Tag Archives: editing

Writing Quotes, When Words Fail, and Dreaming on the Page

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The For Writers section of my website has recently been updated. I’ve added the following resources:

  • A Quotes on Writing section. This will eventually be expanded to include lots more quotes with categories so writers can find the perfect inspiration, support, or validation for what they’re experiencing.
  • Some of my previous guest blog posts about writing that are no longer available online. This includes articles titled: When Words Fail, Dreaming on the Page, and What Makes a Hero Stand Out.

I hope some of these resources help other writers out there. My plan is to add more of my own original articles, author resource recommendations, and tools for writers soon, so be sure to check back in with my writing resources page in the coming weeks.

Love this phase of writing!

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The Haven Book 2 Manuscript

Pictured above is the binder containing the rough draft of Seth and Vargas’s story, HOW TO HEAL A LIFE (The Haven Book 2). I’m currently reading through it, revising, and adding more emotional depth and substance to the manuscript, and it’s going really well. I’m surprisingly pleased with the opening of the story, and that’s usually where I do most of my reworking. Knowing I’ve got a good handle on the beginning has me even more excited about this one.

I’ll keep you posted on the progress! Watch my newsletter and works-in-progress page on my website for more updates on this and my other projects.

 

Sometimes Minor Edits Lead You On

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I’m on my third pass working on Walter and Kevin’s story, and I had a series of great writing sessions this week. Today I worked on a chapter and a half that needed a few changes, including adding some dialogue and reactions. I ended up rewriting almost all of it. I was in some sort of zone where the dialogue and character interactions just flowed and worked better within the overall story arc. The more I rewrote, the more I knew what I had previously written wasn’t working. When I was done, it felt good to know it was the right call to rewrite those scenes.

Even though decisions like these affect the overall amount of time it takes to complete a project, this type of revising just seems to work for me. The more time I spend with the characters and their story, the clearer the overall picture becomes. Sometimes I can’t see the forest with all those damn trees in the way.

It took about five hours to get that chapter and a half rewritten. I sat in my comfy chair in my office while I wrote. These two little guys came in to keep me company.

(c) Sloan Parker 2012

(c) Sloan Parker 2012

Hope you all have a great weekend. I’m hoping to get in another 5 hours or more of writing on Sunday.

Get Me Off or Get Off Me

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Funny Typo on Hotel Sign

I was scrolling through my work-in-progress the other day when three words caught my eye. “Get me off.” I couldn’t remember having one of my characters demand that from the other. Nothing wrong with that line, but how odd that I couldn’t remember something I had written on a current project. I stopped to review that section.

My character wasn’t talking to another guy. He was talking to a dog.

Ew.

Wait. The line was “Get off me.”

What a difference the order of the words make.

I hope nothing like that ever slips by me.

And if it does, I hope to God my beta reader, critique partner, editor, the copy editor, or the proofer catches it.

Thanks to all those hardworking people behind the scenes who help an author put out the best work they can. And who save them from embarrassing typos like this.

“Arrr! Lick Me Nipples”

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Hi all. Hope everyone had a great week.

I’ll explain the title of this blog post in a moment, but first a brief writing update:

As I mentioned on Wednesday I finished a new short story and sent it off to my critique partner. Now that it’s done (or close to it) I realize I feel like I’ve spent months with those two guys, writing a novel, not a short story. Hopefully that means something good. I don’t know.

Since then I’ve been focused on TAKE ME HOME. Now that I have all the revisions in place I’m working on another read-through to polish the dialogue and descriptions. Today I read the first 5 chapters, and I think they are ready to go. I still need to do my final checklist of common mistakes and get my critique partner’s input, but other than that, I finally feel like this book is close to submission-ready.

Now on to review the next 20+ chapters again.

(c) istockphoto.com, davidf 2010

Before I get back to it, I wanted to share a link. This week I blogged at Loose Ends, the Loose Id author blog, where I talked about the importance of having someone else proofread a story. The blog is titled: “Arrr! Lick Me Nipples” Or the Importance of Another Set of Eyes. I’m curious how much errors bother readers. I’d love to hear what you think. Feel free to leave a comment here or at Loose Ends.

Hope you all have a great weekend. My little baby nephew is getting married tomorrow. I guess that means he’s not a baby anymore. When did that happen?