Letting Go: The Hardest Lesson of All

You’ve written that novel. Polished it up all shiny and sparkly so it gleams in the sun. But then, you feel that itch to polish it some more. And tweak that fourth chapter just a little more. And that villain…. Was he too dark in that tenth chapter? Should I have humanized him a little more? Made him a little more sympathetic?

Yeah, I have this problem too. I have problems learning when to put the editing pen down. You write a book, go through a few edits, but then the editing process never seems to stop because you’ve become obsessive about making the book as perfect as possible.

I wish I had the answer to this dilemma and if anyone does have a suggestion, I’d love to hear it. When it a book done? Right now, my books are done when I reach my deadline. Then they have to go off to my editor no matter if they’ve been through 3 drafts or 8 drafts. I think the other sign that I need to let a book go is when I am only tweaking a word here and a word there instead of making changes to plotlines or character development. At that point, I’m just being obsessive-compulsive.

PUT THE RED PEN DOWN, JOCELYNN, AND STEP AWAY FROM THE MANUSCRIPT.

Then it’s time for ice cream and a movie.

Anyone else have a suggestion for when a book is done?

By the way: I saw Dark Knight on Sunday and it was awwwweeeessssommmeeee! I need to see it again.

Edits Are Done

After lots and lots of work that left my brain more than a little exhausted, I am finished with my edits for Book 2. Well, sort of finished. I completed the edits on paper so I need to put everything into the computer now. It's a somewhat slow and tedious process, but I'm getting through it. After I get all the changes into the computer, I'll read over the manuscript one to two more times depending on the number of minor tweaks that I am still making. The nice thing is that I'll ahead of schedule and I'll be able to relax during the Fourth of July weekend.

I'm also almost done with my edits for the novella. This one I'm not attacking in order of chapters, but picking apart the different scenes and how each are intertwined. This one is a somewhat different style of story for me so I am attacking the edits in a somewhat different manner.

In other random news, my brother has been working on photoshopping some new author photos for me. The man is brilliant and more than a little scary with what he can do with Photoshop. The photos were taken by Joel Quimby and they turned out great. I think what my brother did with them is mind-blowing. I unfortunately don't have the originals -- my brother still has them -- but I have a couple finished examples to show you.

Finally, I have a video that is also on photoshopping. It's of an ad photo shoot and the following Photoshop work that is done on the photo. The whole thing is time elapsed so the video is about a minute long. It's a stunning view of what Photoshop can do and a frightening view of our idea of beauty.

Still Editing ... And Some Contest Winners

I'm still chugging away on the edits and so far I'm pretty pleased with the progress that I'm making. I'm more than half way through Book 2 -- which does officially have a name, I just can't announce it yet -- and I've also started doing my final edit of the Novella before shipping it off to my editor -- who is just now getting back from her vacation in Africa. Of course, the biggest changes to the novel are going to happen in the last half of Book 2, so I see my progress slowing down considerably during the next week.

I still really like Nightwalker, but I have to admit that I really, really like Book 2 (Is that evil of me?) In Nightwalker, you get to meet all these strange and interesting characters, but in Book 2, you are able to get deeper into their backgrounds and you start learning more about why they are making some of the decisions they've been making.

As for the writing of Book 2, I can see some of my own progress ang growth. The style has gotten tighter and my editor is making far fewer comments than she did with Nightwalker. I think that is one of the things that has worried me the most between Book 1 and Book 2 -- did I grow as a writer? Did I learn from my mistakes in Book 1 and become a better writer with Book 2?

A good friend and an author that I admire greatly is Kim Harrison. Growth as a writer is something you see with each of her books in the Rachel Morgan series. Each of her books are wonderful, but I think within the series, each one gets progressively better. As one writer reading another, you can tell she's learning and growing with each book, and that truly puts me in awe of her.

And before I forget, the cover flat contest results. I went through my stockpile of goodies and decided that instead of giving away 1 cover flat, I am now giving away 2 cover flats so I picked 2 separate winners. Along with the cover flats, the winners will be receiving a magnet with the book cover on it as well as a travel mug -- for the vampire on the go. Actually, I went with the travel mugs because Mira is globe-hopping so much I figured that Danaus might need something to keep his coffee in as he tries to keep up with her.

So the winners are:

Emily Rose

and

Shari C.

Please contact me at Jocelynn (dot) Drake (at) gmail (dot) com with your names and addresses so I can ship your prizes out to you.

Thank you to everyone that entered the contest. There will be one more contest before the book release for an Advance Reader Copy (ARC). I will probably be holding that contest right after we get to the 1-month mark for the release of Nightwalker.

Also, if there is enough interest, I will probably be selling the mugs and the travel mugs that I have been giving away. However, I will not be making any decisions regarding that until after the book has been released.

Back to Edits

Hi-ho. Hi-ho. It’s off to work we go.
Yep, it’s time to get back to the whole writing thing. The conference was fun and the cold that I managed to catch is mostly gone. I’ve nearly caught up on the mountain of wash and I finally got around to cleaning the kitty litter box. (yes, the life of a writer really is this glamorous.) In other words, it’s time to stop procrastinating and get back to editing.

I did hear back from my agent and she enjoyed reading Book 2, which is a plus. I think I’m just struggling from the second-book blues. For me, it’s the idea of “sure, your editor liked your first book, but can you really do it again?” My agent seems to think so (god bless her vampire-lovin’ heart).

After completing the first round of edits, I discovered that there are several words and/or phrases that I now absolutely hate. Mostly because I use them way too much. I’m sure it happens to you. You’re locked in an intense scene, you’re plunging through, oblivious to the world around, just trying to get everything out as fast as possible. Then you look back and you realize that you used the word “still” four times in a single paragraph. Yuck.

So, here is my list of top 5 words/phrases that I used too much in Book 2:

1. for the moment/at the moment
2. still
3. only
4. just
5. quickly

Most of these have been words have been stripped out, leaving me feeling quite annoyed. I am now going back through to make sure all the motivations are clear within the book and to weave in a few more details here and there. Then, it’s off to my editor next week.

In the meantime, I’ve got another video. Are you sick of these yet? Sorry, it’s not a kitty video. I’m out of the cool animated ones. However, this one is really old, but it’s one of my all-time favorites. I remembered it following this past week’s Earth Day. Enjoy.

No More Edits!!

Well, that title isn't completely true.... no more edits, for now. Over the weekend, I finished what my editor assured me were my last edits of Nightwalker. These were the "Jocelynn, you must read the whole book again, but you can't change anything but the occasional typo, no matter how much you think this new wording with help give greater depth to your character" edits. Yeah, those kind of edits.

Many publishing houses are different in their revisions, but for my editor, who is with Eos, which is an imprint of HarperCollins, there were a few rounds. There is first the "final draft," which is such a funny name because it is no where near the "final" draft of the book. After that, I get the edit letter (known by many names as well), which lists all the things that need to be changed, and if I'm lucky, a few things I did right in the book. The letter can encompass everything from world development, plot, subplots, character development, and everything in between. After all the changes are made (and your editor agrees that it is a pretty damn good book), your book has now been officially Delivered and Accepted by the publisher. (Feel free to have a mini-celebration at this point, you've earned it.)

From there, it goes to a copyeditor, who looks at grammar, punctuation, double checks facts, and makes sure you are consistent throughout the whole book (ie. Mira's eyes remain shades of purple throughout the whole book and don't randomly change to brown on page 246). I then receive Copyedits, where I approve the changes, answer any questions, and fix strange bits. This is my LAST chance to make large changes -- such as paragraphs or even add a page or two. However, this is past the point for adding and deleting whole chapters.

The last stage for me is what my editor calls the "First Pass" edits, which are what I just completed. It is very painful to know that you can't change anything at this point. I know the book is great, but it is at this point that the obsessive-compulsive perfectionist comes out and wants to play and she just can't. (Once completed, have another mini-celebration, your nerves have earned it.)

From here, I believe the book will go through at least one more round of edits within the publisher before going to print.

So, now that the edits are done, I am once again up to my eyeballs in Book 2. I am making some very good progress and I'm currently working on a chapter that I'm not entirely sure where it is going to go, which is a little odd for me. I am very careful to outline my books completely before I write, but this chapter was not in the original plan. I've decided to just let this chapter go where it will for the first draft. It is between two characters who have not seen each other for a little while, and some interesting things have happened since the last meeting. I'm kind of curious as to where these two will take the scene. I'm also curious as to what information each will reveal and what he/she will keep silent about. (Yes, this sounds strange, but my characters have minds of their own.)

When I complete the final draft, I will heavily edit this chapter, making sure that it doesn't ramble and is tight as the others. But for now, I am content to let my characters run.

And More Edits...

Yes, when you're finally published, the editing never ends.

I heard back from my editor on Monday and she reported that she liked the book! Yeah, the revisions were a success. However, I now have more line edits. These are simply tweaking little things like grammar, punctuation, tightening up wording, looking for inconsistency. I had one really silly inconsistency show up -- Mira wipes off blood covering her in chapter six only to have another character remark on it in chapter seven -- yeah, umm, thought the blood was gone? It was an easy fix, but a stupid mistake. I am averaging about 100 pages each night and I hope to have the book back to my editor by Monday.

In addition, since this is a multi-book series, I have to think of a name for the series. It's not going as well as I would like. Titles are not a strength of mine. However, I plan to send my editor a list of several ideas by Friday. Hopefully between the two of us, and a darling friend I've begged for help, we should come up with something....

In a side note: to my dear friend out in California if you manage to catch this, I hope you and your family are safe and well. Keep your head down and stay away from the fires.

Last Chapter...

I am down to the last chapter of the book, which also happens to be a chapter that I have to write completely from scratch. Even after I finish that chapter, I am not completely done. I have to change the location of several scenes from one city in the U.S. to a different city -- which makes me somewhat nervous since (A.) I've never been to this city and (B.) it will be a significantly different culture from what I grew up in. Definitely moving outside my comfort zone! However, I am confident that I can pull it off. I also have to do a complete read through of the book to check for inconsistencies and typos.

Even after I am done, I am extremely nervous about letting the book go back to my editor. She's a tough critic and I've been warned by several other authors that she edits that they have had to go through and complete heavy edits more than once on their first books. I am really hoping to avoid this fate, but I will do whatever it takes to make this a great book.

But I thought I would reveal some interesting stats in regards to my edits:

1. Prior to the edits, the book was roughly 95,000 words long. Without the final chapter, the word count now sits at more than 113,000 words.

2. Three completely new chapters have been added along with a few new scenes.

3. One cool minor character was added, and a character I had saved for book 3 was moved up to Nightwalker.

4. Out of three distinct locations, two were completely changed and one new location has been added to bring the total to four.

5. My scrap pile (or sections of text that were deleted from the book but saved in case I might be able to add back in later) now comes in at 6,600 words.

6. And the biggest change: I had to create a new villain for the entire series.

Mmmmm.... Brain Mush

Yes, after many hours of working on my revisions, it feels as if my brain has been reduced to a soggy, mushy consistency that bears a striking resemblance to oatmeal. The edits are coming along. I was trapped in one chapter for a few hours today, not that I was surprised. I knew it was going to be a rough chapter. It's not that it needed heavy revisions. Actually, the edits were very light, but needed a strangely delicate touch. This meant me tweaking a few bits of conversation then going back, rereading and tweaking again. Somehow, all of my editor's comments had to be addressed in this one chapter, compared to other chapters where it might be one or two items. It gave me a whole new respect for tightrope walkers.

So far, I've completed two full chapters today and now I am writing a completely new chapter, which I am excited about. It gives me a chance to introduce two new characters and cool fight scene, resulting in a new shift in the book. I would like to finish that chapter today, but it all depends on how much more writing I can squeeze out of my poor brain tonight. As a result, I am shifting from laptop to legal pad. I still write on both -- yes, I know, I am still in the dark ages with paper. But for me, paper represents an interesting comfort zone. I started writing using paper exclusively and I will frequently fall back to paper when I am either stuck on a scene or playing with something new. In fact, when the first words of a new novel appear, they are always on paper first. With the new chapter, I'm not stuck, but I am hoping the change in medium will keep me fresh and allow me to squeeze a little more writing time.

The Revisions Have Officially Begun!

After roughly two weeks of plotting, sketching, and outlining (not to mention some frantic brainstorming while standing in a parking lot with my CP), I have finally begun the process of actually revising my book, Nightwalker. So far, the first chapter was the hardest. Not that it had a lot of revisions -- there are far more difficult chapters later in the book. It was more of sinking back into the mentality of the book. While I am working on the revisions of book 1, I've actually finished writing book 2 already and I am about half done with book 3. For me, my characters have changed, grown, and in a few cases died. It was difficult to take a few steps back and return to the beginning of it all.

But, after pushing myself through that first bit and focusing on only Nightwalker, it was like coming home. Mira and I are back in sync, as twisted as that may be. The world Mira lives in has welcomed me back with open arms and all I can say is "Oh, god, it's sooooo good to be home again."

I will be posting a progress meter on my blog and I'll keep you updated on any writing tips I pick up along the way. So far, the changes have been relatively minor -- sort of. In terms of word count, I have just added a line here and a line there. The most so far has only been a medium-sized paragraph. However, those carefully placed lines have not only given more depth to a main character, but added a new layer of depth to the book and a new direction. Sometimes it's scary what you can accomplish with a few chosen lines. Of course, by the time I finished the second chapter, I just had to shake my head -- my editor is a freaking genius.

Housekeeping

Sorry I disappeared yesterday, but I had to buckle down and get some editing done. I didn't get as far as I would have liked, but it was some progress. Tonight, I had to complete some housekeeping, both literal and figurative.

For any new readers who don't know, I am not a full-time fiction writer, but I am a full-time writer. I have a day job that is very demanding and takes up a lot of hours throughout the whole week -- yep, Monday through Sunday. So, when I finally roll into my house with my cats eagerly awaiting my return, I generally have to make a choice of whether I am going to do my night job (fiction writing) or take care of my personal life.

Unfortunately, tonight was personal life. Oh yes, as a fabulous published author, I must still face the ultra-glamorous tasks of sweeping, dusting, laundry, kitty litter cleaning, and scrubbing bathrooms. All of which have been sorely neglected recently.

The other housekeeping I had to catch up on was email. This was a more enjoyable task and I felt very guilty for neglecting it. I had several other writer friends who had been kind enough to check my pulse after I received my edit letter, but I had not yet checked back with them. (To all my lovely friends who have been concerned about me, thanks! and I'm sorry I have not written sooner.)

While I am still in the early stage of this being published business, I will say that the thing I have had the most trouble with is budgeting time and figuring out how much time I do need. I wrote the rough draft of my first novel in three months, but then I didn't have a deadline and the book has changed greatly from that version. I know how long I have until the book is due, but figuring out where I need to be at the end of each week in order to make my deadline is rough, particularly since I haven't actually started writing yet... I'm still making notes and planning things out. I am confident that I will figure it out and make my deadline. (I'm very stubborn when it comes to deadlines.) If I figure out a good plan for budgeting time, I'll be sure to pass it along!