The Life of a Book, Stage Two: Developmental Editing

The second stage of the life of my book is the one I enjoy (and scares me) the most--developmental editing. It's the phase where I see the story through someone else's eyes and will know if what was in my head made it onto the page. Before I send off the book, the book has changed some for the original story as I pulled out parts and added in new ones. I do my best to smooth everything out but sometimes what I believe is on the page was still only in my head. It's one of the problems of living with and story so long, it becomes so familiar you can see the words and all the pieces in your head and it makes you certain it's in the book. Or at least for me. 

This is why I consider/label the book to be in draft (aka original story) until after the development edit. I know there will be changes, and sometimes scenes I love must go. One thing I discovered about writing self is that I'd mentally dig in my heels. It was a little heartbreaking to make changes, and I'd pout over all the darlings that must be "killed." It was easier for me to delve into the first stage of edits knowing that everything had the potential to stay or go. 

The first thing I do when I get the notes is let the comments, suggestions, and questions sit in my brain, then I start writing/arguing in a document to hash out what big and little changes need made (this is my favorite part). I love seeing the book grow more than what my brain had originally thought. At times, my muse needs a little nudge and encouragement, and my editor gets me and my muse and knows how to bring out the best in my writing.

Once I've worked at the changes, and email my editor for her opinion about any big changes I'm planning on making, I start incorporating them into the book. The first editing run I focus on any changes to the main and any of the subplots that branch off from the mystery. In Altered, one of those subplot will be taken from the story so in my second editing run, I'm going to give one of the personal/character subplots more screen time to add more depth.

For the third run, I print out the book and read it in one sitting. I usually do this in another location than my office. I find it's helpful to change my environment. In this reading, I'm trying to check the flow and pacing of the book, and ensure all the new scenes work seamlessly with those from the original story.

After that is done, and corrections are made, it's time for another read to catch any grammar mistakes or typos. I'll change the percentage of the view to have less words on the screen and read the book aloud. It helps me locate any typos that slipped by my eyes. Then the next step is sending it back to my editor (most times it's right on my deadline day).

Mary Burton's Draft Process and Me

I’ve been following Mary Burton’s draft process with my third novel in the Cumberland Creek Mystery Series.  This is a new process for me—it’s much more methodical than the way I usually approach my drafts. If you’ve been following along on my blog, you know that I sort of skipped ahead on one part, which is that I allowed an early read of the manuscript. I have a beta reader who prefers a early read. She made several suggestions—some of which I’ve taken.

For example, I introduced a new character in this book that I was uncertain about—she set me straight. So, I got rid of the character. Now, if I had not been uncertain about this character, I would not let an outside reader’s opinion affect me in such a way. But there you have it.

So, I’ve been working on the next draft. And now I’m ready to move on with the fourth draft: 
Fourth Draft/Polishing:  Really perfect sentences.  Weed out weak words, eliminate passive voice, use literary devices, and search for clichés.
One trick I’ve learned through years is using Microsoft Word’s search and find function to make this part of the process go quicker and smoother. I will search for over-used words like “well” and “then” and so on. I will also look out for passive voice.

So while I’m working on the third book in my series, I am gearing up for the release of the second book in the series, which is SCRAPPED. I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir here with on this blog whose writers all have series in various stages, but it’s a real challenge. I enjoy it, but am finding it a bit surreal at times. (What year is it anyway? And didn't her daughter just graduate from high school--or was it college? heh.)
So, after I go through what I’m calling HYBRID (at this point) with an eye for perfecting sentences, I will be sending the manuscript to a few beta readers. So, I am nearing the end of the process for this book. After they read it and react, I will look at the manuscript again in terms of what they had to say about it. Then I will let it stew and go back to it one more time before I send it off to my editor. For this part, Mary suggests printing the manuscript, rather than reviewing it on the computer at this stage—I concur. Stay tuned.

My Zumba Moment

I’m heading off to teach a mystery writing class at the Roanoke Regional Writer’s Conference on Saturday. I’m a new mystery author, but I’ve studied and learned a lot over the past few years. I’m looking forward to sharing what I’ve learned—and learning a thing or two myself.
I’m always a bit nervous when I head off to a conference, so I’ve been thinking about my presentation a great deal—even while huffing and puffing at Zumba class. For those of you who don’t know, Zumba is an aerobic/dance class with a Latin flair. I love it—and am now doing it three times a week.
The thing about taking a class like this at a gym is that sometimes they switch instructors around on you. They all have different routines, approaches, and so on. So, I’ve been sort of having problems with one of the new instructors. I like her. Her moves are fun. Love the music she selects. What is the problem? Why am I not bathed in sweat when I leave her class like in other classes? I began to research by watching the clock.
In my favorite teacher’s class, I’m sweating at five minutes into the class. In the new instructor’s class, I am not really sweating until half way in. And then the level starts to fluctuate—an easier routine, then a harder on, and so on.
Hmmm.
The pacing was way off. If I were to compare it to a mystery novel, the murder wasn’t happening until midway through the book. How invested would my “mystery” readers be by that point? Not very. Many readers would have chucked the book after the first few chapters. We hear this time and time again—you have to capture your reader’s attention immediately and work to keep them interested.
But if I hooked my reader in with murder in the first chapter, then didn’t give any clues, or any red herrings until the half-way point in the book, they probably would have not finished the book either.
I think it is a tricky balance—this pacing in a mystery novel thing. Have you, as readers, noticed when it’s “off”? Writers, how do you deal with pacing?

Book Cover Art

My first book cover, for Murder at the War, was amazing and quite wonderful. The story takes place at The Great Pensic War, an annual event put on by the Society for Creative Anachronism, a group of slightly insane people who re-create the medieval period in costume, jousting, music, feasts, knighting, crowning, politics, dance, crafts, etc. To help explain the setting, we sent a set of photographs to my editor. To our amazement, when the cover came, it depicted a scene from one of the photographs in which the people were identifiable. We made a quick series of phone calls and, fortunately, none of them objected to being portrayed on the cover of a murder mystery.

The next four novels in that series each had a cover with a horse on it. The heroine of the series breeds, trains and shows Arabian horses, one of the most easily identifiable varieties of horse. I describe them in each book: delicate of bone, “dished” face, large eyes, arched neck, high-set tail. And not one of the horses on any of the covers was an Arab. Disappointing.

The covers of my next series, about a medieval nun, were okay at first (the stained glass window of one was definitely nineteenth century Protestant) but got better and better as the series went along. The last one looked like an illumination from a late-medieval manuscript. Gorgeous!

I’m very pleased with the current Betsy Devonshire series, and have also noticed that they are improving as the series continues. The cover for Buttons and Bones is smashing!

Many readers don’t realize that one of the several things an author does not get to choose about her book is the cover. I have been pleased, surprised, amazed, and disappointed in the covers of my two dozen novels -- and I never know in advance which it’s going to be.

Does a cover influence your purchase? Do you pick up a book, intrigued by the title, then decide to buy it if the cover pleases you? Or put it back if the cover puts you off? I confess that if I’m selecting an author unknown to me I will sometimes let the cover be a part of the selection process.

To my readers in Fargo, ND, Wolf Point and Cut Bank, MT, Spokane and Seattle, WA, Portland, OR, Sacramento, CA, and Salt Lake City, UT, look for me in your town in June. (We’re also stopping in East Glacier Park, MT, and Reno, NV, but I’m not making an appearance in either place, but will just be playing the tourist.) See my web site -- Monica-Ferris.com -- for a complete schedule.

Too-Clever Ideas?

I was for several years a teacher of gifted students in a special program of Saturday mornings. Over a period of weeks we talked about mystery plotting and plotted a mystery together, which we “published” in the form of a booklet. Sometimes we’d go on a field trip as part of the research. One year they came up with the idea of stealing an artifact from a museum, and we visited the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Their original idea had been to steal a painting but when we got into the Asian area, they fell in love with some ancient Chinese tomb artifacts.

The docent who was taking us around, explaining what we were seeing and answering questions, became alarmed as the children (fourth, fifth and sixth graders) swiftly came up with an idea THAT WOULD HAVE WORKED. It involved lifting a glass case to remove a T’ang Dynasty clay horse and hiding him up in the dropped ceiling during a faked fire alarm, replacing him with a replica. Later the horse would be carefully packaged and wrapped in white -- they had all taken part in one of those experiments to wrap an egg so that it could be dropped from the roof of their school onto pavement without breaking -- and tossed from a window into snow-covered bushes to be retrieved at night after the museum closed. There was more to the plot than that, I’m not telling you all the details. The docent remarked at the time that she sincerely hoped none of the children decided to embark on a life of crime. And I did notice some while later that some of the arrangements of the exhibit had been changed to make the children’s plot unworkable. Out of the mouths of babes . . .

One of the joys of mystery plotting is coming up with some really clever way of killing someone or stealing something. I know I was alarmed at myself when I came up with a way of murdering someone that would leave no trace behind -- two ways, actually. One I have refused to use in a book because I can think of no way of detecting the culprit. The other I used in Blackwork, because it turned out, after all, to leave a clue that something was amiss.

Other times some little factoid will appear somewhere that gives me an idea. For example: Did you know that if you have a bone marrow transplant that works, for the rest of your life the DNA of your blood matches that of your donor, while the DNA of the rest of your cells remain your own? A little thought might give you an interesting idea for a mystery story, as it did me. I intend to write it as a short story one of these days.

When I write a story using poisons or other esoterica as a murder weapon, I always try to leave out some little but important detail, lest someone take my book as a how-to rather than as a pleasurable read.

How important is it to you that you don’t give everything away in plotting a clever murderous tale?

On the Road Again

As you are reading this, I am on the road, heading for Milwaukee from Minneapolis. There, I will meet with two friends, and the three of us will drive on Thursday to Nashville, to be a part of the TNNA Nashville Needlework Market. I am excited to be a part of this, it will be as much fun as it is a learning experience -- research for my books. The market will feature new products and new techniques in the needlework world. I will meet some famous designers and some successful shop owners, who will, I hope, put some good words in my (and my protagonist’s) mouth.

The first rule of writing is, of course, “Write what you know.” But there’s a second part to that rule: “Go and find out.” It’s the hunt for information that gives writing its excitement. For one thing, it gets you out of the house. Eventually. Start with the wonderful, the amazing, the invaluable Internet. Learn all you can there, and only then venture out to talk to someone about the subject. Early in my writing career I ventured to speak to a police investigator and after only a minute or two, he suggested I read up on the topic at hand and then come back and talk to him. His time was too valuable to spend it answering basic questions when the information was readily available in the library -- this was before the Internet. I’ve never forgotten that advice and so now I’m passing it along. Ask intelligent questions and your resource will be surprised and pleased to answer them. I have found on many occasions that a good interview will add interest and complications to a plot your reader never saw coming. What’s more, your writing will sing with authenticity. Even before I was a writer myself I couldn’t always tell when a novelist didn’t do her research -- but when she knew what she was talking about, the book was much more interesting.

I suppose the most interesting research I’ve done to date was taking a trip to Thailand. I didn’t know at the time I’d use what I learned on that wonderful vacation, but I’m really glad I kept a diary of what I saw and tasted and did on that trip of a lifetime. Some of it turned up in my mystery Thai Die. Later this year I’m taking a long train trip out west, and I plan to keep another detailed diary. I don’t know if it will turn up in a book later, because I don’t know enough about long train trips. I’m hoping it will prove fun, educational, and provoking of a mystery plot.

Anyone else had an experience that later proved useful in writing a book?

Florida

I'm sitting in my sister's still-dark room (but there's a mockingbird outside the open window, singing his heart out to welcome the coming dawn) typing this on her computer. I can't get online with my laptop down here, so I have to use hers. Please excuse the brevity of this, therefore, and also any typos.

There are gekkos (is that how you spell it?) down here, those tiny lizards that serve as the model for a car insurance agency on television. These little guys aren't green, but brown -- and they don't walk on their hind legs or speak with an Australian accent, either. But they are cute and they can climb any vertical surface, even glass. There are cats in the house, and they amuse themselves by hunting the gekkos and bringing them inside. It's a catch and release program for them, the lizards are probably very annoyed, but uninjured by the experience. I took one away from the cat early yesterday morning, and found it sluggish or sleepy and went outside with it on my hand to sit in the sun. Sure enough, his problem was that he was cold, and after a few minutes of hand-warmth plus sunshine on his back, his head suddenly lifted, his breathing quickened, and he went zipping off my hand, down my leg, and into the shrubs that line our pool.

I hear it snowed yesterday in Minneapolis. The temperature here was in the mid-eighties. I went out to dinner with my sister at a restaurant called the Bahama Breeze. Had a drink called the Mojito, which consists of crushed lime fragments, fresh mint, juice from sugar cane, and rum, all over crush ice. For dinner I had the mahi-mahi with mango sauce, steamed very slim and tender green beans and mashed sweet potatoes flavored with cinnamon. We drove home under a rising full moon. As they say, "Just another day in paradise." When the sun comes up in the morning, I just want to imitate a gekko and sit in the sun, working on my tan. Do a few laps in the pool, then back in the sun. Every three hours I take Mom to the bathroom, bring her a drink of orange juice or a snack, or a simple meal, talk with her awhile, then go back out in the sun. I am getting some stitching done, but I'm not working very hard on it. I've got a whole five pages done of Buttons and Bones, the next Betsy Devonshire mystery.

As I have said before in this blog, Life is Sweet.

A Good Bad Thing

I’ve been doing a lot of signings the last few weeks, and am getting seriously fuzzy-brained. Worse, it’s not over yet. Friday we’re leaving for Galena, IL, and Madison, WI. Hope I don’t end up in Nashville, TN, and Wilmington, DE.

But an interesting thing happened on our way to Des Moines and Omaha last weekend. We stopped in Owatonna, MN, for lunch at Cabela’s. Have you ever been in a Cabela’s? Testosterone City. Guns and ammo, hunting and fishing equipment, and a mountain at the back stacked with stuffed game. Everything from polar bears to pheasants in lifelike poses. But they have great lunches – try their walleye fingers. Anyway, we had lunch and on the way out I saw they had some huge candy canes on sale. We’re at that stage of Christmas giving in our family where we mostly give to one another’s favorite charities in one another’s names. I thought it would be kind of fun to attach the card to a candy cane, especially a really big one. So I picked out a bunch of them and went down to the main floor in front pay for them.

Now, lately I’ve been carrying around a little clutch purse, but for the trip I got out this very large purse and put the clutch inside it. When I paid for the canes, I picked up the bag of them, and the clutch purse, and walked out. It was more than two hours down the road that I needed something from the big purse – and discovered it wasn’t in the back seat.

I called Cabela’s and sure enough, they had the big purse. I was sick with disappointment at myself. I’d put a couple of "show ‘n’ tell" items in there for the signings, plus a whole big packet of Thai silk sample flosses I’ve been giving away to people who buy a copy of Thai Die. I kicked myself all the way to Des Moines and again to Omaha.

I finally decided not to stay for supper in Omaha (paid for by A Stitch in Crime bookstore-needlework shop), but start for home so we could stop at Cabela’s and get my big purse. Because of the Christmas season, they were open really late, so made it in good time. We found ourselves at home late Saturday night, tired but in possession of the purse.

And the next morning woke to find the upper midwent cowering under rain, freezing rain and sleet. There were cars in ditches all along I-35. We would have been driving home on that highway if I hadn’t left my purse in Cabela’s.

New topic: I’ve been getting some positive reviews from the Big Guys: Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, etc. Does anyone know if this translates into sales?