Winning Pitch

Over these past years, there’s one thing I found I am not good at. Pitching or querying. So imagine my surprise when my pitch made it through the first round (the pitch round) of ABNA…Shocked, breathless, definitely disbelieving.

I’m showing you my pitch because we’re all curious about what sort of pitch or query is thought to be “winning” enough. Now, I’ll admit, two days after they closed submissions, I looked at this and almost puked. I think it’s bad. That said, I used my 3-sentence pitch for my hook, which I absolutely adore, so I can’t help but wonder if that was enough to push me through.

In a world where women are a rare commodity, Emma is one of man's greatest enemies. She fights for freedom but is held captive by the love of two men-one her husband, the other her worst enemy. If only she could remember which one is which.

In DOPPELGANGER, Emma wakes knowing only what her husband tells her-that she has had an accident. An accident that left her with no memory of her past. It is not long before remembering is far more trouble than she ever anticipated. She begins having nightmares about a war she fights to free young girls meant for the slavery of marriage, a childhood spent in a compound where escape means execution, but worst of all, a grieving man who holds her hostage in a tank of water. If they did not raise so many questions, she would happily succumb to a life of bliss with her husband, willingly letting her past go for good.

With a new career as a talented artist, and expecting nothing short of a quiet, happy marriage, a new dream surfaces that is more disturbing then the nightmares. A honeymoon on a beach she has been painting without realizing its significance and an overwhelming feeling of love she cannot ignore. And though she cannot see his face, she knows he is not her husband-not the one she has just given her heart to.

Emma's past struggles to resurface whether she likes it or not. And while some dreams prove this past must belong to someone else, she still finds herself inexplicably drawn to it and longs to finally get some answers. The longer it takes, the more torn she feels between the man claiming to be her husband and the one she believes really could be.

What parts do you think I could lose/tweak? What grabbed you? Any suggestions would be great. While I hope to win ABNA, I’m not holding my breath. (But OMG, could you imagine?! I would DIE.)  I’m going to just attempt to go on as if this isn’t happening (for my own sanity) and proceed as normal: Preparing my package to query in April.

Sh*t Writers Say

We talk about FOOD.

And consequences.

We talk about smelling food. (Research, am I right?)

We pat ourselves on the back by indulging in more…that’s right, folks…FOOD. Nothing says “great job” like celebratory cake.

Oh, but wait, cinnamon bun first, then…writing goal…then cake.

We Greet.

We Worry.

We make the Hard Choices.

We Blame.

We Threaten.

We look for…stuff.

We really have no idea what we’re doing. And the people in our heads won’t talk about it.

We call ourselves very odd things.

We see a beautiful day and are inspired to do more odd things.

We never leave our office and can find a way to do just about everything, including…

Oh, and you best believe we’ll find a place to type that word that isn’t really a word and make it work, by George.

#FreakyGod/dess titles for EVERYONE! You’re all the best part of my day.

 

That’s right. I support character abuse.

Charissa Weaks and I are bad, bad people. Horrible.

We support abuse. Murder, too, if necessary.

And we plot it.

Wanna see?

**For the sake of their identities, I won’t publish the victim’s names. And if you see either of our muses, don’t say a word. Hide the post. They have really big mouths and can’t keep secrets from said victims.

K: Heroine 

G: Hero

CHARISSA: Bad Mommy

MISTY: Partner in Crime

EVIL THOUGHTS: Oh, this is totally me.

CHARISSA: Thinking about my catalyst moment and I need more reasons for the beating G has to give to K. Looking at making the beating the midpoint.

MISTY: I think maybe you’re right. Maybe it does happen too soon.

EVIL THOUGHTS: *brain starts spinning…* That beating was NASTY, yet totally necessary. She might be on to something. 

CHARISSA: I can move it up to after she’s been trained & nothing has happened. Maybe G was hoping her powers would be brought on by the training.

MISTY: GREAT IDEA. More motivation. Nothing’s working to bring on her powers…time to kick it into gear. They’re probably growing closer by then. OH…the conflict!

EVIL THOUGHTS: Oh, man, if G’s already falling for K, that beating won’t be fun for either of them. This has to happen later.

CHARISSA: BUT…he will def have feelings toward her by then and nearly killing her will be much harder. What will make him willing to do it? Before it was just frustration and trying to get her to back down.

MISTY: There needs to be a threat.

EVIL THOUGHTS: If someone else beats the shit out of her first… This has to happen.

CHARISSA: Oh God, I can just imagine them the night before he does it. The tension. OMG. And that first hit. God.

MISTY: Does she ever get out of the mansion or off the island before she takes off to Ireland? She could have a nasty run-in that scares the shit out of all of them.

EVIL THOUGHTS: That’s right. Make her run into some Bad Guys, let them rough and tumble her…break her spirit…scare the man who loves her into beating the shit out of her. No question. This has to happen.

CHARISSA: I can SO do that.

MISTY: It would be a perfect motive. And that scene after when he takes care of her would make more sense.

EVIL THOUGHTS: Must. Happen.

CHARISSA: Should I do it after she runs off to Dublin? Let something happen there? They already get attacked. THEN they’ve had sex so the conflict will be just that much more severe.

MISTY: DO IT.

EVIL THOUGHTS: OH MAN. They’ve done the “deed” AND he has to beat the shit out of her. Feck YEAH.

CHARISSA: I. AM. SO. EXCITED. I literally just clapped my hands.

MISTY: I bounced in my chair. Did a little dance.

EVIL THOUGHTS: …high fived myself.

CHARISSA: YAY!

MISTY: YAY!

EVIL THOUGHTS: …for beating a beotch cold!

And that, my friends, is how you plot really really  bad things. For you Newbies out there, I know you don’t condone practically killing your babies main characters yet, but trust me when I say, one day…

YOU WILL.

AND YOU’LL LOVE IT.

Two Steps Forward. Zero Back?

It’s weird how things change.

Last year I thought I had two workable manuscripts with little issue. This year I see the work I need to do to fix them because they’re a damn mess. Plots are iffy, motivations are weak, worldbuilding needs work. Heavy work. The only thing I have going for them are my likeable characters.

Doppelganger came back with a pretty raving review the other day. I cannot believe it. I have to make a pretty serious decision about whether to cut a particular scene. It’s one of those 50/50 you’ll either love and understand the motivations for it or you hate it and it makes the character look bad. Tough for me because I see both sides. I would love to keep it and let someone else make the decision later if it comes to that, but I don’t want to take the chance of it staying, either. If that makes any sense. I don’t want anyone to dislike this particular character.

Anyway, the plot is straight. Characters were her favorite so far. Sentence structure was mostly tight. It’s clear I type faster in the last part of the ms and missed some things. Any questions she had were minor and easily fixable. I’m actually in awe by the lack of work I have to do.

So what I have here is an ms that’s just about ready to query. And I might have a shot. That’s pretty scary. Weird, too, knowing I’m about to send out a book that I believe has no huge issues. Oh, you best believe I tried querying those other two manuscripts thinking my plot issues were small enough to slide.

Newbs, right? LOL.

So my sights are set on April! Going to get the query and synopsis squared away next month, as well as the first 50. Seriously glad I’m taking that workshop on Savvy Authors. Can’t mess this one up… Zero Steps Back. ZERO. 

D-Day, otherwise known as Crit Day

My CP, Tracy, informed me last night that her final notes on my ms would be late and I would have them in time to look over after work today.

Problem is, I’d forgotten and now I’m all antsy. It’s become strengthen-your-backbone-in-preparation day because let’s face it, no matter how shiny I already think Doppelganger is, it isn’t. And I’m a give it to me straight kind of writer. When I say tear it up, I’m not secretly hoping I’ll get a hand slap. I want a beating. A full on bloody and bruised, broken and maimed kind of beating.

That said, I’m still capable of being shattered when my new child comes back hurt. This particular ms was difficult for me. It’s my first light sci-fi/fantasy, with too many twists and turns to count, and hopefully a shocking ending. So while that was hard to keep straight, the emotional aspect left me the most drained I’ve ever felt. Hopefully any future readers will feel something because it made my head hurt. Lastly, I wrote it in present tense. That was a hard transition, but one I loved.

While Tracy isn’t giving me too much in the way of her opinion, she has told me she’s very impressed with how far my writing has come and that my plot pacing is spot on so far. I have to say that gives me some relief. Less to fix later. The pacing was my biggest concern considering all the secrets I had to keep from my mc. So I am kind of excited. Hopefully I’ll get a good mix of good notes with the bad. Maybe the bad won’t be as bad as I’m expecting.

She is expecting me to clean up in time for this huge workshop I’m taking next month. It starts on the 5th. The instructor will work with me on my entire package: query, synopsis, and first 50 pages. Submissions That Sell. The price is high ($125), but if I can start querying worry-free come April/June? I would have paid more than that if you want the truth. One thing I’ve decided over the past years is that I suck at writing a query, so that alone will be worth the money.

Anyway, I’m finished rambling. If you made it this far into the post without falling asleep, YAY YOU! Also, I like you

The Power of Word Choice

This topic has been eating at me over the last few weeks. It never occurred to me how word choice can effect the showing of a scene. The right word can incite a smell or a sound or a feeling. So, obviously, I thought it was time to share.

The importance of this can start in something small: how you open a door, how you walk across a floor, or even remove/put on clothing. Then you go into something large like a fight or, dare I say it, sex. These two in particular require a lot of thought behind the choice. The reason why I find these two “larger” in scale is b/c you need a good, constant mix of showing words in these scenes. Words that show sound and touch, etc., as well as emotion.

Let’s open a door.

I pushed the door open.

I nudged the door open.

I kicked the door open.

I shoved the door open.

In each case you should have had a different visual… If you didn’t, then I suck at this, lol. Regardless, this is the same for every other detail in your ms. If you want your reader right there, that word choice is the key.

Now the fight and/or smexy scene. No worries, I’m not going to use a sex scene for my example, lol. The only difference is that you’ll use harder vs softer sounding/feeling words. Okay, so here’s one paragraph from my ms, Doppelganger. I’m going to make it simple, then show the real deal after.

I turn around and run. He is ready for this, though, and grabs me. His momentum pushes me into the table. The edge presses into my stomach, forcing the air from my lungs. My arms move out and hit the glass centerpiece of flowers. The vase falls over the other side and the glass breaks, sending hundreds of clear glass marbles across the floor.

Now for the way I actually wrote it…

I twist around and run. He is ready for this, though, and crashes into me. The momentum thrusts me into the table and the edge slams into my stomach, driving the air from my lungs. My arms fly out and strike the glass centerpiece of flowers. The vase rocks over the other side and the glass shatters, sending hundreds of clear glass marbles skittering across the floor.

That’s quite the difference, isn’t it? Thesaurus.com. Type your boring-ass word in and see if anything stands out to you. Simple.

Now YOU! Give us an example…

And…GO.

Love is in the Air!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Honestly, the hubs and I aren’t big on this holiday after 12 years (though I love the man beyond comprehension), but I can write about romance day in and day out.

So, today, I’m going to share a scene with you from my current WIP, Doppelganger. I love this manuscript. Emma, my mc, is probably the softest woman I’ve ever written. I tend to lean towards strong, fighting characters, but Emma is the complete opposite.

Just a quick intro…the following scene is a dream, but seeing as how Emma has no memory of her past, she’s beginning to wonder if these dreams are actually memories. She’s married, but the man she’s dreaming of is not her husband. It’s causing quite a bit of turmoil. This dream takes place on a beach in Mexico with the mystery man… (Still needs deeper edits, so don’t judge too harshly.)

(Luckenbooth)

The night was warm. Dark, too, with the exception of the occasional lit home along the beach. The clear night sky shone brilliantly with the cluster of light from the Milky Way.

He sat behind me, legs on either side of me, his bare chest—only because I now wore his shirt—pressed gently into my back with slow, even breaths. We sat quiet, satisfied from making love on the beach.

My painting of the sunset with his luckenbooth and the easel blocked our view of the sky to our left. My discarded sundress lay gently fluttering in the breeze to our right. Dark waves crashed on the shore directly in front of us, practically invisible to the naked eye.

It was a perfect setting and a perfect night.

“Seriously,” I said, “I don’t think we should go back.”

He kissed the back of my head and brushed my hair over my left shoulder to kiss my right. “Em, believe me, if it were possible, I’d leave everything just to be here with you.”

“I know.” I drew a deep breath. “Promise we won’t be gone forever.”

“Promise. And whenever we’re feeling the pressure of our lives and want to get away again, all we have to do is look up.”

I looked up as if commanded. “The stars?”

He chuckled. “Not just any stars. There are entire stories up there, Em. It’s like reading the best books in the universe. We can get away any time we want.”

“Pray tell.”

“Okay, well . . .” He trailed off and shifted slightly behind me. He pointed nearly straight up. “There, look. Three all together. Perseus—"

“I know that one,” I said. “Killed Medusa and saved the princess from the sea monster.”

“Saved Andromeda from Cetus, yes,” he said, sounding amused. “Very good. He’s connected to Taurus who is connected to Orion.”

I twist slightly, but only see a dark shadow of him in my peripheral. “Taurus is an astrological sign, I thought. Aren’t you a Taurus?” I looked up into the sky. “Which ones are they? I can’t tell.”

To our right, he swiped a somewhat even surface into the sand and drew a bunch of dots, then outlined around them until I saw the shape of the constellation Taurus, the Bull. I searched for the grouping in the sky and found it after a good ten seconds or so.

“It’s not just an astrological sign,” he said. “That’s a story about Zeus and how he fell in love.” His palms ran over my arms until they found my hands. His lips lay right over my ear when he continued. “He disguised himself as a white bull in order to attract the princess Europa. Drawn to his beauty, she climbed right onto his back. Once he had her, he swam to the island Crete where he turned into his true form and made love to her.”

When he didn’t continue, I said, “That’s it?”

He laughed. “Is there anything better than making love to the woman you love?”

I shook my head. “Where’s mine?”

“Virgo?” He pointed straight ahead and then down. “Can’t see her.”

“Does she have a story as good as yours?”

I felt his shoulders lift in a shrug. “She’s a virgin.”

I laughed. “That’s all?”

He chuckled and nuzzled his face into the back of my head. “Only that she’s identified with a lot of heroines, one being Ceres, the goddess of the harvest.”

“How boring.”

“You said it, not me.”

I sent an elbow back into his ribs. “I like the heroine part, though. The heroine and the bull.”

“We’ll storm a lot of castles, you and I.”

So You’re a “Newb” ~ Now what?

You’ve just written your first novel… now what?

As a prior “newb”, this was a daunting question, and one I found a fairly simple answer to once I did a bit of Googling.

You query.

As a not-so-new-pre-pubbed-writer, my advice to you is this: Don’t query.

Not yet.

There are far too many things out there for you to learn, and if you’re completely clueless (or damn near close), you aren’t ready.

I remember hearing things like “go to conferences” and “join a writer’s association” and thinking, why would I want to do that? Why? Because they have INFORMATION. Any YOU need it.

First, learn the writer speak. GMC, MC, MRU, CP, MS, BETA, WIP, Show vs Tell… for starters and the list goes on. Here’s a great Publishing Dictionary from the ladies at Bookends.

Second, learn how to apply the lessons behind some of those crazy acronyms! Did you know you can take workshops online? Personally, I love SavvyAuthors.com but there are so many others.

Along with the workshops, you really need to come out of your hermit shell and join the community. We are large and in charge, and we’re also here to help. Writers are the most supportive group! We understand your crazy like nobody else. You can’t tell Mom, “Man, seriously, Emma woke me up last night with the craziest conversation she’d like to have with Noah.” Mom is going to nod and smile and look like she’s listening, but inside it goes something like this: “I wonder if this is code for I’ve become a schizophrenic. Maybe I should hit up the WebMD later.”

If you aren’t on Twitter or some other platform, do that now. Follow all the agents representing your genre. Follow their blogs. Start building your own platform. Blog, Twitter, G+, Facebook, Triberr…whatever. And more than one. At my last conference, I learned how important this is, and not just for after you’re lucky enough to find representation… Did you know a good platform base can be a selling point for an editor? Don’t wait. (Just my opinion—don’t yell at me for it. You know who you are…I see you.)

READ. Read read read what you’re writing. When I started, I read things like James Patterson but wanted to write things like Stephanie Meyer. Two different genres! Not. Good. You have to know what your future fans are expecting.

DON’T FOLLOW TRENDS! Vampires (hot as they are) are the kiss of death, and as someone with a 3-book plot idea full of vampires, I wish nothing more than for that fad to kick back in, but unless it’s amazing, no agent or editor in their right mind is going to give it a shot. By the time you see a trend happening, and it’s popular, agents and editors are already way past it and looking for that new idea. You’re already too late. So if you notice a trend in Garden Gnome romance (LOL, omg, wouldn’t that be hilarious?!), and you LOVE it, the people that matter and will pay you money for it are already worn out on it. (And now my mind is spinning over this gnome romance, lol… my muse is akin to Satan sometimes. I’m seeing a blog post series in my future. Hmmmmm.)

Lastly, the biggest piece of advice I can give you is to grow the largest, biggest, baddest backbone you can. You. Will. NEED. It. You will receive harsh criticism from everywhere. If your crit partner isn’t rough, get a new one. I’m NOT kidding. How else are you going to learn? Honesty is the best policy or you won’t make it. None of us are perfect and in this business you need people to point the flaws out. It’s tough, but true.

I know I’m missing a A LOT, so if anyone has something to add, please comment!

Book Review ~ Fracture

Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine

-despite the scans that showed significant brain damage. Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows she's far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can't control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it?

Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who recently emerged from a coma with similar abilities. At first she's reassured to find someone who understands the strangeness of her new existence, but Delaney soon discovers that Troy's motives aren't quite what she thought. Is their gift a miracle, a freak of nature-or something much more frightening?

For fans of best-sellers like Before I Fall and If I Stay, this is a fascinating and heart-rending story about love and friendship and the fine line between life and death.

 

I’m having a great “find” year in YA so far. First Cinder and now this. Holy gods, this was good. I downloaded the sample from B&N and was hooked instantly. Great start to what turned out to be a serious page turner. True story, I was headed to bed @ 11pm, decided to check out the first few pages first…I was up until 3:30. I tried to go to bed @ 2, couldn’t stop thinking about it, rolled over, picked it back up. Had to force myself to put it down @ 3:30. That’s how good this is.

Certain things catch me in books, but this particular bit I have to share.

A lot can happen in eleven minutes. Decker can run two miles easily in eleven minutes. I once wrote an English essay in ten. No lie. And God knows Carson Levine can talk a girl out of her clothes in half that time.

Eleven minutes might as well be eternity underwater. According to the lessons from health class, it only takes three minutes without air for loss of consciousness. Permanent brain damage begins at four minutes. And then, when the oxygen runs out, full cardiac arrest occurs. Death is possible at five minutes. Probable at seven. Definite at ten.

Decker pulled me out at eleven.

Passages like this make me shudder.

So many things about this stabbed me emotionally. Decker—oh God, Decker—her mom… Damn. I find the parents in YA lacking in character a lot, so when the subplot with the mom started and I found myself gravitating emotionally toward her, I was really shocked. The parents are actually parents in this book.

One thing is for sure, this is a one-day read. You won’t be able to put it down.

Click the pic to head straight to Barnes and Noble.

Do it YourDamnSelf: Line Edit;-)

 

Like I mentioned earlier this week, I don’t have a problem doing my own line edits. I want to make sure my voice remains as true to character as possible by the time it hits an actual editor.

So what’s the process?

I use Microsoft Word 2007, but in all Word programs, you’ll find the “find” button. In this case, it’s the top right. Type the word you’re searching for in the box, click Find Next and it will begin highlighting (temporarily) the word. Click button again for the “next” location. OR, and this is what I do, click Find In and then Main Document. It will highlight (temporarily) all of them in your doc. Just click the highlight button on your bar under Fonts to highlight permanently.

 

All that you need to do now is restructure where needed!

Don’t know what words to look for?

I’ve got you….

• all
• could
• feel/feeling/felt
• hear/heard
• just/then
• knew/know/think/thought
• see/saw/look
• slowly/quickly
• so/very/really
• taste/smell
• that
• there/it
• was/were/am/is/are/be/had/has

Some of you just got the bug eye, didn’t you? LOL, I know I did the first time. That’s a hell of a lot of words. And now you’re asking why…

There are words that just aren’t necessary. (Did anyone catch that? “Just” wasn’t needed there!) Use them too much and you lesson the impact when you do need that punch. So… all, could, just, then, so, very, really, that ~ sometimes they aren’t necessary. Tighten your sentences by losing them in most cases, but not all! You might need the impact.

Some of these words are telling words! Can you guess which ones? Feel, feeling, felt, hear, heard, see, saw, look, taste, smell—all of them telling words. You DO need them in some cases, but how often does your character say them before they tell you what they’re hearing or seeing or smelling? For example, “I saw the car pull up and park across the street, then jumped when I heard him honk the horn.” OR you could say, “The car pulled up across the street and I jumped when he honked the horn.” Tighter, and you’re not patronizing the reader by telling them the mc saw and heard what they saw and heard.

“There” and “It” begin a lot of sentences when you don’t need them. It’s called a delay of subject. I’m so guilty of this. “There is/was/were” then you get to the subject of the sentence. If you cut it, restructure slightly, the sentence will be tighter. Example: “There is a giant gorilla cooking tacos in my kitchen and you’re playing cards.” OR you can say, “You’re playing cards while a giant gorilla cooks tacos in my kitchen?” I just made that up off the top of my head, but you get what I’m saying.

Was/were/am/is/are/be/had/has are most likely used as a verb form of “to be”. In some cases you can find a better verb, like, say, instead of saying “was standing” you can say “stood”. In other cases you can cut it all together: “with hair that is like the color of a noon day sun”…stupid but, you could cut words and say “with hair the color of a noon day sun”…and there you have a cleaner, tighter sentence. For me, these particular words are the hardest for me, but try shifting the subject of the sentence around and see how that works. You might be surprised what you come up with.

Here’s a good list of words: http://www.vivianna.net/SexiestWordsAround.pdf . The internet is full of sites with great replacement words. Thesaurus.com is a great tool to replace something like, say, walk slowly. Put in walk and find the synonym that means the same thing. (The answer could be amble, for example.)

Okay, that’s it! Easy. Time suck, but easy. And you get to manage your voice while doing it. How awesome is that??

Anything to add? I’m no expert, so I’m positive I’m missing something huge…

Book Review ~ Cinder

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .
Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

 

I was weary going into this one. This was my first retelling of a classic, but also cyborg Cinderella? Wha-what? BUT, I gave it a shot…

…and freakin’ loved it. LOVED, I say.

Did I mention love?

I don’t read much science fiction, but I had enough Star Trek/Wars background to help me through the science stuff, and past that, I loved this world. I loved that it was based in Beijing—Marissa Meyer did a fabulous job setting up the culture. I’ve never been there, but now I feel like I have.

Fabulous characters—I loved, loathed, loved…loved and loathed. Instantly fell in love with Prince Kai and instantly hated the stepmother. Going in, you know you’re going to hate her b/c you know she’s going to be a beotch, but for real, she was not cool.

And while the story of Cinderella is there, it’s more just background music to this fantastic plot and Meyer added so much more to it that I was left guessing a whole hell of a lot. The end of this left me drop jawed and a bit on the fanatical side about needing the next installment. I’m pissed I found it so close to the release date, lol. I don’t want to wait that long.

On the writer side of things, Meyer did a great great job showing this story. She’s incredibly talented.

Click the pic to head straight to Barnes and Noble. You won’t regret it, I promise.

To Pay or not to Pay ~ A Tale of Editing

The longer I’m in this “business” of writing storytelling, the more craziness I come across learn. Today I’m hearing that learning how to copyedit your own MS isn’t popular among a fairly big number of writers. Some of you would rather pay a professional…. GREAT!! I am down with that if you have the funds saved.

But here’s my question: If you’re offered the opportunity to learn how to do your own copyediting, why wouldn’t you take it?

Here’s why I ask: This is your voice you’re risking in another person’s hands.

YES, our manuscripts end up in other hands already and hopefully will end up in an editor’s hands, but for now you have the option to tell your crit partner to kick dirt cuz your character wouldn’t even consider using a particular word or phrase.

I firmly believe that if you copyedit your own stuff, and if it’s clean, and it holds onto the voice you hear in your head, the less you’ll lose when it comes to doing that final edit. 

Obviously, I haven’t been to that point, but I have to wonder how often voice gets lost in this process when it’s not the cleanest written work you can turn over?

Copyediting is NOT hard. Time consuming? Hellz yes. HELLZ yes. You will need coffee or tea and aspirin and mood music or utter silence and really thick walls and and and… But once started, it’s not hard. And honestly, it’s only that first time that will be the worst. Once you do it, you’ve already learned how not to do it as bad in the next manuscript and the cleaning will be minor. I absolutely do know this from experience.

Okay, so here’s my example of why I believe this effects your voice. I came across this last night while looking for “was” and “were”.

Before: In daylight, his skin was more the color of warm chocolate. What remained clear in the dark were the pale grey-blue of his eyes.

After: In daylight, his skin resembled the color of warm chocolate. Only the pale grey-blue of his eyes remained true in the dark of night.

Is it just me or is the “after” a different voice? I actually stared at this for a while and considered whether my character, Emma, would talk like that. Or would she phrase it a whole other way I haven’t thought of yet? I decided to keep it, but when I do a final read through for voice and pacing, if that jumps out at me as not sounding like her, it’s gone. It’s hard to tell when you’re jumping around for specific words, so you have to be careful.

Okay, so that’s my opinion on the subject… I’m keeping my words out of the hands of the professionals until I think it’s vampire sparkly and cross my fingers their suggestions for sentence structure doesn’t wreck the voice I hear daily/nightly/hauntingly.