Writers in the Storm

by Ellen Buikema

Revision is the process of rethinking the story—big picture stuff: considering your character's traits, reviewing your research, fine-tuning the plot, reorganizing chapters. This is done prior to editing the manuscript.

Focus on getting the story down first, then revise afterward with fresh eyes. Give yourself time, at least a week or more, between finishing the first draft and beginning the process of revision.

Writing is an art form and a discovery process. Keep in mind that there will be multiple revisions. In 1958 Ernest Hemingway told George Plimpton of The Paris Review that, "I rewrote the ending to Farewell to Arms, the last page of it, thirty-nine times before I was satisfied."

Steps to Revision

Wait a while.

• When returning to the draft, be honest. What you really think about the story?

Think big.

• Look at the large issues. Are you saying what you want to say? Will the reader understand what you are saying?

Revision is a chance to look critically at what you have written.

Problems with Revising While Writing a First Draft

Revising while writing the first draft can wreck creativity and slow progress to a crawl. Make them separate processes to avoid:

• Ruining Creative Flow
  • Writer’s Block: Stopping to revise interrupts the flow of ideas, curtailing writing momentum.
  • Narrow Focus: Tunnel Vision on particular sections may cause loss of character development and over-arching narrative.
• Delayed Progress
  • Time Loss: Revising takes time, sometimes more than writing the first draft, which delays finishing the story.
  • Feeling overwhelmed: Writers may feel frustrated by the need to be perfect, which can lead to burnout.
• Weakened Story Development
  • Fragmented Story: Revising while drafting can keep the writer from finding the story's potential, resulting in an incomplete narrative.
  • Stunted creativity: Over-revising can stifle creativity, making writers overly critical of their ideas and causing a loss of originality.

How to Avoid Revising While Writing the First Draft

Finish the first draft: Rather than revision, focus on getting the story written. There is no such thing as a perfect first draft. I realize that this is easier said than done, having had trouble with this myself. What helped me was my first time writing for NANOWRIMO, the National Novel Writing Month challenge where you attempt to write 50,000 words in the month of November. I didn’t think I could do it, but proved to myself that it was possible.

In order to write that much in the time allotted I had no choice but to write and not revise. I cannot begin to tell you how often I wanted to “just go back and fix a few things.”

Give yourself the gift of time: Allow time to pass before revisiting the draft for a fresh perspective.

Use Fresh Eyes to revise: Focus on improving the character arcs, narrative flow, and story structure.

This method helps enhance creativity so writers can produce polished work.

How to resist spending more time revising what you’ve written instead of writing what you haven’t had time to write—because you’re still revising.

Take notes as you go.

I am a fan of using Track Changes in Word. Comments in Google docs works too. Scrivener Inspector has Notes pane. So, there are a lot of options depending upon the chosen method for documenting your writing.

Say you decide that you should have done something big, like send a character off this plane of existence a few chapters ago. Make a note and then continue on as if you had already written that change. Revisit that section when you’re finished revising and ready to begin edits.

Try time management techniques.

The Pomodoro technique of working for a certain period of time, taking a short break, and then back to work again is helpful. This is what I did to get through NANOWRIMO.

I know people who work for a certain amount of time and treat themselves to a set number of tiny candy pieces, then back to work. That wouldn’t work for me as I’d be too tempted to scarf down the chocolate pieces as I wrote.

Here’s a link to other time management techniques.

The Editing Process

There are four primary types of editing

• Developmental editing
  • Evaluate overall structure, pacing, plot, and character development.
  • Focus on logic, consistency, plot holes, organization.
  • Resolve narrative issues.
• Line editing
  • Work on rhythm, flow, and tone.
  • Eliminate passive voice, wordiness, repetition.
  • Make sure writing sounds natural.
• Copyediting
  • Work on technical correctness.
  • Focus on internal consistencies (e.g. eye color, tattoo type), grammar, punctuation, spelling, syntax.
  • Polish the text and make it cohesive.
• Proofreading
  • Final review of manuscript prior to release.
  • Focus on typos, stray commas, formatting.
  • Make manuscript public ready.

Proofreading should always be the last task. If your story is initially a mess, as first drafts are by definition, proofreading first is like putting a band-aid on a gushing wound. There will be a plethora of changes before it’s time for this.

Final Thoughts

When revising consider using a printed copy as, for some reason, problems seem to show up easier on paper. Also, try:

• Reading chapters aloud.
• Use Microsoft Word’s Read Aloud under the Review tab or other similar product.
• Have someone else read it to you.

Listening to your work will help highlight hiccups in the story.

If you are giving yourself two hours to write and you have a niggling need to revisit a chapter, and cannot go forward until you do, go ahead and do it. However, allow yourself no more than twenty minutes away from writing. Set the timer and stick to the time allotted.

Revision is a holistic view of your work in progress. Give yourself time away from your manuscript’s first draft and come back to it fresh and clear-eyed. This will help to avoid emotional exhaustion /burnout and give you room to create good work.

What type of time management techniques do you use? Have you ever gone back into a story after the first draft and discovered that you need major changes? Do you like a particular tool for note taking while writing your stories?

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About Ellen

Author, speaker, and former teacher, Ellen L. Buikema has written Parenting ... A Work in Progress, non-fiction for parents, and The Adventures of Charlie Chameleon chapter book series with stories encouraging the development of empathy—sprinkling humor wherever possible. Her Works in Progress are The Hobo Code, YA historical fiction and The Crystal Key, MG Magical Realism/ Sci-Fi, a glaze of time travel.

Find her at https://ellenbuikema.com or on Amazon.

Top Image by Dorothe Wouters from Pixabay

What If Your Book Isn’t Your Whole Dream?

by L.A. Mitchell

As writers, we’ve been conditioned to think of our entire future in this industry as dependent upon the success of our books. What a nasty little trap. If your book doesn’t sell, you feel like you’ve failed. If you haven’t yet caught the attention of an agent or editor, you feel like your dream is idle. And if you need another job to pay the bills? That must be evidence you’re not really a writer, right?

I see you. I see you circling that drain of I love writing. I want this to be my life, my everything, but I’m not making enough money from it, and I haven’t published yet. I don’t know how to make a sustainable living doing this, and I’m starting to wonder if this is a sunk-cost fallacy. I don’t want to choose between this thing that I love and financial stability.

To this, I say, “Hold up. Who says your books have to fund your writing life?”

You can have the writing life you want, before or after publication. Believe me when I say that your writing life can be so much bigger than one book or series or even twenty releases. This is your invitation to look sideways. There’s a whole writing ecosystem out there, waiting for you.

Your Writing Ecosystem Isn’t a Straight Line

Most authors imagine the path to success as a linear grind that looks something like: write – publish – write the next book – publish again – write again. We’ve been conditioned by the old industry, a kind of Pavlovian exercise, that forward is the only way. That if your cycle is broken, if publishing doesn’t happen for you or you don’t produce income from it, your dreams are dead. Even if you successfully repeat the cycle several times, it can begin to cannibalize the joy you once felt in the process.

If all you want to do is write books, if you thrive inside this cycle, go for it. That’s amazing and completely valid. I love that you’ve found what works for you.

But if you’re wondering if this is all there is of this writing life, this self-flagellation of drafting and disappointment, release and reviewlessness, launches and losses, if you’re open to possibilities to create a life where your writing has the wiggle room to thrive, this is the post for you.

The Modern Writing Ecosystem

Yesterday, I discovered a new site in beta that’s poised to gamify reading from the reader’s perspective, and they want genre authors to join them. Simon & Schuster just gave us a way to steer around literary agents. Authors are testing ideas on short-format sites and developing novel ideas and story worlds from their reader behavior and feedback—the audience before the book. And there’s at least one historical author who has gone old school with her novel. Her subscription model delivers chapters, one at a time, via snail mail each week, with vintage aesthetics included in the envelope.

Absolutely extraordinary.

Never has there been a broader mosaic to explore with our creativity.

Your personal writing ecosystem is the collection of things you do, the people you work with, and the skills you develop that support the writing life you’re trying to create. The publishing world is expanding every day. Boundaries around what it means to be a storyteller have exploded. You don’t have to only be the one who writes the books. You can help build the world, shape it, package it, visualize it, record it, design it, perform it, market it, research it, adapt it, teach it, expand it, merchandise it, map it, score it, or turn it into a full-on experience.

Some examples

Someone who loves travel and hospitality could put together writing retreats. A crafty person could create merch for a USA Today bestselling author and run her Redbubble or Etsy shop. A numbers or law genius could assist authors with the business side of this life. Someone organized could be a virtual author assistant. Another with culinary talent could team up with an established author of chef-themed rom-coms to develop a cookbook. Heck, even a Lego enthusiast could be commissioned to create story worlds.

You may think your talents don’t have anything to do with publishing, but there are authors out there who need your skills. Whatever you’re into, there’s a place for it in the modern writing ecosystem.

Build Toward the Life You Want

One goal here is to construct a professional life in which all your creative activities nurture each other. But this is more strategic than just an ecosystem cluster.

The genius is in proximity.

If you want to be a romance author, working with and for an established romance author will likely give you far more than a paycheck. Even if you’re only running street teams for a handful of accomplished authors, imagine the networking, the market exposure, and the knowledge you’ll gain along with that sideways opportunity.

Access to people who are already doing what you want to do is your sweet spot.

Help them do what you want to do better than they can alone.

If your ultimate dream of success in this industry is to host the most-listened-to horror podcast in history, and you know the ins and outs of the equipment and distribution already, it wouldn’t make much sense to develop your ecosystem in the direction of being a sensitivity reader for historical novels. Someone who has a master’s degree in anthropology of the Old South probably wouldn’t know punch and roll from audio compression. And it doesn’t have to be precise. Helping authors record their audiobooks is a much closer side quest than knitting the hoods that characters wear in a romantasy set in the underworld.

Nine years into my serious author journey, I took my first ghostwriting gig to make money. I added editing when I saw the demand on the Elance platform (This was before editors at major houses started freelancing). One of my editing clients, an entrepreneur in his day job, suggested a more lucrative writing-coach model that guaranteed my income. I diversified for financial reasons, but I remained inside this ecosystem I’d created because of the interplay. Editing feeds my ghostwriting. Coaching feeds my editing. And ghostwriting feeds my ability to travel the world and deduct those expenses. Different clients and services become symbiotic because they’re all connected to the same greater purpose: getting stories out into the world that deserve to be told. I was an English teacher before I was a writer, so these components of my ecosystem are a natural fit for me.

Your talents don’t have to be so on-the-nose as mine to fit into the writing world.

I get goosebumps thinking about someone who composes music creating a playlist for a NY Times author’s readership, or an artist creating a limited-edition deck for a famous romantasy author whose heroine dabbles in tarot. A genealogist who maps out fictional family histories or a scent designer pairing with an author to create a sensory reader experience. A miniature artist who constructs bookshelf miniature scenes in a book. And if you specialize in any kind of visual medium, a Renaissance of authentic and organic cover art is coming, so start building your ecosystem in that direction now.

Seven years ago, I met my formatter when she enrolled in my ghostwriting class. Ghostwriting wasn’t for her, but she’s a powerhouse with interior book design. She’s so talented at layout that a major publishing house is courting her right now. She hasn’t abandoned her author dreams. She simply used her other talents to build out her ecosystem, where she can make bank and keep pursuing publication.

What Might Your Writing Ecosystem Look Like?

Start with self-reflection.

• What do you have?

Think existing skills, obsessions, knowledge, fandoms, hobbies, relationships

• Who already has the thing you want?

Established authors, publishers, keynote speakers, narrators, designers, readers, podcasters, production companies

• Where do these two intersect?

Your sweet spot. This is where your opportunities appear.

Most importantly, it’s okay not to have all the answers now. Experiment. Start small. You may discover that something you thought would be just a side quest might lead you down a new professional path or teach you something that makes your writing even better.

Permission and Possibility in Your Writing Ecosystem

I didn’t have a master plan when I started taking on side quests and building my ecosystem. I tried out spaces where my skills, curiosity, and love of stories intersected. Over the years, they’ve evolved to include publish assist, audiobooks, special-edition hardbacks, and indie documentary development, shifting in emphasis and in what supports me emotionally and financially.

My ecosystem makes my ideal writing life more sustainable, more connected, and more expansive than I ever imagined. And I want that for all the writers I touch.

Remember, you don’t have to build an ecosystem at all. But if you’ve been trapped into thinking of your writing career as one narrow road, filled with stops and starts that map out book after book, I encourage you to look sideways. You might find that what accelerates your writing career is the fun little diversion sitting right next to it.

What ways have you found to expand your writing ecosystem?

Curious what that sideways look could mean for you? I’ve pulled together 100+ writing ecosystem opportunities, some familiar, some unexpected, to help spark your brainstorming.

About L.A. Mitchell:

L.A. (Laura) Mitchell is a ghostwriter, editor, writing coach, and publishing consultant who has built a career around the many ways writers can turn ideas into books. She is currently writing her 47th book as a ghostwriter, with genres spanning memoir, business nonfiction, self-help, young adult, women’s fiction, and romance.

A true multi-hyphenate, Laura sees her different creative roles as interconnected. Ghostwriting keeps her immersed in other people’s voices and stories; editing sharpens her eye for craft; coaching keeps her thinking about how writers learn and grow; and publishing gives her a practical understanding of what happens after the manuscript is finished. Each hat informs the others and keeps her work fresh.

Laura also teaches writers through her Draft to Dreams community, where she shares what she has learned about craft, creativity, and building a sustainable writing life.

Two years ago, she became an international digital nomad who fully supports herself through her writing ecosystem. Making the jump was a little scary, but the view from the other side? Breathtaking.

 Draft to Dreams: https://buymeacoffee.com/lamitchell

by Laurie Schnebly Campbell

Pretty much any great protagonist, we know, needs SOME kind of a quest. Because, drat it, people who are content just to sit on their porch drinking tea can get rather dull after a few such chapters.

However, if they face some kind of challenge — whether it’s escaping the sudden invasion of killer bees, planning a vacation someplace they’ve never been, winning the prize for Town’s Best Lemonade Recipe, or learning to paint the vistas from their porch — readers will be a lot more enthusiastic about the story.

Notice how those quests fall into two areas? One involves FINDING something external, completely outside themselves. Discovering a killer-bees escape route or the perfect lemonade recipe are both in response to some outside challenge.

The other quest involves CHANGING something inside themselves. Deciding to travel or taking up painting represents a different way of living. While this character isn’t necessarily becoming a whole other person, they’re exploring a new path for their life.

Each kind of quest leads to great stories.

The external kind is what led to Joseph Campbell’s and Christopher Vogler’s identification of “The Hero’s Journey,” where the protagonist is battling external forces to find the elixir and save the day.

That’s a perfectly good journey. But what about protagonists whose challenges aren’t so much external as internal? Like, for instance:

• Someone who can’t work up the nerve to call the fellow student they have a crush on.
• Someone who dreams of life in a different land but can’t bear to disappoint the family who wants ‘em to stay put.
• Someone who craves excitement but has to settle for reading thrillers because there’s no time for real-life adventure.

We’ve all met people like that. We might even BE people like that. And those people are whose quest is identified by Kim Hudson in “The Virgin’s Promise,” which — in contrast to the Hero’s Journey with twelve steps — could be considered the Heroine’s Journey with thirteen.

That’s not to say characters whose quests involve changing their life rather than finding the elixir are automatically women, much less virgins. Plenty of women want to defeat the external dragon; plenty of men want to discover their best self. But in traditional mythology, it was usually the men whose quests were external. Odysseus traveled the world; Penelope stayed home.

What makes internal change harder than external?

To be fair, external change is seldom an easy-breezy walk in the park. (Anyone who’s repeatedly tried to lose five pounds can testify to this.) But the NEED for External Change is usually a lot easier to recognize.

• “The trail’s blocked by a fallen tree; I’ve gotta find a way around.”
• “My new grill torched all the burgers; I’d better find a pizza place.”
• “Riley’s been kidnapped by bandits; I need to find their hideout.”

Internal Change is something that a character might not perceive as vital...or even possible, no matter how beneficial it might be.

• “I’ve always been the quiet one; Sophia’s the one who’s in charge.”
• “I can’t just leave; nobody else would be able to keep us all going.”
• “Even if my life isn’t ideal, I’m lucky to have this kind of security.”

Most of us become pretty good at getting used to things the way they are. Sure, maybe our situation gets tough every so often, but by and large it’s all working well enough...right?

But what about when we don’t even RECOGNIZE the situation is tough, because it’s what we accept as normal?

This is where the Heroine’s Journey comes into play.

Think of a character whose quest doesn't involve one high-speed car chase after another, but who nevertheless faces challenges — the kind that don’t generally appear in news headlines. Like:

• An exhausting workload
• Betrayal by a friend
• Ongoing illness in the family
• The threat of losing a job

Of course, that last challenge might generate headlines if everyone in the city is facing the same threat. (Which could make things easier OR more difficult.) But either way, this character’s stuck in a bad situation...and while she might dream of a more satisfying life than what she’s living, she’s not really in any position to do much about it.

Or is she?

Following the Heroine’s Journey template, she WILL come across an Opportunity to Shine. But, naturally, that’ll create other problems. She’ll begin to sense another, more fulfilling world just beyond her reach...

...only then her everyday world (not just the people around her, but also the beliefs that have sustained her through previous disasters) will threaten to make things even worse.

This quest won’t likely involve dragon raids or gun battles or horrendous tornadoes, although it’s possible such challenges might come into play. But what she’s facing is more of an internal journey, seeing her world in a new light and working out a new way of life for herself AND those she cares about.

Which leads to our

Prize-drawing quest:

Who’s someone (either a book character or a real-life person) you’ve seen work through a tough situation that — while not headline material — created a genuine challenge?

Someone who answers will win free registration to “The Hero’s Journey, for Heroines,” my Sept. 7-Oct. 2 email class on that very thing. On Thursday I’ll have random-dot-org draw a name and post it at the end of the comments — hurray, something to look forward to in the middle of the week!

About Laurie:

After winning Romantic Times’ “Best Special Edition of the Year” over Nora Roberts, Laurie Schnebly Campbell discovered she loved teaching every bit as much as writing...if not more. Since then she’s taught in-person and online workshops including the upcoming Hero's Journey for Heroines, and keeps a special section of her bookshelves for people who’ve developed that particular novel in her classes. With 60+ titles there so far, she’s always hoping for more.

Featured image from Pixabay.