Shawn Maravel's Blog - Posts Tagged "editing"
Let the Editing Begin!
I have been going through and editing my newest book The Wanderer (working title). It is currently 69,758 words and I hope to break 70,000 by the time I'm done editing. My first goal was to just get the story down. With editing I hope to clean it up, cut off the fat (as my sister would say) and add a little bit of muscle ( my own creative twist).
The story is solid and I'm absolutely in love with it but there is always room for improvement! As I wrote it my sister and mom were reading it chapter by chapter giving advice and grammatical help. Now my husband is reading it which is important for a few reasons. He is in the Army and my story is about a retired Army vet. While his job is in aviation and my character, Landon, was a cavalry scout, my husband can provide me with help as far as Army lingo and accuracy goes. In fact he actually wrote the outline for a pivotal chapter in the story; a flashback to his Army combat days.
In addition to helping maintain military accuracy he is also helping me keep the character of Landon "purely male". As a female writer I look to his, at times brutally honest, opinion to make sure that I keep the characters believable. Writing in the male perspective can be hard at times and sometimes I fall short. He makes sure that he points out how to make it the whole distance in a believable voice.
You might think that having my husband and family provide help would be in fact unhelpful. Family is usually the one who tells the kids on American Idol who can't sing that in fact they can, and well enough to try out for public humiliation. That, in my family, is not the case. As I said, my husband is brutally honest. He is also not a big reader so he takes a long time to actually sit down and read it. This alone makes me question my writing, wondering how I can make it flow in a way that it will read much faster. The other day my husband read two chapters without realizing it. He was very surprised. I was relieved! He also usually says, "Oh my gosh, you totally screwed this up." at some point while reading (did I mention that he was born missing the subtle bone that most of us have in our bodies?). But this time he just read it to the end without a word. Now that for me is considered a real breakthrough in my writing!
Now, about half-way done with my editing I'm looking for ways to improve the story and it's flow. I'm far from done but I look forward to the final outcome!
The story is solid and I'm absolutely in love with it but there is always room for improvement! As I wrote it my sister and mom were reading it chapter by chapter giving advice and grammatical help. Now my husband is reading it which is important for a few reasons. He is in the Army and my story is about a retired Army vet. While his job is in aviation and my character, Landon, was a cavalry scout, my husband can provide me with help as far as Army lingo and accuracy goes. In fact he actually wrote the outline for a pivotal chapter in the story; a flashback to his Army combat days.
In addition to helping maintain military accuracy he is also helping me keep the character of Landon "purely male". As a female writer I look to his, at times brutally honest, opinion to make sure that I keep the characters believable. Writing in the male perspective can be hard at times and sometimes I fall short. He makes sure that he points out how to make it the whole distance in a believable voice.
You might think that having my husband and family provide help would be in fact unhelpful. Family is usually the one who tells the kids on American Idol who can't sing that in fact they can, and well enough to try out for public humiliation. That, in my family, is not the case. As I said, my husband is brutally honest. He is also not a big reader so he takes a long time to actually sit down and read it. This alone makes me question my writing, wondering how I can make it flow in a way that it will read much faster. The other day my husband read two chapters without realizing it. He was very surprised. I was relieved! He also usually says, "Oh my gosh, you totally screwed this up." at some point while reading (did I mention that he was born missing the subtle bone that most of us have in our bodies?). But this time he just read it to the end without a word. Now that for me is considered a real breakthrough in my writing!
Now, about half-way done with my editing I'm looking for ways to improve the story and it's flow. I'm far from done but I look forward to the final outcome!
Room For Improvement
With a baby on the way I haven't been in a place where I've been able to really sink my teeth into writing a new novel. The good news, however, is that I'm nesting; cleaning up and getting things in order. This also applies to my writing. I believe that before I move on to writing my next novel, I need to feel completely confident in the ones I already have out. And honestly, I'm not.
As you may know, I wrote Volition and Severance while my husband was deployed to Iraq for a year. It was an outlet for me to explore writing, a hobby that I've always loved, and to really submerge myself in something that could keep me busy. However, I was still very much a rookie in the literary world. I've earned a stripe or two since writing both novels and have learned so much from all of the great reviewers out there. I owe it to myself, those who took the time to read and review my novels, and my future readers to really take the time to go back and work on perfecting these novels.
No book will ever be flawless, at least not in its author's eyes, but that doesn't mean they can't be improved upon now and then. I am just so grateful to still be making sales after about two years of publication and I feel that I owe it to my readers to live up to the standard that I believe I should be held at.
Everything from punctuation, over description, and even the covers will be cleaned up. While I love having a harmonic on the cover of Volition, a symbolic and poignant object in the series, it just didn't turn out how I hoped it would. The cover doesn't do my vision justice and pales in comparison to Severance's vibrant and beautiful cover. So, I have a great new cover all lined up that I think everyone will love.
In addition to a new cover for Volition I will be taking all of my reviewers suggestions into mind as well as family members and critics to come away with a much more polished and deserving product. You guys are awesome and I'm so happy that you all have embraced Charlotte and Joel. Thank you for your endless support and for your readership. You guys and gals rock. :)
