.  So far, she’s made two suggestions to add a line of dialogue here or there that should have been obvious fixes for me, but I needed someone to suggest.

8. She’s suggestion : and ; but I’m rejecting them still.  I’m aware of what grammar says about these things, but I have an ever expanding list of why these two kinds of punctuation do not belong in fictional prose (funny coming from someone who is using a colon in their book’s title). 

9. She’s adding some “that” back into my writing and she’s starting some of my sentences with And or But.  Both elements I culled due to massive overuse.  It’s nice when someone else sprinkles them in.

10.  In a few notable places where my writer’s group asked me to change something, and I held onto it for detailed reason X, Kristy asked for the same changes.  My writers’ group will be happy to know I capitulated.  

11. Even though I use breath and breathe all the time in my stories, I don’t know when to use which. 🙄

12. Toward vs Towards also comes up a lot.  Maybe reread rules with when to use an s?

Talk to me.  Where are you in your writing process?  What kind of feedback do you get from beta readers or writing groups? What kind of feedback do you get from your copy editor?  What’s your best experience with an editor?  What was your worst experience with an editor?

Looking for more posts about the writing and publishing process?  Check out more posts on my novel publication process: Going Through Copy Edits, 1st Daft vs 2nd Draft, Goal Planning: Getting Through the First Draft, My Character Looks Nothing Like My MC, Cover Art: Truth in Advertising, and Post Book Launch: Reflections.  

Want to know more about my novel?  Check out my childhood stories recapping themes in my life I hope prepared me to write this book: Remember the Magic of Santa?, Closet Monsters: Gone too Far?, and Garden Gnomes and other Evils.

OR check out my series where I find similarities between my novel and other popular media.  Hopefully it gives you a better idea whether there are elements in my book you may enjoy. Lost Girl Comparison, American Gods Comparison, and The O.A. Comparison.

MY BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT AMAZON!!!  Please go look at "Follow Me: Tattered Veils" and see if it might be a story that interests you.

Writing Prompts for Midsummer

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Introduction: 

This series of posts has simple goals: provide some basic history on a holiday/event from the past and use that history to spring board potential writing prompts and themes. For some, the history on its own will be enough to come up with some story ideas.  For others, I offered some starting points with themes, scenes, and possibilities I see for the holiday at hand.  

Happy writing and please share a snippet or link to your inspired works ^_^ I’d love to read them.

What is Midsummer/Summer Solstice/Lithe/Litha

For the Northern Hemisphere Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year.  For the Southern Hemisphere Summer Solstice is the shortest day of the year.  For this post, I’m exploring the Northern Hemisphere’s experience of Solstice (sorry southern hemisphere folks).  So today we’ll explore a day where the sun appears to stand still.  The day floats on our calendar between June 20th and June 21st.  

Many cultures knew about Summer Solstice and had varying practices around it.  In the history section I will only cover the smallest bit of information I’ve uncovered.  

History

Ancient Egyptians marked the Solstice as the beginning of when the Nile would flood.  Floods were necessary for good crops (black is the color of life in ancient Egyptian mythology because it’s the same color as good growing soil) but these floods came on quickly and were life threatening to the people living along the banks.  Solstice signalled a time that could bring great bounty and danger all in one needed package.

General British/Irish/Wales lore has a tradition of lighting a bonfire on the eve of the solstice to greet the coming day.  People would jump the bonfire, and if they got through the flames without a burn, they had good luck for the year.  Others would carry out a “wishing traditions” where they would pick up a pebble, hold it walking around the bonfire three times wishing for thing X and then tossing the stone into the flames.  After the bonfire flames subsided, people had uses for the ashes.  They could make a protective amulet to wear for the year or they could sow the ashes into the garden for bountiful harvests.  

Sunwheels, a wheel lit on fire or a ball of straw lit on fire were also popular.  People would light the wheel and roll it downhill into a river.  The burnt remnants go to a local temple and displayed.  In Wales if the fire wheel went out before it hit the water, it promised a good harvest.

Midsummer is a Faery holiday.  The veils between the worlds are thin at this time and many faeries come to our world to celebrate and make merry.  Some suggestions to see faery folk included: staying up all night on the evening before Solstice, wearing a sprig of thyme so you can see the faeries dancing, or summoning the faery with moonstone, a bowl of milk and/or something sweet.  

There are multiple warnings against dealing with the faery folk.  One such story is of a girl Kathleen who went out on the eve of Midsummer to find the faery.  She dances with them and sought to draw the Fae King’s attention.  The King did take an interest in her, he came to her and embraced her.  Kathleen died that evening.  Her body was recovered by a faery fort with a smile on her face.

There are several suggestions on how to protect yourself against the faery folk.  Some sources suggest wearing a jacket inside out to confuse the faery folk as they come to spirit you away.  Others suggest sticking to ley lines where you can escape quickly.  Some sources suggest wearing rue and others St. John’s wort to repel the faery folk or to prevent the more malicious faery folk from approaching.

Other interactions with faeries are positive.  Some people were known to be “faery doctors” like Biddy Early of Connacht.  In her case the Faery Queen came upon the village celebrating midsummer and politely asked the villages to go home so the fae may celebrate in private.  The village complied and Biddy seems to have been gifted faery knowledge.

Sources:

The Farmer’s Almanac

learnreligions.com

witchesandpagans.com

The Sacred Wheel: a Guide to a Pagan year for beginners in Witchcraft and Wicca (new age& spiritual books)

Writing Prompts:

1. The focus on fire in what is the day with the most natural light, is curious, why is fire so integral to most Midsummer celebrations?

-Are people obsessed with their own power to create or mimic the natural world?

-Do sun deities only respond to flames?  

2. What does summer mean to you or your characters?

3. Jumping over a Midsummer Bonfire in more modern literature is often used as a bonding ceremony used instead of a wedding—do you have any characters who appreciate this ascetic?  

-Write you version of a Midsummer bonding ceremony.  What do the people promise each other, do they invoke gods and/or fae to witness their bonding or conescrate it?

4. Gods/Goddesses worshipped in Midsummer center around the sun, the fae, and sex.  Write a steamy scene in honor of this day.

5. Write a wishing ritual scene.  What does the character wish for, is this an act of desperation or a common occurance?  Does the wish come true?  Do gods or supernatural beings get involved?

6. Horror often happens in dark places and there is a lot of speculation on 24hrs on night, but what about 24hrs of daylight?  Is this a magical time where no evil can befall us or does the light simply expose the darkness of our souls?  

7. Write about a fae encounter (chance or summoned).  Good, bad, or neutral, just write a scene with the fae on this day where they travel.

8. What happens to fae who don’t return through the veil before midsummer’s close? 

9. Why do the fae travel in our realm on this day?  Do they wait for Midsummer on their side of the veil?

10.Are humans found dead after faery revels gone forever or have they gone back with the fae to the faery realm?  

Looking for more writing prompts?  Try my post on Matralia.

1st Draft Vs 2nd Draft

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Long time readers may recall in 2016, I completed my first draft of Follow Me: Tattered Veils.  Only I didn’t know it was my first draft, I thought my manuscript was complete and began to query agents.  

I did this even though I was not happy with my first chapter and knew it was a bad hook.  

I did this even though I knew the manuscript rambled and barely held together as a story.

I did this even though my main character is unlikeable and awkward. 

How could I call the manuscript complete with these huge flaws?  How could I query?  It’s simple: I’ve always loved Follow Me: Tattered Veils and I had taken the manuscript as far as I knew how to carry it.  Isn’t selling the next step?  

I shudder at my ignorance, but I didn’t know what I didn’t know.  I wrote other stories, and I workshopped Follow Me: Tattered Veils in between.  After letting it rest about a year, I began rewrites.

Where the first draft came out in patches over the course of two years, with multiple deleted scenes only I’ve read.  I finished the second draft in nine months.  My planning and speed increased.  It took a year of thinking, but I knew better than ever what story I wanted to tell.

So what’s different? 

The order, I’ve joined “kick ass first chapter club.”  My plot.  Follow Me: Tattered Veils tells two stories.  The first draft told Gerry’s story, but I needed to develop Roxi’s.  No one liked Roxi because no one knew her well.  The second draft opens up and gives Roxi time to be herself.

  

  

I wrote twelve new chapters.  Of the twelve new chapters, eight are Roxi centric.  Sharing more social interactions, scenes, and pivotal moments in her life.  These moments create chemistry in my cast.

 Beyond those eight Roxi centric chapters, two of those chapters are about Gerry discovering new insights into Roxi.  So audiences get Gerry’s twisted narration of Roxi where Roxi would be more tight-lipped.  What Gerry says about Roxi isn’t gospel truth, but it has a certain ring of truthiness.  I’m using the audience’s interest in Gerry to make them interested in Roxi.  *Does and evil victory dance*

These were my “big changes,” but the second draft overhauled everything.  Awkward wording, repetitive phrasing, and verb tense shifts are some elements I tackled.  I clarified each of my character’s voices.  I deleted massive amounts of their “thoughts” and made the few casual insights have depth.  

Why talk about this now?  I wanted to write about my drafting process and insights while I drafted, but I feared pausing the process would derail my work.  Now as I wait on my copy editor I have nothing but time to reflect.  

Talk to me.  What does your drafting process look like?  What are the biggest changes from first draft to second draft?  Are you like me where you believe each itteration is the “final” product or do you have a better sense of when your WIP is done?

Looking for more posts about the writing and publishing process?  Check out more posts on my novel publication process: Going Through Copy Edits, 1st Daft vs 2nd Draft, Goal Planning: Getting Through the First Draft, My Character Looks Nothing Like My MC, Cover Art: Truth in Advertising, and Post Book Launch: Reflections.  

Want to know more about my novel?  Check out my childhood stories recapping themes in my life I hope prepared me to write this book: Remember the Magic of Santa?, Closet Monsters: Gone too Far?, and Garden Gnomes and other Evils.

OR check out my series where I find similarities between my novel and other popular media.  Hopefully it gives you a better idea whether there are elements in my book you may enjoy. Lost Girl Comparison, American Gods Comparison, and The O.A. Comparison.

MY BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT AMAZON!!!  Please go look at "Follow Me: Tattered Veils" and see if it might be a story that interests you.

And I Would Do Anything for Love...But I Can't Do This

image from vector illustration found through Public Domain

Hello world!  I am returning to my blogs and Twitter.  Back in January, I posted my writing goals, and they included completing the second draft of Follow Me: Tattered Veils.  

Amazing news: that draft is complete.  It goes to the copy editor today!  

Further news!  I’ve found and am partnering with an artist to create a cover for Follow Me: Tattered Veils.  Finishing the second draft set up all the pieces for me to self publish and I am tentatively planning to publish November 1st.  Words fail in expressing deep my joy is.

With that joy comes doubt.  Not doubt in my manuscript.  To prepare Follow Me: Tattered Veils I’ve recruited beta readers, work-shopped the manuscript with my writers’ group, and studied editing advice. The work has undergone major structural changes over its existence and it’s settled into an order I think is best for readers.  I queried multiple editors and settled on one whose resume includes two authors with a similar audience to mine (fan girling here but my editor worked with Charlie N. Holmberg and she’s amazing).

My doubt: I can’t draw in an audience or the right audience to my work.  Yeah, I did the Twitter thing back in Aug-Jan.  Yeah, I have this blog.  But what is all this?  Will it help book the visibility of my book?  Am I connecting with a potential group of readers?  I feel very small and like a terrible advocate for my book.

Further, I couldn‘t keep the blog running AND edit at the same time.  I always told people I couldn’t self-promote and write but I was hoping to prove myself wrong.  Turns out I knew those two different areas of my brain can‘t both fire at the same time.  If I’m writing fiction, I’m not blogging.  If I’m blogging, chances are strong I’m not writing fiction. Boo.

So I will be here and around for the next few months, but at some point, I must fall away and go back to my creative well spring.  I hope you guys understand and stick with me, but I can’t commit to consistent updates.  I will try to pre-write a bunch of blog posts and tweets, and from there I’ll try to respond/interact.  But the balancing act will fall and I’ll abandon you all to write.  

I would do anything to make Follow Me: Tattered Veils as big as a success as I can, but I can’t sacrifice creating more fictional works to market Follow Me: Tattered Veils.  In my dream world I’d either be able to do both or I could hire a stunning personality to maintain a consistent eye on the internet,  but I don’t live in that world. 

Thank you for sticking with me and I will let you know when I need to step back so I can write again.  Until then, I’m back to play and should release a book summary shortly.  

Talk to me.  How do you balance social interaction and writing?  Is it a struggle or do you naturally fall into a good balance?  What extremes has your manuscript pushed you too?  Were there things you thought "of course I'll do that" only to learn you couldn't do them even if you wanted to?  What was launching your debut novel like?  Do you have any tips or advice for me?  

Looking for more posts about the writing and publishing process?  Check out more posts on my novel publication process: Going Through Copy Edits, 1st Daft vs 2nd Draft, Goal Planning: Getting Through the First Draft, My Character Looks Nothing Like My MC, Cover Art: Turth in Advertising, and Post Book Launch: Reflections.  

Want to know more about my novel?  Check out my childhood stories recapping themes in my life I hope prepared me to write this book: Remember the Magic of Santa?, Closet Monsters: Gone too Far?, and Garden Gnomes and other Evils.

OR check out my series where I find similarities between my novel and other popular media.  Hopefully it gives you a better idea whether there are elements in my book you may enjoy.  Lost Girl Comparison, American Gods Comparison, and The O.A. Comparison.

MY BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT AMAZON!!!  Please go look at "Follow Me: Tattered Veils" and see if it might be a story that interests you.