editing

“But editing is hard work!” a new writer complained when I suggested she might need some help editing after I read her first chapters. “I’ve already had my mom, friend, and neighbor read my manuscript and they really like it.”

When I asked the outcome of sending her manuscript to agents and editors, she answered, “Well, I’ve had it rejected three times.”

Maybe like this writer, you have a great idea, compelling characters and a twisty, page-turning plot. You’ve written a great nonfiction memoir or an inspirational book that will really help readers. Perhaps you’ve worked for months on your book, or longer.

The missing link may be the skills of an experienced editor. A pair of fresh eyes and honest feedback on how to take your book from good to great. None of us are immune from editing! Even if we’ve had a number of books published, our writing still needs editing.

Someone once said that editing can make an okay book good, a good book great, and a great book a blockbuster. Editing doesn’t mean just fixing grammar and spelling mistakes; it means a lot more. Let’s look at the first kind of editing our books need: (The next 3 kinds of editing will be in my next blog…)

Development editing means helping the writer with the structure and content of their book and identifying rough or unclear areas (we all have them).

I’ll give you an example. When I sent the manuscript for my 8^th book, When Mothers Pray to the editor after working on it for 9 months, I thought it was all finished. However, the next day my editor called me and said I needed to completely change the structure and outline of the book, rewrite the whole manuscript and take a different approach. She also asked questions, gave me direction to improve the book—and two months to complete the task. After the disappointment and shock wore off, I got some help, got to work—and am so glad I did. All that rewriting resulted in a much better book that became a bestseller, went into 80 countries and is still selling, 21 years later.

So let me ask you:

• Do your first chapters need editing before you send them to an agent or editor?
• Have you worked hard on your book manuscript but gotten nothing but rejections?

If so, we want to invite you to join us at WWSW’s Writer’s Retreat at the Abbey, April 26-28^th. Whether your work-in-progress is non-fiction or fiction, Rene Gutteridge, Cheri Fuller, Melanie Hemry, authors of a combined 125 books, will be available to not only help edit your work, but do much more, which you’ll find on our website www.writewellsellwell.com .

Cheri Fuller

Cheri Fuller is a popular speaker and bestselling author of 48 books with combined sales of over 1 million, including several award-winning books. Her books have been published in 80 countries, providing hope and encouragement to people around the globe. She’s written hundreds of magazine articles and Internet columns and was an parenting/education writer for Family Circle magazine. Her articles have appeared in CHILD, ParentLife, Guideposts, Better Homes & Gardens, and other publications. Cheri has spoken at writer’s conferences around the country, is a co-founder of Write Well Sell Well, and loves to pass on her wisdom and experience on building a writing career.

cherifuller.com

Have you ever written a fabulous scene, section or chapter that made you feel like you should win the Pulitzer Prize? Oh, admit it. I’m talking about those times when your writing seems to soar. The descriptive detail is so vivid you feel like you’ve stepped into the story. The dialogue and quirky and interesting—not on the nose. Never on the nose. It’s your best writing and one of your favorite scenes. But when you put on your editor’s hat, you realize that it doesn’t move the story along.

You must cut it.

It feels like amputating a limb.

When I’m writing a book and have to cut scenes like this, I can’t bring myself to delete them forever. I open a folder labeled Deleted Scenes and put them there where they languish in the dreary depths of my computer. Never making it to the printed page.

Those are not happy writing days for me. One of the things that keep me inspired as a writer is following authors and screenwriters whose writing I enjoy. To that end, let me just be honest. Yes, I cyberstalk Tyler Perry. Can’t help it. It’s an addiction.

I follow Janet Evanovich on twitter and laugh out loud at the one liners her characters spout. I follow good writers on Twitter and Facebook. If they offer newsletters, I sign up to get them in my email inbox.

One of the newsletters I read is by bestselling author Patricia McLinn. I’ve read all the books in her Caught Dead in Wyoming series. My only objection to Patricia is that she can’t write as fast as I read.

This morning, as I read her latest newsletter, I found a great morsel that I wanted to share with you.  She announced a new book release and said this about it:

“I love this story, or I’d surely have let it go a decade or more ago;-) I dug back into my files and found an early draft of a scene from 2003. Maggie Frye and J.D. Carson were right there on the page, although at that time the story started with “There’s a verdict.”

“Maggie, J.D., and all the rest have watched a lot of other characters get their chance while they waited…not patiently. They’ve never been patient. But persistent, oh yes. Now it’s their turn.”

Holy smoke!

She rifled through her deleted scenes from 2003 and found a treasure trove that she reworked into a whole new book!

That made me wonder what treasures I have lurking in the dungeon of my computer. It made me wonder if my external hard drive was still backing up everything on my computer each day. Might there be something among those outcasts that could inspire a whole new book? Or a magazine article?

It had never occurred to me to mine for inspirational treasures in the bowels of my own computer! I do admit that it helps if, like Patricia McLinn, you write a whole slew of series books. Still, can you imagine what is lurking in your computer, waiting for a chance to be read?

I encourage you to keep your deleted files somewhere safe. Who knows, maybe someday that’ll be resurrected into a book the rest of us can’t wait to buy!

Until then, keep writing and be sure to meet us at the Renaissance Hotel for the conference merging Write Well, Sell Well with Red Sneakers. There’s a new date too. The conference is Labor Day weekend, August 31 through September 2.

Following the conference, for those of you who’re hungry to take your writing to a whole new level, we’re adding a bonus day of Monday September 3. We’re offering master classes in fiction, turning novels into screenplays, marketing, writing nonfiction and digital marketing. Register soon as the hotel will only hold the discounted room rate until July 31.

Happy mining!

Melanie Hemry

Award winning author Melanie Hemry has 54 published books to her credit. A popular ghostwriter, one of Melanie’s many projects included writing Jerry Falwell: His Life and Legacy, published by Simon and Schuster. A winner of the prestigious Guideposts Writing Contest, Melanie’s stories have warmed the hearts of readers around the world. Her work has also been published worldwide by Reader’s Digest. She has been a regular contributing writer to the Believer’s Voice of Victory magazine for many years.

www.melaniehemry.com