Is A Good Polish Enough?

Or do you need a whole new pair of shoes? Sometimes, no matter how hard you work at it, shining your shoes isn't going to get them looking as good as you'd like. That's when it's time to throw in the towel and buy a new pair of shoes. You friendly bloggers have listened to me for the last three months about my revision woes, and for that, I am very grateful. You guys are the best. I have to admit to you today, though, that what I've been doing has turned more into rewriting than revising. How do I know the difference? Well, let's just say that I've tossed more scenes than I've kept, and I've changed just about every sentence in one way or another. I've kept the same basic story line and, aside from eliminating a couple of secondary characters, the cast has remained the same. Some, although very few, scenes have remained in tact, but other than that, it's a whole new manuscript. I knew from the start of these revisions that I would be adding at least three completely new chapters to the beginning, but until I got past that, I had no idea the amount of rewriting I would have to do to the existing chapters. When deciding if a scene should stay, I looked at a couple of things. First of all, I determined if the scene had both an internal and external turning point. If it had neither, I tossed it. If it had one but not the other, I tried to add the missing one. If I couldn't, I tried combining it with another scene. When all that failed, I tossed it. Second, I gauged how long I was spending revising the scene. If it had been an unreasonable amount of time and I still wasn't happy with it, I tossed it and started over. Sometimes, it's just time for something new. How do you determine which scenes to cut when you are revising/rewriting?

My Work Is Never Done!

So I finished organizing my shoes, and I tripped over this mess of kids' shoes. Just when I thought I could rest, a new mess came along. But isn't that life? Isn't that the way things usually go? We put out fire after fire, only to find a new one just around the corner. It's all good, though, because we really like putting out fires, don't we? Just like keeping all of our shoes organized is a continuous process, so is keeping our writing up to par. After rounds and rounds of revisions, we still may come across new messes that need cleaning up. Perhaps we learn a new rule while fixing something else, or maybe we already knew the rule but didn't realize we were breaking it. Either way, it is an ongoing process. So how do we know when we are finished? Well, your guess is as good as mine. I'd like to think that we will just know. We will look around our houses and not see one single mess that needs cleaning. We will be so proud of our houses that we wouldn't bat an eye if our most cherished celebrity came to spend the weekend with us. There will be no pile of shoes to trip over. That's how I envision it. What about you? Do you have an idea of how it will feel when you are finally done editing and revising? Will you know without a doubt that you are ready to submit? Yep! You guessed it. It's Friday, and that means the Silver Shoe of Sincerity Award must be passed on to someone. It is all about sincerity in blogging and to find out more click here. The recipient can choose to pass it on (which makes me smile) or not (I don't hold grudges). It's entirely up to them. So without further ado, this week's recipient is Wendy at All in a Day's Thoughts. Wendy was the first person to comment on my blog, and she may not even remember. But she made me smile that day because she reached out to me. If you don't already follow her blog, go visit it. You will come away inspired. I promise. Have a great weekend everyone!

I Love Ugg Slippers!

If you've been reading my blog this week, you know I've been trying to organize my shoe shelf. I've thrown out the shoes I don't need, put some shoes away until spring, and stacked some shoes on top of each other. I now have room on my shelves for those Ugg slippers I must have (that is, if I can get my pocketbook to agree to purchase them). I've also been trying to organize my manuscript to make room for some desperately needed additions. I've cut scenes I didn't need, stored some away for possible future use, and layered several scenes into one. I'm not quite there yet, but I make more and more room every day for those things that need to be added in. (Luckily, my pocketbook doesn't have to agree on this one because my words are free, right?) Have you ever realized you had too much of something unnecessary in your manuscript and not enough of something really important? If so, how did you fix it?

Do I Need Three Pairs of Black Dress Shoes?

Well, actually, yes. Even though I rarely dress up, when I do, these shoes are necessary. They all serve a different purpose. One looks better with pants, one is a little more casual, and one is dressier. I must keep them all. The key is to store them efficiently so they don't take up too much space, and the only way to do this is to stack them on top of each other. The same could be said about scenes in my manuscript. If I come across several scenes that are similar but have their own function in the story, couldn't I try and layer them into one scene? That way I could still advance the story, but in fewer words. For example: Let's say there are three scenes where my female protag is on the phone with my male protag. One conversation might reveal that she has the hots for him. The second might hint at the fact that he also has the hots for her. And the third may bring to light the conflict that stands in the way of them being together. These three things are closely related and could easily be revealed in one scene as opposed to three. The key is to do it effectively. For those of you with too many words, have you ever tried layering scenes? For those of you with too few words, have you ever tried diversifying scenes?

But I Like These Shoes!

They instantly add three inches to my height, and when you are only five-foot tall, that's a big deal. Unfortunately, I've seen the fashion police out on patrol, and we all know it is illegal to wear white shoes after Labor Day, no matter how good they make us feel. I don't have to trash them, though. They'll be useful in eight months or so. But for now, they are going in a box with all my other summer shoes (except the flip flops, of course, because they know no season). After Memorial Day, I'll smile when I pull out those white shoes because I'll still love them; they'll still make me feel tall; and they might go perfectly with my new summer outfits. I think of cutting scenes in much the same way. I may love a scene because it makes me feel taller, like I'm a great writer, but if it isn't useful to my story, it must go. This doesn't mean I have to trash it. I can put it in a box with all the other useless scenes and hope that some day it has its own season and its own place in one of my stories. Remembering this has made deleting scenes from my manuscript so much more bearable. Have you ever held onto a scene because it made you feel like a better writer when, really, it served no purpose? Or do you save deleted scenes in hopes that they will some day be useful? I don't know about you, but I'm guilty of doing both.

Not Enough Room!

When I stepped into my closet yesterday morning, this is what I saw. I have a perfectly good shelving unit to hold my shoes, but apparently there isn't enough room. (Well, maybe, I have too many shoes.) I decided it was time to get organized and make my shoes fit on the shelves. The first step was to get rid of the shoes that served no purpose. These are the ones that either didn't fit, didn't match anything I own, or were so worn out, I'd never wear them in public anyway. I threw out three pairs. Yay! I've made more room already. Like my shoe shelf, my manuscript is also overcrowded. The standard word count for YA is much lower than for other genres. SCBWI guidelines say that YA should be no more than 65,000 words. I've heard from other sources that 80,000 is acceptable. In either case, mine is too long. To make matters worse, I've realized, thanks to my most awesome beta readers, that I need to beef up some aspects of my story, which means more words, not less. So, what do I do? Well, just like my shoes have to fit on my shelves, my story is going to have to fit within the guidelines. Cutting unnecessary words isn't going to do the trick. I now have to cut entire scenes. You know, the ones that serve no purpose. These are the ones that don't develop the characters, move the plot along, establish setting, or build internal or external conflict. These scenes have to go. Yikes! I'm a little nervous, but here I go! What about you? Have you had to cut scenes? If so, how do you decide which ones to cut?

What? A Shoe Without a Heel?

There's obviously been some kind of mistake! How could anyone walk in a shoe like this? This week, I've been talking about how my manuscript wasn't ready when I first queried it. So far, my discussions have been limited to the obvious--the uneducated errors that distinguish a newbie from a more seasoned novelist, things like word count and grammar. Like this shoe, these things stand up and shout, "Something isn't right here!" But what about the more subtle deficiencies? You know, those underlying issues that aren't so obvious--things like passive sentences and purple prose. Unlike word count and grammar, these deficiencies don't come with a formula for solution. There are no set standards for the number of times you can use "was" in your manuscript. There's no predetermined limit on descriptive adverbs and adjectives. And there's no word processing program tool to tell you when your writing has become melodramatic. These issues can only be remedied by studying the craft and improving our skills by writing on a daily basis. We can look at the publishing industry in this day, and think of all the negatives--too many writers, not enough agents, fewer books being published, etc. But one positive is this: So many established authors, agents, and editors have opened up their brains for us to have a glimpse of their knowledge of the craft. Sometimes, it's through a simple blog. Other times, it's handed to us in book format. Either way, they are sharing with us the things we wouldn't have access to otherwise. There are so many great resources out there for improving our writing skills. Have you taken advantage of them? If so, I'd love to hear what blog, book, article, or website you have found most helpful in your journey. Feel free to mention Stephen King's On Writing, but be sure to spell his name correctly, unlike I did in Tuesday's post. You never know...he could be reading our blogs.

Is It Just Me...

Or do these shoes look like commas? Up until a few months ago, I considered myself to have a relatively firm grasp on grammar. My first love was always English. I was in the honors classes throughout high school, and I spent hours reading and writing. But, since my dad was paying for college, his checkbook had the honor of choosing my degree. So, I majored in Accounting. One day, I was researching agents and came across a blog about how to improve your manuscript. (I'd point you in that direction, but I don't remember which one it was.) There was a whole section dedicated to the mechanics of writing. I was shocked to find that I had broken many of the rules this agent listed as important. Had things changed since I was in high school? Or had I just forgotten the rules? Either way, I decided I needed a refresher. I went right away to the local book store and bought several books on proper writing mechanics. I spent the next few days reading these books and searching the web for any sites about the subject. In the end, I realized my manuscript needed a complete overhaul. There were twenty-five errors on the first five pages alone. I had a brief moment of humiliation at the thought of agents reading my submissions and shaking their head at my careless writing, but I pushed it out of my head and quickly got down to the task of editing. Have you taken the time to rid your manuscript of mechanical errors? By the way, there are probably a dozen or more mistakes in this post, but I don't have time to edit it! :)

So Many Wasted Shoes!

And so many wasted words. Yesterday, I talked about querying too soon. Okay, mostly, I talked about my encounter with the trash man, but still, I made reference to querying too soon, didn't I? At any rate, I thought I'd spend the rest of the week (and possibly the rest of the year) talking about why my ms wasn't ready when I first queried it. And today's topic is...WORD COUNT. When I first queried my completed ms, it weighed in at 110,000 words. Whoa! That's a lot of words for Young Adult! According to the SCBWI, of which I'm a proud member now, the maximum word count for YA is 65,000. Unfortunately, I did not know this back then because I hadn't even looked into it. (Other sites will tell you it is 80,000, so that's what I'm going with. 30,000 is easier to cut than 45,000, isn't it?) Out of those five agents I queried, only one responded. And it was a form rejection. I have a feeling they all saw my word count and laughed out loud. I'm so glad I only sent it out to five before learning the rules. I spent the next three months cutting words, scenes, and even entire chapters. I got it down to 85,000 words. Close enough, right? We'll see... It may seem unfair, but as a new writer, it's important to play by the rules. Unless you are an established author like Jodi Picoult or Stephen King, or an exceptionally lucky novice like Stephanie Meyer, agents will look at your word count. Why else would they want it specifically stated in the query letter? This is just my yet-to-be-published opinion. What are your thoughts? How important do you think word count is?

Trash Day

I have a love/hate relationship with trash day. I love to get rid of all the trash that has accumulated over the week, but I hate it when I oversleep and don't get it out in time. I still can't figure out why they have to come so stinkin' early! The last time this happened, I chased the trash truck down. He was already almost all the way down the street, but the thought of maggots crawling over week-old trash took over my reasoning power, and before I knew it, I was running down the street, waving my arms and screaming, "Come back! Come back!" Yes, I had just crawled out of bed and was barefoot and in pajamas (not the pretty kind either). My hair was a giant, frizzy mass of tangles, and my eyes were bloodshot and puffy. But, in my defense, I had been up late the night before writing. No, not blogging--writing! I thought about flirting with the guy, but then I realized I wasn't exactly the most attractive thing right then. So, instead, I humbly begged him to swing back by my house. He tried to hide his amusement at my appearance, but I saw him giggling when he so kindly returned to retrieve my trash. I'm pretty sure I made his day. I know he made mine--he gave me a second chance. But will an agent? Maybe. Maybe not. In this post, I talked about all of my late night query mistakes. Several of you mentioned that the biggest mistake you made was querying too soon. This was also my biggest mistake. My trash just wasn't ready. What are some things you've done to make sure your manuscript is the best it possibly can be?

Is It Gardening Time?

I finally broke down and pulled weeds yesterday. I hate pulling weeds, but I had no choice. One of the weeds was about to become a tree. (It was on the side of the house that no one can see, but still, it really needed to go!)

As I look outside now, I am quite satisfied with my flower beds, except for the one right in front of the house. It's weed-free, but it's too full. Despite having trimmed them, the shrubs have gotten way too big for the space they are in. I'm wondering if maybe it's time to get rid of one or two of them. They are beautiful spireas, and I'd hate to see them go, but I guess I could transplant them to another location.

It got me thinking about my completed MS. I have spent months getting rid of the weeds and sculpting the bushes, but it's still too long. One of my rejection letters even stated that as the reason for the rejection. Is it time for me to remove some of the shrubs and get rid of entire scenes? I'm just not sure I can do that. I have nurtured and brought to life each and every scene. I'd really hate to see any of them go.

What about you? Have you ever had to cut more than you wanted to?

As you ponder that question, check out the Slumpbuster Challenge story. Click on the penguin in the sidebar to add a sentence.