Hello Lovelies!
Today I thought I'd tell you how I edit my short stories. Feel free to use some or all of my techniques, or simply read and move on, happy with your own system. As long as you edit your stories, it's all good! (But, please, no matter how you do it, edit your stories!)
The first thing I do is simply read through the draft. I do this in one sitting, which, let's be honest, with short stories isn't too much of a time-sink. If I find typos, I fix them, but otherwise all I want to do is make sure the story, from front to back, is fresh in my mind. If I find any glaring plot problems during the read-through, or otherwise discover a way to make the story better, I fix it now. Otherwise, if I'm happy with the structure and how it plays out, I continue to my next read-through.
My second read-through is pretty much the same as my third, fourth, fifth, and however many I need before I'm happy with the story. (Usually by my fourth or fifth, I'm ready to move on.) I check word-usage, punctuation, grammar, sentence structure, and all that good stuff to make sure the prose sparkle. I want my dialogue to sound realistic, the story to not be too passive, and words to not repeat too much, or at all, if possible. If you get to a read-through where you're not finding many things to change, it's probably time to move on to the next stage. If you're not sure, another read-through won't hurt.
One thing to remember, though; you will be able to tinker with a story forever if you want to. You change and grow every day, so you'll find something else in your story with every pass. At some point, you need to say, "It's ready." When I find I'm at that point, I move to the next step.
My next step is a program called SmartEdit. No, it's not free, but I find invaluable. I use the stand-alone version, not the Word plug-in. I copy and paste my manuscript in, and it makes a number of checks for me. Personally, I have it check my adverb usage, possible misused words (ex. accept vs. except), redundant words, and my monitored words, which is a list of many words I know I use far to often (ex. that, was, up). There are other things it can check, as well, and you just need to click on an option for the software to add it to its compiled list. It helps trim up my prose, making it leaner and meaner. The best part is you can get a 10-day free trial, so you can see how well you like it. I'm sure you can also Google other programs, some maybe free, to help clean up your story.
If you don't want to use a program at all, you can make a pass where you focus on only adverbs, one where you check words which you know you know you use too often and eradicate them if you can, and so on and so forth. You can do the same thing as SmartEdit or other programs, but it's going to take a bit longer. If you don't mind that, or are good at focusing on more than one task earlier in the read-throughs, you're all set.
After I use SmartEdit, I give the story one more read-through to make sure I didn't jumble anything while removing words. Also, one more read-through is never a bad thing to make sure everything still flows. I then move onto my final (editing-wise) step.
This final step is another program, but it's free, and you might already have one downloaded on your devices. I listen to my story with a text-to-speech program. Personally, my favorite is NaturalReader. You can download it at that link for free. Whatever device you edit on (laptop, desktop, iPad, etc.) may have a text-to-speech program built in, but I find the voices on NaturalReader are the easiest for me to listen to. There is a floating bar so you don't need to copy and past anything, simply highlight the text you want read, and push play. Other programs may work just as well, but I love NaturalReader. There is also a paid version, but for my purposes, and likely yours, there's no need to go to it. Every once in a while, the voice will stop so it can offer you a chance to upgrade, but it's an easy two clicks to get back to your work.
Why do I suggest using a text-to-speech reader? First off, it's the best way to find pesky typos or wrong words. Often the eye skips over typos, but if you're listening at the same time, you'll pick them up. You can also determine if a sentence or passage sounds unnatural to the ear and fix it. It's also easier to tell if dialog sounds natural when you listen rather than simply read it. Basically, I highly suggest you don't skip this step for the hunting down typos reason, but you'll also benefit in other areas.
That's it. Once I finish listening to the story, I'm confident my story is ready to be published. I know it's a lot of steps, and my longer short stories (those running 10k to 15k words) often take a week or longer before they're ready. But, honestly, that's no time at all to make sure a short story is ready for the world to see. When I'm editing a novel, I often spend a couple of months to make sure it's polished to my perfection, but that's a topic for another time.
Once you've finished editing, you need to ready your manuscript for publishing or submitting, depending on what you're doing to it. I will talk about how I ready a story for Amazon in a future post, but for now, you see my editing process. As I said at the beginning, feel free to follow each of my steps, but if you don't, that's fine, too. We all do things differently! (But, for the love of all that is holy, don't finish your first draft and deem it worthy of publishing. Guess what, it's not ready!)
Feel free to leave a comment if you enjoyed reading about my process, totally agree or disagree with it, want to let me know how you edit, or anything else! Thank you for reading!
Showing posts with label writing tip. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing tip. Show all posts
Sunday, June 25, 2017
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Outlining Short Stories
Hello Lovelies!
Been a while since I've written a blog post, so let's make the most of it! I decided today to talk about how I plot my short stories. I always make myself an outline, or I find I never finish the story. I'm definitely not a pantser (someone who writes their first draft by the seat of their pants)! But what does it mean to make an outline? It's certainly not the old roman numeral, followed by uppercase letters, followed by numbers, followed by lowercase letters that many of us learned in school (though it can be if you like). No, an outline can be as structured or messy as you want it to be. Basically, if you write down a road map to your story of any kind, you've created an outline.
I start, of course, with a basic idea of what I want to write. After I have that, I freewrite. What does that mean? Basically, I start writing any idea that pops into my brain about what I want the overall story to be about, how I want it to start, how I want it to end, what should be in the middle, and everything else! There is no structure to this, and often thoughts stop midway through if I don't like the direction it's going. In fact, I rarely even look back at this freewrite exercise. I only do it to get my mind focused on the story. And, of course, if I do want to check back later, it's right there, either in my notebook or my Scrivener file.
Once I'm happy with the direction and ideas for the story, I open a clean file (or turn to a fresh piece of paper if I'm writing old school) and summarize my story from start to finish. I try to do it all in one sitting, and since it's a short story, it doesn't need to be too long. I try not to add too many descriptions, dialogue, or anything else in my outline except the bare-bones of the story. I do this because it gives me more freedom during the actual first-draft writing. (And, yes, later during the first draft, if a better idea comes along, I'm not afraid to deviate from the outline even if it is sometimes a major pain in the buns.)
After I've finished this outline, I read it over again to make sure the story flows, and then add or delete things to make it the best story it can be. Basically, I have a summary of my story, with each scene in its own paragraph. Since I use Scrivener, it's easy to put it in its own window/column/whatever it's called so I can have it right there in front of me as I type. Of course, you'll have an easy way to do this with whatever program you use, including pen and paper. That simple process has done the job of both getting my mind focused on the story and building a structure that allows me to add plenty to as I write the actual story. Even though I've added a few steps to my story before I've even began, I find the writing goes so much faster and smoother. I know what I'm up against before I start, rather than trying to figure it out as I go.
It also makes the editing process easier, in my opinion. Since I have the story structured how I want it, I simply need to make sure the story reads smoothly for the reader. (Even so, I do have a whole routine when it comes to editing, but that can be the focus of a future post!) I've basically handled the editing of the structure before I wrote word-one on the first draft. Easy-peasy!
So that's how I do it for my short stories. Feel free to copy my process if it helps you - it's why I posted it! Or take a bit of it. Or scoff and say your way is better. Whatever helps! Thank you for reading, and I'll see you soon!
Been a while since I've written a blog post, so let's make the most of it! I decided today to talk about how I plot my short stories. I always make myself an outline, or I find I never finish the story. I'm definitely not a pantser (someone who writes their first draft by the seat of their pants)! But what does it mean to make an outline? It's certainly not the old roman numeral, followed by uppercase letters, followed by numbers, followed by lowercase letters that many of us learned in school (though it can be if you like). No, an outline can be as structured or messy as you want it to be. Basically, if you write down a road map to your story of any kind, you've created an outline.
I start, of course, with a basic idea of what I want to write. After I have that, I freewrite. What does that mean? Basically, I start writing any idea that pops into my brain about what I want the overall story to be about, how I want it to start, how I want it to end, what should be in the middle, and everything else! There is no structure to this, and often thoughts stop midway through if I don't like the direction it's going. In fact, I rarely even look back at this freewrite exercise. I only do it to get my mind focused on the story. And, of course, if I do want to check back later, it's right there, either in my notebook or my Scrivener file.
Once I'm happy with the direction and ideas for the story, I open a clean file (or turn to a fresh piece of paper if I'm writing old school) and summarize my story from start to finish. I try to do it all in one sitting, and since it's a short story, it doesn't need to be too long. I try not to add too many descriptions, dialogue, or anything else in my outline except the bare-bones of the story. I do this because it gives me more freedom during the actual first-draft writing. (And, yes, later during the first draft, if a better idea comes along, I'm not afraid to deviate from the outline even if it is sometimes a major pain in the buns.)
After I've finished this outline, I read it over again to make sure the story flows, and then add or delete things to make it the best story it can be. Basically, I have a summary of my story, with each scene in its own paragraph. Since I use Scrivener, it's easy to put it in its own window/column/whatever it's called so I can have it right there in front of me as I type. Of course, you'll have an easy way to do this with whatever program you use, including pen and paper. That simple process has done the job of both getting my mind focused on the story and building a structure that allows me to add plenty to as I write the actual story. Even though I've added a few steps to my story before I've even began, I find the writing goes so much faster and smoother. I know what I'm up against before I start, rather than trying to figure it out as I go.
It also makes the editing process easier, in my opinion. Since I have the story structured how I want it, I simply need to make sure the story reads smoothly for the reader. (Even so, I do have a whole routine when it comes to editing, but that can be the focus of a future post!) I've basically handled the editing of the structure before I wrote word-one on the first draft. Easy-peasy!
So that's how I do it for my short stories. Feel free to copy my process if it helps you - it's why I posted it! Or take a bit of it. Or scoff and say your way is better. Whatever helps! Thank you for reading, and I'll see you soon!
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
20-Minute Writing Sprints
Hi Lovelies!
I thought today might be a good day for a writing tip instead of my normal self-promotion. I use this technique quite often, and it honestly does help in getting things done. It's as simple as setting a timer for 20 minutes and writing (or editing, plotting, or any other writing task) until the timer goes off. I use the timer on Google, but the one on your phone, your iPad, your watch, or whatever works just as well. Heck, an old kitchen timer would do the trick, too!
I find that if I know I can check my phone, Twitter, other Internet sites, or anything that normally distracts me from writing a short 20 minutes later, I can get plenty done. Once the timer goes off, I sooth myself with those fun and addicting things for a few minutes, set the timer again, and do another 20 minutes. (And if you have trouble limiting your time on those fun activities, set the timer again for 5 minutes and get back to writing when it goes off.)
Of course, 20 minutes is an arbitrary time. It's usually the amount I can give my undivided attention to something before my mind starts to wander a bit. If you find 10 or 15 minute sprints are more your speed, go for it! You might find that 30 minutes are more your sweet spot. Great! (I'm actually hoping to up mine to 30 minutes, but for now when I go past 20, I usually find myself itching at about the 22 or 23 minute mark.😄) All that matters is you're giving yourself plenty of uninterrupted time to write.
There are also ways to block the Internet for a small block of time on your devices if you really need help avoiding distractions. I can't personally recommend any, as I've never tried them, but if you need that extra little help, know that they exist and are a Google (or whatever your search engine of choice is) search away. Whatever helps you get words on the page (or said words edited) is the way to go!
I hope this helps some of you, or at least gives you something to think about. Feel free to leave your own tips in the comments! If I get enough, I'll make a new blog post with those tips! Have a great week!
I thought today might be a good day for a writing tip instead of my normal self-promotion. I use this technique quite often, and it honestly does help in getting things done. It's as simple as setting a timer for 20 minutes and writing (or editing, plotting, or any other writing task) until the timer goes off. I use the timer on Google, but the one on your phone, your iPad, your watch, or whatever works just as well. Heck, an old kitchen timer would do the trick, too!
I find that if I know I can check my phone, Twitter, other Internet sites, or anything that normally distracts me from writing a short 20 minutes later, I can get plenty done. Once the timer goes off, I sooth myself with those fun and addicting things for a few minutes, set the timer again, and do another 20 minutes. (And if you have trouble limiting your time on those fun activities, set the timer again for 5 minutes and get back to writing when it goes off.)
Of course, 20 minutes is an arbitrary time. It's usually the amount I can give my undivided attention to something before my mind starts to wander a bit. If you find 10 or 15 minute sprints are more your speed, go for it! You might find that 30 minutes are more your sweet spot. Great! (I'm actually hoping to up mine to 30 minutes, but for now when I go past 20, I usually find myself itching at about the 22 or 23 minute mark.😄) All that matters is you're giving yourself plenty of uninterrupted time to write.
There are also ways to block the Internet for a small block of time on your devices if you really need help avoiding distractions. I can't personally recommend any, as I've never tried them, but if you need that extra little help, know that they exist and are a Google (or whatever your search engine of choice is) search away. Whatever helps you get words on the page (or said words edited) is the way to go!
I hope this helps some of you, or at least gives you something to think about. Feel free to leave your own tips in the comments! If I get enough, I'll make a new blog post with those tips! Have a great week!
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