Word Count Wednesday

I'm editing a very emotional scene today that I really want to get right.  So far, I've cut five pages, put them back in, then cut two.  Now I'm thinking I should just re-write the whole thing.  Or go for a walk and clear my head.

Speaking of walking, remember when I told you that when I started JumpStartWriMo I started walking again because walking always helps my creative flow?  I'm up to two miles a day now and I've lost eight pounds.  And, honestly, I think my manuscript is the better for it, too, because most of my best ideas for how to knock this thing out have come during my walks.  So there you go, win/win for everyone!

How did you do with your word count this week?

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Scarecrow and Mrs. King--How the Spy Business Has Changed

So you all know that I'm in an editing marathon/crunch right now and things are going great/horrible.  I've become quite adept at motivating myself for the times when I don't want to sit in the chair and look at the incredible/silly writing that I've put on the page.  One way is when I've edited a chapter I get to reward myself by watching a Scarecrow and Mrs. King episode.  

If you don't recognize that show, it was a spy show in the 80s about a suburban housewife named Amanda King (played by Kate Jackson) who gets tangled up with "the Agency" when she helps one of their agents named Lee Stetson (played by Bruce Boxleitner) code name Scarecrow.  That little act of kindness by Amanda turns into a part-time job for her and as a single mother, she needs it.  She's sort of a Molly do-gooder involved with charities and scouts and being a mom.  Partner her with a sophisticated agent and it's a lot of fun.  There's a lot of intrigue and a little romance as the series progresses.  The stories really were well-written and it's been fun to go back and re-watch them.

There have been a few things I've noticed, though, that have changed in the "spy business" since the 80s.

Poor Scarecrow is always looking for a pay phone.  Nowadays, well, do we even have pay phones anymore?  I can't remember the last time I saw one.

Computers took up half the room.

Printers spit out papers that had those funky holey paper thingys on the side that you had to rip off.

Russia was our biggest foe back then.

A lot of the storylines (like terrorists poisoning water supplies, protecting communication lines etc.) are still relevant today.

I've also noticed a few things I love about the show that haven't changed.

The romance between the leads is built up slowly.  Sometimes today's television (especially with lead actors who have as much chemistry as Bruce and Kate did) seems to move past the friendship/falling in love stage so quickly you blink if you miss it.

There aren't any dopey cliffhanger gimmicks to keep you tuning in.  You tuned in because the show was just that much fun to watch.

It shows a normal family.  (Well, okay, as normal as you can get when the mom is a spy.)  But it shows her relationship with her mom, her two kids, her ex-husband, and her co-workers.  Sometimes it feels like today's television misses that element.


All in all, it's just a fun show that is motivating this poor writer to get her job done.  And while it doesn't make me miss the 80s clothes at all, it does make me miss television shows I can watch with my kids.  Those are hard to find in 2012.

Do you have an old show that you love to re-watch?

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Do You Have a Lucky Writing Shirt?

Well, I'm back to the grindstone today, doing a few more edits.  I have critique group this week so I want to be prepared.

Unfortunately, I need a little extra motivation today.  I'm just not feeling super-thrilled about editing for some reason.  I know, it's a shocker, isn't it.

So, in order to get in the mood, I've got my playlist, and I pulled out my lucky shirt.  It's a ratty old shirt, but for some reason, I've done my best writing while wearing it and today I need it's magic.

Do you have a lucky writing shirt?  Writing sock?  Writing hat?  Anything lucky you like to write with?

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First Page Friday

Well, since it's Friday the 13th, this is either a scary post or a lucky one.  I'll go for lucky. Thank you so much to both the submitter and the editor who go to such effort to help us all learn and improve in our writing.


The Entry
Happy
by Anonymous

My mom was driving me to my dad’s house in Michigan. I am going to live there with him for the rest of high school because my mom married a man who’s job had made him move around a lot and she wants me to have a more stable life. So here I am, on my way to some boring state that has no surfing like California does to live with my dad, who I usually only see for a few weeks in the summer. 


My dog Happy barked from the back of the SUV. “Be quiet Happy!” I shouted at him but then felt bad. Moving was hard for animals too, he was probably scared.


“So how do you feel about moving to Michigan to live with your father?” asked Mom as she came to a stop light.


“I don’t know.”

“Well you will like it, I think. Chris and I will come visit you when we can, and you can come visit us for breaks. I think this is better for everyone.”


Better for you, I thought but didn’t say. I had wanted Mom to be happy and if dumping me at Dad’s condo for the rest of my teen years was the way to do it I guess I’d go along with it. She’d have much more fun seeing new places with Chris then she would listening to me talk about dumb boys.


Ms. Shreditor's Comments

There are some compelling elements here, but there are also some issues that compromise the effectiveness of this first page. For starters, we have a very generic opening sentence: “My mom was driving me to my dad’s house in Michigan.” Sure, this is an important detail, but is it important enough to merit placement in the all-important first sentence slot? My instinct is no, that there needs to be a stronger opening here.


There’s a good balance between exposition and dialogue, but the dialogue itself falls a bit flat. The mother’s initial question to the narrator feels a bit forced. Would she really wait until now to ask this question, when they’re already en route to Dad’s house—and would she phrase it in such a stiff way? Make sure that, if you’re using dialogue as a mode of information delivery, it rings true to the characters, the scene, and the situation. Otherwise, the dialogue isn’t much more than a thinly veiled information dump.


The story gets compelling in the last paragraph. At this point, we get a very real reaction from the narrator regarding her situation, a reaction that injects her with a healthy dose of humanity. Here she is, uprooting her entire life because she thinks it will make her mother happy. It’s vaguely reminiscent of several popular books, including the Twilight saga. [Aside: If this is to be a YA romance, make sure to find good beta readers. You don’t want your story to fall prey to some of the clichés and tired tropes that have arisen in Twilight’s wake.  If this isn’t going to be a romance, pretend I never said anything. The trend is such in YA right now that I assume everything is going to be a romance.]

A few details rang false to me. Why are the narrator and her mother driving from California to Michigan? It strikes me as odd that the mother, who seems anxious to unload both daughter and dog, would choose to drive over two thousand miles when flying would probably be easier for all involved. Also, I assume they’re making the trip on major interstate highways, so the presence of a stoplight tripped my radar. Have they pulled off the highway for some reason? Perhaps clarify for the reader. This may sound nitpicky, but these are the details that keep me up at night when I’m line editing a manuscript.

The narrator’s reaction to the barking dog jarred me at first, but then her subsequent acknowledgment that Happy was probably as scared as she was made it poignant. Both of them are justifiably on edge.

Lastly, this piece needs a strong copyedit. There are a lot of grammatical, punctuation, verb tense, and spelling issues (including the dreaded “then” vs. “than” in the last sentence). You want all of your manuscript to shine when you submit it, but if you have to give extra attention to any part of your story, let it be the first page. You don’t want to scare an acquiring editor away from a great potential story with careless errors right out of the gate.


See you all next week!

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What's Your Editing Process?

Today I am hunkered down working on these final edits.  I have babysitters set for my children, power snacks ready for me, and I think I'm ready.

For me, I plan my edits.  I work on them on the computer, then I print out and read, then I read aloud, then I go back and make the changes on the computer.  Different layers and details always come to me during edits and when I add things, I always have to go through and read one more time.

Of course I won't catch all my typos and mistakes and that's why I'm so grateful for alpha readers.  And beta readers.  And critique groups.  They all make me better.

And after my confession on Monday you know this manuscript has been different than any other in the fact that I'm making a major change in the book late in the process.  It's stressed me out, but as I change and work and mold the material, I'm seeing something wonderful take shape and I hope my readers will, too.

So, what's your editing process?  How do you make it work for you?

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Word Count Wednesday

It's crunch time for me.  I'm doing final edits on this puppy and I'm really excited about where it's going.  We had a glitch earlier this week with making sure things were tight and snappy, but I think I've got a handle on it.

My word count wasn't great because I was mostly deleting and smoothing, but I'm happy with where I'm at and the direction I'm going in.

How did you do with your goals this week?

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G-Rated Non-Profanity (Yes, I'm Editing)

So, as you all know, I am elbow deep in edits and there may or may not have been some cursing and crying going on. Of course the cursing was my special brand of non-cursing because well, I'm not a fan of profanity.  But sometimes, the situation calls for a freakin' flippin' oh my heck.  (And if you are offended by non-curse words I apologize right now.  Do not read on.  Or click on the video.)

Remember how yesterday I told you I had to take out a character and a storyline?  This is how that went.  Picture me, sitting at my desk, clenching my teeth, and white-knuckling it with the delete key.  Page by page, looking at my witty writing and mumbling to myself, "Dang it, can I keep this somehow?"  and pulling on my hair answering myself with a "Noooo," and "Julie, what the holy scrud were you thinking?"

And then I banged my head on the desk a couple of times.  (Just kidding.  That would hurt if I did that.)

I got out the big guns around chapter five.  The pseudo-cursing would stop if my mouth was busy, so I got a bag of baby carrots to munch through while I did the hard part. For some reason crunching comforts me.  So I crunch.  I think I ate the entire bag of carrots (and I don't recommend doing that.  Just believe me that it's not really a good idea.)

Today, I went to the dentist to get myself ready to finish the rest of the edits/cuts.  The scraping and grinding on my teeth really put me in the right mood.  (Oddly, the dentist's office kept playing the Rocky theme.  I think that may have been a message just for me.)

But I am not in the Rocky mood yet.  I am definitely in the crunching and cursing mode still.  So I have included for your listening pleasure my 'I Love/Hate Editing So I Listen to This' song.  Try not to judge me.  (And also, do you have editing theme songs?  Or am I the only one?  Are you a curser or a non-curser?  Is curser a word?  Haha)

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