Thinking About Editing…

Edited Version of First Book
Edited Version of First Book (Photo credit: TheCreativePenn)

… which i really shouldn’t be thinking about at all because i do NOT yet have a finished manuscript! But i went ahead and read this article – Red Pencil Round-Up: Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, which i had bookmarked at the beginning of Nanowrimo 2012.

It’s a long article but has many gems. Here are some of the ones which i would like to highlight:

Does that mean you’ll be making fifteen or more passes, beginning to end, through your entire manuscript? Yes, it does.

i read that and my heart sank. It looks like it would take a whole lot more time with head bent low over paper and red pencil in hand than i had thought.

But i see her point. There are so many aspects of a story to look at, trying to look at all aspects in one sweep is just not going to cut it. Can you imagine thinking about plot, characterisation, grammar, narrative, dialogue, setting etc. all at once? Makes my head spin just looking at that checklist of items. :p

i love how the article is written with lots of tips and examples which clearly show you what she means and these examples could even help to generate ideas for your story. Take a look at the example she writes when explaining about the Bread Crumb Trail:

For example, if your character is experiencing cryptic nightmares and you need to convey that her grandparents raised her on a farm built atop a sacred Indian burial ground, don’t launch into a block of exposition about her childhood. Place her in a scene at the farm, have her call her grandmother and question her experiences, create a scene where she digs a secret-filled box out of the attic—choose something active that moves the plot forward and gives you the opportunity to reveal that information in an interesting way.

Here’s one i didn’t know about:

Take a look at your character list. Change any names that start with the same letter or have a similar sound when read aloud. I had one client who didn’t realize she had such an affinity for “J” names until I pointed out that she had Jonathan, Josh, Jackson, Jenny, and Jessie (along with Carolina, Connie, and Kristen) cavorting through her script and it was quite a challenge to keep track of them.

Hmmm… i have to go check my character list. i love names and i enjoy giving my characters names which are full of meaning or at least reflect their personality. It’s one of my favourite parts of the writing process: character creation. Have you come up with some great names for your characters? Wanna share?

i had to smile at her paragraphs discussing dialogue tags. Here’s the one line we all should keep in mind when writing:

Remember: You can’t smile, nod, or wink dialogue, or do anything else physical with the words.

i have never really come across the term “talking heads”. Ok, i have not read a whole ton of how-to-write books yet. But i found the idea hilarious, just thinking about it: a room full of heads just talking. She mentions talking heads in relation to grounding your characters so that the reader gets a sense of place.

This next one is would be interesting to do:

Now, put your plot to the cause and effect test. Start at the end of your story. How did your character arrive at that resolution? What happened before that? What caused that event? What came before that? Work backward from the end to ensure your plot doesn’t go on unrelated tangents. Work backward to make sure there is a logical progression that leads your character from one action to the next.

i suppose if your story makes sense going backwards, it would work going forwards as well. It has never crossed my mind to think about story plot like that.

She also covers research, grammar and punctuation.

And at the end, in Pre-submission Proof, which i most definitely will do when i  have finally written and edited my story, i learnt something new and fun to do:

Yes, you need to do an audio check too. Pour yourself some tea, hot or iced. Lean back in your chair, turn up your computer speaker volume, and set the Speech function to read your manuscript aloud. The voice may be a bit robotic, but listening to your story read aloud will help you catch errors even the spell checker missed.

Now i was wondering what is this program she is talking about. i looked at my Open Office Writer and it didn’t have that function. Then i did a quick search on Google and found that Windows itself has a Narrator! Wow! Shows how little i have explored the functions of my computer. So click on your ‘Start’ button, then go to ‘All Programs’, ‘Accessories’, ‘Ease of Access’ and there you will find ‘Narrator’. It should read out loud the on-screen text. BUT…

… i could not get it to work right. It reads out loud all my keystrokes and tells me what window and what buttons are there but it would not read my text document; even though it is a saved file and there is clearly text on the page, it keeps telling me, “Empty Page/Paragraph.” i checked Help, it was no help.

Yet there is hope, i found that you can download a free program to read back to you if you like. See here. i may try that another day.

Well, i hope this has been helpful to you. It has certainly given me a push to finish my story asap, if editing the story is going to take 18 times as long as writing it!

Do go read the whole article, follow the link in the first paragraph of this post.

syc

What Makes a Family?

Just very recently, i read a beautiful statement over at Make Something Beautiful:

What makes a family–a family??? Is it blood? Is it marriage? Is it friendships so strong…what is it exactly? Well, it can be a lot of different things that MAKE a family…and at the core of each of them–it’s always LOVE.

Yes it is indeed true. Love makes a family and a family is made to give love.

i have seen that so clearly as we have spent the last 10 years living away from our home country. We have made for ourselves a family here – the friends and neighbours we have come to know and love. And in the recent few years, the many international students we have had the privilege to befriend and sort of play host to. We have become their family – a family away from home. We care for each of them and do try to stay in touch and involved in their lives even after they leave because we love them; they have become family.

i have online families too. Most recently and most prominent at the moment is my RR (Reece’s Rainbow) family. i may never have and may never get to meet many of these families i pray for and these orphans i cry out for and all my fellow-advocates but they have become family. i love them and want the best for all of them.

i want the best for Sophia too, an orphan with Down Syndrome, living in an orphanage,  likely facing life in an adult mental institution as she has no family.

Sophia awaits the day she has a family to call her own.

Sophia was not chosen by her birth family to remain with them. Why? We may never know. But what is important is that this Christmas Sophia comes to know that love truly does make a family. She needs to be shown that people do care for her and love her. You and i can become the family she never gets to meet. You and i can pray for her; pray for her daily needs and for her forever family to come and bring her into the loving folds of a family. You and i can share her story so that her family might spot her sooner and come bring her home.

She has a virtual family member working hard for her now – her Angel Tree Warrior, working to raise awareness for her and to raise her adoption grant. Go over to My Journey Through Life and have a read.

You and i can also make a contribution to her adoption grant so that it would make her forever family’s journey to her easier. You can donate by clicking on her name or picture. If you make a contribution of US$35 or more, you will be given a lovely Christmas Ornament with Sophia‘s picture for your tree.

Do go over to Make Something Beautiful!: What makes a family? and read the very lovely post which inspired me.

Thank you.

syc

Nano 2012 Over…

Credit: http://nanotoons.net/
Credit: http://nanotoons.net/

Yep, today is the 1st of December… which means the 30 days of writing 50,000 words is over… Nanowrimo for 2012 is over…

So how did i do? Horribly!! 

i was unwell for a week or more in November which meant no words for those days and i just couldn’t get back into writing as much so that made catching up on wordcount difficult… very difficult… sigh!

i have had my worst wordcount in all my 5 years of taking part in Nanowrimo… officially i’m at 13,835 but i did write more on the last day but didn’t bother to update the wordcount… i have on file 15, 124 words…

Anyhow, it’s over… i still like the story (still to be finished) i wrote, i still like the characters so i will continue to write it but not just yet…

Here are some suggestions from The Write Practice about what to do after Nano

My favourite is:

3. Read

Speaking of things you missed out on during November, now that you’re not writing feverishly, why not read a book? Reading may spark new ideas for your novel or it may just be a good way to stay connected with your literary side.

The danger here is that you might compare your NaNoWriMo novel to what you’re reading and get discouraged. Don’t be afraid to read, but don’t feel the need to compare your work in progress to published literature.

So what are you doing in December?

syc