rewrites | Meredith Mansfield, Author

Posts Tagged ‘rewrites’

Maps

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, illustrations, Learning, revisions, rewrites, sequels, series, world building, writing on May 28, 2014| 2 Comments »

Fantasy novels often have maps at the beginning. Sometimes, even if the map doesn’t make it into the final, published book, the author draws one out for reference as part of the world building.

I figured out how to include a map in my ebooks with THE BARD’S GIFT.

It’s not hard. It’s just another step. But it also involves making sure that the illustration (which is what a map is, when you come right down to it) is sized correctly and actually will be readable on at least most readers. (If you’re reading on your smart phone, you’re on your own.)

But, let’s be honest. THE BARD’S GIFT is an historical fantasy. I didn’t have to start from scratch with that map.

Now, I also have a map for the world of the DUAL MAGICS series. But it’s a hand-scribbled-for-my-reference kind of map. Don’t laugh.

Yeah. That one’s not going to make it into the book.

I’d kind of like to include a map, though. There is software out there, mostly written for rpg gamers, that will make more professional looking maps. There are two problems with that, though.

The first, of course, is price. I need to decide if it’s really worth it on top of the other expenses. Over the course of the whole series, it might be. Plus, I have other stories, like DREAMER’S ROSE, that also have hand-scribbled maps.

There’s also the question of whether the story really needs it. Beta readers of THE BARD’S GIFT expressed a wish for a map. Beta readers of THE SHAMAN’S CURSE never mentioned it. (Neither actually had a map when they read the stories.) So, maybe it’s not such a big deal.

The second problem is the learning curve. If I started today, it would still likely delay publication of THE SHAMAN’S CURSE just to produce something that didn’t look completely amateurish. But one of the great things about ebooks is that you can go back and upload a newer version. Some retailers, like Amazon and Smashwords, even allow customers to download newer versions for free. So, I could go back and add the map when I finally have one that I think looks good enough to publish.

Maybe I’ll have a map–and an updated version of THE SHAMAN’S CURSE–when I publish the sequel, THE IGNORED PROPHECY.

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Revising Sometimes Means Deleting

Posted in writing, tagged Cover Art, e-publishing, fantasy, revisions, rewrites, writing on May 25, 2014| 2 Comments »

So, this week and probably next, I’m concentrating on getting through what will hopefully be the final edits/revisions to THE SHAMAN’S CURSE. I want to get this formatted and ready to go for a July (or possibly August) launch. Having it ready early will allow me to do something in the right order for a change–actually send out advance review copies so the reviews can hit at around the time of the launch.

I’ve made good progress this week. I deleted four whole chapters. And I have my eye on two more that might very well get the axe, too. I always felt that the first third to maybe half of TSC was a bit too slow, a little too distanced from the central conflict. (I physically separate my MC from the antagonist as his first try/fail cycle, so this is at least somewhat inevitable, but that doesn’t mean things have to be drawn out.)

Some important things happen in that section. But there were a few other chapters that were establishing things for later. The thing is, despite the common advice “Show, don’t tell”, you don’t actually have to show everything. In fact, you shouldn’t. Some things can and should be told. In this case, it’s going to do more for the pacing of the story than the scenes/chapters did for set up. And I can still put in a paragraph or so to provide the necessary set up–just somewhere else.

But, the thing is, just a couple of months ago, I couldn’t see that. I needed the critiques that pointed out that some things didn’t seem to really move the story forward. And I needed the time to get enough distance from the story to see what those scenes were.

Sometimes, progress actually means deleting portions of your story, but it takes some distance from it to be able to see that. And those deleted scenes/chapters? Expect to see them during the launch.

Oh, and I think I’m finally making progress toward cover art for this series. There may be a cover reveal before too long.

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Cover Art

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, marketing, Multiple Projects, rewrites, series, writing, Young Adult on May 18, 2014| Leave a Comment »

I’m targeting early July (maybe 7/7/14) for the launch of THE SHAMAN’S CURSE.

For the stories I choose to epublish myself, for whatever reason, I do my own cover art. Most often I use images from Dreamstime, although there are other, similar sources out there. I just usually have better luck finding the kind of images I’m looking for there. And very often, I can find one perfect or nearly perfect image, like the ones I used for FIRE AND EARTH and THE BARD’S GIFT.

Or one that needs just a little additional tweak, like the one I used for BLOOD WILL TELL. (I had to add the dragon.)

But TSC is causing me no end of trouble. It’s not a lack of images, exactly. I have any number of them filed away in my lightbox on Dreamstime. But no one of them is quite exactly right for this story. Or, there’s one that’s pretty close to a scene from my story. If this was a stand-alone novel, I’d probably use that one. But it’s not. TSC is the first book in the DUAL MAGICS series (planned to be four books).

That’s part of the problem. I need to come up with something that will tie the covers of all four books together. Not the same image, necessarily. Though a single common element could work. Or a similar feel.

For the Chimeria series (BLOOD WILL TELL, BLOOD IS THICKER, and, eventually, BLOOD STAINS) I’m using dramatic, magical skies and the same dragon silhouettes.

I haven’t come up with any inspiration quite that simple for this series. Not that will work, anyway.

Of course, I’ve gone to amazon to look at covers of somewhat similar books (sword and sorcery, more or less–although TSC is more spear and sorcery). That’s given me some templates to try to work with. If I can just muster enough skill to make any of them work. So far, that’s also been part of the challenge.

One of the many challenges I’m wrestling with is coming up with some image or combination of images that conveys something about the story while at the same time giving sufficient clues that this is a fantasy story which will involve magic. Not, for example, a western or a historical romance. (One image, which is nearly perfect otherwise, just screams that the title should be something like “How to Tame Your Highlander”.)

I’ve got to come as close to perfection as reasonably possible. The cover is perhaps the most important part of the marketing. I’ll get there eventually.

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Getting Unstuck

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, Learning, marketing, Multiple Projects, Real Life, rewrites, writing, Young Adult on April 13, 2014| 2 Comments »

I’ve been a little bit stuck on my rewrite of THE IGNORED PROPHECY. Now, partly that’s been due to some real-life issues that are mostly beyond my immediate control. I’m working on the things I can change eventually, but everything just takes more time than I’d like. And, in the meantime, things are just going to be hard.

Among the things I have to learn to do better is marketing. It never was my best subject or something I’m very comfortable with. But it is a fact of life for a writer and if I don’t learn to do it at least adequately I’ll never make this work. I’m taking a flying leap on Story Cartel, hoping for some reviews of THE BARD’S GIFT. We’ll see how that works out.

I’m also still working on getting “Wyreth’s Flame” free on Amazon.

If anyone would like to help out by reporting the lower prices (free) on Barnes and Noble and Apple iBookstore, I’d appreciate it.

Now, this is bound to impact on my writing, but it wasn’t all that was going on and it took me a while to figure it out. I’m doing a rewrite of some of my earliest writing, going through chapter by chapter and trying to bring that story up to my current writing level. I underestimated how hard this was going to be. And what was holding me back was that I wasn’t satisfied with the result.

The first few chapters are pretty solid (aside from the problems inherent in starting a sequel), but I just wasn’t going deep enough in subsequent chapters. I’m going back to fix that. It just is a fact of life that every chapter is going to require more than one pass. I’d always known that. Where I went wrong was in thinking I could go straight through the manuscript (the way I do a second or third draft) and then do the next pass. That’s just not working. I have to do multiple passes on each chapter until I’m happy enough with the result to move on. Then, I’ll likely have to do still more revision passes, probably on the whole manuscript. Nobody said this was going to be easy, but I think the story is worth it.

Moral of the story: Don’t bite off more than you can chew.

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Building Up Steam

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, marketing, Multiple Projects, revisions, rewrites, sequels, short stories, writing, Young Adult on March 30, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Well, the computer problems I had earlier sort of took the wind out of my sails for a while, but I’m starting to build up steam again.

I’ve gotten through a slow patch in THE IGNORED PROPHECY (sequel to THE SHAMAN’S CURSE) and into a section where more is happening. Things are moving faster now, both in the story and in my rewrite of the story. That slow patch is a section I’m going to have to revisit in the next patch, of course. I’ll need to either punch it up or delete a fair bit, probably some of each. But rewrites, like revisions, are an iterative process. The key is not to try to fix everything all at once, but concentrate on a certain aspect in each pass. This pass is more about technique (and a little bit about adding emotion as I improve things like dialog mechanics and internal dialog).

Meanwhile, I’m about ready to start on the final edits and formatting of “Wyreth’s Flame” for publication next month. I’ve pretty much got the cover:

The plan is for “Wyreth’s Flame” to be free everywhere (which will probably take some work to bring about on Amazon). This short story was the germ that eventually grew into THE BARD’S GIFT.

The ebook for “Wyreth’s Flame” will include a bonus section with a substantial portion of THE BARD’S GIFT.

Oh, the first five chapters of TBG are available free on wattpad, if you want to take a look. I’m putting out a chapter a week, which means it’ll take 33 more weeks for the whole story to be available there (around the middle of November).

So, things are moving well again. Just in time for me to start work at a new job (part time) tomorrow. I’ll be a crossing guard. Wish me luck.

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Rewrites: The Easy and the Hard

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, Learning, Multiple Projects, Point of View, rewrites, sequels, writing on March 23, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Lately, I’ve been working mostly on rewriting THE IGNORED PROPHECY, which is the sequel to THE SHAMAN’S CURSE. Now, TIP is the second book I wrote (third, if you count that thing back in college, but let’s not talk about that one). I learned more from writing TIP than I ever did from the first version of TSC.

TIP is the book that made me into a modified discovery writer, because I managed to write the whole first version, over 100,000 words, without actually telling a story. I knew it wasn’t a story as I finished the last chapter of the first draft, but I didn’t know why. It took quite a few false starts and incorrect diagnoses before I figured it out. It was missing a central conflict–the thing that tells you that the story starts here (when the problem is first made clear) and ends there (when the conflict is resolved). The central conflict is the river current that pulls a story forward. Without it, you have characters doing things, other things happening to characters, but you don’t have a story.

Now, I will say that I’ve seen that particular problem in plenty of traditionally published sequels, even some popular ones. I call those bridge stories. The point of the middle book of a trilogy sometimes appears to be only to get the characters from the end of book one to the start of book two. And there are always those stories (think LORD OF THE RINGS) where no individual book is really meant to be a story. They have to be taken as a whole.

Still, I want the book of my series to be able to stand alone. And the first version of TIP didn’t. I believe I fixed that problem years ago. (In this case, it’s a mystery. Just why is my main character’s magic behaving so strangely?) Still, it won’t hurt to heighten that central problem as I go through the rewrite.

There are clearly a lot of things I hadn’t learned, yet, though. Quite apart from it being a sequel (which I’ve posted about before), there are many facets of this rewrite that are possibly harder than writing a first draft from scratch. And, of course, some things that are easier.

The easy, first. The characters and the plot are already set. While I will certainly add some scenes as I go, and I may delete others, the plot itself is already there.

The hard part. Well, there’s a lot to clean up. I clearly didn’t have a great understanding of dialog mechanics. I didn’t begin to know how to show emotions. And don’t get me started on the number of point-of-view violations I’m finding. In fact, point of view is going to be an issue I’ll need to tackle in a later draft. I’ll need to decide whether to give certain pov characters their own chapters, or just use scene breaks.

The hard truth is that even though I’m working through a completed draft, it’s going to take several passes to bring this manuscript up to my current standard. Well, that’s just another way to learn–and drive the lessons home for my future stories. And I will make TIP into the story it’s capable of being–eventually.

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Things May be Stabilizing

Posted in writing, tagged fantasy, Multiple Projects, priorities, Real Life, rewrites, writing, Young Adult on March 19, 2014| 2 Comments »

I don’t want to speak to soon, but it looks like things might be stabilizing around here.

Oddly enough–and odd things do happen in old houses–it’s possible that at least part of my computer problems may have something to do with variations in the electricity. Both computers (even the one I would have sworn was dead) have improved when plugged in in a different room. That’s how I was able to recover my files earlier this week. Big sigh of relief.

I can’t leave whatever computer (both deskt0p models) I’m currently working on in the other room because the internet connection is here. (No WiFi here, yet.) But, that’s something that can be changed and I’ve been intending to set up an office in the other room anyway. So, it looks like those plans just may have gotten a higher priority.

Also, the reason I’m posting late today is that it looks like I’m actually about to rejoin the ranks of the employed (part time, anyway). That’ll make a huge difference around here. And, not coincidentally, still leave me time for my writing.

There are still a lot of things on my plate, but maybe, just maybe, there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

So, now, it’s back to work on my current projects. And next time, hopefully, I’ll be able to actually post about writing.

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Not All Rewrites Are Equal

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, Learning, Multiple Projects, revisions, rewrites, sequels, writing, Young Adult on March 9, 2014| 2 Comments »

I’m currently involved in two different rewrites. Very different–and not just because of the stories.

DUAL MAGICS:

The two different kinds of magic–one acquired by initiation and one inherited in the blood–have always been completely separate. Until now.

Not quite epic fantasy. I’d call them sword and sorcery, but there aren’t any swords, really. Spear and sorcery?

In these, I’ve gone back to one of my very first stories. It’s actually a four-book series. I’d written the first two before getting stuck on the third. I’m a much better writer now. Part of what these stories need is craft-related. Some of it is streamlining the story, which is still basically the same. I’ve already done the rewrite on THE SHAMAN’S CURSE and I have it out to some beta readers. I’m on Chapter 5 of THE IGNORED PROPHECY, which is where I’m running into the interesting issues of starting a sequel I wrote about in my last post.

In both of these, the story has remained almost exactly the same, although in the rewrite I’ve chosen to expand some things and reduce or delete others. It’s almost more like a really deep, extensive revision than a rewrite, although scenes do have to be rewritten to fix the craft deficiencies in the original. That’s why I can work on this at the same time I’m working on my other project.

DREAMER’S ROSE:

I don’t have a good log line for this one, yet. It’s changed so significantly. Part of it explores aspects of the Hercules legend that fascinate me. (I mean, this guy never succeeded in anything in his life except killing monsters. And then he became a god. How did that work out?) Except I’ve turned the whole legend on its head.

But now that’s only the beginning of the story. The first part will stay basically the same. Again, it needs a rewrite/revision to bring it up to the current level of my writing craft. But after that, everything will be new. Completely re-imagined. Two thirds of this will truly be a first draft–and I’m almost to that part. Looking forward to it.

This one is going to provide some interesting challenges in structure. It has three main characters, but one character’s story starts several years before the other two characters are born. Right now, I’m just writing chronologically. I’ll think about whether I need to rearrange things after I’ve got the story down.

Two very different kinds of rewrites.

In other news, I’ve decided to put THE BARD’S GIFT up on wattpad, one chapter a week, so you can start reading it for free. (Hint: You’ll get the story much faster if you just buy it. It’s only $2.99 on Amazon)

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The Trouble with Sequels

Posted in writing, tagged characters, e-publishing, fantasy, Middle Grade, rewrites, sequels, writing, Young Adult on March 5, 2014| Leave a Comment »

I’ve written about this before, but it’s what’s at the top of my mind again today.

As a reader, I love a good series. I already know I enjoy the author’s work, the setting, the characters. As a writer, it’s something I really want to do. So far, I’ve only got one (very short) series: BLOOD WILL TELL and its sequel BLOOD IS THICKER.

Eventually, there’ll be a third volume in this series, but I’m not ready to write it just yet.

I actually have three other stories that should be series.

MAGIC AND POWER will probably end up being the series title and there’ll be at least one more book following GREEN MAGIC (which is the current title for what used to be MAGIC AND POWER). That one will explore the same world through a different set of characters.

I have ideas for at least three more stories following MAGE STORM (or STORM OF MAGIC). Middle grade is a particular problem, though, that could be the subject of another post.

DUAL MAGICS starts with THE SHAMAN’S CURSE (TSC) and should be four books when complete. (Look for TSC later this year.) I’m currently working, part of my time, on the rewrite of the second book, THE IGNORED PROPHECY (TIP).

And that’s where the trouble with sequels comes in. It’s hard to start a sequel. You, as the author, already know these characters, the world you’ve created for them, the magic system. But, here’s the deal: you can’t assume your readers do.

When a book is launched out into the world, the author loses a measure of control. One of the things you can’t control is whether a reader starts where you want them to. TSC is the beginning. But somebody just might ignore that and pick up TIP for whatever reason. Maybe they just like the cover better. Maybe Amazon suggests that one. Whatever. You can do everything in your power to encourage the reader to start at the beginning and it still might not work.

Or, you know, some time might elapse between reading the first and second volumes in a series and readers may have forgotten a lot about the characters and the world.

So, you have to do the very best you can to make each book as easy to start as possible. Ease readers into this world and the characters. And there’s the problem. I ended TSC with the main characters in a part of the world that probably needs the most description. It’s not even remotely a typical medieval fantasy setting. As I start TIP, I need to find a way to introduce that without boring readers who already know all of this because they just read TSC.

And then there are the characters. There are about a dozen important named characters present at the point where TSC ends. I don’t want to dump all of them into the first couple of chapters. That just becomes confusing, especially since some of them have complicated family relationships to each other. Ideally, I’d like to introduce them a few at a time.

I’ve chosen to start with the two main characters taking some private time when a situation develops. That’s fine. I was able to refer to a couple of other characters and bring two more in to help deal with the situation. Good so far.

Now, I’m confronted with the need to break off and go to another setting and another group of characters for a chapter. I know how they relate to the first group. It’s not going to be so easy to figure out how to make that clear to the reader.

This is just one of the things that makes sequels so hard to get right.

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Things I Learned at IndieReCon

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, events, fantasy, Learning, marketing, Multiple Projects, rewrites, writing, Young Adult on March 2, 2014| Leave a Comment »

It’s going to take a long time to really process–not to say try out–the things I learned at IndieReCon. (BTW, almost all of the content (minus a few twitter chats and one facebook chat) is still available on their website.

I’ll focus on a couple of things I’m putting into action now.

Amazon Book Description:

This is the description that appears second on your book page, below the cover and price. It’s your chance to tell readers what the book is about, similar to a query letter in some ways. In fact, back-cover blurbs are very often what’s seen here. But you can do more than that.

What I didn’t know is that you can use some HTML tags in the description. I don’t know what all of the allowed tags are, but I know a few of them:

<H2> </H2>This is a heading tag. On Amazon, it will make the text inside the tags appear larger, bold, and orange.
<B></B> Bold

These are the only tags I’ve tried so far. I used them on the description for THE CHIMERIA OMNIBUS.

Take a look. Kind of snazzy.

Free Books:

This one’s kind of interesting. I’ve heard before that free books, particularly making the first book in a series free, can enhance sales. I kind of worked around this with BLOOD IS THICKER by making THE CHIMERIA OMNIBUS (containing both BLOOD WILL TELL and BLOOD IS THICKER) temporarily the same price as either book alone.

That turns out to have been me, well, not quite getting the point. Not the first time. It was the Write, Publish, Repeat podcast that made it clear to me. It’s not just giving the reader a bargain. It’s giving them a friction-free way to try before they buy. Something they don’t even have to think about, or not much. “Friction-free” as they described it.

It’s not the same as a free sample. Free samples, by their definition, end somewhere in the first fifth of the book. They aren’t complete. Now, if you have a series of three or more books (which I don’t yet), it can make very good sense to make the first book free. If people like it, they’ll likely buy the rest of the series. But that’s not the only way this can work.

What I’m working on now is polishing up the short story that was the genesis of THE BARD’S GIFT. The plan is to publish this for free, probably with a sample of the first couple of chapters of TBG at the back. It’ll take some time. I’ve sent the story out for some more critiques. I’ll need to find a new title for it. (“The Bard’s Gift” would likely be confusing.) Then there’s making a cover and formatting. Plus the time it will take to ask Amazon to make it permafree. Look for this some time in April.

When I get around to THE SHAMAN’S CURSE, “Becoming Lioness” will only need a brush-up to fulfill the same role. It’s already in the same world and involves some of the same characters as TSC.

More to come.

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