Tag: editing

A new version of an old scene

~ Elaine Jeremiah ~ 30 Comments

Welcome to WIPpet Wednesday!  I hope you’re all happy and well. 🙂  I’m OK except my husband has given me a cold – isn’t that nice of him? – and I seem to have it worse than he did. :-S

Anyway I’m not exactly at death’s door and since I’m currently not working – in between jobs, but I am looking for another one, honest! – I’ve had plenty of time to be working on editing Reunion of the Heart.

And all I can say is ‘I get it!’  I finally get what other authors mean when they say they’re so into their stories, it’s all they can think about and the characters are so real to them!  I’m rewriting many of the scenes between my two main protagonists, making it more romantic.  I’m enjoying it so much! 😀

My characters are really coming alive; it’s a cliche but it’s true.  I’m thinking about them a lot, especially the two MCs and imagining exactly what they look like.

As I said I’m rewriting a lot of the scenes between my MC and the guy she ends up with – I’m also cutting scenes and adding them. So it’s not simply editing, it’s rewriting whole passages!!  But yes I’m really enjoying it and – because I’m quite slow at all this – I hope to publish Reunion of the Heart by the autumn at the latest.

It partly depends on work; if I get another job soon, if I have time to work on my writing without being too tired etc.  So we’ll see. But at the moment I’m making the most of the time I’ve got to spend on my writing.

So on to today’s scene.  I may have shared part of this scene in its old version before.  For today’s date, I’m giving you 14 lines .  To give you an idea of what’s going on: my MC Anna is at a party her two friends from her school days have thrown to celebrate the opening of a new shop of theirs.  Anna knows that the guy who bullied her at school, Will, is going to be there, but she’s decided to go anyway.  This is when they see each other there:

‘So we meet again,’ a voice said in her ear. 

Anna turned around.  It was Will.  As she looked up at him, she was struck again by how tall he was and his looks were certainly arresting.  He was dressed simply yet smartly in black trousers and a deep blue shirt.  His clothes accentuated his figure in all the right places.  Annoyed with herself for thinking like this, she saw that he was smiling at her. 

‘I’m here with Melissa,’ she found herself saying.  ‘She said you’d be coming with Cathy.’  She shut her mouth as if to stop it from saying anything else without her volition.

‘So you knew I was coming, but you came anyway?’ Will was looking directly at her, his expression serious but his lips curving upwards slightly in a half smile.  Anna didn’t reply for a moment, feeling her stomach fluttering incomprehensibly.

‘Um… well… yes,’ she said finally.

You too can take part in the wonderful weirdness that is WIPpet Wednesday by posting on your blog anything you’ve been working on writing-wise lately.  Then put your details here.  Oh, I should add that your offering needs to relate in some way to the date.

Thank you K. L. Schwengel, Queen of the Flying Monkeys, for being our gracious hostess. 😉

Update on ‘Reunion of the Heart’

~ Elaine Jeremiah ~ 7 Comments

I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather these past couple of days.  Nothing is majorly wrong, I’ve just got a bit of a virus and it’s making me feel low.

The upside of that is although I haven’t felt well enough to do strenuous things, I have felt up to doing some work on Reunion of the Heart, my WIP.  I told you here that I’ve had it back from my beta readers, who were all fabulous BTW.  My mum has offered to proof read it for me when I’m done, which is great as she’ll do it for FREE!! (And I know she’ll be amazing at it!)

At the moment I’m going through it, alternating between changing minor words or paragraphs that my betas have flagged up, and changing parts, even rewriting them.  It’s a lot of work but it’s going so well!  I mean there’s a lot to do, but I’m loving just getting back to writing after my false start with the job that didn’t work out for me.

There is something with regards to this story that I’m in two minds about.  It’s how much romance during the story I should have between the two main protagonists, and how much I should leave till the end, especially as there’s a third party involved – it’s a bit of a love triangle!

Now I must say that this is a bit of a rhetorical question.  At this stage, having had the novel back from the beta readers, I don’t really want too many more opinions saying ‘do this, don’t do that’.  In a way I’ve kind of gone past that stage.

But I’m still interested to hear, from those of you who write romances, how much romance you have between the hero and heroine in your love story before their tale is resolved at the end?

Thanks as always for your comments.  They’re much appreciated. 🙂

More editing…

~ Elaine Jeremiah ~ 6 Comments

The new improved version of my novel Reunion of the Heart is starting to take shape.  I’ve been plugging away at it this evening.  I’m changing a lot, with the notes from the beta readers, but the story will basically stay the same.

I’m finding the editing challenging, in a good way.  There’s a lot to do and I just hope what I’m doing doesn’t take me too long as I’d ideally like to publish it by the autumn at the latest.  That may sound like ages away to you, but I tend to work fairly slowly so it may actually take me that long!

It is interesting going through the comments from the beta readers and seeing what they have to say, as well as making some of the changes they’ve suggested.  One thing I wondered when I finished the first draft, which they confirmed, is that it wasn’t romantic enough.

So I’m working on making it more romantic.  Because that’s what it is – a romance.  It may be my way of telling a romantic story, but clearly if I want to write a romance, it’s got to be just that – romantic!  It certainly is a lot of fun spicing things up a bit!!

I’m wondering if any of you have had that problem?  Have any of you found during your first draft (or even beyond), that your romance wasn’t romantic enough, or that there weren’t enough thrills in your thriller, or that your version of history wasn’t accurate enough for your historical novel?

I’d love to hear your experiences.

Return to WIPpet Wednesday

~ Elaine Jeremiah ~ 21 Comments

Hi all.  No, I’m not dead.  I’m back!  I started a job, then quit it.  You can read about that here.  But anyway, I’m here once again for WIPpet Wednesday which I’m really pleased about.

I’ve done something different for this week’s WIPpet.  Seeing as I haven’t done any proper writing for absolutely AGES, I thought I’d do what a couple of my beta readers of Reunion of the Heart suggested, and write an interview with one of my characters.

They felt if I did it would give me a greater insight into her personality and make her a bit more… 3D!

She’s a lesser character in the story, but still important.  When my MC Anna was at school with her, she felt betrayed by Rachel when Rachel decided to side with their mutual friend Lizzie in an issue concerning a boy.  I should say that this WIPpet doesn’t have anything to do with today’s date and it’s quite long.  I’m grateful to you all for taking a look. 🙂  Here it is:

Me:  Hi Rachel.  Thanks for agreeing to this interview.  It’s great to finally meet you.  I wasn’t even sure what you looked like, not having a photo of you.

Rachel:  Thank you.  I must say I was looking forward to meeting you too.  Anna has told me a great deal about you.  She says it’s thanks to you that she’s happy in her life.  The way you directed things… well she says you’re just the best author of her story she could have hoped for.

Me: Aw thank you, that’s sweet.  Anyway, I haven’t got long for this interview as I’ve got another appointment soon, so we’d better crack on.  I’m just gonna cut to the chase:  Why exactly did you side with Lizzie at school when Anna was having such a hard time?

R: (taken aback) That’s a bit below the belt don’t you think?  And didn’t you explain my motivations in the story? (folds her arms indignantly)

Me: Not entirely no.  I just wrote that you told Anna and Melissa you’d been friends with Lizzie for a lot longer than with them and so you wanted to be loyal to Lizzie.

R: (closes eyes and leans back in chair) Isn’t that enough information for you?

Me: Look, I just want to hear your side of the story properly.  I want to understand you better as a person.  You are an important character to me after all.

R: (opens eyes, leans forward, nods) OK.  But it’s complicated.  (sighs)  I didn’t join Mayfield Secondary until I was 13.

Me:  Really?  I didn’t know that.

R:  I’m not sure Anna and Melissa know.  I can’t remember if I told them.  It was a long time ago, so they may never have found out.  The reason I moved school is because I was being bullied at my old school.  I had a hellish time – I was so miserable I ended up being suicidal.  The one person who stopped me from topping myself was Lizzie.  I’d known her for years.  We’d been friends since primary.  But then when I went to secondary, I managed to get a scholarship to a school called Grove Grammar.  Lizzie went to Mayfield so we ended up seeing each other only at the weekends.

Me: That must have been a tough time for you.

R: Tell me about it.  Like I said, it made me want to end it all.  And I was only 13.  So anyway, when my parents sent me to Mayfield, things began to get better for me.  People were friendly, and of course I got to hang out with Lizzie again.  I began to feel like a normal person.  (pauses) It’s such a shame that Matt and Will were so cruel to Anna.  They really singled her out for harsh treatment; I’m not sure why.

Me: Maybe they were trying to get her attention?  Perhaps they liked her?

R: (smiles wryly) You’re the author, you should know.

Me: True, but I’d like to hear what you think.

R: I honestly don’t know.  If they did like her, they had a funny way of showing it.  Anyway, I thrived at Mayfield.  I got good grades in the exams; I got on well with everyone.  Getting to know Anna and Melissa was like the icing on the cake.  And then it went sour.  Lizzie fell for Matt, I’m not sure why, and it put the kibosh on our friendship with Anna and Melissa.

Me: So why exactly did you side with Lizzie?

R: (annoyed) You’re really pushing this, aren’t you?  Like I said, Lizzie had been very good to me.  She was my best friend and she’d stuck by me my whole life.  I wasn’t about to give up that friendship in a hurry. (pauses) Having said that, I do regret my decision.  Anna was my friend too and she was going through hell.  I should have been there for her. (clears throat) And there was another factor.

Me: What?

R: I didn’t have enough confidence in myself to do the right thing.  I was a coward, so I sided with Lizzie and let go of my friendship with Anna and Melissa.  I’ll always regret that.

Me: I think you’re being a bit hard on yourself.  School is a hard time for everyone.  You’re friends with Anna and Melissa again.  Anna’s forgiven you, hasn’t she?  So maybe it’s time to forgive yourself for what happened.

R: (stares at the table, twisting the ring on her finger and nods) You’re right.  (looks up) What else would you like to know about me?

Me: Just what your life is like now, if you’re happy?

R: (nods) Yes, I’m very happy.  I have a new boyfriend called Oz and he’s fantastic.  I see Lizzie, Anna and Melissa all the time.  We’re going to go to Rome together in the New Year.  I’m really looking forward to that.  Things are great.

Me: Oh, I’m so pleased to hear that.  That’s such good news.  Well I think we’d end it there.  I mustn’t be late for my dentist’s appointment.

R: Dentist’s appointment?  Poor you, sounds bad.

Me: (shrugs) Should be fine.  Anyway, hope to see you again soon.

R: Yes, I hope so too.

As always I’m grateful for your comments.  If you would like to take part in the Wonderful World of WIPpet Wednesday, all you have to do is post some of your writing on your blog.  Really it should relate in some way to today’s date –  I cheated in that respect!

Once you’ve done that, post your link here.  Thanks once again to K. L. Schwengel for hosting. 😀

 

 

My Monday Blog

~ Elaine Jeremiah ~ 13 Comments

Well I’ve been absent from my blog for a while – over 10 days in fact.  The reason for this is that within the space of two weeks I started a job and left it.  Why you might ask?  Without going into too much detail, the answer is that I wasn’t the right fit for it; it overwhelmed me and I would have been working alone a lot which wouldn’t have suited me.  There’re other reasons too which I won’t go into.  I was given an initial two sessions of training for it, but it didn’t feel like enough.

So after a lot of thought over the long Easter break, during which I was really stressing out about what to do, I decided to work the first week and then bow out.  Thankfully the manager of the office was very good about it, which helped me.  And she was probably glad that I was being honest and giving up now, rather than hanging on for ages, getting more and more stressed and therefore that much less capable of doing the job.

Suffice to say that my writing has really suffered.  But today I’ve gone back to it with gusto.  And I have to say I’m LOVING it!  I’m currently editing my second novel, Reunion of the Heart, and going through the comments which I received from my beta readers.  There’s a lot to do but it’s so much fun!

It feels so good to be back to normal after having a really stressful week last week and feeling like I was only just holding it together. I’m feeling like myself again and I fully intend to return to WIPpet Wednesday this week, though I may have to improvise a bit with what I post as I haven’t written anything new for ages!!

I hope you’re all well and not suffering too much from stress!  Have you had a similar experience with a job?  Please do share your thoughts.

Till next time…

 

Not doing WIPpet Wednesday – working

~ Elaine Jeremiah ~ 6 Comments

Yesterday I started a new job.  I’m working as the administrator for a small charity here in Bristol (UK) called Bristol Disability Equality Forum.  The charity seeks to improve the rights and treatment of disabled people.

It’s early days for me yet, but so far it’s going well.  It’s a lot of work to do – hence me not doing WIPpet Wednesday.  Also I haven’t really got anything to share as I haven’t done much writing this past week or more!  I’m currently either doing further planning on my school-set story or I’m editing my previous story which I hope to publish later this year.

So it’s exciting times for me and I hope once I’ve got into the swing of things with my job that I’ll have more time again for writing and blogging – maybe even a bit more tweeting.  Who knows?

I hope to catch up with you all (virtually) again soon. x

Editing, editing, editing…

~ Elaine Jeremiah ~ 20 Comments

So as the title of this blog post suggests, I’m editing my latest novel, Reunion of the Heart.  But I was wondering – what’s your method of editing?  Do you go chronologically through your story and edit that way or do you do what I’ve been doing and kind of flit about from passage to passage?

The thing is I had eight wonderful beta readers read my novel and comment on it for me, so I’ve got eight different opinions on it already, which is great.  But I’m wondering do I change every last thing that every one of my beta readers has suggested, if even if they might contradict each other?!

Or do I take elements of what each of the beta readers have said to me and follow my intuition, change what I feel from the general opinion I’ve been given is right?  So far I’m doing the latter, but I’m not sure that’s the right course to take.  It’s so confusing!!

But actually so far, having said all that I’m not doing too badly with it.  So wish me luck!  Oh and any info on how you approach editing gratefully received. 🙂

When to send to beta readers?

~ Elaine Jeremiah ~ 22 Comments

Question

I’ve just finished my first round of editing my novel.  I’m wondering when would be the best time to send it out to beta readers (who I’ve yet to find!)?

Do I go over it myself as many times as possible before I get to that point?  Or is it better to send it out now and get the feedback I so desperately need as soon as possible?

There’s a certain element to my novel I’m not sure about.  Not going to say what it is but I definitely need some guidance.

So I’m asking all of you who’ve written a book (admittedly this is my second novel but I’m still unsure about this) what you’ve found to be the best time to send your novel out to be beta read and get those all important second opinions?

I must confess I’m not great at making decisions.  Also, if you all tell me a million different things, that’s going to be even more confusing!  But I’m willing to take the risk with this cos I really need to know.  And even if you don’t have a definitive answer, I’d be interested to hear your stories about editing and how it all went for you.

It’s definitely an exciting time for me having the publication of my second book on the horizon less than a year after the first one was published. 🙂

I’ll keep you all posted on my progress.  Book number three is in the planning stages… (BTW it’s not a series!!)

 

 

 

Well I’ve finished my book… kind of

~ Elaine Jeremiah ~ 10 Comments

This week I hit a new milestone on my journey as an author.  I finished the first draft of my second novel which I’m calling ‘Reunion of the Heart’.

It’s been a lot of fun to plot and then write and I’m looking forward to sharing it with the world. 🙂  But as the title of this post suggests, it’s not finished yet.  Those of you who are writers will recognise that I  need to edit, edit, edit before I release it.  And of course I need to have other, dispassionate eyes on it so that I can make it the best that it can be.

So at some point I’ll be putting out a request for beta readers, but NOT YET!  There’s lots that I need to work on by myself first.  I may well tweak scenes and/or insert scenes.  I realise that as a story it does need a lot of tightening up.  I feel like there’re potentially a lot of holes in the plot, things I haven’t caught yet in my writing process.

Yes, I know that’s where beta readers come in, but I want to finish reading it all through first as my initial edit.  I want to make sure I’ve ironed out any obvious mistakes before I (fearfully) hand it over to be read by other people for the first time.  That’s a scary process, for sure – handing over your precious WIP to be scrutinised by other eyes for the first time.

If you’re a writer, I’m sure you’re familiar with that feeling.  You desperately want your WIP to be read by other people… and yet at the same time you’re scared ****less at the thought of other people who aren’t you reading and potentially being critical of your work.

But it needs to be done and so I’m working towards that point when I can finally hand it over to some generous people to read and make comments on.  I want to be the best writer that it’s possible for me to be.  I feel I’m improving and growing in confidence as a writer all the time.  As I’ve said before, the online community of writers has transformed the way I write and my confidence in myself.

So thank you once more.  And I’ll keep you all posted as to my novel’s progress.

By the way… are any of you working on editing?  How are you finding it?  I’d love to have your comments. 🙂