Three steps to Re-Writing

So you've finished your first book!!! Congratulations, now it is time to go to work to make it something worth publishing.

I thought when I finished my first NaNoWriMo that I had a book that was ready to publish! All I needed  were these three steps to re-writing.

1. Grammar and spelling edits.
2.Send it to a few beta readers
3. Perhaps, I would need to re-write a scene or two. Add a few words here or there and wusssh... off to the Literary Agent I would send it.

Quick, someone pat me on the head and say, "Bless its goofy little heart."

Ernest Heming way said "First drafts are $hit." EDIT

I am learning that editing is not a simple matter of grammar and spelling.
Yes, I did have to learn that. I am not an intuitive learner. I need it written on the page.

What did I learn about my first twelve pages?
I can't write action scenes.
     The lines need to be short and crisp.
 
     I have a tendency to yank the reaction away from the action. In other words,  what is need is for me to tell and then react. Not react while the action is being told.
 
     POV (Point of View) is hard to write. Somehow, what I was seeing in my head was not coming across on the page. One way to do this is to make the main character express the emotion. (Not everyone is supposed to express emotion? I don't know. I am still working on that concept.)
 
     Strong images need strong description words.
     Some words are children words and some words are used for adult understanding. Back to the strong description words.
    
     I end a lot of my sentences in a preposition. Bad, bad, bad.
    
     I repeat myself a lot. Did I say that I repeat my self a lot. Not like that but, I use the same word over and over again. Jump is one of my key words. Jumped up, jumped off, jumped on. Jumped in. There is a great quantity of words that can be substituted for jump. Who knew? Sadly, jump is not my only repetitive word. Back is a favorite of mine also. He ran back. He came back. The back of (something). This might be a hard thing to break myself from, but I am going to try so I don't have to re-write so much.
    
     The words "trying to" are almost never necessary. Like the word almost; either it is, or it is not.
    
     Words that end in "ed" are stronger than was "ing" words.  He was pulling / He tugged,
He was sitting/ He sat is another example of a stronger word pair. How did I miss this concept in grade school grammar?
   
About grammar in general:
     Know when to chaptalize words like mother, father, doctor, post master.
    
     How to write dialog. What to do with question punctuation in dialog. What is strong dialog. What is boring dialog. I am not a brilliant conversationalist.
     Don't use big words when a smaller word will do. (See sentence above.)
    
     Internal dialog is shown in italics without a name tag. The dialog is stronger if you show emotion before you write the internal dialog.

All these things needed to be addressed in the first eight pages. The other four pages got little or no comment.
I learned a lot in eight short pages of action and dialog.

Please comment. I would love to hear what you think about first drafts, re-writing, or writing in general. If you have any questions about Pitching a Literary Agent, I can give you my experience.
   

Disappointment and Hope Wrapped Together in a Critique

I had the great joy of being asked for a sample chapter of my book, at the last Writers Conference/ Workshop that I attended in September.

I sent three chapters and the Literary Agent critiqued twelve pages.

I am deeply grateful for the Literary Agent's time and effort. That being said, I cried for an hour. 

Then I pulled myself together and reread the critique. 

It is stunning that I am such a poor writer. I am more amazed at my inability to express myself coherently.

What do I do now? I can't throw up my hands and give up.

I need to learn how to write. I need to understand about structure.

And my grammar is horrible. 

Classes? A critique group? Both probably. 

I love Microsoft Word it never ever ever eats a Word file unless....

Unless you update the program, like I did yesterday.
I edited seven chapters and then rewrote chapter 17.
I had slipped into head hopping so I knew I needed to rewrite it.
I did the hard work. I threw out stuff I could not reasonably rewrite and I rewrote the whole chapter.

Yesterday afternoon, I got this cute little pop-up message on Microsoft Word telling me that it need to update.
When I finished for the day, I closed everything. I save before I close even with auto save enabled.
I was so very careful because I knew that I had rewritten a whole chapter. I saved the original chapter under a different name.
I did not lose the saved original chapter but I lost all of yesterdays edits and the chapter rewrite.

Today, I did the edits again. Now I am procrastinating rewriting chapter 17 by complaining.
Yes, I did a web search on ways to possibly recover my work. Nothing I could do would bring it back.

Now I will rewrite chapter 17 one again.
Pray for me!

Takeaway from the Workshop: Tips and Free Editing Advice

One of the most helpful things I got from the Writer's Workshop in Midland last weekend, was editing advice.

So, I will be rewriting the first chapter of Nate's Gold.
While, I drove to my parent's home on Monday I reworked the chapter. In my head of course. Well some of it was out loud and since I don't have a Dictaphone yet I called my daughter and made her take notes. Daughters are good note takers.

While I was in line, waiting for my grandson's to get out of school, I wrote about four pages of my rewrite. My daughter was sick so I picked my grandsons up. I enjoyed spending time with them. They are great boys.

Back to the rewrite.
I had a lot of great ideas. I don't think I discarded any of them. Monday afternoon I will get them written in Microsoft Word and see about meshing the rewrite with the current chapter.
I was asked, by the Agent I pitched too, if I could add another 30,000 words. Here is a great start.

I also listened to the lectures about POV, which means Point Of View. And I think there is quite a bit I need to rewrite and or polish.

So, I am ready to work on Monday!

After glow of the Permian Basin Writers' Workshop: A Writers Review

Nothing energizes a Writer as much as a Writers' Workshop. 

The volume of information is stunning and I hope to retain 10% of it. But I took copious notes so I have a lot to look back on. Nothing is free but note taking during a paid workshop makes some of the information feel free.

The first day we had a Writers' Boot Camp. All day long with Chuck Sambuchino. He was magnificent. Hours and hours of information. We even had a one page Critique Fest. He went through every singe page that was passed forward.

I took detailed notes on each one. I listened intently for ever drop of wisdom he imparted. Then he came to mine...

EEEEEK...  He said that my story started in the wrong place. GREAT feed back. Now I know to rewrite the first Chapter or most of the first chapter. He pointed out where I repeated unnecessarily. I can fix that. He also said, "Interesting". Hopefully, that was positive. He liked a turn of phrase. All in all great input.

The second day I went to several workshops. The first one was Mastering suspense, Structure and Plot Part 1 and Part 2. I have lots of notes to go back over and learn from.

The next workshop was How to Get an Agent. Most of that I had researched on the net but it was nice to get reinforcement.

Right after lunch we were invited to an extra non -scheduled work shop by Dana Smith. She talked about researching your novel. All I can remember was that she was funny, so incredibly funny.

The third workshop was extraordinary. It was called Writing Your Inner Child. Sara Barnard gave a very interesting demonstration on how to think like your younger character. Who knew it was that simple yet complex. There was a lot for me to remember and learn.

Next I went to What Makes a Western a Western. Fascinating. A lot to think about.

Sunday the first workshop I went to was It's All About Character. Rapid fire information. It will take me weeks to go over and digest. 

My BIG excitement was my scheduled Pitch session with Cynthia Ruchti. She is a literary agent for Books & Such.

I was so nervous and nauseous all at the same time. But I spent a week trying to nail down my pitch. I worked and reworked ten sentences until I had them down to a short crisp six. 

Yes, it did still sound memorized. But better to sound memorized than muddled.

Then I was so thrilled that Mrs. Ruchti  spoke at the last workshop of the conference. I was just amazed at how funny and informative she was. A slower pace but I absorbed more.

I met some wonderful people and made some great friends!

2017 Permian Basin Writers' Workshop

I am so excited about the workshop this weekend.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Sunday I get to pitch my story! I have been practicing all day. I think I have it down and won't have to use note.
It is my understanding that they are more impressed if you don't use notes.

Last Editing Run through

Yes I know it has been quite a while since I have written and proofread my book.
Now I am doing my final polish and getting ready to write a query letter. Such a scary thought, a query letter. But there is a Writer's Conference in Midland this month so I am going to take it with me to see what help I can get with it.

I know that you have to take a chance or the book will never be published, but DANG it is scary.

I have read a suggestion that the final draft needed to be retyped word for word to catch problems so that is what I am in the process of doing. I did a bit of rewriting of the first chapter. I thought it might have repeated in one of the sections.

So here goes nothing. All they can do is reject it and I send it to another publisher.