Hey'a, all! As I mentioned in my July Doings post, my big project this month is editing Gilded in Ice (again) based on feedback from my beta readers. In honor of that project, I thought I'd share some of my favorite tips and tricks for making editing as painless — or, at least, as effective — as possible. Hopefully these will also be helpful for anyone who's now facing the challenge of editing their Camp NaNoWriMo novel.

Editing Tips and Tricks

1. The first time you edit, retype everything. Or, at least, as close to everything as you can. This is a technique I picked up by necessity — again, until 2020, I've generally written all my first drafts by hand — but I've continued to use it even for stories I draft digitally. For me, at least, retyping everything makes it easier, both practically and mentally, to change what needs to be changed and to look for those changes. After all, if you have to retype it anyway, making adjustments isn't so bad. (This also helps me make my prose more concise, since I often want to shorten the amount of time I spend editing.)
2. Change the font from version to version. There are a few different reasons why I do this — admittedly, one of them is that I don't write my first drafts in what you'd call professional fonts. Why you should do it, though, is that changing the look of the page helps you break out of the urge to skim or to zone out because you've seen this so many times, especially in late stages of editing. Of course, there are a lot of ways to accomplish similar changes: printing your manuscript, switching from black on white to white on black, or even just adjusting the zoom level. You don't necessarily need a new font for every version, just for the first one or two major rounds of edits and any time you feel you're growing too complacent. (As a bonus, changing your font means you don't miss any mistakes in punctuation because your font hid them!)
3. Many eyes make easy edits. Look. No matter how skilled you are at grammar, you will miss stuff because this is your story and you've seen it a hundred times and you're attached to all your little stylistic bits and bobs regardless of whether or not they make the story better. So get another person to look at it at some point in the editing process, whether that's a paid editor, beta readers, or a fellow writer who you trade manuscripts with. Just make sure they understand your style and have a good grasp of the laws of grammar.
4. Save what you cut! The hardest part of editing is cutting lines, paragraphs, and sometimes whole scenes that you really loved . . . so make it easier on yourself both now and in the future by saving what you cut! The easy way to do this is just by creating a new version of the document for each stage of edits, but you can also copy bits you cut into a separate document and save that. Then, in the future, you can come back to those pieces to reuse them if they fit somewhere else . . . or you can realize they really aren't that great and feel good about yourself for removing them.
5. Don't rely too much on spellcheck — of any kind. If you're a fantasy author, you're already used to ignoring spellcheck to some degree. But no matter what genre you're writing, you have to know: spellcheck will fail you. It doesn't matter if it's Microsoft Word, Grammarly, or something else entirely. It's a useful tool that will catch some mistakes, but it won't catch all of them — and sometimes it'll flag things as mistakes that are either correct or (more frequently) are deliberate stylistic choices. Or it'll get confused by too many changes and try to suggest changes that aren't correct at all, regardless of whether or not they're necessary. The point is: if you only trust spellcheck, it will fail you.

Do you enjoy editing? What are your favorite editing tricks and techniques? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

Beautiful Books December 2015: The Editing Process

Hey'a, everyone! I'm excited to announce that I'm joining in the Beautiful Books linkup for the first time ever! For those of you who don't know, Beautiful Books is a writerly blog linkup hosted by Cait of Paper Fury (which I have finally followed and y'all should go check out because Cait's super fun). Anyway. I've seen other people doing this a lot and it looks awesome so I'm really looking forward to doing it myself.

http://paperfury.com/beautiful-books-3/

1. On a scale of 1 (worst) to 10 (best), how did the book turn out? Did anything defy your expectations?

Maybe a 7-ish? It wasn't my best novel by any means . . . but I don't think it turned out terribly either. A lot of character relationships and plot didn't go like I expected them to . . . and my villain was harder to write than I thought she'd be. It's not finished yet, though, so there's hope.

2. Comparative title time: what published books, movies, or TV shows are like your book? (Ex: Inkheart meets X-Men.)

Um. Storms, I'm bad at this. It's not that there's nothing like my story . . . it's that there's a lot that are sort-of-similar, but none that are super similar . . . that I can think of. Which I guess is a good thing? It feels like a bad thing, though. I don't know.

3. Do you enjoy working with deadlines and pressure (aka NaNoWriMo)? Or do you prefer to write-as-you’re-inspired?

Both! I love NaNoWriMo- it's great for getting first drafts down and making sure I finish and don't get bogged down by darn-it-where-do-I-go-with-this now? 'Cause there's a daily quota to make and a challenge to overcome and if I don't know what I'm doing, I'd better make something up and I'd better do it fast- and as a result, I usually get through. But I honestly couldn't deal with that year-round, so I like having months where as long as I'm doing some writing every day (or most days), I'm good.

4. How do you go about editing? Give us an insight into your editing process.

My editing process is very simple: I sit down with my notebook and a Word document and I type up what I've written, page by page, making modifications as needed. These modifications can be anything from fixing typos and rewording sentences to entirely reworking or adding scenes. Occasionally I'll delete a scene, but that's rare. After that first rewrite, if I like the way the story's turned out, I'll do another run-through, making any further changes that I feel are necessary, and then I share the story either with my friends on the Underground or with my parents, depending on whether or not I want to submit the story to something.

5. What aspect of your story needs the most work?

Um. Pretty much everything, I feel like? But I guess probably pacing and character development, especially for Mikkel and Ireen.

6. What aspect of your story did you love the most?

Taika and her character arc and her friendship with Katelyn. Their friendship especially is really fun to write because they get each other pretty well (plus Taika gets about seventy-five percent of Katelyn's references, so yay!)

7. Give us a brief run down on your main characters and how you think they turned out. Do you think they’ll need changes in edits?

Mikkel- the apprentice Hero of Rushire. He was supposed to be a fairly similar character type to Prince Hayden from my fairy tale retelling series, but he ended up being . . . not. He's less hard on himself than I thought, and also less inclined to challenge the Way It Is- though the last is an oversight on my part. His entire job and future is based on tradition, after all. So, he and Taika don't even start to get along until more than halfway through the novel, and he's still very uncertain of her.

Taika- the last heir of the Coradin line, traditionally foes of Rushire. Taika turned out closer to what I expected her to be than Mikkel did. She's very devoted to her adoptive father, but less enthusiastic about the whole Coradin legacy than I expected. She's also less sure of herself than I expected- but just as willing to do something she's uncertain about if it seems like the best option. The one big thing that did change a lot was that she was supposed to be into gadgets and inventing and such, and that didn't end up happening. Oh well. Her aforementioned friendship with Katelyn (which was originally going to be a really minor thing) makes up for it.

Ireen- technically not a main character, but a major one, and worth mentioning. She's basically Mikkel's girlfriend, and also basically a spy/Ranger/tracker/etc. apprentice. She ended up being a lot more, I guess you could say pragmatic and hot-headed. And also more stubborn. She has good intentions, generally. But that doesn't change the fact that she grabs onto bad ideas- ideas specifically forbidden by her superiors- and holds onto them long after she should've let go. She's also a lot less mischievous and a lot more hostile towards Taika than I planned.

8. What are your plans for this novel once you finish editing? More edits? Finding beta readers? Querying? Self-publishing? Hiding it in a dark hole forever?

Depends when I finish writing it and how it turns out after edits. At the moment, the most likely route is "more edits." Or else hiding it in a tub under my bed for a year until I feel like facing it again.

9. Share a favourite snippet!

I'm indecisive, so you get too. First, a rare scene (though growing less rare) in which Mikkel and Taika are actually- wonder of wonders- being nice to each other:

"I'm sorry," Taika said again.

Mikkel glanced at her, surprised by her tone. "You meant that."

Taika shrugged. "They were my enemies by tradition only. I didn't hate them, and I have no reason to be glad that they're dead and their families mourn."

And an equally astounding scene in which Taika and Ireen are being civil to each other:

Ireen scowled. "Stormbeast. It's too high. I can't reach the edge." She peered down. "Don't suppose you carry a rope and grappling hook with you as a matter of course, since you probably have to make daring and dastardly escapes fairly often?"
 "The tallest buildings in the city are griffin aeries. I'd rather just fly off, not bother with ropes and grapnels," Taika retorted. "What about you? You climb buildings and trees and cliff faces to spy on people; why don't you carry some kind of rope and hook?"
"Because trees and cliffs generally have branches and crevices and things to grab onto, and I've never had to climb any buildings higher than one story."  

10. What are your writing goals and plans for 2016?

Finish Binding Destiny and Monster in the Castle, if I don't before December comes to an end. Finish editing Destinies and Decisions and Between Two World. Edit The Way of the Pen. Write lots of short stories, both original and fanfiction, as well as a fair bit of poetry. Write Berstru Tales #5 for one of the Camp NaNos. Be seized with indecision next October about whether or not to do NaNoWriMo. That about sums it up.

Well, there you have it. My novel and my editing plans. Such as they are. Hope you enjoyed, and thanks for reading!

 -Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

Finally, a Post!

Wow. I haven't blogged for a long time. Sorry, everyone. I wish I could say I was busy, and sometimes I was, but mostly I was just a procrastinator. Sorry again. And anyone who still reads this, thank you very, very much.

I had a lot of fun over Christmas break. Grandpa came down to visit for the holiday, and Mommy made ladylocks. (Ladylocks are pastry tubes filled with cream and with powdered sugar on top. They're absolutely incredible.) Some of my favorite presents included the Legends of Karac Tor series, a Skillet cd, and a Middle Earth map poster. Shortly after Christmas, my friend and I went to see The Hobbit a second time. I almost think I liked it better the second time, since I could anticipate what was happening better. New Year's Eve was spent at our friends' house and was also a lot of fun.

New Year's Day was mostly spent in two activities: taking down the Christmas tree and matting and framing my Hobbit posters. In addition to the full-size poster I got for Christmas, I got four free posters the first time I went to see The Hobbit. They all look fairly similar in design to this:

That's actually one of the posters, which obviously shows Bilbo. The other three have Gandalf, Thorin, and Gollum on them. All four, plus my map poster, are now framed, matted, and hanging on the wall across from my bed. This meant I had to rearrange the items already hanging on that wall, but I definitely think I like my room better this way.

School is going fairly well. I'm not overly crazy about my history, and a few semi-recent tests have resulted in me uttering the phrase "I'm dead" more than once. Thankfully, the last two tests have gone somewhat better, and none of my other subjects cause me quite as much pain.

In other news, I've decided to start knitting. This is mostly because I wanted something to do while I listened to By Darkness Hid and To Darkness Fled, audiobooks written and recorded by Jill Williamson. They were originally recorded as podcasts, but you can get all of both books free on her site. I'm very much enjoying both the books and the knitting. So far I've made five pairs of wristers, and I'm working on a cowl. I have another cowl design that I want to try after I finish this one, so that will probably keep me busy for a while.

I haven't been writing much, though I have been doing plenty of editing. I've finished editing my NaNo Novel, and I'm finally done with the first round of edits in my Camp NaNo Novel. I'm planning to try to write more for the next week or two before I start the second round of editing on my Camp NaNo Novel (which is probably going to be edited more times than any novel or story I've written since I wrote Rosa). I have been reading quite a bit. One of my favorite books I've read recently is Princess of the Silver Woods. It's the third book in a trilogy by Jessica Day George, and the first book in the trilogy, Princess of the Midnight Ball, helped inspire my Camp NaNo Novel. I thoroughly recommend the trilogy, though I haven't read any of her other books yet. I'm also looking forward to reading The Fairest Beauty, the latest book by Melanie Dickerson, another author I'd definitely recommend if you like remade fairy tales.

Well, that's about all. Thank you very much for reading, despite my long absences. I hope that I'll do a better job of fighting off Procrastination in future. Thank you again!

Nai haryuvalyë melwa rë.*

- Sarah


*"May you have a lovely day."