editing

Busy Weekend

Published June 3, 2009 | By joravetz

Hi Everyone,

Sorry that I didn’t get a post up this last weekend, but I was busy fixing my car. It decided last week that it did not want to start so I spent the weekend testing all of the electrical components of the ignitions system with an multimeter and a spark tester. My husband helped me change the distributor cap and rotor; the spark plug wires; and the spark plugs. That fixed it. Oh, for any other financially strapped writers out there. The site that I use to help me fix my car is www.alldatadiy.com You do have to pay for a subscription (it’s yearly, for around $30) but it’s been worth every penny for me. Anyway, I suppose I am way off topic. Back to writing. Well, I have the new beginning. I have just a few more tweaks and then I’ll put it up. I’m very pleased with it. I am rewriting large chunks and am very happy with how it’s going. Well, I have to get to work, more later.
~Keep Reading.

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Edit one, mission complete

Published December 28, 2008 | By joravetz

I finished the first edit of the first draft of Pelegra and the Son of Merek. I figure it I’ll probably do at least two more rounds of editing. What do I mean by round? I mean I go through the entire manuscript correcting one thing. This particular edit was content with some sentence structure thrown in. Next time it will be grammar and/or typos. Though to be honest, I’ll probably have my husband read through it for typos. He’s very good at catching things like that.

Well that’s all for now.

Keep Reading.

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The End

Published November 22, 2008 | By joravetz

Well after many sleepless, okay near sleepless nights I have finished the first draft of Pelegra and the Son of Merek. Now I just have to finish editing. The beginning is already edited I think it is currently at version three or so. The rest of it still needs a couple of edits.

Regardless, I can’t even express the joy that I felt when I read the last sentence. The last sentence of my book.

I plan on being finished with edits (since that and work is pretty much my life) by the beginning of December. Then I will start submitting again.

Well that’s all for now, lots to do….

Keep Reading,

Jina

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Things I ‘ve learned the past week or two…

Published August 8, 2008 | By joravetz
Having plot problems? Yeah, me too. Every time I think everything is worked out Aiden throws me for a loop.
Well, I went to the Willamette Writer’s conference this weekend, which was a blast! I recommend it to anyone serious about writing. I picked up a really fabulous book. Manuscript Makeover by Elizabeth Lyon.
This book will help you through those plot problems, characterization, editing, preparing to submit and a whole lot more. I got it for $15.00 from barnes and noble well it was $14.95 or something like that. Elizabeth Lyon was also at the conference, very nice lady.
My point is that we can all use a little help once in awhile, or if you are new to the world of submitting you may need a lot of help, lol. The thing is you may not realize that you need the help. I was doing things that I wasn’t aware of until I read about them in this book and re-revised my chapters.
I received several good pieces of advice this weekend. One of them really stuck with me.
If you are creating a world know it 100% and show 15%. This was from Agent Kelly Sonnack.
That got me thinking. I feel like I know Pelegra 100%, but do I really? That is the question. Well after I got home from the conference (I only attended Friday) I thought about that. And thought some more. I spent a year planning this series before I started writing it. But did I record all of the details that I thought about. No. Big Mistake.
Know the world you are writing about. Know your characters inside out and backwards. So I’ve spent the weekend recording all of the details that I did not previously write down. Do I know my world 100% yes. But I also discovered I needed to make some changes to up the realism factor. As real as a fantasy with travel by refrigerator can be.
So now that you’ve listed to me babble on I’ll summarize my main point.
Know your characters. Know your world. Know your plot. Get help (critque groups are great) and yes you can learn to be a better writer from a book. However, in your editing craze keep something in mind. Keep you in mind and your characters. If, in your aim for perfection, you edit the passion out of your writing then you have defeated your own purpose (Hence I’ll be rewriting the first chapter –again). So if you break a few “rules” but the story is better and the character stronger then leave it up to an agent or editor to decide what to change.

Ok. I think I’m done rambling now.

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