Final Spit and Polish

I'm giving one of my MG novels a final spit and polish before sending it out into the world this year.

I am using the Speak command on Word to find my mistakes.
You can go here to one of my other posts that tells you how to put the Speak command on your toolbar if it isn't already there.

I thought this manuscript was ready to go. But, I am finding awkward sentences in my manuscript using this tool . . . plus a few other mistakes. 

A few weeks ago I sent out a couple of stories to a children's magazine. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I will get at least one of them accepted. I had never submitted to a magazine before. So this is a first for me. 


Anyone else out there polishing up a manuscript for submission?

Do you have any writing goals for the new year?

One of my goals is to try and send out more manuscripts . . . and to keep improving my writing skills. 

We need to think big . . . 

and keep climbing the steps to reach our writing goals!

 Happy Writing!

Posted by Janet Smart on Creative Writing in the Blackberry Patch.

            

Polishing Your Work In Progress

Two Mondays ago I blogged about my MG manuscript that I had been  revising for a long,  long time. I told how it had went from 9,000+ words in 2007 to the current 23,000+ words.

I'm still writing!

The manuscript is currently at 25,000+ words!

How have I added words to a story I thought was finished?

I put on my thinking cap and thought like a 10-12 year old. I asked myself what would they do in a certain situation and what would they like to happen at the end.


I've added little details to the plot that made me have to make changes to the manuscript on down the line. And the best part is that I added a new ending! There is a little twist at the end. The girls in the story discover something that they didn't know existed before. And they discovered it by mistake!

But, in addition to adding to the text, I have also used the Find and Replace option to delete overused, lazy and unneeded words such as was, were, very, felt, seem, be, simply, really, that, just, had, etc. (I read a book chapter someone posted on Facebook yesterday. It is a good story, but they used seemed numerous times throughout the chapter and three times in one paragraph. It drove me crazy. Their good story could have been much better if they had searched and deleted a lot of unnecessary words.)

I also went to a couple of small sections of my manuscript that had always bothered me. They were only a few paragraphs long, but I felt those paragraphs were not interesting and did not add to the story the way they were written. So I did what I should have done a long time ago - I changed and/or deleted part of them!

I am what they call a skinny writer - not in body, but in words. So deleting sections and words of my manuscript scared me. But I did it and I ended up with a longer and better manuscript.

When editing, I noticed I had trouble remembering when to use that and which. Below is the Which vs. That Rule.

Use that before a restrictive clause. If you need the clause to maintain a sentence's meaning, then use that. Think - "I needed that."

Use which before a nonrestrictive clause. You can take it or leave it - it's not necessary. Which is almost always preceded by a comma, parenthesis or a dash.

Be patient. Make sure your manuscript is polished before publishing.

Happy Writing!

Posted by  Janet Smart  on Creative Writing in the Blackberry Patch.

What do you do?

I have been editing a MG manuscript. In this manuscript's lifetime it has had approximately three different titles.

The original manuscript was written in late 2007, very early in my writing career. I usually write picture books and this was the first MG I had ever written. I now joke that the first time I wrote it, it was more like a large outline - only 9,600 words. But this was a lot of words for a picture book writer!

By July 2008 the word count had climbed up to 14,600 words.

In May 2011 it was at 17,400 words.

In March 2012 it was at 20,328 words.

Now, July 2013, it has climbed to 23,000 words.

I made the mistake of sending it out to publishers when it was at 9600 and 14,600 word stage. Live and learn. It was not ready.

I hear people say that your first manuscripts are only practice and usually not suitable for publication. They say forget about them and start writing other manuscripts.

I disagree with this. I say you should edit, edit and edit until your manuscript is ready for publication.

I like my stories. I am persistent and keep improving them in hopes that some day they will  be  published.  

What do you do? Do you forget about your early manuscripts or do you like them enough to keep changing them until they are publishable?


Posted by Janet Smart  on Creative Writing in the Blackberry Patch.

 

Did you ever?

Did you ever get started editing on one of your manuscripts and not be able to stop?

I've been working on my middle grade manuscript, getting it ready for the WVWriter's Conference and I can't seem to stop.

I told my critique group that I wanted to make the first three chapters shine for the judges (I'm  working on the rest of it , too).

I left the meeting wondering if I could do what they suggested. I'm always afraid I'll make it worse than it was to start with.

But, I think I'm getting it.
They said that a little too many things happened in the first chapter, maybe move something somewhere else.

Check!  A small flashback that was a little confusing is now in a later chapter and in the present, not as a flashback.

The beginning needed to be more sharp and to the point.
Check !

Maybe add more descriptions to the characters.
Check! When I introduce a character, I add a little about them so the reader will get to know them better.

Kids are fascinated with caves, add some more cave descriptions.
Check!

I've been worried all along about the length of the manuscript. It was a little short for a MG, though there are some short MG books that are published and very good.

I love " Because of Winn-Dixie" and I have the book here at the house. I noticed that is didn't seem to be very long, so I checked out the word length on the Renaissance Learning site. I was right, it is only 22,123 words.

But then it clicked. The main character of that story is only 10 years old. The main characters of my story are 12 yrs old, almost 13. I thought about it for a while and decided the characters in my story could be younger with very few changes to the manuscript. So that is what I did. I changed their ages.

I had fought against making changes for a long time, because this was my baby. But realized that changes had to be made if I was going to push it out out of its comfy nest to fend for itself.

Sometimes change is good.

Now, I just have to remember to get up from the chair every now and then to stretch my legs!

Oh, did I forget to mention, I received another rejection this week.