A bold claim! Come along to the Maidstone Literary Festival this Saturday for a double event with me and Kelly Weekes. My talk is titled ‘You’ve Written Your Novel… Now What?’ and I cover…
Being an author in 21st century
How to earn a living from writing
The pros and cons of traditional and self publishing
The different kinds of publishers
And how to sustain a career as a writer…
Q&A…
Then Kelly’s event covers finding readers and forming a marketing plan that resonates with your audience! The good folk at Madistone Literary Festival are offering a special reduced priced for tickets if you go to both events. Grab yours here.
I finally have a Kofi page! ‘What’s a Kofi page?’ you may ask. It’s a place where delightful people like your good self can donate small amounts of money to poor, wretched writers like me. ‘Hang on,’ you continue, folding your arms and narrowing your eyes, ‘you’ve written films and had books published by big publishers… Shouldn’t you be loaded?’
Yes. Yes, I should… But I was paid for Unwelcome three years ago (almost to the day!) and that was the equivalent of two years’ salary of my old job. And because Warner Bros much such a limp effort of promoting it that it will never earn its budget back and I’ll never get the fifty grand of my fee that I deferred just before filming (won’t make that mistake again).
Nautilus, the Disney+ TV show that was my idea has been filmed and is in post-production, but has just been dropped by Disney so I won’t be seeing any money from that soon.
And yes, I have been published by the likes of Simon & Schuster, but it wasn’t a huge advance and I’m on a joint accounting contract which means I don’t start earning royalties until the first three books have earned out (to learn more about how all this nonsense works, click here).
And also yes, I have been self-publishing a few of my books, but that’s also an expensive business and turning into a bit of a money pit…
So if you like my stuff and you’ve bought all the books and seen the films, then do please consider dropping three quid in the Kofi tip jar. I reckon if 231 of you do it, I might just be able to pay my overdraft off. I’ll be popping all my blog posts and other exclusive bits and bobs over on Kofi, too, so it won’t just be me panhandling. Pop over have a look…
This week’s podcast guest is Andrea Dunlop who, like me, worked in traditional publishing before becoming an author, and that allowed both of us to go into publication with our eyes open. We both knew it wouldn’t all be big advances and lavish launch parties. Many books fail to sell to their full potential, and most authors don’t have a career beyond their third book.
If traditional publishing is so bleak, then why perser… parse… keep going? I think it all depends on your attitude to success and your goals as a writer. When we tell you that publishing can be slow, brutal and the money is crap, we mean it and the truth is there is virtually nothing you can do about it. Likewise for self publishing: you have more control over the finished book, but selling it means having the budget to pay for ads and few authors have the spare cash to do it properly.
Andrea talks about writing being a ‘second reality’ and that actually sitting down and putting words to paper — the real writing — is what makes her happy. And I’m the same. I suspect you are, too. Writers have to love the process. And yes, that includes all the days where it doesn’t quite work, but there’s nothing like sitting down and creating something out of nothing. It’s magic. Love the process. Write as often as you can. The other stuff — deals, money, launches, events, signings — that might happen, or it might not, but they can never take your words away from you.
Other highlights of this episode: I have a pop at the pisspoor wording of Bookbub’s Facebook ads (which they’ve since reworded) and Mr D has a wonderful rant about book pricing. And in the extended version for podcast supporters I talk about recurring themes and how they can help us as writers. You can listen to that by supporting the podcast here.
We bang on about our 200 Words a Day Challenge on the Bestseller Experiment podcast constantly (click here to find out more), so it only seemed fair that I should give it a go. It also occurred to me that the sheer number of projects I had lined up for 2022 might benefit from me writing every day, so why the hell not.
I was also inspired by one of our listeners, Mark Hood, who (at the time of writing) has written every day for over 1100 days. Check out his daily word counter here.
How to keep track of these words? I downloaded a simple to use spreadsheet from MoonBunny Creative’s Kofi page. In fact, I’ve just got my 2023 spreadsheet from Moonbunny here. I saved it on my desktop and popped the words in at the end of every session.
Here are the numbers…
A total of 388,854 words in 2022.
That’s 32,405 per month. A little over a thousand words a day. I rarely wrote more than 3,000 words a day, and in December there were a few days where it was a scrabble to get to the 200 minimum (mostly due to travel/family commitments).
Those 2599 minutes per month translate into about 43 hours a month spent writing… Which, considering I’m supposed to be a full time writer, doesn’t feel like a lot. But I’m also taking meetings, travelling to conventions, co-running/presenting a podcast, interviewing authors/guests, editing books and scripts for clients, and doing housework (it’s often the only exercise I get during the day!).
I also only average 13 words per minute, so I’m not particularly fast.
But… I wrote every day and, as you can see, it all adds up. I usually start at 7:30am on my main project and work for two hours. I start writing by hand in a notebook (each project has a specific notebook), usually typing it up the next day and, in the process, redrafting it. Later in the day, I might work on a secondary project, or edit a client’s book etc.
May was my most productive month as I was in the thick of the drafting of Woodville #4 (exciting title to be revealed soon!). January was my least productive month, at least in terms of words, as I was in the thick of drafting TV scripts: lots of story, though not as many words as a novel.
What Was I Writing?
Here are the projects I worked on in 2022. Most of these have vague titles/descriptions because they’re either works in progress, or they simply haven’t been picked up or announced yet.
YA TV Science Fiction series: a pilot episode, a series episode, and pitch document.
New Fantasy Novella (hoping to self-publish this next year).
Cosy Crime Mystery that I’m co-writing with my wife Claire.
A Disco-themed RomCom screenplay that I’m working on with another writer and is in development with a production company.
What’s Not Included?
I only counted words that contributed towards creative projects, so I didn’t include my diary entries, emails, newsletters, blogs (like this one), or any of the notes or reports I’ve made while editing books/scripts for clients. I’m also a story consultant on a TV thing, which involved reading scripts and giving feedback, but while that was sort-of creative, it’s not my show, so I didn’t count them.
Was it Worth it?
I remember in those early episodes of the podcast where almost every author we spoke to said they wrote every day, and we got very excited thinking we were onto something… Until we got to Sarah Pinborough who said in her own brilliant way that she thought the whole “write every day” ethos was “bollocks” (listen to the full episode here, it’s one of my favourites). And she’s right in a way… If we’ve learned anything in over six years of the podcast it’s that every writer finds their own way of doing things. There are no rules, only principles.
That said, if you’re just starting out then one of the most important things you can do is develop a regular writing habit. And all you need to do is write 200 words a day. You can do that in 20-30 minutes tops. We ask people to try it for a week, and see if they get hooked (and they very often do, and also end up writing a lot more than 200 words a day). It’s less intense than NanoWriMo, and if you follow the #200WordsADay hashtag on Twitter you’ll find me and a community of writers sharing our word count every day. We’re all in it together. Sign up for free to the challenge here, and download Moonbunny’s tracker here.
Was it worth it? Definitely. I got a lot done this year, and I never lost any momentum and it never felt like a burden. Will I do it again? I think I probably will… I might give myself more time off over Christmas next year, but who knows? The thing is, I love writing. It’s a privilege to do it full time, and getting those words in every morning is my happy place. When I’m writing, nothing else worries me and I can’t wait to get back there again. Maybe I’m just weird? Or I’m a writer? Or a combination of the two?
Happy New Year to you all and good luck with your writing in 2023!
I recorded a few rambling thoughts about writers and their mental health on World Mental Health Day…
TRANSCRIPT
Hello folks, I’m recording this on World Mental Health Day, and this is something we talk a lot about on the Bestseller Experiment podcast, which is writers’ mental health, which is fragile at the best of times. And I honestly don’t really have any answers for you or anything like that. If you’re having serious problems then talk to a professional. Call The Samaritans, that sort of thing. But I can talk about it from my own perspective. And what’s helped me in the past because the thing is, it doesn’t really go away. It never really stops.
If you achieve any kind of success, you get different kinds of stresses. Certainly, if you’re starting out, it’s stressful because you might have a job and a family and all sorts of of things clamouring for your attention, making it difficult for you to write. And then there’s where you do get something published, either self published or hybrid traditionally. And it goes out there… (exhales)
And it can be… Not many people talk about this. It can be a bit of an anti climax, frankly. Because you’ve got to write the next one and the one after that. And it never really stops. And then… I get this all the time, which is you see other people doing well and you think, Why isn’t that me? What did they do to get that thing?
I’m sure people look at me and say, how come that flabby pasty git got a film or a book deal or whatever… But this is it, y’know, we’re all in it together. We are. I saw a thing the other day on a writers’ group I’m on where a couple of writers sort of turned each other. It’s heartbreaking to see that because we need to support each other.
I mean, if there is any big piece of advice for writers, I’d say find other writers. Find other writers because they understand you better than anyone else. I know a lot of people… Writers who, y’know, their family, frankly, don’t understand what they do, why they do it. So find other writers, find another group. I mean, we’ve got the Bestseller Experiment. We have a lovely group on Facebook.
We’ve got the Bestseller Academy, a lovely bunch of people there. We all… There is a very positive attitude there. We do lift each other up and console each other… (distant train horn) When our trains are late, that kind of thing. Seek out other writers. Seek me out if you want to drop me a line. I’ll do what I can do, but I’m not a doctor. Not a professional. Anyway, there was a point to all this… Well… Mental Health Awareness Day or whatever it is. We’re all aware that there are big mental problems. We talk about them more, which is a good thing. Perseverance is a thing. If you want the answer to how come that big pasty flabby git got so much of this, or that, or the other… it is perseverance.
I mean, I started writing seriously just before my daughter was born. She’s 21, nearly 22. And the number of times I could have stopped. Number times I could have given up. Number of times I could’ve said, nah, this is not for me. I’m not getting the success that I, y’know… this soon. Or not getting the success I want. But I love the writing. I think that’s the key for me.
I enjoy the process. I won’t pretend it’s always easy. Sometimes it’s really, really difficult. Sometimes there are days you need a break. Like today. Not doing any writing. Going for a walk, which I haven’t done for ages. Absolutely ages.
See this is a bit of a ramble. But anyway… Find other writers. Persevere. Keep at it. Take a break if you need one. But as Mr D says on our podcast, you know, the one guaranteed way to fail is to give up and… It’s understand in the face of: you publish a book, 25 people buy it. You get a stinky review. No one sees your movie. Now one reads your book. You’d be forgiven for giving up.
And if that makes you happy, then maybe that’s the way to go. But if, like me, you’re compelled to write, then you kind of have to. One of the first guests we had in the podcast was Joe Abercrombie, and he gave the best advice. He said that the longer you dance naked it in the rain, the more likely you are to be struck by lightning. And that is the best summation because it’s a crazy thing to do what we do.
It’s irrational, sometimes. It doesn’t make sense. Makes no financial sense.
But every now and then… Zap. It works. Anyway, like I said, this is a bit of a ramble while I’m rambling. I hope that helps. But happy writing. Keep writing. If you’re enjoying it. If it’s making you miserable, maybe it’s time to stop. But if you’re enjoying it, with all the rough and tumble that comes with it, keep writing. Happy writing.
How much writing can you get done in a day before your brain starts to melt? I’ve picked up a few tips over the years that might help…
TRANSCRIPT:
Hello folks. We writers talk a lot about writing habits, writing every day or writing regularly. But let’s have a think about when to stop writing. Now, to be clear.
I don’t mean stopping altogether and jacking it in. I’m talking about how do you know when you’re done for the day? First drafts I could write all day and collapse in a heap. But I’ve discovered that my daily limit is about 2 hours. After that my poor little brain turns to soft fudge and it starts to leak out of my ears.
Either that or I’ve got an ear infection. Anyway, because my brain goes soft, the writing suffers. It’s just not as good as those first 2 hours. For edits, I find that it’s even more important to set myself limitations. Now I was really in the zone this morning, knocked out a little over a thousand words, which might not sound like much, but I’m editing and this was a whole new chunk that I was grafting on to the beginning of a chapter and it was my allotted task for that morning’s writing session.
I’ve left myself a note, you know, fix this by doing X, Y and Z… And I did it.
I was happy with it and I was so buoyed up that I just wanted to keep writing. But I stopped. Well, the truth is, I didn’t have much of a plan beyond my alotted task. I could have carried on, but I would have been blundering about with no idea what to do. And as I said, if this was a first draft I might have sat down and made some notes or maybe carried on writing blind. And that’s okay with the first draft, but when editing I like to stick to that plan. I’ve been through the book, I’ve made tons of notes, done my edit triage, figured out what needs fixing and I’m tackling those tasks one at a time. Have a look at some of my earlier videos on how I prepare for an edit in more detail. So for the next few days I’m focused on one particular character.
After that I’ll switch to the next problem on the list because when editing, the temptation is to try and fix everything at once and then you end up making a right old mess, and there’s a chance you can do more harm than good. So when editing, make a plan and stick to it. One fix at a time. The other thing I do at the end of a edit session is make a few notes for tomorrow’s session. So here… Just 50 words.
I’ve told myself I need to change the POV in the next chapter, and I’ve reminded myself of the changes I’ve made and what consequences they will have. Better to do that when it’s fresh rather than tomorrow morning where I might sit at my desk — and it’s 7:30 in the morning, don’t forget — and wonder just what the blimmin’ heck I’m supposed to do. On weeks like this, it’s also important to set limitations because I’m working on two projects simultaneously. Not ideal. But it happens.
One is the next Woodville books edit. The other is the second draft of a screenplay. They are sufficiently different for me to separate them in my mind, but also having alotted time and tasks really helps, as does having a bit of time between them. I’m lucky enough to work from home. So it’s those between times that I get bits of housework done, which also gets me off my bottom.
Very important for a writer. So that’s just what works for me. Have you discovered your writing session limits yet? Pop something in the comments below. Of course, you might be like Chet Cunningham.
I was reading about this legend the other day, from the publication of his first book in 1968 to his passing in 2017 at the age of 88, Chester Cunningham had something like 350 books published. Westerns, adventure novels, military thrillers. He also cowrote the “Penetrator” books under the pseudonym Lionel Derrick. This is what sent me down this rabbit hole. I saw the covers on the Pulp Librarian Twitter feed, and they are extraordinary. Chet comes from that pulp tradition where a writer was expected to knock out a thrilling adventure weeks, if not days.
I think at one point he was doing one Western per month. Why the hell not? And here’s the thing. Chet never stopped. Here’s a quote from the FAQs on his website when asked about Writer’s Block, he says, “I came from a newspaper background. When the editor assigns you a story, you write it now. No ifs, buts, or I-don’t-feel-like-writing-today. I usually write from eight to 10 hours a day when I’m a roll on a book. Researching is another thing.”
And then he was asked about Writer’s Block. Do you ever get Writer’s block? He said, “I never use the term. I don’t believe it exists. Ever heard of a Carpenter not going to work because he has Carpenters Block?
If a writer can’t write it’s because he doesn’t really want to, he isn’t ready to get it on paper. Or he’s just plain lazy. There’s no such thing as writer’s block only writer-dumb-dumb-dumb.” Well, Chet, we may disagree on that, but I salute you. Me.
I’m going to have a cup of tea. Until the next time, folks. Happy writing.
How many point-of-view characters is too many for your story? I was watching the Indiana Jones movies and it got me thinking… and helped me with the next draft of my novel.
TRANSCRIPT
Hello, folks. I’ve been rewatching these beauties. Three brilliant films and a fourth one… Actually, to be fair, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull isn’t as bad as you might remember. Certainly when I was rewatching it today, I really enjoyed the first half and began to wonder if I’d been too harsh on it when it came out. Then in the second half it all started to unravel and the ending really was just not satisfying. And of course, with my writer hat on — not a Fedora — I started to wonder why. Now, first of all, let me make it clear: this is not going to be a hatchet job on screenwriter David Koepp. A man I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing for the Bestseller Experiment Podcast. I’ll put a link to that episode in the description below (here’s the link). He is a genuinely delightful chap whose skill as a storyteller is beyond dispute.
Also, film production can be a crazy time, especially with a big franchise movie with colossal expectations. I don’t envy anyone having to work under those kind of time constraints and those levels of expectations and scrutiny. And we simply cannot know what was asked of a writer while in production. Screenwriters are not the authors of a the movie. There are only one voice among many trying to tell a story, and with so many cooks it’s no wonder that sometimes the soup ends up with the sheep’s eyeballs in it. Also, also… I’m rereading the first draft of my next novel and guess what? I’m making exactly the same mistake. Only I have the luxury of time to recognise it and fix it. So what’s the problem with this and many other stories? Before we go on: just a warning that there will be spoilers not only for Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but all the Indiana Jones movies so far. And if you’re watching this in the future and wondering why I’m not talking about the fifth movie, that’s because it’s still in production.
So what exactly is the problem of Crystal Skull? People have pointed the finger at the Nuking the Fridge sequence, the monkeys in the Amazon, indeed that whole chase sequence has a CG gloss to it that when contrasted with truck chase in the first film lacks any sense of verisimilitude or stakes. But the Indy sequels have always had visual effects and SFX that look iffy. I mean, think of the airship/biplane sequence in The Last Crusade, or the action sequences that are a bit silly like the flying inflatable life raft in Temple of Doom. And I don’t have a problem with inter-dimensional aliens.
They’re no more outlandish than the other maguffins in the series, so I don’t think it’s anything to do with those things.
There came a moment at the end of the film when there’s all sort of stuff whizzing around and things are collapsing and John Williams is bringing everything to a resounding crescendo.
And I know I should be thrilled. But… I’m bored. And our heroes are standing there watching things whizz around them and not really doing very much. And then they run. We have a succession of resolution story beats that are meant to have some kind of emotional resonance. So Oxley coming to his sense, Mutt accepting Indy as his father, Mac’s death, Spalko getting the knowledge she craves and paying the price for it.
And Marion and Indy tying the knot. So, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 threads there. That’s a lot even for a two hour movie. The previous three films all had fairly simple story arcs. In Raiders, Indy had to learn to understand the power of the Ark. At the beginning, he’s dismissing it as superstitious nonsense. By the end he’s screaming at Marion to keep her eyes shut, and that saves both their lives. By the way, ignore all that Big Bang Theory nonsense about Indy not having any influence on the outcome of the story.
It completely misses the point. The film isn’t about finding the Ark, it’s about a grave robber rediscovering his faith.
So, in Temple of Doom, Indy has to learn that the artefacts he obtains have a greater value than being stuck in a Museum. “Fortune and glory kid.” And in the Last Crusade, it’s a story of father/son reconciliation. Simple. In Crystal Skull… You get the father/son thing again. Indy and Marion again. Oxley, the old mentor. Mac, the friend who turns traitor, something about cherishing knowledge at the end…
There’s so much being thrown at the viewer, that they don’t know what to latch on to and so disengaged with the story. There are so many threads to wrap up, but none of them are done satisfactorily. So the problem with Crystal Skull is too many characters… Okay, that’s reductive. They’re have been many stories that have oodles of characters and do just fine. Look at the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but that’s why it needed a 15 endings to wrap everything up as satisfactory– satifact– satisfactorally… I can’t even say it! People make jokes about it, but if any of those endings had been missing, the very same armchair critics would be complaining about that. Also, that epic trilogy had plenty of room for those characters to develop. Imagine cramming all of that into 2 hours. As an aside, I’ve been reading Joe Abercormbie’s new trilogy. And I’m halfway through and this series has about six point of view characters, but already I can tell that Joe is giving himself, and them, the room he needs to tell their stories properly. The more point of view characters you have, the bigger your story is going to be.
But you know, with some stories you just need to take one character on a journey of change. There’s no shame in keeping it simple. Done well, it can be the best thing ever. And as I said, I’ve made the same mistake on the first draft of my next Woodville book. I’ve been so seduced by the excitement of bringing in new characters that I’ve been ignoring my regulars.
It’s a really easy trap to fall into. A new character brings energy to a story. It’s great story fuel, and you can keep the reader and viewer engaged. But if that character isn’t given the room to grow in the story, then it becomes noise and fury amounting to not very much, actually. So, one of my next jobs on the next draft is to focus in on the most compelling threads. Two or three at most and make sure they have the most satisfying arcs and resolutions. A doddle. What could possibly go wrong? Stay tuned for more updates as I plunge into this edit. During the meanwhilst, happy writing!
Hello, folks, let’s talk about screenplay formatting. There’s an awful lot of hooey online about screenplay formatting and it can be extremely off putting for the debut screenwriter.
“Don’t make any slug lines bold.”
“No, *do* make your slug lines bold.”
“Don’t include camera directions”.
“Don’t put direction in parentheticals.”
“Don’t add musical cues.”
“And will the words “we see” get me put into movie jail, where I shall rot for the rest of my life?!”
Well, I’ve managed to break all of these so called rules on pretty much every script I’ve written, most of them on my next film, which is out next year and it hasn’t really done me any harm. If you want to learn about screenwriting and formatting, here’s the thing: read. Read as many screenplays as you can get your hands on. And here is the good news. There are millions of the blimming things, all available for free from legitimate sources. I’ll always point people to the BBC’s Writers’ Room, which has a ton of scripts that you can download completely free of charge.
And when it’s awards season time, you’ll see fresh batches sent out by the studios for Academy voters to read. And you can read them too. Follow me on social media as I’ll always share and RT the links.
But why? you say. Why should I read scripts when I could be writing? Because the more you read, the more you realise there are no rules, merely guidelines. The differences between a Wed Anderson script, a Pixar animation, a Coen Brothers movie, a Marvel movie will be noticeable even to the first time reader.
One little tip, try and read as much stuff as you can that was produced in the last few years. Formatting and style is constantly evolving. A lot of screenplay, books and courses point to scripts like James Cameron’s script for Aliens, Callie Khouri’s Thelma and Louise. And while these are brilliant scripts, these are old movies and as such the formatting is a bit old hat.
And don’t ever stop reading. You will always be discovering new ways to liven up your screenplay. So if the formatting of all these great screenplays can be so different, what’s the common element underlines the all? Clarity. They’re all trying to play a movie in the reader’s head. And here’s what few beginner screenwriters realise: the script you’re writing now isn’t the one that will be filmed. It’s basically a sales document.
It will be read by development execs, producers, agents, the kinds of people who try and help you get it made. And, as such, you need to make that movie spring off the page and into their brains. And to do that, yes, you sometimes have to tell the reader where you’re pointing the camera, or how an actor should say a particular line, or that “we see” someone do something totally pivotal to the plot that might otherwise be missed. Once you go into production, a director, producer, designers, actors all get involved with the script, then changes and decisions will be made about camera angles, music, line delivery, etc.
It will evolve because film is collaborative. It is now their movie is much as it is yours. Don’t go into the movies if you want total authorial control.
That’s why I love writing novels between screenplays. The more you read and the more you write screenplays, you’ll start to develop your own style. And as for formatting, to start with… don’t bother. Here’s a first draft of the screenplay I finished just the other day. I’ll hold it far away so you can’t actually read it. Lots of spoilers.
It’s all hand-written, baby. No formatting. Why? I’ve been finding that formatting just gets in the way of my creativity. I just grab a pen and paper and use that hotline from my brain to the page. It’s something I’ve been doing a lot this year and it’s really working for me. Then I type it up in my screenwriting software.
I’m currently using either Highland 2, or Slugline, which are both designed for the Mac. Nice and clean, very simple to use. They do 99% of the formatting automatically. I would also recommend Fade-In. Scrivener has a pretty good screenplay option and I hear good things from my Windows PC friends about Trelby. I’ll put links to these in the description below.
Whatever you do, don’t rush out and buy Final Draft. People will go on and on about them being the industry standard, but it’s expensive and top heavy with the kinds of bells and whistles you don’t actually need until you go into production. Then Final Draft comes into its own for budgeting, scheduling and revisions, but you don’t need to worry about any of that quite yet. So if you’re starting out, I hope that sets your mind at ease. There are no arcane rituals or rules that must be slavishly followed.
There is no miracle software that will turn you into William Goldman or Nora Ephron.
What you need to do is write an incredible, compelling story with characters, action and dialogue that is out of this world. Yes. A doddle. Oh, and I highly recommend the Scriptnotes podcast. Brilliant advice from John August and Craig Mazin and their many guests who are actual working screenwriters and really know how all this stuff works.
Want to make your prose more punchy? Try cutting a few of those filler and filter words. Note: these aren’t hard and fast rules. Of course you can use adjectives and adverbs whenever you like. But if you’re editing, it’s not a bad idea to trim as many as possible.
TRANSCRIPT:
Hello folks. Want to make your prose a little more punchy? When editing, look for those adjectives and adverbs that can really make your writing drag. All those filler and filter words. Find them and get rid of them. For example… Deep breath… “Thought”, “touched”, “saw”, “he saw”, “they saw”, “just”, “heard”, “he heard”, “they heard”, “she heard”… “Decided”, “knew”, “noticed”, “realised”, “watched”, “wondered”, “seemed”, “seems”. That’s one of mine. “Looked”. That’s another one of mine.
“He looked”, “she looked”. “Could”, “to be able to”, yeesh. “Noted”. “Rather”, “quite”, “somewhat”, “somehow”. Although I think these are OK in dialogue, if used sparingly. “Feel”. “Felt”. Now this… this one always starts alarm bells ringing. Don’t just tell the reader that Bob is feeling angry. Try and describe his rage in a way that is unique to Bob. Which is easier said than done, of course. But no one said this would be easy. “And then” — paired together. Cut one or the other. “Had”. If you have two hads in the sentence, one of them has to go. Hads: two hads together… “had had”, which does happen. See if there’s a better way of writing around that. You might have to completely rethink the sentence. “He looks”, “she looks”. “He turned to her and said”, “she turned”, “they turned”… All this turning can make the reader feel dizzy and you can have whole conversations with people turning around and it goes absolutely nowhere. “Supposed”. “Appeared to be”.
“Apparently”. All of these can be weak and they can make your characters feel passive. If you’re writing the first person, these filter words can be doubly harmful. So… “I turned and looked up and saw the elephant raise its foot to squish me” is, well, it’s fine. “The elephant raised its foot to squish me” is a lot more direct. Keep those physical movements to a minimum. All that turning, twisting, looking… Give the reader just enough to animate the action in their own head. You’re not choreographing a musical.
So when you’re editing, look out for these filter words. Do a “find and replace”. Most of the time you’re better off simply cutting them. Other times you might see an opportunity to replace them with something a little more dynamic. What I mean by that? Okay. Add a bit of movement or action or texture. Instead of the “look to”, “turn to”… have them raise their chin, look down their nose, scratch their ear, run their hands through their hair, drum their fingers nervously.
Action that underlines what the character is trying to say or might be thinking. I find it useful sometimes to act the scene out. We’re all writers, spending far too long sitting on our backsides, so a little exercise won’t do us any harm. Get up, move about, film it, film yourself. No one ever needs to see it but you. But seriously, most of the time just cut the buggers. You’re better off without them. Of course there are exceptions. Sometimes we need these words to add clarity to a sentence, but too often I find myself relying on them when I should be trying to be a bit more zippy with my prose.
But hey, that’s editing is all about. Hope you found that useful. Until next time. Happy writing.
I finished the first draft of my novel this week… but what happens next? Jump right in to edit? Or…
TRANSCRIPT:
Hello, folks, I typed these beautiful words earlier this week… (The End) Of course, this is nothing like the end. This is a raggedy mess of a first draft where three quarters of the way through I realised there were two characters that were completely redundant. So they were left by the wayside. The antagonist had almost completely changed in their nature. And there are several strands that have been left dangling in the wind. Still so far to go. But why not allow yourself this little moment of triumph?
Most people who want to write a book never get this far. So, hurrah! Cheers. I… I don’t drink. So this American champagne will have to do in lieu of actual champagne. But, I hear you cry, if I know what’s broken, why don’t I just go back and fix it right now? Well, those problems I mentioned, those are issues that occurred to me as I’ve been writing. Experience has taught me that there’s going to be a ton of whole new problems that I’ll discover.
And if I were to jump back in now, it would feel like an insurmountable heap of problems and my brain will probably melt in the process. It’s time to take a break from this book, at least. So here’s what I recommend… Leave it for six weeks. Six weeks!? Yup. Especially if you’re new to this. You need to come back at this draft with your eyes as fresh and objective as possible. And you do that by not even thinking about the bloody thing for at least six weeks.
Excuse me. Windy pops. Coke. Fizzy pop. So what to do in the meantime? Read. Read all you can. Refill the tank. Read in your genre, read outside of your genre, read good books, read crappy books. Read to remind yourself what a finished narrative feels like. Also, I’m editing a client’s book… Did I mention that I edit and offer reader reports…? Visit my Writer Services site here.
Doing this, reading another writer’s text in such a way that you want to give them a constructive critique, will exercise all kinds of new synapses in your noggin. Sparking up the same part of the brain that you’ll be using when you come to edit your own text.
It’s good exercise. Limbering up for the main event. That doesn’t mean you have to be like a professional editor or anything like that. This is where you go to any writers you know, and offer your services as a Beta Reader. Ask if they have any finished novels that they need reading, and offer your eyes and brains… In a… Brains, not ears… In a quid pro quo agreement, because you’ll need a beta reader once you’ve finished your next pass. Why not cue one up now?
You’ll learn so much by reading another writer’s work in progress. You’ll see the same kind of issues that you will encounter. You might, even in the process of offering your own notes, come across a solution for your own problems. Happens to me all the time. I’m very lucky in that I have a couple of trusted readers for my stuff and I’m happy to read their stuff at the drop of a hat. It’s a great arrangement, and by the time you’ve read their book — or books — you might get through two or more in those six weeks, you’ll not only find that you’re ready to return to your own work, but what once seemed insurmountable will simply be a bunch of problems to be solved. But that’s a whole new video. Until next time. Happy writing… Or reading… Or critiquing. Cheers.
Mark Stay Writes 