Mary J. McCoy-Dressel

Tag: editing

• #MFRWauthor Week 10: Love or Hate ~ Editing!

  Posted at 12:03 am by Mary J. McCoy-Dressel, on March 6, 2020

  

  Week 10: Editing – love it or hate it?

  52-Week Blog Challenge Blog Hop

  If I had to answer this question after having the first round of my first book edited, it would be a toss-up between dread and hate. I’ve come a long way from not knowing how to use Track Changes.

  Editor’s Edits:

  This comes as I am working on EDITS just back from my fantastic editor. Do I love it or hate it? Now that I know what I’m doing, I love editing when it comes back from her. I love to see the suggestions she offers to make the book better. So, this part I do love.

  If there are changes that will take thought or time, I don’t love it so much because I want my book finished, and then there’s the ego thing with an instant… “No, I’m not changing that” mindset. This is when patience and reality come into play. I usually always make the changes and accept her suggestions because she’s the expert.

  Even when it means tossing the complete first four or five paragraphs, and beginning the book in a different place, like with my current book. I loved my beginning as it was, but after giving it a couple of days to think about, I realize she’s right, and I can take some of the original and add it back in elsewhere, per her suggestion.

  Self-Editing: Love or Hate

  What about revising and editing a book after the final draft and before it goes to the editor? It’s frustrating when a story that looks and feels right in a draft, isn’t the same as when getting down to the nitty-gritty and looking at it with a self-editor’s eye. A time when you now know the complete story–where it’s been and where it’s going. It’s amazing to catch mistakes like: the time-frame is out of sync, or I spelled a character’s name incorrectly, or when I have to move something to a better place. Gasp! Or ditch my precious words. I love to see a book come together and watching characters develop more fully. Settings too become more real. This is what I love about revising and self-editing before anyone sees it.

  So there it is, plain and simple. Turns out, I love editing more than I love writing the first draft though I do enjoy writing a draft to see what surprises are revealed.

  What I don’t like is revising and editing blog posts.

  What about you?

  ---

  Do other authors love editing? Hate it? We can find out by visiting participating authors at the Marketing for Romance Writers Blog.

  

  Now it’s time to get back to editing.

   

  Image credit:

  Featured photo/ glasses & keyboard: Pixabay- Slightly_Different

   

  Posted in #AmWriting, #MFRWauthor, #WritersLife, 52-week blog challenge | 6 Comments | Tagged #AuthorsLife, #MFRWauthor, #WritersLife, 52-week blog challenge, editing, editor, Mary J McCoy-Dressel, Revisions

• #AmWriting Writing Advice That Doesn’t Work For Me

  Posted at 7:05 am by Mary J. McCoy-Dressel, on February 23, 2018

  

  It seems like more than eight weeks have gone by in the year. February alone, for me, seems like it’s been at least eight weeks. It’s the shortest month! But we are in the eighth week of the Marketing for Romance Writers 52-Week Blog Challenge Blog Hop. Our #MFRWauthor topic this week is:

  Worst Writing Advice I’ve Gotten. 

  I modified the topic a little to suit my need.

  Week 8: Worst Bad Writing Advice (for me)

  Who am I to say this is bad advice?  It’s advice that doesn’t work for me. I’m NOT saying it’s bad advice for others. Or that it’s bad advice at all. We all have to write our own way. My way isn’t your way. My process can’t be compared to your process.

  What’s the advice or rule I’m talking about?

  “Don’t edit as you go.”

  This process works for other authors and some participants in NaNoWriMo. Me? I have to edit as I go. I have to. It kills me not to go back and rewrite. I can’t tell you how often I rewrite, rewrite, rewrite my beginning. This is how I write. I go back to edit. When I say I edit as I go, it isn’t like I type a paragraph and have to go back to edit it unless the BRAT nudges.

  I’ll do this when I’m finished writing for the day or if I need a break to think something through before continuing. Sometimes, I wait until the next day or next writing session. Of course, it takes longer to finish a draft this way, but it makes the revisions much easier.

  If I’m away from a manuscript, like a have been with my current WIP while revising one of my other books, I’ll go back to the beginning to reread and rewrite as I get familiar with the story again.

  

  Writing without editing as you go works for many, many authors. There’s nothing wrong with the process, for them. At times I wish I could sit down and write a draft this way, but if I try, I am fighting with myself. There’s a little BRAT sitting on my shoulder poking at me, whispering in my ear that I missed a word back there, or I needed to fix something, and it won’t let up. It’s as simple as:

  This process doesn’t work for me.

  My bad advice isn’t your bad advice. Do what works for you.

  We’re at Week Eight in the Blog Hop. Let’s click HERE to read what other authors have to say.

  

  Thanks for your visit today. Enjoy your weekend.

   

  Thank you, Pixabay, for the images.

  Posted in #AmWriting, #MFRWauthor, #WritersLife, 52-week blog challenge | 15 Comments | Tagged #Cowboy series, #MFRWauthor, bad writing advice, editing, Full Length Novel, mary j mccoy dressel, revising, sensual romance, series romance, western romance, Western Romance Author, writing advice, Writing Advice That Doesn't Work For Me

• #AmWriting Coming Out Of My Cave: You’re Telling Me It’s Friday?

  Posted at 11:25 am by Mary J. McCoy-Dressel, on March 3, 2017

  I didn’t make it for week 9 in the 52-Week Blog Challenge. Participants wrote, “Words That Make Me Go Ick.” Through the week, I jotted down some icky words with the intention of participating. Before I knew it my calendar said Friday. Ick! Time got away from me, so this week I’m not a participant. If you’re curious as to what makes other authors go “ICK,” you can check it out here: #MFRWauthor

  How The Week Got Away From Me:

  Writing is my priority–my full time job. This has been a busy week. I’m writing book two in the Canyon Junction: Hearts in Love series, which is a huge challenge. Then, my first round of edits came back for Lassoing the Last Dance in the Double Dutch Ranch Series. I flew through edits quickly, but my editor pointed to a word I might use too often to begin a sentence. She was correct and I thought I had worked on not using it in this book. WRONG.

  I searched and changed the sentences beginning with said word. I’m not going to point out this word to you. 🙂 Not being snarky, but if you’re a reader of my books, I certainly don’t want you to be distracted when you come across this word. Haha, you won’t find it anyway at the beginning of a sentence now.  🙂 Well, not in Lassoing the Last Dance.

  She also pointed out– I might use “darlin’ and sweetheart” too much. Most of them are gone now. I admit, I miss having my cowboys call their heroine, darlin’, so I kept the ones I couldn’t live without. Other times, it didn’t matter to remove them. I found twenty-three “darlin’s” in a more than 95K word manuscript and a few more “sweethearts.” I’ve been accused of overusing another word in love scenes in a book. I’ve since revised it, but the review still remains. It’s okay, because the review was still positive.

  

  Some of these endearments are used when in conversation with a child, especially sweetheart or sweetie, and now most are gone. I read through my manuscript before sending it back to my editor, and you know what? I didn’t miss those words in the dialog where they had been removed.

  I love my characters to be endearing toward one another. This must be why I overuse these words. Once I get into the story and in the heads of the characters, they are no longer characters in a book, but they are a part of my life, part of me. They live in my heart and soul. They are real people. I’m happy someone pointed out these flaws to me.

  Learning in this business never ends, and I continue to learn more with each new book I write and read.

  It’s beginning to look like publishing Lassoing the Last Dance is within sight. I still need to make an appointment with my book formatter, but I can’t until I get my manuscript back after my editor proofreads. Maybe she’ll find another word I use too much, and I’ll have to start all over again with removing them. Oh, it’s so time-consuming, and when it gets so close to publication, it’s exciting and all I want to do is freak out about hitting send, not spend time searching and rewriting. Eww, talk about ICK!  🙂  In the end of course, this is the only way to make the book…swoon-worthy?  ❤

   

  Happy reading!

   

   

  Thanks to Pixabay for the last two images. I’ve had the other one so long, I can’t be sure where it came from.

  Posted in #AmWriting, #WritersLife, 52-week blog challenge | 4 Comments | Tagged #AmWriting, #MFRWauthor, 52-week blog challenge, Challenges, Coming Out Of My Cave: You're Telling Me It's Friday?, cowboy, editing, Mary J McCoy-Dressel, Overused Words, Romance, western romance

• What the Heck. No, Literally–What the Heck…

  Posted at 9:35 am by Mary J. McCoy-Dressel, on May 7, 2015

  All right guys and gals. My mind is spinning over a big dilemma. You see, my upcoming book doesn’t start with my hero or heroine. My editor and I are both torn over this opening, but she said it was so well written that she hated me not using it, or something like that.

  It’s emotional and has a lot of impact, but it’s from another character in my series—a special and important character who is in all the books in the series—

  This is my hero’s story. He appears immediately in the opening, so we do get to see and hear what he has to say about what is coming in his life. But, the emotional aspect of the person telling this, also shows a lot of insight into the hero’s character—through her eyes.

  I took this question to Facebook and received interesting responses. It seems none of them cared if the story didn’t start with the hero or heroine. My hero’s POV comes in on page five so it isn’t like it takes long to get into his head. But, we’re talking about the opening to a book that only has seconds to grab a reader.

  I’m sure my series readers will love the opening because by now they know the characters. After all, this is the fourth book in the series and we’ve all become quite attached. Yes, including me! I love my characters and their stories.

  Ahh, Romance!

  Of course the beginning is important in any book, but Romance is different. The story is about the two main characters. Two or more, depending on what you write of course. I’ve never written more than two character POVs. Well, I shouldn’t say never, because I don’t know what I did before I knew what I was doing. Ask my first editor.

  As a matter of fact, this character gets a POV spot two other times in this story. I’m not worried about those other two spots.

  Some suggestions I had from Facebook:

  • Make it a prologue. Well, this doesn’t exactly fit the criteria for a prologue. Sure, it’s a different character, but the main character is right there too. In book time, it’s only a few hours until his POV shows up.
  • Another suggestion was to call it an Introduction. I loved the idea, but some people don’t read introductions (or prologues), and when a reader reads a sample on Amazon or the other retailers, it would probably begin with Chapter One. Therefore, the reader would have to scroll back to see an Introduction. Don’t quote me on that. 🙂 I’ve seen “Look Inside the Book” open to Chapter One and at times open to the Copyright page. I think it has something to do with the formatting.
  • One more comment mentioned writing the character’s name as a subheading. I did this in my manuscript and I’ll see what my editor says, although she read the Facebook responses. New readers won’t have a clue who this character is, though. Books don’t always get read in order.
  • Others said, “Go for it.”
  • Some said, “I see nothing wrong with it.
  • Another said, “It’s great to see how others in the book think and feel.

  Cover. Blurb. Title.

  It’s my thought that my cover, blurb, and title all say who the book is about? By the way, you’ll see the cover soon unless you’re a mailing list subscriber who already did. 😉

  

  So this is my dilemma. Give up an emotional scene that still shows a bit about my hero, or jump into page five and make it the beginning, and delete the beginning.

  What am I asking of you? *Shrugging*

  1. Maybe I’m thinking out loud through my blog.
  2. Maybe to see what you, my blog readers have to say about this?
  3. Or, hoping that if I think about this long enough, my solution will magically come to me.

  In the meantime, my manuscript is about to be sent back to my editor, and I will continue to lose sleep until the decision feels right in my head. Actually, the beginning does feel right to me, but I want to please readers and make it the best it can be for them, too.

  Wish me luck!

  In the mean time, I won’t be doing this:

  

  But, I might be doing this:

  and this Thanks for letting me think out loud as I talk to you here.

  Have an enjoyable day! Come back and visit y’all.

  Source originally posted to Flickr as Cannolo Siciliano
  Wiki Commons

  Posted in #AmWriting | 8 Comments | Tagged editing, facebook, main character, novel writing, Opening scene

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