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Rachael Dahl

Rachael Dahl

Tag Archives: point of view

The Joy of Writing

25 Wednesday Jan 2012

Posted by Rachael Dahl in Editing, Quotes, Word Count

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point of view, Revision

“Two-thirds of writing is revising.” If you’ve been reading this blog, you’ll know that I’m in the revision process and that quote speaks to my inner angst-ridden writer soul. I’m slashing scenes, adding dialogue, and changing the course of the plot. I’m trying to get it completely finished by mid February so that a family member, who is a technical writer, can catch my grammatical mistakes. Here is the problem: I’m only seventy pages into a three hundred page manuscript and I can’t seem to get past it because I’m changing from first person point of view (POV) to third person POV and change a large portion of the plot.

Here’s a look at my word count over a one week period, where I’ve written/revised at least two hours each day. The numbers represent the word count for that day’s work: Monday-80,553; Tuesday-80,321; Wednesday-81,105; Thursday-80,979; Friday-81,512; Saturday-81,397.  Do you see the pattern? It’s cut a scene or a chapter and then write, write, and write.

If you ever thought that it’d be easy to sit down and whip out a well-written novel, let me tell you it takes lots of tears, mounds of determination, and the ability to plug along at the keyboard even if you don’t feel like you are accomplishing anything. But I’m not complaining because nothing in the world would convince me to give this up.

Editing

02 Friday Dec 2011

Posted by Rachael Dahl in Writing Resources

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characters, plot, point of view, publish, verbs

I am not a published author. I want to be, oh I really want to be. I want my words to sing to someone’s heart, make them laugh, and have them hold their breath in anticipation. Mostly I want someone to love my characters the way I do. But for that to happen, I have to get published.

For over a year, I have trolled blogs, read Writer’s Digest, and perused agents websites. I have followed advice, taken online courses, and read books on writing. However, in all of my research on how to get my manuscript published, I have yet to find a good book, blog, or article on editing…until now.

Writing And Selling Your Mystery Novel by Hallie Ephron is a manuscript saver. And I thought I’d share some of her tips with you.

Fly High-Reread from start to finish. Here is where you take a hard look at your characters and your plot. While you are reading, keep a notebook handy for writing notes and suggestions. Here is what you pay special attention to: The main plot, point of view, the main character, and the villain. She also suggests checking the chronology of your book-Is it snowing in the summer or light at night during the winter. Have you packed twenty hours worth of events between sunrise and sunset? Another valuable tip is to open a document for scenes/chapters that you delete, in case you need some of the sentences or information later.

Flying Low-This means you check spelling, grammar and punctuation. In this category, she also mentions checking your physical reactions. Do your characters always: smile, nod their head, sigh, or frown. According to her, an occassional nod or smile is okay, but that can’t always be their reaction. This edit also includes weeding out the adverbs, pumping up the dialogue, and replacing bland verbs with ones that more accurately depict the scene. Not sure what a bland verb is? Here are a few: is, get, have, look, make, move, put, see, take, watch, and go. You might want to add your own to it.

And of course do you have a strong start and a strong finish. Does your book open and end with a strong line? Is your first time introduction to a setting, interior/exterior brought to life? How about your first and final character interaction?

These are only a few of her recommendations that I found helpful. I only wish I’d read this sooner.

What is your favorite editing tip?

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