5 Top Tips for Editing Your Novel - Guest Post Alison May

I'm a big fan of Alison May. Why? Well, firstly, because she tells me it's OK to be a pantster (she's one too). Secondly, she gave the RNA Writing Conference 2017 a great lift with her humorous and informative talks. Mostly, though, it's because (despite her soft spot for aliens and her penchant for writing 'this is where stuff happens' in a synopsis) Alison clearly knows what she's talking about. So much so that after hearing her talk about editing in one of her conference sessions, I nabbed her and asked if she'd like to write a post for me on this same subject.

Luckily for us all, she said yes. So over to you, Alison.

Five Top Tips for Editing Your Own Novel

Editing your own novel is hard. It’s really hard. It can be really difficult to know where to start, and even more difficult to know when to stop. Editing is vital though. So often writing a first draft is a journey towards having something terrible. Editing, on the other hand, is a journey towards having something good or even – fingers crossed - great.

So having ridden my story-writing pony through the rocky outcrops of the self-edit a fair few times now, here are my top tips…

1. Editing is fun

Honestly it is. At least it can be, and if you try to view it as something fun and empowering rather than a trial that has to be survived, the process will go more easily. I think of it like this - you’re basically god of your own tiny universe, but unlike actual God if it turns out the world you’ve made isn’t that great, you get to change it around and fiddle with it until it’s all perfect and lovely.

So don’t feel overwhelmed by the challenge of revising your manuscript – try to feel empowered. You can do this. You can totally do this.

2. You’re allowed to hate your own book

In fact I pretty much insist upon it. If you never reach the point of utter despair and absolute certainty that the whole story is a steaming pile of poo then you’re probably not being sufficiently self-critical. As a writer, you need to be your own toughest critic AND your own biggest fan, sometimes simultaneously, which can be a little bit challenging.  But you do need to look your own book squarely in the eye and be honest with yourself about what doesn’t work. Focussing on the negatives will make you hate the book. Don’t panic – it’s temporary, I promise.

3. Always know what stage you’re up to

Editing is not just one process. It’s at least three processes, and one of the most common mistakes I see from newer writers is the tendency to jump past the bit where you make the actual story work, and onto proofreading.

I break self-editing down like this:

Stage 1 – Major Revisions

This is where you look to see if the actual story works. Are your characters consistent? Are there gaping plot holes? Does your timeline make sense? If you’re anything like me the answer to that last one is invariably no. My first drafts are replete with two month and two year pregnancies, but editing can fix that. So stage 1 is where you tackle the actual bones of the story and character arcs.

Stage 2 – Line by line

Now the story hangs together we can look at the prose itself. Is every sentence as punchy or as elegant as you can make it? Does your dialogue have the believable rhythm of speech? This might also be when you fact check any outstanding little details. Could your heroine really have travelled from Edinburgh to Bath in a day in 1901? What is the legal driving age in Mauritius? I have no idea, and you probably don’t either - this is your last chance to check.

Stage 3 – Proofreading

This is spelling, punctuation, and grammar time. It’s also time to check that you’ve been consistent with any disputed spellings eg. OK, Okay or Ok, and to check things like chapter numbering that might have been messed up if you moved things around during Stage 1.

Know which stage you’re at as you’re editing and resist the urge to jump ahead.

4. Don’t cut corners

Because editing is not just one process, that means it takes time. Don’t be tempted to submit your work (or publish your work) before it’s ready. Allow yourself enough time to edit and revise. If, like me, you’re somebody who writes without much of a plan, it’s quite likely that you’ll need longer to revise and polish the manuscript than you did to write a first draft. That’s fine so long as you allow yourself the time you need.

5. Know when to stop

This is the flip side of number 4. It can be very tempting to keep tweaking forever, and you could easily do that. No book is ever really finished – I never read my books after they’ve been published because I know the editing pen would want to come out again. Ultimately though you reach a point where you have to stop. Knowing what stage you’re at helps with that. When you’ve finished your proofread (the final stage) you’re done. Time to press ‘Send.’

Good luck and happy editing!

About Alison

Alison is an author, creative writing tutor and freelance editor. She has published five romantic comedies and numerous short stories https://alison-may.co.uk/books/ Her next full-length novel, All That Was Lost, will be released with Legend Press in 2018.

Alison is the current Vice-Chair of the Romantic Novelists’ Association. She is also a qualified teacher with a degree in Creative Writing. She runs novel-writing workshops and offers individual tutoring and manuscript appraisals. Her next scheduled courses are in Birmingham in November 2017, looking at Dialogue and Synopsis Writing: https://alison-may.co.uk/for-writers/workshops-and-courses/

You can find out more about Alison at www.alison-may.co.uk, on Facebook www.facebook.com/AlisonMayAuthor/ or on Twitter @MsAlisonMay

How to Write the Perfect Rom-Com - Guest Post Alison May

Today I'd like you to give a warm welcome to my guest, Alison May. She is the author of Choc Lit novel 'Sweet Nothing' and her second novel, 'Midsummer Dreams', is out in June. Alison is not only a rom-com author but a creative writing teacher and I decided she would be the ideal person to put this question to - what makes the perfect rom-com?

 

Over to you, Alison.

Ah the rom-com. It’s a classic form in movies, books and television but what is it, and what elements make up a good one? Today I’m going to don my white coat of academic endeavour, head down to the great laboratory of writerly whatnots and do some analysis. 

The first element of a good rom-com is, of course, the rom, traditionally short, in this context, for romance, not roman. Although a roman-com would be awesome. It would probably involve people called Romanus going around the house.

Anyway, romance, in my terribly humble opinion, is always born out of the characters doing the romancing. A hero doesn’t just need to be dishy and available – although both of those help – he needs to be the right hero for this one specific heroine. The pair either have to fill a gap in the other’s character or challenge some flaw in the other. So for a heroine like Cora, in Cora’s Christmas Kiss, who is obsessed with status, and achievement, her perfect hero could either be someone who helps her gain a sense of achievement or it could be someone who encourages her to relax and maybe be a wee bit less goal-oriented from time to time.

Good romance also needs obstacles. At least it does in MadeUpStoryWorld. In real-life, meeting a nice guy or girl, asking them out, going out, having a nice time and getting together is utterly lovely, but, as anyone who’s ever been bored to death listening to a friend recount the details of their perfect date will know, it’s also really dull. Again the obstacles in a really good romance should be linked to the characters. If you have a confident and normally outspoken heroine you can’t give her an obstacle that could easily be resolved if she just mentioned it to somebody. Well you can, but you risk your poor reader throwing your book across the room in disgust. And just imagine that when they throw the book they strain their shoulder, forcing them to take time off work, and because this key staff member is off work their company loses out on a big contract, forcing them to make first your disgruntled reader, and then the entire workforce, redundant. It could happen. Poorly thought out plot points have consequences, you know. You have been warned.

Time now for the second element of the great rom-com formula: the com. Comedy is a tricky beast – utterly subjective, and liable to become entirely unfunny when subjected to close inspection. I’m a naturally analytical writer. I tend to break stories and characters down and think a lot about the building blocks of a novel, but with comedy that approach fails me. The one and only piece of advice I can offer is this: if it makes you laugh then the chances are that somewhere out there will be a reader who feels the same. The second one and only piece of advice is this: when writing a novel you will have to read your own words lots of times – certainly three or four, possibly closer to ten or fifteen – by the end of that process nothing you’ve written will be funny. It will all be stale, unimaginative and hateful. At that point you just have to remember that it was funny originally. If it made you laugh when you wrote it, then keep the faith. The words haven’t changed; you’re just reading them with a worn down, worn out, unamusable outlook. Writing a novel can do that to you unfortunately.

So there you go. Here endeth the lesson in the twin disciplines of the rom and the com. Have good characters who fit together; present them with obstacles that are specific to them, and remember to keep the faith in the funny stuff.

 

And now you have no excuse not to sit down and write the perfect rom-com! Thank you for joining us today, Alison and the best of luck with your new novel when it comes out next month.

About Alison

Alison May was born and raised in North Yorkshire, but now lives in Worcester with one husband, no kids and no pets. There were goldfish once. That ended badly.

Alison has studied History and Creative Writing, and has worked as a waitress, a shop assistant, a learning adviser, an advice centre manager, and a freelance trainer, before settling on 'making up stories' as an entirely acceptable grown-up career plan. 

Alison is a member of the Romantic Novelists' Association, and won the Elizabeth Goudge Trophy in 2012. She writes contemporary romantic comedies, published by Choc Lit. Her first full-length novel, Sweet Nothing, is available as for kindle now and to pre-order in paperback, and her second, Midsummer Dreams is out in June. Alison has also written two Christmas Kiss novellas, both available as ebooks now.

You can find out more about Alison at www.alison-may.co.uk or by following her on Twitter @MsAlisonMay

 

About Sweet Nothing 

Would you risk everything for love?

Independent, straight-talking Trix Allen wouldn’t. She’s been in love once before and ended up with nothing. Now safely single, Trix is as far away from the saccharine-sweet world of hearts and flowers as it’s possible to be.

Ben Messina is the man who broke Trix’s heart. Now he’s successful the only thing rational Ben and free-spirited Trix see eye-to-eye on is the fact that falling in love isn’t part of the plan. But when Ben’s brother sets out to win the heart of Trix’s best friend, romance is very much in the air. Will Trix gamble everything on love and risk ending up with zero once again?

 

Sweet Nothing is available for kindle and you can pre-order it in paperback here