The Never-Ending Revision Process

My part time day job is tutoring children in reading. I teach the mechanics and phonics of reading, along with comprehension. We encourage our students to bring in books to read for fun for the last ten minutes of each session. A few of my students requested to read the first Zelda book, and we read a chapter every couple of days. As an author, I love that kids read and enjoy my books. With the Zelda books, I'm thrilled to receive an email that their son or daughter begged to keep reading Zelda each night before bed. But, when I read my own books again, I want to throw them out the window and start over.

Let me explain. Even when a book is "finished" or published, I find more sentences to change or chapters to revise. It's a never-ending process for me. I haven't read The Photograph since publication for that reason.

One of the benefits of being an independent author is the freedom to revise after publication. That's what I am doing right now. I am revising the first Zelda book. I'm not changing content, but sentence structure and word choice. I wrote the first Zelda book a few years ago now, and since then, my writing has improved.

I don't envision doing this for my other books, but it makes sense for the Zelda series. The Adventures of Zelda: A Pug Tale is my best selling book. I travel to schools and events with this book, and with plans for a fourth and fifth book, the first needs to be strong so readers come back.

The revised version of The Adventures of Zelda: A Pug Tale will be available in a week or two. I'll post when it is available, so pick up a copy (it's free in ebook form right now) and let me know what you think!

Authors - Do you want to revise after your novels are published? Why or why not?

My Favorite Parts of the Novel Writing Process

The more I write, the more I learn about myself and my writing habits. I'm currently in three different stages of three projects. My first YA novel is getting ready for release. All major edits and revisions are done. Formatting is done. I need to do one more round of proofreading once I have a proof copy in hand.

I sent The Adventures of Zelda: Pug and Peach (the third in the Zelda series) to the editor a few days ago. In a few weeks, I'll get the edits back, revise, and work on polishing the manuscript for release.

I am also about 20,000 words into a first draft of a brand new YA fantasy novel.

Through this process, I've learned my favorite parts of the novel-writing process. I love the early stages of a novel. I spend time creating a broad outline of my novels before I start writing. Even though writing the words for the first draft are difficult, I love experiencing the story take off in unexpected directions. My first draft is about getting the story down, getting the words on to the page.  Immediately after I finish the first draft, I go back and put in more details into the story about the characters, the setting, etc, especially in the early chapters.

I set the manuscript away for roughly a month after the first draft and then return to it for the major revision stage.  These middle revision stages are the toughest. After I complete my own edits and revisions, I send the novel to beta readers and an editors. I wait for comments and the revisions with questions looming in my head– Will they like the story? Did I miss a big plot hole? Did they see that part coming? It's a bit nerve-wracking for me.

If I survive the middle round of edits and revisions, I don't mind the final stages of polishing and formatting. I enjoy the mindless nature of getting words formatted for ebook and paperback form after the tough revision stage. Of course, receiving the first paperback proof copy is a joy (even when I notice a typo or error).

What are your favorite parts of the writing process?

The Origin of Stories

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOlCQH5jUgw]

Where do your story ideas originate?

In today's video post, I talk about the origin of some of my stories and novels and how these ideas transform into a novel.

I also give a quick writing update– I have three projects in the current queue.

I am getting better at these video posts (I think), but I'd love your feedback. Do you like these short video blogs?