Tag: editing

Blog, Books, Self-publishing, Writing

What happens after ‘The End’

by NatalieLeave a Comment on What happens after ‘The End’
What happens after ‘The End’

Last week, I delivered my fourth novel to my publishing team…two and a half months after writing the words: THE END . It was a long process, with late nights, bleary eyes and times when the edges of my mental health were pressed, but it’s done, and I’m so proud of it. But the truth is, getting to The End is only half of the story – there’s a lot more to come before your book is anywhere near ready! If you’re an aspiring author, currently writing your book or simply want to understand the publishing process, this is for you.

First things first

Congratulations! Getting to the end of your story is a massive, enormous achievement. There are so many people who want to write a book, but much less who actually do. And of those, there are even less who get to write: THE END. So give yourself a pat on the back, take a few days off, celebrate and let your mind recover. If you have a publishing contract then the next part will be taken care of for you, but I will say that if you’re self-publishing, investing a little time, effort and in all likelihood money, is absolutely necessary. I’m talking about editing.

Oh yes.

Editing: Do you really need it?

The answer is yes, you do. At least, you do if you want to actually make a career out of writing and earn some money and reputation with it. You’ve written your novel. You know it inside out. You know every singe character, what makes them tick, what they’re afraid of, how they develop over the course of a story, what they look like, their mannerisms – everything. And you also know your storyline inside and out – every curve and shock and revelation and trajectory. You know all this because it has come from the amazingness of your mind, not to mention because you’ve spent countless hours tapping away on your keyboard to alchemise your ideas into story.

And this is exactly the problem.

When you’re so close to something, you can’t see the places where there might be gaps or discrepancies, or things that just don’t make sense. While it might be obvious to you that Jack is controlling in relationships because he grew up without any control over his life at all, it might not be clear enough for a reader who doesn’t know more about Jack than what’s written on the page. Editing is necessary because it’s a fresh pair of unbiased eyes who can help tighten up your story, make sure pace is maintained and shape it to be the best that it can be.

Step 1: Self-editing

I know that by the time you’ve written your novel, chances are you’ll need a break, which is why I said: celebrate and take time off. Before you send it to your structural editor, it’s a great idea to have a thorough read through yourself first. Take care of discrepancies, move things around, spellcheck – whatever you need to do to make sure your editor is getting the cleanest version they can so they can get on with their job of making your book even more amazing.

Step 2: Structural edits

This is the part that always has me quaking in my boots, because it’s the first time anyone aside from myself will read the manuscript. A structural editor is there to check for plot holes, tighten up character development, make sure the pace is right and most of all, ensure the story makes sense. I personally had three rounds for this, which meant, the editor sent her comments back to me and I had two weeks to make my edits, and then two weeks break, a further two weeks for more edits followed by one week break, and then one last final week to get everything in order.

What the edits look like will be individual to your book. For me, it was a lot about actual structure for All We Left Unsaid (working title), because it follows two protagonists. We also had big discussions about whether or not Ivy needed to die (I fought for her dying because a, I believed she should and b, can you imagine the amount of storyline changes if she didn’t?!). The second round was about character fine-tuning -making sure the things they did made sense and were in line with the story. The third and final round was culling – fifteen thousand words worth. Of course it hurts to lose certain chapters and scenes, but in the end, it’s all about having an engaging story, and absolute trust that editor knows their stuff!

Step 3: Copy and line edits

Once you’ve got your structure in place, it’ll be read through by another editor (or a team of them!), this time to check for time consistencies, spelling errors, grammatical errors and so on. If you’re self-publishing and you want to skip structural edits (which I don’t advise you do!), then this is the absolute minimum you want to publish with. Spelling errors are going to be in your novel. It’s guaranteed. Making sure that someone other than you is there to fine-tooth comb them out is absolutely essential.

What comes next?

While your edits are being made, there’s the book cover design process, finding a title, your marketing strategy and back cover blurb to work on. Even if you have a publishing contract, you’ll still be involved in this, though to what degree will depend on your publisher. How long this takes will also depend on your own circumstances but, for context, All We Left Unsaid was handed in, post structural edits, in mid April. It won’t be released until November. The process can feel long but it’s necessary to make sure that all those steps are made.

So there you have it – a peek of what happens when you get to The End. I’ll be posting updates about All We Left Unsaid as we go along, so stick around for that by dropping your email address below and signing up to my mailing list (and you’ll get a free copy of my short story, Pull).

I want this!

Natalie Martin is a bestselling Women’s Fiction author with a passion for empowering women through story. She writes about love, life and the tricky parts inbetween. All We Left Unsaid is her fourth novel and will be released in November 2021.

Self-publishing, Writing

The End!

by NatalieLeave a Comment on The End!

Woohoo! Yesterday, I wrote the end of Heart Shaped Bruise *happy dance*. It took a massive last push and I had to sacrifice a night out and the Yoga Show at Kensington Olympia to do it, but I did, and it’s done. Unfortunately for me, the easy part is over.

Tonight, it’ll be sent off for a structural review and then the pain of rewrites starts. I’ve also got to start thinking about my cover and, as it stands, I’m fresh out of ideas. Ho hum.

Nobody ever said writing was easy!

 

Self-publishing, Writing

The joys of editing

by NatalieLeave a Comment on The joys of editing

Editing sucks the big one. Most writers know this. It seems never-ending. But, as annoying as it is, it just has to be done. There are so, so many people self-publishing and despite the success of a huge number of self-published books, there are still a heap of people who look down on the principle of self-publishing. Why? Because anyone can do it. Anyone upload something, slap a cover on it and charge money for it – whether it’s the best book ever written or not.

Of course, what makes a good book is subjective. There are some high profile books I’ve read because they had a huge amount of buzz around them and amazing reviews, and yet, I hated them. Nobody will always like everything. But, aside from hating the story, or the characters, or the setting, it’s far, far, far worse to have someone hate your book because it’s badly edited, if it’s edited at all.

I cannot stress how important editing is. I thought I’d had it covered, but one thing I’ve found out is, the more eyes that pass over your book before you send it out into the world, the better. Because bad reviews based on editing cut much deeper than a bad review because they didn’t like the book for what it was. I had friends (writers and non-writers) look over mine, as well as an actual editor, and there were still errors – missing words, that kind of thing. And while some people might overlook that, you’d best believe there are a heap of people who won’t. After pulling my hair out, I think I’ve finally got there.

So, you’ve slogged away, turning that spark of an idea into a story. You’ve actually managed to finish it too, but what now? First, understand what editing actually is. Because it’s more than having someone look over your book and red circle it.

DIY

I cannot help but edit, and I cannot help but do it as I’m going along. Obviously, you’re going to be the first one in the process, but by the time you’ve written THE END, you’ll probably be a) sick of looking at your manuscript and b) too familiar with it to spot the missing words, the double ‘the’s and other such irritations.

Structural Editing

Structural editing is when someone looks over your entire story and basically sees if it makes sense or whether it’s all disjointed and confusing. They’ll appraise the characters, the chapters, the pace, and the narrative. My editor told me she hated the ending of Together Apart (I’d changed it literally days before I sent it to her), but she knew her stuff and explained why. After I took some time to cool down, I could see that actually, she was right, and so I rewrote it. You might think your story is perfect and makes perfect sense, but of course you do. You wrote the thing. Point is, you don’t want to have someone buy it and get to the end thinking ‘what was the point? what actually happened to Gina and her rabid dog?’ It needs to make sense overall. Structural editing  is ordinarily done by someone else, and that someone else will charge, unless you’ve got the hook up somewhere. It could be uber cheap, or horrifically expensive, but you must find someone familiar with your genre. I think there’s little point in going for an editor who works with horror if you’ve written erotica. You can usually send off a sample and see what they come back with, but bear in mind, you won’t really see the payoff until they’ve read the whole thing.

Line Editing

Ok, we’re starting to get to the nitty gritty. A line editor (and you might use the same person for all steps in the process) will go through every single sentence and point out any that don’t read correctly, that are confusing, that are awkward, too flowery or don’t pack the punch you were quite aiming for.

Copy Editing

Copy editing looks at those annoying things you might have missed. Typos, grammatical errors, inconsistencies and punctuation. Basically, an enhanced version of what you’d have done yourself up until this point.

There are a LOT of editors out there, and I’d suggest trying to go for someone you’ve had recommended because it ain’t always cheap. And, I’d also suggest you rope in some friends and family to proof-read too. The more people who read it the better. And when you do finally get your book out there, I’d heavily suggest you buy it, download it to your e-reader and give it another read through because despite the steps I went through, I still found errors at this point. The joy of ebooks is you can always upload a new version with the rectified errors, but trust me, it’s better to get them out of the way first.

Oh, and good luck!