My glam shot

Lots of laundromat visits since the basement flooded over a week ago. I'm still cleaning up the mess of waterlogged items amassed from living in the same place over thirty years.

The good news is I finally had time to do more editing on Forever Young- Blessing or Curse today. Also, soon the basement will look better than it has in years!



Morgan Mandel

It's Worth the Bother

I'm on my second personal edit of Forever Young - Blessing or Curse. I'm finding the experience very intense because not only am I reliving what happens in the story, but I'm also checking every little detail to make sure it's filled in and done in the best way possible.

Editing can be fun, and editing can be drudgery. From minute to minute, my feelings change on which it is for me.

I typed it all out single spaced so I could catch the mistakes and mark them in pen. That works fine, except for then having to go back to the manuscript itself and make the changes. I discovered it's way too easy to go through about ten typed pages and mark the corrections. Trouble is then it's a real pain to go to the manuscript itself and make the changes permanent. For my peace of mind, I'm doing only a few pages at a time now instead. I despise the minutiae!

After this, my manuscript is going over to my real editor, Helen Ginger for an even more intense going-over.

Fingers crossed that the Kindle and Smashwords editions will be ready some time this summer. Then I'll tackle Create Space, another project. I'm glad the front cover is already done, but the back is laying in wait for me. I'll need that before Create Space can publish it. So many details, but I'm chugging along. It's worth the bother.

Beware - Don't Look If You're Easily Grossed Out

B.S. Photo - Rascal before the snow.

Whether or not you're a dog owner, you'll know what I'm talking about here.

The past few months, we've had tons of snow in our part of Illinois, but thanks to the recent warmer weather and rain, most of the white stuff has disappeared.

Hidden underneath the pretty white stuff was - to put it indelicately - a lot of crap. I spent a good part of Saturday and  this morning scooping it up with a shovel and depositing it into plastic garbage bags.

You may wonder how I can think of relating this nasty little chore to writing. Here goes -

After you've finished your manuscript, it may look beautiful and wonderful to you, but beware. Hidden under that false beauty can be all sorts of nasty piles of stuff that need to be removed. If you're savvy enough, you can tackle the cleanup job yourself. Otherwise, you may need the help of a critique group or editor to do the chore for you. Here are a few nasties to clean up:

Backstory dumps - Do readers really need to know right away every little thing that already happened?

Overly long descriptions - Sure, they look pretty, but do they move the story forward?

Adjectives and adverbs - They're the lazy way of writing and slow down a story. Make sure you have the best words for what you want to say, like action verbs and exact nouns.

Orphan letters - Did you start a word in your writing excitement, then begin another one without completing the first?

I told you I could do it. Never underestimate my ability to relate anything to writing. Anyway, today I'll be working on my Rascal manuscript and looking for spots to remove some of that, to put it indelicately, crap.

If you know of other hidden nasties to look for, please share with us. Or, maybe you have a dog and can relate to my chore today. (g)

Editing Blog at Make Mine Mystery Today

Please check out my blog about editing today at http://makeminemystery.blogspot.com, called Tearing Down the Walls.

As always, comments here, there or both are welcome.

Thanks