Editor’s Feedback

This was the first time I’d ever paid a real-life professional to edit something I’d written. When I belonged to a writer’s group over 20 years ago we would give peer feedback to others in small groups, but this was a new experience for me.

This editing was an overall look at the book - continuity, plot, characters, etc. It was not a proofread or a formatting edit, since those would naturally come later. My editor provided back to me a multi-page document with what worked for her and what didn’t, inline comments in the document, and an hour conversation for me to ask questions and discuss some thoughts on what to change.

To say it was an enlightening experience would be an understatement. I think what was best was that I’d had those nagging little thoughts in the back of my mind about some aspects of the book, and my editor called them out in a way I hadn’t been able to. For example, in the middle section of the book the main character is alone in space, in danger, and has to work his way out of it. My editor said (in a nice way) that it seemed like he was a different character and there wasn’t anything in the first part of the book to make a reader think the character could do what he did. Her spotlighting that defined the little tickle in my brain - knowing something wasn’t right but not able to pinpoint it.

Having the book edited was extremely valuable. Like a lot of writers, I resisted it because it costs money. It’s not cheap to have someone read through your book and give you detailed feedback. It’s also not cheap to have it proofread or formatted, unless of course you are fortunate enough to get an agent and a book deal with a major publisher. For those of us going the independent or self-publishing route they’re all out-of-pocket expenses. Everybody’s in their own financial situation, and I know it’s just not possible for everyone to pay an editor. All I can say is: if you’re on the fence about whether or not to pay an editor to evaluate your manuscript and you have the financial means to do so, then do it.

More on the editing experience next time.

Wayback Machine

Let’s jump in the wayback machine to 2021. This will set the stage for the next few posts about having my book edited and my experience searching for an agent.

In July 2021 I started writing First, which had been percolating in my brain for several months. I finally decided it was time to stop thinking and start writing. As documented in a previous post, I moved my morning wakeup time progressively earlier. One other thing I did was to purchase a new personal laptop so I wasn’t using my work computer for writing. That way there’s no questions later. It’s better to keep the personal that way, and besides, IT policy is to not use the work computer for personal business. So, all good there.

That project took about three months and I finished the first draft at the end of September 2021. It came in at about 110k words, which is pretty long for a novel. I immediately started on The Assignment, which later became Assignment Day. This allowed me to put First out of my mind for a bit.

In November 2021 I paused writing the new book and did my initial pass at editing First. I shared it with some of my family members but then put it back in the e-drawer while I worked more on Assignment Day.

My sister put me in touch with one of her friends, who is a professional editor, and I queued up on her schedule for late January. Right at the beginning of January 2022 I did another round of editing so First would be in tip-top shape, at least as far as I was concerned. Then back to writing Assignment Day while I waited for the edits.

And that’s where we’ll pick up in the next post…

In Between

I find myself in an interesting situation. I finished my first draft of Next Time on Christmas Eve. It is now sitting in a virtual drawer for at least a month before I begin the first round of edits. I find that any story I write needs some time to get out of my brain since editing is a much different process than writing on it every day for two months.

I’m looking at ways to publish First, which currently needs no extra work on the manuscript. I have some leads but right now that’s not taking up all my morning time I set up for writing.

So, I have a few options to use the time wisely, other than writing this blog entry, of course.

#1, I could begin writing my next book. That would occupy me until at least March, meaning if I need to do other things for getting First published I’d have to interrupt the writing. It’s possible, but not my first choice.

#2, I could edit Assignment Day. Like #1, though, that’s going to take up some serious time. Maybe I could do some initial brainstorming, though, on the major edits that I need to make.

#3, I could do character sketches on everyone in First. I found it’s a good exercise. Some people do them before writing a book, but I like to let the characters develop and then go back and add things into the sketches that might not make it into the next version of the book, but help me add texture to their lives. For this option I go back to #1, where everything needs to stay in the drawer for a while.

#4, I could write a short story. This idea has some appeal since it could end up being a bonus for when I eventually set up an email list on this site. Bonus stories are a nice add to entice people to sign up, especially if they’re in the same universe as a book I’m promoting.

#2 and #4 look the best right now. I shall ponder this a little bit more, but not too long. Time’s a-wasting.

GOALS

Sure, it seems like every person who lists out their goals at the beginning of the year starts with something like, “I’m not really a New Year’s resolution kind of person…”

I’ll forego that intro and just say I think it’s important to have some ideas in mind of where I want to be at the end of the year. I have things I want to accomplish in 2023 and I might as well put some of them into a list. These could change, and probably will. So here goes:

1. Publish two books - FIrst is ready to go, and Next Time needs a little editing and should be ready in a few months

2. Edit two books and get them ready to publish - Next TIme is first on the editing block, and then Assignment Day is going to need a lot more work to be something I’d share with the world

3. Write one book - I’m keeping this as writing one new book instead of multiple. With all the editing and work around publishing I hope to have time to write First Step, the sequel to First

4. Market published books - I anticipate this will take a lot of time away from actual writing. What will that look like? No idea.

5. Be a guest on at least one writing/author podcast - This could be part of #4 but I listed it separately since it’s kind of a stretch goal

6. Get 100 reviews combined on Amazon and other sites where my books will be sold - A thousand would be even nicer, but I figure if I get 100 then that means probably over a thousand people read a book. I’d be okay with that.

Seems like a good list. Like I said, things can change. For instance, my next book after writing the draft of Assignment Day was going to be First Step, as noted in #3 above. Instead, I had one of those middle-of-the-night ideas and had to write Next Time instead. Sometimes you just have to go where the waves carry you.

WHO?

Now we come to the last of our questions - who?

From previous posts you can tell I’m not a bestselling author dishing out advice. I’m just a guy who works a regular job every day and sets aside time for writing every morning. If I can write a book, anybody can.

We’re all familiar with stories of people who have great ideas for a story but never get around to setting the words to paper. In my view, the worst story is one that remains untold.

Think back to school days and when the teacher handed out an assignment for a two-page report, or five pages, or whatever. At the time that seemed like so much writing. Now I can knock out two pages in short order. And if you do a couple of pages each day, it begins to add up, until one day you have a book.

Maybe it’s just part of my personality, but writing a book takes more than a day and I’m in it for the long haul. Are there days where I’d rather sleep in? Sure. Are there days where I sit in front of the laptop and feel like I’m fresh out of words? Yes, and on many of those days I end up with close to 2,000 words. It’s crazy but true.

Like I said, I’m just a guy who likes to write. And as I like to say, I have to write the story so I can find out how it ends.

WHERE?

Where to write is an interesting question with as many answers as there are people.

I don’t think it’s a complicated question. My preference as of late is to sit at the desk in my office every morning, open up the laptop, and get to typing. I’ve also written in hotel rooms, at the kitchen table, sitting on the sofa, sitting on the back patio, on an airplane ride, and many other spots.

In other words, I’ve written wherever I wanted. I know of people who can only channel the writing muse in one particular spot. I’m clearly not of that persuasion, but also totally understand it. Writing wherever you want is a personal choice.

I know this isn’t really advice, but then again, I didn’t promise advice. Just passing along what I do and trying to communicate that there are an infinite number of ways to do this writing thing. Take all the inputs from here and everywhere and incorporate what works best into your approach.

WHEN?

The question of when to write was partially answered in the last post. Waiting until after work each day was a non-starter for me.

In July of 2021 I decided to change my routine. I’ve always been a person who wrings the most sleep as possible out of a night. That meant I was getting up close to start time for work each morning, cramming in a shower, breakfast, and coffee. That month I started pushing back my alarm. Fifteen minutes the first week, another fifteen the next, and so on. Over several weeks I was getting up an hour earlier than I’d been before.

That ended up giving me about 75 minutes of writing time each morning to knock out a chunk of words before the workday started. Depending on my state of mind, I usually get from 1,200 to 2,000 words in that time. I also try to end before I run out of thoughts. If I have the next few paragraphs already in mind, then the next day starts easier.

In the eighteen months since I started this routine, I’ve only missed it a couple of times, not counting vacations or travel. I do this Monday-Friday and often on Saturday. I’m very protective of the time, which means foregoing late nights occasionally. For example, I have a friend who wanted me to join in on hockey season tickets, but that means about 40 nights where I wouldn’t get home until after 11 p.m. That makes for a rough start to the next day, and writing takes priority over hockey or most any activity on a weeknight.

That’s what worked for me. Can you work all day and then write in the evening? Plenty of people do. Finding a routine that works for you and committing to it is the key.

How?

I’ve been to enough writer’s conferences, read enough books about writing, and been part of enough conversations about writing, to know the question, “How do I write a book?” comes up more than frequently.

It’s a question with a simple answer, one that seems almost rude to say to someone: you just have to sit down and do it.

I can’t tell you how to write a book. I can only tell you what I’ve done. Which will probably not help you much because you and I are not the same person. But like I said in the intro to this writing blog, maybe there’s a nugget of truth or wisdom in this somewhere that makes sense to you as you’re putting it all together.

What’s changed my writing is routine. I work on a computer all day long and have for decades, and the last thing I want to do is spend more time in the evening starting at an empty Word document. For the first several books i wrote, the unpublished ones, I actually wrote them in notebooks. Longhand. Yes, it took longer, and I had to eventually transcibe the notebooks into an electronic document. It worked for me at the time, though. A notebook was portable and didn’t require two minutes to boot up.I’m a fast typist and naturally the move to writing on a laptop eventually became my preferred method.

One thing that’s really helped is the flexibility of writing on a computer. By that, I mean if I need to move around chapters or sections, I can do it easily. If I need to refer to a scene earlier in the book, I can search easily. I can keep multiple drafts and history for later reference. And when I go down a rabbit trail or decide that the book is going in the wrong direction, I can easily delete a block of text and pick up where I want to. There’s nothing quite like highlighting 10,000 words and hitting the ‘Delete’ button. Trust me: it happens.

What about the routine part I mentioned above? That’s for the next post.

WHAT?

So, what have I written?

Thus far a handful of books, some short stories, and columns for a writer’s group newsletter.

Let’s go back about 25 years to when I was part of a writer’s group of probably 60-70 members, maybe more. Over the course of a few years I became the president (or whatever it was called) of the group, which was actually pretty cool. And then I moved to a different state. Oh, well. During the time I was in the group I wrote several front-page columns for our monthly publication. If you think you can phone it in for a newsletter, especially content consumed by other writers, well…

Also during that time I wrote several short stories, mostly SF, and had a few picked up by a very, very small-press publication. Even though they didn’t get much exposure, it was still gratifying to see my stories in print.

I wrote several books, I think 2 1/2 out of a series I was working on, but those have never seen the light of day. I think to myself occasionally that I should go back and see if they’re publishable. I suspect they need a lot of editing and I’m too busy with new stuff right now.

I grew up in southern New Mexico in the U.S. and always thought the scenery would make a perfect backdrop to a story, almost like becoming a character of its own. And then along came Breaking Bad, which did exactly that to perfection. The desert and mountains as well as the city of Albuquerque itself all became integral to the show. I can’t claim the same level of award-winning goodness, but I was still determined to tell a story in and around my hometown. Hence, the three-book series (let’s not call them a trilogy) of Sunset, Sundown, and Sunburst.

As of this writing, I’ve finished writing three books in the past 18 months. First, which is ready to publish; Assignment Day, which needs quite a bit of editing before it’s ready; and Next Time, which I finished less than a week ago and is sitting in a virtual drawer for a couple of months before I go back and do a first editing pass.

The next one I write, unless I get a different idea, will be First Step, the sequel to First. 2023 is going to be a busy year.

WHY?

Does the world really need another author’s blog where some hack tells you how to write and be successful?

Probably not. So I’ll try to not give advice.

What I will try is to tell my own story. If it serves as a warning to others, then maybe that’s the best I can hope for. If it gives you a different perspective on something you already know, even better.

I don’t think we can learn everything about writing from one person. We have to take bits and pieces from different people and roll them all into our own approach.

Think about it like this: in my professional career I’ve learned more from bad managers than from the good ones. Not that I haven’t learned from my good managers, but I learned a ton of what to avoid from the bad ones, and applied all those lessons to my own style.

Same with writing - I’m not a bestselling author and the odds are extremely long that I ever will be. But maybe, just maybe, there will be moments where I serve the same purpose as one of those bad managers and you will remember what to avoid. And if things go right, maybe you’ll learn a little bit from the “good manager” part of my writing journey as well.

What to Expect

2023 will be the year of publishing for me. Please join me as I journey through the ins and outs of getting my books to market.

I’ve already done some work trying to find an agent. I’ll have more thoughts about that in another post.

It’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that I’ll be going through an independent publisher or self-publishing. Maybe my mistakes along the way will provide lessons for others, and hopefully the eventual success will show it can be done.

I have one book in the can, ready to go after some proofreading, formatting, and cover art. I had an editor review it earlier this year and I’ll write about that experience as well. I have another book that needs some extensive editing and rewriting, and another I just finished the day before Christmas. That will probably be the second book I publish in 2023 since it doesn’t need as much work as the second one.

This author website is my first step in gearing up for what’s going to be an exciting year. I probably also need some social media exposure and I’ll cover that along the way as well.

I’m not an expert, and I doubt I’ll get rich from writing and publishing. Regardless, I’m going to do what I can to be successful and share that with you, Anonymous Reader. Let’s get started.