Category Archives: Writing

Writing Perspective – Day 8 of 31

By Valerie Routhieaux

Day 8 – Revisions

When you complete the first draft of your work, whether it’s a novel, fiction or non-fiction, short story, magazine article, or poem, it’s time for revision.

You might wonder how you could revise poetry. Believe me, you can. You might not see much poetry from me, but I write it when the spirit moves me.

Those poems, as simple as they are, can go through a lot of revision to get them right. The one I have in my book; Thread of Evidence, went through a lot of revisions. What made it hard is the fact it’s a limerick, something I don’t write often, but did for the book.

However, most of my revision is done in my novels, and I’m certain if you’re a writer with books published or waiting on back burners for the right moment to publish, you revised them.

Revision isn’t editing, and yet it is. I did two major revisions of my novels. The first was Scarred. I finished writing it in six months, then heard a story on the radio for the same time period of my novel, and completely revised the background for Scarred. I didn’t revise the story, only the characters’ backgrounds. That took another six months.

The other book I did a complete revision on was Thread of Evidence. When I originally finished it and read it, I realized how boring the book was and needed to instill life into it. When I finished it the second time, it is what I’ve been working on in the last year for publication.

What is revision? Revision takes your story and makes it better than it was. It looks at the three parts of the novel, beginning, middle, and end. It looks at the whole work to find holes that need filling. It’s the time when you put flesh, sinew, muscle, and bones on your novel and bring it to life. It’s when your characters start talking to you and telling you their personal story. It’s when you develop the personalities of your characters. It’s when you get to know your characters so well, you know how they will act in any situation.

You never stop revising until that final moment when your publisher makes it a book for someone besides you to read. If you’ve ever written anything, even a blog post, have you made changes to it before you hit the submit button? Did you go back and remember something you almost forgot to mention? That’s a revision.

Tomorrow’s Perspective: Resources

Writing Perspective – Day 7 of 31

By Valerie Routhieaux

Day Seven – Grammar

Yesterday, I posted about editing, leaning more towards what to leave and what to take out of your manuscript, with a little about passive and active voice. I will continue with editing today, with the emphasis on grammar and punctuation.

If there was ever an area that needed more help than any other, it’s punctuation. You know what I mean. Where and when do you use the comma and the semicolon? From what I’ve noticed, the semicolon is the most unused of all punctuation. It has its moments, but they are few. Use a semicolon between two main clauses not linked by and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet. (Harbrace College Handbook page 152).

Do not use the comma to separate the subject from its verb or the verb from its subject. (Harbrace College Handbook page 147) With those definitions, it should be easy to determine where to put the comma or the semicolon.

One thing I’ve been grateful for is Microsoft Word. It helped me with my punctuation and grammar in the early stages of editing my work. It might seem annoying, but those red underlines were useful, and I learned a lot about comma placement.

Do I get it right every time? No. I need to rely on the editing tools at my disposal, and the book cited above is an excellent resource for everything punctuation and grammar.

Another aspect of editing is grammar. As the publishing world advanced, so too did the area of grammar, particularly with voice or point of view (POV).

In many earlier manuscripts and bestselling books, you see a universal POV. You know what everyone is thinking. One book that comes to mind is Heidi. You know what every character thinks. That can get complicated and messy. It also leaves you wondering who is talking in a particular scene.

One common mistake is getting the POV cluttered with too many voices in one scene, where you should have only one. You know who is in charge of the dialogue because you also hear the person’s thoughts. You should have no more than two main POVs in a book. Three is acceptable, but no more than that.

It’s easy to get both POVs mixed up in a scene. You need to determine which character you’re focusing on in that scene and use only that POV. When you change POV add a line space to alert the reader for the change of POV.

If you’ve noticed the line space but didn’t know why, that’s the reason, a change in POV. We also use the line space for change in time whether it’s a few hours or days.

Good grammar is more than POV. It’s also an active voice versus passive voice. Examples of passive voice are: is, was, are, were, to be, has been. Eliminating those words from your text, causes your text to go from passive to active.

When you change passive to active, you create a document easy to read. I put this post against both Grammarly and Prowritingaid to give you a good example of good grammar, punctuation, and POV in editing.

If you have anything to add, I appreciate your comments on the subject of editing. It’s always good to learn more from your given vocation.

Tomorrow’s perspective: Revisions

Writing Perspective – Day 6 of 31

By Valerie Routhieaux

Day Six: Self-Editing

Along with research and revision, is editing. From what I’ve heard from almost every writer and author, they aren’t enthused with editing. Editing is the hardest part of the publication process. A lot more goes into it than even I thought possible. When my editor bailed on me when I was getting ready to publish Scarred, I realized I was on my own for editing.

What did I do? Well, the book won’t edit itself. I wish it would, that would be awesome. A friend from another writing site I was with sent me the Harbrace College Handbook. It’s an excellent resource. I bought Revision and Self-Editing. This one I read cover to cover. There’s highlighting and notes in margins. I also bought The Artful Edit. And I have English Grammar for Dummies. Everything I could possibly need, I hoped, in order to edit myself.

When it came to editing Thread of Evidence, I got two editing programs, Grammarly.com and Prowritingaid.com. They are both invaluable. I did pay the premium for prowritingaid.com. It was worth it and cheaper than Grammarly.com.

When editing you need to pay attention to active and passive voice. Was. Were. To be. Are all examples of passive voice. Sometimes you can get away with using them, but those times are the exception and not the rule.

Another thing you need to watch for is your adverbs. Editors and publishers, frown on words ending in ly. Typically, you don’t need it. You can even leave it out of the sentence I wrote and it wouldn’t change the meaning.

Vague words are also frowned on such as very, just, some, and any. There are always ways to work around them, or leave them out, which is best.

I have Grammarly.com turned on in all my posts, so I always know when I got something wrong and can edit it right away instead of waiting to the end. It’s helpful.

With having a publisher for Thread of Evidence, someone else is also editing my work. That can be an advantage or disadvantage depending on how much of your work he or she wants to delete from your manuscript.

As I was going through the edit suggestions from the editor for Thread of Evidence, I needed to decide if it was a valid suggestion and take it out, or invalid and keep it in. I did accept a good portion of her suggestions but also negated some. Especially when she wanted to delete full chapters from the book.

I also found out there are two kinds of edits. The standard edit that I just went through, and the content edit which is more involved. If you’re a writer or author, are there any other tools you use to edit or suggestions about editing?

Tomorrow’s perspective: Grammar

Writing Perspective – Day 5 of 31

By Valerie Routhieaux

Day Five: Research

Your novel is finished, now what? It’s time for edit and revision, with an emphasis on revision. It’s time to flesh out your novel, add in the details and descriptions and take out the fluff that doesn’t move the story forward.

It’s also time for research if you didn’t do that while you wrote the novel. Research is important no matter what genre you write. There is always something to learn, especially with historical fiction. You need to know the highlights and important events of the era you’re writing about. You can’t just write a novel and expect it to be accurate without research.

When working on my historical fiction series, I needed to know who the English monarchs were during that time. I have pirates, how active were they. I have ships, what did they look like? I also needed to know the basics of colonial life in Colonial America. It was also necessary to do a little research into the proper etiquette of English aristocracy. With my last novel, there was even more research needed when it came to the interaction between a Christian and a Muslim.

Historical novels aren’t the only place research is required. You need it in every genre, even science fiction, and fantasy.

So, if you’re thinking about writing a novel, don’t forget the research. Your audience will appreciate the work you did, even though they aren’t aware of it. They would know if you didn’t, especially if you get facts, they know incorrect.

I hope this helped. If you’re an author, how much research do you typically do for your novel? Thanks for reading.

Tomorrow’s perspective: Self-editing.

Writing Perspective – Day 4 of 31

By Valerie Routhieaux

Day Four: Just Write

When you’re writing your novel, there are days when you don’t know what to write. Your characters are silent. You sit at the keyboard with your fingers poised and nothing happens. What do you do?

A famous author would contend there is no such thing as writer’s block. However, it’s real. You know it’s real because you’re sitting in front of your computer staring at a blank screen. Someone once said when you don’t know what to write, write anything that comes to mind. You need to push through the silence. You need to put something on that blank screen, even if it has nothing to do with the story.

That’s the best advice I was given. Why? Because it jumpstarts your story. Chances are you will go back and take out that paragraph or page, especially if it doesn’t have anything to do with the story, or you might find, as I did with Scarred that that paragraph never came out and made it through every edit and revision. When I wrote that paragraph, I was certain it would be edited out. It’s a strong paragraph and just what the story needed at that time and place.

You will find that too as you’re writing. Even if it doesn’t make sense when you go back to edit and revise, it fits. That isn’t always the case. I’ve had many such episodes when the push was edited out because it didn’t belong.

It happens no matter what you’re writing. So, even with your blog posts, write the first thing that comes to mind and turn it into a post. You might find others will relate to what you’ve written.

There is a wealth of ideas, as I mentioned in one of these tips. Pick one and expand on it. No matter what you’re writing, whether the next best-selling novel or a blog post, just write. You’ll be amazed at what happens next. Do you have other tips for staring at the blank screen? Thanks for reading.

Tomorrow’s perspective: Research

Writing Perspective – Day 3 of 31

By Valerie Routhieaux

Day Three – Join a Writer’s Group

Okay, let’s assume you’ve finished your novel. Now what? You have a masterpiece, and you proudly let your friend, mother, sibling, or other relative read it. In order not to offend you, they tell you, you have a work of art. It’s fantastic. Your head is swelled three times bigger than it was when you finished your masterpiece.

Then you take it to someone you don’t know and they read it and they tell you it’s a piece of trash. Your head is properly deflated.

So, who do you believe? Not your friends or relatives. They will always try to make you feel good about what you do and never give you a good critique. Not the first person you hand it to either. They have their own reasons for not liking your work.

So, what do you do? Check with your local library and find a writer’s group. You should probably do that the moment you decide to write, but if you want good criticism, a writer’s group is the best way to find it. You will get good feedback, and you will know how to proceed with your manuscript.

You have a long road ahead of you yet. Your manuscript needs revision, editing, research, and when you have that all done, you do it all over again.

If you’re a writer or thinking about becoming one, I recommend a writer’s group. You will get great feedback and they will keep you on track with your work. If you’re a writer or author and have anything to add, please leave a comment. If you’re an author or writer, do you belong to a writer’s group?

Tomorrow’s perspective: Just write!

Writing Perspective – Day 2 of 31

By Valerie Routhieaux

Day Two – Ideas

Today, I’m going to focus on ideas. One of the most frequently asked questions is how do I get my ideas? I’d like to say I think a long time about what to write. I don’t. Thoughts are always there and spawn ideas I can write about.

You can get ideas from news stories, books, movies or something that happens. The way it happened brings forth a great idea for a book.

Talking to people and something they say, or how it’s said, can be a good plot for a story.

There are so many places you can find stories, they’re endless. Even dreams can evolve into a book. For non-fiction books, there might be something that happened–such as a mystery–that hasn’t been solved or a memoir from your childhood could make a good book. History is full of people who did something other people would want to know about.

Think about every book you’ve ever read. Which was your favorite and why? That book started as an idea in the author’s imagination. They took that idea and made a story from it, and that story became the book you read. It might have been a best-seller and it might not. However, you read it, reviewed it and others have done the same.

Jerry B. Jenkins, author of the Left Behind series was on a plane and had the idea to write about the tribulation from the viewpoint of an airline pilot. The series became a reality, which he co-authored with Tim LaHaye. One book led to twelve and then four prequels.

Don’t discount the ideas you have. They all lead somewhere, whether it’s a blog post or a best-selling novel.

You might wonder how a person can take an idea from a book. I read an article once that said, there are no new stories, and someone will always come along and write the story better than you did. Find a nugget in a book and you have an idea, a seed, and a new story comes forth. What are your ideas? Let them germinate the seed for a story.

It’s time to write.

Tomorrow’s perspective: Join a Writer’s Group.

Writing Perspective – Day 1 of 31

By Valerie Routhieaux

Day One – Just Write

Write. Don’t edit. Don’t worry about your grammar and punctuation.

Write. When you start a new project, the idea is to get the story down. This is your rough draft, and believe me, it’s rough. I guarantee you probably broke every rule of good writing. You’ll have typos and even words that don’t look like typos called homophones. Those are the trickiest typos of all. You’ll also have punctuation and grammatical errors.

Leave your editing for the finished project.

When the story is finished, it’s time to start polishing it. Everyone writes differently. Some people use index cards and map out their book from beginning to end. Some use a storyboard. Some outline. And some just write.

There are two kinds of writers. Plotters and Pantsers. The plotters are the ones who use the index cards, storyboard, and outline. Pantsers are those who plant themselves in the chair and write.

I’m a pantser. I don’t know what my characters are going to do until I put fingers to keyboard.

If this is day one for you, decide what kind of writer you are and get started. The book won’t write itself, though some days you will feel like it is, especially if you’re a pantser, like me.

What kind of writing do you do? If you’re an author, what genre do you write in? If you haven’t published yet, what are your interests when you sit down to write? If you’re thinking about writing, what genre interests you? Is it fiction or non-fiction?

Write!

Tomorrow’s perspective: Ideas

Imagination

By Ruth Wellens

Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary definition of imagination is: “the act or power to form mental images of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality; a creation of the mind.” 

Author Ruth Wellens

Children are encouraged to use their imagination with an empty box or with blocks.  We adults must use more creative means. 

Writing, of course, uses the imagination, but the practice of using our imagination can occur anytime or anywhere.  When I walk on the trail after a rain, sometimes I pretend I am walking some place other than the trail.  The birds are chirping, the sky is a deep blue, and the air is damp – like a rain forest. 

Sometimes when the atmosphere is foggy, I transport myself (via imagination) to London.  Why not?  I can’t see very clearly here in Green Bay the same way people often can’t see very clearly in London, England.  The only difference is that London might be considered more exotic. 

How about the shores of Green Bay or the shores of Door County?  What’s on the other side?  Maybe we think we know because we’ve driven to the other side or have been transported there by boat.  But what if it has changed? What if it’s something else?  We can always imagine.

Have you ever wondered what that waitress is thinking – especially when someone decides to create a complicated order?  Have you ever encountered a stranger and wondered what his or her back story is?  What about family dynamics as observed in a park or at a store?  Is that couple holding hands married? Dating?  Having an affair? 

This is the stuff of writers – wondering, creating, “forming mental images … not present to the senses.”

So now that our imagination is primed is that all we need?  Picture the perfect writing day, with daily chores done and no other commitments. We cozy up to our laptop ready to begin.  Only, well, nothing.  Even the most perfect setting does not guarantee that writing will be produced.  Sometimes even when all the stars are aligned, writing still falls flat. 

What to do?  Use your imagination.    

Writing Tips: Day Two

By Valerie Routhieaux

Day Two – Ideas

Today, I’m going to focus on ideas. One of the most frequently asked questions is how do I get my ideas? I’d like to say I think a long time about what to write. I don’t. Thoughts are always there and spawn ideas I can write about.

You can get ideas from news stories, books, movies or something that happens. The way it happened brings forth a great idea for a book.

Talking to people and something they say, or how it’s said, can be a good plot for a story.

There are so many places you can find stories, they’re endless. Even dreams can evolve into a book. For non-fiction books, there might be something that happened–such as a mystery–that hasn’t been solved or a memoir from your childhood could make a good book. History is full of people who did something other people would want to know about.

Think about every book you’ve ever read. Which was your favorite and why? That book started as an idea in the author’s imagination. They took that idea and made a story from it, and that story became the book you read. It might have been a best-seller and it might not. However, you read it, reviewed it and others have done the same.

Jerry B. Jenkins, author of the Left Behind series was on a plane and had the idea to write about the tribulation from the viewpoint of an airline pilot. The series became a reality, which he co-authored with Tim LaHaye. One book led to twelve and then four prequels.

Don’t discount the ideas you have. They all lead somewhere, whether it’s a blog post or a best-selling novel.

You might wonder how a person can take an idea from a book. I read an article once that said, there are no new stories, and someone will always come along and write the story better than you did. Find a nugget in a book and you have an idea, a seed, and a new story comes forth. What are your ideas? Let them germinate the seed for a story.

It’s time to write.