Tag Archives: editing

March 14, 2024 · 8:23 am

Infinitas Publishing – Status Report

Here’s the Infinitas Publishing updates for the past month and a half(-ish)! 📋

I’ve highlighted the projects that had changes in blue.

* * *

Isaac’s Untitled Fantasy Story: On hold with a rough draft of 58,000 words.

Next up: Finish writing the rough draft for missing scenes, then do a revision pass on the earlier scenes now that I better remember how the magic system works. Once that’s done, this will likely return to being a back-burner project while I finish other projects.

Crafting Your Fictional World (Non-Fic Book): At the moment I have the introduction, two complete chapters, and one complete exercise related to those chapters ready to go, based on the feedback from Isaac. I have another one-to-two chapters partially revised. Unfortunately, I need to fully reorganize this project (which is currently split between Google Docs and Scrivener), and then create a color-coded system for what stage a chapter is in so that I will be better prepared to move forward with the next steps.

I would prefer to have six chapters and their exercises complete before starting the subscription, with the idea that I’d have a six month buffer zone for creating new chapters, as well as using the six month mark to evaluate how the plan is holding up. At a minimum, however, I’d like to have at least three chapters and their exercises complete.

Next up: Organize the chapters in Scrivener, make revisions per Isaac’s suggestions, re-review the chapters, and then upload to Ream.

Sweetweird Genre Notes: On hold with 2,100 words.

Starless Night: (Book 3 of the Distant Horizon series). Blurb needs to be updated across all retailers.

Changing Tides: (Book 4 of the Distant Horizon series). On hold while working on Legends of Cirena #9. Next step is to merge the two revised drafts and start writing the missing scenes.

Betrayed (Deceived #2): I’ve completed the basic ebook formatting, and I’ve started one final proofread/revisions of minor notes. After this is complete, I plan to send this to beta-readers for any remaining feedback, and then set a release date for the ebook.

I’ve also determined that I probably won’t be releasing book #3 on Wattpad (it largely boils down to Betrayed not being the right genre for the platform), but I haven’t yet decided whether to continue releasing it serially on another platform or to return to ebook-only releases.

Next up: Continue revisions to Deceived #3. Add Isaac’s notes from Deceived #5 (formerly #4) into the manuscript, revise Deceived #5, and revise #6 (formerly #5) before handing it to Isaac for his feedback.

TWB 4: (Book Four of The Wishing Blade series). On hold. Next step is to finish adding the remaining outline to Scrivener, review that outline for missing plot points, and then write the rough draft.

Wishing Blade Prequel (Prequel novella for The Wishing Blade): On hold. Next step is to write the rough draft of the new scenes and begin revising the original scenes to match the updated outline.

Once complete, this is intended to be a newsletter-exclusive story.

The Legends of Cirena – Collaborative Adventure Facebook Group: On hiatus.

The Dark Forest of Aneth (“Ro’nor (“The Restless Sands of Neel”) & Zynia (“The Dragons of the Mist”) cross-over / A Legends of Cirena short novel): On hold at 52,000 words. Completing the rough draft is my plan for next month.

Goals: Add the last few scenes and polish. Edit the book cover.

The Wind Mage and the Wolf (“Livena (The Wind Mage of Maijev”) & Nuaka (“The Gryphon and the Mountain Bear”) cross-over / A Legends f Cirena short novel) : Joran’s short story is on hold. Still needs a couple scenes smoothed out, and I need to cross-reference the final scene in The Wind Mage and the Wolf (from Joran’s point of view). After that, it’ll be ready for a read-aloud and proofreading.

Huntress 3: I’ve got the beginnings of a viable outline! 😄 This one has been causing me trouble for a while, and I finally figured out that I’ve been looking at the wrong fairy tales for reference. While this still has a ways to go, I’m happy to report that I’ve started drafting a potential outline and I’ve found some reading material to help me brainstorm ideas for this book.

More importantly… I can finally envision a happy ending, which is kind of important for a romance.

Next up: Reread the first two books, browse relevant reading material, and finish creating a detailed outline.

Game Design: On hold.

Mist Catcher (Isaac’s Sci-Fi Story): On hold. The current draft sits around 111,000 words, (not including the Halloween episode?).

Marketing: I tested a method of promoting BookFunnel promos by creating new banners with covers chosen from the promo, but I continued seeing a low number of clicks. I’ve held off on doing any new promos in March.

On the bright side, I’ve maintained the newsletters, though I’ve been testing adding relevant short stories/flash fiction to them to see if that increases engagement or series interest. It’s too early to analyze the results.

I also continued the usual Amazon drip ads, though I’ve begun monitoring them to see if it’s worth their ad spend. I did create one more ad, very narrowly targetted (and still a drip ad, so it’s inexpensive), and I’m monitoring it to see how it does.

I did a test run of a paid newsletter service that has previously done well for me (about a year ago), but I didn’t see any results this time, so my hypothesis that I might see sells from that has been disproved, which means I’ll hold off on running those promos for the foreseeable future. In the future I may try other paid newsletters, but I’ll need to do more research before deciding which one, if any.

Additionally, business taxes are complete and were sent in prior to March! We also updated several of the Wishing Blade universe ebook prices, and changed our mailbox for newsletter CAN-SPAM compliance purposes, since the previous box we used went up considerably in price.

Next up: Continue adding sample chapters to the BookFunnel pages and the main Infinitas Publishing website, and update my author bio across the different websites. Eventually continue updating Stripe and Payhip so I can offer direct sales from the main website. Update the business ledger on a regular basis. Add a progress tracker somewhere for the different books. Revise Amazon ads, and overhaul book categories, keywords, and blurbs.

Other Stories: I wrote a couple pieces of flash fiction for my newsletters, one from Nsasrar’s point of view (Wishing Blade Universe), one from Pops’ point of view (Distant Horizon Universe), and I’ve started a short story spin-off of The Gryphon and the Mountain Bear. Once I have enough short stories, provided that I continue writing shorts for the newsletter, I eventually hope to collect these into one volume to release as an ebook.

I’ve edited two manuscripts for the next Writers of Warrensburg anthology, and made the first chapter revisions to my manuscript per their feedback. My next step is to finish those revisions and send them in by the end of the month.

Next up: Revise ending of YA Alien Invasion/Dystopian story.

Other on hold projects include: a “for-fun” space/portal fantasy story rough draft, Mermaid/Siren Sci-Fi short story draft, and comic script (“If I Had Asked”).

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: I’ve mostly completed ebook formatting of my current project, though there’s a few tweaks left to make pending approval. Next up will be paperback formatting.

Future Goals: Figure out a schedule for uploading general art projects. Update the SBibbPhoto website to incorporate Daz work, and fix the SEO information.

SIFlint Art: I’ve continued my dragon hoards line-art project. Goal now is to get enough sketches to create a coloring book. I’m currently at 16 of my 20 minimum (with 24 preferred). Some of those still need to be scanned and cleaned in Photoshop. If all goes well, I’d like to have this project finished by June, but I haven’t set a hard deadline yet.

Additionally, I did a booth mock-up for a potential upcoming event. More on that closer to time.

Daz PA: I’ve almost finished with a new group pose set based on a recently released Daz character. I just need to finish the dials and thumbnails, then edit the promos, and then I’ll submit it.

I temporarily tabled my Diverse Worlds Genesis 9 morphs set since I need to learn a new technique in order to finish them per the QA team. It’s next on my list, but since I wasn’t sure how long it would take, I switched to the pose set.

* * *

Happy writing and reading (Or 3D rendering if you’re into Daz)! 🙂

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February 6, 2024 · 12:48 pm

Infinitas Publishing – Status Report

This past month I did a lot of reading, both fiction and non-fiction. Kind of hard to say what I read, though, as I’ve been hopping a lot from book to book and back again.

Anyhow, here’s the Infinitas Publishing updates!

I’ve highlighted the projects that had changes in blue.

* * *

Isaac’s Untitled Fantasy Story: On hold with a rough draft of 58,000 words.

Next up: Finish writing the rough draft for missing scenes, then do a revision pass on the earlier scenes now that I better remember how the magic system works. Once that’s done, this will likely return to being a back-burner project while I finish other projects.

Crafting Your Fictional World (Non-Fic Book): I’ve now created cover art for this, though it might end up being a placeholder cover for Ream rather than the final ebook version, and I revised enough chapters to be satisfied that I would have six months of content for testing.

So I then did a read-aloud with Isaac…

Only to end up with quite a few more revisions (and chapter ideas) that I need to do before I launch this subscription. Good news is that Isaac’s academia background gave him a lot of ideas of how I could improve the chapters to hopefully be more useful.

I’m no longer looking at the rough draft word count since it’s split into two documents, one on Google Docs which has the general concept chapters, and one in Scrivener which has the more polished chapters (that still need revisions). The Scrivener count currently shows 13,200 words.

Next up: Make revisions per Isaac’s suggestions, re-review the chapters, then upload to Ream.

Sweetweird Genre Notes: On hold with 2,100 words.

Distant Horizon: (Book 1 of the Distant Horizon series): The ebook version of this went to space 🚀 on the Peregrine lunar lander in early January!

While complications with the lander’s fuel intake valve resulted in the mission not going to the moon as planned (the lander instead re-entered Earth’s atmosphere and burned up in re-entry), Distant Horizon and Fractured Skies were both part of the Writer’s on the Moon project that spent a few days in space.

Next up: Paperback version of this in Atticus, which can be used on Draft2Digital in order to release a paperback version wide across multiple retailers, rather than only on Amazon. I intend to revisit the blurb before finalizing this. On hold.

Starless Night: (Book 3 of the Distant Horizon series). Blurb needs to be updated across all retailers.

Changing Tides: (Book 4 of the Distant Horizon series). On hold while working on Legends of Cirena #9. Next step is to merge the two revised drafts and start writing the missing scenes.

The Glitch Saga (Distant Horizon spin-off series): Goal is to create a new cover and print edition for the complete collection edition. (On hold).

Deceived (Distant Horizon spin-off series): Needs print formatting. On hold.

SBibb - Betrayed Cover

Betrayed (Deceived #2): The last five chapters have been posted to Wattpad, completing the Wattpad postings!

My next step is to do the ebook formatting of this so I can send it to beta-readers for any final feedback, and then set a release date for the ebook.

I’ve also got to decide whether to release book three on Wattpad, or if I want to move it to a different platform, or if I want to continue releasing it serially versus ebook first.

Next up: Continue revisions to Deceived #3. Add Isaac’s notes from Deceived #5 (formerly #4) into the manuscript, revise Deceived #5, and revise #6 (formerly #5) before handing it to Isaac for his feedback.

TWB 4: (Book Four of The Wishing Blade series). On hold. Next step is to finish adding the remaining outline to Scrivener, review that outline for missing plot points, and then write the rough draft.

Wishing Blade Prequel (Prequel novella for The Wishing Blade): On hold. Next step is to write the rough draft of the new scenes and begin revising the original scenes to match the updated outline.

Once complete, this is intended to be a newsletter-exclusive story.

The Legends of Cirena – Collaborative Adventure Facebook Group: On hiatus.

The Dark Forest of Aneth (“Ro’nor (“The Restless Sands of Neel”) & Zynia (“The Dragons of the Mist”) cross-over / A Legends of Cirena short novel): Major progress made here, since this was my primary focus for January. Didn’t quite finish the rough draft, but I did do another round of revisions to what was there, cut a few scenes, added a few scenes, and finally figured out how to complete the plot arc in a way that felt more satisfying.

The draft now sits at 52,000 words (down 4,000 words after cutting several scenes that weren’t working).

Goals: Add the last few scenes and polish. Edit the book cover.

The Wind Mage and the Wolf (“Livena (The Wind Mage of Maijev”) & Nuaka (“The Gryphon and the Mountain Bear”) cross-over / A Legends f Cirena short novel) : Joran’s short story is on hold. Still needs a couple scenes smoothed out, and I need to cross-reference the final scene in The Wind Mage and the Wolf (from Joran’s point of view). After that, it’ll be ready for a read-aloud and proofreading.

The Legends of Cirena Volume One (LoC #1-6 Collection): Technically complete, though there are still a few small tweaks I’d like to make (prettier ellipses). I also plan to update the ebook files of LoC 1-6 for the minor typos as time permits.

Huntress 3: On hold.

Next up: Reread the first two books and create an outline.

Huntress Prequel: On hold at 18,000 words. Needs rough draft completed.

Game Design: On hold.

Mist Catcher (Isaac’s Sci-Fi Story): Isaac reports having added only a little extra to Mist Catcher (plus some plot notes), so I don’t have an updated word count. For now I’m assuming the current draft sits around 111,000 words, (not including the Halloween episode?).

Marketing:

Still had pretty low click counts on the BookFunnel book promos last month, though I started testing a new method of promoting the promo (by creating new banners in Canva with a handful of covers chosen from the promo that I think might appeal to my newsletter and blog readers). I’m going to continue testing that method this month. I do have a few new promos I’ve joined for February, though I still need to set up the blog’s weekly book promo highlights.

Newsletters have largely continued as planned (aside from one accidentally skipped one) in the same format as before, and I also continued the usual Amazon drip ads, though I intend to evaluate them soon to decide whether or not to continue them.

Accounting for last year is now complete, however, and I’m all set to work on business taxes (which I hope to complete by mid-month).

Next up: Continue adding sample chapters to the BookFunnel pages and the main Infinitas Publishing website, and update my author bio across the different websites. Eventually continue updating Stripe and Payhip so I can offer direct sales from the main website. Update the business ledger on a regular basis. Add a progress tracker somewhere for the different books. Revise Amazon ads, and overhaul book categories, keywords, and blurbs.

Other Stories: No new updates on my end, though I’ve received the manuscripts I’m going to edit for the next Writers of Warrensburg anthology, as well as the first edited version of my manuscript, which I’ll be focusing on in February.

Next up: Revise ending of YA Alien Invasion/Dystopian story.

Other on hold projects include: a “for-fun” space/portal fantasy story rough draft, Mermaid/Siren Sci-Fi short story draft, and comic script (“If I Had Asked”).

Unofficial Minecraft FanFic: On hold.

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: On hold. I do have a new formatting project I intend to work on during February.

Future Goals: Figure out a schedule for uploading general art projects. Update the SBibbPhoto website to incorporate Daz work, and fix the SEO information.

SIFlint Art: No new updates here, aside from some general for-fun artsy practice and drawings.

Daz PA: No updates here, though I plan to update my Diverse Worlds Genesis 9 morphs set per quality control feedback during February. Did a little beta-testing for an undisclosed side project, but I’m currently leaning away from getting more involved with that project.

* * *

Happy writing and reading (Or 3D rendering if you’re into Daz)! 🙂

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January 18, 2017 · 9:46 pm

Thoughts on Publishing – Infinitas Publishing Status Report

Hello there! I’ve been super quiet for the past month, but don’t worry, that just means there are plans in progress! (And holidays… that took up a bit of blogging time, too).

So,  here’s the latest news, plus a bit of catch up on the previous month. I’ll keep it short, since I’ve got to get back to editing The Shadow War.

UCM Holiday Market (November 2016): This event went well. We sold a few of our Phalanx boards and a couple of books. It’s a local, one-day event that took place at the University of Central Missouri. It’s a lot of fun, and best of all, the booths are free. A current faculty/staff/student has to sponsor the booth, though, and since Isaac and I have both graduated, we want to give a shout out to Scott for sponsoring us. Thank you! 🙂

Distant Horizon: Distant Horizon has been gathering quite a few good reviews over at Goodreads. Thank you to everyone who has read the book and reviewed it. 🙂

Glitch: This is a spin-off novel from Distant Horizon (it follows Tim as he deals with the Legion Spore… a vessel made from a merging of shapeshifters and technology). Glitch is in the editing phase–tightening up the prose, fixing continuity from the earlier drafts of Distant Horizon… etc. It’s on temporary hold while I finish up The Shadow War.

The Shadow War: Isaac finished reading the The Shadow War and found several plot holes and mix-matched motivations I thought I’d fixed, plus pointed out issues that weren’t flowing along with the plot as I had described it to him. So I went back through and did some major edits, tweaking character motivation and reworking the ending. This is the main reason I haven’t been very active on the blog lately. I’m still making a few changes to the last chapters, but it feels considerably stronger than before. Overall, I’m pleased with how it’s coming along.

The downside of this is that I may be pushing back the ebook pre-orders to mid-March. I’m going to see where I’m at in my edits by the end of this weekend, and then I plan to post an update as to what the updated release date will be. I’ve been debating on whether to keep to the original date or push it back, and as much as I want to release on the original date, I’d rather wait a few more weeks and have time to do the fine-tuning and proofreading that will make for a smoother reading experience. The Shadow War is my major writing/editing focus at the moment.

Stone and String: Stone and String is now available on multiple platforms, so you aren’t stuck reading it on Kindle if you prefer a different format. Enjoy!

The Multiverse Chronicles: Trials of Blood and Steel: Still on hold, but I’m planning on returning to edits once The Shadow War is complete. I’d like to edit one episode a week until all of the remaining episodes have gone through a basic polish, and then I’ll send them to our beta-reader before continuing the release of the series online. In the meantime, the first fifteen episodes are up.

Battle Decks: Trials of Blood and Steel: Isaac and I have been working towards a special edition of the game that we can have available at local events and conventions. We’ve started moving forward with that project, and we’ve got a surprise planned for that as well. I’m really excited about it, and I look forward to revealing more about that as we get closer to Stealth Con.

WIP Game: Isaac has been hard at work creating the art for a prototype version of our next game we plan to release. It’s still in the beta-phase, however. More information on that once we’ve ironed out a few more of the details.

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration:  Working on finalizing a book cover before creating a proof for another.

The Wishing Blade - Section Break - Magic Swirl

Don’t forget, if you want to stay up-to-date with our latest book releases and promotions, sign up for our Infinitas Publishing Newsletter!

The Wishing Blade - Section Break - Magic Swirl

Now… back to editing The Shadow War!

That’s all for now, and I hope you enjoyed this post! 🙂

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September 21, 2015 · 8:07 pm

Thoughts on Writing – Transitions and Adding Emotion to a Scene

Every couple of weeks, my husband and I meet with the local writing critique group. While there, everyone shares relevant announcements, and we usually critique a small section of each other’s work.

Last week I brought in an episode of The Multiverse Chronicles. My husband plots and writes the first draft, which I then polish. Most of the other episodes haven’t been too problematic, but this particular episode was giving me issues. I’d already tried editing it a few different times, but it still sounded… flat. I knew the transitions weren’t quite working, but something else was missing, too.

Once I read the piece aloud, the group pointed out that it lacked the usual description and emotion I tried to invoke. Thus, having someone who is familiar with our work can be helpful.

Critique partners can see the things which usually embody our work, even if we can’t.

So, after applying the basic suggestions the group made, I went back and sought ways to deepen the emotions of the main character, along with boosting the imagery in each of her “flashbacks” so that the reader would feel better grounded in the reality of the story.

For example, this is what one section looked like while I was still having difficulties editing it:

Trish had been at camp for seven days now, and thus far her training had consisted of textbooks, tests, practicing basic commands with her pterosaur (which, she noted as she stared at the starry sky, still remained nameless), and meeting with Colonel Pearson.

 

The meetings were the worst.

 

“Ivers, you seem to be making good progress,” the colonel would say, trailing his finger along a clipboard of notes, “but—” Always, that annoying ‘but.’ “—you need to work on your skills. Have you remembered to meditate with your drake?”

 

She flexed her shoulders. Maybe he never mentioned meditating with the pterosaur, but he usually gave her some unimportant task that she needed to complete.

 

“Ah-ha! Now here is a test that will measure your skills on meditating. Don’t forget to read chapters seven through nine of The Honor of Tactical Flying.”

 

Trish sighed and bit off another chunk of her granola.

 

The camp had only one copy of each book, which meant Trish had to go to the quartermaster to check them out.

Not only does the scene need a bit of tweaking in regards to transitioning the flashbacks, it also lacks a sense of the surroundings, and the emotion behind it feels dull.

This is what the section looks like now that I’ve added more description and focused on the emotion:

This was her seventh day at camp, and thus far her training consisted of textbooks, tests, practicing basic commands with her pterosaur—which, she noted as she stared at the starry sky, still remained nameless—and meeting with Colonel Pearson.

(Note that using em dashes instead of parentheses have improved the flow of her thoughts)

 

She inhaled the brisk air at let it out slowly, counting down from ten to relax her thoughts.

 

The meetings were the worst thing about being here.

(We’re starting to get a sense of her impatience)

 

The colonel would trail his finger along a clipboard of notes, tap his chin thoughtfully, then meet her gaze with his piercing blue eyes. “Ivers, you seem to be making good progress, but—”Always that annoying ‘but’ “—you need to work on your skills. Have you been meditating with your drake? Surely you haven’t forgotten.”

(The use of ‘would’ following colonel suggests that she’s thinking about this, not that it’s happening right now. Plus, ‘piercing’ eyes (however cliche) denote that she’s uncomfortable). Adding ‘Surely you haven’t forgotten’ gives her that feeling of being put on the spot. Already, we’ve got a lot more emotional details and descriptors to ground us in the scene)

 

Trish flexed her shoulders. Maybe Pearson had never mentioned meditating with her pterosaur, but he usually gave her some unimportant task that she needed to complete. Like checking the feed levels of the other pterosaurs, or cleaning the cages while the riders were out, or reading.

(By saying ‘Maybe Pearson had‘ shows that we’re back in the present. And the list of complaints continues to show mounting agitation)

 

So much incessant reading.

 

“Ah-ha!” Pearson had exclaimed upon skimming through a tiny red booklet that Trish was fairly certain should have been titled A Thousand Ways to Torture Private Ivers. “Now here is a test that will measure your skills! Read chapters seven through nine of The Honour of Tactical Flying, then report back for your next assignment.”

(By having the line ‘So much incessant reading’ on it’s own line, and then going to ‘ “Ah-ha!” Pearson had…’, we make room for another flashback. The choice of ‘incessant’ further shows Trish’s annoyance. And then we have ‘A Thousand Ways to Torture Private Ivers.’ She feels she’s being treated harshly.)

 

Colonel Pearson had grinned, tossed his clipboard on a stack of papers, then dismissed her to her chores.

(I’m debating on the phrasing of this, but currently, saying that Pearson ‘had’ done this cues that we’re coming back to the present)

 

Trish sighed and bit off another chunk of her granola.

(Yay, monotony…)

 

On the bright side, she didn’t have to go through all the same physical drills as the other riders. She got her exercise from running tent-to-tent, trying to locate the miscellaneous items she needed to please her superior officer. The camp had only one copy of each of the primary textbooks, which meant Trish had to go Corporal Smith, the quartermaster, to check them out.

(Adding the bits about her having to run from tent-to-tent and locating miscelleneous items adds to the feeling that she doesn’t think this is important… especially since she doesn’t bother to consider what those miscellaneous items are)

Overall, I think the edited section reads more like the other scenes now. The flashback transitions read smoother, and there’s enough detail to ground me as a reader in what is happening. Plus, we now have a sense that Trish is genuinely annoyed and impatient, rather than just ‘ho-hum’ about her daily life at camp.

I’m still in the process of editing the rest of the episode, but now that I know where to go with it, I think editing will go much smoother.

If you’re in a problem spot, see if you can find a trusty beta reader or critique partner to take a look, even if it’s just a small scene. They may be able to see what you’re missing, especially if they’re familiar with your work.

I hope you enjoyed this post. Have you found any tricks to adding emotions to a scene or transitioning flashbacks?

***

By the way, author Jordan Elizabeth was kind enough to feature my book on her blog, Kissed by Literature. Check it out to find another sneak peak of Magic’s Stealing, and to see what other books she has featured. 😀

Also, Cathleen Townsend has written the first review of Magic’s Stealing! Find it (and other reviews) at her blog, The Beauty of Words. 😀

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July 17, 2015 · 8:00 pm

Thoughts On Writing – The Revision Process

I recently finished the major revisions on Magic’s Stealing, and though I’m still in the process of making a few tweaks (trying to give the end just a bit more ‘oomph’ and trying to make sure that the antagonist has a clear motive while maintaining her mysterious persona) I thought I’d spend today’s blog post talking about my revision process.

First off, the difference between editing and revising. Honestly, I confuse the two and tend to use the terms interchangeably. But for the purpose of this post, I wanted to make sure I was talking about the right thing. So I did a quick web search, and this is what I found:

Editing is when you focus on a manuscript’s grammatical conventions. You’re looking for typos, words that like to get flip-flopped (my offenders were rein/reign and lose/loose), and grammatical issues. The story looks better when you edit.

Revising is when you focus on the big picture. You’re checking that the reader understands what you mean, that the story is clear, and the plot makes sense. The story sounds better when you revise.

Sometimes the two might clash, depending on whether you’re going for how something sounds, or how something looks. I’m fairly certain I drove one of my beta readers up the wall for my tendency to have ‘ , then ‘ in the middle of a sentence. For example: The owl sighed, best an owl could, then tapped the window with his beak. To be grammatically correct, the sentence should read: The owl sighed, best an owl could, and then tapped the window with his beak.

To be fair, I was doing this quite a bit, and I did go through and fix a number of those issues. However, as I was revising, I chose to keep certain instances because I liked how the sentence sounded, especially when compared to other sentences in the paragraph.

Here’s a breakdown of my revision process:

Step 1: Write rough draft. I don’t usually do much editing/revising at this stage. I just want to see the story completed.

Step 2: Examine rough draft. Tighten the writing, cut/add scenes as needed, now that I know how the story flows, and look for loose ends. Mostly revision.

Step 3: Polish the draft. Repeat Step 2 as necessary until I can’t find anything left to polish. I both edit and revise at this point. In some cases, this only takes one or two passes. In others… many, many more. (I really don’t want to think about how many times I’ve read through Distant Horizon. I feel like it’s fairly polished now, but it took several years to figure out this whole writing thing).

Step 4: Send polished draft to beta readers. Step away from manuscript and work on something else while waiting for a response.

Step 5: Ask beta readers questions. Once I have responses from my beta readers, I look through their comments and ask them questions to clarify anything I don’t understand. If one beta reader brings up a question that I think I should ask others, I send them those questions. For Magic’s Stealing, I did this in regards to what age they saw the characters as, as well as the readers’ theories regarding the antagonist. By doing this, I got a broader understanding of problems in the manuscript.

Step 6: Examine beta comments as a whole. Since it has been a while since I last looked at the manuscript, I read through all the comments to jog my memory.

Step 7: Apply critique to one chunk of the manuscript at a time. I examine what all the beta readers said about a particular section (in case there were conflicting opinions), and then applied the appropriate changes as necessary.

Step 8: Read the manuscript aloud. Once a couple sections were completed, I read the revised sections aloud, looking for any areas where I tripped over myself. Since I’m hoping to eventually do an audio edition of Magic’s Stealing, this is especially important. But even if you don’t plan to do an audiobook, reading aloud can help you catch errors or plot holes you wouldn’t catch if you are simply scanning the page. Plus, it’s kind of fun. (My Speech and Debate background likes to kick in here).

Step 9: Make any final adjustments that you know need to be made. For example, I know that the ending of Magic’s Stealing needs a little bit more ‘oomph,’ possibly in the form of one final confrontation with the antagonist. So I’ve been re-examining the rest of the manuscript to see if there are any loose strings there that I can use in that confrontation.

Step 10: Divide story into chapters. If you haven’t done this already, now’s the time to do it. Unfortunately, this is the part I don’t really like. Do I stick with a specific word count? Do I end at a really dramatic scene and have some really long or really short chapters? Should I cut before or after the antagonist view point? Eh… I much prefer revising.

Step 11: Read the full manuscript. If the story is truly polished, you’re only going to be making small changes or adjusting a word here or there. Nit-picking. If you see a major plot hole or flaw, you may want to go back and do further revisions. Each story is different. Like I said earlier, Distant Horizon went through a lot of revisions, and now when I look at it, I mostly nit-pick.

Step 12: Set the manuscript aside. Hand it over to any remaining proof-readers/beta readers. Read through it again after it’s been out of your thoughts for a little while. If readers say you’re good to go, proceed to the next step.

Step 13: Proceed with querying for trade publication or with self-publishing, depending on your goals. For Magic’s Stealing, I’ll be self-publishing, and I intend to print out the manuscript so I can look through it for typos. For Distant Horizon, I’ll intend to hire an editor before self-publishing, since it has been through so many changes that I’m bound to be missing something. The story is also considerably longer than Magic’s Stealing, and has a lot more room for plot holes (Distant Horizon is almost 100,000 words vs Magic’s Stealing’s 31,000 words).

There you have it: my revision process.

I hope you found this post useful. Have you had any revision techniques you found to be particularly helpful? 🙂

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October 30, 2013 · 8:00 am

NaNoWriMo 2013

Hello everybody! We interrupt this week’s usual cover reveal (Next week I’ll be revealing the details behind a new cover, don’t worry), to remind all you writerly-inclined folks out there that NaNoWriMo is just around the corner. A couple days away. As in, I really should finish reading through my current manuscript (Distant Horizon, book 3, part 1) so I can be ready to start writing part 2 of book 3. Anyways.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with NaNoWriMo, it’s National Novel Writing Month, which just so happens to be set in the busy month of November. You set out to write 50,000 words in one month, racing against yourself to crank out the rough draft of a short novel. (Or, if your like me and some of the other rebels out there, starting your word count as of November 1st to finish a current manuscript). The goal isn’t to have a complete, polished manuscript, it’s more to motivate yourself to keep writing, not get hung up on going back and re-editing, and simply get that idea that’s in your head down on paper… or in computer hard drive space.  The computer works a lot easier for that word count check in the end.

There’s no punishment for failure, it’s all in good fun. I’ve participated in one year previously (2008, that nice, reasonably quiet freshman year of college). Though I ended up trunking that particular novel, a few of its characters have snuck their personas into my other works. As have a few ideas. Even if you don’t use your story later (I didn’t even try editing that one), you may still find some good from it. Plus, it’s fun to watch your word count slowly heading for the 50,000 mark, and if you want a writerly community there to cheer you on, they’ve got the forums, too.

So, what are you waiting for? Got a novel in mind? Always wanted to write but never had the excuse? Want to get that pesky first draft done? Then check out NaNoWriMo’s website to get started. 🙂

http://nanowrimo.org

So, anyone else out there participating this year? 🙂

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May 24, 2012 · 4:23 am

“Research That Makes Good Fiction” – Guest Blog – Natascha N. Jaffa

We have a guest blogger with us today, Natascha N. Jaffa. Hopefully you’ll find her advice helpful, whether you’re considering trade publishing or self-publishing. 🙂

     

Natascha Jaffa dedicates her experience to helping writers grow through her editing firm, http://www.spjediting.com/, which she considers the best job in the world. When she isn’t editing, you can catch her snowboarding, rock climbing, or training for her first Ragnar Relay. She’s an active PRO member of Romance Writers of America, an editor for SoCal’s Mystery Writers of America chapter and is published in suspense and romance as Nichole Severn. Writers can find her on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/SPJ-Editing/271063536289907

https://twitter.com/#!/SPJEditing

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/natascha-jaffa/50/258/98b

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“Research That Makes Good Fiction”

Natascha N. Jaffa

No matter what genre you write, accurate research pulls your readers into your story. Plotting, formatting, world-building and character research are just four items on a list of many that make your reader unable to put that book down.

Plotting research. A lot of writers write by the “seat of their pants” and that works for them. Others plan every detail of their work, following a close outline, but, no matter how you plot (or don’t), there is a basic guide to follow in fiction.

This includes A) introducing your reader to your character’s ordinary world, B) diving into adventure, C) accumulation of bad things happening, D) answering the call to adventure, E) gathering friends and allies, F) the point of no return G) things falling apart H) your crisis or “black moment”, I) resolution, and J) your happy ever after.

In all actuality, your plot should look something like this: 

 

Larry Brooks has an excellent book you may want to check out called Story Structure Demystified or you may want to look into Martha Alderson’s The Plot Whisperer for more info. Her site http://www.blockbusterplots.com/index.html has actual video of her lessons if you don’t want to read!

Formatting research. It’s a simple idea, but there is a lot of information to sift through in regards to what should be included in the header of your MS, where page numbers should start, the actual font of your MS, and what the title page should look like and include. Authors use their own formatting in a lot of cases, but that’s because they’re allowed to. They’ve become accustomed to what their editor is expecting. Therefore, we must research. Find a copy of Formatting and Submitting Your Manuscript by Chuck Sambuchino. It will answer those questions whether you’re submitting a short story, a full novel, or an article to an agent or editor. Remember, the more professional your MS looks, the more professional you look.

World-building research. I’ve read so many manuscripts, especially paranormal, in which the writer doesn’t take the time to actually build the world they’ve created in their book. Readers want to know an era’s/world’s clothing, language, mannerisms, government, architecture, atmosphere, customs/traditions, and culture. Nailing down the details is what keeps your reader engrossed in the story and believing they are right there with your character.

Regency is a huge in the market right now and it requires a lot of research. This means reading history books, watching films in which the era is correctly portrayed, finding other novels in the same time period as your book and learning new words. Unless you’ve done your research, readers will see exactly how much time you took to get it right.

A word of warning: world-building research can become addicting. Never research more than you need to write about or you’ll never finish the book!

Character research. Characters make the book. This is the reason readers will pick up yours, so make them believe your characters are real. This includes setting your character’s goal, motivation, and conflict and not just for your protagonist and antagonist. Every character has an agenda. This is what drives your plot. Tell the reader what, why and why not. A great resource I recommend for every fiction writer is Debra Dixon’s Goal, Motivation and Conflict. Her tips will make your character multi-layered and believable.

You also need to paint a picture of your characters for your readers. A lot of writers actually find a photo that best suits their purposes and refer to it often to keep their descriptions clear throughout the book.

You as the writer need to know your character inside and out. Their job, their likes, dislikes, relationships with family and friends, favorite foods and everything else you can think of. Some are a little easier than others to construct, but either way, it must be done. Maybe you have a protagonist who is a cop. The best way to learn about your character and step into their shoes is to interview a cop. Find out how that officer spends his day, how many years of training he had to go through before he was allowed on the force, what tests he had to take. When it comes to the simpler things, Leigh Michaels has a great list of questions to ask your character in her book On Writing Romance.

 

There is a similar warning here as with world-building research. Don’t get too into your interviews or studying. Learn just enough that you can confidently portray your characters to your readers and not have to stress about inaccurate details.

Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons, Carolyn Jewel’s historical romances and even Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series are all great examples of well-researched fiction. These authors have taken the time to get the details right in their plotting, formatting, world-building and character development, drawing readers into the story and not pushing them out by focusing on incorrect information.

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Well, there you have it! That’s all for today, but hopefully you found something useful. Thanks, Natasha, for joining in. 🙂

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May 22, 2012 · 6:27 am

Self-Publishing and Marketing: Guest Interview – Matthew Selznick

Today I have a special treat: the first blog interview. 🙂

When it comes to self-publishing, we’ve all heard about the importance of editing and beta readers, and how good cover art is important to catching potential readers’ eyes. However, one thing I have not heard a lot about is the actual marketing of your book. Of course, word-of-mouth is an important starting point, and word-of-mouth is what will keep sales flowing long after your book has been available to the public.

However, some of us need a little extra push to get that book out on the shelves in the first place. You can have the most awesome book in the world, but if no one knows it exists, how will it be read?

That’s why some authors hire marketing and public relation consultants. Each one has a variety of services, and what the author needs will depend on their book and how well they can market it themselves.

Since this isn’t a topic I’m particularly familiar with, I decided to ask around and see if anyone who offers their services would mind answering a few questions.

For this interview I’ll be talking with Matthew Wayne Selznick, a creator working with words, music, pictures and people. Through MWS Media, he helps other creators bring their endeavors to fruition. He lives in Long Beach, California and is available at: http://www.mattselznick.com.

Read his resume here: http://www.mattselznick.com/about-matthew-wayne-selznick/matthew-wayne-selznick-resume/

          

Matthew: I provide marketing consultation, and I’ve occasionally done public relations work. I have experience as an author (self-published and traditionally published), a former bookseller, and an interactive marketing producer.

How should an author go about marketing their book?

By going where your audience is, being an engaged member of the community, and building relationships with people who become fans, supporters and evangelists. By seeking out new fans by looking for opportunities and areas of overlap. By establishing yourself as a writer worth reading, which means both writing a good book and presenting yourself well.

You mentioned being an engaged member of the community, and building a fan base. How do you go about doing that?

No matter the genre or niche (for non-fiction), there are people talking about it on the Internet and, very possibly, in your local community. Since you’re focused on YA fantasy / science fiction, there are probably hundreds of like-minded forums, Facebook groups, Yahoo! groups, fan websites, and even real-life meetup groups available to you.  Use Google to find them… join them… and be an active member there.  It’s all about building relationships and establishing connections *before* you even mention that you’re an author, or that you have a book for sale.  Build relationships and become known… people who “know” you will be much more willing to support your book when it’s time to unleash it on the world.

The same thing goes with Twitter — follow people in your genre, and watch their tweets and conversations. For example, if you’re writing young adult fantasy, you could do worse than follow Neil Gaiman. Follow their conversations, and follow their followers — engage with them when appropriate.  Contribute useful information when you can.

What do you expect of the author your working with?

To be available, to be open, and to be willing to be the brand. Authors who are not prepared to be marketers of their own work are at a tremendous disadvantage. Nothing sells a book like an engaging, involved and passionate author.

You’ve mentioned branding, and being a passionate author. Do you have suggestions regarding branding? How do you go about determining an author’s brand?

The author’s personal brand is built by the author through their public voice — which should be their *real* voice.  Brand isn’t something that’s determined… it’s something that is developed.

For example, Wil Wheaton’s “brand” could be “super-smart, really nice author, actor and gamer who feels like every geek’s older brother.” That’s not something he deliberately created… that’s who he *is.*

http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/

What do you charge?

It depends greatly on the project, the niche, and the author’s willingness to get their hands dirty. It also depends on whether I’m engaged on a project-based level, or as an hourly consultant. My base rate is $50.00 / hour, but project-level work usually results in a lower “hourly” rate overall.

How do you go about determining project level prices? You’ve mentioned the $50.00 base rate hourly. What all does that entail? How long do you typically spend with an author on this sort of project?

My primary role is mentor, trainer and advisor. Since the best spokesperson for an author is the author, I encourage them to manage their own Twitter stream, their own Facebook page, and so on.  It’s my job to make sure they’re handling their social media in the most ethical and most effective means possible.  I will also research opportunities like guest blog posts, online magazine articles, anthologies (a short story in an anthology is a way to promote an upcoming book!) and reviewers.

Because the tasks and level of involvement vary with each author client, this kind of work is usually billed on an hourly basis, although I do occasionally work under a retainer.  Project-based tasks would be creating a website, doing a book cover, editing, e-book conversion, and other services.

When do you suggest that an author begin looking into a hiring a marketing consultant, if they plan on doing so?

It’s good to get some advice tailored to your specific book early on… and by “early on,” I mean once you’ve completed your first draft.  The time to begin building a personal brand and an author platform is well before your book is to be released.  You want to have an audience to promote to on release day!

For authors who would like to get their feet wet planning their marking and social media, I recently added virtual and, when
practical, in-person consultation services. There’s more information at http://bit.ly/mwsmedia-consultation.  Folks who “Like” my MWS Media Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/mws.media.us can also use a coupon code for 50% off their first appointment, so that might be an inexpensive way to be introduced to these concepts as they apply to a new writer’s specific situation.

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So there you have it! I’d like to thank Matthew Selznick for being our first interviewed guest, and I appreciate his taking the time to answer a few questions. Hopefully this has been helpful for you readers. 🙂

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May 8, 2012 · 6:13 am

Graduation – Where To Go From Here

Wow, it’s been a busy week. One of the (many) reasons for this is graduation. That’s right, I can now say I hold a Bachelor of Science degree in Photography, with a minor in creative writing. What does that mean? Makes it easier for me write my credentials on website. And I  now have an actual album portfolio (a metal cover with leather binding and metallic pages, if you’re curious to know the details). I also have my Honor’s College Project, the “1000 Words” book.

But the real reason I wanted to bring this up was because of a few important things that I took from college. One thing is the importance of passing on knowledge. In an ideal world, education would be free, and passed on without having to pay for it. One great thing about the internet. It’s also a reason that I’m trying to keep my blog updated. I’m trying to focus on the self-publishing business and book cover design, as well as photo illustration. And I’m trying to post something useful when I do, so that there’s at least some tidbit of helpful information to pass on.

Which is why, if you have a question, feel free to ask. I may not know the answer, but if I do, or if I have ideas, I’ll try to help out. It’s why I’ve posted a list of blogs on the side of this blog that may proove useful to you. Yes, I’m trying to promote my business, but I also do want to be helpful.

Anyways, for my little note about promotion today, this is the flier I made to promote “1000 Words.” I don’t really expect it to bring much notice, but then, I didn’t write “1000 Words” to be a popular book. It started out as a portfolio to showcase my book cover designs, but hopefully it’s entertaining, too. But I included the picture in the flier, for recognition, listed  where it could be found and the prices, and said a little bit about it, both genres and what it is. I tried to make it bold and readable. We’ll see if it gets noticed or not. 🙂

SBibb's Photographic Illustration - 1000 Words Flier

 

Up Next:

1. Try to find a “real” job (that is, something to pay rent until I get this book cover business going)

2. Edit Distant Horizon, my YA novel I’m hoping to traditionally publish

3. Write novella one of the “Socks” novellas (more on that soon)

4. Work on premade covers to offer (more on that soon)

5. See about doing interviews with various self-published author to get the other side of the publishing business.

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April 22, 2012 · 10:43 am

Self-Publishing “1000 Words” – Ebook Anthology Now Available

Well, the good news is in! “1000 Words: A Collection of Short Stories” is now available as an ebook on Smashwords, and soon to be available on Kindle. 🙂

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/154613

Here’s the cover reveal (went through a couple transformations, but this is by far the one I like best. Yay for a “Twilight Zone” feeling):

SBibb - 1000 Words Cover

Overall, converting it into an ebook wasn’t so hard. Mostly just time consuming, and tweaking things here and there (I’m pretty sure there’s still a couple issues with the Smashwords format, but I’m not sure what). Once I had the Smashwords one done, converting it to a Kindle ebook didn’t take long. Unfortunately, you don’t get all the neat layout designs of  a print book, but the content and images are the same.

It’s available for $2.99, and comes with one additional short story not available for free (unlike the other nine stories in it). I will soon be making a print edition available through Createspace, and the price is to be determined.

I’m considering offering formatting services for both print and ebook editions for self-published authors if this goes well, so let me know what you think. 🙂

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