How To Edit Your Novel, Part 2

 A few quick tasks followed by a long pause. Seems to be the story of my work ethic.

I realized on Sunday that I have put off editing Scions for twice as long as I wanted to. Part of this I can forgive myself for, as I have been spending quite a bit of my extra time reading. There are quite a few less-constructive things I could have been doing with my time.

Even so, I have declared myself a procrastinator and returned my remaining library book so I wouldn't have any more distractions. I just finished (and enjoyed) Jon Sprunk's debut, Shadow's Son, but Abercrombie's Best Served Cold will have to wait a while longer. I'm glad I was able to finish Watcher of the Dead and The Desert Spear, as both were highly-anticipated and superb, and I even rushed through a Dresden novel. But my library card is going back on hiatus for a bit.

Anyway, quick task/long pause. Last time, I put up sort of a checklist for my editing process that involved such brilliant processes as "take a break." I included these because I wanted to actually designate a time to break, rather than just "I'll finish this chapter and sit for a bit while my mind recovers." Unfortunately, I really want to get this project finished so I can move onto the next one, so taking frequent breaks is not going to be a productive option.

And yet, I do. I finish the small tasks, like using the Find & Highlight function in Word, and printing out a paper version of the manuscript, and then I sit for a bit satisfied that at least I did something. Small task, long break. I need to stop doing this, because when I can focus, I tend to get quite a bit done.

So, today, I began in earnest and finished off highlighting/marking the paper copy with all of the editing suggestions of two of my readers. That done, I promptly went on Cracked.com and read articles (in between day-job-work) for a few hours. Damnit.

Now I am back on track, though. I have edited the Prologue and Chapter 1. Only about 57 more chapters to go, and I'll be done with the first pass. The second pass will involve fixing continuity issues, major rewrites (entire chapter rewrites, of which I have a few), and fixing the ending, which is not on the checklist (but probably always should be).

So, the lesson for Editing Part 2: FOCUS.

There are a lot of "put your mind to it" and "put your nose to the grindstone" adages, so I won't bore with those at great length, but I will say that a project can seem impossibly large if you try to think of it as a whole. I'm not editing all 60 chapters at once, I am doing it one at a time. If I can just focus on each piece, I'll have this elephant eaten in due course. Simple, right? Sure.


If you enjoyed this post, Follow this Blog or subscribe (below) to receive updates.

Writing as Communication, my guest post at LIteraryEscapism.com

Recently, I was invited to guest post over at LiteraryEscapism.com, a popular Fantasy and Paranormal book review site. Here's a taste of the post:

Writing as Communication
 
Oddly enough, authors aren’t always great at communication. We’re reclusive, eccentric, and generally a strange bunch of people. There are many possible explanations for this, but I prefer to think it’s because we just don’t communicate in the same manner that most people do. We communicate best through writing; allegory, simile, analogy, plot, and characterization are our methods.

Read the rest here, and leave a comment if you like.

The site is giving away a copy of The Ninth Avatar, as well!

+5 to Charisma

It's taken a bit of effort and more time than expected, but the Amazon page for The Ninth Avatar has been updated with the three Editorial Review excerpts and more Product Description. I did this mostly for consistency, but also because I like things to be as presentable as possible.

Right now it probably only shows up for the Paperback edition, but the Hardcover should be similarly updated soon. The paperback page got the treatment first because it's the most popular... for now. The Kindle version will follow, though someone's going to have to tell me what it looks like on the iPad iBookstore. Nudge.

Don't forget to enter the contest over at Goodreads, if you haven't already. If you've read the book, feel free to rate it (and/or review it) over there, and send me a friend request while you're at it. I enjoy Goodreads and plan to keep it updated with whatever I'm reading, though my to-read list has ballooned to nearly 40 books. Still, it's a lot easier to manage than a pile of 40 books!

I'm about to finish reading The Desert Spear by Peter V. Brett and, unless he severely and inexplicably changes direction, it is looking like another 5-star book. Watcher of the Dead (J.V. Jones) was a huge pick-me-up after the slightly dismaying Wizard's First Rule (Goodkind). Next comes Butcher's Summer Knight, and then Abercrombie's Best Served Cold. That is, unless my copy of Jon Sprunk's debut, Shadow's Son, arrives first.

So many books, so little time.


If you enjoyed this post, Follow this Blog or subscribe (below) to receive updates.

How To Edit Your Novel, Part 1 (of a billion)

I'll be honest: Editing my own work is not my strong suit, nor is it particularly one of my favorite things to do. I'm a writer, I write. I prefer creation to destruction, and yet destruction/correction/clarification is both a natural part of drafting a novel and a necessary part of completing one.

That doesn't mean I have to like it. Similar to writing query letters and synopses, it's not really something that comes natural to many of us. We groan, throw tantrums, and turn on the television as a reflex to avoid thinking about editing and rewriting. And yet, the more we procrastinate, the more difficult these things become, because nothing can stem the flow of thought toward our story.

The reason I'm so loath to put on my Editor's Hat is because it's incredibly difficult to distance myself from my work. I memorize things quickly and easily, especially music, but with writing it's more than that. "Memorizing" doesn't really explain how a story is represented in my head. The whole "my writing is part of me" bit is really true. Reading my own work is not like reading someone else's; it's not even like reading someone else's book that I've read previously.

It's more like watching a movie I've seen a hundred times, can quote every line of dialog from, and don't care if I stay awake to see the ending because I know it that well. We all have movies like this. For me, some of them are Three Amigos, Last of the Mohicans, and No Retreat No Surrender.

Once you've experienced something so deeply as to know every working part in it, the ruthlessness required to alter it and improve it is not easy to summon. It's like getting all the decorations in your house exactly the way you want them, only to have to start over again because they weren't right the first time.

And yet, when the editing is [eventually] complete, the end result is so much better than the original. It's undeniably imperative to edit, and unfortunately the writer of a piece is the best candidate to make those first few passes simply because they know it best. They know what they wanted to say, and can find a way to say it better.

So, here are the planned steps of my editing process, in order, as sort of a checklist. Keep in mind all of this will happen over a period of weeks.

1. Print a copy of the manuscript, double-sided, hole-punch it, and place it in a 3-ring binder.
2. Find a non-black pen and a highligher (I have an orange one this time).
3. On the paper copy, read through each sentence and highlight things that need to be re-worded. Cross out words that are unnecessary, incorrect, or misspelled.
4. Note the suggested changes from my first-draft readers where improvements/changes need to be made.
5. On the digital copy, usually before other noted changes are made, use a CTRL+H (replace function) to highlight all instances of
• words that are common in passive voice or just commonly overused, such as was, were, had, that, still, felt, noticed, saw, just, nice, thought, up, down, beautiful, dark, tall, almost, very, behind, and pretty
• words/phrases that I know I overuse, such as moment, -ing verbs, couldn't help but, discern, leapt, relayed, mirth, and due to
6. Take a break.
7. Review suggested changes and noted areas, reword sentences with weak verbs, overused phrases, etc.
8. Examine all dialog. Twice. Speak aloud to confirm coherence of statements and naturalness of words.
9. Examine chapter length and order. Make changes as necessary.
10. Find someone new to read the second draft in its entirety, if possible. Otherwise, proceed to step 11.
11. Take a break.
12. Write Editorial Outline and synopsis.

And that's it. I'll be starting step 3 very soon, so I have a lot of work ahead of me.

What does your editing process look like?


If you enjoyed this post, Follow this Blog or subscribe (below) to receive updates.

Goodreads Giveaway - The Ninth Avatar (Hardcover)

Consider yourself informed.

Click here to enter the contest on Goodreads.com!

This giveaway will last one month and ends July 18th, 2010.

All details, disclaimers, and information is available on the official giveaway page. No purchase required for entry, and all that good stuff.

Good luck to all who enter, only three will win!

Makes me move like I'm on ice

Just a quick post today, with some updates.

Thanks to Harry Markov, I am now addicted to Bulgarian "chalga" music. (This link may be NSFW for you, so be careful... I mean, it is on Cracked.com, after all)

Best song so far is this by Andrea & Costi:

(Watch out, the video is probably also NSFW... sorry)

---

On the book front:

I'll be hosting another giveaway on Goodreads.com for 3 Hardcover copies of The Ninth Avatar. I'll post a link as soon as it's active. If you've been waiting to pick up a copy of the book, especially the fancier and more-expensive hardcover edition, this will be a great chance for you to get one for free.

Also news, the electronic editions of The Ninth Avatar are now available for Kindle and other reader devices, including the iPad's iBookstore. Next week it will be available for iPod and iPhone, but if you have an iPad feel free to check it out and let me know what you think.

Editing for Scions of the Shade has not quite begun in earnest yet, even though we're more than halfway through June. I have my redline copy ready to go, but I'm giving myself a little more time to get into editing mode. After reading two first-draft WIPs in the past few weeks (including a great one from Giles, find his blog here), I needed to clear my head.

Any comments, concerns, or complaints? You know where to click.


If you enjoyed this post, Follow this Blog or subscribe (below) to receive updates.

The Topic Where I Quote The Bible: Hype

Recently, Mark Charan Newton (author of the acclaimed Nights of Villjamur and City of Ruin) posted a blog about hype. Well, to be accurate, I should say this blog post was in response to a comment on a separate blog post (which was completely unrelated to Newton's work). It went like this:

"As a critic, it raises my hackles and makes me feel a responsibility to cut through it. As a reader, I find it completely alienating. Simply put, I will never read anything by Mark Charan Newton simply because of the aggression with which he hypes himself."

In response, Newton put up somewhat of a defense (not that he needed to defend himself from such rhetoric). It was an informative post, my favorite part being:

"The fact remains today that if an author doesn’t engage with the community, he or she loses out – though to what extent remains uncertain."

Basically, Newton discusses the two types of hype, these being "good" meaning unsolicited and "bad" meaning industry-driven, and why each exists. This critical commenter had an issue with Newton's approach to both, it seems, and Newton's response was that he didn't have much of a choice in the matter.

I have been running this blog since around the time I started writing "seriously," meaning with intent to be published. I write on whatever topic strikes me, and quite a bit does as I'm very opinionated, but I also use this blog as a platform to talk about my book(s) and what I think of other books. I talk about writing, quite a bit, but I am not forcing anyone to engage with me. A person chooses to read my blog, or follow my Twitter; I don't compel them to do so.

In fact, I feel that an author without a web presence (concurring with Newton's above statement) is robbing his readers of a level of interaction not previously available to us. For some reason, I enjoy being able to tweet @JulieVJ that I enjoyed her book (which I hope to do, soon) or @JohnMarco that I can't wait for his next book to be released. Whether or not I'm an author, or consider myself to be their "peer" (which is, I assure you, SO not the point), I am a fan of their work and I should be able to tell them so.

At any rate, back to hype. I think Sam Sykes summed it up well in his blog post on the topic (in response to Mark's) when he said:

"Even if they won’t admit it, I think every author likes hyping themselves.  And I think every author should like hyping themselves.  It’s indicative that they’re proud of their work and they think it’s worth your while, even if it turns out the book wasn’t for you.

I’m proud of Tome of the Undergates. If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t have sent it in to Gollancz.  Gollancz is proud of Tome of the Undergates. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t have published it.  If I wasn’t proud of my work, I wouldn’t be an author because I’d never show anyone anything."

He's hit the nail on the head, there. It reminds me of a comment from T.S. Bazelli's blog in response to something I said. My stance is always that:

"You must have confidence in yourself and your project, otherwise you are doomed to failure. Of course, being a writer means you lack confidence by default, so it's something you have to work on over time. Also, it comes from within -- not from feedback and validation. YOU must believe in it. Period, end of story."

Her response was:


"But how to build that confidence, without knowing if you're doing well? How to avoid slipping over into arrogance, or unfounded confidence?"

And that, above all else, is what I think the "hype" argument is all about. Confidence vs. arrogance. Is the general belief that unless you're Dan Brown or Stefanie Meyer, you don't get to talk about your writing? Is it "overconfidence" for me to tell acquaintances that I've written a novel and encourage them to purchase and/or read it simply because I'm not a super-famous-blockbuster author?

I sit with Sykes on this one. I'm proud of my work, and I know that if Trapdoor wasn't also proud of it then they wouldn't have published it. There is nothing wrong with this.

And yet, back on the "web presence" portion of this topic, an additional response to Newton's blog came from Robert Bennett (author of Mr. Shivers) on this post. I find this most interesting:

"I know it’s probably pie-in-the-sky idealism talking here, but I do think most types of art suffer the more the audience knows about the creator. Not only does familiarity lead to contempt, but (especially in literature) the anonymity of the creator’s voice lends it authority and impact. It becomes steadily harder to take someone’s work seriously the more you know about them."

It reminds me, actually, of something Jesus is credited as saying:

Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor." (Mark 6:4, NIV)

(If you know me at all, you should know how much it irks me to actually quote The Bible. But, hey, if the quote fits...)

Could this be the "bad hype" factor at work? When you know someone, you know they're not a superhuman paragon or an almighty authority on all-things-literature. But does this, should this, ruin the experience of enjoying the work that they crafted? Or, can we separate one from the other?

Thoughts?


If you enjoyed this post, Follow this Blog or subscribe (below) to receive updates.

Interview at OF Blog of the Fallen

Happy Monday!

I just had an interview post at the OF Blog of the Fallen, a literary and speculative fiction interest blog, where I talk about my writing process, The Ninth Avatar, and my future plans.

Have a read, and let us know what you think!

Issues facing the Writer

This morning, my wife asked for help on a project she's working on where she chooses a pursuit and then lists the potential issues with it. They should be issues people discuss, work through, and struggle with. The pursuit she chose was, of course, Writing, and the issues she listed were:

• Writer's Block
• What is the goal of your writing?

My part in this project was to supply more issues. Here's my list of things that a writer faces, in no particular order:

• Spelling/Grammar/Punctuation
• What makes a good plot?
• When and how do I outline my story?
• How do I make my characters realistic/interesting/sympathetic?
• How do I make a believable setting?
• Is there enough conflict in my story?
• Pacing: too fast, too slow, not enough tension?
• Killing your Darlings
• Do I need to write every day?
• When am I an author vs. a writer?
• Should I write something provocative/offensive just for attention?
• How do I build an audience?
• When and how should I solicit criticism?
• What do I do with criticism once I have it?
• How do I write a query letter, cover letter, and synopsis?
• What is "back cover copy," and how do I write it?
• Am I legally protected when I allow others to read my work?
• When I post it to the Internet?
• When I offer it for free on sites like Smashwords.com?
• What, exactly, is plagiarism?
• How should I define success?
• How many drafts does it take to get it right?
• Should I write short stories or novels?
• Which genre should I write?
• Where do I stop and start chapters?
• Showing vs. Telling
• What is a scene and why do I need them?
• How should I collaborate with other authors on a project?
• Where do ideas come from?
• How do I write a sequel? A prequel?
• What is passive voice, and should I avoid it?

Overkill? Perhaps, but I could write at least a paragraph (and probably an entire post) on each and every one of these things. Most of you could, too, I bet. These are things discussed all the time on writer's blogs, agent's blogs, and probably editor's blogs (though I don't currently read any of those).

Did I leave anything out? Are there any others you believe a writer faces?



If you enjoyed this post, Follow this Blog or subscribe (below) to receive updates.

Trapdoor Authors: David Michie and Frank Fiore

It's a little staggering to think of David and Frank as my co-workers.

These guys are incredibly prolific. David, of course, is a bestselling author in Australia on the subject of Buddhism with such titles to his name as Buddhism for Busy People and Hurry Up and Meditate. Frank is a brilliant Arizona technologist, and an author of quite a few non-fiction titles. It's just hard to imagine myself "rubbing elbows" with the likes of these two.

At the same time, both are incredibly approachable, and our brief exchanges have been both friendly and beneficial. It's clear that Trapdoor has a lot of confidence in its authors, and that makes me more than a little bashful.

This week, while in Paris, I had the pleasure of reading the Trapdoor titles from each of them and I wished to share my thoughts.

So, here they are, in the order that I read them.

The Magician of Lhasa

Combining elements of a thriller with elements of a non-fiction book on Buddhism, David Michie presents a very complex and engaging tale of two men separated by time, space, and just about everything else. And yet, it is through this seeming separation that Michie shows just how intricately connected things can truly be. I'm doing my best here not to spoil any plot points, but suffice it to say that the Novice Monk and Quantum Scientist have more in common than a cursory glance would reveal.

Probably what impressed me most about Magician, aside from avoiding a preachy/proselytizing angle, was how realistic the characters were. The conflicted relationship between Matt and Isabella seemed so human that, at times, I had to remind myself that I was reading fiction. The characters in this story really do come to life in a way that I had not expected, but thoroughly enjoyed.

The only hangup, and it is a minor one, that I had about this book was the central conflict of the story. To be more clear: what was ultimately at stake did not push me to the edge of my seat as I expected a "thriller" to do. After reaching the end, though, and pondering on it a bit, I realized that this was my own shortcoming. I believe it has to do with Westerners being somewhat programmed to value the preservation of human life above everything else, even the quality of the lives being preserved.

The Magician of Lhasa qualifies as "geek fiction" for me in how much it made me think, just think, and begin to see things around me a little bit differently. The fact that it was done in an entertaining manner only made me marvel that much more.

Cyberkill

The tagline for Cyberkill is "How far would an Artificial Intelligence go for revenge?" Right away, that gets my brain working. I love technology, and I love that I live in the Digital Age. Unfortunately, many films and books don't really do justice to many of the concepts they attempt to explore, but I found this was definitely not the case with Frank's novel.

While it does explore quite a few complicated things, Frank keeps the story coherent and doesn't rely on a reader's devotion to tech blogs & magazines to tell it. The perspective shifts, often and widely, but it's done in such a way that the reader is shown what is relevant for the current time in the story. I was quite impressed, especially in the last 3rd of the book, how well-paced it was. Things exploded, people died, but not once did I feel like I was being rush through to an inevitable conclusion.

The first 3rd of the book, I will say, took a bit for me to get invested in. There were a few odd phrases that I noticed, that others probably wouldn't, and just sort of a general meandering quality about the main character Travis Cole. Ultimately, though, I remained invested in the story more than enough to continue, and about halfway through I began to feel rewarded for it. Not to say the first half of the book was slow, but I think it just took longer than I expected for the villain to show himself... itself, whatever.

Cyberkill also has a very real quality to it, but more in the actual plot than the characters. It's obvious Frank did his homework for this story; it shows in how well the characters understand what they're talking about but also in the way the pieces and locales of the story fit together so well.


Now, after reading both books, I'm more than willing to endorse them to all of you out there. I'm in good company with these two, and I'm excited to see what else Trapdoor acquires in the coming months. You can check out more on each of these books (as well as mine) on the Trapdoor Site.

If you enjoyed this post, Follow this Blog or subscribe (below) to receive updates.

Reviews for The Ninth Avatar

I have a handful of reviews back on The Ninth Avatar. If you haven't seen them already, take a look!

The first, posted by E.L. Fay of This Book and I Could Be Friends, was titled "Killer Zombie Army With Horns." Sort of rolls of the tongue, if you ask me. Here's an excerpt:

"...the characters and their interweaving stories are actually quite easy to keep track of, even with all the requisite world-building happening alongside the flow of the plot. The Ninth Avatar is a very fast read that literally hits the ground running."

Read the full review here.

Next came one from John F. McDonald over at the New York Journal of Books:

"Notwithstanding the seeming density of the plot and the inevitable exposition that must, by necessity, accompany it, the book moves at a satisfying pace. The narrative is well thought out, despite some required leaps of faith, and provides a decent serving of food for thought. The characters are well developed, unique, and intriguing. They are by no means two-dimensional cyphers, nor are they homogeneous in a way which might be seen as peculiar to the genre—they are complex, with elements of good and bad, dark and light, interwoven within the ethos of their quiddity—much as real-world beings are."

Read the full review here.

Most recently, Cindy Hannikman of Fantasy Book Critic posted the following:

"Overall, I enjoyed Ninth Avatar as a sword and sorcery novel. The pace of the novel really kept the scenes flowing and never let me get to a point where I was bored with the novel. Todd Newton has some amazing talent that I'm sure readers of fantasy will be coming across in the future. It'll be amazing to see what becomes of this talent and to see it channeled into future novels."

Read the full review here.

---

If you have a review for The Ninth Avatar, don't wait for me to find out from my Google Alerts! Send me an email, or leave me a comment, to let me know what you thought! If you haven't read it yet, click here to purchase it directly from my publisher, or here to purchase it from Amazon!

If you enjoyed this post, Follow this Blog or subscribe (below) to receive updates.

Mid-trip thoughts on Paris

Paris is a city of senses. Sights, smells, tastes, and sounds abound here. To give you a good example, I just spent about half an hour standing/leaning outside our hotel on Rue Mouffetard, smoking a cigar, listening to a guy play his saxophone to the tunes of James Brown and Lady Gaga while people ambled past. It was exquisite.

Earlier today, we took a lunch cruise down the Seine. The food was, I'm happy to report, cruise quality, and we were lucky enough to sit next to an incredibly friendly Ukrainian woman named Elaine whom Micah made friends with--this despite Micah's lack of expertise in French and Elaine's lack of expertise in English. The trip down the Seine was amazing, and two bottles of wine later we disembarked and headed to the Tour d'Eiffel. Yes, even tipsy we made it up and down the tower, enjoyed the view, and elbowed our way past some very confused elementary-schoolers on field trip.

The subways here, varying by area, smell off and on like urine, but that's to be expected--this city is old, and with age comes an acute sensibility of priority. Preserving safety trumps hygiene, and we are more than fine with that. So far, we've felt safe in the subways, despite the few beggar-types we've seen. The only real human obstacles around were the "merchants" (imagine air quotes there, since they are the men selling tourist-y crap near the Eiffel Tower and every other major landmark except, oddly, the Arc d'Triumph) and even they can be forgiven since their prices are much better than those in the actual shops.

It's a different mentality here in France, one that does not focus on being polite and benign, but rather on experiencing life. We've seen every type of restaurant imaginable here, and even some we weren't previously aware of (which is tough, considering how often and wide we travel). People say hello and goodbye to you here, even when you merely enter and leave a store. Ignore that old rumor you've heard a thousand times that the French are rude; could you possibly imagine a French person traveling to America without being able to speak a syllable of English yet still being able to make their way around? Trust me when I say that it's not that the French are rude, they just don't have time for your bullshit. Vulgarity aside, they just want you to get to the point or go away. They have other things to do.

I doubt I could possibly be more impressed with Paris. The architecture, the monuments, how metropolitan the city is... these things, to me, make it a nearly perfect travel destination. I wouldn't want to live here; mostly because I can't imagine driving these tiny cars on these tiny streets and parking in these tiny spaces, but those are my own shortcomings. I wouldn't want to live in New York City for the same reasons, and yet I will visit there and use the subway as much as I possibly can, just like here in Paris.

It probably goes without saying that we're having a fantastic time. Tonight we meet our friends for a late (by American standards) dinner in Versailles, and we couldn't possibly be more excited.

We hope the rest of you are having a fantastic week without us.


If you enjoyed this post, Follow this Blog or subscribe (below) to receive updates.