Tag: Editing

New, Shiny, Distracting…

Are you a writer?

New… Shiny… Distracting…

Do the above words describe the creative process?

These are your ideas: beautiful as a newborn, shiny as gold bars and eating up your brain space.

I understand. No, really I do. You see in the world of a writer, there are an INFINITE number of distractions from your writing. Many of them are in the world around you. In your pocket. In the browser window below. This article you’re reading. But the one distraction you cannot avoid is…

Your mind.

Dun dun DUNNNNNN.

So, I’m most certainly not here to tell or teach you how to control it. In fact, a writer’s mind can be focused but something always pops up. Maybe this isn’t everyone. But for me (and I know a fair few others) we write one idea and during that time we stumble across a mine shaft of shinier ideas.

My ideas hit me whenever and wherever. Just the other day I thought a great start to a novel would be the initial meeting between a master assassin and his unsuspecting contract. As the assassin holds the knife to his/her throat, the contract wakes up and stares into the assassin’s eyes, almost as cold as his heart. Suddenly, the assassin too has an epiphany. “You’re already dead. Your family wanted you out of the picture. How do you feel about a career in killing others?” With a silent nod, the contract agrees to the terms and the pair make off into the night. Thus starts the protagonist’s journey into becoming an assassin, while planning their own revenge on the side.

So my point? I don’t really have one. That’s the best part about this blog post… I’m just letting you know you’re not alone. I have yet to overcome this huge challenge. I have curbed it through excessive planning, but that is as close as I’ve come.

On a side note, Jefferson & The Magician’s Curse underwent its first reading by my lovely partner. Sadly for me, she wore a poker face for the whole thing (which lead me to believe she was forcing herself through it) but finally she gave me her verdict. She liked the story and characters (gave them an eight out of ten) and her only issue was she felt there wasn’t enough description (which I have always had an issue with balanced description). She gave my mechanics a five or six out of ten because she could tell when I had been writing while trying to stay awake and she wanted more description.

Still not as bad as I expected for a first draft. I now need her to ask questions about the things she didn’t understand and any gaps that I missed (because I know everything about it… it’s all in my head with the voices). Although a few things I will need to do are break it up into chapters as well as add in some more description. I need to get back into reading as well (it’s been too long) and I fear my writing mind may be ready to write, but the tools of the trade are a bit rusty. The good news is I have a ton of books to read that have come through in recent weeks (my obsession with Barnes & Noble’s Collectible Editions runs too deep) and any of them would simply sharpen my skills a bit. 

Although there is something odd about knowing you have written something longer than some popular fiction. I did a few quick word count searches on the internet and found out where my book sits. This list includes some of my favourite novels as well!

  • Harry Potter & The Philosopher’s Stone (J.K. Rowling) = 76,944
  • The Crystal Shard (R.A. Salvatore) = 86,000 (ish)
  • The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien) = 95,022
  • Jefferson & The Magician’s Curse (ME!) = 98,657
  • Game of Thrones (George R.R. Martin) = 284,000 (ish)

So all in all, not too bad for my first completed book. Once I add in some description and cut some of the sections I wrote while only half awake, I should probably be sitting comfortably over 100k at least. But as always, it’s not the quantity, it’s the quality.

Anyway plot points have begun to rear their heads for Book Two, Jefferson & The Eternal Mana. Should be an interesting write considering I have some things to look back over. There may be an event or two pushed from the end of book one and into book two. I had an idea of how I wanted book one to end so I may go back and revisit that ending as I felt it would have been more powerful. We will see once I further edit book one. Anyway, what are you ladies and gents working on out there? How’s it going? I feel like I’ve already lost touch with many of you out there! Let me know what’s happening and I promise I’ll get back to you ASAP! After all, I have tomorrow off!

Hack And Slash: Editor's Edition

In my last post, which was too long ago, I wrote of how Ray Bradbury inspired me to begin writing 1000 words every day. I took his advice, wrote with zest and gusto, and before I knew it I had a short story that is roughly 60 pages on the iPad in eBook format. Well played Mister Bradbury, well played. But before I ran out in front of the reality bus that is the world, I decided to gather some critiques both biased and unbiased. Thus far it has been both exciting and disappointing.

The story I wrote was nothing of ground breaking, in fact, it roughly bordered on cliche. The tale I told was a story of one girl’s plan for revenge. Her father had been taken from her family when she was eight, and for ten years she trained. Now, on her eighteenth birthday, she leaves her home in the Southlands to find the swordsman who killed her father and claimed the title of greatest swordsman in the entire realm. The plot had been done, but it was the characters that I hoped would allow it to shine apart from the rest. I was working on honing my craft rather than story depth and intricacies. I believe I allow enough foreshadowing to be interesting and my dialog is hopefully not dollar store drivel. But those are my opinions!

I then decided to post my story on a website for critique as I couldn’t find a writing group nearby. I would rather a “first session free” kind of deal as if I didn’t find it helpful, I wouldn’t want to pay for ten sessions upfront. Despite my objections, I found a decent website that allowed posting, editing and critiquing. It was free too! I decided this would be the beginning of my editing journey. I had gone over my story a number of times and felt ready to unleash the internet hoards upon my very heartstrings.

I submitted it and waited.

I waited some more.

Finally an email prompted me that a review had come through! Fantastic!

Overall rating: 6/10. *Insert the sound of my heart shattering here*

I took a deep breath and stared at the screen. A six? Really? I decided not to believe the reviewer. However as my eyes drifted across his review and the inline comments, I realised I was being petty. I took his criticism and made the changes accordingly. Thanking him for his time, I also informed him that I had made the edits and hoped to hear from him again. It stung, having something you wrote judged harshly. Although at least it was above five!

My anticipation for another review had me nearly frothing at the mouth. I then discovered a button for a kind of “forced critique”. The system works so that they assign you four reviews, and then they owe you three. I needed something to do anyway and they guaranteed the reviews within twelve hours, so I figured, why not? I read, edited and critiqued a story that was well written and the plot was decent. Hey, this wasn’t so bad I thought.

Then, it drifted downhill.

The next story I read lacked impact… or grammar… and sometimes spelling. I felt terrible rating the story a three as it was hard to follow with so many errors. I gave as much information as I could without trying to sound as though I thought she was terrible. I mean after all, if she was a ten year old writing that story, I’d be impressed! But it still needed a lot of work. I reviewed and edited two other stories and then checked my email.

My reviews had arrived.

As I eagerly checked each one, I felt as though I had made huge strides from that first review! It felt great to know that I had already improved upon my work, my confidence was soaring, A nine! A ten! Wow! I was getting some great reviews and productive feedback! One review left, let’s see…

Overall Rating: 3/10.

My heart skipped a beat.

Umm, I had made progress. Or so I thought. As I read through her comments, I could feel the very soul being drained from my being. I felt I had a grasp on writing, or at least the english language… why was she so harsh? Did I critique her? Her daughter maybe? I stared dumbfounded at the screen. Ouch.

I finally snapped out of my daze and decided to write back to her. She stopped reading my story halfway through and it felt like a slap in the face. Imagine your puppy running up to a stranger, just wanting love, attention and maybe even to play, and that stranger lighting your dog on fire. I picture that is close to how I felt. We writers put our hearts on the line every time we write something and ask someone to take a look at it. It’s as if we are trusting them a piece of ourselves.

She was kind and later apologised for her review. She admitted she was tired and under time constraints, and said she’d get back to it eventually. I felt vindicated, but at the same time I still took some of her harsh criticisms and turned them into edits as well. I mean, she wasn’t entirely wrong. The dog should have been on a leash, but still no reason to set him on fire.

Since then I’ve been aiming for a goal of 20 individual critiques, since the three I’ve had many fantastic reviews and criticisms. Strangely enough people were asking for more detail into the setting, which from when I started writing I always had the problem of giving too much. I suppose I have gone too far in the opposite direction now, but that is alright. I’ve been considering publishing my short story through Lulu and into the iBooks store to get more feedback on how I’m doing. The critiques on there would be more general than from fellow writers, but it has been overall a great experience for once I eventually begin penning the one novel to rule them all.

Anyway if anyone out there has read the story, fantastic! I’d love any and all feedback (grammar correction, spelling, plot holes, things you loved, hated, etc…) the email is at the top right!

If you haven’t, click here to give it a go! (Please note, the layout is a bit brutal now as their text editor on the website is crude and simple. It will look much better once I put the correct formatting in!)

Writing Across Platforms: iOS to OS X and Back Again

Alright ladies and gentlemen, I am writing this at an ungodly hour and I am hoping to the gods that my brain holds up just thirty minutes longer. Of course, that will make it four in the morning, but nevertheless. Tonight I come to the masses like a prophet, yielding undying knowledge upon the lesser men and women. Well at this point in time, I’m most likely the crazy one. However! In my never ending search for the “Ultimate Writing Dream” I have finally crafted it. Not the app I tried desperately to make, however a completely (for now) free solution to which I pass on to you.

Do you own a Windows PC? Or Phone? Or Tablet? Or all of the above?!

May you also own an iMac? Or iPhone? Or iPad?! Perhaps you also own all of those?!

As for me, I am living in a household which I am sure makes the local power grid flicker when we turn on our setup. My girlfriend and I both own iPhones (3G and my 3GS), we have an iPad 3 and I am writing this on an iMac. Before this I was a Windows man and my laptop now sits in the shadows, the ever so dull hum of its hard drive methodically pleading for attention…

This brings me to my point… I am a writer! And I wanted to be able to work on the same story from every device I own! I am also a nerd! Thus, I will make it so!

My original idea was a USB stick, which failed at iPad and iPhone. The Wiki, however, is still on there.

Idea number two was the App Store! After getting my iPhone I became a free app well… promiscuous gentleman. I would download anything and everything… no matter how dirty or ridiculous it was. Especially if it was free! After searching across both the OS X and the iOS stores, I found a few which used iCloud and Dropbox. Most of these solutions costed money, which Apple has ruined me… I mean made me thrifty. Anyway, I didn’t want to risk even a dollar if the app wasn’t what I wanted and didn’t work across all of my platforms. Enter XCode.

XCode is Apple’s development system and after tinkering around for a bit had an app that would allow you to simply write in it. Three years of a Computer Science degree and I couldn’t come up with more, I suppose if I had actually taken the time to learn Objective C, I may have gotten further. I have other ideas for apps, so I’ll save the frustration of coding for another day.

Now, for you patient people out there, I came to a solution I used awhile ago and simply never checked up on.

Google.

The team over there have been busy innovating the world and I haven’t been paying much attention. I mean, I use Chrome and sync all of my bookmarks and open tabs across my five devices, why pay attention?! Now Google was working on some kind of drive thing… Whatever. Also this is not a fancy method, you will get a free editor with a selection of choices, but the smartphone site is minimalist.

Now, pay close attention to the wonderful process here. If you want to write some stories or anything across all of your devices, I hope this helps!

Step One:
First off, sign up for a Gmail account. This is your passport between all of your devices.

Step Two:
Download Google Drive for your main computer, at this point you can also download it to your tablets or smartphones (for me, they have a Google Drive App in the iOS app store).

Step Three:
Once they’ve all downloaded and installed head to your main computer, ensure all documents you create are also editable offline. That’s grand for your desktop. For the mobile ones, only select the file you want to take on the go for editing offline. This just keeps everything from checking for updates all the time and focus on the one you’re working on.

Step Four:
Realize that Google Drives only allows you to edit things offline on your smartphone. What I mean by this is you should always have a Google Docs window open for use. I have Chrome on all of my devices, so I leave one Chrome tab open on each device for this. Otherwise on iOS you can make use of the Google Drive app’s “Open in Safari” button, but you still need to be able to load the document editor before losing your wireless connection.

Step Five:
Watch on your desktop as what you write on your mobile transfers over to the Google Drive version! It updates in real time (with lag) But you can edit your documents wonderfully like this! Enjoy! Also to note that if you want to be able to edit completely without preloading the Google Docs page, they do have a Docs App on the iOS app store but I won’t link it because it appears to be getting some bad reviews.

Some notes on this method:
Number One – Offline means you can edit this without an internet connection.
Number Two – Offline on anything mobile will require an internet connection to load the Google Docs Editor, Unless you have preloaded it.
Number Three – It organizes by time edited. If you edit on your iPhone while in airplane mode, then make edits after that on your iPad, they will be arranged properly once everything is synced.
Number Four – On your iPhone, DO NOT use the desktop site for Google Docs. You might be tempted to for word count, but just don’t.
Number Five – You can use the iPad for the desktop version of Google Docs. If you are using the on screen keypad the words will go straight under it. Use a bluetooth one if you like the desktop site.
Number Six – Buy a cheap roll up capable bluetooth keyboard, they are rechargeable and portable. Also if you spill coffee on it, it will survive.
Number Seven – You’ll notice on your mobiles the font changes from each person editing. Don’t fret, on the desktop it all looks the same.
Number Eight – Use Chrome + Google Drive Web App to be able to use their document editor offline. (That should be higher, just going in the order of my notes).
Number Nine – Chrome for iOS will report it cannot handle some of the features for the desktop site of Google Docs, it is right on for iPhone but the iPad only has the keyboard issue.
Number Ten – When you get published because this worked for you, be sure to toss me out a thanks as well as Google!

Okay, so now it is unconscious o’ clock and I have a full day of writing to do tomorrow! If you have any questions, please feel free to email me or comment here. If you’d be so kind, please pass this along if you read it! I’m hoping to help as many writers as I possibly can and the more feedback I get the better I can fine tune this article as well as my own writing! Thanks for reading and now…

Zzz…