Writers in the Storm

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Revisions are a part of writing, and as much as we wish they'd go smoothly, they don't always work out like we planned. Some manuscripts fight us and nothing we do makes them any better. When we run into such a troublesome beast, it helps to step back and figure out the problem before we make a mess of our stories.

Here are five reasons why your revision might not be working:

1. You're Not Done Writing the Novel

It's not uncommon to reach the end of a first draft and call it, "done." In many cases, the draft is finished and you're ready to move onto revisions, but if the story is still rough and there are still things to work out, it might not actually be "done." Trying to revise when you still have plot holes, or you're not sure about the character arc, or there's a subplot that so doesn't work after you changed that scene in Chapter Fifteen, often results in a revision that feels like it's not making the novel better.

What should you do to fix it? Keep drafting until the story is the way you want it and you've filled in all the plot holes. Once you're happy with how the story generally unfolds, then start revising. Take the solid story and make it better.

2. You're Trying to Make Too Many People Happy

Beta readers and critique partners are wonderful things, but if you're not careful, you could be letting what they want influence your book. If your romance-reader friend wants more romance, but you're writing a mystery, adding a love interest to make her happy is probably going to knock your plot out of whack and force the story where it doesn't want to go--just like adding a high-powered action subplot could ruin your sweet romance novel. Revising to make everyone happy isn't good for your novel.

What should you do to fix it? Choose only the feedback that will improve the story you're trying to tell. Don't be swayed by great advice that doesn't serve your story, and be true to the heart and soul of your novel.

3. You Have No Idea What Your Novel is Actually About

Some ideas come to us and we jump in and write them without really knowing where they're going. While there's nothing wrong with this (every writer has their own process), if you haven't yet figured out the story behind this idea, how can you possibly revise it well? You could end up changing scenes that support that story. A first draft isn't always ready for revision, and often, it takes a pass or two to get the story the way you want it before you can start to refine it.

What should you do to fix it? Take some time to figure out what novel you're trying to write and the story you're trying to tell. Crazy as it sounds, writing a query letter works wonderfully here to help you pinpoint the core aspects of your story--the protagonist, the antagonist, the core conflict, the stakes, the setting, and the motivations. If you can't write even a rough query, that's a red flag you don't yet know what your story is.

Bonus Reason 3.5: The Novel Doesn't Work

As much as I hate to say it, there are times when a novel just flat out doesn't work. It's a great idea, but you haven't found the right execution for it yet. Maybe you need a different protagonist, or it's the wrong genre, or the entire idea works better as a short story than a novel.

What should you do to fix it? It's hard, but let the manuscript sit for a few weeks and then read it again. If you still see no way to fix the problems, let it go and accept that you might still need to figure out a few key pieces before this idea can work. Some stories aren't ready to be told.

4. You're Scared You'll Mess Up Your Manuscript

If you've never revised before, or you made a huge mess the last time you tried, you might be scared to start a revision. Maybe you're not sure about the plot, or you have doubts about the characters, or the theme feels all wrong for the tone. You're not sure what to do and worry that you'll change the wrong things and ruin the story.

What should you do to fix it? Save your original draft in another file in the unlikely event that you do mess up your manuscript, and then trust your instincts. You know your story, you know what you want it to be, so take your revision one step at a time and start developing that story. If you're not sure what to do, ask friends for feedback or hire an editor for guidance.

5. You've Never Revised a Novel Before and You're Lost

If you've never revised before, there's probably a lot you don't know (and that's okay, we all start somewhere). You might be trying to work on issues in the wrong order, you might not know what to look for, or even what questions to ask. You might not know what a solid story structure is or the best way to order your scenes. These are all skills that take time to learn and develop, and it can be overwhelming if you've never done it before.

What should you do to fix it? Learn what to do and give yourself the confidence to move forward. There are plenty of great blogs out there with advice (such as WITS, or my own Fiction University), and hundreds of books with step-by-step instructions (I just released one, in fact--Revising Your Novel: First Draft to Finished Draft) to guide you. You might even look for classes in your area or online, or hire a book doctor or writing coach to help you learn (if your budget allows--don't spend money you don't have, it's not necessary).

Revisions don't have to be a hassle and can even be a lot of fun. If you're facing one that's causing you trouble, take the time you need to figure out what the problem is and the best way to fix that problem.

Have you ever struggled with a revision?

Win a 10-Page Critique From Janice Hardy

Three Books. Three Months. Three Chances to Win.

To celebrate the release of my newest writing books, I'm going on a three-month blog tour--and each month, one lucky winner will receive a 10-page critique from me.

It's easy to enter. Simply visit, leave a comment, and enter the drawing via Rafflecopter. At the end of each month, I'll randomly choose a winner.

A Rafflecopter giveaway

Looking for help revising your novel? Check out my new book Revising Your Novel: First Draft to Finished Draft, a series of self-guided workshops that help you revise your manuscript into a finished novel. Still working on your idea? Then try my just-released Planning Your Novel Workbook, a companion guide to Planning Your Novel: Ideas and Structure.

About Janice

Janice Hardy is the award-winning author of The Healing Wars trilogy and the Foundations of Fiction series, including Planning Your Novel: Ideas and Structure, a self-guided workshop for planning or revising a novel, the companion Planning Your Novel Workbook, Revising Your Novel: First Draft to Finished Draft and the upcoming Understanding Show, Don't Tell (And Really Getting It). She's also the founder of the writing site, Fiction University. For more advice and helpful writing tips, visit her at www.fiction-university.com or @Janice_Hardy.

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Laura Kaye

I’m always happy to have a chance to stop by Writers in the Storm, so I want to thank Orly Konig Lopez for the invitation to drop by! Today, I’m talking about some important but quick and easy things you can do to make it easier for readers, bloggers, and other authors to find, promote, and share you and your work. You never want to make people hunt around for links to share, or where to buy your books, or where to find more information about you or a release. And you’d be surprised how hard it is to find links, covers, and other information about their recent releases on many authors’ pages. So here are some things you can do to make yourself more promote-able:

Facebook. This is a platform with a lot of readers, and where more and more bloggers are hosting and promoting book tour posts. Most authors have pages or writer-oriented profiles, too. And the commonality among them is that all of these groups enjoy sharing other writers’ work. So make it easy for them:

1) Update your cover image with your latest book(s). And, even more importantly, list all your buy links in the description of your cover image. That’s an easy-to-share item right at the top of your page, and the convenience of it will encourage shares or allow others to easily grab those links. Need a good graphic design program? Try the free canva.com site. It’s fantastic and easy to use.

2) Pin important posts. If you have an important post you are especially interested in having others know about or share, pin it to the top of your Facebook wall so that it’s the first thing visitors see when they come to your page. To pin, click the small arrow in the top right-hand corner of your post and then click “Pin to Top” in the drop-down box that pops up. If it’s a book cover or graphic about a new release or a sale, include the buy links! Yes, your book might be available on Amazon, but expecting that readers will take the extra steps to leave Facebook, visit a retailer, and search for your book could possibly cost sales and readers. Why take the chance? Check out Lauren Blakely’s Facebook page for an especially good example of points 1 and 2!

3) If you have a Facebook page (and you should!), fill out the “About” section with your newsletter subscription URL (as part of your short bio) and your website, and those will appear on the wall of your Facebook page, making it easy for people to find and follow you.

Twitter. Hopefully, you have a presence on both Twitter and Facebook, because they do not have exact overlap in users. Generally, more readers tend to be on/most use Facebook, while more “influencers” tend to be on/most use Twitter. Influencers are bloggers, industry people, librarians, booksellers, and others who are active in sharing and talking up books. Despite that difference, my advice for Twitter is similar to my advice for Facebook:

1) Update your cover image. Make it visually easy for users to identify your newest books by keeping your cover image up to date. Canva is nice because it has graphic templates pre-sized for all the different social media sites, so making cover images is EASY!

2) Pin important posts. You can’t associate links with your cover image, but you can pin a Tweet you want others to see and share right at the top of your Twitter profile. Click the three gray buttons at the bottom of your Tweet and then click “Pin to your profile page” at the bottom. Users who check you out will then be able to find the content you’d most like them to see and share, which is especially easy given how the fast-moving Tweet stream so quickly pushes your posts down in others’ newsfeeds. And remember that Tweets with images stand out even more!

3) Edit your profile to include your website and bio, and use your bio to mention upcoming releases or your newsletter subscription URL.

Website. Your website is your virtual home on the internet, and it should be clear and easy to navigate. Here are some tips for making it easy and effective for shares and promotions:

1) Include social share buttons on every page and blog post. Those are the little social media icons that allow users to automatically share your post, book page, events page, etc., on any social media site. Of course, visitors can copy and paste the URL, leave your website to copy it into a social media site, and share from there, but you don’t really want to encouraging them to leave your website! Most website platforms can easily accommodate social sharing now, so have your website person help you update if you don’t already have this. Another tip for keeping visitors on your website: set all links to open in a new page, which means your website remains open in their browser despite clicking on your links to retailers, etc.

2) Include an image on every post or page of your website. This is especially useful for Facebook, where URLs with an associated or featured image will populate the image into the Facebook post, making it more noticeable and interesting than URL posts without images that just post a few lines of text.

3) Include some way of making it clear on your HOME PAGE which book is your current or upcoming release. That might be a Recent Releases slider or blog posts that feed onto your home page and announce what’s new and upcoming, similar to my home page, or slider images with dates and series reading order, or listings on the home page itself, or a sidebar. There are many right ways to do this, just make sure you don’t make visitors hunt for that information.

Of course, we all strive for a balance between promotion and genuine interaction and engagement. But people follow us and our pages because they want to know about our books. So while you don’t want to only be saying, Buy my book! Buy my book!, you do want people to know how and where to find you and your books without having to do all the legwork themselves. And you want people to be able to share your content easily and conveniently. I know if I have to hunt things down, I tend to get distracted or run out of the time I’d set aside for social media. Readers, bloggers, and authors want to promote you – so help us do it!

What tips can you add to my list above? I'd love to hear what others have found that works for them. And if you have any questions, please ask. 

Thanks for reading!
Laura

About Laura Kaye:

Laura is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over twenty-five books in contemporary and paranormal romance and romantic suspense, including the Hard Ink and Raven Riders series. Growing up, Laura’s large extended family believed in the supernatural, and family lore involving angels, ghosts, and evil-eye curses cemented in Laura a life-long fascination with storytelling and all things paranormal. She lives in Maryland with her husband, two daughters, and cute-but-bad dog, and appreciates her view of the Chesapeake Bay every day. Laura’s next release is Bound to Submit, the first book in her new Blasphemy series, coming October 11, 2016.

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by Kathryn Craft

Turning Whine Into Gold

When writers seeking publication believe we are all in search of the same magic juju—you know, the one that has “New York Times bestseller” on the label—we create a culture of desperation like that of brides grappling at a wedding gown sale. My last post, “What Do You Bring to Your Support Team,” suggests that we instead think about what we can contribute to our important publishing relationships, whether with family members, agents and editors, or designers and publicists. This follow-up, with thanks to commenter Tom Pope who suggested it, will explore how we can learn to best contribute. Since this is a huge topic, it will be my focus over the next several months of my Turning Whine Into Gold posts. Each subtopic deserves our consideration if we care to be a valued member of the publication team.

The control dramas we explored last month, which we defer to when we feel the need to syphon precious energy from one of our support partners, suggests that our most important team contribution is an ideal state of elevated energy. Here are seven ways to maintain that.

1. Embrace the science. You’ve heard it a million times and will hear it again from this holder of a BS in biology and an MA in health education: eat healthy, stay hydrated, sleep well, exercise more. We writers love our coffee and wine memes but a keen creative mind cannot live on stimulants and depressants alone. We need nutrients flowing through our brains because our thoughts, quite literally, need a breath of fresh air. And those endorphins that provide a sense of wellbeing aren’t too shabby, either. Being hung over may add to your tragic persona on social media, but behind closed doors, it will not make you a reliable and valued team member. Strive for maximal health for a longer, better career.

2. Shore up your faith. Knowing who you are and what you believe bestows a quiet confidence that infuses your everyday interactions. I’ve quoted my prolific author friend Katherine Ramsland here before and I’ll do it again today: “It doesn’t matter what you believe, it matters that you believe.” Even if you do not believe in a higher power, you must have faith in your team’s combined talents if you hope to empower them to succeed. After all, “We can do this!” is more powerful than shaming someone with the many ways they’ve fallen short. The publishing industry is stormy on a good day, and the more deeply rooted your faith is, the more turmoil you can handle—and faith can turn turmoil into strength, wisdom, and growth. Faith is contagious. Your team will benefit from it.

3. Make peace with your choices. You will do your team no good if you can’t get beyond what’s already in your rear view. Let go of what those other agents and editors said, and the opinions of those one-star reviewers, because continuing to vilify them will only drain you. Lessons learned can fuel future course correction, but give this team your very best in this moment. Embrace these slogans: “All is subjective” and “Ever forward.”

4. Don’t forget to live life. Writing is a lone endeavor. But if the extent to which we seek seclusion endangers our most supportive relationships, doubt and its accompanying anxiety will trigger your control drama, making you a taker, not a giver. Career growth requires risk, so practice it by leaving your comfort zone on a regular basis. Out among others in the real world, your problems might not seem as all-consuming as you thought. Bring this refreshed attitude to your team and benefit from the energy that doing so creates.

5. Allow emotional reaction to pass before placing that call. The critical and competitive nature of this field takes its toll, to be sure. I need not enumerate the ways. We can protect our team from the rise and fall of our inner turmoil by striving for a more sensitive awareness of when we are starting to feel low. By identifying our control drama, we can note more quickly when it kicks in, and take immediate measures to bolster our energy. Then, when you meet with the members of your team, you’ll be brainstorming solutions instead of expecting them to salve your wounds.

6. Give back. There have been times when my confidence was so rattled that I felt I had no clue what I was doing. Sound familiar? That’s what happens when you reach outside your comfort zone. At such times, I can remind myself how far I’ve come by reaching out to help writers climbing the ladder behind me. And we can carry the resulting sense of good will right back to our team.

7. Remember you are in it for love. Fact: publishing does not guarantee a living wage for hours invested. Neither is getting published a right—it is, and always has been, a privilege. Somehow, once we get published, we forget this, and the complaining begins. No one is putting a gun to our heads here. If you can no longer access your love of what you do, your energy level will drain away and you’ll have nothing to offer your team. Take a workshop, phone a friend, drum up a bigger support crew—do whatever it takes to reconnect to the love that brought you to this place. Because there is one thing I know for sure: the members of your support team are human, and humans always respond to love.

Striving to maintain a high level of energy is key to motivating your team. When you bring your best, others tend to respond in kind. Maybe the magic juju isn’t something we find and grapple for after all, but something we can find and enhance within us. Rather than a culture of desperation, this will allow a culture of abundance with room for us all.

Bonus: every one of these energy-boosting strategies is good for your writing as well.

Does the problem of low energy resonate with you? What about your writing drains you, and what other ways have you found to shore yourself up?

About Kathryn

Kathryn Craft is the award-winning author of two novels from Sourcebooks: The Art of Falling, and The Far End of Happy. Her chapter “A Drop of Imitation: Learn from the Masters” will appear in the forthcoming guide from Writers Digest Books, Author in Progress, available now for pre-order.

Her work as a developmental editor at Writing-Partner.com, specializing in storytelling structure and writing craft, follows a nineteen-year career as a dance critic. Long a leader in the southeastern Pennsylvania writing scene, she leads workshops and speaks often about writing.

Twitter: @kcraftwriter
FB: KathrynCraftAuthor