Fable and Fancy: editing

February Wrap-Up!

Oh, February. You were a gross, snowy and grey month, and I'm sad to say you won't be missed. I'm so ready for spring and I am SO ready to be rid of my writing funk. Since I haven't really been feeling up to social media this month, I decided to do a recap of everything that's been going on!

WHAT'S THE 411?

The biggest news of note is that the hubby and I have started looking to buy a house! WHAT? I'm still pretty sure I'm not adult enough to buy a house, but our bank seems to think we're mature enough humanoids that they'd loan money to us. True story: buying a house is super complicated and not at all a low-stress process. Luckily we are already in a great apartment so we aren't on a time crunch and we have time to find just the right place, and time to listen for the plans God has for us.

Since January, I've been in a generally awful patch of writer's block. I wrote about how I've been dealing with that nasty little beast here.

In other news, I quit my job at the magazine, and I now am exclusively working part time at my church as the church administrator which involves lots of graphic design, and about all the other random things that are needed to keep a church running (building maintenance aside).

WHAT AM I WRITING?

I'm still trying to finish my Christmas novella, Mistletoe & Matrimony which I got a very late start on last year. Yeah, I mentioned the writer's block didn't I? I can write about 200 words a day, and while that's not much, it's still progress. Hard fought progress. I'm still in love with the story, I just need the words to come faster. Please, words. I miss you!

Follow Adelyn's board Mistletoe & Matrimony on Pinterest.

WHAT AM I EDITING?

I'm slowly working away at I Wish I May. I'm currently editing a chapter a week mainly for posting on Wattpad, but I will be ramping up the speed on my major edits soon. I've already overhauled chapters 1-5 while also second-guessing decisions I made about some of the overarching plots, but these changes are something I'm going to feel out with more feedback. My plan is to have it ready to send out to Beta readers and to submit to contests at the end of March.

BEST OF FEBRUARY

FILM

So I watched Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and it was nice. So nice I saw it twice. In theaters. I have even contemplated seeing it for a third time it was so fierce. It was quirky, and silly and so unbelievably amazing. Overall, I learned two things from this film: first, that Jane Austen is, truly, even better with Zombies. Second, that everyone is gay for Mr. Darcy.

LITERATURE

It was a very Austen month. I read a wonderful novel called Glass Roses: A Victorian Fairytale. How is this for a concept: "It is a truth universally acknowledged that magic is required for any young lady to find her “happily ever after” in a fairytale. This truth is so ingrained in the minds of readers that to suggest its removal is incomprehensible. But what if the magic is removed? Is it possible to find true love when the world is perfectly ordinary?" It was a retelling of both Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast, told in epistolary format, and I was definitely into it. You can read my glowing review on Goodreads.

FANDOM

As far as I'm concerned, the only thing worth watching this month has been Agent Carter. Considering how amazing season one was, I tempered my expectations for season two, but steeling myself for a sophomore slump was drastically unnecessary. This season has been so wonderfully well-written and so enthralling that I pretty much am living for Fridays when I get to watch a new episode. I am an unabashed PeggySous shipper and this season has been one giant tease for PeggySous shippers. There have been so many tortured glances and if this ship actually sails in the finale I might explode.

"Do as Peggy says."

And that pretty much sums up my month. Feel free to harass me to finish editing my novels because it is long overdue. March, please don't suck as much as February. Other than that, feel free to share your Jarvelous writing plans below so we can keep each other accountable!

5 comments

, by Adelyn Sterling

Beautiful Books

Beautiful Books Link-up!

So, I never got to do a proper Nanowrimo wrap-up considering my husband was so sick and then December happened, and yeah, I'm still trying to catch up on all the chaos and respond to wattpad comments and messages and all the other things I've committed to. BUT I decided to do my first link-up under Beautiful Books so I could catch you all up on how Suite Revenge is going. If you've never heard of Beautiful Books, check out the details for the link-up here on Paper Fury's blog or at Sky's blog Further Up and Further In. It's basically 10 questions about your current work-in-progress, so here goes...

1. On a scale of 1 (worst) to 10 (best), how did the book turn out? Did anything defy your expectations?

5... Well... it's not done yet. I had only just reached the first plot point and the end of the first act before life decided to put it on hold. But from what I got done in Nano, I'm really excited about where it's going. Defying expectations? We'll have to see. *Sighs* I still have a long way to go, though. I will say it's a bit lighter than I expected, which is surprising considering there's murder involved.

2. Comparative title time: what published books, movies, or TV shows are like your book? (Ex: Inkheart meets X-Men.)

How do I begin to describe Suite Revenge. It's an Edwardian cocktail that's one part Downton Abbey...

...two parts Gran Hotel...

...shaken with a dash of amateur sleuthing...

...and garnished with a twist of magic.

3. Do you enjoy working with deadlines and pressure (aka NaNoWriMo)? Or do you prefer to write-as-you’re-inspired?

Do I like it? No. Does it make me a more productive writer? YES! I don't think any writer enjoys writing when they aren't inspired but it is a discipline worth practicing because it comes in handy when I already have very limited time to write as it is. It will be doubly handy when I have to meet deadlines!

4. How do you go about editing? Give us an insight into your editing process.

I can't speak for Suite Revenge, but I'm about to start my round two of edits on my other novel I Wish I May. I'm pretty sure I won't ever feel really confident that I know what I'm doing when it comes to editing, but here's the game plan: first I let it sit for a while, then I print out the entire thing and read it straight through, reading to look at the story as whole. I make sure the plot makes sense and the rules of my world building and characterization are consistent throughout. Then comes re-writing. Then comes the fine tuning and intense word-by-word scrutiny.

5. What aspect of your story needs the most work?

ALL OF IT! First, the tone is all over the place. It's suspenseful in one moment, heartfelt the next, and then all of a sudden it's light-hearted. I'm pretty sure when I go back and read through the thing it'll read like I have ADD. I'm pretty sure I got TOO inspired and carried away with all the shiny things I wanted to put into the story. Secondly, there are so many characters, many of which I'm worried will get lost in the shuffle. It's going to be a major task making each of them memorable AND unique. And third, the world building needs more fleshing out. I have an entire, literal, underground society to build. Yeah. My work is cut out from me. Whenever I get around to editing this story I'll probably need daily emotional support as I try to parse through what my manically inspired brain thought was so necessary to the story.

6. What aspect of your story did you love the most?

The story is set in a hotel of my own imagining which I will admit, is one of the most amazing settings I've ever had the pleasure of dreaming up. I kind of have a thing for hotels. I blame my obsession, in part, on Wes Anderson's Grand Budapest Hotel. Some of it can be blamed on Gran Hotel which is a wonderfully fabulous Spanish soap opera, but most of the obsession can be blamed on an even worse British drama called Hotel Babylon. I gobbled up all the behind-the-scenes drama of running a hotel one summer between college semesters and a fascination was born.

7. Give us a brief run down on your main characters and how you think they turned out. Do you think they’ll need changes in edits?

First, there's Elsie Ellison, the hotel maid and amateur sleuth. She's got a lot of determination and an inquisitive nature that gets her into trouble. She's sixteen and on the hunt to solve her mother's disappearance, but finds herself wrapped up in something much bigger. Then, there's the constable, Arthur Mulloy. Arthur is very much Elsie's foil. Where Elsie can be impulsive and intuitive, Arthur is analytical and detached. He's all about getting the job done and keeping his head low.

I'm not sure how much will change in edits. My characterization usually gets stronger and more defined in later drafts and I expect this will very much be the case for Elsie and Arthur as well. Right now, I like how they play off of each other so the basics will definitely stay the same.

8. What are your plans for this novel once you finish editing? More edits? Finding beta readers? Querying? Self-publishing? Hiding it in a dark hole forever?

My plans are to finish — simple as that. We'll cross the editing bridge when we get there.

9. Share a favourite snippet!

The inspector turned and ducked back into the wine cellar. Mrs. Gravely gave Elsie a push toward the open and door and she found she’d rather be interrogated by the inspector than left alone with that woman.

In the wine cellar, Elsie found the room occupied by another: a dark haired boy, who looked to be near her age, stood with his back to the stone wall of room. He wore a blue, high collared policeman’s tunic with a constabulary helmet tucked under his arm. There were numbers and letters on his collar, but their meaning escaped Elsie. He watched her in a detached way from where he leaned almost casually against the wall. His eyes were a light grey, perhaps blue; it was hard to see in the dim light of the cellar and the angles of his brow and cheekbones cast deep shadows over his face. Elsie didn’t like the effect. He looked cold, skeletal, as he stood watching her, refusing to break her gaze. A table with two chairs sat between them and she was glad for it.

Elsie’s stomach gave a weird sort of twitch as his eyes followed her path towards the table.

10. What are your writing goals and plans for 2016?

I have a notebook full of my master plans, but at the top of the list is editing I Wish I May which is my baby and the wonderful, darling little novel I'm going to query agents with. I probably shouldn't say little — it's well over 100K words.

Be sure to stop by the Beautiful Books Link-Up! Sound off below: Do you have any secrets to productive editing? If you do, I'm gonna need them.

4 comments

, by Adelyn Sterling

book mapping

A Practical Guide to Book Mapping

Editing a book is hard. So is keeping the big picture in mind, but it's a lot easier if you have a bird's eye view. Recently, I started editing a novel and found I needed a way to keep track of the novel's big picture. I've done this in the past with notecards on a cork board, but I needed something editable that wouldn't take rearranging eighty notecards or lengths of string to move things around. Anything I couldn't access from Panera was not an option, and if it was too complicated of a system, I know I wouldn't keep up with it.

Between sessions of Camp Nanowrimo, my amazing cabin mates and I began discussing Developmental Editing and the lovely Angela Myron turned me on to the book mapping technique. She shared JK Rowlings infamous hand drawn book map with the group. I'm sure every Potterhead and writer alike has seen it floating around on the internet, but the idea intrigued me.

I did some Google searching and found a few articles from writers who use book maps to help them through the editing process, but everyone seemed to have a different way of doing it. There doesn't seem to be a wrong way so long as your chart gives you a look at the information YOU want to look at.

Next I'll show you the chart I built for my own purposes and why I built it that way. Feel free to take this method and make it your own. It has been a great help in getting a birds eye view of my novel, and it might work well for yours too if it's something you need during editing.

And there it is! In all its color coded glory (click the photos to enlarge)! So here's the lowdown:

Column A is the scene code. The first number is the act, the second number is the chapter number, and the third number (if necessary) is for if I need to break down the chapter into individual scenes. For example, chapter eight has two separate scenes. It's located in act two so it is given the code 2.8.1. and 2.8.2. and you can bet your bottom I've put this code at the start of each scene in my draft for easy searching in what is a 300+ page manuscript.

Column B is the date the scene takes place. I'm notorious for forgetting how long time has passed between scenes. This is a huge lifesaver as it makes you check for continuity in dates, times, weather, class schedule*, etc. at the start of every scene you edit.

*(Yes I did write out the class schedule for my fairy godmothers in training, and it's a block schedule so it changes depending on the day of the week.)

Column C is the slug line. This is a screenwriting term for a sentence that's included at the start of every scene in a screenplay which typically includes the time of day and location of the scene. A screenplay will also include whether the scene is inside or outside, but to me this seemed self explanatory from where the scene is set.

Column D is the goals of the protagonist for the scene. Before I started writing the novel, I wrote a character arc for Zelda using the 8 point character arc structure (found here). This column is where I keep track of that, as well as her reactions and actions as she gets involved with the subplots. The boxes are color coded so I can quickly see which main plot or subplot the scene is focused on.

Columns F and onward are the goals of secondary characters (i.e. Imogen and Specs) and plotlines for the subplots of the novel (i.e. Zelda's Magic Struggles). I'll make note in these columns what a character does in the scene or if they are just mentioned. This a great way to see how long it's been since you mentioned a character or a subplot. As you can see in column G, I haven't mentioned Specs in a while and I don't want the reader to forget about him, so I'll probably add him into chapter five where it makes sense for him to be in the scene.

As you can probably see from the silly nature of some of my comments in the spreadsheet, this doesn't have to be formal, but it should let you see what the goal is in every scene and it should keep you from losing plotlines and characters in the shuffle and chaos of drafting. That's it. If you have any questions, sound off in the comments.

Happy editing!

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, by Adelyn Sterling

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February Wrap-Up!

WHAT'S THE 411?

WHAT AM I WRITING?

Follow Adelyn's board Mistletoe & Matrimony on Pinterest.

WHAT AM I EDITING?

BEST OF FEBRUARY

Beautiful Books Link-up!

Be sure to stop by the Beautiful Books Link-Up! Sound off below: Do you have any secrets to productive editing? If you do, I'm gonna need them.

A Practical Guide to Book Mapping

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