Are you prepared for RevPit 2018?

Whether you're just hearing about the Revise & Resub (#RevPit) Contest for the first time in 2018 or joined us last year, this post is meant to help you decide whether you'll be ready to submit on April 21st and, if so, what you should do to prepare.

But before I launch into it, it's worth mentioning this: You don't need to be a contestant in order to benefit from the amazingly supportive and enthusiastic RevPit community. Even if you decide not to submit this April, you can still join the party: ask questions, favorite, retweet, shake your pom-poms for your friends, find a critique partner, and learn from the editors' #AskEditor and #tenqueries tweets by following @ReviseResub and tuning in to the #RevPit hashtag on Twitter.

RevPit 2018!

I'm thrilled to be a participating editor again in this year's Revise & Resub (#RevPit) Contest!

For those who are unfamiliar with this contest, it's a chance for authors who are querying or getting ready to query their novels to win 5 weeks of editing with a professional editor. There is no submission fee, and all the editors volunteer their time and expertise. The feedback we got last year was intensely gratifying: those who followed the Twitter feed, whether they submitted to the contest or no, learned a ton about writing and querying and were able to improve their query letters and opening pages as a result. As an added bonus, many came away from the experience with new writer friends and critique partners. Regardless of whether you're thinking of submitting, I highly encourage you to learn more about the contest at reviseresub.com. Submissions open April 21st.

This is my fourth time participating in a contest like this (P2P16 twice in 2016 and RevPit last year), and by now I have my approach to selecting and working with authors pretty well nailed down. Since the editors' processes tend to be of interest to authors submitting to the contest - both to get a sense of how much work is involved for us and to learn what to expect - in this post I'll give you a peek into my own process. Please note that each of us editors take a different approach; unless otherwise noted, what I am about to divulge pertains to me alone.

More clients' books published!

Two books I've worked on have been published in the last couple of months, and I'm feeling like a very lucky editor.

In August Michael Sussman published Incognolio, the surrealist novel we worked on together.

Bewildered but lovable author, Muldoon, is trapped in the dreamlike narrative of his own surrealistic novel. Beginning with just a title—Incognolio—he enters a bizarre fictional realm that plunges him into an identity crisis of anguishing proportions. Is he writing a story in which his stillborn twin sister has come to life, or is he the one who died at birth and it’s his sister who’s writing the novel? Guided only by the whims and dictates of his subconscious mind, Muldoon must unravel the mystery of Incognolio and write his way to freedom or succumb to madness.

And now, just a couple of months later, the book I chose to work with for the 2017 ShoreIndie Contest - a far-future biopunk novel, Malfunction by J.E. Purazzi - is out, too!

When Menrva, a geneticist in the subterranean city of survivors known as Bunker, responds to a call for help from Cowl, her former best friend, and Bas, a renegade cyborg, she makes a vital mistake and places all three of them in danger. As they struggle to escape City guards, cyborg soldiers, desperate scavengers, and ravenous aliens, they find in each other something they never expected: family.

During a battle, an attacking cyborg manages to overcome her programming just long enough to deliver a cryptic message. The trio is forced to decide if they will risk death - or worse, capture - to seek out the truth about the City, or if they will fight only for themselves.

This fast-paced, gritty first book of The Malfunction Trilogy introduces a future caught between destruction and oppression, where Menrva and her friends must decide if the ends justify the means.

You can check out Purazzi's brief interview about writing, editing, and self-publishing on the ShoreIndie blog.

I'm currently working on a blog post about the unusual structure of Incognolio, which I'll publish later this month, but in the meantime you can read Sussman's guest post about writing from the subconscious here.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to happy-dance myself down to my favorite coffee shop for a celebratory fancy espresso drink.

Quality Assurance by Soramimi Hanarejima (a guest post on writing)

Once again I'm delighted to welcome Soramimi Hanarejima back to the blog this week. Soramimi is intensely interested in the how, why, and what of creativity. His first post, "Where Creativity Meets Productivity," explored the How: natural tendencies, rhythms, and habits that writers can foster to maximize productivity during our writing time. In his second post, "The Purposeful Writer: Creative Writing Meets the Golden Circle," he explored the advantages to articulating our Why for writing. In the third and final post in this series, Soramimi discusses the What. In his own words: "How do we make sure that what we are producing—what’s on the page—really shines?"

Quality Assurance

by Soramimi Hanarejima

…we have to use the right words and the right words in the best order.—David Morley

Writing consists of a multitude of individual decisions, massive and complex control of language in depth and considerable personal responsibility…—A.L. Kennedy

A coherent text is a designed object… Like other designed objects, it comes about not by accident but by drafting a blueprint, attending to details, and maintaining a sense of harmony and balance.—Steven Pinker

So far in this series, we’ve looked at the importance of (a) identifying the fundamental impetus behind one’s writing and (b) the importance of regularly, effectively acting upon that impetus.

A writer who has grappled with these knows why she writes and how to get crucial work done, but how does she ensure that her work is in the end truly excellent? Her Why, the deep motivation driving her work, provides some assistance here; her work may be falling short because it isn’t channeling her Why as fully as it could. But clarity of intentions alone can’t keep the caliber of one’s writing reliably high. Writers need to have specific skills and resources to firmly establish the quality of their work. This brings us to the final part of Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle: Consistency of What. How do we make sure that what we are producing—what’s on the page—really shines?

My editing philosophy

My editing philosophy

My approach to working with editing clients is based on several beliefs I hold about the writing process and the best way for an editor and a writer to work together.

• The right information at the right time. Although not all writers’ processes look the same, there is a definite order of operations, and certain types of feedback belong in certain stages of the writing project. I give you the right information at the right time, which helps you focus on the right level of revision and prevents overwhelm.
• We are partners in the work. I am an articulate and honest outside perspective, a partner in your thinking and your process. I tell you what I see—what’s working and not working—and help you brainstorm solutions and a revision plan that will achieve your vision for the project and create a satisfying experience for readers.
• Mutual respect is key to a productive writer-editor relationship. I respect your time, money, process, and autonomy. This is why I offer high-quality services at fair rates and support your vision for your work rather than trying to superimpose my own.
• The right amount of challenge and support. It's my job to nudge you in the direction of better writing and storytelling. That said, whether you want to query, submit to contests, or self-publish, at some point you have to have to decide that it’s good enough. I help you determine where that point lies and support you in making your project the best it can be given the available resources.

What to expect

When you contact me, I'll start by asking you some basic questions about your project. You may not know all the answers right away, and that's okay; part of the purpose of the conversation is to give you information that can help you make those decisions. After I understand your needs, we'll work together to create an editing agreement that includes cost, turnaround time, and editing dates that fit the needs of the writing as well as your timeline and budget. Once we have a signed agreement, your editing dates are locked in and we can get to work.

Ready to start talking about your editing needs? Email me at sioneaeschliman (at) gmail (dot) com. I look forward to speaking with you soon!

The writing process in charts & graphs

Every so often on Facebook I see someone else's clever depiction of the writing process. For example this one:

Or this one:

What to look for in an editor

You've written the thing - the chapbook of poems, the collection of short stories or essays, the novel(la), the nonfiction book that's going to change the world (or at least hopefully make you a few bucks) - and now what you need is another pair of eyes to help you refine it to publish-perfect form.

You look in the LinkedIn forums or on Twitter, you ask friends and writer acquaintances for recommendations, and you come away with a few names. But how do you choose the right editor for you and your project?

Here are the top five qualities I look for in an editor of my own work.

1. Interested partner. The most important trait I look for in an editor of my own work is that they're interested in what I'm writing. If they're interested, they're going to be engaged in the project and more likely to be (nearly) as invested in the outcome as I am. I want that! I want to feel like the person I'm working with wants my project to succeed and it isn't "just a job" to them.

Feature article on E. S. Gibson & her book, SPLINTER

Last week I was contacted by Danielle Frost, a reporter for the Camas-Washougal Post-Record, who wanted to interview me for a feature article on my client E. S. Gibson, who has just published her first book at age 17. Of course I said yes.

The article is now live on the newspaper's website, and I encourage you all to go read it. Here's a little teaser:

“Most of the stories I have written are science fiction. It is big in my family. My parents also watched a lot of Star Trek when I was growing up.”

Congratulations, Liz! I'm so excited for you! =*D

An editing secret

 

Today I had a conversation with my developmental editor, Diane, about a short story I've been working on for a while. A few observations about that conversation:

•  While discussing the intelligent, compassionate and constructive feedback I received from several different readers, I experienced a range of emotions: frustration, impatience, disappointment, confusion, anger. Not because the feedback was negative or discouraging but because something in me rebelled against the directions they were pushing me to go. They had some excellent points, but some of their suggestions didn't feel right.
• "If you've written the story as well as you possibly can," said Diane at one point, "then you're done." Given another ten (or twenty or hundred) years, I'm sure I could write the story better. I could even spend another 20 hours this month playing around with structure and point of view and experimenting with expanding it in certain ways. But that's not what I want for myself. I don't want to even spend another 10 hours on this story. I want to finish this story in another three or four hours tops and move on to other things because I've already given it quite a lot of time, attention and brain space.
• Then Diane articulated quite clearly the core of the story - also sometimes called "the center of gravity" or the "theme" - and light bulbs went off in my head. Suddenly I understood what the problem was and saw how to fix it. Hallelujah! (Well, I think. I'm going to revise the story on that assumption and run it by Diane again to see if that fixes it.)

This led us to a discussion about my approach to editing in response to developmental feedback, which I realized I wanted to share here with you.

Takeaways from Rose City Comic Con

This weekend I went to a comic convention for the first time in my life. My concerns before the event were many: that I would feel old compared to the average convener; that I wouldn't be nerdy enough; that I would feel out of place because I wasn't doing cosplay; that I would feel overwhelmed by all the people and vendors and stuff, as I've felt at Wordstock in the past. (This last one was an especially big concern, since I've felt burned out lately and have been making a concerted effort to give myself time to recharge.)

But all my worry was, as usual, for naught. I had a wonderful time. The energy was laid-back, the other conveners considerate and inclusive, and the panels I attended fascinating. Plus I saw Hoggle and Sarah from Labyrinth! =*D

The following are some of my highlights from Rose City Comic Con. (Obviously could not share every single moment/quote because then this post would be far too long.)

On being a reader-editor

In the last few months I have recommended the same few books to a couple of different people, each book for its own reason.

One of these books was traditionally published, and the other two self-published.

Two of these books I recommended because they're well-written, well-edited and contain some intriguing metaphors that I find personally meaningful. One of these books I recommended as a good example of a story that has serious flaws - it needs developmental as well as line and copy editing - but is nonetheless entertaining and has (in my opinion) some worthwhile aspects.

Does it surprise you to learn that the one book that needs serious editing - that I consider worth reading despite its myriad flaws - is the traditionally-published one? It surprised me when I realized it.

Happy New Year! (and stuff)

Happy New Year from Sione & Milton

It's the year 2014, and if you add up the numbers (2+0+1+4) they equal seven, and someone once told me that's good luck, so I guess we'd all better prepare for a lucky year this year.

Some people like to set New Year's resolutions. Not me. My New Year's resolution several years ago was to never make another resolution again because I never stick to them, and I've stuck to it ever since. Oh. Wait. Hmm...

Well anyway, instead of making New Year's resolutions I like to have goals. What's the difference? you ask. A resolution is a commitment to doing a certain thing, e.g. Go to the gym 3x a week or Stop swearing in front of the kids, whereas a goal sets an intention in a general direction and is subject to change as my needs/perception of reality changes. Yes, perhaps it is splitting hairs, but it makes me feel better.

My goals this year, in approximate order in which I hope to achieve them:

Guest post on Nancy Christie's blog: What to look for in an editor

On Friday, while Nancy Christie's interview was featured on this blog, my guest post "What to look for in an editor" went up on hers. How's that for tricksy? ;*)

Excerpt:

You've written the thing - the chapbook of poems, the collection of short stories or essays, the novel(la), the nonfiction book that's going to change the world (or at least hopefully make you a few bucks) - and now what you need is another pair of eyes to help you refine it into publish-perfect form.

You look in the LinkedIn forums or on Twitter, you ask friends and writer acquaintances for recommendations, and you come away with a few names. But how do you choose the right editor for you and your project?

Here are the top five qualities I look for in an editor of my own work....

Read the rest of the article here on Nancy's blog.

What I (re)learned this week

Here are three fairly unrelated things about writing that I learned in the last week-ish.

1. You can't just go on about your busy business and expect the ideas to elbow their way past all the other junk into your brain; you have to make space for them to come. You have to invite them and wait.

Photo by Rick Campbell

Sigh. I thought I knew what I was going to blog about this week. Twice I started blog posts, got a paragraph into them, and then abandoned them. I'd start writing, and then I'd realize I didn't really know what I wanted to say. But instead of sitting with it, instead of making space to think about it, I moved onto the next thing. And I almost didn't write a blog post today because I didn't already know what I wanted to write.

What is a sample edit?

One of the most important parts of my process when talking with potential editing clients is the sample edit. The sample edit acts as a kind of two-way interview between the writer and me. It allows both of us to have a sneak peek into what it would look like to work together and see whether we're a good fit.

What is it?
It's a two-way work sample. I see a sample of the writer's manuscript, and they see a sample of my editing work. Depending on several factors that I won't go into here, it may be a sample of developmental editing, of substantive editing, or of both.

What purposes does it serve?
It gives both the writer and me information we need to decide whether to enter into an editing relationship with one another. I guess that might sound a little strange, but here's what I mean:

What you should know before hiring an editor

When people contact me to inquire about editing services, there are several questions I find myself asking each time--not necessarily in the same order--that help me understand their vision for their work, what they need, and what resources they have to work with. You might not know all the answers to these questions right away, and that's okay--part of the purpose of the initial consultation is to help you make some decisions. But the more you know coming into that conversation, the quicker we can determine whether we're a good fit and, if so, how to move forward together.

What are you writing?
This one's easy to answer. (And if it isn't, you should probably check out writing coaching instead of editing at this point.) I ask it because I do my best editing work when I'm interested in what I'm editing. Luckily for me, I'm interested in a lot of different subjects and genres - TESOL, art therapy, higher education, food, travel, lifestyle, relationships, culture, romance and erotica, contemporary fiction, YA lit, memoir, poetry...to name a few. But if someone brings me a science textbook about little-known deep sea crustaceans, chances are I'm not a good fit for the project. (Unless they do the book like this.)

What is copy editing?

And finally, as a follow-up to "What is developmental editing?" and "What is line editing?" I present a post about copy editing--what it is, whether it's necessary, and why people pay for it.

[Please note that this post is written for the academic writers, the independent authors, and the creative writers submitting to lit mags. If you are querying your manuscript, it's reasonable to expect that a publisher would provide copy editing in accordance with their style guidelines if they choose to sign you.]

What is copy editing?
Copy editing is the phase of editing that focuses on correcting errors in spelling, punctuation, capitalization, syntax and grammar and on ensuring that formatting is consistent (and, if you're an academic writer, that it follows your discipline's or the journal's style guidelines) throughout the document. Copy editing is, by and large, a mechanical process. Things are correct or incorrect.

That said, I think it worth noting that creative writers can get away with a lot more, in the name of style, than academic writers can. In academic writing, it's important to be ultra-correct. While it's fine in everyday speech and creative writing to say, "When a person comes to a certain conclusion, they have to act on it," in academic writing it would be considered incorrect, and I'd change the "they have to act on it" to "he or she has to act on it" so that the pronoun matches the subject.

What is line editing?

As a follow-up to my post "What is developmental editing?" I want to talk today about line editing--what it is, whether it's necessary, and why someone would pay for it.

What is line editing?
Line editing is cutting, rearranging, and/or rewriting for clarity, flow, and consistency of tone. It requires the editor to be able to understand the connections between the big picture and the details and to use her or his analytical and creative skills to determine how best to convey the writer's meaning in a style consistent with the writer's voice.

There's a little bit of overlap with developmental editing in that they may both involve some rearranging and suggestions about what to add, but whereas developmental editing looks at the work as a whole, when I line edit I go section by section (or chapter by chapter). The rearranging I do in line editing is within a paragraph or a chapter, and the suggestions for additions are along the lines of "I suggest a sentence here that tells us how she feels about what he just said."

Line editing can include (but is not limited to):

When should you start working with an editor?

One of the questions that comes up almost every time as I talk with prospective clients is when they should start working with an editor. At what point in the writing process is it most appropriate to contract with an editor? When is it too early and merely a waste of time?

The short answer: 

You should start working with an editor when you need help.

The longer answer:

"Need help" is defined as: when you're stuck on your writing project (aka "writer's block") or don't have enough distance from it to do what needs to be done next. Or when you have no idea what needs to be done next.

The longest answer:

What is developmental editing?

The topic of developmental editing--what it is, why anyone in their right mind would pay for it, whether it's necessary--has come up several times in the last week or so in conversations I've had with various people, including a potential client, a small business coach, a fellow writer/editor, and a marketing specialist I met at a friend's birthday gathering.

In a July 2012 post about editing and proofreading I gave a very brief rundown of the three types of editing I do: developmental, line, and copy. But the conversations over this last week have led me to want to provide a more detailed description of developmental editing here.