I love K.M. Weiland!

I love K.M. Weiland! You want some real and excellent advice on writing; in my opinion, she is one of the gurus.

I relate to: "For example, I hate revisions. Let me say that again: I hate, hate, hate revisions."

A MUST read: 

How to Create the Perfect Writing Process for You

https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/how-to-create-the-perfect-writing-process-for-you/ Player

A MUST listen to audio:

 Got to the site of the article and Click the “Play” button to Listen to Audio Version (or subscribe to the Helping Writers Become Authors podcast in iTunes).

Two freebies you don't want to miss!

Who the heck ever said writing is glamorous, creative, fun and natural? It's the hardest, loneliest, most unpredictable work one can ever wish for, and one could put in an existence doing and NEVER even earn a dime or get read much less be accepted as an author. Moreover, there is the NEVER ENDING learning process of refining, editing, and marketing! But as one writer to another, could you, would you, do anything else? I started my writing "vocation" (if one could call it that) after I raised three children, a husband and retired from 30 years of going to college while working an 8-5 and at times an extra job. What the heck! Am I nuts or what?   

It is, from K.M. Weiland on CRAFTING UNFORGETTABLE CHARACTERS! 

http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/crafting-unforgettable-characters.pdf

You will find a link to it on her article: Common Writing Mistakes: http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/common-writing-mistakes-much-description/

What to do with feedback

So you are ready, done with waiting, some friends, other writers and or an editor read your draft what to do after you get their feedback.

Check out the options in this article by FEEDBACK "Rewriting: What Is it And How Do You Go About It?"

Do you read when writing?

This article: "How does what you read affect your writing, " by Laura Moss, quotes Stephen King, "If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that," memoir, "On Writing." 

When writing new work I don't read because the story comes in a stream from my subconscious and all my senses are involved. Virgins came to me over several months and after overcoming weeks of fear and terror I would get up at night and write. After I sense that my subconscious is tapped or I have completed initial writing I read, research and read to learn about the visions or apparitions that have come to me.

With Virgins I had to do months of research and reading after the initial months of visions, apparitions and in fear of what I was seeing, feeling: all my senses on alert and involved. I even saw a therapist, called my best friend repeatedly, went overnight where my husband was staying when working out of town, sought help from my priest and got psychic readings, very scary readings, thought I was going nuts. Stuff I couldn't explain kept happening around me. My writing became so compulsive I wrote until the wee hours but was able to function during the day as if pumped up by adrenaline.

In the months and years that followed, I read all I could find online about the places, apparitions, ideas and to look and verify what seemed facts and most of them to my dread, where facts even the times before I was even born in this life. I started attending a writing group that went on for 5 years.

I wrote other stuff after awhile but the story of the Sylph kept me engrossed. Two years ago my husband and I went to Europe, of the two weeks we spent several days in Lalin Spain, a city near the Pontevedra Coast, where a lot of the book takes place. The experience felt supernatural to both of us.

Also, writing to me is a true labor of love, I have to edit and have others edit for me a lot because I was dyslexic and in my days as a youth that was not diagnosed correctly. English is not my birth language. I came to the U. S. when I was about nine, the first time. Also in college and in my occupation I had to read and write a lot. Like on this article, I check it myself with spell check and Grammarly and pass it by my husband to ensure it's not riddled with errors.

On editing

You know that feeling? 
The one after you announced your book is done, and you will publish in a week or so, but then you feel you need another eye or two and a couple of trusted friends accept to read it - and then full of confidence you will put that baby out. However, as you wait you wonder: is egg on your face or patience better? 
"Patience is not simply the ability to hold on - it's how we behave while we're waiting." Joyce Meyer
But then! You read your email and find, on a trusted site such as K. M. Weiland's, the perfect article on how to get your edits done once you get your feedback! 
6 Tips for How to Organize Your Novel’s Edits
http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/tips-organize-your-novels-edits/

Do you use writing applications?

Thanks, Kathy, I have Scrivener but found it confusing however, after your article, I will give it another run. Have you entered an finished book into Scrivener to help you with final edits?

My question posted to KATHY EDENS after reading  her very informative article: GIFTS FOR YOUR FAVORITE WRITER FRIEND: 4 PERFECT APPS FOR WRITERS on shewrites

Don't you sometimes wish you could...

...do this to all you have to do?

Right now I am doing final edits on VIRGINS as well as completing a nonfiction piece for submission. 

Share before publishing

This article [SWP: BEHIND THE BOOK]: SHELTER US, PART 2 Posted BY LAURA NICOLE DIAMOND on She Writes grabbed my attention. Laura tells how she shared her book Shelter Us before she published.

I have shared the coming out of VIRGINS, my paranormal breakthrough novel, and the first in my ROLO series, for several months. I am still working on edits after I sent it yet another editor and friend I really trust.

Once done, I think I will download the first few chapters, about 30 pages into a PDF, and offer them for free. To those that read them and send me a review, I will provide the rest of the book on a PDF for free.

Pain is not optional.

My quote on rewriting and editing: Pain is not optional.

Back to 27-thousand words, the going is a slow crawl into what I wrote long ago, and gosh, golly-gee, it sounded, looked and felt so good then and now I've cut the pages in this book form 1,200 to 900 and on with the hatchet. I wonder how writing groups I belong(ed) to put up with me! Anyways, here is a link to a free download on re-writing and editing - to me the same hatchet. Again I thank my husband for his bluntness and fearless hatching and editing, and those that like the book enough to have high-hopes for me, and to those that say aren't you done yet, I say: maybe never.

Here is a free download (really helpful) Revision and Self Editing for Publication: http://www.writersdigest.com/revision-self-editing-publication

Last but not, a quote form an author I enjoy reading:

"I always rewrite the very beginning of a novel. I rewrite the beginning as I write the ending, so I may spend part of morning writing the ending, the last 100 pages approximately, and then part of the morning revising the beginning. So the style of the novel has a consistency."  Joyce Carol Oates

still editing

Finished editing 50 pages, might not sound like a lot but because my novel is science fiction/fantasy and is complex and large I decided, before starting these complete edits, to first create a timeline and character history for the entire book.  It is then that I saw the need to write a brief summary for every chapter, and have done so for the first 25 thousand words. 

My plan now is to continue to do the chapter-by-chapter summaries for every 10 thousand words as I go along and to complete the first 50 thousand word edits and summaries by next week. We will see. 

I have a couple of friends that have done some edits and my husband is my main go to person, it works great because John is a good writer and an avid reader and he makes suggestions that improve my story. 

Feels like I am walking on a tightrope.