Well, that happened. Time to fix it.
Category: Editing
Fight scenes may be cool in movies, but they’re notoriously hard to write in books.
So how do you write one that’s just as exciting as anything you’d see on the screen?
Let’s find out by editing a viewer’s fight scene together!
Everyone says that the most important thing about writing is to just get something down on the page.
But sometimes, that’s easier said than done. What if the stuff that comes out of your brain and onto the page is absolute garbage?
Well never fear, friends. Because nothing you write will ever be worse than this auto-generated fanfiction.
I’m a huge fan of the Japanese cleaning-up legend Marie Kondo and her philosophy about “tidying up” your home and life.
In fact, seeing her made me wonder if it was possible to apply her idea about “sparking joy” into story-writing as well.
As it turns out, yes, it is not only possible, but it works great!
Many beginner writers think that “editing” means running spell check, grammar check, changing a few words, and then calling it a day.
But that couldn’t be further from the truth!
Editing is a long, long road paved with blood, tears and sweat.
Sometimes when you finish a first draft, or even when you’re just partway through a draft, you might sit back and realize that your story makes no sense.
It can be a terrible feeling. This story that you’ve poured months or years of your life into needs to be fixed, but you don’t know how to do it.
One good way to tackle that problem is by getting some practice beforehand fixing stories in books and movies that you don’t like.
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) has ended, and there are a lot of people out there with finished first drafts of books.
First off, congratulations! Writing is a long, arduous process, and finishing the first draft is an important first step. But now you might be wondering, what do I do next?
Well friend, it’s time to start the torturous process known as editing.
One of the hardest things for beginner writers to overcome is making sure that you’re SHOWing your readers a story, not just TELLing them one.
For horror, this is doubly important. No one wants to be told, “You’re scared now.” We want to see things happening on the page that make us wet our pants.
One of the hardest parts of writing a story that doesn’t get talk about often enough is getting to the final draft. What separates the 5th, 6th, 18th draft from the final one?
There’s no one single answer to that question, but a big part of it comes down to scalpel-level editing.
The beginning of the story is the most fragile part. The reader isn’t invested yet, so it doesn’t take much for them to lose interest and go back to YouTube, Netflix, video games, or staring at the rotating plate of instant mac and cheese in their microwave.
It’s incredibly important to make sure that the beginning of your story is as healthy as possible. If it’s not, then it’s time to call the Story Surgeon so they can operate!