My Writing Process: Paper Versus Screen

I recently finished the third draft of my upcoming fourth Shalan novel. Unless I'm seriously mistaken, it's one layer of polish away from being ready to meet the public. It won't be coming out until sometime in June, but the inside of the book will be ready in a week or two. And I'm really excited. As I said with In The Shadow, I think this is, in all humility, my best work so far. And one reason I think it's an improvement over previous books is a change I made in my drafting process.

I've read since I started writing books that editing and revising should be done on paper; it's much more effective that way, everyone seems to say. But I didn't buy it. How in the world is printing it out and looking at it on paper any different in terms of editing than doing it on the screen? And doing it right on the computer is so much more convenient because when I see a problem, I can fix it right then and there, whereas paper requires that I mark the issue and then go back to the computer later to actually make the change.

But then, on a whim, I tried paper editing. It was actually even more than a whim. It was almost an accident. I don't mean I fell onto the paper manuscript with a pencil in my hand and got some editing in my book (the image of the old you-got-chocolate-on-my-peanut-butter Reese Cup commercials keeps playing through my head). But I printed out the manuscript for a friend who wanted to read it on paper. I wasn't going to see this person for a couple of weeks because she lives in Wheeling, so I had it lying around. Then one day, I thought that I would test this whole paper vs. plastic (See what I did there? Because computers are partly plastic? Huh? Anyway...) idea and prove myself right.

I was wrong. Reading and marking it up on paper was a COMPLETELY different process. Don't ask me to explain the science to it, but I saw things differently on the actual page than I did on the screen. And more than seeing them differently, I actually saw things that I didn't see before. I found two major plot holes that I had missed on the first and second draft, as well as some places where major characters needed further development. As a result, unusually, the book grew by almost 5,000 words on the third draft--and that's including cutting out a lot of deadwood, so it actually grew in terms of actual useful words a lot more than that. And I believe the result is a much more satisfying final result with all the questions answered and a group of well-rounded characters--even the lesser ones. I hope you agree.

Another benefit was the cleaning up of a lot of the prose. I eliminated almost all dialogue tags, leaving them out or trading them for actions that I hope make the book move more briskly and also fill it with more action to go with the dialogue. And for some reason, reading it on the page--I think it's the fact that I can see the whole page at one time and notice things like this--causes me to see when I'm using the same word too often and when a word just isn't the right one. So I fixed several instances of that.

So, on my fourth book, I'm still learning so much about how to be an author. Now, if I can just learn the secret to getting people to review my books...

My Writing Process: How It's Changed

When I first started writing seriously, I thought I knew what I was doing. I wrote and revised Harsh Prey, for the most part, in one sweep. Writing sessions consisted of editing (and by editing, I mostly mean proofreading, though I did make minor revisions occasionally) and then writing new stuff. I had a few folks beta read it and did one last quick sweep before rushing it to publication. If only I knew then what I know now. I made so many mistakes.

When I go back and read that first book, it's almost painful at times. Yes, I've gone back and fixed several just plain errors, so if you have a newer version of it, it's a pretty clean read. It's that the writing is just okay. I know that this is partly because it was my first book and I've grown and matured as a writer so that later books will inevitably be better than that one. But it's more than that. If I could start again, I would do it differently. I would do it more like I do things now, such as:

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• Remember the rule I harp at my kids about, which is based on Mark Twain's immortal words: "The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug." (http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/1119.html) I'm in the midst of my third revision of the novella I'm going to be publishing next month and at this point my main focus is to go through making sure each word is the EXACT RIGHT word to convey the message I want. Is it completely accurate? Is it too strong? Too weak? Does it perfectly fit the character? The situation? So many questions I barely thought about with my first book.

• Editing is way more than proofreading. Again, I tell my students this constantly, and yet I didn't seem to take my own advice. It's much larger than simply making sure all the words are spelled right and all the commas and periods and stuff are in the right place. It's closely examining how every word and sentence and paragraph and character and event fits within all the other words and sentences and paragraphs and characters and events. It's making sure to give out enough information at the right times and thinking about when it's better to just omit something and leave it to the imagination of the reader. It's paying attention to the arc of the story so that every little detail comes at exactly the right time. It's going back and rewriting page two so that the little thing that happens on page fifty has more emotional impact.

• There's no hurry. I have no intention of being George R. R. Martin slow, but cranking out a book every few months is, for one, not feasible while holding down a full-time job and, for two, not conducive to creating good stuff. And after all, I can publish all the books in the world, but if they're crappy then I've wasted my time and am not going to make any sales. After all, the ultimate goal here is to someday (I hope soon) to make a living doing this. So maybe two a year, or even one a year with a novella thrown in will be a more reasonable schedule. The point is, I'm not going to set artificial deadlines on myself. Each book will be ready when it's ready and only then will I think about publication. I think that will improve my ability to properly market books too.

I'm sure there are other things I do differently now, but that's enough for one entry. Before I end, though, I want to let you know about a giveaway. I'm giving away three signed copies of In The Shadow via Goodreads. If you want to be in on it, just click the button on the right and follow the directions. Winners will be chosen on November 30, with the books arriving in your mailbox shortly after.