OF: I notice that when people write draft #1, Of is an overused word. “He thought of her often.” vs. “She was often in his thoughts.” “They came of good Irish folk.” “Their ancestors were Irish.”

Of is unconsciously used as a transitional word. It often weakens a description or the intensity of an emotion you wish to convey. When editing, circle your Ofs and look for alternate phraseology.

‘S:  Apostrophe S, the possessive S, is a simple tool to tighten a sentence. For example, in Scroll 3, a new character, Rodias, is hunting. The original sentence read, “The easterly wind would not carry the scent of Rodias to the rabbits.” A quick fix:  ”The easterly wind would not carry Rodias’ scent to them.” As another example, “… they were at the edge of the lake” vs. “…they were at the lake’s edge.”

Edit asking yourself what can be strengthened (and usually shortened) with ’s.

AND: I’m guilty of overusing and. Have to slash it out of my drafts because it stretches a sentence to take away the oomph.

Draft 1: Blades clashed and sparks spat into the mist. Agonized shrieks shredded the air and Danai could not tell whether from daemiani or feyree.

Edited: Blades clashed, sparks spitting into the mist. Agonized shrieks shredded the air; Danai could not tell whether daemiani or feyree.

Watching out for ‘and’ can make your actions more “now” and urgent, and keeps the energy in your writing.

Get that red pencil to work, and hunt for these simple way to punch up your copy.

Don’t You Mean Edit?
Nope. I mean rewrite. The entire manuscript from cover to cover.

There’s a big difference between editing and rewriting. In editing, you’re pruning and polishing. You’re generally comfortable with the writing, its flow and its content.

Rewriting, to pick up on an earlier blog’s creating a statue metaphor, is looking at the rough block of marble you’ve quarried, and carving out the unnecessary marble that is hiding the statue within.

Now You Know Where You’re Headed
Once the first draft is done, you know what your story’s ending is. You didn’t really know when you started – you had an idea, which may or may not have actually happened. As a result, likely your earlier chapters aren’t going to have the necessary foreshadowing, characters, etc. that catch and lure the reader into the story.

Rewriting is a tough process. You start to dump paragraphs, pages, even chapters which don’t fit with or enhance the story as you’ve finished writing it. The cognitive process of rewriting is different then editing, by the way – it forces you to reevaluate, retool, reword sentences, paragraphs, even whole sections, to become stronger (or be eliminated) in a much more creative way than editing (which is the polishing phase).

As an example, in Crossover, I had envisioned having humans in the story. Wrote a whole chapter plus involving that. But during rewrite #2, after trying to force fit the chapter into the story because I liked it so much, I finally accepted that humans had no place in the tale, and eliminated the 25 pages.

The “Ouch” Factor
I find rewriting challenging, yet exciting, because I can see the story pushing free of the clutter. You know that feeling you get when a sentence or a paragraph feels just right? This requires rewriting (and rewriting) to achieve that.

I admit it’s tough to chop out copy – ouch! In Dark Fire, I had what I thought was a great scene with Danai and Joson attacked by a hawk, then encountering a clandestine meeting between feyree and fire daemon. My editor yawned his head off; it didn’t move the story forward.

Through multiple rewrites (Dark Fire went through 7), the scene evaporated, replaced by a powerful paragraph which introduced the hawk character Windbolt, and the traitorous encounter moved to night time, and almost got Danai and Joson killed by the Dolmen.

Look at it this way. If you love to write, then love your writing enough to make it the best you can. That means rewriting, usually several times.

It’s simply a part of the process.

First Draft
You may bridle at the suggestion your first draft is not perfect, but it’s not. It’s like having quarried a lump of marble; rewriting and editing now chips and polishes until the final glorious statue is revealed.

Consider this – particularly in fiction – when you first start writing, you don’t know what’s going to develop in the story. So by its very nature, your story will have to be edited so that all the pieces fit and blend together.

Be Brutal
Part of being a good editor is being brutal to your work. As an example, the original draft of Dark Fire was 676 pages long. The published book is 254.

My favorite editing reference is one Rudyard Kipling once shared. He was working on his novel “Kim”. His father, who was his editor, chopped out a whole section that was dear to Rudyard’s heart. When asked why, his father explained that it did not move the story forward.

It’s a good measuring stick to use. I’m not saying eliminate description, etc. but judge your work by the rule, ‘does it move the story forward?’ If the answer is no, it’s likely fluff and can be chiseled away.

Multiple Edits
Edited once? Great. Start again. And again. Plan to edit several times, because each time you’re going to find things to change, typos, you name it.

And then ask a trusted colleague to read and edit. They will find things you missed. Dark Fire went through 7 rewrites and 9 edits before it was released.

Editing is one of the most valuable tools in your writer’s arsenal. Use it.

As you can imagine, I beyond excited. The first ideas for Crossover came to mind in 1997. The book was published in 2007, with Dark Fire published in 2009. Now I’m working away on the third book. Having this happen is a wonderful validation of all the work I’ve put in.

It goes to show you – dreams can come true!

I’ll keep you posted….

I will admit that I marvel at authors who can write 10+ books a year. Granted, they are usually writing in a different genre than fantasy fiction, but still, I doff my hat to them.

My books take a long time because there are many storylines – the hallmark of a good plot – and I have to make sure I’m not dropping or breaking any “threads” as I write. Then, there’s checking and cross-checking to make sure the books are seamless, and readers don’t find errors.

As an example, just as I was about to sign off Dark Fire after a final read, I suddenly had an urge to check the description of Feyree Lord Andamion in Crossover. Good thing! It seems small, but in Crossover he had a silver crown; I had slipped and changed it to gold in Dark Fire. Fixed that!

Such details are important (I think) and help create the escapist experience of joing the feyree in their realm. And my reviewers agree. Already Dark Fire has received stellar reviews from three publications, and I’m looking forward to earning more. Those are the things that make working 2000 hours on a book pay off.

1. You will not write the great American novel on your first draft. If you expect this of yourself, you will fail. First drafts are just that – a core dump of your ideas. Remember that your book (or story) is like sculpting a statue - you rough it out, and then go from there.

2. Take the time to rough out a plot. You may or may not follow it, as the book takes you where it wants to go. But it starts to help you crystallize your ideas and gives you a preliminary target.

3. Be patient. Writers are their own worst enemy, expecting perfection, forgetting perfection takes time. Instead, learn from your writing process, discover your strengths, and weaknesses, and build on that.

4. Only you can motivate yourself to write. If you’re waiting around for somebody to get you going, you could be waiting forever. The imperative to write, to create, must come from within, not without.

5. Finally, believe in yourself, even when others don’t. Taped on my computer, I have a one of many favorite quotes:  B.C. Forbes said, “History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heart-breaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats.”

Dark Fire will bring you to Nonetre, home of the fire daemiani and ruled by Tvashtar Tizon, once a feyree, but now? Will the Feyree Council meet with him and listen to his petition?

For Danai, Joson, and their podmates comes life after Krisalys, discovering that flying is a bigger challenge than they imagined,  joining their Guilds… but strange sendings and mind-melds are disrupting their lives…

Enter Forgeroch, the heart of Lalach, deep within the high mountains of Nonetre…

Journey to Revelstoke, high seat of Feyree, where Lord Andamion and Lady Atelai will face the greatest challenge of their rule…

If you’d like to be notified when Dark Fire is released, just send us an email, and we’ll put you on our list.

Dark Fire… the Krisalys Chronicles continue… Summer of 2009.

So if you’re a cat lover, check out: Loving Our Cats: 101 Best Stories and Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover’s Soul, to see some of my other work. Both books are available at Amazon.

Enjoy!