Writing high-stakes dark fantasy that keeps you on the edge of your seat and up until 3AM. Get my free prequel: www.jwweld.com/slice
Killing your darlings
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Nothing about writing is easy. As authors, we struggle to knock out our first draft, and then wrestle with multiple rounds of editing. Once we're (mostly) happy with our book, we have to market it, competing with millions of other releases every year. As I speak, I'm in the middle of this process right now: managing marketing, finalizing my first two books for release this fall and writing my third book in my series. For the past few months, I've mostly focused on marketing: completing my reader magnet (Slice of Sin), setting up a mailing list and doing newsletter swaps with other authors in the field. One consequence of this marketing push is my editing has fallen behind. Both my first and second book came back from my copy editor in the beginning of May. They've been sitting in a folder, waiting for me to review my editor's changes, make a few of my own and ship off the finalized manuscripts to my proofreader. This month, I decided to change that. I sat down to do my final edit and was immediately overwhelmed. Reviewing over 225,000 words was a daunting task. Remembering my advice on eating an elephant, I took a step away and came back with a plan. A Guide to Surviving Editing: I broke my editing plan down into three steps with strict timelines. 1) Line edit suggestions: I set aside a week to review my copy editor's suggestions. While I could have accepted all the changes without reviewing, I wanted to take the time to accept or reject each suggested change. 2) Tweaking scenes: Time away from my manuscript gave me context that I wanted to add to certain scenes in my story. My copyeditor also had a few suggestions. I set aside two days to do this. 3) Formatting: My story was originally written in a web novel format. To get it ready for release as a novel, I needed to add indents, double check my spacing and condense my shorter paragraphs. I gave myself two days to do this. At my time of writing, I'm in the middle of Step 3. Once I finish, I can finally send my first book over for final proofreading, format it into an eBook and create an advance review copy (ARC) for your reading pleasure. If you haven't already, sign up below to join my ARC team to read my first book months before the general public:
Until next time,
P.S. Next week, I'll talk about new favourite book series. Stories you might like:Looking for more? Check out these free reads: |
J. W. Weld
Writing high-stakes dark fantasy that keeps you on the edge of your seat and up until 3AM. Get my free prequel: www.jwweld.com/slice
Most fantasy settings draw on real world history, popular folklore, and ancients legends to inspire their worldbuilding. While many authors focus on these more fantastical elements, I find a certain joy in grounding my worldbuilding with realism. Focusing on the small details of historical life creates immersion and increases the contrast between the ordinary and the extraordinary. Fantasy, in general, tends to be light on historical accuracy, so I've spent a great deal of time trying to be...
Last month, I received a strange email. A reader reached out to ask questions about my prequel, Slice of Sin. At first, I thought she was running a weird roundabout scam, but the more we communicated, the more I realized she was a genuine fan. She read the prequel short story while over at a friend’s house and loved it so much she tracked down my email to ask me three questions: Why did I choose to write the prequel from the villain’s perspective? Why did I name my villain Sin? And above all,...
Hey Reader, Time flies. We have 104 days until the end of the year and 19 days until the release of my debut novel, Disciple of Sin: I’m excited (and nervous), but reviews so far have been great and I have more coming down the pipeline. With only 19 days left, this is the last time I’ll bring up reading my debut novel for free. The process is simple: Log in to StoryOrigin (or create an account). Apply for my ARC. I’ll check your recent reviews and (most likely) accept your application. You’ll...