Tag: editing advice

Writing during the Quarantine

~ stephaniehaggarty ~ Leave a comment

Time, time, time.

Since March I have all the time in the day to write. For the most part I have spent my time equal parts writing, moaning about not writing, and wondering why my organic self cannot work like a machine. However it has not been a complete waste like I infer. These are the things I have done during quarantine;

  • The Dragon’s Mate: I wrote, edited and self-published this novella in two months.
  • Matt and Rose: A novelette that is just about ready.
  • Those in the Forest: Plan for a supernatural story about an escapee from a recluse cult. Only has a few thousand words have been written. Probably won’t be done for at least a year.

Stalled with your writing? Go back and edit what you’ve done.

~ stephaniehaggarty ~ Leave a comment

So I’m working on this new book/duology storyline. I have major events near the beginning defined, but I do not have as much nearer the end. I know it’s a good story so I’ve gone ahead and started writing under the assumption that I’ll work out the kinks as I go.

Well, every so often I come across a part in the story where I do not know what is going to happen next or when to put a certain scene in so it’s a little like writer’s block. To fix this and to maximise my time I go back and edit what I’ve done. I find that it gets me re-inspired to continue my story. I think it works because I’ve gone back through my storyline and have figured out a way to re-work something or add something new or find a fault that needs to be fixed 🙂

Also, I think that with this story by the time I’ve finished it’s going to be a case where I’ve already edited large chunks so that my first draft won’t be such a dumpster fire 🙂

Here I go again: How I edit my stories

~ stephaniehaggarty ~ Leave a comment

Whenever I manage to finish writing a story, I get to rediscover that writing the book was the easy part. Now I’m about to journey through the not-so-great joys of editing.

To alleviate this I watch a lot of youtube videos on the subject. There are quite a few people who go through the different types of editing. But whenever I edit, it’s a free-for-all. The line edits are forced to be with the proofreading and don’t get me started on the structural editing. It’s all one big party where I’m ripping out my fingernails because I hate parties.

My word documents all end up either covered in red (at least first to fourth drafts) or minimally wounded by the time I’m ready for it be self-published (aka getting sick of it). As revisions go on it does get quicker/easier, both because I’m getting better at killing my darlings and increasingly more confident in my editing abilities.

To people out there who think that editing is something daunting like climbing a mountain when you’ve never done such a thing, then do not fret. You don’t experience, you just need persistence. Afterall you just finished writing a manuscript. That’s something a lot of people never manage to do. Hooray!