Tidbits and Nuggets – Narrative Summary

August 30, 2018 / Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / 2 Comments

The use of narrative summary in our stories has its purposes.

To slow things down for the reader.
Provides continuity to the larger story.
Work extra time into a scene.
A useful way to summarize minor characters rather than develop.

TIP

“Be careful…not to convert all your narrative summary into scenes… The main use of narrative summary is to vary the rhythm and texture of your writing. Scenes are immediate and engaging, but scene after scene without a break can become relentless and exhausting.”

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers
Renni Browne & Dave King

I’d love to hear your comments. Talk to me. Tell me your story. I’m all ears and look for me on Facebook at SheilaMGood, Pinterest, Bloglovin, Twitter@sheilamgood, Contently, and Instagram. You can follow my reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.

Feeling Overwhelmed

June 1, 2018May 31, 2018 / Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / 6 Comments

And, I thought writing the novel was a daunting task. It is more fun, for sure, but editing is tedious mind-numbing work. It can become overwhelming especially to those of us new to the craft of writing novels.

Thank God we have experts to help us along the way. Janice Hardy from Fiction University is one such expert. She is my number one go-to resource.

Janice understands the complexities of self-editing and offers some great advice in her article, How to Edit a Novel Without Feeling Overwhelmed.

The six main points:

Decide whether you want to edit or revise. The processes are not the same.
Don’t bite off more than you can chew, so to speak. Set a word count, a number of scenes to work on and stick to it – a must when you’re working with 70,000 words plus.
Don’t try to cover all the bases, focus on one thing at a time – setting, character, dialogue, and so on.
Set a time limit – Time management is a biggy for me. It’s easy to get lost in the process, or become impatient.
Leave the advice books on the shelf while you’re editing – love this one! It’s so easy to get caught up in the ‘how-tos’ or the ‘should’s,’ and not get a thing accomplished.
Make a plan and let it be your guide – Use a calendar, spreadsheet, or whatever planning tool helps you accomplish your goal.

For more information, check out, How to Edit a Novel Without Feeling Overwhelmed.

I’d love to hear your tips. Talk to me. Tell me your story. I’m all ears and look for me on Facebook at SheilaMGood, Pinterest, Bloglovin, Twitter@sheilamgood, Contently, and Instagram. You can follow my reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.

Ask the Experts: Tips for Self-Editing

November 20, 2017November 20, 2017 / Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / 16 Comments

As many of you know, I have been hard at work on my first novel. Currently, my focus has been on getting the story down and for once, have not disappeared down the rabbit hole of editing while I write, although the temptation has been great. After more than two years, I finally can see the end in sight and couldn’t be more excited!

I do plan to hire an editor for this novel, but in the meantime, I will clean up some of the apparent errors. As a practice, I use three-four editing tools for all my work, and I must say, I find them an essential tool in my writing.

The Writer’s Diet is one of the first tools I use. A free resource, this tool provides an overview of your writing. Insert 100-1000 words to find out if your is writing is lean or flabby.
The Hemingway Editor – available for both MAC and Windows, provides an incredible array of convenient tools:

Use it anywhere; even without internet connection.
Format your prose
Publish directly to WordPress & Medium
Export to Microsoft Word or other editors – a New feature
Send Hemingway highlights to colleagues – a New feature

3. Grammarly – an excellent grammar, punctuation, and vocabulary tool.

4. Autocrit – A manuscript editing software, specifically for fiction writers.

These are my tips, but, since I’m still learning, I checked with the experts.

Jacqui Murray offers specific and detailed tips in her article, 19 Self-editing for Your Writing. Tips include:

eliminating weak/waste words – very, was, it, but, just;
eliminate redundancies and word repetition, and as many dialogue tags when possible.
Limiting adverbs, gerunds, qualifiers, prepositional phrases,
Secure place and time in each chapter; verify timeline.
Change passive to active words and phrases.

To read more from Jacqui and get the details, as well as other resources she can recommend, check out her article.

Other resources you might want to check out, include:

What about you? Do you have some advice for this writer on self-editing? I’d love to hear all about it. I’m all ears and look for me on Facebook at SheilaMGood, Pinterest, Bloglovin, Twitter@sheilamgood, Contently, and Instagram. You can follow my reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.