Good Advice on Writing Part 2: Editing

Good Advice on Writing Part 2: Editing

"Sit down and put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it."

--Colette

In this week's foray into "Good Advice on Writing" I stopped on the above quote about editing. On our weekly FOCUS ON FANTASY ROMANCE PODCAST the ladies of the podcast and I interviewed an editor. Our conversation got me to thinking about editing and about the difference between thinking your work is good, and knowing it is. 

This is a double edged sword, in my opinion and one that many authors impale themselves on every day. At heart, writers are artistic beings with creative egos. We need to know that other people think our work is good. All too often, we are certain our story is the best, the most imaginative, the most perfect. It hurts us when our readers don't flock to us with reviews and words of praise. The publishing author has to get past this need for vindication, and understand that reading is subjective. Our vision of the "perfect" story is often at odds with our technical ability to create it. 

This is why we need editors! Editing comes in as many shapes and forms as writing, but in general there are three basic types of editors and they each provide important services to authors to help us create the best book we can. 

Content Edits:  When an author writes a first draft there are often "holes" in the plot, meaning that the story has aspects that don't actually make sense. The content editor can spot these issues, and point them out to the author. They also look for discrepancies in the story, like the main character had blue eyes on page 2 and brown eyes on page 98. Content edits are extremely important in creating a cohesive, streamlined story that the reader can easily understand.

Line Edits: Line editors are what most people think of when they think of "editing". Line editors look for spelling, grammar and punctuation errors as well as word repetition and overall sentence structure. Line editors can pick up on passive voice (telling, not showing) and on poor story structure. 

Proofreading: Proofreaders are the last line of defensive in editing. This is the last step a book goes through before it hits the presses. Proofreaders are reading for any typos (now instead of know, etc) and any errors the other two editors may have missed in their passes. Proofreading should catch those last minute boo-boos that might catch a reader's attention. 

It is the writer's job to write the story, the author's job to know when it needs help, and the editor's job to help! So, in this instance, I would agree with Colette. Writers need editors! We may study craft, may be astute at picking up errors in other people's work, but we are often the most blind to our own mistakes. Meet your editors. Know your editors. Love your editors. USE YOUR EDITORS! They are resources, just like your PC, your thesaurus and your imagination. If we want quality stories, we need quality editing. 

Writing Prompt Wednesday: A World of Music

Create a World Based on a Genre of Music

Meet Author Lia Rees:

Psytrance

You better watch your step, you're in Psytrance World.

As you walk onwards the scenery shifts.

Something flashes on the horizon but it's gone the second you look at it.

The beat is constant - it resonates into all your senses,

permeating your body with a constant pulse,

turning you into an instrument.

The synthesis of everything is centred in you,

and you can barely grasp the million billion connections.

They scintillate like constellations.

You have become a kaleidoscope.

There is a direct pathway from the spinning of the galaxies

to the electric signals in your cells,

and you are standing here in Middle World

with a prime position to observe them both.

And the beat pulsates with your brainwaves in synchronicity.

Lightning flashes through your neurons.

Sounds both organic and unearthly fuse and make a twisted kind of sense.

The lens of the universe is focused on you. This is the source, the nexus, the eternal flux.

Psytrance.

About Lia:

"Supposed" to be a book designer and cover artist (FreeYourWords.com), Lia Rees insists on playing with such disparate things as T-shirt design and jewellery making. Her first book, But I'm Not Depressed, is a memoir about brain injury. At the time of writing, she is planning a poetry collection titled Electric Blue, to be printed by herself in blue ink. She has a liking for music, open-source culture and anything to do with space. She is a multipotentialite - look that up - and Myers-Briggs xNTP (still working out the first letter). The American anarchist fiance has not become sick of her craziness yet.

Links:

http://www.LiaRees.com

http://www.facebook.com/LiaWayward

AR's World

Singing the Blues

I rode the yellow broken-down bus, painted with rainbows and smiling faces. My head, leaning against the windows, I listened to the squeak and squeal of the under carriage. Beyond the cracked glass I saw empty fields dotted here and there with discarded couches and old refrigerators. The grass was dead and brown, the sky a heavy, leaden gray. 

The concrete was broken, dilapidated buildings leaned sideways as shutters flapped in the wind. No one walked alone in these neighborhoods, even during the day. 

A speck of red caught my eye, and I leaned forward, interested to see what made the splash of color in the otherwise drab surroundings. Growing from the corner of a crumbling corner building I saw a flower. One tiny red bud, reaching for the sky. It made my stomach clench and tears gather in the corners of my eyes. Even here, there was something beautiful. 

Do you like Writing Prompt Wednesday? Leave a comment and tell me what else you'd like to see on the blog!

Author Spotlight: New Preorder

Author Spotlight: Maiden of Fire by

Ishabelle Torry

Readers! I am so excited to announce that my friend, Ishabelle Torry, has a new book available for preorder. 

This story is dear to Ishabelle's heart, and it means a lot to her personally. It's a fabulous historical fantasy romance called

Maiden of Fire

Ramona Douglas doesn't believe in destinies or prophecies. At least, not until she is catapulted through time after a catastrophe hits Earth. Now she must come to grips with her place in a world where kingdoms are controlled by those with proper birthright, and light and dark majik are at war. Assigned her protector, the fierce Lord Jalomar makes her body burn with desire while his arrogance and steadfastness to duty boils her blood. 

Jalomar has never met a more wayward woman than the enigmatic Ramona. Her defiance knows no bounds, leaving him both reeling with anger and longing for her affection. When she refutes him, and the ancient prophesy that ties them together, Jalomar's duty comes at a price he may be unwilling to pay. 

This gorgeous cover was created for Ishabelle by cover designer Winter Bayne

Maiden of Fire is currently available for preorder. 

Find it 

HERE

When Ishabelle Torry stole Warrior’s Lady by Madeline Baker from her mother’s glass “no-no” cabinet at the age of fourteen, she had no idea it would be the start of a love affair with romance that would last a lifetime… so far! She loved the escapism from the real world, the strong and relatable characters and the powerful concept of love conquering all. Even having her scorching books confiscated at school couldn’t cool her passion for them and she swore that one day she would also write the kinds of stories that kept people turning the pages no matter where they were!

Find Ishabelle 

HERE

CyberPunk Defined

CyberPunk: What every fan needs to know

Cyberpunk: a genre that focuses on the juxtaposition of a world filled with high technology and a crumbling/breakdown of  the established social order

Have you ever heard the term 'cyberpunk' and you don't know exactly what that means? Does it intrigue you and yet confuse you a bit at the same time? No worries! We'll dig down deep to the root of the genre and figure out what it's all about.

First of all, cyberpunk books, movies and stories have elements of science fiction that focus on major advancements in technology that should change the world for the better. Medical tech, communications, transportation and finances are just some of the ways that technological advancements might change the way society operates. The unfortunate aspect of cyberpunk that makes it more dystopian than not, is that these advancements are usually the harbingers of the end of democracy, humanitarianism and social order in general. The glaring differences in the glamour of high tech and the dysfunction of broken society makes cyberpunk an often evocative storytelling platform. 

Have I seen cyberpunk and I didn't know it? Well, sure! Let's look at some popular books or movies that could be labeled cyberpunk, but very rarely are.

Though often labeled horror, Brian Lumley's Psychomech Trilogy has so many cyberpunk traits that I don't think it can be ignored as a reading choice for cyber fans. A blind man is taken in by a seemingly well-meaning man who believes in the powers of ESP. Using high-tech machinery, the blind man explores the powers of the human mind and everything that exists beyond. A definite must-read.

BUY THE BOOK

Initially appearing as a serial in Young Magazine in 1982, Akira is a manga by Otomo Katsuhiro that takes place in futuristic Tokyo. The story features Tetuso Shima, a gang member in  Neo-Tokyo after the devastation of World War III. While riding in the ruins of the city he has an accident and latent psychic powers are unleashed. Set with a backdrop of political and scientific upheaval, Tetsuo discovers a mysterious man named Akira. 

BUY THE MANGA

I had to add this movie here, because it's one of my favorites. When I first watched it I had no idea what genre the movie fit into, I just loved it. 

Set in an alternate 1999, during the craziness of the Y2K hysteria, a cop-turned-street hustler discovers a conspiracy to cover up the murder of a rapper named Jericho One by police. The cop's evidence comes in the form of data disks that record life through a person's eyes. "Jacking in" to the disks is like a drug in this version of 1999 LA, and our cop is an addict. 

WATCH IT HERE

So now you have an idea of what types of movies, books and manga are cyberpunk. There are many other examples, of course, but you get the idea! Now that you know what makes cyberpunk special, it's time to get out there and discover more in this genre. Lovers of dystopian, post-apocalyptic, and SF novels will surely find something to love in cyberpunk. 

If I've interested you in cyberpunk, give my newest novel REDSHIFT a try. Redshift melds the elements of cyberpunk with romance, adventure and a bit of time-travel just for fun. Redshift is currently available for preorder and it will release on March 27th. 

A mysterious wormhole appeared on the edge of the Nevada desert in 2018, and Dr. Rand Hazen and his team were first on site to study it. When the wormhole went into flux it took the town and Rand's lover with it. Rand followed her, desperate to find her, and found himself in the far, far future in the last days of humanity. 

PRE-ORDER REDSHIFT HERE

Writing Prompt Wednesday

Authors Share 10 Minute Free-Writes

Every author is different. We all look at a bouquet of flowers and see different aspects of the blooms. The same goes with writing. So, in the spirit of experimentation, I wanted to see exactly how different we authors really are. I put up a writing prompt and asked several writers to sit down and write for 10 minutes on the idea. Here are their offerings! Enjoy!

The first author up is Paul Schumacher. Find out more about Paul here.

Two thousand warriors drew their swords for a war they would not win. The roar of their determination was deafening … and yet it would all be in vain. The watcher drew back from the crystal that allowed him to see through space and time. The fates of these warriors were directly linked to the end of the world. This end was his present and it was a terrible one.

The watcher was of the last generation. No more children were born in his world and none could see how to fix the problem. The elders had withered. The enforcers were dead. No one was left to stop the watcher from meddling with time.

The watcher stared at the writings of his life and contemplated the events he might change. So many events led to this present and he could not change more than a few moments. Should he deliver a message to a king? Should he alter the course of an arrow by a few degrees? Should he try to influence the decisions of a woman whose lack of action got an important general killed before his time?

Any of these events could change the future … but where they enough? Would any of it matter? Time was a fickle beast but it had momentum. Certain events in history were so massive that they created a type of gravity in the time stream. The watcher knew he could change a few events but fate might bring the event about in a different way. Assassinate the evil dictator and the next one does the same thing under a different name and face. Save the general from the arrow and he chokes on his dinner later that night.

The watcher looked back at the crystal sphere. Two thousand warriors was a lot of manpower. That many soldiers could push hard against the great boulders of historical events. All they needed was a push in the correct direction. The watcher took a deep breath and let it out slowly. With one last look at his notes, he waved his hand.

A little girl’s face appeared in the crystal. With a light tap he knocked over the glass on her nightstand. She screamed as it spilled onto the ground and then stood there looking guilty as she was scolded. The family dog trotted over and began to lick up the spilled drink. The dog then let out a howl and died.

“There,” the watcher said with a grin, “the assassination failed. Now let us see what has happened.”

Cynthia Sax is the talented author of one of my favorite genres: cyborg romance! Find out more about Cyn here.

Two thousand warriors drew their swords for a war they would not win. Every sunrise, they would fight until they couldn’t fight anymore. Other warriors would take their place while they rested. Then they would fight again.

It was futile. The alien invaders had unlimited warriors. They pushed the humans back a couple of strides every planet rotation. Soon they would reach the settlement.

And everyone Jerrica loved would die.

She wiped the sweat from her forehead, screamed her frustration into the wind, and swung her sword with both hands, decapitating her opponent with one strike. The alien’s round bald head rolled to the right, his antennae twitching. Another alien stepped forward.

Jolie Mason writes SciFi with heart. Her books are always full of epic feels. Find out more about Jolie here.

Two thousand warriors drew their swords for a war they would not win.

That was how the old stories always began with the tragedy at the fore, and they reminded Nischa of her father. He’d tell the story of his conscription into the merc guard at the old age of sixteen, and he’d tell the story of his first battle. 

She’d been there for his last. That last breath draw deep and shallow in the effort to keep it just a little longer. He’d fought so she’d spent the last hours of his life begging him to give up. 

An old soldier should never die in bed, he’d say. Oh, it had infuriated him so that he had, in fact, been fated to die in bed. 

That was before Nischa had inherited the burden of her brothers and sisters greed and stupidity. They wanted this. They wanted that.  It was dawn on the day after his fushwa when she’d thrown a pack on her back and headed for the tram.

She sat in the tram car watching the cities turn to farms and the farms back into cities, and then she got to the station and looked up. Sadly, the stars were hidden behind a curtain of pollution and glare, but she knew they were out there. And, she was going to get to them one way or another.

My Contribution:

The world was a glorious place. Ashoh raised his eyes to the sky and watched Mother Falcon fly free and fierce over the battlefield. There were times when Brother Wolf howled in the dark of night that Ashoh felt afraid, but today he felt... alive.

There were thousands of men surrounding him, each one armed and full of pride. Ashoh looked down at his own weapon and checked it once again. There could be no mistakes.

"You look worried, Ash," his friend Josiah said with his usual grin. Josiah was full of swagger and unimpeded hubris. Sometimes Ashoh felt envious, but usually he was annoyed.

"I'm as good as any of them," he reminded his friend. "I know I can beat them."

"Beating them isn't good enough. We have to slaughter them all if we want to call this a real victory."

Ashoh remembered the last time he'd waded in the blood of his enemies. It was a powerful feeling. "I just hope they know that we're the stronger group. It's always sad to watch them fight to hang on when they should let go."

"The flag has been raised." Josiah took his place beside Ashoh and they opened the 3D rendering of the battlefield on their wristlets. "How's your battery level?"

"Full. I checked the code again last night. We can win this."

"Do you remember when men came with knives and guns and actually killed each other?" Josiah shook his head as anticipation made his whole body tremble.

"Dying is no longer necessary. We fight our battles in cyberspace now, and the winners take home the prizes." Ashoh wanted control of the only cybertech company that could rival his own. He looked over his employees again, mentally cataloging each one. They would attack the other company while he and Josiah worked their way past security with the intent to plant their virus, ultimately destroying the other group for good.

"How many people does Grayson have?"

Ashoh looked at the other group, lined up across the field. "Two thousand, give or take."

"He's about to drop the flag." Josiah grinned at Ashoh and placed his hand over the start button on his wrist. "Ready?"

"Ready." Ashoh looked at Grayson's employees with a bit of regret. They didn't know it yet, but two thousand men drew their swords in a war they could not win.



If you enjoyed these free writes, please stop by the authors' pages and check out their full length works. I hope to have a few more Writing Prompt Wednesdays in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

Happy Reading!

Steampunk Costuming: Creating A Character Via Their Clothes

Creating a Character Via Their Clothes

There are many ways to introduce a reader to your characters. Many times, the way your character looks is one of the first things that a reader learns. A favorite way to tell a reader about your character without actually telling them anything, is to describe traits about your character with the kinds of clothing they like to wear. For example, if you tell a reader that your character wears a crown of daisies in her hair, that she prefers brightly colored skirts that float and twirl around her ankles, and that she wears her Birkenstocks year round, your reader can automatically infer a few things about your character. Creating a character via costuming is especially fun to do in a steampunk setting. Why? Because steampunk is an amalgam of Victorian and Gothic clothing, both romantic and practical and especially fun to play around with.

Let's play with some steampunk costuming. 

Character A: Character A is a man of genteel upbringing, who rarely musses his coiffure. You'll never find him with a scuff on his boot, or a stray hair upon his coat. I would dress Character A in the following clothes, to tell my reader about him without ever uttering a word.

Purchase a Coat Like This Here

The Callahan Frock Coat in charcoal says my character understands fashion, and practicality. 

Purchase Boots Like These

Our gentleman, with his highly polished boots, would have no issues doing a bit of boisterous fighting, should the need arise.

No gentleman of worth would leave the house without his hat. Something expensive, but sensible, without a lot of pomp, I should think. His attitude has all the pomp required!

His walking stick is practical, but obviously handmade and quite expensive. Character A is swordsman, so something sharp might be hiding in there if you twist the handle just right!

Find These Items Here

Character B: Character B is a woman of wit, sophistication, and learning. She understands not only her worth, but the worth of her opinions. Raised in a home that placed value on education, Character B is the woman you might find dancing the night away at the ball, or just as probably, toiling away in a laboratory. 

Purchase This Dress

Our lady's daywear would include dresses of both fashionable taste and practical thinking. The single-breasted dress offers her functionality without the loss of beauty in the stitching and design. 

No lady would have a complete wardrobe without a ballgown. This bowknot gown is stunning, and leaves our lady's arms free (in case she needs to wield a weapon in a fight, of course). 

Find this dress here

 Our lady would never go out without her baubles, all of which are beautiful, but are they also deadly? Character B likes to keep secrets, you know....

Find these items here

So there you have it. We've taken 2 blank slates and we dressed them, and in doing so, we've created characters that our readers have gotten to know WITHOUT EVER TELLING THEM A THING! Clothing is important to who we are, it tells people a lot about our likes, dislikes and our inner nature. By dressing your characters with specific traits in mind, you can create the idea of a living, breathing person in the mind of the reader, giving them a more immersive and encompassing read.

Thanks for joining me today to discuss Costuming for Characters. I look  forward to talking more about this subject when we delve into other types of punk! Deco, Cyber, Atomic, Bio....what would THOSE characters be wearing?!

Stay tuned and we'll get to play dress up with them, too!

Writing Prompts, Build a World Using Just One Object

Writing Prompt

Build a World Using Just One Object

So, in our bi-weekly writer's meeting, we discussed building worlds. This is an important aspect of writing for authors using secondary worlds (ie: fantasy, scifi etc) and we thought it deserved a deeper look. At the start of the meeting we were met with a challenge:

Build a world using your description of an object from the point of view of three different characters.

Wow! Tough, right? So we set our timer to 15 minutes and began our task. I'd like to share with you the world I built below. Read it over, and then I'd love to hear how you think I did in the comments below!

THE WORLD

A simple thing, really. Dionysus stared up at the glint of the metal in the night sky. These strange and primitive beings seemed to worship the light cast down from its surface, but he was far too intelligent to believe in gods. It was a satellite, orbiting this planet and capturing the rays of the twin suns, throwing them down to the surface in brilliant pillars of light. How long it had been up there was anyone’s guess, but if it had come from this planet it had been sent into its orbit thousands of years before the cataclysm that had cast these people back to the stone age. He tapped his ocular implant and honed in on the object of fascination for so many. Perhaps it was something useful after all.

The man-god on the cliff watched the sky in wonder. Or was it fear? Shayba only knew the stories that Ya-Ya told him. The thing in the sky was the eye of a lost starfarer, watching over them and punishing those who got too close to its light. He crouched low to the ground, his spear clutched tightly in his fist as he watched the man-god’s eyes glow eerily red. Ya-Ya said he was to guard the man-god, but guard him from what? Nothing in this world or the next could harm a god. Unless… Shayba looked up at the Eye. Would it turn its gaze on the man-god and burn him to cinders for daring to look so closely?

Ah. The planet had a visitor. Verayne tapped her lip with her finger as she studied the man on the surface as intently as he studied her ship. What did he think of her vessel? Did he find it as lovely as she did? Her mission to this planet was nearly over, her catalog of its inhabitants and terrain was almost complete. It had been her profound pleasure to watch these people as they evolved under the watchful eye of her telescope for so many millennia. Never before had she encountered another advanced species in this galaxy. So, then, where had this stranger come from? Her computer beeped, signaling that he was attempting to scan her ship with some type of tech. A smile curved her lips as she took a seat and directed her teleportation module to his coordinates. Perhaps it was time to meet this traveler. 

Steampunk: Beyond Victorian

STEAMPUNK: BEYOND VICTORIAN

Episode 1 of All Things Punk, a weekly post about PUNK - what it is and why it's AWESOME

Guest Post by: Jeffery Cook and Katherine Perkins

Victoriana and Steampunk are often considered interchangable. However, even aside from the major difference between the stories and aesthetics of steampunk and the real technology, sociology, and colors of the actual Victorian era, steampunk can go distinctly beyond that period.

To begin with, steampunk, even at its most basic level, is a significant departure from the real world. Steampunk draws a great deal of its aesthetics not from the real Victorian era, but from the sepia toned photographs we have of the time. When people say steampunk now, there tends to be thoughts of a lot of browns and sepia tones. At least one common joke is "Steampunk is what happens when goths discover the color brown." In truth, the real Victorian era was extremely colorful, if not gaudy. The world was discovering all sorts of new dyes -- and they wanted to use /all/ of them. One of the commonly cited inspirations for the look of steampunk was Disney's 1954 movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which made the choice early on to base its look on old photos, rather than historical accuracy.

The second consistent point of steampunk, outside of look, is the technology. While there are a lot of types of steampunk, the gadgets, goggles, mad science, and general spirit of invention and technological paths not-taken are also at the core of steampunk. Most of the technology that really defines steampunk, though, wasn't invented in the Victorian era—improved upon and/or proliferated during the reign of Queen Victoria, yes, but predating even her birth.

Steam engines (1st century AD, made much more functional in 1698), trains (first functional model in 1784, and used to transport coal out of mines on 300-yard tracks long before it was practical for long distance travel), steam boats (first functionally used in 1783, but theorized and patented as early as 1729), theories of flight (functional balloons and navigation go back to ancient China, but there were functional, manned flights in balloons, and a lot of ambitious theories on advances in flight by 1783), and even things that would become foundational to rocketry and space exploration (Erasmus Darwin, 1797) -- all had their foundations noticeably before Victoria. Similarly, the clockwork that so influences the look of Steampunk dates back to ancient times in both China and Japan, and to centuries before the Victorian in Europe.

One way of reframing some of the ways we think about steampunk eras is by discussing what some historians call the Long 19^th Century, which spans from the late 1700s until the First World War. This includes three different reign-based eras: The Regency (the time of Jane Austen), the Victorian Era (the time of both Charles Dickens and Jules Verne), and the Edwardian Era (the time of Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess and The Secret Garden). While easily confused with each other, they have their own rich cultural aesthetics to draw on and can equally inform Steampunk settings.

We ourselves have an emergent Steampunk series (Jeff as the primary author, Kate as the series editor) set in the Regency era—at least, as we'd call it. In the timeline of the Dawn of Steam series, George III never needed a legal Regency, as he met with an ...unfortunate airship accident. But the style of writing in the letters and journal entries that make up the epistolary work is what the real world calls Regency.

Additionally, with all of the reimagining of the world already present in steampunk, it's not surprising that a number of steampunk worlds might depart further from history, and certainly aren't recognizeable as Victorian. The Foglios' Girl Genius is a good example, with its remarkably different European governments and society.

Similarly, as many steampunk works delve into fantasy (such as Gail Carriger's Petticoat Protectorate series, with its vampires, werewolves, and other paranormal elements), others go well beyond Earth. This trend is well supported by one of the very first steampunk works, Keith Laumers Worlds of the Imperium from 1961. In modern times, works like Disney's Treasure Planet, or Lindsay Schopfer's The Beast Hunter take steampunk off of Earth entirely, while maintaining the look and feel of 19th-Century sci-fi.

These are all distinct ways the steampunk genre spans and can span beyond being Victorian.

AUTHORS:

Author Jeffrey Cook lives in Maple Valley, Washington, with his wife and three large dogs. He was born in Boulder, Colorado, but has lived all over the United States. He's contributed to a number of role-playing game books for Deep7 Press out of Seattle, Washington, but the Dawn of Steam series are his first novels. When not reading, researching or writing, Jeffrey enjoys role-playing games and watching football.

Katherine Perkins lives wherever the road of a Visiting Assistant Professor's family takes her, her husband, and one extremely skittish cat. She was born in Lafayette, Louisiana, and will defend its cuisine on any field of honor. She is the editor of Jeffrey Cook's Dawn of Steam series and serves as Jeff’s co-author for the YA Fantasy Fair Folk Chronicles (beginning with Foul is Fair) and various short stories, including those for the charity anthologies of Writerpunk Press. When not reading, researching, writing, editing, or occasionally helping in the transcription of Braille songbooks, she tries to remember what she was supposed to be doing.

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