Behind the Scenes – Editing
I figure I might as well clue you all in… Read More »Behind the Scenes – Editing
I figure I might as well clue you all in… Read More »Behind the Scenes – Editing
In the last post, we talked about the first two… Read More »Let’s Write – The Structural Edit (Continued)
Welcome back to the self-editing miniseries. 🙂 It’s good to… Read More »Let’s Write – The Structural Edit
Something about the editing process has always intrigued me, and… Read More »Let’s Write – Basics of Self-Editing
A friend asked me about the software and resources I… Read More »Let’s Talk Photos and Graphics
I had a conversation about writing with my cousin, as… Read More »Noob Writers Unite
At this stage, I’m unable to think straight, but I’ve… Read More »Revising x 3 (Mini Q&A)
When I first started writing, I had no idea what I was doing. I still don’t, but I’m growing. If there’s one thing in life I hate, it’s stagnating. I’ve mentioned this before.
Where writing is concerned, I really think I have grown and I try to learn more with every word squeezed out through my fingertips. All I want to do is share the stories in my mind with you, in such a way that you and I pass something between us telepathically, like Stephen King says. I want the stories that keep me up at night, to keep you up too.
So, growing.
These are my first babies.
You’re wondering where I am. I can hear you think it like a shout off a mountaintop. 🙂
This image below about sums it up.
In my world, ‘lunch’ can be replaced by coffee. Because, you know, coffee has replaced blood in my veins.
First of all, I’d like to thank everyone for their condolences and beautiful words concerning my grandmother. If you missed it, my gran passed away last week. It wasn’t a surprise, because she was sick for a long time before she passed. It still hurts though. I wrote a tribute to my grandma here.
Since this is a current chaos post, I want to start you off with the song I’m listening to on repeat at the moment. It’s called ‘Build me up from bones’ by Sarah Jarosz. It’s amazing.
If you’ve been following the blog and had a look at my social media (check it out in the sidebar), you’ll know that my editor, Nerine, suggested I flesh out the world where my new series will take place. This added work is my own fault, sure. I finished The Physician’s Apprentice’s first draft in seven weeks, after all. If I had done all this stuff I’m doing now to begin with, it would have meant a lot less double work. Lesson learnt.
So, for close to two months now, I’ve been focussed on adding details and working out those things that don’t make sense in my world. Paired with my tendency to obsess, it’s been interesting.
So, it’s finally happened. I got the notes back from my editor a while ago and since then, only writing has been on my mind.
Let me first fill you in. I went through a bit of a bad patch last year with an editor. Not because of bad critique, but because of the complete lack of critique (there were only a handful of corrections throughout the entire novel). I don’t want to make a bad situation worse by muddying someone’s name. But I will say that when you pay someone for a service and they don’t provide that service at all, anyone would be angry.
Taking the step to hire an editor is a big one. Anyone in a creative field – or any field where your work will be dissected and scrutinized – will know how difficult it is to trust someone with your creative baby. Editors are there to tell you where you screwed up, whether it concerns grammar to characters acting crazy. It’s their flipping job to pull your work apart and tell you where you can improve it. THAT is what you pay them for.