Editing with Timelines by Laura Bickle

Writers tend to get into a lot of trouble with time. There's making time to write, managing deadlines, and the vagaries of market timing.

One issue with time, however, is entirely within the author's control. And that's the timeline of the story.

I never paid a whole lot of critical attention to time when I read. Sure, I was conscious that some passages in stories could be languid and slow-moving like a drippy faucet. Others were exhaustingly rushed. I never was quite able to put my finger on why.

And then, when my first book was accepted for publication, I discovered the answer:  books can grow timeline issues. They're very subtle, but can really cause problems with the reader's perception of a work.

A timeline problem occurs when characters have too many events crammed into a period of time - or not enough. A succession of tasks emerges that would require the bending of the rules of the space-time continuum or superhuman abilities to accomplish. It occurs when your main character hasn't slept for days. It happens when she travels an impossible distance in an hour. It can take place when your main character hasn't worked regular hours at her day job without explanation. This goes for crazy amounts of overtime, or not working at all. It happens when your character is doing "cop stuff" for seven days in a row without a day off or at least a pro forma request for overtime.  It's easy for an author to lose track of what day it is, and a character can get trapped in a month-long weekend or a year of Wednesdays.

Mundane concerns? Maybe. But they catch an editor's eye and seep into the subconscious of the reader. And sometimes, we've gotta pay attention to the rules of the real world - like time - in order to allow the reader to suspend disbelief for the really magical things we want to do with the story.

My editor asked me to turn a timeline in with my book. Something simple, listing the day, night, and all the scenes that happened in each. By reviewing my manuscript in this way, I could see where I crammed too many activities into the heroine's day  - or (eep!) not enough. When I finish a draft, I read through it and start constructing my timeline.

I also create a second list that's not strictly a timeline. It's one that notes where chapters begin and end, how many scenes are included in the chapter, and how many pages each chapter is. Sticking a ten-page chapter next to a twenty-five page chapter creates unevenness, and keeping a note helps me be more aware of it. It also shows me where I have a bunch of stubby two-page scenes strung together. This causes me to question whether I'm head-hopping or whether I really need to find a way to collapse those scenes into less choppy ones. It helps me analyze flow. It also shows me whether I'm doing a good job of ending chapters in the middle of the action, causing the reader to want to turn the page to the next.

By doing this kind of post-hoc analysis, and correcting the results, I found that pacing issues automatically ironed themselves out.

           

I've turned a timeline in for every book since, whether or not I was asked. And it's really reduced the amount of time I spend fixing structural issues in revisions. Now, I tend to work with that timeline in my head, and it keeps me honest. It keeps my very human characters from turning into Wonder Women and Supermen.

Not only do I have to manage time, but my characters do, too. Maintaining a timeline is a front-line editing fix I suggest that every writer keep in her toolbox. 

Laura Bickle (also writing as Alayna Williams) writes urban and young adult fantasy. She’s written four novels for Pocket Books: EMBERS, SPARKS, DARK ORACLE, and ROGUE ORACLE. Both DARK ORACLE and ROGUE ORACLE are National Novel Writing Month books. She has two upcoming YA novels with Houghton Mifflin’s Graphia line in 2012 and 2013, beginning with THE HALLOWED ONES in fall. She lives in the Midwestern U.S. with her chief muse, where they are owned by five semi-reformed feral cats. More information on her work is here: www.laurabickle.com.

Your Weekly Edmo Pep Email!

Hello Edmos!

I hear there are new members signing up every day! Hooray! We're glad to have you on board. Welcome! Find yourself a comfy state room and bring your laptop, or your printed manuscript out on deck for some fun editing in the sun! There will be a wonderful massage treatment for everyone as soon as you've completed today's hour goal. And a wonderful dinner will be waiting for us after that. Whatever your favorite food is, we have it. And I made the chef order lots of extra chocolate and champagne just in case things get bad, or someone finishes their fifty hours early.

The way things have been going this month, its certainly not been the best March ever. Thus, I figured a good cruise in tropical waters would do us good and help cheer us up. As most of you know, our website was taken over by hackers so getting to the homepage or other pages was spotty, at best. The site is back up now, though all of the features have not been activated. What is activated? The two most important parts: the forums and the hour logger!

Yes, you can now log your hours as you go. Just be aware, the logger may have erased any hours previously logged before the site went down. Never fear if this is the case. Just give it your over all hours logged, and everything should be fine.

We've been doing a lot of things off the website to keep Edmo going. If you have Twitter, or have been thinking about joining Twitter, check out our Twitter feed: @NaNoEdMo. We've been posting updates about the site there, as well as the minimum hours you need to log in each day to make it to fifty by the end of the month.

We also have a new temporary blog where we've been posting the articles and the weekly pep emails, because for awhile we were unable to send out emails to all of you participants. If you don't get an email, or think you've missed one, check out the blog here: www.nanoedmo.blogspot.com.

On my end, I've finally got my internet at home up and running and it looks like our mass power outage from last week is getting cleared up as we speak. For most of the week and into the weekend a large portion of my city was being run by huge generators because a power station exploded Tuesday night. Even so, I kept on editing, doing all I could to stay ahead of the game.

If I can do it, so can you! I'm ahead by several days and this is the first time I've ever been this much ahead during Edmo. Of course, today, my real life smacks me in the face to tell me that if I don't get my laundry done and don't go grocery shopping I'm going to be in big trouble soon. ... I guess that means I need to get out there and get some of that boring work done so I can come back and continue to work on the story of my two hot detectives. 

I'm looking forward to getting my novel finished and am debating what I'll do for myself when that happens. Do I buy the expensive fountain pen I've been eyeing? Or do I get that relaxing massage? I think by the end of this novel, I'll have earned both.

What are you planning to do for yourself when you get your novels finished? Will you celebrate on April 1st, or will you wait until your book is absolutely done, no matter how long it takes you? These are great things to think about now. They'll give you something to look forward to. And hey, maybe some of you will wait until you land that publishing deal. Whatever it is you're striving for, good luck, and I hope you get it.

With only two weeks left to scramble,
Anna (aka QueenOfTheUniverse)

Revising is Only the Beginning by Peter Salomon

On Thursday January 5, 2012 I emailed the ‘final’ revisions of my debut novel to my Editor at Flux (and by ‘final’ I mean that the file I emailed will be transformed into the ARC and so there are only a small number of revisions left between now and the scheduled date of publication in Sept. 2012). Two years ago this month I signed with my agent for this book. Two years before that I started writing what would become HENRY FRANKS.

Almost five years (give or take) from concept to publication. It took less than three months to write the first draft. I’ve been editing ever since.

There are numerous books to help edit and revise, and beta readers to tell you what works and what doesn’t, but nothing changes one simple fact: if you don’t edit, it’ll never be as good as it could be. Editing changes everything. Every line, every word of HENRY FRANKS (even the title) has gone through revisions. And you know what? It was fun. It was worth every moment.

So, you’ve finished the first draft…now what? Well, first of all, a small celebration is in order. If I had to guess I’d say most people have, at one point or another, thought ‘I’d like to write a book’ (or something to that effect). Far fewer of them started and even fewer finished. You accomplished something, even if no one knows about it. Even if, like most first drafts, it’s in need of serious work. You finished! Celebrate.

Ok, time for the fun part (otherwise known as ‘work’). Always remember that there is light at the end of the tunnel (and sometimes, yes, it’s a train, but every so often the train is actually going your way). Don’t give up because you don’t think it’s worth it or you don’t believe you’ll ever finish.

I long ago lost track of how many versions of HENRY FRANK I went through to get it to where it is now. But every time I finished a revision the book was so much better than the last revision. And I know, deep down in the secret places of my heart, that once I’m holding the book in my hand, flipping the pages and marveling at the reality of my debut novel, I know that I’ll find something more I could have should have might have changed. Just a little. Maybe a missing word. Or an extra word. Or something that I wish I had revised.

Just one more time.

Because, trust me, revising will be the best thing that ever happened to that finished first draft of yours. And it will also be the best thing that ever happened to the second draft.  And one day, before you know it, you’ll think to yourself ‘it’s time to query’ and because of all the time you’ve spent revising and learning to edit and editing again that query will be an extension of the manuscript, rich with your voice and the hook of it will land an agent.

And guess what happens then? You guessed it, more revising. More editing. Until one day your agent will let you know that they believe it’s time to submit to publishing houses. And one day, before you know it, your phone will ring and you’ll hear nothing your agent says beyond the word ‘sold!’

And, I almost hate to say it, but guess what happens then?

And it will all be fun. It will all be worth it. Every single moment of it. Because when you stand there flipping through the pages of your debut novel, marveling at the reality of your sweetest dream come true, you’ll find something you could have should have might have changed.

Just one more time.



Peter Adam Salomon graduated Emory University in Atlanta, GA with a BA in Theater and Film Studies in 1989. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Boston and New Orleans chapters of Mensa as the Editor of their monthly newsletters and was also a Judge for the 2006 Savannah Children’s Book Festival Young Writer’s Contest. He is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the Horror Writers Association and The Authors Guild and is represented by the Erin Murphy Literary Agency. His debut novel, HENRY FRANKS, will be published by Flux in September 2012.


Peter Adam Salomon lives in New Orleans with his wife Anna and their three sons: André Logan, Joshua Kyle and Adin Jeremy.

Editing Doesn’t Have to be a Soul-Killing Existential Horror by Jeff Somers

Nobody knows anybody. Not that well.

Writing a book is sort of like going out on a three-day bender1. At first it seems like a good idea, then gets out of hand quickly, ending in tears, nausea, and lost time. Sometimes arrest. In extreme cases, loss of pants. Then, after you’ve sobered up, paid your fines2, and begged your loved ones for forgiveness, you look back on what you have created and frown in puzzlement, because you don’t remember most of it.

Novels are always surprises. Characters that by end of story are essential players are transparent ciphers for the first twenty thousand words. Plot twists that seemed brilliant on page 231 are rendered totally nonsensical by events on page 45. You forgot your own rules in the universe, you discover an inserted comment that reads “DON’T FORGET TO WRITE THIS SCENE LATER” on page 105, and you changed tense from third-person omniscient to second-person past perfect on page 145. You become convinced you are suffering from multiple personalities, because you don’t even remember writing most of it.

Don’t despair! This just means you are ready to embark on the most satisfying and amazing part of writing a novel: Editing3!

The trick to editing is to appreciate editing for what it is: The ability to fix your mistakes. The ability to improve, the ability to time-travel back to the day you drank an entire bottle of cough syrup and decided that Chapter 4 should be told from the dog’s POV, and change history4. Editing is not drudgery, or failure. Editing is a super power.

Every manuscript I write is a mess in draft one5. Usually literally, covered in coffee spills, tear stains, and sticky fingerprints, but also metaphorically. Some authors meticulously plan their novels, using software or flash cards or spreadsheets to plan out plots and keep track of characters6. My technique differs: I get really drunk and just start writing, using a strong visual image as a jumping off point. I just write; I am what scientists call a Pantser7. So my first drafts are messy, filled with digressions and false starts, characters and subplots that fade away and are never resolved or utilized, and new ideas introduced midway that change the entire scope and feel of the book. First drafts are sometimes difficult for this reason, as I get a little lost in the details8.

Details are not my strong suit; I am a man who often leaves the house forgetting to wear pants, after all.

As a result, editing is my favorite part of writing9. Because the heavy lifting is done – the plot has been mapped out, the characters defined, the whole point discovered and dusted off, marveled over. Editing is where I can clean everything up and make it resemble a novel instead of a Diary of the Insane10. Editing is also where I re-read my own creation with an almost childlike amazement that I created it, and in doing so I can riff on my own ideas the same way I get inspired by someone else’s work – I start thinking, well, this is okay, but what if this and that and before you know it, the book is eleventy billion times better11.

---

1    I say this largely because I usually wake up after Lost Weekends with epic hangovers and completed novels.

2    Possibly: Fled the country.

3    Stay with me, here.

4    You have to think of this imaginary chapter 4 as Adolf Hitler. You’d kill Hitler, wouldn’t you? Of course you would.

5    My agent and editors would probably edit that sentence to include most, if not all, subsequent revisions. They are mean.

6    Some authors also pay their taxes, obey the orders of peace officers, and never leave the house without pants. Pffft.

7    Ironically, I hate wearing pants. I’m not wearing any right now.

8    Plus, it’s difficult to work on a novel when you keep waking up in Mexican jails, pantsless, and everyone refers to you as Muchacho blanco estúpido.

9    Especially if I have convinced someone else to actually write the first draft as an unpaid ghostwriter.

10 Unless the title of the novel is, in fact, Diary of the Insane.

11 Approximate number.

Why Everyone Should Love Editing by Jodi Meadows

I have a confession: I love editing.

There. I said it.

I know this will come as a shock to some people, because there are lots of folks who crave the creative freedom of drafting a story, and revising it is just so . . . dull. The story's already written, and editing it is just fixing commas and whatnot. Right?

Wrong.

I mean, yes, for the love of punctuation, fix your commas, but that's not all there is to editing. As you write your first draft, you will no doubt find yourself adding events or mysteries and never getting back to them, or adding something late in the book that comes completely out of nowhere. Or maybe your characters have random conversations without a point, take multiple trips from one end of the world to the other, and you've got three or four characters fulfilling the same role.

Even if you outline your story and think you know exactly where it's going to end up, there are still often surprises and things that need to be fixed. Characters get combined (or cut altogether!); trips across the world get consolidated; extraneous plotlines get snipped; conversations and fight scenes get focused until they're clear and make sense.

All these things need to be fixed, and doing that will make your story stronger, smarter, and help readers get through it without confusion.

Then you reach the point where you're not fixing things so much as making them better. Like how?

By identifying important themes and symbols, and bringing them out and weaving them throughout the story so they're consistent. By identifying character motivations and making them stronger. By looking at every sentence and making sure it is clear and says exactly what you want it to say. And by looking at every word and making sure it's the strongest word you can use, and conveys just the right emotion. (For example, maybe someone doesn't just walk, but they mosey or saunter or plod.)

Admittedly, this is one of the harder parts of editing: seeing what isn't there and figuring out how to add it. But it's also the part where you bring your story up to the next level -- where it goes from decent to good to GREAT.

But beware the impulse to dive right into edits, especially after typing "The End" on the first draft (what a great feeling!) or receiving the most excellent of excellent critiques from crit partners or an editor. Take a few days to think about the story, the comments, the concerns. Or a couple weeks! The amount of time you need depends on you. Personally, nothing makes me clean my house like receiving an edit letter with a deadline on the horizon; I think it's preparation for the time of No Laundry While I'm Editing.

Yes, it's a lot of work, but so is writing a first draft. And why put the effort into writing a first draft if you're not going to make the final product the best that it can be?

Because that's what editing does: it peels off the layers of extra mush until you get to the gem at the core. Every draft should get the story closer to the story you really want to tell.

Jodi Meadows lives and writes in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, with her husband, a Kippy*, and an alarming number of ferrets. She is a confessed book addict, and has wanted to be a writer ever since she decided against becoming an astronaut. Visit her online at www.jodimeadows.com.

Site Update

Hello Edmos,

I upated you on Twitter yesterday, but forgot to put an update here! Silly me. Things are a bit crazy with everything going on and me not being able to connect to the internet at home. (I'm hoping to get that issue fixed when the phone company comes tomorrow morning. Cross your fingers!)

Anyway, if you're still having problems getting to the website you need to delete your brower history. I believe that option is under "Tools" in most browser menu bars. Once you've done that, try getting to the website again.

Jenn is still working feverishly to bring back the rest of the site, including the hour logger. But for now, at least the forums and a few other basic things are up for your use.

Thank you all for being so patient with us! We know it's rough going, but we greatly appreciate it. :-)

-Anna
QueenOfTheUniverse

Taming the Revision Beast by Becca Puglisi

When it comes to the writing process, I’m kind of a freak of nature. Drafting is by far my least favorite part. It’s so hard to get the story out, and after all that work, you’re left with something that needs...well, lots of work. But as much as I dread drafting, I love revising. That’s when it gets fun for me because with each change that’s made, you can see your story getting better.

Still, editing an entire manuscript can be daunting. The revision stage has to cover everything from correcting typos to adding scenes to removing whole subplots. So how do you get through all those changes without losing your mind? As with any potentially-overwhelming project, organization helps. Here are some steps that make the revision process manageable for me.

Make a list. Hopefully you’ve already jotted some things down--problems that you noticed during the drafting stage that would eventually have to be addressed. Don’t be alarmed by the length of your list, which will probably expand as you revise, because the more time you spend examining your manuscript, the more problems you’ll find. It may sound depressing, but look at that pile of edits positively. Every problem that you notice and resolve in the editing process brings your fledgling manuscript one step closer to being accepted by editors and read by gajillions of people. Your list is super important for keeping track of what needs work.

Group similar editing points. Now that your revision list is long enough to give you an anxiety attack, take deep breaths and get organized. If you try to read through your manuscript with every editing point in mind, you’re going to miss things and your brain will explode. To avoid the mess, sort your list into sections. Here are some ways you might want to group your edits:

• Repetitions: words and phrases that you tend to overuse and need to find and replace throughout the manuscript; repeated sentence structures that stand out; too many sentences starting with I, He/She or (Character’s Name).
• Voice: Certain things need to be examined and tweaked from start to finish to make your character’s voice consistent: similes and metaphors that your character uses, word choices, and speaking style, to name a few.
• Individual Subplots: Examine each plot line or character arc for consistency throughout the novel. Does a romantic subplot need an extra scene for it to develop smoothly? Does more foundation need to be laid to shore up an important future event? Do relationships progress realistically from start to finish? Each subplot needs its own revision round. Some may not need much work and will only take a few hours to fix. Others might take days or even weeks to iron out.
• Proportion Issues: Are there long stretches where a character isn’t mentioned? Has too much emphasis been placed on a person, item, or characteristic that doesn’t amount to much over the course of the story? To even out the proportion across the novel, you’ll have to amp up certain parts and tone others down.
• Miscellaneous: Everything else
• Final Read-Through. Once the revisions are done, it’s important to read the whole manuscript again--aloud. This will help you zero in on typos or new repetitions that may have arisen during the editing process.

These are just some of the problems that writers struggle with. Dialogue, descriptions, and showing-versus-telling are a few more. An excellent, nearly comprehensive editing resource that I can’t recommend enough is Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, by Browne and King. Truly. Go get it. It’s awesome.

Attack your revisions in rounds: Each of the sections on your list will be one revision round. Depending on how many items you start out with, you might end up with two rounds, or four, or nine. Again, don’t be alarmed. All that stuff has to be fixed, right? And in my experience, finding the problems is often harder than solving them, so you’re ahead of the game if you’ve got a good list to start from. Next, order your rounds according to preference; you can start with the one you’re most excited about or the one that’s going to take the longest--whatever you prefer. Then work your way through the manuscript with the points from Round One in mind. When you’ve finished, start again with Round Two, and so on.

Maintain Forward Momentum: As you revise, you’re undoubtedly going to come up with more things that need work. If it’s a really big picture item that will effect the entire story (like changing the main character’s strengths or flaws to make success more difficult for her), you may have to backtrack and work those changes into the story from start to finish. Most of the time, though, it’s best to keep making your way through your existing list and tack any new edits onto the end. Address these items once the original list is finished.

So...that’s what works for me. It may be a little too orderly for some. Luckily, there are as many different revision methods as there are ways to draft, or outline, or critique. The most important thing is to get started and keep moving forward, because each round of edits will bring you one step closer to a publishable manuscript. Best of luck, NaNoEdMo’ers!

Becca Puglisi is a YA fantasy and historical fiction writer, SCBWI member, and co-host of The Bookshelf Muse, an on-line resource for writers. She also has a number of magazine publications under her belt. Her book, The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression is scheduled for release in April 2012.