by Lynette Burrows

No matter whether you’ve written your story strictly following your outline or you’ve discovered your story as you wrote, the rough draft usually will benefit from some judicious editing. You probably finish your first draft in a blaze of glory. It’s done! You feel great…for a few hours or maybe days. Then the questions and doubts surface. That euphoria melts into a puddle of “this is the worst!” Despair leads to desperation and you leap into editing. But if you’re editing without a plan, your second draft will differ from the rough draft, but may not improve. Systematic editing helps you see the shape that’s hiding in that mess of words. In every book-block of text there is a story (apologies to Michel Angelo who actually said...

Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.

Michel Angelo

First, a word of caution. Not everyone’s system should be the same. Why? Because our stories are different, our brains are different, and our writing styles are different. All the layers mentioned in this article are important, but their value to you and your story will depend upon your writing experience and knowledge, your story’s genre, your style, and your readership. With those in mind, take this list of layers and mix and match it. 

Prepare

Congratulations, you finished your rough draft. That’s huge. Most likely you are euphoric or you’re tired of the whole thing and ready to chuck the mess into the trash can. Either of those mindsets are not ideal for looking at your manuscript with any objectivity. 

You need to be as objective as humanly possible to get the best self-editing job done. So take a break. Take as long of a break as your deadlines and other responsibilities will allow. During your break, get your materials and working area ready for the evaluation and editing phases. 

Put Your Life in Order

Okay, not really, but you need to have long stretches of uninterrupted time. Some people need to go to a hotel, a library, or a cofee shop to get that time. Do what works for you.

You'll also need notebook or computer file for notes, a large stack of self-stick notes or index cards, ink pens or pencils, and a set of colored pencils, pens, markers or highlighters.

You’ll need a few more things. If you wrote a story blurb or paragraph or sentence to guide you as you wrote, print that out so it’s available. Next, you’ll need a copy of your manuscript.

Physical Copy vs Electronic

Multiple studies have shown that most people scan electronic information. All electronic information. And most of the time, that’s good enough. It’s not good enough when you’re self-editing. So unless you are one of the rare breed who can read word for word on the electronic screen, print out your manuscript. Print it with a different or larger font than you’ve worked in until now. (This will help your brain see it as something different.) Put it in a box or a binder or have enough space to put it on a desktop. 

Your Workspace

Set up your workspace with these tools but also set up the mood. If you need silence, find the quiet spot. If you prefer music, select two to four pieces of music that you can stand to listen to on endless repeat and will help you concentrate. Likewise, get your snacks and beverages sorted out. The idea is to prepare your space well enough that you have to minimal interruptions. 

Once your manuscript has cooled, and you’ve prepared your workspace, you’re ready to read. 

Read the Manuscript as a Reader

Reading your story as a reader means read it taking no notes. You’ll be tempted to edit. At the most, highlight or circle the offending word(s) but do not edit. Just don’t. Even the addition of a comma may be enough to flip your brain from reader to editor. For the first read-through, you want to get the feel of your story. So put on your “I’m a reader” hat and read. 

Having your computer or another person read the story to you is an acceptable alternative. In fact, for some of us, that might be the ideal situation. That way, we only hear what is on the page and not what is in our head or what we thought we put on the page.

First Impressions 

After reading the entire thing, ask yourself how what you read aligns with the story you wanted to tell when you started. Write a paragraph or two about how it fits, or doesn’t fit, with the story you envisioned. Just big picture types of thoughts. The nitty-gritty doesn’t matter until the primary parts are what you want. 

The Structure Layer

No matter what plot structure or genre you use, the structure of a story is its foundation. Take your story apart. Again, start with the biggest piece first. 

You might find it helpful to physically divide the manuscript pages into fourths. For each section, ask yourself questions specific to the structure of that section. For example:

The First Quarter—The Beginning

What is the hook? Could it be stronger?

Did you put ground underneath your character’s feet? Hint: Read more about this in the post, "Put Ground Beneath Their Feet."

Does the beginning pose a question? Does it promise tension and problems (tension) to come?

What is the mood and tone of the beginning? Does the setting enhance that? Does it match or foreshadow the ending mood and tone? Hint: Your mood and tone are part of your promise to your reader. Make certain you deliver what you promised.

How many characters does the reader meet? Could you reduce the number of characters? Hint: the fewer the characters introduced in the first pages, the more the reader focuses on the protagonist.

Are there sections with more than one or two paragraphs of backstory per chapter? Hint: Feed your reader only what she must know at this point. 

Does each chapter end with a hook? 

What is the problem that puts the protagonist in a position where she cannot go back to her before life?

Did the protagonist decide or did someone else? Hint: Having someone else decide weakens your reader’s investment in the protagonist.

The Second Quarter—The Rising Action

What does your protagonist do? Are there easier choices she could have made? Why didn’t she? Hint: Don’t be guilty of having the kids split up when they know a serial killer is in the house. (Or it’s equivalent in your story.)

How does the antagonist thwart the protagonist at her every turn? 

Do the actions of the antagonist make your protagonist suffer? Could the antagonist make it harder or hurt your protagonist more? Why doesn’t she?

Does the protagonist and/or her desired outcome appear to be in more and more jeopardy with her every attempt to solve her problem? Is there some change that would increase the tension?

What does the protagonist or reader learn on each page?

How does the protagonist’s understanding of or method of attacking the problem change at the end of this quarter? Hint: This is the mid-point reversal. 

The Third Quarter - The Failures Start

Is the action on the page? What did you leave off the page? 

Does it seem like failure is inevitable right until the very end?

Does the reader’s tension build to an almost unbearable degree?

The Fourth Quarter—The Final Act

Do the protagonist and antagonist meet face-to-face for the final confrontation? Hint: In most stories, this face-off is crucial to the success of your ending.

What choice between two concrete actions did your character make? Was there an easier way out? Hint: Your character and reader should feel she’s caught between two equally good choices, or two equally bad choices, or between a good choice that will cost her something dear and a terrible choice that will have a different but equally painful cost. 

What did the ending cost your primary character? 

Did she make the choice, or did someone else?

Has poetic justice been served? In other words, how does the ending pay off for your primary character? Did she earn that payoff?

Have you crafted a “punch line” or concrete image that expresses the emotional fulfillment of the ending in a focused way? Hint: In the beginning of the movie, Lethal Weapon, we see the suicidal cop Riggs with a bullet he plans to use on himself. At the end, he gives the bullet to his partner, a sign that he’s past that. In The Grinch, we see the two-sizes too small heart grow three sizes in the end. 

Is the ending satisfying to the reader?

Does the ending answer the question posed at the beginning of the story?

Overall Story Questions

Are themes, motifs, or phrases from the beginning echoed in the ending?

Do the scenes flow smoothly and logically, building the tension, the reader’s knowledge, and the leaving the ending in jeopardy? Hint: this is pace. A successful story has slower and faster sections but is always building the reader’s desire to turn the page.

Is there more than one character performing the same story function? How can you change that into one character?

Before You Re-Write

There are as many ways to approach your edits as there are writers on the planet. One way is to create moveable cards that summarize each scene you have written. Moveable cards include digital ones on software programs, 3x5 index cards, post-it notes, or an outline in your word processing software.

Place the cards in the order that follows what you’ve written. Then move them around. Take out the ones that don’t work. Add new ones. Keep at this until you’re satisfied you’ve improved your story and you’re ready to begin re-writes.

Not the End of Revisions

Wait, we didn't use the colored pens. Crafting the best story plot you can is only the beginning of your revisions. The next phase gets into more of the nitty-gritty of using colored pens and shining up word choice. Word choice affects everything from mood to character to tension and pacing. We’ll cover that more in the next blog post. 

Do you use a systematic way to edit your stories? What’s one story structure tip you can share?

About Lynette

Lynette M. Burrows is an author, blogger, creativity advocate, and Yorkie wrangler. She survived moving seventeen times between kindergarten and her high school graduation. This alone makes her uniquely qualified to write a story or three.

Her Fellowship Dystopia series takes place in 1961 Fellowship America where autogyros fly and following the rules isn’t optional. It’s the story a young woman of privilege who discovers the world, her world, is far more dangerous than she knew. A companion book, Fellowship, and books one and two, My Soul to Keep, and  If I Should Die, are available everywhere books are sold online. She is madly scribbling away on book three, And When I Wake, scheduled to be published in 2024.

Lynette lives in the land of OZ and is a certifiable chocoholic and coffee lover. When she’s not blogging or writing or researching her next book, she avoids housework and plays with her two Yorkshire terriers. You can find Lynette online on Facebook, or Twitter @LynetteMBurrows or on her website.

Image Credits

Top photo purchased from DepositPhotos.com and modified by Lynette M. Burrows.

by Lisa Norman

I have a magic wand to share with you. If you use it, it’ll change your brain chemistry, make you a more interesting person, fight boredom and dementia, and increase your adaptability, making every day of the coming year just a tiny bit easier.( The Top 7 Benefits of Learning a New Skill - CCSU)

I’m talking about picking one aspect of your life that you find frustrating, one skill that is holding you back, and tackling it.

Forge a Happy New Year

As we look back on this year and think about our goals for the next year, this is a great time to isolate one thing that if you could make it better, your whole life would change.

However, some of the most life-changing skills are not the ones you might think of.

One of my students used to dread opening her email every morning. She had thousands of unread messages, many of them urgent or important. She felt overwhelmed and anxious, and often missed deadlines or opportunities. After learning how to use her email program effectively, she was able to clear her inbox in a week and keep it that way. She learned how to archive, search, and snooze emails, as well as how to flag spam, unsubscribe, and recognize phishing attempts. This skill has made her more productive, organized, and confident.

It took her less than a day to learn how her email program worked, but she hadn’t thought about it as a thing to be studied until we covered “inbox zero” in class.

When I teach basic tech classes, I'm stunned by how many people secretly believe that everyone else somehow magically understands how tech works... without ever taking a class or setting aside a few days to learn how their new software works. They think other people somehow intuitively learned to use the technology in their lives, not realizing that everyone has had many moments when they come to a piece of technology as a complete newbie and they either read a manual, get someone to teach them, or set aside time for practice.

Daily Tech Skills

One of my students lived in a perpetual state of fear that her computer would fail, and she’d lose her stories. We took some time and investigated her cloud backup options. She discovered that she was already paying for space that she wasn’t using. We created an organization system and backed up everything in the cloud for her. When her computer crashed a few months later, she didn’t lose any data. Her new computer synced up with her backup and she was back at work on her novel in a day.

What would your life look like if you had an organization system set up where you could find not only the latest version of your book, but also your blurb, cover files, and even the list of people to include in the acknowledgments?

Here are some other basic tech skills that might be life-changing:

• Learning how to use your computer's internet browser
• Learning new features on your phone
• Exploring the tech in your car

And this one is controversial: How many of your programs now include some sort of AI help? Have you tried it? This doesn't have to be a scene from the movie War Games. I've been surprised how many times I can take a problem and drop it into an AI and cut my workload in half. Don’t use AI as a writer. Use it like a virtual assistant. Expect to rewrite, fact-check, and improve.

Writing Skills

This most fundamental part of our careers embraces a wide range of skills.

Are you looking at starting a new series and questioning if you have enough knowledge of the time or the culture that you want to portray? Do a deep dive on the time, place, or culture you want to focus on.

How about learning to use a piece of writing software?

• OneNote, Joplin, or other note taking software (replacements for Evernote)
• Scrivener
• Word
• World Anvil

What if you focused on mastering:

• Plot structure
• Dialogue
• Showing emotions

Editing Skills

You might want to learn:

• ProWritingAid
• AutoCrit
• Track changes or comments in Word

I've watched my favorite editor teach her clients to use track changes and comments in Word many times. Professionals know how to use these features. Are you just using a tool to get by? Or are you taking advantage of powerful features that are there to help you?

Career Building Skills

How about taking a master class from one of your favorite authors?

• Neil Gaiman
• Margaret Atwood
• Brandon Sanderson

What about taking a class in legalese for writers?

Marketing Skills

Would you benefit from a basic marketing class?

Or do you want to explore:

• Pay per click advertising
• List building
• Blogging
• Newsletters

Is this the year you finally build that website? Or the year you finally start using the one you built a few years ago?

Don't say "all of it!" Because “all of it” will be the same as learning none of it.

You want to pick one thing.

Just-in-time learning is important.

Don't spend a ton of time learning to market while you are writing your first book. Why? Because marketing will have changed by the time you're ready to dive in. The pace of technological change is increasing daily. You want to learn just enough to get by, leaving your deep-dive time for things you need right now.

For instance, if you are writing your first book, you might not need to worry about how to use TikTok or Clubhouse to promote your book. By the time you finish your book, there might be new platforms or features that you will want to learn to reach your target audience.

I see writers beating themselves up because they don’t know all the things. They get trapped in a loop of studying and learning and don’t move forward. Don’t get stuck! Pick just one thing that you can learn that will help make every day better.

Last year, I committed to learning how to edit and finalize a novel. I learned a lot, but got distracted by moving my school to a new platform. I didn't put everything I'd learned into practice, so I'm carrying that goal into this next year. I'm set up for success, and excited to see what 2024 brings.

What are you waiting for? Pick one skill that you want to learn and start today. You will be amazed by how much it can change your life for the better.

Let me know in the comments what skill you have chosen and why. I would love to hear from you!

About Lisa

Lisa Norman's passion has been writing since she could hold a pencil. While that is a cliché, she is unique in that her first novel was written on gum wrappers. As a young woman, she learned to program and discovered she has a talent for helping people and computers learn to work together and play nice. When she's not playing with her daughter, writing, or designing for the web, she can be found wandering the local beaches.

Lisa writes as Deleyna Marr and is the owner of Deleyna's Dynamic Designs, a web development company focused on helping writers, and Heart Ally Books, LLC, an indie publishing firm.

Interested in learning more from Lisa? Sign up for her newsletter or check out her brand new classroom where she teaches social media, organization skills, and marketing for authors!

Top image by 2081671 from Pixabay.

by Jenny Hansen

I've known many writers who give up before they cross the finish line -- the finish line being that place where they feel like they have the skill to tell a story and the know-how to release it to the world.

Some of them give up way before the finish line, for a variety of reasons. Maybe they find that they don't like the writing life or the process drives them bonkers. Maybe they just like keeping those stories tucked safely inside their heads. But today's post is about the writers who give up just before they cross the finish line. Those are the writers that make me want to grab their hand and give them the encouragement and resources they need to hang on a bit longer.

I hope you'll share a bit of your journey down in the comments.

Five reasons why writers give up.

Anyone who has been at the writing game for a while could list a dozen reasons to give up. Maybe two dozen. But the reason they keep going is hard to argue with: they love writing. Or, maybe they don't like the writing so much but they love telling stories. Here is a small sampling of some of the main reasons I've seen so many writers throw in the proverbial towel.

1. They didn't realize it would take so long.

This is a tough one. When you first begin, you don't know what you don't know. You want to share your story with the world, but you don't have a concept yet of what it takes to do that.

Then you find some writer friends or some blogs like WITS or some podcasts. You participate in some challenges like NaNoWriMo, and maybe go to some writing conferences. You listen to those published authors talk about their road to publication, and are maybe a bit surprised at how long it takes.

You write some more, and learn some more writing craft. Maybe you join a critique group or start entering contests. You might start querying at this point, or looking at indie publishing. And then you start to lament that it has been weeks, months, maybe years...and you aren't nearly as far along as you thought you'd be.

And sometimes this is when people get discouraged, and they quit. This is right when you are finally ready to take off with intention. You've made the connections, learned some solid skills, and started to figure out enough about the paths to publishing to set a more reasonable timeline for your goals.

This is what I meant when I said many writers quit just before they get to where they want to be. This is the time when you need to get whatever help you need to hang on a bit longer.

2. It's too hard.

I'm sure you've heard me say it before, but the writing life is not for the faint of heart. This is a profession where you will fall down. It's a profession where you will have to pick yourself up, probably many times. One of the reasons I encourage the collection of some awesome writing pals is that they will pick you up when your writerly legs can't possibly hold you up even one moment longer. Your writing pals will check on you and encourage you and commiserate with you.

And if you can't bear to reach out for help, I'm here to remind you (and myself):

We're writers. Writers persevere. Even if it's only one page at a time--hell, one sentence at a time--we keep going. We are mighty beings formed of stubbornness, creativity, and caffeine.

Perhaps you could jot down a version of that mantra above and tape it up in your writing space. When in doubt, just keep going. You've got this. You can do the hard things like a boss.

3. They don't feel they have anything else to say.

You're a creative badass. You always have more to say.

I have a very good friend who is a well-known musician. I talked to him about creativity a while back in this post. He's put out 20+ albums and always feels like he's said all he has to say. And then his manager books him some studio time and tells him to go write 15 songs. Somehow, he always does.

When I asked him his secret, he said:

"Jen, every year when it’s time to record a new album, I feel like I’ve done it already and those are all the songs I have to write."

He paused a moment and added, "Then I’ll hear my mother’s voice in my head like she’s right there talking to me: 'You said you wanted to be a musician; it was what you trained for and practiced at. It was the only thing you EVER wanted. So, get off your a$$ and write some music, and quit crying about it.'"

Sometimes, when you sit down to do the work, that beautiful song (or story, or character) will just spill onto the page. But only if you've dragged your uninspired self into your place of work to be ready to receive the gift.

4. All that constant change chipped away at them.

The one absolute in the writing life is that things will change. Quickly and often. Publishers will merge, agencies will fail, algorithms will shift, social platforms will wane. Marketing on those platforms and managing Amazon is enough to send many writers screaming.

In last week's post, "Marketing, How Do I Hate Thee? Let Me Count the Ways," Piper Bayard shared her immense marketing woes. She's talented in a million ways, but technology isn't her favorite thing. She'll work long and hard to master it. Now add in that technology changes all the time? It made her crazed.

Finally, she bit the bullet and hired help because, as she explained to me, it was either that or quit the writing life.

Even without technology adding to the changing landscape, today's publishing world is vastly different from what it was five, ten, twenty years ago. It is a lot for a writer to keep up with, on top of getting their stories ready.

5. They let someone else's opinion matter more than their own.

It is normal to hate criticism, just like it's normal to be afraid that you're a hack. It's even normal to compare yourself to others. But when you start prioritizing other people's opinions or performance over your own, it's a surefire way to ensure a bumpy writing ride. Comparisonitis, as Johnny Truant calls it, is a sure way to take a fast trip to Anxiety-ville.

Especially because many of our fears aren't real. Fae Rowen, one of our founders at WITS used "fear" as an acronym to express this concept to her logical mathematician brain:

FEAR:
False Evidence Appearing Real

She put that gem up where she'd see it every day to assure herself that most of her fears and worries were not real. We ALL do that -- worry about things that aren't real -- because we're so afraid that they might be true. 

As hard as it is, you have to believe in your own story. You have to know with everything you have that it is valuable. If you don't believe it is worth telling, and that you are the only one who can tell it, it's a pretty solid bet that your story will never be told. And that would be a shame.

An a-Ha Moment in My Own Writing Journey

Back in 2004, I was a wide-eyed newbie. I'd been scribbling for a while, as we all do, but I didn't even understand the craft workshops I was attending enough to apply them. Eventually, it soaked in, but twenty years ago I was clueless.

I was lucky to attend an all-day event with uber-agent Donald Maass. He was so dynamic that I hung on his every word, knowing this was important material for me to absorb. But when he said, "Tension on every page was the key thing his team looked for" when they were acquiring books, I had absolutely no clue what he meant.

I snuck a few looks around the room, and all the more advanced authors around were nodding and chattering with one another about the brilliance of it all. I felt like an idiot because I had NO IDEA where to even start to understand.

Fast forward a decade to an Immersion Master Class with Margie Lawson where she shared Power Words and "how they bring tension to the page." I remember thinking, "Ooooooooh, this is what The Donald was talking about." I re-read all his books and I finally got it.

That's how this writing life works. Every learning experience and critique you get mortars another brick into the foundation of your writing craft. One fine day, the connections and information coalesce into knowledge that you can use.

All you have to do is persevere for long enough.

Have you ever thought seriously about quitting your writing life? Was it for one of the five reasons above, or something else altogether? Do you remember an a-ha moment when a complicated writing concept became clear and changed the way you write? Please tell us your story down in the comments section!

About Jenny

By day, Jenny Hansen provides brand storytelling, LinkedIn coaching, and copywriting for accountants and financial services firms. By night she writes humor, memoir, women’s fiction, and short stories. After 20 years as a corporate trainer, she’s delighted to sit down while she works.

Find Jenny here at Writers In the Storm, or online on Facebook or Instagram.

Article images from Depositphoto