The Value of Editing, Revising, and Not Giving Up

I use Grammarly's free grammar checker because it's a nerdastically fabulous source to ensure that you don''t sound like a twelve year old with a MySpace account. 

My first novel took about 4 years. The 1st draft was giant binder full of handwritten pages. Then I was finally able to get a computer, but no internet and type it up. With dreams of book deals dancing in my head, I checked out the latest copy of Writer's Market and mailed out a slew of query letters.

Naturally, that didn't turn out so well. After a few months of dejection, I got an idea for another book.

I hand wrote the pages at work and was encouraged when a coworker snatched them from my hands and demanded to know what happened next. 

I finished it shortly before I was able to get the internet. I immediately googled agents and sent a flurry of email queries. I got a few requests, but mostly rejections.

I tweaked the manuscript and researched the industry and eventually made friends with other authors. Finally I found what I was supposed to have done in the first place: have other people critique it first. Many other writers graciously volunteered. 

Alas, none of them ever sent me feedback, except for one, who critiqued the first couple chapters and flat out said, "I stopped reading here. I'm sorry." 

Thankfully, one saint of a reader made her way through the whole thing and pointed me in the write direction on fixing it.

I rewrote it and found more beta readers.This time, all made it through and provided excellent feedback. None seemed to adore it, however. I rewrote it again before sending out more queries and getting MORE rejections. 

"My book SUCKS!" I wailed, and tossed it in the proverbial trunk and began a new book ...in a completely different subgenre. My 3rd novel, BITE ME, YOUR GRACE ultimately landed me my fist book deal. And that one also endured at least 6 revisions.

However, my previous book, WRENCHING FATE lingered in my mind. Using all I learned from my 3rd book, I completely overhauled and rewrote the 2nd one. It was practically my 4th novel.

I found more critique buddies and guess what: they LIKED it! Alas, with the publication of BITE ME, YOUR GRACE and working on the other books in that series, as well as working on other shiny new ideas, I had little time to work on WRENCHING FATE.

But that story never left my mind.

Whenever I had a spare moment, I utilized the feedback I received from my beta readers and critique partners and revised it again.

And again.

Now it's in the hands of the final batch of beta readers.

And guess what?

They're already messaging me to tell me they LOVE it!! 

The moral of this story is that if you know deep in your heart that you have a good story, it is indeed possible to make it a great, well written story. 

It just takes a TON of hard work, determination, lots of learning, and countless revisions. Utilizing sources like Grammarly, which I mentioned above, as well as reader feedback and learning from your own mistakes can aid you in your journey to success.  

Lessons in Beta Reading, Part I.

In the past 30 days I've read and critiqued 3 manuscripts. In return, my buddies have been working on mine as well. One thing I've learned from doing this is that it helps me to become a better writer. Many of the errors and mistakes I've found in my buddies' stories are often found in my own. Now when my buddies and I go through each other's work we go through it all the way, which means we point out spelling, punctuation, and grammar issues as well as add comments and feedback within the text. Over the course of my reading I've spotted enough patterns to merit two blog posts.

Part One: Common Errors in Spelling, Grammar, and Punctuation.

1.) Its vs. It's. Its = belonging to it. It's = It is. Example: It's the biggest one I've ever seen! Its girth is terrifying! (Hey, I'm a romance author. Of course that's the first thing that came to mind.)

2.) Loose vs. Lose. Loose= opposite of tight. Lose = loss of something. Your corset is loose. Your girls may lose their support.

3.) Your vs. You're Your = belonging to you. You're = you are. Ex: Hey, hot guy, you lost your shirt. You're making my tummy flutter.

4.) Each other = 2 words. I had a nasty habit of making it one. Please say I'm not alone!

5.) Questions end with question marks! I blame JR Ward for this one. For some reason her characters turn their questions into demanding statements to emphasize how manly pissed off they are...or something. It worked for a bit but got old fast. "What are you doing." = wrong. "What are you doing?" = no headache.

6.) Plural nouns vs. Names anding with S. For some reason a lot of people want to treat a main character with a name ending with "S" as a plural noun, which is incorrect. Proper use: Silas's breath caught at the girls' incredible music. Wrong: Silas' breath caught...etc.

7.) Commas and the word "then." I don't know anyone, including myself that hasn't had an issue with this. There is no comma before then! Ex. She filled the pitcher then carried it to the table. NOT She filled the pitcher, then carried it to the table. Don't ask me why that's wrong, it just is. (HEY, DEAN, IF YOU ARE READING THIS, PLEASE TELL US WHY, OH FELLOW NERD PAL!)

8.) Proper punctuation with dialogue. This is was a disease I had until a wonderful beta cured me. Wrong: "Blah blah blah." He said. Right: "Blah blah blah," he said.

I know there's tons more, so please feel free to chime in! Next time I'll focus on structural issues.

10 New Things I've Learned as an "Experienced" Author

After having written eight novels, multiple A-grade academic papers, and a couple award winning short stories, I feel I have the right to call myself "experienced."

However, I am still a newbie in the grand scheme and I have learned a ton of things in the last few years. Some are laughably simple, especially the ones involving formatting manuscripts. Please don't laugh at me, more technically inclined people.

After all, the first one and a half books I wrote by hand in large notebooks because I couldn't afford a computer. So of course when I finally got one, I had to learn how to use the thing along with Microsoft Word. And let me tell you, after nearly five years I am still learning Word. So about half the things on this list will deal with that. :)

Without further ado, here's a few things that have improved my job.

1.) Holy Crap there's a difference between "enter" and "tab?"

Apparently hitting tab instead of enter not only adds an extra space, but it also screws up the format. Paranormal Romance author, Terry Spear, directed me to the little paragraph symbol on my MS Word toolbar. Tabs are revealed as arrows and extra spaces....

2.) Whoa, a better way to find extra spaces without relying on eyesight alone?

That nifty paragraph thingie also reveals extra spaces as dots. When you have them before a paragraph break it looks like the paragraph symbol has a nipple and that makes me giggle. Then I sigh in gratitude that I don't have to rely on my eyes alone anymore.

3.) I will always need fresh perspectives on my work. 

No matter how many tips I've received from other writers or how much I think I've improved, there are still times when I think I've written my best work ever and have others reinforce that belief...and I still need to be struck down by those who know better. Because one's work can and should ALWAYS be improved.

4.) More in depth outlines really help me.

I'm like a hybrid between a "plotter" and a "pantser." I always have the characters and at least a scene or two in mind before I start a project. Then I slowly make placeholder notes of scenes between whatever I'm writing.

However, once you're contracted with a publisher you need to have the synopsis and other plot details figured out often BEFORE you write the first sentence. As daunting as it is, I've noticed that doing so makes writing the book go a whole lot easier as it clears a path away from too many rabbit holes.

5.) Habit words will never cease to haunt me.

Like a persistent and constantly mutating virus, habit words infect EVERY manuscript. Most recent ones have been "Was," "That," "And," "But," and "Now." Critique partners and beta readers are priceless for spotting these buggers. The "Find" feature in Word really helps too.

6.) You can set your preferred font.

I don't know how many times I reopened word to have it automatically reset itself to Calibri 11 and exploded into screaming expletives. I mean, who the hell uses that stupid font? I think I manually reset it and shrieked, "Times New Roman 12, bitch!" for over two years before someone, not even a writer, pointed out, "Hey, you can go to 'set default font' y'know."

It was too much of a happy day for me to kick myself for being a moron. Speaking of which...

7.) Inserting page breaks REALLY helps!

Seriously, I spent 8 manuscripts and countless revisions scrolling up and down entire documents and manually tweaking stuff so each chapter is neatly centered on the top of a new page. Then someone's all "Insert Page Break is a lot easier, y'know." This is another D'oh! moment.

8.) How to center stuff like chapters and scene breaks.

I am so grateful for the times I brought by laptop to the bar. Especially the time my drinking buddy leaned over and said, "Control E."

9.) Other authors are incredibly supportive!

Seriously with everything from promo help, advice, and a shoulder to cry on, other authors have been there for me in ways that have me overcome with gratitude. I hope to repay the favor whenever I can.

10.) How to be assertive about my "I need to work" time.

Being a writer is a work at home job for the most part. Some are lucky to have an office to lock themselves in. I am not. My writing area is the couch with my laptop sitting on a TV dinner table. Couple that with 3 kids, a husband, 3 cats, a dog, and surprise guests and it's damn near impossible to get anything done.

Over the years I've had to learn how to make it clear to others that writing is my job and when I'm on my laptop, I am AT WORK!!! Sometimes it gets through their heads. And sometimes I need to have the feline overlords guard me.

10 Tips on Becoming a More Productive Writer.

With a night job, a family, and a tiny house full of kids, animals, and my T.V. addicted husband, writing can be hard for me sometimes. My office is a TV dinner table in the living room. So yeah, I repeat: writing can be hard. However, I've been averaging between two and three thousand words a day. How have I been doing this in the midst of such chaos (as seen below)? Here's some tips.

But at least my muses stand guard over my "office."

1.) Progress Bars. I swear by these. Say you're at 15K...but if you add just 500 more measly words, the percentage will go higher. It can be very addicting but motivating. As you can see, I have three up right now. I've left the 100% completed project up because it's another bar to measure the others against as well as a reminder that you have completed something and thus can do it again.

2.) Announcing your goal for the day. For one thing, doing so is declaring a concise commitment. For another you feel more obligated to fulfill it. Also, having your online buddies rooting you on really helps.

3.) Make a deadline. If you don't have a set due date for each draft of your manuscript, you can be very tempted to flounder and perhaps even give up. Some of you may already have a deadline from your publisher. In that case I still recommend making your own. Try to get it done earlier. If you succeed, you will impress your editor. If you fail, at least you're still likely further ahead and more likely to make the one the publisher set.

4.) Have a group of critique partners and/ or beta readers. I cannot stress enough the importance of beta readers! They want to know what happens next in your story and they will not shut up about it until you provide.

5.) Keep tabs on other author's goals and progress. It was watching other authors declare their goals and  then triumphantly announce when they nailed 'em that motivated me in the first place. "This chick got 2K today?" I'd think. "Damn, I gotta catch up to that...and maybe even beat her!" Friendly competition can be healthy. Also, you all end up rooting for each other so it's all good.

6.) Give housework the finger. Again, observe the picture of my office. This was during a 3 day writing binge...in which I nailed 12K. Oftentimes, the story takes priority.

7.) Limit your drinking. No, don't quit drinking (unless it's hurting yourself and others). A lot of writers drink. The reason? Alcohol lowers inhibitions. With lowered inhibitions, I can let loose those poignant emotional scenes...and that's not the booze talking. My beta readers cried, man. They cried. Success!! But don't drink so much the words become blurry or you lose track of your story. Don't drink so much that you're too hung over the next day to write. I've pegged my limit at 4 hard ciders on the weekdays and 6 on the weekends.
 
8.) Don't be afraid to skip a part or two and jump ahead. Sometimes I just don't have the right word or description to something that leads to the part I know. In those instances I type "so and so does this" or simply, "blah blah blah" and then highlight. You can always go back later and fill those parts in as they come. The important thing is to press on.

9.) Turn off the internet. I've noticed that checking my email, twitter, and facebook can be endlessly addicting...and distracting. And don't get me started on Cracked.com. I'm grounded for a week from that site, LOL. So I turn off my internet for an hour, write, turn it back on, check my stuff, post an update, say hi to a few friends, then turn it back off. My productivity has skyrocketed since.

10.) Get a hotel room. I saved up my money and did some careful shopping with Expedia and reserved a room for tomorrow night. I will keep the internet off, have a steady supply of cigarettes, Red Bull, and hard cider. I will have no kids, husband, animals, friends, solicitors, etc. to distract me. My goal is 10K. I will let you know how that goes. 

A Lesson on Priorities

Dio says, "Listen up!"

Last Saturday, I dragged by hungover ass to my 2nd RWA meeting. (It had been a month since I'd had a karaoke Friday and I'd desperately needed it.) Despite my queasy stomach and exhaustion, the meeting was well worth it. I learned so many things about goals and time management and I hope to share them all with you as well as how I do with implementing them. My husband says I have the organizational skills of a cement mixer and he's totally right.

One thing I want to discuss today is this: One author shared a story about another author who had been angry with someone. Later, she calculated the time she spent on being angry vs. the time she spent writing. Naturally, the results were unpleasant. The author sharing the story then gave us all handouts to fill in our goals for a day and a slot to fill in how much time we spent on them.

This really hit home with me. First because only a few days prior, one of my crit partners and I were doing a writing sprint...but then it dissolved into a conversation about an inconsequential matter. It was fun and much girl talk was exchanged, but we were supposed to be writing.

Then, today I had my weekly session with my therapist. Yet another thing had happened which could potentially affect my writing and a bunch of other stuff. My therapist said, "Come on, I know you are dedicated to your writing career. If this does happen, you'll move things around, but you WILL get the writing done. Sometimes it may not be easy, but you will do it. I KNOW you will. Worrying about it will only waste more time."

Then I remembered the lesson of the RWA meeting and I'm all, "Oh yeah, duh."

Moral of the story: STOP letting inconsequential matters get in the way of what you need to do. STOP worrying. Worrying wastes time you could be spending on more productive or pleasant things.

Why Is Female Sexuality Kept In The Dark?

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My 2011 Recap

Some things I did okay. Others....not so much. Either way, it's been a great year. 

1.) Get the first two books in my BRIDES OF PROPHECY series polished enough for my agent and then ready for her to submit to publishers: I got them polished, though I'm still tinkering. My betas are raving about em, but other things happened with another project and I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this series. I'm still working on them, though. They will have a home someday.

2.) Complete another manuscript. I completed a few short stories, a novella, and wrote the beginnings of 3 more novels. Hooray for progress!

3.)Blog at least twice a week. I nailed this goal, for the most part.

4.) Have at least one awesome guest author every month. Not so well here. Some months I had none, others I had four.

5.) Become more regular on Twitter and Facebook: Ironically I did better with FB than twitter.

6.) Get up to 3000 followers on Twitter: For reasons stated above, I only got to 1650.

7.) Keep the house clean and organized. HAHAHAHAHAHAH! No.

8.) Lose 20 pounds.. I think I lost about 8. Well.....I lost 10, gained back six, then lost four...or something.

9.) Learn how to use a sewing machine to make/ repair clothes. Didn't happen...although I did find someone willing to teach me how to sew by hand.

10.) Keep my marriage healthy, happy, and full of passion. I think I've done well with this and I still have a big crush on my husband.

11.) Become a better mother. I noticed I've been yelling a lot less. :)

12.) Get a tattoo...or 2.  I got one!

                                                      

So, I think I did okay. Especially since I achieved my long time dream of getting a book deal! 

OTHER EVENTS/ Accomplishments:

On May 30th, I celebrated my 1 year wedding anniversary (though we've been together for 8 years). I drew him a portrait of our hero, Ronnie James Dio:

This really helped me get back into art so I also did a painting of a '64 Volkswagen Beetle for my neighbor:

And a poster of the IRON MAIDEN album, "Killers." 

My husband grew an excellent garden this year, yielding around 200 lbs of tomatoes (making several jars of salsa,tomato sauce, and stewed tomatoes), 20 quarts of pickles, 24 cabbages (which made 3 gallons of saurkraut)  And lots of lettuce, broccoli, and peppers. Our herb garden thrived as well, along with our strawberries. 

He also got his deer, so we filled our freezer with meat.

I'm finally getting the hang of making friends, so not only did I get to know more awesome writers and formed a critique group, I've also branched out with other friendships. I'm pleased to be doing karaoke again. 

I think 2011 was a great year and I hope 2012 will be even better. 

Constant Beta Readers Whip Ya In Shape!

I cannot emphasize the importance of beta readers. They keep you grounded, keep you inspired, and keep you from going out on submission with your fly unzipped. Hmmm...looking at that picture above puts the word "submission" into a whole new context. Anyway, moving on.

Last spring, I got together with Bonnie R. Paulson and Shelley Martin and we formed a critique group. However, though we kept in touch, the critiques stopped over the summer and fall due to a lot of other things things going on, the release of Bonnie's novel, BREATHE AGAIN and my book deal, to name a few.

We just reunited and we now have Michel King joining us. After our first meeting, I'm now remembering the benefits of the group. No only do I get excellent feedback and quick fixes on my mistakes, but I am motivated to write more. Our first session was 20 pages each...but Bonnie wants to step it up a notch and do 30 next week. I'm now remembering how I completed a novella in under two months last Spring. Besides the imposed deadlines to get stuff to them, my beta readers increase my productivity by keeping me inspired to please them.

As I write, I think, "Ooh, Shelley's gonna laugh at this part!" or "Bonnie's gonna call me on being cheesy here...how else can I word it?" and now, "Michel's going to want me to describe this part more." So it's like they're with me all the time and because of them, I'm not only getting more work done, but it is better quality than it was when flying solo.

Also, it is beyond wonderful to talk to someone about my stories and characters and have them completely understand my struggles with them. Writing a novel can be a lonely quest.

AND, I have the bonus of reading their awesome stories before anyone else!

Keep those whips crackin' ladies. I'm honored to return the favor. 

Different Friends, Different Gifts

When you make friends with someone, at first a lot of the bond goes to the "Me too!" moments. But as the friendship deepens, you get to know their differences. Some are surprising, some are fascinating. Many, you can learn a lot from.

I have such a friendship with fellow authors, Bonnie R. Paulson and Shelley Martin. We are all romance writers, mothers, and wives. But we are of different faiths, listen to different music, and have different interests. Bonnie's passion is dirt biking, Shelley's is Japanimation/ Manga, and mine is heavy metal & horror movies.

We also have different strengths with our writing.

Shelley's is definitely VOICE! One of the most difficult aspects of the craft to master, Shelley lends voice to her characters like a natural.

Bonnie's skill with visceral descriptions and heart-wrenching emotion is just as inspiring as it makes one seethe with envy.

As for me, I *think* my strength lies with creating unique & memorable characters. I don't think I've ever had a "normal" protagonist in my work.

As for weaknesses, I think I'll leave that for our critique sessions, editors, and book reviewers.

Anyway, what inspired this post are two things:

1.) One can learn a lot from the strengths of her friends in real life.

2.) In fiction, the best stories are where the characters learn and grow from each other's unique gifts. Stephen King's IT is a wonderful example. Yeah...like I'm going to miss an opportunity to plug my favorite novel. :)

What about you? What strengths do your friends have? What gifts of yours enhance the lives of others? If you're a writer, how do your characters' differences enhance your story? If you're a reader, what novels have done best with variety in characters?

Those "in-between" times.

Argh, my internet was down all day yesterday and though it was kinda nice to have a break, it felt really weird. Then again, I've been feeling weird all week. I'm now stuck in the "in between."

As you can see by my progress bars all those projects are complete. I can't start on the 2nd draft of HIS SOLO PROJECT until I hear back from my crit buddies, same deal with the 3rd draft of WRENCHING FATE only for that one I need to find people to crit it.

So now I have nothing to work on. I have 3 stories floating in my head but I'm struggling to decide whether I should start on one, or wait until summer vacation's over. The kids have been making even blogging difficult...and I am behind on my fishing.

Yet, without the writing or revising, I've felt out of touch with everything and have had trouble sleeping. I always do during the "in-between."

I know I waxed big about not agonizing over these things in my Summer Resolutions post. But I've already totally bombed #1 and # 5. :)

What do you do during the "In Between" times? Do they drive you crazy too.

Revise, Revise, Repeat.

I'm one of those strange people who actually enjoys editing and revising...for the first few rounds anyway. I don't edit much during the rough draft, except for correcting typos because they drive me crazy.

At first I follow Stephen King's advice and put it away for a month or so and work on something else. I think everyone should do this since it REALLY helps a ton. Problems become glaringly obvious, yet easy to fix. This revision is the most fun. However, the project is still a "darling" so lots of things get missed.

I then send the revised-but-still-has-problems draft to at least 4 crit buddies and let them rip it to shreds. I get the most valuable help at this stage and have the most fun. If all four say something doesn't work, out it goes. If two out of four say so, then I need to make some adjustments to tone down the issue, or at least clarify it. Quite often I will make a change based on one suggestion because it feels right.

This is when I feel most optimistic about the book and this is when I used to start querying. Not anymore. Someone once referred to revising as moving furniture. They leave scuff marks on the rug. She was right. From roughened transitions to typos, there can be problems. Not only that, but sometimes the right changes weren't made.

So I send it to more crit partners to see how the changes worked. Often they'll point out things the others missed. This is when I begin to be unsure of my story because the feedback is more subjective. Should I really change this scene or character arc when it didn't bother my first batch of readers? And oh, I just got an idea for a new scene, but will it help or harm the story? But...what if the whole story is crap? Should I just give up?

Eventually, I get through the doubts and end up with a polished manuscript that is stronger than ever. Hopefully then it is ready to query.

How do you go about revisions? At what point do they have you tearing at your hair and cursing yourself for ever daring to write the book? 

Author Bonnie R. Paulson's Awesome Editing Trick!

During one of our critique sessions, Carina Press author, Bonnie R. Paulson showed us the coolest trick! I'm pleased to have her here today to share it.

First I’d like to thank Brook for inviting me to her site today.  I look forward to having her on mine in the future.  Hugs, girl!

Without wasting any more of your time, let’s get started!

I’m a writer. At least, I like to think I am. Why is this important? Because writers write. Duh, right? But I’m a writer who writes once then rewrites, revises and edits 90 more times. Editing isn’t an inherent ability. Most of us have read books, taken courses, studied other writer’s work, all in all obsessed over the placement of that comma, the use of big words and the flow and tug of dialogue. (The last paragraph needs the following lesson!)

I am such a writer. Maybe I should call myself a “reworker”.

The most useful self-editing course I have taken comes from Angela James of Carina Press with Harlequin. She offers this workshop called “Before You Hit Send” A self-editing course. It is PHENOM-enal! Kid you not, if you get the chance search it out and attend. Well worth it.

Before I took the course I would print out my manuscript (MS) over 3 times. The first time to do search-and-destroy (coined the term from Rebecca Zanetti), the next to do developmental edits and the last for line edits.  Three times is a heckuva lot of wasted paper.

I wasn’t doing my work justice. The MS needed lots of work, but I was often blinded and didn’t see the weak words – my eyes would gloss over them in the never ending sea of black and white. Try searching for 300 words in an ocean of 80,000 and you will feel my pain.

Ms. James taught a cool trick. Highlight. I know, right? Not highlight with a marker – highlight with your comp. Thus cutting 2 printouts of the MS, saving trees and time. Ahh. Time = gold.

Dying to know how to highlight with your word processor? I’m going to tell you using Microsoft Word 2007 (2003 is VERY similar but I make no guarantees). I do not use Mac or any other type of computer, but the idea is comparable.

First, open your doc filled to the brim with your hard work.

In the right hand corner under the X to close the document you will see Find, Replace and Select. Click on Replace. A box titled Find and Replace opens. Mine is green.

The questions is Find what: and Replace with:

**Do you know what you’re doing?

Here is my tip. Look over the first few pages of your MS. What words jump out at you as weak or repetitive? To help get you started, here’s my initial list I used for Breathe Again.

·         -ly

·         that

·         so

·         there

·         this

·         it

·         like

·         as

·         was

·         were

·         have been

·         walk

·         look

·         glance

·         stood

·         nod

·         shook

·         up

·         down

·         said

·         laughed

These are my words. You’ll have your own.

Start with the first one “-ly”. In the Find what: box type ly without the hyphen. In the Replace with: box type the same thing BUT then click on the More>> button. This will bring up a bunch more options. Go to Format and select Highlight from the Drop Down menu. Then click Replace All.

A box will pop up telling you how many ly’s were replaced and this tells you how many words

you had in your MS. My friend had a TON, but then remembered her character’s name was Lily and we both breathed a sigh of relief. 

Before proceeding to the next word to find and replace, decide if you want all your words to be highlighted the same color or not. If you want to change the color, go to the highlight button in the font box of the Home tab. Click the box and a menu of sorts will drop down. Click on the next color – bright is best or you won’t be able to read the black letters inside the dark highlighter.

            

    What about for words like it, up, was that can be inside of other words? You don’t want those to highlight as well. It’s extra work, right? Work smarter, not harder.

    

            Let’s do “it”, an ambiguous word, if ever there was one. Do the same steps above that we used on ly but do not select Replace All. We have to add one more step. Do you see above the Format box? There’s a list of 5 options: Match Case, Find Whole Words Only, Use Wildcards, Sounds Like (English) and Find All Words Forms (English). For the word It (or any other word that may show up inside another word you don’t want to find) check the box in front of Find While Words Only. Okay, now hit Replace All.

                And you go through this for your entire list of words.

What do you do once you’ve highlighted your trouble darlings? Kill them. Plain and simple. Go through each and every page. Come upon a highlight? Rework the sentence so the color disappears. If you absolutely MUST keep that one, it’s not such a big deal to leave a couple on each page, but it sure tightens your MS if you get rid of as many as you can without forcing the words.

I love doing this. It makes my life so much easier as a writer. And let’s face it – writers have it tough!

I wish you tons of luck in this endeavor and if you have any suggestions for of your own on how to self-edit, please share! I’m always looking for more tips to add to my arsenal in this war of writing.

-Bonnie

Inland Northwest bred, Bonnie R. Paulson has a degree in radiology technology as well as multiple experiences in the medical industry. Four children and a terrific husband ground her as they rev around the countryside on their dirt bikes. Faith, food, reading/writing romances and family make up just a small percentage of her favorite things.