Just the Tip(s) – Reading and Editing Advice from a Writer Without a Clue

Two drafts and a polish. Advice I am trying to take without a fluttery heart. Because guess what?  About six weeks ago I finished the first draft of a story…a novel? A something, I guess.

It took all the restraint I had not to launch myself back into editing it the moment I finished. I felt lost without my story. My characters. I still had quotes and sentences and story line buzzing around in my head that I didn’t know what to do with. Instead, I took a breath and had a drink instead to celebrate.

 

can’t you feel the excitement?

 

First draft done, the next step is a read. And I’m not sure about the right way to edit. My style is an amalgamation of advice from different writers and just going with my gut instinct. According to Stephen King and others, let it sit, and that’s what I did. I was a good girl and patiently let it marinate on a shelf. I admit I took a few peeks at it, made a few teeny tiny edits (get off my back, OKAY, STEVE?), but for the most part have showed surprisingly good restraint for a Libra.

 

Obey the Man.

 

Now, six weeks later, back from a vacation (blog to come), well rested and raring to go, I’ve picked the story back up. I’m reading through it. No editing. Just making notes on a notepad as I go.  It’s difficult to pick up your piece and resist the temptation to red-ink the motherfuck out of it. But it should be done so you can soak up the full story…and then tear into the second draft of it with ferocious and worry-free abandon. Because hey, you read through it. You did your job. Now go at it.

Before I started reading I made myself five key tips compiled from random advice I’ve read. These seem to be most important for this first step of the first draft read. I posted them on the wall in my office. I glance at them often as I hold my story in my hands. They remind me to JUST READ. NO TOUCHING.

 

 

Now I’m not a pro at these yet, and I’m sure I’ll break a few of them, but so far they’ve been helping me keep on track. No one’s an expert – everyone will and should edit differently according to what floats your boat and curls your toes.

But since sharing is caring, I wanted to post these five little tips that may or may not get you hot and bothered.

 

Ah, the scrawl of a serial killer.

1- Reread:

                 – No editing

                -Just notes/thoughts on a pad

2- Ask:

                -First 20 pages – do you see the premise? Is it obvious?

                -Does the manuscript tell the story you wanted?

                -Kill anything extraneous

               -What’s the protagonist’s clear goal?

               -Is every back story vital?

3-Circle “thought” sentences. FIX.

4- Be honest – with your characters and the story you want to tell.

5- Kill your darlings!

 

I already know the let-your-novel-sit advice works. Before, all I wanted to do was fix it up ASAP, get it done, and do something with it. I was frantic and rabid, near inconsolable with wanting it to be perfect and done STAT.

Now, after letting it sit, and having time to ponder, I’m not impatient. I want to take care with my words and my characters. I want to make it good. I want to make it tight and hard. Be proud of it and not fuck it up.

I think that’s something we can all agree on. And with enough practice, do it too.

Fun with Stephen King

No one can give me a good ol’ crotch-tingling like Stephen King.

“I laugh because I’m amazing.”

Oh wait. I’ve just been alerted it’s called a “spine-tingling”. Well, that definitely explains a lot. My apologies. Although, “crotch-tingler” is definitely more fun to say.

And get.

I like to imagine Samantha Jones saying this.

In honor of spooky-horror-season I wanted to pay a little homage to one of my favorite horror writers.

Yes, you all know I have a love affair with Stephen King. I’ll admit it. I’m kinda amazed by him. The reason for this is something Fox Mulder would appreciate.

X-File references will not be denied.

 

He makes you believe. And he makes you believe without question. The first book I read of his was The Stand and throughout the entire book there was no polite pondering of, “Huh, this seems unlikely to happen…” from me.

Although in real life it’d be something vulgar like, “What the fuck, yo?”

All his stories contain the unthinkable, the odd, the creepy, and I’ve never once scoffed. Like the little girl taking candy from that unusual clown down the street, I’m accepting and grateful with a teeny bit of terrified tossed in.  I believe without question.

Cell phones turning people into zombies? Shit yeah. A gypsy and cursed pies? Hells yes. In fact, break me off a piece of that throbbing pie. I’ll eat it. A town trapped under a dome? Well, we’ve all seen The Simpsons move. And since The Simpsons deem it so…

He makes the unthinkable real. Brings it to an acceptable level. That’s an admirable trait.

The question is how he does this.

Lucky for you, I have a semi-cogent answer (drinking doesn’t start until 3pm).

What he does that brings out the horror is incorporating real world things. Life. His stories are in the here-and-now. Wikipedia, Google, Rob Lowe (speaking of throbbing), have all got mentions in his stories. Sure a lot of authors do this…but this real stuff combined with the unreal fixes itself in a kind of this-could-be state in your mind. And then you shit your pants.

You’re welcome.

Another thing this author does to me that no one has ever done…

 

Pervs.

…is make me cry tears of fear. I’m not kidding. I’m for real-real. You ever been that scared? The scared where your eyes widen, letting in more light, where you sit frozen, reading, a tear slips from your eye and then all of a sudden your husband has to change the sheets.

No?

Well, I’ve been there. Minus the bed-wetting part, because that’s so very 1982 of me.

 

And by “1982” I really mean 2012.

 

Take for example this quote from my most recent King read, 11/22/63. The quote is referring to the fictional town of Derry, Maine…that is quite literally alive.

“…but I can tell you one more thing: there was something inside that fallen chimney at the Kitchener Ironworks. I don’t know what and I don’t want to know, but at the mouth of the thing I saw a heap of gnawed bones and a tiny chewed collar with a bell on it. A collar that had surely belong to some child’s beloved kitten. And from inside the pipe—deep in that oversized bore—something moved and shuffled.

Come in and see, that something seemed to whisper in my head. Never mind all the rest Jake—come in and see. Come in and visit. Time doesn’t matter in here; in here, time just floats away…”

I just pooped my pants.

The claw marks signal sweet desperation.

This town is FICTIONAL, people. But it’s still creepy. Creepy like that one time you saw your dad wearing mommy’s makeup. This place guts you raw. He’s done something with that town that stays with you.

THIS KIND OF SOMETHING.

King is damn good. I admire him for his skill, his craft, and his ability to make me cry into couch cushions. C’mon, they don’t call me a pillow biter for nothing.

Now reading is all subjective. King isn’t the only horror genre writer out there – Lovecraft, Poe, even Gaiman – but I’ll admit, I’m stuck with my man. I like my King; so help me out people. Who is your favorite scary writer? This Halloween, turn me on to some new ones.

And by on, I mean Samantha-Jones-on.

Just kidding, I really want recommendations.

The Write Space (PUN!)

Everyone needs their own space. Isn’t that what serial killers always say?

Whether it’s the token man cave, hammock in the backyard, or porcelain throne, solitude is important. Epecially if you’re pushing or rubbing one out. But I digress….As writers I think that’s one thing we can agree on. Also, for me, it’s one thing—an important thing—I need to survive and be successful. I’m not speaking monetarily here in terms of success; success of the soul and the imagination. 

I am the type who cannot do focused writing without being in my space. Sure, I can scribble on notepads at work and while driving and during epic dance-offs, but I can never be that person who escapes to a beach or a soiled motel room to write their masterpiece. To really sit down and write my stories I MUST sit my ass in this sweet, sweet, black, leathery chair.

Note the (firm) butt indentations

 

The writing habitats of famous authors astound me. Oh, to have Thoreau’s cabin at Walden Pond. Virginia Woolf’s Monks House, Stephen King’s attic office (which I feel may be suitably haunted) in Maine, Hemingway’s Key West Home…

Been there, bitches.

 

 

However odd, grandiose or even plain, all writing spaces are different and you do what you can to make it yours. 

My writing space is a simple office downstairs in my home. I hesitate to describe the style since I cannot be trusted to decorate. But if my office were a Match.com profile it would read…

Sultry brick orange walls, and one chocolate brown one. Cluttered like crazy.  If you like bookcases filled to the brim, a case of vinyl, and a phrenology skull, then I’m for you. I have a map of Montana stuck to one wall, inspiration for my current work-in-progress. I like to surround myself with photos that make me giddy and remind me of where I’ve been.

God, if that doesn’t turn you on, nothing will.

And so here’s a little peek at mine (no touching):

 

Skulls and zombies. Life is complete.

 

CAT IN A CHAIR

Book boner.

 

 

Since I showed you mine, show me yours.

I want to see your space. The photos. The inspirations. The books on the shelf, shrunken heads on display, cats asleep in chairs (c’mon, we’re all writers, we have cats, people!), whiskey bottles lining the trash.

If you’re comfortable sharing, send me a snapshot of your favorite space, the one that best describes it, and I’ll feature them on my next blog.  

Email to: julia.archer@gmail.com.

 

I’ll Have What He’s Having

Stephen King reads 80 books a year. That’s right. Let that number sink in. Chew on it. Weep in jealousy. Feel my pain.   

A rare glimpse into my bedroom and how I keep track of books read.

Really, Stephen? That’s ballsy. You write what seems like20 books a year and now you go ahead and brag that you have the time to read 80 as well? Hell, that’s reading on steroids. But whatever you’re on, I want to have it.

While I will probably never live up to Mr. King’s boastful yet impressive number, his inspiration lives on.

I have been dutiful in keeping a book journal for the past two years (yes, yes, I know I should have began one long ago). Recording the dates books have been started and finished, my own chicken scratch reviews of each story are all kept in a tattered notebook.

I have a vision that one day my future child will find the book journal and be amazed at how well-read their mother is. Either that or they’ll think me incredibly lame for having kept one and in that case I’d like to say in the most adult way possible: Screw-you-future-child-Jenny-or-Andy, you’re the lame one, not me.

Since we’re nearly halfway through the year I’d thought I’d post my grand total starting from January 1, 2011.

7.

No judgments people. This is what I have mustered so far…

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson

Doomed Queens [non-fic]

The Lady in the Tower – The Fall of Anne Boleyn [non-fic] by Alison Weir

Damn Sure Right by Meg Pokrass

Sweet Valley Confidential by Francine Pascal et al

Light in August by Faulker – I quit this book on page 50 so it doesn’t really count. As painful as it was to quit I couldn’t do it. More on this topic later.

The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls

What May Have Been by Gary Percesepe and Susan Tepper

 Looking this list over, I must step up my game. Maybe one day I’ll near 20 a year. But until then…

…Next book on the agenda is Rob Lowe’s Stories I Only Tell My Friends.

I’m coming for you Rob. You hear me?