The List of Words To Jump Start My Editing or I Have To Read It Again?

MUSE MONDAY
By the end of this month I should be receiving the final galley from my publisher for my next publication. If you don't write, you probably have no idea how many times an author reads her own work. Not only do we read it several times to make edits before sending it off to a publisher, but if it's contracted we have to read it several more times. First my editor reads it and marks it up for everything from typos to plot glitches. Then I read it a few more times. And believe it or not, I always find something.


Once I have a completed manuscript and I'm happy with the story, I then begin the arduous task of technical editing. I say arduous because editing is not my favorite thing. So I have a cheat sheet to get me going. This is part of the list I use to check my work against.

Over used or weak words:

It

Felt                 

Was

for me, at her, to him, etc.                  

Were

And                 

Just

Simply

Even

That

Clearly

Besides

Well

Up, down

Started

Began

Tried

Trying

Saw

Noticed

Know or thought (he knew, she thought, etc) 

I don't mean to say the above words can never be used, but often a better word is, well...better. Or you can delete them all together.

My list goes on and on but this gives you an idea of the editing process.

By the way, I'll be traveling for a couple of weeks and will more than likely miss posting Muse Mondays. Hope you all have a good rest of June!

Eye Wear Eating Roses and Strawberries for Looks

2012 On the plains in Northern Arizona, two families joined forces and began the trials and tribulations of building a small family farm with nothing in the bank but love.

Tortuga Thursday 

 

A shape of his own

A quick trip across Tortuga Flats Farm...part of it anyway. In the front yard, I tend to the decorative vegetation. Not only are the hollyhocks blooming, but roses do amazingly well here. At least the climbing kind and the miniature varieties. This one in the picture wasn't put to a trellis until this year so  he's growing rather oddly. I planted strawberry plants in the front garden last year

Strawberry plants

because I like the way they look and send out runners. Once in awhile I get a strawberry off of them before the bugs chow down.

 

Out in the main vegetable area we've had some halts in weeding. By this time next week, all vegetable rows will be clear and then maintenance should be easier. I'll get a picture of the whole area then. You can see from the first picture of the cucumbers all the weeds pulled and waiting between the rows for the rake. The other picture is of another variety of cucumbers and the style of trellis Lance put up. The red caps are protection on the ends of the wire.

 

Dead weeds wait to be raked

Cucumbers and trellis

Two unrelated events this week that have nothing to do with farming. I lost my favorite/best pair of glasses. Fortunately, I have two back up pairs. Where could they be? I'm guessing somewhere outside - orchard? vegetable main area? blackberries? lost in the weird rose bush? If I didn't know better Xena might have eaten them. I searched but they didn't turn up. The back up pairs will have to do. We don't have health insurance, much less eye care insurance.

 

Secondly, Rusty had to have his teeth cleaned. This was some major procedure to the tune of $300 +. It required him being put under and spending most of the day at the vet. On the positive side, he didn't have to have any extractions and he did fine with the drugs. We'll be doing without a couple of non-essentials for the next month or so to pay for it. He's worth it. After all, he is the smartest dog in the world!

 

Writing in Layers

MUSE MONDAY

At a book club the other night, one of the readers asked me "what is your process when you write?" That's a huge question, so after we talked a moment I understood what she wanted to know had more to do with how I build a scene than with my whole process. Which is an easy question for me to answer.

I layer. Every scene has layers - dialogue, setting descriptions, sound, smell, conflict, action and so on. Not every scene has it all, but has to have enough layers to carry the story forward. Where I begin depends on what comes to me first. I have to say dialogue comes the easiest to me and many scenes start there. I'll give an example of layering in a scene from The Morning After. First, I might write:

“You taste as good as honey to a bee. Just like last night. But you should eat before we go any further.”

Speechless, she stared at his back. This man had her ready to kick him out one moment, and limp with desire the next.

“I hope you use my name, but if you insist, you can keep your own name. Course, since you’ve never been married and told me you’re aware of the old ticking clock, I would think you might want to shout the news out over the rooftops.”

“What’s that suppose to mean?”

“Hey, calm down. You’d think you’re the redhead. You’re the love of my life.”

“And you’re the ambiguity of mine.”

“I hope that means you love me. You do, don’t you?”

“What makes you think we have a future? We don’t even have a present. I was impulsive, rash and careless last night. I’m quite sure whatever we did can be undone.”

“What you were was splendid and spirited. Look at us here; we have a present. And a beautiful future.” He thumped a fist over his heart. “It was definitely love at first sight this time.”

“What do you mean this time?”

Then I might add a little more action (in red):

“You taste as good as honey to a bee. Just like last night. But you should eat before we go any further.” He walked to the coffee pot to refill their cups.

Speechless, she stared at his back. This man had her ready to kick him out one moment, and limp with desire the next.

“I hope you use my name, but if you insist, you can keep your own name. Course, since you’ve never been married and told me you’re aware of the old ticking clock, I would think you might want to shout the news out over the rooftops.”

“What’s that suppose to mean?”

“Hey, calm down. You’d think you’re the redhead. You’re the love of my life.”

“And you’re the ambiguity of mine.”

He put plates of crepes, three to a plate, and mugs of coffee on each side of the table before sitting in the chair opposite her. “I hope that means you love me. You do, don’t you?”

“What makes you think we have a future? We don’t even have a present. I was impulsive, rash and careless last night. I’m quite sure whatever we did can be undone.”

“What you were was splendid and spirited. Look at us here; we have a present. And a beautiful future.” He thumped a fist over his heart. “It was definitely love at first sight this time.”

She lifted her coffee cup but froze before it reached her mouth. “What do you mean this time?” Over the rim of her cup, she studied him through narrowed eyes.

 And finally, I would add another layer with some more emotion and sensory elements:

“You taste as good as honey to a bee. Just like last night. But you should eat before we go any further.” He walked to the coffee pot to refill their cups.

Speechless, she stared at his back. This man had her ready to kick him out one moment, and limp with desire the next.

“I hope you use my name, but if you insist, you can keep your own name. Course, since you’ve never been married and told me you’re aware of the old ticking clock, I would think you might want to shout the news out over the rooftops.”

His kiss still burned, but his words instantly doused the flame. “What’s that suppose to mean?”

“Hey, calm down. You’d think you’re the redhead. You’re the love of my life.”

“And you’re the ambiguity of mine.”

He put plates of crepes, three to a plate, and mugs of coffee on each side of the table before sitting in the chair opposite her. “I hope that means you love me. You do, don’t you?”

“What makes you think we have a future? We don’t even have a present.” The warm cinnamon smell drifted up, and she had to look away from her plate to concentrate on the handsome madman making wild suppositions. “I was impulsive, rash and careless last night. I’m quite sure whatever we did can be undone.”

“What you were was splendid and spirited. Look at us here; we have a present. And a beautiful future.” He thumped a fist over his heart. “It was definitely love at first sight this time.”

She lifted her coffee cup but froze before it reached her mouth. “What do you mean this time?” Over the rim of her cup, she studied him through narrowed eyes.

Some scenes are really skeletal and need many more passes. Others seem to write themselves. But I always look at a scene a couple of times, put myself in the characters point of view and layer in what she sees, feels and maybe tastes and touches.

Scene layering is part of my "process".

A Drip, a Trip and a Silent Owl.

2012 On the plains in Northern Arizona, two families joined forces and began the trials and tribulations of building a small family farm with nothing in the bank but love.

Tortuga Thursday

Can't help thinking he'd do his job better if he could hoot.

This week flew by. My to-do list barely took a hit. I've been doing a lot of weeding. I know. I know. You heard me complain about this task last year. It's a bit different this year. Since we no longer flood between rows, we aren't over come with weeds in between. Good thing. The ground is harder between the rows and tougher to weed. The new drip system on the rows targets the plants. The weeds love it too. Unfortunately, one of the lessons we learned last year, we forgot. Some of the rows should be covered after the seeds are sowed and until the vegetables are established. That cuts down on the those air born weed seeds. Next year - well, third time's the charm. We'll remember. So, we had to wait until the plants were big enough to distinguish from the weeds. Which means lots of weeds. Lance has been spending more hours than I have. Once we get the whole field done, upkeep will be easier on the bigger plants.

The radishes are big enough to pick. Those guys are fast producers. The new sweet potato slips arrived and

Peas and the drip tape

they were beautiful. Lance got them in the ground the day they arrived. In the green house, we have leafy greens that can start showing up on our table this week. Yea!

First trip - to the dealer for service.

Two pieces of bad news this week and one is already fixed. The RV had a propane leak. Frank hooked it up and took it for the first time on the road to the dealer. They supposedly fixed it and sent him home. Within a couple of hours I smelled it worse than before. This time Frank took the hoses apart and found the real problem. Fixed. My faith in that dealership continues to dive. Second piece of bad news is the vet says Rusty needs $300 worth of dental work. I'm balking on this one. Yes, I can see his gums are red in the back but he eats anything and everything. Wouldn't he be having trouble if they're that bad? Can't we brush and water pick his teeth to health? We'll have this debate for a couple of days. I need to find the time to do some doggy teeth research.

Sadi Belle has learned what her hands are for and grabs at things with some accuracy. She pulled her bear over on top of herself and that registered surprise. So much fun to watch her grow.


It's been mighty hot on Tortuga Flats. I'm usually out of the sun by 10:00. I don't know how Lance does it for so many hours a day. But then I remember when he was not yet two years old, and we left our cement surrounded apartment for a trip to Yosemite. The first thing he did was plop down in the dirt with a big grin on his face and said "I love

Hollyhocks are blooming

dirt!"

Oh No! When Did I Become a Plotter?!

MUSE MONDAY
A couple of weekends ago, I attended an all day workshop hosted by one of the RWA chapters I belong to, Valley of the Sun RWA. Larry Brooks presented the Six Core Competencies of Successful Writing. I don't intend to give you a summary of the workshop, but I came away with a discovery about myself. (Remember my blog is called Discover Yourself.)

Until I heard Larry speak, I thought I was a pantser. I learned early on, way back in BBP (before being published) that there are two kinds of writers - plotters and pantsers. As you might guess, pantsers write by the seat of their pants, no planning or plotting involved. My first published book came about as an idea for a short story inspired by my sister who was between marriages at the time. I began writing, and it just kept going until it was a book. I certainly didn't plot it. I didn't even know three of the characters were going to be in the book until they showed up in their first scenes. And I had so much fun writing it that way that I tagged myself a definite pantser.

Plotting is so boring. Making outlines and sculpting each scene seemed dry, lacking in knee-jerk creativity and so organized! Then I heard Larry rail on about pantsers. He really had some valid points. And it kind of ticked me off. Until I realized, I'm not a true pantser. In fact, I'm not a pantser at all. Being a plotter doesn't mean you HAVE to do an outline or the other boring things I THOUGHT plotters do. He spoke of storyboards, post it notes, character research, knowing your ending, keeping track of events and on and on.

Ah-oh...all the things I have done or used in one form or another. And I do know how my book will end when I begin. I might have new characters walk into the story unplanned or new scenes come to mind as I write, but I do have a plan. My characters each have their own files with all kinds of information that might not even make it into the book. I do keep a chapter by chapter time line. I do a rough synopsis. Oh my gosh! I actually do plan and plot.

Discovering what kind of writer I am isn't the only thing I took away from the class. The rest is technical and should help me from now on. But crossing over from pantser to plotter was the biggest wow!