Polish and Shine with Liz Engstrom Part 2

Here’s the second part to Liz Engstrom’s workshop on your final polish of your manuscript.

16. Make sure the ending echoes the beginning.

17. For fiction, make sure your protagonist has an internal revelation separate from
his external problem solving.

18. Make sure ancillary (supporting ) characters don’t take over the show.

19. Take out clichés.

20. Be interesting with every sentence.

21. Vary the rhythm of your sentences. Not all short, not all long.

22. Put a sensory image in every paragraph. Don’t forget that we currently have five.

23. Make sure that the only thing that slows the plot is a subplot complication and
not description.

24. Can you heighten the tension? Tighten the suspense? Do it. (Draw it out)

25. Have you answered all the questions your story posed to the reader? Double check.

26. Omit unnecessary words.

27. In the final read through it should read like the wind.

28. The ending MUST be satisfactory.

29. Memorable fiction has memorable character names. (Try to stay away from the
everyday)

I truly hope this list of Liz’s helps all of you as much as it has me. Using her suggestions has helped me to make great strides in my work and I know for most of us there is at least one or two things on this extensive list we’re guilty of. ;) Best of luck in your revisions and polish and shine!

Polish & Shine with Liz Engstrom Part 1

This is for all of you out there working on revisions. Maybe you worked your tooshy off with Nanowrimo and are now trying to pull all the pieces together. Maybe you're working on a longstanding project you'd like to see completed before the end of the year. Or maybe you're like me and are working under a deadline. Either way, here are a few tips for spit polishing your MS from a workshop I attended run by author Liz Engstrom at the Surrey conference. She has a list of tips that is quite long but I'm putting half of them in today and half in tomorrow.

1. Take out all the side trips. If it doesn't further the plot, it doesn't belong no matter how well written.

2. Flesh out areas where you been telling and not showing. (You can use dialogue to help correct this.)

3. Take out every use of the words : very, causing, here, this, now, today, just.

4. Investigate every use of the word "it". There is usually a better word.

5. Investigate every sentence that begins with "There is" or "There are" This indicates a weird point of view.

6. Investigate every adverb. Try to pump up the verb instead.

7. Replay every conversation to make certain the person speaking is attributed correctly.

8. Take out all qualifiers : almost, kind of, nearly, sort of. Pump up the action, the drama.

9. Look for ANYTHING that might distract the reader and fix it. (Liz also called these shin busters, sentences and sections that literally stopped the flow of things.)

10. Make sure the reader is grounded in space and time with every jump.

11. Investigate every use of the verb "to be" (is, are, be, being, am, were) and gerunds. "He was running to the store" vs "He ran to the store."

12. Investigate every use of passive voice, looking for the telltale "by" construction. "The ball was hit by the boy." vs "The boy hit the ball."

13. Make sure every sentence furthers the story.

14. Make sure every chapter has a structure and is weighted at the end.

15. Make sure your opening grabs the reader and flows smoothly into the rest of the story.

Few, it's quite a list, but so helpful. If you get through all these tonight with your revisions and can't wait for tomorrow, you can always check out Liz's website as she has many teaching aids for writers there. http://www.elizabethengstrom.com/

Christmas Writing Excuses

The holidays are usually filled with sugarplums and eating too much, candy, new gadgets, blinking lights, sparkling tinsel and lots and lots of eggnog.

This year though I will be starting a new tradition, one that I'm sure many other writers have faced. I have time off through the holidays and during that time off I will be not only working on revisions for Book #2, I will also be working on revisions (hopefully minor) for Book #1. These said revisions need to be finished and polished for . . .wait for it . . .

January 5th.

That's three weeks on the button. Am I upset about this? Not in the least! This means I have the perfect excuse to get out of all the overeating, excessive drinking, having to talk with people and make nice even though I will probably NEVER meet them again, parties. Because now I can say,

"Nope, can't come. Must write."

Ahh. I am so looking forward to the next three weeks. :)

The question to all of you is, do you use your writing as an excuse to get out of things you don't want to do?

Upon Completion of a Manuscript

It's done, it's done, it's done!

I finished book # 2 of my Chronicles of Sin series at about 8am this morning. A huge relief that A. I could finish a book in a relatively short period of time including the first round of edit/revisions, B. it looks like its at the very least as good as the first book if not better and C. I can now pitch that I have the first two books completed and not just in an outline form.

The weird thing is, I don't know what to do with myself now. I'm waiting to hear back from Carolyn if I should continue on this series and start #3 or if I should start a different book altogether. But its been so long since I have done anything with available time but write, I feel a little lost.

So I've started to play on the Internet, looking up goofy, goony things. There is some seriously funny stuff out there, laugh out loud and make people stare at you funny stuff! Let me share a few of the pictures I've found with you. My favorite is the last one :)

Rough Drafts on Speed

Woohoo! I can officially say that I have completed the first draft of my sequel to Gluttony! I started this draft on July 1st, 2010 and literally just wrapped it up moments ago. The first draft is just a smidge under 86,000 words and I know for a fact that I chopped at least 12,000 words out. All together, I'm very pleased with how this sequel turned out. This sure beats the three years it took me to get my first book, that is still in the dresser drawer, done!

So, now onto the fun part. Revising, or editing, or re-writing, whatever you want to call it. The idea would be to have it ready to go to Carolyn by the end of October and hopefully sooner, like have it ready for the Surrey International Writers Conference.

While this is all good there is a little kernel of concern sprouting in my head. What I'm worried about is, is this a fast enough turn around? I think its fast, but I'm far from a professional at this point in my career. Anyone got any ideas on what the industry standard is as to how fast we should be getting our sequels done as a debut author? I've seen a few authors mention how long it takes them, but they are writing short stories, something in the 55,000 word range and I don't think that is a fair standard when I'm writing something twice the size when its all said and done.

Let me what you think folks. Whether it's your opinion, experience or something you've read, I'd love to know what you think about the speed of getting a rough draft done.

Again, Again!

This week is going to be a full week of writing, something I'm VERY excited about! What I'm even more excited about though is, I won't be working on my new novel (as yet Untitled), but I will be doing revisions on Gluttony.

Yes, you read that right, I'm excited about revisions!

I've had a couple of people read the ms and have given me pretty much the same feedback. Feedback that after writing all the suggestions down and mulling them over for the last week, I can see the huge benefits of redoing some of the work. Okay, it looks like I'm going to be adding a fair bit to the ms, I can see another 20k words going into it. But that's okay, I really am excited.

Not really what I expected at this point in the process, but these revisions will add to the depth and character of the story and, hopefully, make it just that much easier to flog, um, I mean sell, to agents and editors.

So keep up the good work, all those who read my blog, ms, twitter me and facebook me. I couldn't walk this very long road without all of you, cheering me on from the sidelines. And for those of you on the same road as me, thanks for keeping pace.