Lady Dae Writes

            Lady Dae has been doing a little too much editing, well more so proofreading, because this blog has gone on the backburner while I got my novel ready for the world to see. If I don’t stop now, I’ll never stop. But I’m always talking about knowing when to stop, but never when to keep writing.

            A fellow writer was talking about how she’s going to go back and rewrite her novel after realizing it’s not up to par. Well, how do you know if that’s the decision you need to go with? It’s not an easy decision to come to. I rewrote the novel that I’ve been proofreading all week, four times over before I finally put a pen in it and decided it really is written as best as it can be.

            What were the problems that warranted a rewrite before? Well for one, in the earlier two versions of my novel, there were a ton of scenes that shouldn’t have been there to begin with that made my novel clunky and messed up pacing because it was obvious I was just trying to fill in a bunch of words. The next and most obvious problem was that of the plot. Not only was it slow, but it wasn’t strong enough. The events that were happening were important overall, but the they way they were happening weren’t interesting because it was bogged down by dialogue and info dumps that took away from what was going on in the name of trying to keep a word count.

            In my first three drafts, I had the problem of unimportant characters and situations. To rectify the problem, I blended characters who had similar roles. That also helped me keep better track of the story.

            Another problem I had was that the story took too long to get into, and that remained to my fourth draft, when after having not looked at my first novel in years, I dusted it off, saw how much I had improved and rehauled it. I alluded to what the story was for three chapters before I got to it and the more interesting tidbits. At this point, I said to hell with reaching a certain word count. I needed a nice and tidy novel.

            Another problem that had to be rectified was the fact that I hated one of my main character’s names. Then there was the complexity of the story and the plot. Over the years I’ve perfected my ability to have fairly simple plots with a good sense of complexity, so I incorporated that new skill into my writing. Then there was the fact that I went and learned all the general rules of formatting and grammar, and made sure I proofread the entire novel from beginning to end, even the scenes that weren’t my favorite. I got rid of has, have, and had where I could, learned the technicalities of parts of speeches and carefully analyzed words and their diction to make sure I was getting across what I intended for the sake of clarity.

            All in all, it took years to get this story in shape, but as a result I can now write a first draft without most of these typos and only have to worry about a typo here and rewriting a scene or two there.

            The point? If you notice that you have these problems and not the kind that can be solved once you go back and edit through, you might consider salvaging what you can and rewriting the rest. Again, this is up to the call of the writer. Better to figure out something needs to be rewritten early on than to ship it out to agents and figure out that you have one hell of a problem in the form of the mess that might be your problem.

This came to me as I was working hard editing my novel, preparing it to be the best novel it can be so that one day it can be published. Anyway, as I was editing I came across this sentence.

            Now this is a more mild example of what I’m talking about, but it makes a point. In any case, this wasn’t the first time I came across this in my novel. And after a while, I began to realize I didn’t need both in any of the sentences I used. So let’s go over what these two words are.

            And and so are two of you basic seven conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) and are pretty much used to join two phrases together, whether they be dependent clauses or independent clauses. In formal writing, you don’t use these words at the beginning of a sentence, but this is creative writing. Regardless, I’m talking about the use of these words together in the middle of a sentence.

            I realized after a while of editing and my English major brain got to thinking that these two words together is totally wordy. I mean people use them in every day speech without even thinking about it, but they mess up the reading flow of my novel. Why?

            Well, let’s look at the meaning of these two words.

            And is a word that means something along the lines of in addition too, together with etc. So it joins two things that otherwise might not be together and puts them together.

            So works just like it, linking two parts of a sentence together, but it’s kind of used between cause and effect, typically meaning when used as a conjunction (because it can be an adverb) and as a result.

            So that means I need to asks myself this question? Why in the world would I need to put and and so together in one sentence? I either need one or the other if I’m not using so as an adverb?

            As I write this, I realize why it is so important for us writers to have a basic understanding of the most basic grammar rules unless we have the cash to pay someone to do it. We can’t properly edit without it and it’s not the bog stuff like plot holes and misspelled words. Those are pretty obvious, but I don’t think I ever would have understood why that sounded so redundant and silly to me if I didn’t have a basic understanding of conjunctions and was actively reading my novel for flow.

            Anyway, this was just something I noticed as I was editing.

            I have to say that it’s not very hard to answer this question. I remember when I first started announcing that I wanted to be a writer. I used to get all kind of mean comments like, “Well you better prepare to be poor,” or “You better have a backup plan.” Now when people ask what I plan to do with my English degree or with my life, I don’t tell them about my aspirations as a writer. I just tell them I plan to edit novels or something like that. I don’t need that negativity.

            But it got me to thinking, why do I write? Well it’s certainly not for the money because if that were the case I would have stopped when that person, who happened to be a close friend mind you, told me I was going to be poor.

            Well, I was raised under the belief that if I do what I love I will be successful and I’ll find a way to make money. Most importantly, I’ll be happy.

            Happy? How can you be happy and not have money. Let me put it like this, when I told my mother I wanted to be a writer or editor and major in English, she was not happen. She thought I was wasting my intelligence because I have the brains to be a doctor or scientist. I hate science, but I’m great at math. But I’ve always been good at telling stories and I enjoy writing stories and making other stories better.

            Over the years, she’s tried to help me cultivate all sorts of talent because I’m the kind of person who can put little effort into things and be really good at it. Music? Not for me. Management and financing. No way. Teaching. Not in this lifetime.

            You see I’m good at those things, but you couldn’t pay me enough to sit at a desk and count money or teach. I just hate doing it. But I’ll write and edit all day for free just because I love doing it and that’s what it boils down to.

            I love to write. And it didn’t matter whether I was good or bad at it. Because I enjoy it, I put the time into it to improve my craft and make it the best, not just do it well enough to make money. And that’s the kind of motivation needed for this career. Anyone can write a novel, but not everyone has the will to do it and persist, even after being reject hundreds of time.

            My point? I’m going to continue to write just like I have been doing for the past ten years because I want to write. The law of the universe is that you get out of something the effort you put into it and with this much effort, I just know that one day, all these hours writing and on forums is going to pay off.

            I couldn’t have agreed more with Ann on her coldfirewriter blog when she went on a rant about why YA writers better not preach in YA novels because teenagers hate being told what to do.

            I agree with that so wholeheartedly I decided to do a post on it, but not just on why YA novels shouldn’t be preachy, but why novels shouldn’t be preachy anyway.

            I’m twenty years old now, nearly twenty-one. So I’m kind of well out the YA stage. Regardless, I still do read some YA. I also write it. But I also find myself reading things with older MC’s, MC’s who are really getting ready to face life. Now here’s the thing. Unless I pick up a novel with the intention of learning something new or wanting to learn someone else’s point of view, I don’t want to feel like I’m being told what to do and having views imposed on me. Save that for the dieting books, and the how to books.

            Why? Because people hate being told what to do and how to do, adults too. That’s why when writing religious novels, and people may hate me for saying it, the writer really has to be careful about how the message comes across, that it’s not preachy about the matter. Now that doesn’t mean that your novel can’t have a theme or underlying message. But that shouldn’t take precedence over the story you’re trying to tell and when it does, then there’s a problem.

            A novel’s primary purpose if for entertainment, to tell a good story, which means there has to be a conflict that needs to be resolved and everything that has in that novel has to propel the story to that end. In other words, if getting your message or theme across is interfering with the story, there’s a problem and you risk angering the reader because you’re focusing more on preaching to the reader than you are on telling us the dog on story.

            Those books make me throw them across the room. I’ve read them. The underlying message of a story I read recently was this; love conquers all. But damn it when that message started interfering in what was happening in the story and the pacing, I stopped reading it. I skipped to the end to see if the conflict was resolved (and it really was a cop out because the writer had to forget what the conflict was) and put it away. It had a really good thing going at first. But after the first twenty times something threatened to break the couple apart and “love conquered,” I got the point.

            Now that doesn’t mean that I’m a cynic about certain things, or that I’m not open minded to ideas, but things like that are best when they naturally flow with the story, not when they sound like the sole purpose of a scene or chapter is to preach. That’s an info-dump.

            My point? Write the story and if you can weave the message in without making it sound preachy, good for you. If not don’t force it. Your readers will like you better and appreciate your story better. Besides, it’s the stuff your readers notice that you didn’t mean to be symbolic that make the writer smile, not because they got the message you were trying to teach.

            Well, first things first. I started school this morning, and I’m still cringing over the fact that I just spent a hundred dollar on a book that’s not even an inch thick and I probably won’t get thirty dollars back for. Anyway, as I was sitting bored in a class on the first day because all we did was an introduction, I got to thinking about an email I got in reaction to one of my fics, particularly the emotions it invoked. As a result, all I’ve been thinking about for most of the weekend is how I want people to react to my writing.

            When I say this, I don’t mean a character does something and it just outrages the reader. Of course I’d like it if that happened to, but what I really want is for my writing to touch people on a personal level.

            Now that doesn’t mean I want to write some deep intellectual literary story, because that’s not my goal. I write fiction. The point of fiction is to entertain and because of that, my mother was not happy when she found out I wrote fiction because she’s big on consciousness and holds the belief that there’s enough entertainment in the world.  But fiction can be more than that. And I realized that from the email I got.

            So while my primary goal is to entertain, my secondary goal will be to touch the hearts the people who read my novel. Make them really able to somehow relate to what’s going on and I mean that universally. I mean I want the reactions of the characters in the novel to mirror so closely the reactions of people in real life that people will say that this situation or issue, fantasy or no, mirrors what they went through or took them back through those emotions so that they felt the emotions coming off the page as though it were real.

            No I know, I know. Fiction is fiction and fiction is primarily to entertain when you write novel, particularly in my genre, and I understand that. But can’t fiction be entertaining and mirror the emotions of real life. Just because I write a scene or a story about a woman being pregnant or giving birth, does it mean I have to start with the dramatic “Oh no! My water broke!” or that the pregnancy has to be the funniest thing or the most dramatic experience ever? No. I hate those types of scenes, that dramatizes or makes a big deal out of things that shouldn’t be and underwhelms things that should be a little more dramatize.

            And it’s not just about the drama, it’s about capturing the emotions that come with reaction to a situation. Not just happy, sad, angry, etc. And I realized, that’s my goal. That’s the standard I shoot for when it comes to realism, even though I write fantasy.

            So yeah. Some people are going to say that’s a hard feat because money is in entertainment when it comes to writing novels. But who’s to say I can’t entertain and appeal be able to really touch on the emotions of human beings while doing so. I can do both. I know I can in fact and still appeal commercially I think.

            Anyway, just a random thought while I’m waiting for my next class. What was I thinking when I decided to take two classes with a three hour break between them. NTS: Bring workout clothes rain, hail, snow, or shine.

            So I’ve been helping critique a lot of these things lately online and for some reason it made me really want to examine this thing. The Query.

            Okay, so we pretty much know what it’s supposed to do. It’s supposed to make the agent you’re proposing to want to read more. It’s that simple, but it’s so much more than that. DO we really know what these things do? How they actually work? What they can say about us and our writing without us meaning to do so?

            So let’s start with this. You write a query. You’re excited because you think your book is up to par and there’s just no way an agent can say no to this. It’s good. You can be the next J.K. Rowling and you already see you title in lights on the big screen in Hollywood. And now, with your fresh off the presses query, you’re so excited you just have to send it to an agent.

            I’m telling you don’t send it to an agent. I know. We’ve all made the rookie mistake of getting too excited and ahead of myself. I’m included. But let’s take a step back.  A query is like a skill test. You’ve got 250 words to summarize your novel. 250 words? That’s short. Exactly. Which means this, you’ve got no room for mistakes and typos in this. It takes exactly five minutes to edit 250 words and if you can’t send in a page with no mistakes, then what’s that say about the amount of errors in your novel?

            I’ll give you a typo or two, maybe even three. But things riddles with typos, basic spelling errors, grammar, and capitalization errors are going to turn an agent off because if the writer didn’t take the five minutes to clean up the query, then why in the world would they take the months it may take to clean up the novel? The assumption? The novel is filled with errors.

            So you clean up the grammar. Good to go? Wrong? Let it sit for two or three days and come back. In the case that you’re still in love with it, post it on a critique forum and see what some of them have to say. Nine times out of ten, there’s a clarity issue in the query? Why? Because we’re too close to our novels.

            We know the story, but we’re trying to sum up the story to someone who’s never read it before, just like the people who have never read it in a critique forum. Sure the summary makes perfect sense to us, but that’s because we read the novel. And I know some of you are like, well duh? Who better to know if it makes sense or not than the person who wrote the novel? Well, people who haven’t read the novel can spot confusing things, things that need to be clarified for the simple fact that they haven’t read the novel and are trying to get an idea through your query.

            But I know. Forums are intimidating. I won’t post mine either, but I frequent the query forums and critique other queries so that I can recognize it in my query. You won’t believe how many times I see something and then I go back to review my summary and I’m like, “Oh! That’s the same thing I just commented about in someone else’s query!” It takes practice though and a critical eye, a harsh critical eye for self that is. Not everyone can be honest with themselves though. So these forums help.

            Why do we want to make sure that things are clear in a query? Well a confusing summarization in a query can mean two things. Either the writer is too close to the novel or the query is revealing a glaring flaw in the novel, that being that the novel is confusing. There’s a difference between complex and confusing people. Complex we can do. Confusing? Not so much. So when an agent reads a confusing query or even just a confusing first sentence. The first thought is, “Is the novel and plot of the novel as confusing as this query?”

            The solution is to pick out your main conflict and explain why it’s a conflict and what may happen as a result if that conflict isn’t resolved using a few sub-conflicts and sub-plots that come directly out of the main conflict and main plot to help illustrate your point. Don’t stray from that. If the query has focus, that means the novel has focus.

            Okay so you think you’re ready to go? You’re not. Now go back in and look for receptiveness? Why? The readers aren’t stupid. You don’t have to say the same thing two of three times for us to get the picture and if you’re repeating stuff in your query, it makes me wonder how many repetitive scenes, conversations, issues, words, and phrases there are in a novel.

            I read a story like this. I understood that they were trying to make the point that the couple was willing to fight for their love. But damn it after the first ten times someone told them they shouldn’t be together and why it was wrong and they were still together, I got the damn point. And I mean it literally repeated like this in the story: someone didn’t like the relationship, someone tells them, the couple tells them off, the other someone tries to interfere, the couple servers ties. And it repeated like this and here’s the thing. You would think people who witnessed this would back off and get the point, but they didn’t and people kept doing it over and over.

            That’s redundancy people. It appears in phrases, scenes, words, dialogue, and even characters in the sense that two characters are playing the same role unneeded and redundancy in a query can mean redundancy in a novel.

            Now the query is tight. Can you send it off now? No! Now that the query is done, see if it interests you. The query can be solid and do its job. Portray clearly the story you’ve written. The question is this. Is the story interesting? Is the story solid and worth reading, because if not, that means you may want to rethink that novel. Someone in the forums I frequent had that problem. The query was solid. The story…not so much.

            Alright then. The story is worth reading you’ve determines. Time to send it off right? Sorry, but now that you’ve spent all this time on your query, go back and do a reread of the novel. Why? Because like I said, the query is a test of your skill and if you had to fix the above problems in your 250 word query, you may have to fix the above problems in that 75k plus word novel. I’ve seen it before, heard experiences of this happening. Some people faked some dynamic queries and what I mean when I say ‘faked’ is that they wrote stellar queries that weren’t an accurate portrayal of their skill and that can kill a writer’s chances. At least with query you can go back, revise it, wait six months and send it back out again, but once the agent gets that novel and their underwhelmed, that’s it. That’s the novel with all the typos and redundancies and all kinds of problems. Some may let you edit it. Some may not have the patience. Better safe than sorry though. Go back through the novel again please.

            Now you can send it. After all that you can send it. But do you see why the query is so important? The query is the first impressions and while we were probably all taught that everything is not what it appears, first impressions matter. No matter how good that novel is, if the agent doesn’t like the query, they’re going to assume they won’t like the novel.