My Editing Process:
A Look At How My Novels Go From Draft To Publication

My Editing Process - The March 5, 2024 Update
I'm leaving the original article and it's updates here, so you can see how my editing process has evolved (the original article was on Squidoo in 2005, so you can see how my processes have changed in the last 20 years

My Editing Process: How I lengthen my writing, flesh out underwriting, add extra scenes to make the story longer, and add sensory words to fill scenes with vibrant imagery of sights, smells, touch, tastes, sounds, feelings, and emotions.

NOTE: This post contains more then 50k words. It'll take you a few hours, possibly a few days to read.

I start out as an underwriter in my 1st draft, then overwrite in my 2nd draft, and then have to chop it all down again in my 3rd draft.

I don't try to curb it. I know this is just how my first drafts are, so I plan to do a lot of fleshing things out in the 2nd draft.

How you would go about fixing it in your 2nd draft would depend on how exactly you wrote the first draft. So, it's going to be different for every writer, what exactly they are going to need to flesh out and how they go about fleshing it out will depend on the type of story they want to tell and which genre they write and how dialogue heavy vs how exposition heavy vs how much high paced action vs how much slow paced down time is in the 1st draft vs how much they want in the 2nd draft.

Well, with that in mind, I can tell you my personal method of how I go about first fleshing out my first drafts during the editing stage, and then cutting it all back down, but what I do may or may not be helpful to you depending on how similar or unlike my 1st drafts, your 1st drafts happen to be. But hopefully, by showing you what steps I take with mine, it'll help inspire you to develop your own steps that'll work for you.

>how different is your first and second draft? I'm almost done with my first draft and I realised my second draft will probably be significantly different from my first draft (my first draft is so crude lol) and I just want to know if you guys changed a lot as well in your second draft or you kept it mostly the same.

I write Improv style, which a lot of people say is a form of Pantsing or Discovery Writing. So I go into my 1st draft with no plot, no outline, no plan, no clue what I'm going to write. I write a series so I have a main character who all the stories are about and I have the world he lives in, but on a story level/plot level, nothing. Every story is essentially me dropping him into a location in his world, throwing a random writing prompt in his path to trip him up, and writing my way through figuring out what he does and what that leads to. Eventually a story forms and I follow it with "What if this?" What if that? Until enough What Ifs lead to an ending.

I end up with what I call vomit drafts, that, snowballed grabbing lots of ideas as I wrote it.

Needless to say, every first draft needs massive amounts of editing to reach a publishable state. Most go through at least 4 drafts before publication, but 7 or more drafts are not unusual either.

Usually my 1st draft is 50% fewer words then the 2nd draft. And usually it doubles again during the third draft. And then during the final draft, I cut 3/4s or more of all of it. It's not unusual for me to end the first draft around 5k, see the second draft reach 15k, the 3rd draft hit 50k, than the 4th draft suddenly end at 12k. (I write story stories mostly and most are 12k-ish when published.)

The reason for all of this I guess is how I edit.

I write the first draft in EditPad, which is basically NotePad with options. But it has no spellcheck/grammar features, so it doesn't point out errors as I type, so I don't get tripped up by my inner editor trying to edit out every red underline. This allows me to free write whatever, uninterrupted. It usually takes me 3 to 12 hours to complete the first draft.

The 2nd draft, I go back and do a sentence by sentence fleshing out. Adding dialogue. Adding scenes. adding adverbs (the horror!) and adjectives with rabid abandon. Fuck Stephen King's anti-adverb advice, it's bad enough I have to live next door to him and deal with his psycho deranged fans parking their cars on my rose bushes while they climb over his fence. Fortunately the police are more then willing to tow the cars of King's creepo trespassing fans out of my yard. I have to put up with daily crap from the rude jackassery of his fans, I'm sure as hell not going to join them in worshiping the ground he walks on and take his idiotic advice to never use an adverb. So, 2nd draft, adverbs gallor are deliberately added.

The 3rd draft is usually when ProWritingAid comes in. Every day for the next month, I run the draft through a PWA tab. It has 27 tabs, so it takes me 27 days or more to do this. I don't take all of it's advice, like, it gives me lists of adverbs to remove. Fuck that. I just spent 2 extra weeks adding them in deliberately. It tells me to remove passive voice. Nope. Passive voice in not being removed. I wrote about why here: https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/uso3o2/any_info_an_writing_sleep_storiesbedtime_stories/

By the time I've reached the 4th draft, usually I have a story that was supposed to be 12k words and now it's 35k to 50k sooooo, cutting time. All none essential stuff is removed. Long winded sentences are shortened. Lore, backstory, info dumps, and exposition are removed.

Note, everything I cut, I remove in a separate file, so the uncut long file, still exists, in case I want to put something back in, or go back to a scene later and use it for a different story. So things cut and removed are never deleted and still exist somewhere, just no longer in the draft.

I was just talking about this here: https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/uuac8h/comment/i9fl42e/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

I'll grab part of it and paste it here:

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I have 3 friends offline, whom I had gone to college with years ago, and we had all been in the same writing club together and kept in touch over the years. Well, each of us had been in a DnD game group that semester, and so co-write 4 separate "novels" together.

What we did was this: we each created a character for DnD game, and played through one of the DnD game books. The game session also doubled as a writing session. So my player character was my MC and their player characters were his three friends, and vise versa, where each of them their own player character was their MC. Each of us used the name we used in game for our MC, but changed the names of the other 3 players' characters in our own work.

Together we each co-wrote four vastly different stories, and we each had 4 different characters, so it was 16 character total in the book formate (4 in each book)... For example my game character was an Elf Necromancer, and friend A1s player character was an Elf Druid, but in my book, I had changed her character to a Demon sorcerer, while in her book, she had changed my character to a Dwarf Barbarian.

Well, each of us ended up with vastly different stories, because one focused on a conquest of the big bad Boss, while another focused on a coming of age story, another went on a typical hero's journey, and mine focused on a romance. It was loads of fun, and we each went into it planning to publish our final results.

Because I went a Dark Fantasy Romance slant, I was able to get mine published as Dark Fantasy Romance, four years after college. It had gone through a lot of editing and revision, big cuts and changes were made and the finished piece was 64k words. Quite a bit shorter than the 157k doorstopper it had been before editing.

While it was still Fantasy with Elves and wizards and such, I had done a lot of current (then current - this was in the late 1990s) market research, and I quickly discovered that LotR style High Fantasy was not well thought of in the eyes of publishing houses. Tolkien style was just plain out of favour and seen as stall and dry and publisher submission guidelines were outright saying, NO Tolkien style. They didn't want it.

I also noticed that Nocturne by Harlequin, was just starting to gain popularity (a series of Dark Fantasy Romance novella series put out by Harlequin at the time, featuring stories 50k to 75k long, and all non-Human lovers, werewolves, mages, etc). I started looking around and noticed there was a bunch of this sort of Fantasy Romance showing up from a lot of publishers, big and small alike, but that the stories were on the very short side, most around 60k words. So I bought every title I could get my hands on a read them. Then went back and looked at my story and thought: Damn, I can do this! I can change this 157k draft from Tolkien Epic High Fantasy style to 60k Dark Fantasy Romance. and I did. After 4 years, I had it at 64k and as much like other Dark Fantasy Romances as possible, and sent it out on it's submission runs.

It sold 300k copies and later saw a 10th anniversary edition published. I firmly believe that had I tried to submit it as it was in its High Fantasy Tolkien-esk 157k draft, it probably would still be unpublished to this day. But because I researched what was hot at the time and read the comps and paid attention to specifically what publishing house submission guidelines were asking for in Fantasy at that moment, then revise it to meet those demands, I was able to get it published.

I wasn't so precious about the story, that I refused to make the necessary changes to do what it took to get it edited into something publishable.

What happened to the other three writers and their novels?

I was last in touch with them about two months ago (March 2022) and...

Each of the other three however, have yet to get theirs published, and it is my belief that the reason is because of the very "Tolkien stye" with which they had written their stories.

To this day, each of them believes the same basic idea of "if I just world build some more and make the world better/bigger/more like LotR" or "if I just expand another 10 or 12 chapters explaining the back stories of these addition 15 new characters I added"... each of the three of them has surpassed 200k and each cites have at least an additional 15 characters on top of the original 4 they started out with.

All three of them cite constantly: "But Tolkien did it!" and "Look at how Tolkien did this, see? I did mine the same way!"

In mine, I scraped most of the worldbuilding, leaving the entire story set in 4 rooms in one tavern. The passage of time was less them 24 hours, the entire novel taking place in a single night, starting with one character going into the tavern to get out of the storm, meeting the 2nd character, spend the night talking, ending up having sex near the end, and the two both leaving the tavern going their separate ways in the morning after the rain stopped. The end. No quests. No villain. No wars. No boss fights. No side characters. No minor characters. No backstories.

And yet in its first draft, there had been a quest trekking to a mountain to fight an army of Orcs. That went of for a good 50k words alone and the whole thing was cut, even though it was really good and told all sorts of lore and character backstory... it would have happened before the tavern scene, and, in hindsight today, it would have read like a dull boring, epic prologue that did nothing but intro the world and the characters, and not add any story to the story. So, boom, the entire 50k section was cut, and damn, did removing it make the story so much better.

Plus, 2 of the 4 original characters were removed for the final cut, as was all the extra characters I had added after. Leaving just the one MC and the 2nd character he met that night, and that's it not one other single character at all.

The backstory of the world: Cut!

The backstory of the tavern's history: Cut!

The backstory of the 2 characters: Cut!

The lore: Cut!

I went full swing determined to make this Fantasy novel, fit with the (then) current market trends, so that I could get it published.

In total more then 93k words were cut. It started out 157k words and was published at 64k words. Almost 2/3rds of the original story, cast, lore, and worldbuilding was removed.

And readers loved it.

When it went out of print, the publisher got so many requests for it, that they brought it back republishing it for it's 10th anniversary.

It reads super fast paced, is more then 80% dialogue, with almost no narration, and is so much better then the exposition, info dumping landfill of way to many words and over-explaining, that it started out as.

The other three, adamantly refuse to cut anything, and are still to this day, adding more and more and more and more, 100% convinced that if they just add one more subplot, just one more side quest, just one more chapter, they will finally get accepted by a publishing house because Tolkien...

Sure Tolkien was a great writer.

Yes, it's great to be inspired by LotR.

There is nothing wrong with writing massive tomes of LotR fanfiction that no one but your and your game group will ever read.

BUT... if you want to be published, you have to read current Fantasy, pay attention to current pacing, notice how current characters are written, study what current publishing house submission guidelines say...

...because publishing houses are publishing for current readers, not your great grandparents.

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>How do I lengthen my writing? I’m writing a novella and my chapters and everything I write feels way too short. For example, my characters might face a problem that takes them a while to solve, but when reading it it just feels like it takes them just a few seconds. I want the reader to know how long it took, but I don’t want it to be useless information just randomly put together to lengthen it.

Okay... so, I'm going to go against the advice of 99.99% of the internet users' so called "writing advice" and ask this:

Are you using enough adverbs?

Are you using enough adjectives?

Are you using enough prepositional phrases?

Yes, I know, the mass hive mind hoard of the internet is going to scream and holler and gnash their teeth, with lots of weeping and wailing and saying: "But our lord and savior Stephen King said not to use those!"

Uhm... yeah. Have you ever read a Stephen King book? He doesn't take his own advice. He uses adverbs on mind bogglingly obsessive levels. His adverb use is over the top super-duper-mega extreme. His sentences average 40+ words each because he strings together a dozen or more adjectives back to back. He slings prepositional phrases top, bottom, left, and right.

There is a reason that King publishes 75k word short stories and 200k word novels. It's called this is a man who never meet an adverb he wasn't afraid to use and over use, and use ten times more after that. (And I'm sorry, but how is 75k words a short story? That'd be called a novel if any one else had written it.)

Without reading what you wrote, I have no way of knowing if this actually is a problem for you or not, but, I used to work as a slush pile reader a few years back, and I found that this was a very common problem for a lot of writers.

Let's try an exercise, to show you what I mean about adverbs, adjectives, and prepositions, and how they can help you to not only make your writing longer, but also make your writing more lively, vivid, colourful, aromatic, and tasty.

Let's take a random sentence, short, precise, and too the point, and use adverbs, adjectives, and prepositions turn it into something fleshed out.

• Fred made dip.

Simple. Basic subject+predicate sentence. And the type of sentence that is typical of a lot of writers struggling to write longer stories.

Now there is nothing wrong with this sentence and it is perfectly fine to have crisp, clean, short, and to the point sentences like this. If you want to write flash fiction, short sentences of this type are your friend. If you are writing a college essay, a business letter, a technical guide, or a medical journal article, you want this type of sentence.

But if you are writing a novel or novella, you can flesh out this sentence a lot and give the reader a fuller, more enjoyable reading experience.

To do this you ask the questions: Who? How? What? When? Where? Why? How come? What if...? What size? What does it smell like? What does it taste like? What does it feel like when you touch it? What colour is it? What shape is it? What noise does it make? Does it...? Could it...? Would it...? Should it...? What memories does it make me feel? And so on.

So, let's do that with our sentence above.

• Fred made dip. (3 words)

What kind of dip did Fred make?

• Fred made avocado dip. (4 words)

Who is Fred?

• Fred, a student in my culinary arts class, made avocado dip. (11 words)

Can we be more specific about the dip?

• Fred, a student in my culinary arts class, made a sweet, savory, tasty guacamole out of luscious, ripe, dark green avocados. (21 words)

How do we know this?

• Fred, a student in my culinary arts class, made a sweet, savory, tasty guacamole out of luscious, ripe, dark green avocados, and he shared it with us after class. (29 words)

Where did this happen?

• Fred, a student in my culinary arts class, at Southern Maine Community College in South Portland, Maine, made a sweet, savory, tasty guacamole out of luscious, ripe, dark green avocados, and he shared it with us after class. (38 words)

We took a 3 word sentence and made it ten times longer, with it now 38 words.

But, beyond making the sentence itself longer, we can add more sentences around it to continue to flesh out the scene.

• Fred, a student in my culinary arts class, at Southern Maine Community College in South Portland, Maine, made a sweet, savory, tasty guacamole out of luscious, ripe, dark green avocados, and he shared it with us after class. His homemade avocado dip tasted amazingly good. I wish I knew how to cook like Fred does. But more then the taste was the fragrant aroma. (63 words)

Now, just think, if you did this to every sentence in your story.

If you have 10 sentences of ten words each, that means you have 100 words.

If you take each of those sentences and flesh them out into 30 words each, now you have 300 words.

If you add 2 additional 5 word sentences after each sentence, now you have 400 words.

But... don't do it all willy-nilly. Tossing words in for the sake of tossing words in, is just as bad, if not worse, as having not edited at all.

Remember back at the start, I said I underwrite my first drafts, then add words in my second draft? But remember too, I said that in my 3rd draft I remove a lot of those words. A LOT!

More then half the stuff that gets added in the 2rd draft, I will end up removing in the 3rd draft, when I start diagraming the sentences and rewriting them into correct grammar.

So, yes, I add a lot, BUT, I then cut a lot of what was added.

Remember: Don't add fluff!

Fluff is just bad writing.

Don't add info dumps. Info dumps are bad writing too.

Don't rewrite a sentence longer, if it is perfectly fine shorter.

Your goal is to IMPROVE your writing, not clutter it up and turn it into a mess.

That's why I say don't just add words all willy nilly for the sake of adding words. Make sure the words you are adding are actually improving the story, pacing, flow, clarity, and readability.

If adding words makes the writing bad or decreases clarity then don't add them.

It's more important to make your story easy for the reader to understand, then it is to extend word counts. So use your judgement and only add words when it makes your scene better.

Keep in mind too, that I am writing short stories, not novels.

My stories are rarely more then 15k words when published-that's around 25 to 35 pages long, depending on font type.

My stories are not even 50 pages long, so, keep that in mind too, if you try my editing methods for your novels, because it's not novels I'm dealing with here and you'll need to consider that grammar rules for short stories are slightly different then for novels, same way grammar rules for fiction are different then for none fiction.

Longer sentences and more adverbs and adjectives are not always good. Make sure you are using correct and proper grammar.

Remember long sentence slow the reader down, making the book read slower paced. Now, maybe you want that, but maybe you don't.

Use your brain when editing, and edit with clarity and readability in mind.

Remember too that both long sentence and short sentences can be dull and boring to read if ALL you have are long or ALL you have are short.

You want variety in sentence length. Four word sentences mixed in with ten word sentences, and only use a 30+ word sentence once per paragraph or less.

Sentence variety is very important when reading.

Also, in addition to this, remember that simple scenes that are described in one sentence, can often be expanded to an entire 300 to 500 word scene that makes the world fell more lived in, makes the character feel more real, and gives your reader a clearer picture of the life of the character.

Let's take for example a boy going to school. You could type a big morning breakfast scene to set up his world, then say "Peter went to school." and then have your next scene be the at the school scene.

BUT... think about how much the trip to school, would tell your reader about Peter and his lifestyle, just by describing in detail what going to school actually looks like for him.

Think about it this way:

Sure, you told the reader Peter went to school, but HOW did he get to the school? What did he see on the way there? What did he hear?

I would now ask:

HOW does Peter get to school?

Does he walk to school?

How old is he and how far is he from the school? There is going to be a big difference in description if he is a 5 year old kindergartener walking a few hundred yards to the school vs a 15 year old high schooler walking 3 miles across town to the school.

Does he take the school bus?

The description will change vastly depending on the size of his town, the funding of the school, and how long the bus drive is. Is he living in the inner city riding on an overcrowded bus of an underfunded school that is packing 70 kids onto a bus only DOS approved for 35 kids? Is he living on a farm fifty miles outside of town and the entire 2 hour bus drive back to the city is just him and 3 other kids on an almost empty bus?

Then you got issues of the bus driver to consider. Is it an 80 year old woman who drives 25mph or a 25 year old drug-addict who endangers the children's lives by stopping on the railroad tracks and listening to headbanger music on headphones so can't hear either the train or the crowd of children screaming in terror as the train rips through the bus and sends their entrails spewing in all direction for the next 5 miles of track? You can go from relaxing drive with granny bus driver to horror trip to hell with reckless driver fast, totally changing the theme and genre of your story, just from the bus trip to school alone.

Does his mom drive him to school?

What if it was not his mom who drives him to school, what if is was his dad? What if it was his older brother? Older sister? Aunt? Uncle? Grandparent? The neighborhood carpool mom? What if it was a foster parent? Each one of these is going to dramatically change the story. Like if it was a foster mom, why is he in foster care? If it was a step-mom, what happened to his bio-mom? Etc.

Once you determine Peter's age and mode of transportation, now you have the sights, sounds, tastes, touches, and smells to describe. Cities are different then suburbs and different from rural districts and different from off-grid forests. One smells of smog and car gas fumes, the other smells of fresh mowed lawns and dryer sheets, the other smells of hay bales and bull shit, the other smells of pine forests and mountain streams.

Is he eating his breakfast on the way to school? What is he eating and what does it taste like?

Is he early or running late? This effects how his mood is and how careful vs how careless he is.

What time of year is it? Going to school in a February Maine blizzard that is dumping 3feet of snow per hour and not deemed enough snowfall to cancel school is going to be vastly different then school districts of Florida canceling school in the flurry that doesn't even leave snow on the ground, but no one ever saw a snowflake before so they are panicking and he doesn't realize school is canceled till he gets there.

If it's the first day of school he's going to be in a different mindset from the last day of school.

Walking in spring rain is different then walking in winter snow.

Every variable of the time, season, weather, location, mode of transport, his age, his family life, where he lives, is all going to change how you describe his trip to school.

There are literally millions of different ways to describe a single event, depending on each variable you add.

I do this when I am editing. I go sentence by sentence and see where I can add adverbs, adjectives, and prepositions, then see where I can add additional tack-on sentences. Usually my first drafts are only half the word count of my 2nd drafts, and this is why. I don't add more scenes, instead, I flesh out the scenes I already have.

>It’s just sometimes I need to lengthen it to increase the quality. For example, in my book there’s a section where someone is freaking out and becomes hysterical so they don’t talk for a very long time to the other character, but the way I wrote this amount of time is so short that it feels like no time has passed at all between dialogue

Show what they do while they are not talking.

Do they sit in the corner and do nothing? Write it. Write him slowly trudge over to the chair in the corner, slump down into it, fold their arms, and sit there in a snit, fuming mad.

Look out the window? Write it. Write him stomp angrily to the window, press their palm to the sill so hard that their flesh whitens from constriction of blood flow. Show them glaring out into the world outside. What do they see? Does the window over look a forest? Are they floor level in an old hovel? Are they on the 34th floor of a high-rise? Does he look down at the streets below and think about the cars and people rushing to and fro? Write his thoughts as he stars out the window.

Pace back and forth? Write it. Write him with his hands clenched behind his back, pacing, thinking, thinking, pacing, back and forth, back and forth. Show that he is not talking because he is upset.

Does he do busy work (sweep floor, wash dishes, hang laundry, etc) to avoid the other character? Write it. Write him slowly sweeping the same spot on the floor over and over, even though there is no need to, show that he is sweeping the floor only to avoid eye contact with his friend, and is focusing his eyes on the broom.

SHOW them not talking.

Show them doing other things.

Show the other character trying to get them to talk.

This is an opportunity to fill up a huge amount of space with characters showing the reader what things they do when nervous/upset/avoiding others, and that alone can say quite a lot about the character without them saying a word for many, many, many pages of text.

You can literally fill up page after page after page, hundreds, even thousands of words, of your characters avoiding each other, building up tension, and leaving the reader to wonder is this the end of their relationship? How are they going to reach the point of speaking again?

>How do I stop using the same words to make a scene flow better. I've been reading and writing at the same time, but I keep noticing that I use the same words in sequences, and it puts me out of it. I tend to use (It, The, She, He, her and his) way too often. How do I prevent using them too much? Any advice is very much appreciated!

I have a personal "rule" that I gave myself (it's not an actual grammar rule, just a rule I made up for myself, in order to not have pronoun confusion in my own works) to never repeat he/she/they/etc pronouns more then 5 times in a row, and replace 1 in every 5 with the character's name, placing it where it reads/sounds best when read, and to add descriptors in places where 2 characters of the same gender might be confused with one another if too many pronouns are too close together.

In my 1st drafts, I’m prone to a heavy over use of “was” and “as”, which I edit out in my 2nd drafts, via rewording the sentences to be more active, less verbose, and more fluid. And I see that your example here has that same issue, which in and over itself, can lead to an over use of “it”, and I think it why “it” is getting over used so much in your instance.

But don't just replace the pronouns with descriptors like "the blonde girl", etc.

As an example of what I mean, let’s say your girl on the stairs is named Jenny. Here’s how I would take one badly written sentence of Jenny on the stairs, and change it into a much better scene:

With that rule in mind, I personally, would change something like this:

>Jenny reaches the central staircase. She knows there is no time to stop, but she needs to catch her breath. So, against her better judgement, the blonde girl stops.

...to this:

• Jenny reaches the central staircase. Jenny knows there is no time to stop, but she needs to catch her breath. So, against her better judgement, Jenny stops.

Now, I would use action and things like blonde/etc descriptors as well, like this to bring the scene to life even more:

• Jenny reached the central staircase. Jenny knew there is no time to stop, but she needed to catch her breath. So, against her better judgement, Jenny stopped. Nervously Jenny twirled her blonde hair tightly around her finger, as she took several long, deep, slow breaths. Her green eyes darted side to side, glancing around the room. Perhaps there was a place to hide. She was so out of breath, Jenny was uncertain if she could run much longer. Why hadn't she kept up with her weight loss program? Or her gym membership? Or at least cut back on soda and try to eat healthier? Jenny spied a loose ribbon hanging from the nearby curtain and hastily yanked it off, and used it to tie her long blonde hair back into a ponytail. At least she could keep her hair out of her eyes while she was running.

This still tells the reader that she is blonde, also reveals both eye colour and the fact that she is a bit overweight and out of shape. It adds to the fact that she's not used to running and is struggling to breath, and it mixes up descriptors, name, and gender pronouns in such a way as to not be as repetitive, while not being as heavy handed and clunky.

I don't think there is anything wrong with sprinkling in descriptors, as long as you read it out loud so you can hear if it flows smoothly, and do it in a way that adds to the scene, rather than breaking the reader out of immersion.

Can you see how one 1st draft poor scene, evolved in 2nd and 3rd draft edits to improve? And I’m sure if I was to take time to edit it a few more times I could continue to make it even better, but, this is just a quick sample written for a Reddit post so I’m not putting a lot of effort into it, rather just showing how a few quick changes in a couple of minutes, can improve writing.

In your example, your over use of “it” is coupled with an over use of passive (not active) verbs and phrases (“was” verbs and “as” phrases, for example). If you remove almost every instance of “was” replacing it with an -ed verb instead, and rewrite it so “as” phrases are changed into active descriptors, then make sure that at least 1 in ever 5 pronouns is a proper name-like this: Jenny(1), she(2), her(3), (she(4), Jenny(5)-you will improve flow, remove the chunkiness, and end the overuse of it/he/she/they all at once.

Now, applying what I did to the example above, to your exact example here, I would take this:

It was a challenge for her to drag her suitcase down the stairs.

Half way through she missed a step and watched her suitcase fall down the stairs crashing against the hall cabinet by the front door.

The picture frame on top of it collapsed and slid down onto the floor.

Her feet barely touched the steps below her as she mainly held onto the railing before jumping down and sitting on her knees and examined the frame.

To her amazement it was still in tact but rather dusty. Though her home is hardly that due to her obsession with keeping everything neat and tidy.

The dust slid off easily as she blew on it.

She smiled looking at it, it was a photo of her and her twin brother taken over a decade ago. His goofy little face and innocent smile. They were nothing alike but always looked out for each other.

They made a bond for life and it broke unexpectedly. It wasn’t her doing and neither was it anyone else’s.

Her lips trembled as she pressed them together trying to hold back tears.

The clock chimed as it hit 8:30 am. She sniffed and looked up at the clock on the wall.

It was time for her to go.

…and I would do instead, something like this:

Jenny struggled to drag her brown leather suitcase down the stairs. It was much heavier than she had anticipated. She paused for a moment to catch her breath, then missed a step, stumbled, catching herself with the railing, letting go of the suitcase. The suitcase tumbled, bumping and thumping, down the stairs, crashing against the hall cabinet, coming to rest by the front door. The suitcase’s impact with the honey maple cabinet, caused a chain reaction of knick knacks and picture frames to jiggle and clatter. One particular silver picture frame jostled from its place on top of the cabinet, falling to the floor.

”Oh no!” Jenny gasped. “Not that one!”

It was the only picture she had of her brother. Clutching the railing, Jenny swooped down the stairs, her feet barely touched the steps. Crouching to her knees, she examined the frame. Jenny gave a sigh of relief. To her amazement the dusty, old frame remained unbroken. It’s photo undamaged. Jenny obsessively kept her home neat and tidy, so the sight of dust was rare. She wondered how she had missed it. Jenny blew on the picture, thankfully, the dust slid off easily. She smiled looking at the decades old photo of her and her twin brother. His goofy little face and innocent smile. They were nothing alike but always looked out for each other.

They made a bond for life. Now the bound lay unexpectedly broken. No fault of her own, nor anyone else’s. Jenny’s pursed lips trembled as she tried to hold back tears. The wall clock chimed 8:30 am. Jenny sniffed. It was time for her to go.

There is nothing wrong with "overuse" of the character's name and gender pronouns. It's actually worse if you don't use the character's name in every paragraph, because then the reader risks forgetting which character the scene is happening to, causing them to flip back a page and ask: "Which character is this again?"

I try to never repeat he/she/they/etc pronouns more then 5 times in a row, and replace 1 in every 5 with the character's name, placing it where it reads/sounds best when read.

So, something like this:

• Jenny(1), she(2), her(3), she(4), Jenny(5),

The character is mentioned 5 times, the first and fifth mention are her name, the three mentions in between are gender pronouns

Every time I start a new paragraph, I make sure the first mention of the character is always their name, that way their name is at least once in every paragraph they appear in.

I used to have a problem, where I would write the character name the first time they appeared and the the entire rest of the story would be he, he, he, him, him, he, him, he, his, etc, and I never mentioned his name again, and I didn't realize I was doing it.

My reply originally appeared on this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/uvcqhi/how_do_i_lengthen_my_writing/

...and this one: https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/v44y34/how_do_i_stop_using_the_same_words_to_make_a/

...this one: https://www.reddit.com/r/writers/comments/v2jgr7/is_it_strange_to_find_alternative_ways_of/

...this one: https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/svz1m3/how_can_i_write_better_narratives/

...this one: https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/v8rdrv/my_vocabulary_has_increased_100fold_this_last/

... this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/tctgpd/how_can_i_structure_sentences_without_starting/

...this one: https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/vacf1o/do_you_think_use_of_ing_verbs_can_be_a_problem/

...this one: https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/t46uj1/he_she_his_her_it_they_how_do_i_stop/

...this one: https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/tiwoy3/how_do_i_stop_using_and_too_much/

...this thread: https://www.redditmedia.com/r/writing/comments/nq14dg/when_should_i_start_rewriting

...this one: https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/v6v48o/while_betareading_is_it_better_to_ask_for/

...this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/uukwyk/how_different_is_your_first_and_second_draft/

...this one: https://www.redditmedia.com/r/writing/comments/nhygtx/how_long_to_wait_after_the_first_draft

...this one: https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/s4fh1e/hoe_many_times_do_you_rewrite_before_the_final/

...this one: https://www.redditmedia.com/r/writing/comments/nbpog9/what_does_a_draft_mean_first_second_etc

...this one: https://www.redditmedia.com/r/writing/comments/rjdbv9/do_you_edit_as_you_write_or_wait_until_the_story

...this one: https://www.redditmedia.com/r/writing/comments/o1p9i5/first_draft_vs_rewriting

...this one: https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/spk8we/write_drunk_edit_sober_huh/

...this one: https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/v9j50m/should_editors_care_for_writers_feelings/

...this one: https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/uyinst/writing_every_day/

...this one: https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/v49jo1/how_do_i_write_a_simplistic_and_small_scale_story/

...this one: https://www.reddit.com/r/writers/comments/v9f9x4/why_does_a_female_love_triangle_makes_you/

...this one: https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/v5iipk/advice_for_developing_romance_between_characters/

...this one: https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/v7oxvx/romance_in_books/

...and this one: https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/v5p5ra/how_often_do_i_state_whos_talking_to_who

If it still exists/has not been deleted, you can read the full original question, the other replies of other users, and if not archived yet, you can answer with your own reply as well.

I was in a creative writing class at a local college, and we had to exchange short stories and read the other person's story out loud in front of class. The girl reading mine, stopped in the middle to ask: "Which character is this one again? You got two guys here and it says he for both and hasn't said either name in a few pages and I can't tell which guy is which any more."

Because I was writing it, I knew which he was guy 1 and which he was guy 2, but the reader was just left so confused. And the teacher told us for the rest of the semester to never use a gender pronoun more than 5 times in a row, and see how much that one change improved the clarity of our writing.

By the end of the semester I was in the habit of doing "name, pronoun, pronoun, pronoun, name" and OMG! The clarity of my writing improved so much, just on that one change alone.

It was a good lesson for me because it stopped me from being so repetitive with pronouns, taught me that the clearest reading flow is to use the name a lot, and that descriptors, while good in some places, are not good replacements for any place where I could put the name instead.

How can I write better narratives? Is there a way for your writing to sound more exciting? How can I make my text feel less generic? Hi, I have been writing for about 2 years and I've found out that my writing often seem generic or "not unique". So if you could help me to understand how to make it sound more interesting it would be greatly appreciated.

Not sure if this will help you, but here’s a thing which I do, that might maybe be useful for you?

I have a problem with way too much dialogue. I started out writing stage plays for small local theatre, before I moved on to short stories and then later/currently novels. But because I originally learned storytelling writing through stage play format, my first drafts end up with 80%+ dialogue, often without even a single tag, and most of the minimal narrative was limited to just a few action beats. Like this:

It was a cold, blustery winter day. Frost glazed the grass. Dark clouds loomed overhead, warning of an approaching snow storm... continues to describe the setting for another 10 or 12 sentences.

Character A: 3 sentences describing what character A looks like and his personality.

Character B: 3 sentences describing what character B looks like and his personality.

A: "Blah, blah, blah..." A shrugged, sighed, and shook his head, as he walked slowly across the stage and poured himself a cup of tea.

B: "Blah, blah, blah..." B sharpened his dagger as he spoke.

A: "Blah, blah, blah..."

B: "Blah, blah, blah..."

A: "Blah, blah, blah..." A shuddered as he stared at B, with impudent direct eye contact.

B: "Blah, blah, blah..." B reached for his other dagger, which he always kept with him, and sharpened it as well.

A: "Blah, blah, blah..."

B: "Blah, blah, blah..."

A: "Blah, blah, blah..." A calmly sipped his tea.

B: "Blah, blah, blah..."

...and so on for the entire rest of the story, until the location changes and another 10 sentences describe the new location, then, the dialogue starts up again. Every line of dialogue has a descriptor after it telling what the character did while he spoke that line. So my 1st draft ends up being 70% dialogue.

I learned this format of writing before I learned the standard short story and novel format of writing, I always default to writing my first drafts this way and during the editing stage, I not only have to rewrite it into novel format, but I also have to write all the narration parts because the 1st draft doesn’t have any narration at all.

…and this part is probably going to be weird and not something many do... But rather than READ my first draft, I scroll to the last page, and exactly in the middle of the page, I type out a 300 word description/narration scene. Then I scroll up to the next to the last page and in the middle of the page, I type out a 300 word description/narration scene. I do this for every page until I get back to the first page. Then starting at the 1st page, I copy the entire page, page it into a separate text file, and completely rewrite the entire thing as if it was it's own story.

Each page contains about 300 words, and my goal at this point is to expand that 300 word page into a 1,000 word short story. When this is done, I repeat with page 2. Then page 3. And so on, until every 300 word page is now each rewriting into a 1,000 word mini-story. Every page's new 1k word version is now pasted back into the template. Now I rewrite the entire thing, all as one big story.

As far as I know, it's not a standard process, I don't know if anyone else does anything like this or not. It's just a writing/editing method I developed for myself/slowly evolved to doing over the years.

And in the rewrite is when the word counts go up.

For example:

It was a winter day. Frost glazed the grass. Clouds, warning of a storm... (14 words)

Becomes:

It was a cold, blustery winter day. Frost glazed the grass. Dark clouds loomed overhead, warning of an approaching snow storm... (21 words)

While:

A: "Blah, blah..." A shrugged, sighed, and shook his head, as he walked slowly across the stage and poured himself a cup of tea. (24 words)

Becomes:

"Blah, blah…," A said as he shrugged, sighed, and shook his head. He walked slowly across the stage and poured himself a cup of black tea. “Blah, blah, blah,” he muttered under his breath as he walked back across the room, stirring his tea absentmindedly as he went. (49 words)

And:

B: "Blah, blah..." B sharpened his dagger as he spoke. (9 words)

Becomes:

"Blah, blah…," B said, sharpening his obsidian blade dagger as he spoke. The dagger was one of a pair of daggers which he always carried with him. They had been made by his dead lover decades ago and he carried them not as weapons, but as mementos of his now dead lover. (52 words)

So, you can see how fast and easy it was to go from 49 words to 124 words, more than doubling the word count, just in 7 sentences.

Now just think… if you do this with every sentence of a 15k word draft, you suddenly have 35k to 40k words in your draft.

The principle behind it is this:

First draft = He ran. (2 words)

Straight to the point. But also bland, dry, and boring.

Second draft = He ran quickly to the other side of the road. (10 words)

Slightly better, but still tells instead of showing.

Third draft = He ran quickly to the other side of the road, hoping to beat the chicken to the other side. He doubled over, hands on his knees, gasping for breath, happy in the knowledge that at long last he had beat the chicken. Slowly he raised his head. Unfortunately the chicken was there waiting for him when he arrived across the street. (61 words)

Now draws a vivid picture, by showing the action instead of telling it.

You can see how my 70%+ dialogue 1st draft is starting to evolve into a more standard novel format as the narration bits start to flesh out and take shape in the 2nd draft.

how often do I state who's talking to who? i'm writing my first ever web novel and I definitely do plan on specifying who's talking to who when my protagonist meets up with his friends, but right now I only have him talking to one other character, and I've been filling out all their dialogue without really saying "____ said" or "_____ exclaimed". is this alright? i personally like when stories flow naturally and how you can have an internal dialogue back and forth as a reader. I don't like reading "______ exclaimed blank" as I think it only disrupts the flow of dialogue. is it fine if I have a whole page of just quotes back and forth or would that be frowned upon in the writing community? any input would be great

I frequently write my 1st drafts with no dialogue tags at all, just because my brain is thinking the story faster then my fingers are typing it so I tend to skip typing anything I can remember to add during editing.

When I'm working on the second draft, I copy 300 words to a time into ProWritingAid, there, no matter where in the story it is, if there is any dialogue, I add tags to the first 2 lines. Usually said/replied or asked/answered.

"Blah blah," Sam said.

"Blah blah," Pip replied.

And that's it.

The rest of the dialogue in that 300 word section has no tags.

When I have finished editing that 300 word section, I paste it back into the draft. Then I copy the next 300 word section and repeat.

The end result is if a 900 word dialogue appears in the story, it has 3 sets of 2 dialogue tags, 6 dialogue tags total.

I edit the entire draft in this way.

My reason?

A paperback book has 250 to 350 words per page depending on font size. By editing in the way I do, it results in every page of dialogue always including tags somewhere on the page, ensuring the reader knows who is talking no matter which page they are reading.

I don't know if any other author does anything like this or not, it's just an editing habit I developed for myself over the years, because it worked out to make my dialogue easier for readers to follow.

(I'm including the kiss question on this post, because while writing the 1st draft, I simply write "they kissed" and then I expand it into an actual scene during editing, so for me writing a kiss counts as editing.)

How do people kiss? How do you write it? Is there a difference between making out and kissing? How do you make it not sound weird (I've read something where it said that they're lips "fit perfectly against eachother, like 2 pieces of a jigsaw puzzle" which made no sense to me). What position would they be in? Do people talk or have their eyes open? How long does it usually last? What are the different ways of kissing? What's a way of putting it that isn't just "and then they kissed"?

How do people kiss?

It depends.. who are the people in question? Pre-teens? Teens? Young adults? Adults? Friends? Lovers? Siblings? Parent and child? Grandparent and newborn grandbaby? Fur mom kissing her new puppy? Man with his prostitute? Man at a business party kissing his wife in front of his boss to make himself look good in hopes of getting a promotion? Elderly couple kissing good night before going to bed?

The age and experience level of the person, changes how they kiss. As does who they are kissing and why they are kissing them?

How do you write it?

It depends on the genre I'm writing, the heat level (how sweet vs how spicy) of the overall story is intended to be, the setting/location of the scene, the personality/religious beliefs/characteristics of the characters in question, what part of the body is being kissed, why the kiss is happening, and possibly other various things could effect how I write it.

Romance and it's many subgenres are what I write most, so I write a LOT of kissing scene. I've written hundreds of them, due to I've also published 138 novels and more then 2,000 short stories. (Bizarro Romance aka Monster Porn featuring a gay haram during a zombie apocalypses being my primary genre, but I also write most every subgenre that exists within genre as well.)

I don't write sex (intercourse) scenes. Instead I write a lot of (very graphic, porn level, full nudity, groping/touching/fondling/etc, pierced and tattooed penises and balls on parade) lead-up to fade to black scenes... that involve a LOT of kissing... and kissing everything, not just two people kissing on the lips. I'm noted/loved by my fans for my graphic scenes of nipples, cocks, and balls being kissed, more often then lip on lip kissing.

But there is a big difference between a couple sweetly kissing on the cheek in public, as the train station, saying goodbye because one is leaving on a business trip...

...versus a couple amorously suckling each other's genitals in the privacy of their own bedroom.

So to ask:

How do people kiss? How do you write it?

...requires a bit more detail as to what exact the context of the kiss is.

Are you dealing with 2 virgin pre-teens, nervously kissing for the first time.. or an adult man ravenously kissing his favorite prostitute... or an elderly couple kissing on their 50th anniversary second honeymoon? Each setting results in a dramatically different type of kiss.

Kisses vary from a light peck on the cheek, to locked lips, to deep throat tongue action, to nibbling ear lobes, to biting nipples, to sucking sperm out of an erect penis.

So, what type of kiss are you asking about?

And no, you don't need to answer that here, because I don't reply back on Reddit, no big name author does, largely because our lawyers advice not getting into petty battles with trolls, and once Reddit discovers an account belongs to a big name author the trolls start crawling out of the woodwork...thus why I have more then 300 members of this sub alone blocked.

So, when I say: What type of kiss are you asking about?

I'm asking it as a personal assignment to you.

Look at your story: why do you need your characters to kiss?

Look at your characters: why is kissing just now important to them at this exact moment?

Look at your scene: how would these specific characters kiss one another in this specific situation?

Get a spiral bound note book, grab a pen, and write down each of these questions, one question each on three pages, and then, try to fill up the entire page writing your answer.

Figure out what is it about this story, these characters, and this scene, that requires a kiss, and what type of kiss does it require?

Is there a difference between making out and kissing?

Usually, yes.

Usually "making out" involves a combination of hugging, kissing, necking, groping, and dry humping.

But, depending in the age of the characters and the scene in question "making out" could mean doing a lot of repeated kissing.

What position would they be in?

My primary MC is usually doing something, not expecting anything to be happening -like he'll be washing the dishes after the meal- and his primary lover will tackle him, shove him to the ground, rip his cloths off, and launch into kissing his neck ad ears while dry humping on top of him. It's a common situation for this particular couple, who has a very amourous love life.

On the other hand, my MCs other lover is very shy, very timid, very anxious and is prone to ask before kissing the MC, then be very gentle, more romantic.

The MC himself is asexual/demisexual, and so never initiates any level of sexuality at all. He's not prone to even think to kiss his lovers and would be content to never do so at all. But he also doesn't refuse to engage in sexual activities or kissing, if one of them initiates it.

Each of the trio deeply loves the other two, but due to their differing personalities, each shows that love in different ways, including in the difference in how they approach kissing one another.

Do people talk

Again, it depends.

My trio of MC lovers, are frequently in taverns, the 3 of them sitting side by side in one bench, and the more amorous of the trio, is prone to randomly plant kisses on the other two, throughout their conversations. He'll kiss the MC on the top of the head, on the cheek, on the nose, on the hand, and the MC will not stop talking throughout because he's just used to this happening.

or have their eyes open?

Again, it depends. In scene like the tavern one mentioned above, yes, often. In scenes of them alone in bed, not so much.

How long does it usually last?

Depends on the characters and the situation.

If my MC and his two lovers are alone and feeling amorous, I can take the grouping parts of a kissing scene and describe them out for 20+ pages of none stop love making.

On the other hand, if they are in a crowded public place, the kiss my be a 2 second peck on the cheek.

What are the different ways of kissing?

Yep, I already answered this.

What's a way of putting it that isn't just "and then they kissed"?

Talk about what they are kissing, where they are kissing, how they are kissing. Are they hugging tightly and grinding groins while they kiss?

If they are naked and one or both is a man, is he having an erection? Describe it. If the MC is having an erection, describe his thoughts on this. If the MC is kissing a man who is having an erection, have the MC describe what it feels like to feel the erection of his lover.

If the male is flacid during the kiss, contemplate on why? Is he not aroused by the one he is kissing? Why not?

Where are their hands? What are they touching. What are they squeezing? Are they rubbing their hands on chest/breasts/bums/legs/backs/bellies/necks/cocks/balls? Describe it.

How long to wait after the first draft? YI finally finished the first draft to a horror short story. I'm thinking about what's a good time away from the project before coming back to it. How long do you guys wait? (if you do at all)

I think the time between drafts, should be whatever you're personally comfortable with, and it's going to be vastly different from one writer to the next..

Because I publish 2 to 3 stories a week, and 4 to 6 novels a year, there is often the misconception that the story was written, edited, and published in only 4 days (novel in 3 months), but this is extremely inaccurate. I've had people who never read my work contact me to say they would never read my stories, because "anything written and published 4 days later must be crap". They are completely clueless as to my writing/editing process, and the fact that 2 years of work go into each story. Just because a new story is published about every 4 days, does not mean it was written 4 days ago. In actuality, if I publish a story today May 21, 2021, it was likely written May 21, 2019, edited May 21, 2020.

Because I have so many ideas, I'm constantly writing. As soon as I finish a story I immediately jump into the next one.

Well, when it comes to how long do I wait between drafts: a full year.

Yep.

A year.

Maybe a bit long for others, but for me it works.

By the end of a year, I've written so many other stories that I've completely forgotten what I wrote a year ago and so now I'm able to open up the first draft and read it with the same "eyes" as one of my readers, and I'm able to get rid of a good 99% of the spelling/grammar/flow errors with only one round of edits, and publish straight from the 2nd draft.

But than, I'll set it aside for a second year.

Yep.

There are 2 years between writing the first draft and the publication, even my super-short-shorts of only 10k words.

So, a story published May 21, 2021, was actually written in 2019, edited in 2020, and formatted & published in 2021 with a final proofread to catch any errors that still remain.

But, this year wait between edits method, I think would only work for others who like me are just bombarded with way to many ideas ad are constantly working on new projects every few days/weeks. If you've only got one or two pet projects that you are working on, you might not be able to distance yourself enough to wait 2 years or have enough other projects to fill up the time between drafts.

I think, in the case of short stories, waiting a year would probably only work for career writers, who HAVE to publish weekly if they want to pay the bills, and probably wouldn't work for someone without a pre-established relationship with publishers. S if you are just getting started and still looking for publishers and/or don't have lots of story ideas to work with in between, maybe it'd be better to wait only a few weeks?

But I also think there is no hard/fast rule about it. No right or wrong way/time. Some people write with fewer errors the first draft and can publish a week later. Others, like me, have a lot of spelling issues and can't immediately see them so need to have a very long waiting period. It's all about testing and seeing what works best for you personally. After you've edited a few stories, you'll start to get a feel for what works best for you.

Hoe many times do you rewrite before the final draft? I may be approaching this one the wrong way, but I've spent the last 2 years finishing my first draft. It's sucks obviously but months after the worst writer's block I finally feel I can do this. I'm gonna go through this several times before I like what I read but I finally have the layout and the full story of my novel. How many times do you go through the entire draft before the final product? 3? 20? 40 times?

For me it's different for every project. Short Stories usually get published after just 1 edit, novella typically it's 4 edits, and novels usually it's 7 edits. I say typically and usually because I've no set number, and it could be more or less. Those numbers are just what in most cases are where I finish.

For me, my 1st draft is usually a "vomit draft" that I wrote in a single sitting. I write 5+ short story 1st drafts a day, most days. Which are each 7k+ words. And when I write a novel, the vomit draft is usually 40k words because it's difficult for me to type mo5e than 40k a day.

I should point out I trained to be a secretary, and the standards required typing speed to get a secretary job is 175WPM. Most employers won't even look at your resume if your typing speed is anything under 175WPM, most request their secretaries have a 200WPM speed, but I've never been able to get over 175WPM, so I was never able to land one of the good/big pay secretary jobs because 175WPM is considered very slow for that job.

But this means my typing speed is around 10k words per hour.

This also means I need to know the full story pretty well before I start typing, because I'll type the novel's entire first draft in one 5 hour sitting. I worked for the Boston Globe for 21 years and my job there was such that I get an assignment like this: "A 10AM the boss says 'I need you to drive out to the school interview shooting survivors, then give me a 5k word article for the noon edition'." This means I have under 2 hours to drive to the school talk to the people, drive back to the office, type 5k words, edit 5k words and hand those words to the printboys in time for them to set the type and roll the presses, ALL with the need to have time for the paper to be on the newstands by noon. That means I don't have time to plan, plot, or outline, I've got under ONE hour to do the whole thing because it's going to take an hour for them to set the type, print the papers, and deliver them to the newsstands.

So, not only did I learn to type super fast, but I also learned to think super fast, outline in my head as I type, and type stuff at publishable quality out the gate from the first draft. This is not a skill you can learn overnight, it took my about 3 years of daily practice to reach just the 175WPM typing speed, than another few years to do it without errors, and a few more years to think on my feet while I type.

BUT, I did that training while planning on a fast paced journalism and secretary career, which is vastly different from novel writing. I did the journalism career for 21 years, and did not start writing novels until after that, so I brought Boston Globe method writing with me to novel writing, and I think, had I taken up novel writing first, I'd probably write my novels vastly differently than I do.

It is rather common for people on this sub to get hyper-enraged, super angry over my posts that mention my daily word counts, (one has only to look at the onslaught of mod deleted comments my comments get,to see how many people on this sub go psycho-rage over my typing speed, word count, and editing method posts). That the which is WHY, I am adding the background info, about the Boston Globe, so you can have an understanding of how and why I came to be able to type a 40k 1st draft in a single day, and how I type not one but rather FIVE 40k 1st drafts a week.

So, my 1st drafts get hashed out super fast with me putting out 5 or more short stories a day or 5 or more novels a week, depending on if I'm doing novels or short stories that week.

Keep in mind too, I do this as a full time career, and publish 50+ short stories (10k to 35k words each) and 6 to 12 novels (115k to 150k words each) every year. I type in 3 sessions of 4 hours each every day, every week, all year long. I'm elderly and have no kids running around the house, and I've no school or work to write around, and I'm touch typing because I trained as a secretary back n the 1970s. So DO take those things into consideration, because most people on this sub ARE NOT going to be able to reach my output numbers due to both lack of typing training and having life responsibilities I'm not dealing with. This is not a hobby for me and I don't have an outside job paying the bills, so I also don't have time to dilly-dally around "perfecting prose" or agonizing over finding perfect words, either.

MOST of my 1st drafts will never go on to be edited, rewritten, or published. Because each of the 40k first drafts is nothing more than a story idea. In many cases these will be published as short stories IF they are published at all... keeping in mind too that I got into short story and novel writing in the 1970s when the publishing industry called EVERYTHING under 75k words a short story and considered NOTHING under 120k words a novel. And still use those numbers today to define short story and novels.

Most of my short stories are 7k to 35k, but they can be as short as 1k or as long as 75k. Most range in 10k to 15k.

Most of my novels are 150k, but they can be as short are 115k or as long as 230k.

So, I'm also dealing with considerably LONGER word counts then about 90% of the people on this sub.

When is NaNoEdMo (National Novel Editing Month)?

March, though I don't think there is a website/event for it.

There are probably more "national months of writing" that I'm unaware of but the ones I'm familiar with are:

• March is National Editing Month
• April is National Script Writing Month (originally it was just for stage plays of live theatre but later it included TV.movie/comic book/manga/etc scripts as well)
• October is National Poetry Writing Month
• October is also National Horror Writing Month
• November is National Novel Writing Month

There is a National Blog Post Writing Month as well, as well as a National Science Fiction Writing Month, but I forget what months those are.

Does editing happen separately?

Depends. It can. For many it does. But for as many others it isn't. Every writer is different, and some writers even do it differently from one project to the next.

From what I see posted around most writing forums and writing subs, it seems like new/hobby/young writers and pansters say they tend to write and edit separate more often, while published/established/older writers and outliners/plotters say they tend to edit as they go more often. But, even that is not a specific/reliable "statistic", because you also see new/hobby/young writers and pansters say they tend to edit as they more often, while there are many published/established/older writers and outliners/plotters say they tend to write and edit separately more often.

I think most people just test out various methods back and forth, until they find a method that best suits them personally, so there's really no one size fits all best answer to writing vs editing and should it be done in separate steps or done at the same time.

How come it never seems to get mentioned?

In those articles? If you pay attention to a lot of those types of articles, you will quickly find that MOST of them are written by SEO content writers hoping to get ad click income from Google Ads or Link Share affiliate links, one of the many other ad hosting sites. In most cases the writers of those articles have not only never published a novel, they have never attempted to write a novel, and worse, they've never read a novel and couldn't tell you the difference between a novel and their own ass.

And THAT, is why they talk and "writing" and never mention "editing", because they probably never even heard of the concept of editing and wouldn't know what editing was if you asked them.

I've found over the years, from having talked to a lot of people who want to interview novelists/authors, that every few of them are even aware novels are edited, most don't even know the terms first draft and second draft.

It's frustrating trying to talk to people like this too. Because they ask you: "How many hours a day do you write?" And you answer something like: "I spend a few hours writing a scene in the morning, take a lunch break, than spend a few hours in the afternoon editing that scene."

They say: "Editing? What's that like?"

You spend a few minutes talking to the interviewer about the editing process and what it entails. Than a month later you see the interview printed in a magazine and it says you said: "I write 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening." And that's not at all what you said to the interviewer, and nothing is mentioned in the article about editing at all.

Why?

Editing is not glamorous.

The people reading the magazine article have this foolish idea that authors have it easy, lounging in red velvet wing chairs, snuggled in red velvet smoking jacket, and wave magic wand so their magic typewriter goes POOF a pops out a completed novel, and then the writer spends the rest of their life drinking martini's on a beach while million dollar royalty checks roll in once a week for the rest of their life and they never have to write another word again.

People WANT that image of a writer, so they can laze around themselves, getting money for doing nothing. They see writing novels as the ultimate get-rich-quick scheme.

And the article writer/magazine/website knows that giving readers what they want, is what brings sales/views/ad income. So the articles fluff up the glamour of writing as the ultimate easy street to riches job.

But... editing is not glamorous.

Editing is hard work. Editing is grueling. You can hash out the first draft of a novel in a month or a week or less. But it takes weeks, months, sometimes years of dull, dry, boring, school homework style editing to make that first draft into something a publisher will want to sell as a paperback to readers.

Worse, readers don't want to hear that the average income for a novel is $2,000 to $4,000 advance, that never reaches royalty payout after even 5 years. Or that the authors who make the most money, make on average $26,000 per year (HALF the federal minimum wage) only IF they publish 4 or more novels a year. ACTUAL novels 80k to 120k words each, not novella serials of 40k to 60k each.

No one wants to hear that. They don't want their red velvet martini glass sipping beach dream to be shattered by the reality that writing is damned hard work, and for pig shit pay.

And because these magazines and websites know their readers want glamor over reality, they write their articles to show the "POOF, author waves magic wand and shits out 5k gold bricks on the page per day" glamor instead of the "Author slaved for 10 hours and write 200 new words and edited 1,000 old words that day" reality.

Their target audience is the get-rich-quick dreamer who will click the most Google ads on their website, NOT the hard working would-be writer looking to improve their skill. That's why those articles never mention editing.

Do people consider "writing" and "editing" as just two different aspects of "writing."

I think this is another, every writing has a different opinion on it, thing.

I both do and don't.

See, writing can mean the all encompassing art of creation, which includes editing. Or, writing can mean, just the act of writing down the idea the first time, than the editing being a seperate part that comes later. So, for me, I think it depends on the context of the conversation, wither the word "writing" includes editing or not.

Do great writers just write it perfect the first time?

No. I can't think of any who I would consider a great writer, who didn't say writing was a lot of hard work. From the classic greats like Hemingway and Twain to the modern greats like Rowlings and King, they ALL have said they slaved over editing many times.

Or do the people referred to in these articles have other people doing all their editing?

It's possible.

I know of an Erotica author, on one of the writing forums I'm on, who talks about how she never edits her own work. She writes a weekly novella serial, 15k installments uploaded as a web novel chapter each week. She said she writes it, hands it to her editor, when he's done with it, she uploads it. She said she has to do it that way because the only way to stay on top of her weekly upload schedule is if someone else edits it for her, otherwise she doesn't have enough time in the week, to finish each chapter.

Personally, I prefer to spend several months editing my drafts, myself, because I always end up finding plot holes and scenes needing rewriting while I'm editing, and I wouldn't see those things if someone else was editing, and while an editor might see a plot hole and point it out to me, the editor wouldn't think things like: "OMG! I can't believe I completely forgot to write that scene!"

What do people in this sub do?

I do a combination of writing straight through and editing later, and also editing as I go. It depends on my mood, the project in question, what stage of the project I'm at, what other projects I have going at the same time, life/health/family issues I need to deal with that week, etc. Just tons of factors cause me to go one way or the other, so I end up, never doing the writing/editing process exactly the same way for any project.

Usually, I have 12+ novels being worked on at the same time, so I've got an extremely assembly line process going on, that would probably seem total chaos to most other writers but, it works for me

what does a draft mean? ( first / second etc...)

firstly, i know what a draft is. but i just don't know how do one in the sense of writing a novel or a short story.

is it a summary to the entire story? or is it the entire story but without any edits or revisions done to it?

sorry if this is a dumb question but as you can probably tell, i'm very new at this and i already finshed my short story and i'm currently doing my first revision, and i don't know if that's like an important step that i completely skipped over.

please don't make fun of me lol.

I think of a draft for a novel the same as a draft for a house.

The architect draws up the house plans. It's his first vison of the house, but it's done roughly in pencil on a white grid pad. It's little more than a scribble. It's him getting the idea on paper. It's the basic shape of the house, the room placement, doors, and windows. It's his first vision. Next step is to get it accurate and to scale.

This is compared to the writer's first draft. You get the story out on paper. It's good, but it will need tweaks to make it better.

He shows it to a few contractors, electricians, plumbers, etc. They point out the places where outlets should go, the best placement of the pipes, etc.

This is compared to proofreaders, editors, and beta readers. They give you feedback on what things can be done to improve the story.

Now it's back to the drawing board. with tracing paper. He traced the basic outline of the original draft. Then puts the tracing paper on carbon paper, and tapes it to grid paper and traces the outline. Off with the carbon and tissue, and now it's time to pencil in the details, add the eclectic outlets, pipes, support beams, and other structure points to the draft.

This is compared to the writer's 2nd draft, and may need to be repeated a few times to get it "right". You make the changes suggested by the editors and proofreaders and beta readers, and maybe you think of things to change as well. You move things, remove things, add things. You have the readers look at it again, listen to their new suggestions, make more changes. And do this as few or as many times as you need to to get your draft into the state where you feel it's the best you can make it. It may be ready on the 2nd draft, it may not be ready til the 12th draft. Only you will know when it's ready and f yu need to make 3, 4, 5, or more drafts. Two drafts may be enough. Ten drafts may not be enough. Every novel will be different. You just keep making changes until you feel it's ready.

Back to our architect. He takes it to code officers at the police department and code inspectors at the fire department. They point out places that aren't up to code, they show him law books and ordinances, he researches those and makes note of changes needed to comply with the local laws.

This is compared to researching publishing house guidelines and making changes to fit their guidelines, to increase your chances of publication. Get a copy of the newest Writers Market (book/directory of publishing houses) and carefully read the submission guidelines. Make lists of your top 10/20 publishers and what they want in a manuscript.

And if you are self-publishing, don't skip this step. Do it anyways. It'll help you learn what the publishing houses are looking for and planning to release next season, and it'll allow you to tweak your final draft to meet those standards and put you in the running as competition for the new releases publishers will have next year.

Now our architect is back to the drawing board, yet again, but this time to draw with white chalk on blue paper. Time to draw up the blueprint and make that house a reality.

This is compared to polishing the final draft of the novel. You now have your finished draft from all that editing and proofreading earlier, and you have your notes about what publishers are currently looking for. It's time to take everything you got and type up your final, finished, polished draft. The manuscript as it will be published.

With the blueprint finished, now our architect, sends it around to house builders, he wants this house to be a modular mass produced house, that millions can buy and live it. One of the modular home producers loves it. It's going to fit in their spring lineup of new house designs. A builder builds the sample house for the display lot and homebuyers can now start making orders. The house is finally a reality.

This is compared to the author sending the final draft to publishers, getting accepted, and the book finally published.

That's how I look at it and how I think about it. As you can see I don't look at it as "THIS MUST be done in the 2nd draft" and "THAT MUST be done in the 3rd draft", ect. I know a lot of writers do it that way and if it works for them, great. But that method just don't work for me, whereas this architect method does work for me. When I think of it in the same steps as building a house starting with the first draft of the blueprints, it just makes it easier for me to edit out the drafts. May not work for everyone to think of it this way, but everyone has their own method so it's all good.

I think in the end, it's best to try out several different methods. Do this method for your first novel, that method for your 2nd novel, a different method for your 3rd novel, and so on, and by your 5th or 6th novel you'll have developed your own unique method that works for you and it is probably different from the advice everyone gave you.

When you are first starting out you kind of just have to feel around, testing out what other people have done, and develop a method that works right for you as you go along.

First draft Vs Rewriting - Do most people write a lengthy first draft and go from there or do they write a minimized first draft (30k+) and then rewrite the whole manuscript? Quite confused about it and deciding whether to switch methods (originally rewrite).

Me, I just write the story down as fast as I can, in a basic text doc so that none of the spellchecker red underlines show up to distract me. The goal is to get the full story idea out on paper. These usually end around 50k to 70k long. I save that file as "Story Title First Draft - today's date" and don't edit directly in it. Instead, now I open LibreOffice and copy the entire first draft and paste it into a doc file. I save this on as "Story Title 2 Draft - today's date but next year" Than I set it aside for a year and go work on something else. A year later, I open the doc file (not the txt file) and now I have the auto-spellcheck do it's thing. Than I read it and edit/rewrite as I read. This 2nd draft edit/rewrite usually takes a couple of days to a couple of weeks. When finished, I open a 3rd file (doc) and paste a copy of the 2nd draft into it, name it "Story Title 3 Draft" and put it aside for 2 or 3 months, than edit/rewrite the 3rd one and make a 4th one for editing a few months later, name it "Story Title 4 Draft" and so on, for however many times it takes the novel to feel "done".

Usually I end up with around 7 drafts before the story feels finished and polished. And most of my novels, though they start out 50k to 70k in the 1st draft, most of them are 120k to 230k by the time they reach publication (I'm writing door stopper brick sized Epic Length Fantasy so they are longer than most other genres. You'd expect fewer words in say Romance or Cozy Mysteries).

I never throw anything out or "fully delete" scenes/chapters either. If while editing I reach a point of thinking: "This scene/chapter has to go". Rather than delete it from the draft, I create yet another doc file, copy the whole thing paste it into the new file, save as "Story Title 2A Draft" save the "Story Title 2 Draft" file at the point where I stopped editing. Now pick up editing where I left of, now in "Story Title 2A Draft" and now I deleted the scene/chapter and keep on going. That way I have removed the scene/chapter from the story, but it's not gone forever, in case I decide in a later draft to put it back in, or in case I decide to use it in a different novel entirely.

I end up with a separate file for each draft, which I do because I teach writing lectures and workshops at conventions, while cosplaying characters from my novels, and I show attendees what each version of the draft looks like so they can see how much the manuscript changes during each step of the editing process.

Even though I publish several novels a year, which makes it seem like I write/edit the whole novel in only 3 months time, each novel actually has 3 to 4 years of writing/editing/rewriting to them, it's just that I have so many WiPs going that appears less time goes into each one than what actually does, because I can set the draft aside for a year, edit last year's draft, set it aside, edit draft from 2 years ago, set it aside, and so on. Very assembly line process and probably a method that will not be well suited to most writers. I usually have anywhere from 12 to 30 novels in various stages of editing at any given month, which is how I'm able to publish 3 to 6 novels a year. So even though it looks like I rush each novel with only 3 months of work to it, from start to finish it takes on average 3 years for me to take a novel from 1st draft to publication.

Before using this method I had tried several others: outlining, 13 steps, snowflake, etc, and each was okay, but none of them ever felt "right" for me personally, and I struggled quite a lot early on. It was several years of trying different methods before I found one that actually worked for me and it was kind of just years of trail and error before I settled into the routine I use now.

I would suggest, looking at all the methods everyone uses, try out each one, do a different method for each of your novels, and see which one works best for you. Not every method is going to work for every writer and it may take you 3 or 4 novels before you settle into a method that feels right for you.

how to write a breathtaking prose? So, I want a better prose in the second draft. My first draft read bland and stale. How do I improve my sentence structure? Is it variety? One word sentences? How do make it a bit poetic aswell?

Sensory word lists. I made a bunch of these and refer to them while editing. I used various vocabulary word list building sites to create these.

Here are some websites I use that might help you out:

• https://visuwords.com/pretty
• https://relatedwords.io/pretty
• https://wordassociations.net/en/words-associated-with/pretty?button=Search
• https://describingwords.io/for/pretty
• https://www.freethesaurus.com/pretty
• https://www.wordhippo.com/what-is/another-word-for/pretty.html
• https://www.powerthesaurus.org/pretty/synonyms
• https://www.words-to-use.com/search/?q=pretty
• https://www.vocabulary.com/lists/search?query=pretty
• https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/pretty
• https://urbanthesaurus.org/synonyms/pretty
• https://descriptivewords.org/?s=pretty
• https://www.wordtune.com/
• https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pretty
• https://www.gingersoftware.com/products/sentence-rephraser
• https://sentence.yourdictionary.com/pretty
• https://www.dictionary.com/browse/pretty
• https://www.wordplays.com/words-that-end-with/etty
• https://www.thefreedictionary.com/words-that-end-in-etty
• https://www.thefreedictionary.com/words-that-start-with-pret
• https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/pretty
• https://www.mentalfloss.com/search?term=pretty
• https://www.unscramblerer.com/words-starting-ending-with/
• https://www.rhymezone.com/r/rhyme.cgi?Word=pretty&org1=syl&org2=l&org3=y&typeofrhyme=pry
• https://www.rhymezone.com/r/rhyme.cgi?Word=pretty&typeofrhyme=perfect&org1=syl&org2=l&org3=y

I set each one to the example of "pretty" so you could see how they work.

Each is different, but, what they do, is you type in a word, and it generates a list or chart or infographic of similar words. Some just direct give synonyms, others use word association, so, are words commonly used with pretty, but not necessarily another word for pretty. Some create "word map" visuals with clickable interactions, others create lists.

Some give you tabs of antonyms/opposite meaning words as well.

Some give tabs for dictionary and encyclopedia entries on the word so you can check if you are using it correctly, some give tabs for nouns, adverb, verb, adjective so you can see the word used in different ways.

One is a "words that end with" that is good if you are looking for words that rhyme with "pretty" rather than words with the same meaning. I use this one because one of the characters I write fancies himself a poet and often speaks in rhyme.

One is "words that start with" for words alliterate with "pretty", again, I use this because of the above mentioned character, also speaks in alliteration as much as possible.

I'm constantly using these, because often I'll have a word I want to use, but I can't think of it. So, I'll type in a similar word, and next thing I know, I've not only found the word I wanted, but lots of extra words that give me ideas for new scenes as well. For me, I'm elderly and often don't remember the word I want to use, so I'm usually just looking for every day words, but each gives you more uncommon words as well if that's what you are seeking as well.

I use these sites for compiling lists of sensory and theme words too. Theme lists, words that I use a lot (I've been writing a long spanning series for 43 years and certain characters use certain words and phrases a lot, or certain themes show up in several novels, and I use these word lists as a way to have consistency flow within overall vocabulary of the series. I have several files like this, I use them constantly/daily. I like to add sensory words to my writing, but I don't often think of them off the top of my head, and when I go back later to edit/rewrite the draft, I'll see places where I know I can make the scene better, but I just can't think of the right word, so I'll look in my word lists and within a few minutes I've found the perfect word for the scene.

I separate each word list file by topic:

• Sight words (rose petal pink, blurry, crystalline, filthy, vivid, etc)
• Smell words (sandalwood, patchouli, floral, zesty, musty, sodden, etc)
• Touch/Feel words (fluffy, velvety, scratchy, silky, slimy, squishy, delicate, etc)
• Sound words (clatter, babbling, giggling, whispered, resonating, etc)
• Taste words (bitter, luscious, sugary, tantalizing, burnt, juicy, etc)
• Forest words (ancient woodland, reindeer, moose, loon, conifers, lichen, bark, undergrowth, etc.)
• Swamp words (quagmire, oozing muck, quicksand, blue flags, reeds, orb weavers, boggy, muddy, murky, dismal, mossy, etc),
• Fear words (terrifying, horrendous, ghastly, taphephobia, nauseating, revulsion, harrowing, bloodcurdling, etc)
• Comfort words (blissfully, furry, melted marshmallows, bubbles, etc)
• Weather words (blustery, squall, crisp, sideways wind, drenched, etc)
• Cooking words (anise, cloves, flavorful, buttery, boiling, etc)
• Magic words (absinthe, wormwood, gris-gris, talisman, vanvan, honey jar spell, concoctions, potions, etc)
• Beach words (salty, sea spray, foamy, rockweed, dunegrass, gritty, sandy, grainy, etc)
• Winter words (fuzzy window frost, sleet, slush, frostbite, icicle, bitterly cold, inhospitable, inclement, etc.)

And so on.

And as you can see from the samples I put here, they are just common everyday words, not anything special. All penny a piece words, no big ten dollar words.

And these word lists help me to take my writing from this:

• dip with a side of chips (no sensory words) (6 words)

...to this:

• smooth, buttery guacamole made from fragrant fresh-picked avocados, mixed with juicy punch lime, with a side of warm, crunchy oven-baked tortilla chips (with sensory words) (24 words)

I'm someone who thinks in terms of emotions and sensations, so, as a reader, I gravitate towards stories that trigger strong emotional sensations, and as a writer I tend to use a lot of sight, sound, taste, smell, touch sensory words and these word lists help with that.

Each list has anything from 30 or 40 to 100 or even 300+ words. Some words will appear on multiple lists. Most lists have fewer than 50 words though, because I didn't make these to try to use big/flowery words, rather, I frequently have a rather common word on the tip of my tongue, a word I use everyday, but just can't remember what it is, and I'll glance at the topic list and "Ah huh! There's the word I wanted!" and keep on writing without spending hours trying to search online for what the word might be.

Note however it took me 4 years-four years-to create these lists, and I did it with a specific purpose and goal in mind.

And when I say 4 years-I mean I spent 8 hours a day, 3 days a week, for 4 years, creating these lists.

So, do not expect to be able to insta-BOOM-hash out a collection of lists like I made.

Also, keep in mind that I did it with a specific goal: subliminal messaging.

I use EditPad so that I can open them all at once in tabs, and can quickly find whatever word I'm thinking of but just can't think of. And they aren't big or uncommon words, not "fancy" or flower words either. They are just common, average, every day words that I use all the time, but, for some reason when I'm writing, my mind likes to go blank and not be able to think of them, and I'll be like "I want the reader to taste this, but I can't think of the word I want. I know what the word is, it right there, but my mind just won't think of it." So I'll look at the "taste words" file and BOOM! There's the word I knew I wanted, but couldn't think of.

I have a few hundred files like this. I spent several months making them, because forgetting words and always having words I want on the tip of my tongue but can't remember what they are, is a huge problem for me, that used to trip me up while writing all the time. Now whenever I can't think of a word, I have this huge database of word lists on my hard-drive and I can quickly find the word by topic.

I set out to searching on Google for terms like: "sensory word lists" "weather vocabulary lists" "taste words for writers" and similar search terms, and I would add the words into the various files by topic. Each file has 100 to 400 words in it, all on the one topic of the file.

Custom lists were better for me than using a thesaurus, because each file only contains words I do/would use, instead of every possibly version of a word.

I make lists relevant to my specific series. My MC is a silk weaver/silk merchant/mage for hire, so, I end up using lots of words related to raising silkworms, boiling silk moth cocoons, dying silk fibres, spinning silk slubs into threads, weaving silk threads into yardages, embroidering silk, sewing silk, and they need to be words specific to Persia and in 800A.D. to 1400A.D.

I can't remember all the correct words off the top of my head, and when I search Google or thesaurus.com, it'll give me non-relevant words from India silk industry or China silk industry or Japan silk industry, or modern tech words, when I need words specific to one country in one time period. So, I have word lists that are "Silk Vocabulary Words" and it has ONLY silk words relevant to my series/character/setting/region/time period.

I have several word lists that are very narrow focused/niche topic words that fit with the character/setting/region/time period of the series I write, which likewise saves huge amounts of time. It's stuff I've already researched, and don't need to research again, but, stuff that wouldn't come up quickly in the first few dozen pages of the average Google search either, so without the lists, I'd have to spend time searching for words. So the lists themed specific to my series are great time savers for me.

It took about 4 months of several hours a day, to build all of these word lists I use. I use the lists daily- have used them for several years now-and it's one of the best/most useful things I ever did to help me with my writing/editing.

I use these as writing prompts as well. I'll just put a word in, and see if I can write a scene using as many words from the list as possible. I find these sites incredibly useful when it comes to looking up vocabulary words.

For example, say I have the sentence:

• He walked through the forest for several hours until he reached the city on the other side. (17 words)

I would grab my Forest Words list, glance through it, see several words that would spark writing prompt ideas in my mind, and now I’ll rewrite that sentence to something like this instead:

• He walked through the deep, dark, old growth pine forest for several hours. It surprised him how little sunlight was able to filter through the many layered canopy of the tall trees. Though it was high noon, it was nearly as dark as night, growing darker with each step he took. Owls hooted. Coyotes yipped. Wolves howled. Somewhere nearby a babbling brook bubbled it’s way through the darkness. Every step he took sent more chills down his spine as the sounds of the darkness filled his heart with dread. Finally he reached the city on the other side. (100 words)

By glancing at my Forest Word list, I took a 17 word sentence and turned it into a 100 word scene.

Pay attention to the fact too, that it slowed down the pace. Remember: more words = slower pace. So if you want a fast paced scene, you DO NOT want to be adding words.

Now, I am writing a very slow paced series. It contains no sex, no action, no fights, no wars, no tension, nothing like that. My series meanders along at a slow pace. Remember, my main character Quaraun, is elderly, homeless, has a lame leg, and is walking/hiking/backpacking his way around the world-on foot. My series has a pace slower the molasses.

So, for my series, slowing the scenes down and having a character stop and smell the roses, is a good thing... but... it may not be good for YOUR story. Do consider what will and will not work for your story. Not every method is going to work with every story.

Do keep in mind that the bulk of what I write gets classified as "sleep stories".

There actually is a very big market for this type of short story, IF…if you know where to look for it.

People often going looking for my short stories and, without knowing either my penname or my genre, they browse through Amazon’s short story department, hoping to figure out where I am. Yeah… about that… even though I write short stories… and have 402 books on Amazon Kindle… you will not find my work in the fiction or genre departments, because they are in the “Religion and Spirituality” department, under the subcategory of “Meditation” and or “Paganism” and or “New Age”. Yep, yep. THAT is WHY I get way more sales of my short stories on Kindle than do other short story writers. My stuff gets officially plugged as “guided meditations”.

And this is one of the biggest departments on Kindle. If you want to see it, here it is:

Books›Religion & Spirituality›New Age & Spirituality›: https://amzn.to/3Pt1HE5

Books›Religion & Spirituality›New Age & Spirituality›Meditation›Guided Meditation: https://amzn.to/3wuqpwy

Books›Religion & Spirituality›New Age & Spirituality›Paganism: https://amzn.to/3Lroxsn

As you can see, there are millions and millions and millions and oh so many more millions of books in each of these three categories of Amazon.

And guess what? Low and behold, inside of the guided meditation department you will find yet another sub category: “sleep stories:. Here it is:

Books›Religion & Spirituality›New Age & Spirituality›Meditation›Guided Meditation›Sleep Stories: https://amzn.to/3lrScYa

Not as big of a category, but as you can see there are 75 pages of them.

And look at the prices:

-ebook editions average $7.99 -for short stories,

-audio editions average $29.95 -for short stories,

-paperback editions average $55 -for short stories,

-hardcover editions are averaging $75 -for short stories

And Amazon pays 70% royalties and people are buying them.

This IS the place to sell short stories and short story collections, because people looking for sleep stories and guided meditations are NOT thinking of them as short stories, rather they are thinking of them as self improvement help guides.

BUT…

There is a trick to it.

You can’t just slap genre fiction up in these categories and expect to pass it off as guided meditations or sleep stories. That won’t work. You have to actually be writing stories that can be counted as guided meditations and/or sleep stories, and as you said, it is a very specific type of writing.

Now, if you go to my profile and scroll my post history, you will find a LOT of me talking about the fact that I write short stories for a living and make a full-time career out of it. If you read the replies to my posts, you will see a lot of mocking, naysaying, mods deleting harassment, and that more than half my posts on r/Writing average 35 to 50 or more down votes each post. Yeah. My karma count is 4k even though I’ve been posting daily on this sub since 2011 and have more then 10k posts on this one sub alone, and it’s because this sub has an extreme verheant hatred for anyone who succeeds in getting published and then tries to help other by sharing how they did it. They like wallowing in the mud of self pitying unpublished despair.

But the fact remains, I am one of the biggest selling short story writers on the planet, and I write a 10k word short story a day and publish a 12k short story a week, and people buy them, and this is my full time career.

I make my income from writing short stories full time, and yet:

-I’ve never written a sex scene

-I don’t write Erotica (though many of my works get called by readers “sexless Erotica” due to my use of vivid subliminal messaging-something I went to college for and studied as my focus when getting my marketing degree

-I don’t write action

-I don’t write adventure

-I don’t use plots

-I don’t write fights, battles, chases, or wars

-I DO write Fantasy with an Elf as a MC, and his 2 lovers are a Fae and a Demon; and it’s set in a world of turmoil where a zombie apocalypse is going on, the world is in utter chaos, and the reader knows this world is shitty mess of hell to live in, BUT, the reader also sees that the trio can find peace in spite of the world they live in, and they can rest and sleep, without fear… a message that many readers of this type of book, NEED to hear in order to fall asleep themselves.

-The bulk of my stories feature the trio either hiking through the forest, walking along the edge of a river, strolling along a beach, doing busy-work/house chores around the lighthouse they live in, or eating a meal and calmly talking at the local tavern

-Many stories feature the trio just sitting in front of a tent, quietly watching a mountain stream and listening to birds singing to the morning sunrise or evening sunset.

-My stories are calm, serene, peaceful, relaxing, full of sensory imagery that employs all 6 scenes (taste, touch, smell, sound, sight, and emotional feelings)

-Sleep, is itself a common theme of my stories, where many stories do absolutely nothing but follow the trio through their nightly ritual of setting up their fur pelt bed rolls, brushing each other’s hair, bathing each other, then snuggling up together and falling asleep while listen to the crickets and spring peepers.

Sleep stories are stories specifically written to be soothing and to ease unsteady minds into sleep.

This is why my stories about the trio getting ready for bed, and just sitting around brushing each other’s hair, ranks among my top sellers. These types of scenes are very meditative and relaxing. And it provides comfort for the reader to visualize these three lovers, so content with each other, so relaxed around each other, that they groom each other, without the inclusion of sexual arousal or it leading to a sex scene.

Most hair brushing scenes in books focus on Erotica and sexual arousal and create tension for the reader. Mine do not. They focus on lovers who have been together for decades now and sex is no longer the thing that keeps them together, and they are comfortable being just who they are and being fully relaxed in each other’s company. The scenes relax the reader and make the reader feel safe, make them feel their anxiety slipping away, as I write that the character relaxed and felt his anxiety slip away with each stroke of the brush.

That’s important in guided meditation stories. Saying things like: “He relaxed, feeling his anxiety melt away, with every gentle soothing stroke of the brush” fills the reader with the vicarious sensation of relaxing and becoming less anxious, and this lulls them into the state they need to be in, in order to fall asleep.

Guided meditation is essentially the same process as is used by hypnotists, where they tell you the thing they want you to do, in a slow soothing many. Thus this type of story will include lines that say something like: “He began feeling drowsy. He could feel himself drifting off into the worm, soothing comfort of sleep. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep.”

I have many reviews from readers which say things like: “I always fall asleep when reading your stories!” and that’s a good thing.

In other sections of Amazon, that would be a bad review, but NOT in this category where people who suffer from anxiety induced insomnia and LOOKING for books that put them to sleep.

It is a very unusual kind of writing that tends to go against everything writers learn to do to keep a reader's attention and strikes a balance between being engaging enough to occupy the mind but soothing enough not to startle it awake with plot twists and action.

There is a LOT of TELLING and very little showing, because in this type of story, you want the story to have a lazy, meandering, slow paced feel.

There is a LOT of PASSIVE voice and very little active voice because you want the slow, hazy, lazy days of summer rest and relaxation tempo.

But yes, definitely, plot twists and action is to be avoided here. If someone is buying my Fantasy books looking for action, adventure, sex, erotica, clashing swords, quests, tension, fights, faction, battles, war zones, kings, conquests, drama, and all the typical things normally seen in Fantasy, they will be sorely disappointed, for none of those things exist in the series I write, because, my series focuses on the downtime, the relaxation of just sitting and enjoying watching a tree’s leaves dance in the breeze.

And THIS is why, adding words, lots of words, to my stories WORKS FOR ME, but may not work for you. Because adding passive voice and slowing down the pace IS the intention here.

For me, music is a distraction, or rather it’s highly anxiety inducing, and so I avoid listening to stories that include music. And yes, I do buy this genre. I have terrible night terrors and it’s not uncommon for me to go 4 or 5 days in a row between getting any sleep. I have a massive phobia of bed so I can not sleep in a room which has a bed in it at all, and thus why I sleep on the floor in a pile of fur pelts, exactly the same way I write my characters sleeping on the floor in a pile of fur pelts. I can’t sleep if there is even the slightest hint of light at all, so have thick black minky comforter blankets nailed over the window. I require a 25lb weighted blanket to get to sleep. And I’ve found that I can not sleep in silence, I have to have a sound. After years of searching, I learned that Markiplier (youtuber and podcaster) has the exact perfect voice for me to fall asleep to, so I made a playlist of his videos where he’s not hyper yelling at a game, and I play those at night when I go to bed.

Well, see, this is why I got into writing guided meditations, decades ago. I myself have extreme sleep issues, and the problem stems from sexual abuse, that involved beds and nighttime and being attacked by my uncles while I was asleep. This resulted in by the time I was just 8 years old, I had a massive terror of beds. I couldn’t get near a bed. No one could drag me close to a bed. The very sight of a bed caused me to break out in mindless, screaming terror. And by the time I was 14 years old it got worse, to the point I couldn’t sleep at night. Night terrors started to plague me. When I was 27 years old, I started sleeping outdoors in a sleeping bag under a lean to made out of a tarp, in my backyard behind the house because even as an adult I could night sleep in a bedroom. From 1996 until 2015, I slept outside every night, even though I had a house. It was that bad. Today, I have 5 houses and a motorhome. I sleep in the RV because I can’t sleep in a house still, and this has been a problem for close to 50 years now.

But even sleeping outside, I rarely could fall asleep. Sleeping outside took aware the night terrors, but not the insomnia. My husband of 37 years, discovered I could fall asleep if he read classic literature (Dickens, Poe, etc) to me. So, he read to me. But finding soothing stories devoid of plots or action, was not easy. This is what led to me literally writing the stories I wanted my husband to read to me.

And in turn, I started publishing them, way back in 1978, because there were others out there like me, who needed the calm, soothing bedtime stories to help them sleep.

The most common themes in this genre are relaxing in nature. There is a lot of sitting on the grass and watching clouds, sitting on the beach and listening to waves.

Non-fiction nature essays also exist in this genre as well, so it’s not all fiction either.

This is a genre that does not require plots at all. Rather, it requires gentle scenes of people relaxing and sitting around not doing much of anything at all.

This is also why my characters are 3 criminals on the run. They live high stress lives, hiding from the law, and inability to relax or sleep, because their lives are so mega stressed to the max, is usually where my stories start out. It starts extreme high tension in the first paragraph, and then each paragraph after follows a progression of them becoming more calm, less stressed, more relaxed, comforting each other, soothing each other, until the 3 of them have gently fallen into a restful sleep while hugging and snuggling together, feeling safe and warm in each others’ arms, finally able to sleep without fear.

I know, people on this sub a quick to mock, make fun of and circle jerk the hell out of my posts while down voting them to mass extremes of -50 or more, because they simply can’t wrap their minds around writing Fantasy short stories that focus on a full total lack of action, but, the fact remains this actually is the biggest selling and highest paid segment of the short story writing industry, and if they really wanted to make money writing short stories as much as they claim they do, then, writing soothing, relaxing, plotless, actionless, sexless stories that put readers to sleep, is what they should be writing. It’s the one genre in short stories that makes it’s writers a full time income.

My own stories don’t stick to a single genre, rather it’s very much a mix-bag blend of Fantasy/Horror/Dystopian/Romance/Yaoi/Magical Realism/Urban Fantasy all thrown together in a very slow paced, slow moving, lazy mood, sort of Slice of Life way, that focuses mostly on the characters travelling offgrid through state parks, national parks, pine forests, staying along rivers and oceans, and being very tourist like in the way they talk to each other about the sights and sounds and tastes and smells and touches and feels they experience.

I think it would probably work with any genre, depending on how you write it.

For me and my readers, nature walks, nature hikes, three loving companions shown taking care of each other, and doing daily activities. Daily activities in my stories include: cooking, baking, candy making, making gingerbread houses, weaving cloth, embroidering, sweeping the floor, washing dishes, feeding sheep, shearing sheep, tending to rose bushes and mulberry trees, feed silkworms, dying silk, spinning wool, carding thread, bathing lovers, brushing lover’s hair, massaging lovers, making beds, hugging, kissing, cuddling, snuggling, and laying in bed are all popular activities to write about that my readers not only enjoy reading but request I write additional scenes of.

A weird one, and the place where I actually got my start is stories about spending a night in a haunted house, where the goal is NOT to scare the reader, but rather to help them get over their fears, by seeing the characters, successfully spend the night in a haunted house with nothing happening to them at all. These types end with a very: “See! There was nothing to worry about! Now you can relax and sleep, knowing you are safe and no spooks are going to get you at night” sort of message.

Bathing scenes are popular with my readers because of “washing stress away” type of relaxation. And the same with hair brushing scenes where the story outright says every stroke of the brush removed more stress.

Most stories of this type the characters and the narrative are constantly talking about “removing stress”, “washing away anxiety”, “it felt soothing”, “he began to relax”, “the soft comforter felt so good”, “he was getting drowsy”, “he felt safe”, “he felt comforting”, “no more worries”, “no more fears”, “he knew he could sleep now”. Phrases like this are repeated constantly over and over throughout every story, in every paragraph, lulling the reader into a state of peace.

The entire sleep story genre, is built around the idea of “the power of positive thinking” and “heard mentality” and “lucid dreaming”. Meaning, you use repetition of soothing words to positively reinforce the reader into a soothed state, while showing a set of characters becoming relaxed, causing the herd mentality of the reader to kick in so they relax with the rest of the group - in this case the group being the characters.

Something that is controversial and seems to be avoided by most authors, is drugs, drinking, smoking, and descriptions of naked bodies.

However, my work includes all of those things. For example, my characters are shown to be using opium and smoking hash hish from a hookah, drinking absinthe and opium tea and poppy milk, the reason being these things are all downers (you do NOT get high from weed, no matter how much people online say they are high while on it. It’s a downer, it relaxes you) and so I show them using these things before bed, to relax themselves and mellow out so they can sleep better.

And one of them, the reason he struggles to sleep is because of rape and the resulting night terrors and he struggles to sleep with others because he fears his body being sexualized. Thus I write scenes of the other two undressing him and NOT being sexual with him, instead comforting him and trying to help him get over his fears of his own nakedness. The point of these types of scenes is to strip nudity of it’s sexuality and is somewhat of a rape victim therapy thing, that you would not see in books NOT targeted at rape survivors, which my being a rape survivor, my books ARE targeted at readers who struggle to sleep due to rape related anxiety. And I will point out here that I did in fact study this sort of phycology in college, because I originally went to college planning to become an art therapist, so I actually have training for this type of therapy.

People with insomnia, autism, ADHD, PTSD, OCD, rape victims, war front veterans, domestic violence survivors, people with social anxiety, and so on.

I find most of my readers via I leave free paperback copies of my books in hospital waiting rooms and doctors’ offices all over the state. (Before the pandemic caused them to ban books and magazines from waiting rooms)I also sell a high rate of copies at local hospitals’ gift shops (before the pandemic caused them to all close their gift shops)

A lot of my readers find me through their psychologist, psychiatrists, or therapists recommending they read guided meditations or sleep stories.

There are more paperbacks then anything else, because a lot of people use them as part of Yoga meditations, and the idea is to repeat the short story over and over and over, physically speaking it out loud so that your mind is full focused on it and nothing else.

Listening to an audiobook, caused the mind to be free to wander and think about other things. Thus speaking out loud, while the eyes are focused on the words, is considered one of the key factors in guided meditations, and ebooks and audiobooks are actually discouraged for guided meditation practice.

So, while audiobooks MIGHT work for some people, most people their mind and eyes are too free to wander too much.

Also, for sleep, again, paperbacks are more common than audio, the reason being it is intended to be a “couple’s activity” and your lover/spouse/partner is supposed to cuddle you while they read soothing sleep stories to you. It’s the combination of them hugging you while they read to you, that is the principle at play here.

So, while audiobooks MIGHT work for some people, most people require the physical touch of another human being to get the full and proper intended effect of falling asleep to the comfort of being in the arms of someone you trust, reading to you.

Anyways, this explains why I created lists of vocabulary words for these stories, and why creating lists for your own work, might not be the best idea. It all depends on how you use the lists.

When I was in college I studied Psychology focus in Subliminal Messaging & Art Therapy. In my trend chasing self publishing career a large part of my focus is Sexless Erotica shorts and novellas. Sexless Erotica relies of sensual subliminal messages to titillate the reader's senses and tricking them into mind blowing orgasms without ever getting near a bedroom or a sex scene. This requires exactly placement of sensory words for sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing, including to use a lot of colour descriptions because colours trigger specific parts of the brain, Thus I spent 3 years, taking nothing but classes focused in Psychology focus in Subliminal Messaging & Art Therapy and why I ended up creating these word lists that I use.

I'm someone who thinks in terms of emotions and sensations, so, as a reader, I gravitate towards stories that trigger strong emotional sensations, and as a writer tend to use a lot of sight, sound, taste, smell, touch sensory words. According to ProWritingAid's Sensory Report of the novel I'm currently writing, I average 29 sight words and 3 taste words and 3 sound words and 2 touch words and 1 smell word, in each of every 500 words of my current novel's 72,614 word 1st draft.

It says, that in total, out of my 72,614 words there are:

• 1287 sight words
• 372 touch words
• 372 sound words
• 122 taste words
• 63 smell words

And these are low end numbers, because when I edit, I strive to make sure there are at least 50 sight/sound/smell/taste/and touch words on every page… so 50 for every 300 words.

A part of my rewrite, which again, I don’t think is standard practice, is randomly placed writing prompts.

The primary series I write, is character driven, emotional mind fuck dive into the mind of a man who murdered his wife and their four children, and now lives on the run, terrified of the law tracking him down, and slowly driving himself insane with guilt. Quaraun’s wife was abusive on extreme levels and he does not regret killing her, but his children were innocent and Quaraun deeply regrets killing them, and turned to drugs and drinking to try to drown out the nightmares of his dead children, which leads hallucinations of his children haunting him is horrific dead little girl zombie/ghost scenes.

Every novel in the series contains at least one, but sometimes a dozen or more of these gore filled creepy dead girls terrorizing their father/killer. Because I have to write so many of these scenes for the series, but I have to make each one different, and since 1978, the series now has 138 novels published, that means I’ve had to write hundreds and hundreds of these scenes over the years and make each one different from every previous one before it. Quaraun’s four dead children haunting him everywhere he goes is the primary plot of the series, so these scenes are front and centre of every novel.

The question becomes… how do I write what is essentially the same scene (little dead girls terrorizing their murderer) several hundred times without it becoming repetitive?

My answer?

Writing Prompts.

For this, I made a txt document file that has several hundred writing prompts in it. And these are all prompts that I made myself, tailored for use with the series. Here are a few of them, so you can see what they look like:

• Write a 300 word scene about something that is Dripping: Describe the isolation and ambient fogginess. Write for at least 5 minutes about a locked box, a drink, and a window.
• WRITE 300 WORDS OF Random Writing Prompt WP: Describe the jar. Include these words: aarggh, bad, smuggled, curl up their toes, disgusting, ugly
• WRITE 300 WORDS OF I began imagining everything that could, might, maybe be waiting in the darkness to attack me.
• WRITE 300 WORDS OF Dialogue wp: write a 300 word scene about something that causes misery Include these words: light blue-green, peat mire, to weep, scorching, Foggy, Soaking, strongly aromatic, Bulky, poppy tea
• WRITE 300 WORDS OF Pissed Off Pumpkin Patch WP: Describe the kimono. Include these words: a thumping throbbing head, backstabbing, chunky, crystal clear, loathsome, atrocious
• WRITE 300 WORDS OF Random Writing Prompt WP: Describe the flask. Include these words: Water-logged, chuckle, cream, to beat ingredients, sugar, butter, smooth, fluffy, staggering, carcass, bloody, grilled
• WRITE 300 WORDS OF Dialogue WP: Write a 300 word scene about a stashed object. Include these words: his voice became raspy after screaming so much, catastrophe, bloody, fusty, carrion, Feathery
• WRITE 300 WORDS OF Dialogue WP: Make the scene more ominous. Include these words: abhorrent, baked, cluttered, cure - to cook without using heat by packing the food in a salt mixture until its dry, disgusting, vile
• WRITE 300 WORDS OF Dialogue WP: Make the scene more galactic. Include these words: leaves, vampires, unpleasant, ugly, Freezing, his voice became raspy after screaming so much, Fleecy
• WRITE 300 WORDS OF Random Writing Prompt wp: write a 300 word scene about someone who is naked. Include these words: Scorching, melted, strewn, antidote, gruesome, bile, a literary word that describes a strong smell
• WRITE 300 WORDS OF Dialogue WP: Describe the ambient humidity. Include these words: bronze, the pumpkin glow, temptation, convulsing, Crinkled, Unsanitary, how does the moon become a pumpkin?, evocative The willowy, laughing young man who may have just picked someone's pocket. This character is motivated by pride, integrity and deep-seated duty. They are being manipulated by someone else.

Why 300 words?

Why not one sentence?

I say, why not one sentence, because every time I tell any one this, someone always says: “But 300 words is SOOO LOOOONG! Why 300 words? Why can’t I just write one sentence?”

Remember, why I created these particular writing prompts. I must write a scene -a scene- of a man being haunted by the ghosts of the children he murdered years ago. And I have to write a few of these each and every month, and have done so for 40+ years now.

A scene is not a sentence.

Why 300 words?

Why not one sentence?

Because, I find that if I just pop one sentence, that don't help me at all. And think about this, 300 words is LESS THEN one page. The average printed paperback books have 350 to 450 words per page.

And a scene is usually 3 to 10 pages long. So, 300 words is NOT going to total a full scene, but also, one sentence, just not gonna cut it for my purposes.. But I find that if I force myself to write a minimum of 300 words, now I have to really look deep into that prompt and examine from all angles how it might possibly connect to the story idea.

But usually, I go a step further and try to write 300 words for each aspect of the prompt. So for example with this prompt:

• WRITE 300 WORDS OF Dialogue WP: Describe the meadow. Include these words: Sensitive, blustery, corrupt, revolting, Refreshing, to smell strongly and unpleasantly

…it’d be 300 words describing the meadow, 300 words that included sensitive, 300 words that included blustery, etc… AND… make it all be relevant to the story and be about a man tormented by having murdered is small children, now being driven to the brink of insanity by their gory, bloody ghosts.

And this particular prompt has 7 inside mini-prompts, so 300 words times 7 = I could end up with a scene of 2,100 words.

BUT…

By setting the goal to 300 words, that low number doesn’t intimidate me. As long as I write 300 words I’ve completed my goal, but I’m not limited to just 300 words, so I have the possibility of writing a lot more.

AND…

Because of the vagueness of the writing prompts, I can take them in any direction or even use the same prompt over and over again for multiple novels and still come out with vastly different scenes, all while significantly boosting my word count, with scenes that are not useless filler fluff.

AND…

These prompts are super easy to make, if you want to make a bunch of your own. Here is how I make them:

I start out with this template:

• WRITE 300 WORDS OF Dialogue WP: Describe the word1. Include these words: noun1, colour, adjective1, sight, adverb1, taste, verb1, smell, word2, touch, noun2, sound, adjective2, food, adverb2, place, verb2, person, word3, noun3, horror-word, halloween-word, winter-word, forest-word, swamp-word, tavern-word, adjective1, adjective3, adverb3 place, thing1, thing2 ... use this sentence: Put random sentence here.

You don’t have to fill in all the words.

I use random generators to fill in the words at random, so that I don’t fall into the trap of making the whole prompt “on theme” to itself. I use this one: https://randomwordgenerator.com/

Just now I set it to 5 and nouns and it gave me: coffee, glimpse, station, morning, discourage.

Changing it to 5 verbs it gave me: create, burn, grip, trade, function

Changing it to 5 adjectives and it gave me: cluttered, yummy, verdant, unable, cheerful

For the theme words I use these sites:

I just used colour on this one: https://wordassociations.net/en/words-associated-with/colour?button=Search and got: Coloured, Yellow, Purple, Hue, Underside

I just used food on this one: https://relatedwords.io/food and got: drink, water, nutrition, rice, seafood

Winter in this one: https://wordassociations.net/en/words-associated-with/winter?button=Search just gave me: Tundra, Frost, Snowfall, Snow, Climate

Swamp in this one: https://relatedwords.io/swamp just gave me: wetland, river, flood, mud, deluge

Now I can take those words and add them to the template to get this:

• WRITE 300 WORDS OF Dialogue WP: Describe the coffee. Include these words: glimpse, Yellow, cluttered, create, discourage, touch, station, sound, yummy, rice, burn, morning, Frost, mud, cheerful, verdant

Now I have a brand new writing prompt that took me under 5 minutes to make. My file has several thousand of these and I use them constantly in everything I write.

And I use these writing prompts anywhere that I know I should have a narrative scene. So I’m using these quite a lot, as, like I said, my first draft starts out as mostly dialogue and needs a near full rewrite in order to add narrative scenes to it

I’m not sure if this will help you with your narrative issues or not, but that’s what works for me. I hope something here helps you out.

I love researching vocabulary words, it's one of my favorite hobbies, you can probably tell.

(The following is a circlejerk mockery of the previous part of the this post. I'm going to answer it to show you what a fucking fool this jackass is.)

My vocabulary has increased 100-fold this last week because of this new technique and I want to go back over my 250k word manuscript and change every scene with the new words

Should I do it? It will probably take at least a year. What the hell do I do? My old stuff reads like a thirteen year old wrote it, opposed to my new stuff I've been creating with these new words. It's incredible! Like some hack!

These aren't "fancy" words though. They're just words that I already know well, but can't recall at the top of my head when writing out a draft (no matter how slow I go).

I'm talking about words like gloomy or lamenting, instead of sad or "feeling bad about a loss"

For example, something like this:

He watched as the order ambushed the rebel camp. Those who couldn’t defend themselves or escape into the tropics in time were immediately slaughtered.

Turned into this:

The calamity of horrors such as an ambush was too unbearable to experience. The sight cut deep into everyone’s eyes and all anyone wanted to do was rip them out to never see again.

The soldiers wandered in from the tropics uninvited and formed their orderly assault. Their sudden raid into the settled camp startled the rebels enough to erratically flee and their ambush commenced. The order dominated and caused disaster. They quickly deafened the camp and seized control.

The rebels scrambled about. Their precious and scarce resources were tarnished. They attempted to scrape and salvage what they could before utter terror paralyzed them. Wives and children were yanked from their saddened men, and murdered. Their impact elevated and livened things up beyond repair, so much that the rebels would no doubt seek redemption.

Do you realized that what you are doing is taking a 250k word story, that is already waaay too long to begin with, and multiplying it by 3 times as many words to end up a 700k+ word story that, is just a few words shy of the King James Bible?

To be publishable, you want to reduce word count down to 80k to 100k range, so you want to be rewriting to REMOVE words, not add them.

There are times when I would advice adding better words, but, not like the way you've done it in your example.

When I would advice someone to add words, is when they have something passive, like an over use of "was", "were", "of", or "as"...just one of those in a sentence is often too many, and causes the pacing to slow down and read like a lazy talking, confused, muddled person who just stumbled out of a tilt-a-whirl-ride and is talking slurred. And, you've taken a good example that did not have those, and made it really bad by not only adding those, but adding them in all one sentence:

The calamity of horrors such as an ambush was too unbearable to experience.

That sentence alone, reads like a drunk, tripping over their words. It's jumbled and confusing, while slowing down the pace.

Now, it you were writing a 10k short story and you were struggling at 5k words and needed to reach 10k, well, then I would advice adding more words, BUT not like this.

Instead I would tell you to look at places that could be fixed. For example:

• Fred made dip. (3 words)

What kind of dip did Fred make?

• Fred made avocado dip. (4 words)

Who is Fred?

• Fred, a student in my culinary arts class, made avocado dip. (11 words)

In this instance, adding words improves the scene.

But, if you say this:

• Fred, a student in my culinary arts class, at Southern Maine Community College in South Portland, Maine, made a sweet, savory, tasty guacamole out of luscious, ripe, dark green avocados, and he shared it with us after class. His homemade avocado dip tasted amazingly good. I wish I knew how to cook like Fred does. But more then the taste was the fragrant aroma. (63 words)

While is does add words to the scene, and does make it longer, it may not in fact improve the story, because it also adds excessive wordiness and slows down the pace. Now, if slowing down the pace is what the author wanted for the scene in question, okay, it might work.

But, in your example, this sort of expansion does not work, because you added so much excessive passive voice. Specifically these words: "was", "were", "of", "as", "in", "from", "about", "and", "to", "would", "up", "beyond"...and more. These are what are known as "glue words" or "sticky words" because they glue the reader in place, causing the reader to get stuck in place like a slow motion scene. It slows down the action, and brings the reader out of emersion.

You need to look up the grammar rules around "passive voice", "glue words", and "sticky sentences", because what you have done here is taken a perfectly okay, fast paces scene, and dragged it to a full stop, forcing your reader out of the action, out of immersion, and, most likely will also cause them to put down your book, give you a bad review, and never buy another book from you again.

There is a time and place for adding words, and your example here, just is not it.

There is also a proper method for adding words in ways that improve the writing, and again, this is not it.

Remember: always read your sentences out loud, and think about how fast or slow the reader will read the scene vs how fast or slow the pacing of the scene should be.

Adding words when it improves the clarity of the writing is good.

Adding words all willy nilly for the sake of adding words, is nearly always going to end up very bad.

Hope that helps. Good luck with your project!

On paper, it's like two weeks, give or take. After getting some early feedback, I realized their interaction on paper doesn't justify the end result.

The immediate possibility I see, here, is, can you change the time span? Say make it 2 years instead of 2 weeks that go by?

But even then, a lot can happen in 2 weeks.

Also, most people who reach celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, married their spouse in under 7 days from the time of meeting their spouse. There are literally tens of thousands of documented reports of this, along with hundreds of university studies which stated statistically, the sooner a couple married after they meet, the greater chance they will never divorce and never remarry after one dies, while on the other hand, couples who date for 2+ years before marriage have a 60% chance of divorce, with the chance of divorce being higher the longer the passage of years dating before marriage.

If you are aiming for realism, realistically, if you want them to stay happily ever after, you want them married in under a week from first meeting. Look into the psychology studies of it, which prove that couples who wait, wait because they have a paranoid/mistrusting personality, and will NEVER stay married no matter who they marry, because they are incapable of trusting anyone, while those who marry days after they meet stay together because they are highly trusting of each other and don't live their live constantly suspicious of each other.

I feel like the buildup to the romance is lacking. As if there weren't enough scenes to justify the two of them getting together. Not enough casual events they had together, not enough talking, a few too few gestures even though that is probably the smallest offender as I like writing body language.

So, didn't you just answer your own question?

Is there any reason why you can't just:

• Write more buildup to the romance?
• Write more scenes to justify the two of them getting together?
• Write more casual events they had together?
• Write more scenes of them talking?
• Write gestures and body language into the scenes you already have?

It sounds to me like you already know what the problem is, you just need to write the missing scenes.

Why does a female love triangle makes you empathize with the FLC more?

It doesn't.

You really NEED to do major plot edits if you want to call this a Romance.

I'm a rabid reader of Romance novels. I read2 to 3 a week, for 50+ years now. I've read several thousand Harlequins, all 3,802 Zebra Fabios, all 810 Barbara Cartlands, most every Regency Signet published in the 1970s-1990s, the entire Harlequin Nocturn series (which I am also one of the authors of, so I have written some of the books in that series). I have been a subscriber of Harlequin's mail order service for 5 decades and they send me 5 paperbacks in the mail every week, plus I also write novels for Harlequin.

I currently read around 150 Romance novels every year, and I write Romance novels, novellas, and short stories, publishing 4 to 6 novels a year (out of the 12+ I write each year), a novella monthly (out of the 30+ I write each year), and 1 to 3 short stories weekly (out of the 7 to 10 I write each week). Not self-publish-I trade publish.

Romance is my life, my career, my job, and... what I see here, is NOT a Romance novel. Sorry, but, you've been over a year on a single novel, that is largely about abuse and trauma, and wouldn't be given the time of day by Harlequin, Kensington, Avon, Signet, or Carina. And if they won't publish it, well, there IS NO ONE ELSE. There is literally no other publisher for Romance out there. If you are planning to get published, then those five publishing houses are YOUR ONLY options. There is no one else. I guarantee, not one of these 5 publishing houses will get near your story with a 500 foot pole.

Why?

Way too much abuse.

Way too much trauma.

But now, love triangles as well?

Even if you have never read a novel published by Harlequin, Kensington, Avon, Signet, or Carina, you could at least read their submission guidelines... all 5 of which state very clearly in their guidelines NO LOVE TRIANGLES, NO CHEATING, NO ABUSE, NO TRAUMA, any sign of any of those things is an automatic rejection.

I would suggest you stop reading the trauma-drama crap 10 year old write for WattPad, because it has NOTHING to do with the Romance genre at all. Try reading some ACTUAL REAL Romance novels, written by actual real adults, whom have had actual real relationships, and actually know the difference between whinny, annoying, snot nosed teeny boppers throwing characters together like they were roosters in a pit fight.

Go to an actual bookstore, head to the Romance department, buy and READ ACTAL Romance novels published by the kings of Romance: Harlequin, Kensington, Avon, Signet, and/or Carina.

Why do I say all this?

Because you asked:

Why does a female love triangle makes you empathize with the FLC more?

If it includes a triangle, than chances are VERY HIGH it is NOT a Romance novel and instead is either Women's Fiction or Chick Lit.

Harlequin, Kensington, Avon, Signet, and Carina, have a full on hands down zero tolerance policy for love triangles, for the very specific reason that, love triangles are NOT romantic.

Love triangles are anti-romantic.

Love triangles are a turn-off.

Love triangles turn stomachs and make the reader want to vomit.

Love triangles pulls the reader out of the warm, fuzzy comfort, that Romance is supposed to provide.

Love triangles make readers stop reading.

Love triangles kill the warm fuzzies in the tummy.

Love triangles feel icky.

Love triangles make the reader feel uncomfortable.

Love triangles are NOT romantic.

And on top of that:

Abuse is anti-romantic.

Abuse is a turn-off.

Abuse turns stomachs and make the reader want to vomit.

Abuse pulls the reader out of the warm, fuzzy comfort, that Romance is supposed to provide.

Abuse makes readers stop reading.

Abuse kills the warm fuzzies in the tummy.

Abuse feels icky to read about.

Abuse makes the reader feel uncomfortable.

Abuse is NOT romantic.

Also:

Trauma is anti-romantic.

Trauma is a turn-off.

Trauma turns stomachs and make the reader want to vomit.

Trauma pulls the reader out of the warm, fuzzy comfort, that Romance is supposed to provide.

Trauma makes readers stop reading.

Trauma kills the warm fuzzies in the tummy.

Trauma feels icky to read about.

Trauma makes the reader feel uncomfortable.

Trauma is NOT romantic.

It is very clear that you have no grasp of understanding of what romance is or what romantic means. It is also clear that you've never read an ACTUAL Romance novel, published by an ACTUAL professional publishing house.

From reading your posts (on this thread and others) it sounds like the only thing you know about "romance" comes from Historical Family Saga Drama novels and not from actual Romance novels.

"Romance" plots within Historical Family Saga Drama genre, are vastly different from actual Romance as seen in Romance novels.

Romance novels follow a specific formulae, of boy-meets-girl+boy-woes-girl+girl-falls-in-love-with-boy+someth-not-another-lover-comes-between-them-to-test-their-love-for-each-other+they-fight-claw-and-fang-to-not-be-seperated=they-find-a-way-to-live-happily-ever-after.

At no point in a Romance genre novel, should there ever be abuse.

At no point in a Romance genre novel, should there ever be trauma.

At no point in a Romance genre novel, should there ever be a love triangle.

The ONLY time a love triangle is allowed in pro-level trade published Romance novels, is within the Haram/PolyAmorus/Polygamy sub-niche, where it is 3(or more) lovers, consensual to each other and all 3(or more) are a happy trio/quad/etc.

The primary series I write is a F2M/M/M trio couple, so technically a love triangle, BUT, not a competition of two fighting for the attention of one, rather instead, three (elderly) adults who are caring and compassionate for one another. Sometimes they bicker and argue, sure, every relationship has that real or fictional, but they have a rule of never letting the sun set on their anger and making up with each other by talking it out, resulting in they strengthen their relationship. Early in the series/their relationship, you see the three of them have a really bad fight and they briefly break up over it and refuse to speak to each other. While separated one gets injured, almost dies, and the other two feel bad about not having been there for him, the 3 make up, get back together, and this is when they make the rule to never again allow petty bickering to come between them. They decide that they should never go to sleep at night with bitter feelings and so every night before bed, they just talk with each other. Their relationship goes on to overcome a lot of hardships that they face in the future after this, BECAUSE they have set themselves up into the habit of talking with each other.

If you think angst is great or romantic, then you have a very weird and wrapped sense of what the meaning of the word "romance" is.

I'm thinking there is just a HUGE amount of you not knowing the meanings of words and using a bunch of words incorrectly on huge levels, and that this in turn is causing a miscommunication of what you mean to say vs what you are actually saying. It appears that most commenters are reacting to the actual meanings of your words, and you are unaware you've misused words, so you are unaware they are thinking you mean something different then what you are saying.

I'm trying very hard to understand what your actual intent is, but there are just so many words being misused, that it really is very difficult to grasp your intended meaning, in a lot of your posts and comments.

I realize, you've stated English is not your first language, and I think, you are trying to convey meanings, that are not coming across to commenter correctly because of a misuse of words in your posts and comments.

angst is a great part of the story

I'm not sure if you are using the word "great" correctly.

If I replace the word "great" with it's meaning, you get:

• angst is a fabulous part of the story
• angst is a wonderful part of the story
• angst is a glorious part of the story
• angst is an amazing part of the story
• angst is an awesome part of the story

Is that what you meant to say?

It kind of feels like Google translated your post, like you wrote it in another language and what Google gave back in translation, was messed up and did not translate to English correctly.

I point this out, because the way you worded this:

angst is a great part of the story

...it sounds like you are making a fetish out of angst, like you are glorify the joys of angst, like you are making angst sound like it is a good thing, and I'm not sure if that is what you meant to say.

I'm thinking many of the people commenting on this thread, are taking what you said at face value and are assuming that you actual meant what you have written, but I'm thinking that what you typed and what you actually meant, might in fact be different?

It's pretty clear that the commenters are thinking you are saying:

• Angst is fabulous!
• Angst is wonderful!
• Angst is glorious!
• Angst is amazing!
• Angst is awesome!
• Angst is fun!
• Angst is the best!
• Angst is like Frosted Flakes, they're GREAAAAT!
• Go! Angst! Go!
• Yay angst!

And... based on how you are responding, I don't think you are aware that "angst is great" means "angst is fun! Yay!"

It appears to me that, the replies think you mean one thing, and you don't realize they think that, because you are misusing words. You are using words that mean one thing, as though they mean something else, and I think that is causing a cross confusion or readers here thinking you mean something totally different then what you actually mean.

And, you see, angst is just plain bad all around.

Angst is a horrible thing in both real life and in fiction. Angst is literally whinny, annoying, snot nosed, privatized little brats, stomping their feet, throwing temper tantrums, because they are piss ants who always have to get their way or else.

Verruca Salt is the embodiment of angst, and there is nothing romantic about Verruca Salt.

Basically you are describing your main cast as an entire crew of little Verruca Salt's, prancing around doing the shit every one hates Verruca Salt for doing.

And in case you don't know who Verruca Salt is, here, have some Verruca Salt:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9mba2qb9do

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_s-OrWz_Z8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRTkCHE1sS4

THAT is angst, and as you can see it ain't good. It ain't pretty. And it's the farthest thing from Romantic as you can get.

Angst is a spoiled brat being a shitty piece of crap just because she knows she can. And you are glorifying that like it's a good thing, and bragging that this is not only what your characters are, but that them being little shits like this is a primary plot point?

Uhm... are you sure you know the meaning of the word angst? Because, like I said, no one likes dipshits like Verruca Salt in normal situations, let alone in Romance situations.

Angst has no place in Romance.

Can you see NOW, WHY people here are saying this whole set up is bad?

You REALLY NEED to edit out ALL the abuse, trauma, and angst, if you plan to call this a Romance AND get it published.

How do I write a simplistic and small scale story, Cause all my previous projects have been too ambitious and I wanna try something new now….

So basically pretty much every story of mine before this has been too large scale and complex, but I feel like I should try to make a simple and small scale one this time, as I think this would certainly make me and others believe that I am a capable writer and not just someone who makes too ambitious stuff……

I actually wanna how can I make it simplistic, yet not boring or stereotypical in any shape or form, and it still generates interset among the readers.

I am completely the opposite of you. I simply can't write long stories, complex multi-faceted plots, large ensemble casts, finely woven multi-sub-plots, or ambitious stories. And there was a time when this frustrated me, because, I had gotten it into my head that in order to be "a REAL writer" I had to write big, epic, complex novels. I got this into my head, because I loved short stories, and I read tons of them.

While I also read a lot of novels (I go through Harlequin Romance novels and Star Trek novels like they were candy, reading 1 to 3 a week), my main reading is short stories in the 10k to 15k word range. I'll read 10+ short stories in a day. I subscribe to dozens of literary print magazines, I buy every anthology and collection I can get my hands on-with no concern for who the writer is at all-I just can't get enough short stories. It's kind of an addition-a big one-reading short stories takes up the bulk of my non-writing time. Most of my days are spent either reading or writing short stories because I rabidly love doing both.

My writing short stories fall into one of those categories where writing is like breathing, for me, and I just can’t not do it. While I do publish some of my work, the vast bulk of my writing never gets published because I write mostly for the fun of the physical act of writing, and not everything I write ends up publishable or even something I want to try to edit to make it publishable.

In 1978, 44 years ago, I started publishing short stories in little literary magazines, and readers liked those and so I wrote more. And I just kept writing more short stories and print magazines kept publishing them, and after a few years, it occurred to me, I don't need to write novels, because I don't want to write novels. I like writing short stories. The ”real writers, write novels” mindset drifted away and I just dove head first into writing short stories for print mags as my full time career.

And as the years went by, I fell into this "formulae" or "structure" that just became my default normal "template" to go to to write all my stories by. It works for me and the series I write, because each story is usually 7k to 15k words long, some shorter, some longer, but most are in the 10k to 12k range.

The thing I like to do, that might help you (or not, who knows?), is to write little quick one scene stories revolving around just a quick 15min to half hour space of time in a person's (character's) life.

I developed this weird “man on the bench” method of writing, which became the norm for the bulk of my stories. The idea is to take a man (or woman or child or elf or whatever you are writing about)... take a man, sit him on a bench, and just start writing. Who is he? Where is the bench? Why is he sitting on the bench? What can he see from this bench? What can he smell? What can he taste? What can he touch? What does he feel physically? What does he feel emotionally? What is he thinking about? And just write the answers to these and other similar questions until you reach around 10k words, and then, stop writing. The end.

I believe, in Literary Genre terms, most people would call this “a character study”? But I’m not sure. I was told once that this is what I was doing, that my short stories were all character studies, rather than actual plotted stories.

Now, I will point out that my writing does fall far from the action-filled, fast paced, norm. There are no fights or wars or kings or factions or sex or car chases or sword play or heros on quests or adventure paries or hero journey’s or saving damsels or any other sort of action type thing that you would normally see in most novels, or any short stories with plots. My stories ARE extremely character driven on the deep-end of the bell curve extremes, to the point of often containing no plot at all, and literally just being a character sitting and thinking, and taking in the scenery around him. And there is not a lot of demand for this sort of thing either, so know that if you do end up writing this sort of thing and wanting to publish it.

Most of my stories follow this same format of starting out with a character sitting somewhere, quietly thinking to himself or talking with a companion. Not always a bench. Sometimes it’s a table in a tavern, a bar in a pub, a log by a campfire, a pile of pillows in a tent, a rock by a mountain stream…any place a character can sit and relax, sit and think, sit and chat with a friend, that’s where I start.

I don't outline or pre plan before I write. I'm what most people call a pantser, I think. Though I think "improv writing" probably better describes what I do. Perhaps the snowball method (not snowflake method) best describes what I do? I don’t know. I don’t follow any sort of method/template created by anyone, I just kind of do my own thing, and figure out what works for me, and I’m not sure if any of the “methods” out there actually match fully what I do or not.

My method is, I take a character and I put them in a location, and then I just start writing and see what happens. For example I take a man, sit him on a park bench and start writing.

I sit my character on a bench (if in a city) or a log (if in the forest) or at a table (if in a building) and just write a scene of the character talking to himself about what he sees.

The idea is simple: take a man sitting on a bench, and write about him and only him, for the next half hour. Why is he there? What is he doing? What is he thinking? Where is the bench?

Start the story at the point where he sits down, end the story at the point when he stands up again.

Never tell anything about what happened before he sat down.

Never tell anything that happens after he stands up.

Don’t plot.

Don’t plan.

Just start writing and see what happens.

I like to ask "What if" questions and just write the answer right into the draft. It'll be something totally random, I never know ahead of time what I will write.

Using the man on the bench as the basis, I could ask questions like:

What if the park borders a river and the MC witnesses a child running too close to the edge, slipping, and falling into the raging rapids below? What do the MC do? Does he try to save the child? Does he call for help? What if he can't swim?

I would now write that scene. Write the MC sitting, listening to the sparrows twittering in the rose bushes along the riverside, smile upon hearing a child run by, look up in time to see the banking give way under the child's feet, and write his reaction.

Now maybe the scene doesn't match the story, but I will write it anyway because it'll be character building practice that will help me get inside his head and see what type of person he is, based on how he responds to this situation.

What if it's not the MC who sees the child fall? What if it's the evil super villain of the story? Rescuing the child could show the reader that he has a caring side, while ignoring the child could show the reader how pure evil his heart really is.

Let's go back to the pack bench. There is no river. There is no child. This time it's a city park, surrounded by lots of tall buildings. People and pigeons scurrying through, going about their day. The MC is sitting on the bench feeding pigeons and watching people buying hotdogs from a food cart, when suddenly a speeding car veers off the road, careening out of control across the grass heading straight for the hotdog cart. What does the MC do?

Let's say the park is in a tourist town and a carnival is setting up rides and games and food trucks, while craftsmen set up booths to sell their wares. What does the MC do this time?

What if while sitting on the park bench, the MC is reminded of his wife? He misses her. Why? Is she dead? If so, how did she die? Are they divorced? If so, is it because of something he did and he feels guilty about now? Did he cheat on her and get caught? Did she cheat on him and he caught her? Maybe she's sick, in the hospital dying with cancer and this park is outside the hospital and he came out here to get away from the sounds of the beeping hospital equipment that is counting down the hours to her death. Lots of ways this can go, depending on why he's thinking of his wife and where she is right now.

What if the park is a dog park and he's watching his dog play with the other dogs? What type of dog does he have? How did he get it? How long has he had it?

What if it's not a park, but a beach on the ocean? He's listening to the sound of the waves, smelling the salt ocean, watching sandpipers run back and forth with the waves snatching up periwinkles, watching the seagulls fight over a lone crab, watching terns skim the water, smelling the rockweed at low tide, watching the lighthouse keeper on his ladder repainting the lighthouse, feeling the warm sun on his face, the gritty sand between his toes. Why is he here on the beach today of all days? Is it a good day, and he's here with his family, watching his children build sand castles? Is it a bad day, his child has been kidnapped and this is the drop-off point for the ransom money? Was there just a hurricane and he was part of the clean up crew that's pulling a dead whale off the beach? Is it the frigid cold of winter of the Atlantic north and he's watching an iceberg slowly float offshore while digging for clams? Is it a blazing hot heat wave in Florida's south and he's sweltering hot and thinking about where to buy a cold drink?

What if it's not a park bench, but a bus station bench? Is he picking someone up? Who? Why? Is he leaving somewhere? Where? Why? Is he homeless and waiting for the next round of buses, in hopes someone will toss a half eaten sandwich in the trash?

Do you see how many ways it could go, if your next scene just tosses a park bench into the scene and your MC is sitting on it?

You now have to answer where the bench is, why the MC is sitting on it, what the MC sees, hears, says, thinks, and feels as he sits there, and how he responds to those things.

And there are hundreds of places that have benches, so hundreds of places your MC could be, thousands of things he might see.

And you can do this with any genre.

A bench in Romance, maybe this is where he and his lover first meet.

A bench in a Western, maybe he's the town sheriff watching the saloon waiting for a fight to break out.

A bench in a Fantasy, maybe its a bench in front of the blacksmith and he's waiting for his new sword to be finished.

A bench in a SciFi, maybe it's outside of a space terminal and he's waiting for a shuttle craft to arrive so he can go to his new job on the starship.

A bench in a Horror, maybe that creepy guy on the next bench over is about to follow him home.

A bench in an Urban Contemporary, maybe the bench is in front of the bike shop and he's taking a break from repairing a customer's hog.

A bench in a Zombie Apocalypse, maybe he's considering using the bench as part of a barricade to keep the undead out of his campsite.

But I could just as easily use the example of an MC walking his dog down the sidewalk. Or the MC enters a store or a library or walks past the high school football field.

Maybe your MC is hungry so you send him to a restaurant or tavern or bar or McDonald's.

Think about who the character is now. Right now. Here on this bench. Don't think about his past. Just think about his now.

What does he do? What does he feel? What does he say? What does he think but leaves unsaid? Why is he here? What is he likely to do? Why is he like this?

Is he bitter? Cynical? Depressed? Pessimistic? Optimistic? Opportunistic? Why? What made him this way?

Rich? Poor? Homeless? Jobless? Eating on his lunch break? Happy? Angry? Sad? Content with life? Stressed out? Suicidal? Why? How did he get like this?

If they know a lot about a specific subject - why that subject and how did they come by that knowledge?

What relationships are important to them now - could that be explained by relationships they had in the past?

For example, if they had an absent parent, that could explain why they're so attached to a mentor-type character now.

Where did they start?

Where are they now?

What logical path can you draw between the two?

I explore why he is sitting on the bench.

Is he a dog walker at a dog park, sitting with other dog walkers while their dogs play? Is he a single dad taking his toddler on a picnic? Is he an elderly man, sitting and watching the sunset while thinking of his youth? Is he a homeless man claiming this bench as his bed for the night? Is it a bus stop bench and he's waiting for the bus? Is he a trail hiker and this is a bench on the Eastern Trail?

So many possibilities.

I can (and do) take this same writing prompt, a man on the bench, and write it every day and have 365 completely different stories about 365 completely different men in 365 completely different settings after a year. And do it year after year after year, and always come up with something different because the possibilities are just endless. And this is why I am able to write so many stories, so fast. I write 5 to 10 stories a week and publish 1 to 3 a week.

And you are not limited to one genre. Regardless of genre, format, or theme. Horror, Fantasy, Romance, SciFi, Bizarro, Absurdism, Dystopian, Westerns, and every other genre I write (I write short stories under 15 pennames, one for each of 15 different genres) if ever happen to read my work, you will quickly notice that every story I write starts with a man sitting somewhere.

In a tavern.

In a church.

On a beach.

By the lake.

On a boat.

On a log in the forest, by a campfire.

On a bed in a motel.

In a car behind the wheel, parked in a remote alley.

There are so many places to sit and think.

So many locations those sitting spots can be.

So many reasons your character might be there.

And the story always starts with him commenting on something he sees or hears or smells or tastes.

Then someone else is there and he starts talking to them.

Then the conversation leads to them getting up and going somewhere and doing something.

And the story snowballs from there.

So, you see, backstories, plots, outlines, acts, arcs, lore, beats, none of that stuff ever come into play. It's just not something I actively sit down and think about.

But, backstories can be picked up on when reading my work. Like one character who shows up frequently, was a black street gang leader in his youth, a former drug dealer who went to prison for murder. That is his backstory. In the stories he's elderly, been out of prison for a couple of decades, but his past prevents him from getting a job, getting housing, or even making friends. He's homeless and jobless, because no one gives him a chance to even try to prove he's reformed. And so, with this character, you see his backstory of having gone to prison for murder mentioned a lot, because characters around him bring it up. He tries to get a job and the interviewer points out they don't want to risk hiring someone with a felony. He tries to get an apartment and young white mothers in the building protest a black ex-con living in their flat where their children play. In the case of this character his past is ACTUALLY important to his present plot points, so it gets brought up throughout the story.

I emphasize ACTUALLY IMPORTANT here, because this sub is filled with hundreds of threads and discussions on backstory and you frequently see writers 100% the backstory is important, and rarely is it.

And I bring this up because, often, when someone says they are writing big, ambitious novels, often, what they mean is they can’t stop adding more lore, more world building, more character backstory… more info the reader NEEDS to know about this minor one shot barmaid that they are only going to see on one page of the novel, but the author thinks they have to write 20 pages of her history of how she came to work at the bar… no! You don’t even need to give her a name to describe her clothes or features. Just say: The barmaid served their drinks. BOOM! Done! The reader only NEEDS to know the MC and his buddy got the drinks they ordered, they don’t need to know the name of the barmaid, what she looks like, what she wore, where she lives, what dark past drove her to work at this particular bar.. I see so many writers, write 200k word novels, and a good 150k words of it is nothing but pointless side character backstory that doesn’t mean shit, doesn’t move the story forward, and has nothing to do with the MC.

I used to be a slush reader for a lit mag a few years back, and the magazine only accepted up to 10k word long stories, but dam, you could begin to imagine how many writers would send in a 75k word story and claim they couldn’t cut a thing because all the side character backstory and world building lore was NEEDED, even though none of it was needed. UGH! I hated that job. Quit after 2 years. I love reading, but damn! I never knew how much mind-numbing crap agents and publishing houses had to sift through to find stuff worth publishing. Good god! 90% of the slush pile is stuff that could easily have 75% of the total words and 100% of the side character backstory and worldbuilding lore removed, without changing the plot or affecting the story at all.

So, yeah, that’s why I mention back story, as a thing to watch out for and not get caught up in because it seems to be the big place where a lot of writers get stuck. Most who say they are writing too long, usually it’s because they don’t stick their full focus on the main character, and instead try to flesh out the story by adding interesting side character backstories ad world lore, when instead they should just put on the blinders and focus 100% on the main character ONLY.

And well, that’s what this whole Man on a Bench method does. It strips out everything except the main character. Removes all side characters and lore and backstory and lets you just focus 100% on only the main character and tell only his story. And if you need a back story, well, it’s JUST HIS backstory only and you weave it in as you write.

For example: Is it important the reader knows your character's parents were divorced? Unlikely, unless the character is getting a divorce himself and asking his mom what divorce lawyer she used. In which case we learn the backstory of the parents being divorced when he calls his mom, says he's filing for a divorce and asks the name of the lawyer she used. There is no big info dump flashback of his childhood or the parents divorce. There is just one scene of him calling his mom and asking that question. His childhood backstory in one sentence. No need to write about the childhood itself.

99.99% of the time there is no need for an info dump, flashback, exposition backstory to be written in any story of any genre. They are rarely ACTUALLY IMPORTANT to the plot. In most cases they just come off as pointless filler that screams "Look at me! I can create characters! Yay!"

If character backstory is ACTUALLY needed, just write a sentence or two of it when it is required to be mentioned, make it part of the story, like the guy calling his mom in the example above, then keep on going.

Chances are very high, your stories get too long and convoluted because you get hung up on lore and backstory, instead of focusing on just the one and only main character. And chances are also high your readers won't give a rat's ass what your character's childhood/past/backstory was like or what the world’s before times/magic history/creation of the gods/how the apocalypse happened/ect was and will just skip/not even read any backstory info dumps you write, because let's face it, there's nothing more boring to read than an info dump, which is why no one reads them.

Now, I will point out one thing here: I don’t start out with a character I don’t know or a world I don’t know. I am writing a series about an established set of characters who live in an established world, and I did do mega amounts of worldbuilding and character creation before writing the series. And so, I’m not taking a faceless, nameless character and throwing him into the void on a bench in the middle of nowhere.

So, I’m uncertain, how well my method would work if you didn’t fist have a fully fleshed out character you knew really well, and a fully mapped out world you also knew really well.

See, I don’t write plots or create outlines or plan out the individual stories on a story by story basis, but I did plot out the world and the characters before hand.

My primary focus is on one big series of short stories, that is one MC and his two lovers/spouses (he’s a polygamist, so all 3 live together), in one world, where he travels a lot and is kind of a tourist type character just strolling around the world taking in the landscape with his family. I spent 10 years building the world with no intention of writing stories for it. Worldbuilding is a hobby of mine. Well, I reached a point of mostly finishing the world and wanted to live there and explore it, so I created a character to live there so that I could write about him exploring the world.

And with that in mind, most of my writing sessions involve me writing a full story all in one go, all in one session. I just grab my MC, drop him on some location in the map, grab some weird ass writing prompt off r/WritingPrompts throw that at him, and then write how he deals with the situation the prompt flung in his way, while exploring the location of the world I threw him in.

It's also Absurdism Time Travel-Portal Fantasy, so when I say I drop him into a location - I mean that literally too - he literally falls out of a whole/portal in the sky and lands in a location that he has never seen before and has no clue how he came to be falling out of the sky to get there either. Him falling out of the sky is the start of a large portion of the stories.

Flinging a writing prompt at him is literal as well. Chances are high the prompt will be written in a brick that also fell out of the sky and hit him on the head. I'm not joking when I say I throw the writing prompts at this guy. The readers actually see the prompt flung at him in the story.

The Absurdism/Kitchen Sink/Bizarro genre is a place where you can get away with stuff like that, because anything goes in Absurdist fiction, which also explains why I can take any genre from r/WritingPrompts no matter what the prompt is and make it work.

So, for me, I have a character whom I write lots of stories about. So for me, I always start with him. He has family, friends, relatives, lovers, acquaintances, and enemies. Usually my next step is to pick a couple of them to be in the story as well.

Because worldbuilding is a huge hobby for me and I spent 10 years building his world, my next step is to pick where in his world I want to write about today.

Once I pick a location (city, state, country, etc.) then I pick the location within the location (haunted house, city park, tavern, grocery store, etc.).

Then I ask myself what he is doing at the start (eating, sleeping, talking with friends, etc.).

Then I decide what is going to interrupt him to get the ball rolling and start the story (a drunk spills his drink, a thief steals a spoon, a loud noise crashes outside, etc.)

Then I go to r/WritingPrompts and grab whatever the newest one posted was, no matter what it is and figure out how that connects to my character, his friends, his world, and where he is right now.

Then I start asking “What if?” questions. “What if xyz happens, what will my mc do/say? After mc does/says that, what does his friend do/say?”

And I just keep going that way, improv style, until I reach the end of the story. I never know what the end will be until I get there, because I also never know what the story will be until I write it.

If I get stuck for what to write next, I grab my Rory Story Cube Dice (I have the entire set which is about 100 dice total), grab 3 of them out of my dice bag at random without looking to see which dice I've grabbed, roll the dice out, and whatever pictures land up, those are the 3 items I add to the next scene and start writing from there with more “What ifs?” again.

Also, I'm heavily making use of writing prompts with this and a lot of writers find writing prompts not that helpful. I think a lot depends on how you use them.

Like, a lot of prompts are super specific and are more intended as a challenge then a prompt, but for some reason, a lot of writers think they can't change the prompt and have to use it exactly as is. What I mean is, some prompts you find on Reddit are intended for fellow Reddit users to each write a 500 word story using the specifics in the prompt. Well, if you are writing to post in the challenge thread on Reddit, yeah, you need to stick with the rules and not change the prompt. But if you are NOT posting the result on Reddit, and are writing for your own story, then you are perfectly okay to change the details of the prompt. I will never understand why so many writers are so unimaginative that they can't even change something as simple as a prompt, but damn, if you read some of the complaints people make on the writing prompt challenges, you'd think that in order to write you had to delete imagination out of your mind first. Yie!

I mean, the prompt will say something like: "Your MC took their dog to the vet. While there they saw Superman fly by." And there will be comments bitching saying: "But my MC has a cat not a dog!"... uhm... so, you are telling me you can't change the prompt to be: "Your MC took their cat to the vet. While there they saw Superman fly by."

And then they'll be, "But, I'm not writing superheroes, it's real not fantasy!".... uhm... so, you are telling me you can't change the prompt to: "Your MC took their cat to the vet. While there they saw a red tailed hawk fly by."

Prompts CAN and SHOULD be altered to match your story, and when I see people saying they can't write from a prompt because it's too specific, my reaction is to think, they got bigger problems to worry about, because if their creative imagination is so dry that they can't even altar a one sentence writing prompt, then they sure as hell don't have enough imagination to write a full novel, where they have to think of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of sentences.

But, that said, I also think too, that the Reddit/Twitter/TikTok hive mind of writing prompts is very, very, very, very, VERY niche and does NOT represent the kind of writing prompts typically used for novel writing.

Compare this kind of prompt:

• You're a retired villian. You've been enjoying your peaceful life, but now a bunch of new villains are terrorising your land, and the heroes seem powerless against them. So you take up the mantle once again. After all, if you want someone properly killed, do it yourself. source
• You are an ancient, sentient cursed sword known for corrupting even the most valiant and well-intentioned of heroes. However, you cannot corrupt the most recent hero whose hands you have fallen into - not because of their purity of heart, but because of their incorruptible cynicism. source
• It's the first week of Magic theory class. You've finally gotten to the basics of the subject. As your professor talks you notice something bothering you. You raise your hand and ask the proffesor about it. They blink and look at the board, then back at you. They ask you to stay after class. source

To this kind of prompt...

Most professional writers who say they use writing prompts, use this kind of writing prompt:

• Write for at least 3 minutes about a painting, and a cloak. Focus on describing unusual details.
• Write for at least 200 words about a search, a teacher, and a locket.

source

• There is a sudden earthquake. What does your MC do next?
• Because of a natural disaster, the antagonist is revealed to have an irrational fear.
• A character suddenly reveals a dishonest side.

source

• A character becomes furious.
• During the story, there is a terrible misunderstanding.
• The story must involve an earring in it.

source

Can you see the difference?

Which as you can see is VASTLY different from the fanfiction psychobabble Reddit/Twitter/TikTok hive mind style writing prompts.

I can see writing prompts as both good or bad, depending on lot of variables including the writer's personality, the type of story they want to write, and the type of prompt they try to use.

Also, prompts are just going to be harder to use in a novel. They work better with short stories.

Now me, I come at writing from improv AND I'm writing short stories, not novels. So for me writing prompts are great. I have tried working with outlines and pre planned plots and I can never finish anything I start that way. But improv writing, I always finish. It's a me-thing, that has a lot to do with I have (all, actual medical diagnoses) Kenner's Syndrome, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD is often misdiagnosed as ADHD because they have overlapping symptoms, so I have similar symptoms as a person with ADHD), and it's difficult for me to sit on one place long, because every shadow or sound causes me to be jumpy (PTSD symptom) and so, this also affects how long I can write too. I can't refocus on a story once I get up, so I MUST write the entire 1st draft in one single sitting. If I don't write beginning to end the entire 1st draft in one sitting, it won't get finished. This is why I write short stories, and why I write a different story every single day. Keep in mind a lot of my writing is PTSD therapy writing as well, so I am coming at this from a different perspective then say someone who writes as a hobby.

Anyways... Writing prompts tend to work best for writers who do improv writing. If you are a plotter/planner/outliner, then writing prompts will probably not work for you at all.

I wanted to be a stage actor when I was younger. I love live theatre. When I was a teenager, I used to take Edgar Allan Poe stories and practice improv, by acting out "after the story ended" Ray Terry style "And the rest of the story". I actually started writing, because of this. My very earliest stuff from childhood/teen years, was me writing out these improv seasons, so that I had things like Part 2 of Fall of House of Usher, Part 2 of The Raven, etc.

But this early stage acting improv practice got me hooked on improv writing and that's just been my method of writing for the past forty-four years.

Now if writing novels, improv writing might not work so well, but me, I'm writing short stories, mostly in the 12k word per story range, some longer, some shorter, but I try to write a new story daily (usually I get out 3 to 5 written each week) and I have a steady flow of submissions going out constantly to so many publications/print mags, that usually I've got a new story being published every week. So I'm publishing 50+/- short stories a year and have been doing this since 1978, and so, for me, improv writing with writing prompts is just fantastic. It helps me to be steadily with new material, so I've always got new work to be querying.

I would imagine that if writing novels, improv might not work so well, but if doing lots of short stories, then improv is going to be hugely helpful for writing.

If you find that online writing prompts are too specific, and I often find that they are, I would recommend Rory's Story Cubes https://www.storycubes.com/en/

They are dice with pictures on them. And they make over 100 different dice, so there are over six hundred different writing prompts if you buy the whole set and just use one die at a time.

What you do is, you grab 3 or 4 or 10 or 12 or whatever number of dice, at random, and roll them out. Then whatever pictures they land on, that's what you write about. There are literally millions of combinations and they make for endless writing prompts without you having to go to the internet.

Rory's Story Cubes are awesome! I own every single version they make. I use them all the time. These are just like the most amazing things for story writing. Whenever I get stuck, I'll reach into the dice bag, grab 3 or 4 Rory dice and see what rolls out and whatever it is, that's the next scene I write. Awesomtastic on so many levels.

I also have those scenario card packs that Pathfinder made a few years ago. Gamemastery Plot Twist Deck. Gamemastery Critical Hit Deck. Etc. They made 5 or 6 decks, each with 52 cards. Some decks had one thing per card. Other decks had a list of 20 things per card and you roll a d20 to see which to choose. Damn are they good for writing. The cards are for Dungeon Masters to improv game sessions within the game, so each card says something like: "character runs around a corner and falls headfirst into a horse cart" or "a sudden storm knocks a tree across the road, your character has to seek an alternate road". Simple things like that trip up your character and make you have to think up a way out of the situation to get back on track.

Anyways, yes, I use writing prompts all the time. Daily. Have for years. Love them. Highly recommend them.

There is a book called something like "The Writer's Book of Matches" and it's 1,001 writing prompts that are fantastic.

I love using Dreamily ( https://dreamily.ai/#/ ) for writing prompts too. What I do is, if I'm writing, and I get stuck, I can't think of what to write next. I take my past 3 or 4 sentences, and paste them into Dreamily, and it's a novel writing ai program that spits out some of the most hilarious gibberish. I love it. Well, it takes what I wrote, and it gives me three "next paragraphs" to choose from. Usually it'll be some totally ridiculous thing, but, usually, it'll get me thinking about my scene in a new direction and suddenly I'm just able to write onward.

Also AiDungeon is good for this as well. ( https://play.aidungeon.io/main/home )

There are three websites online, where I get the bulk of the writing prompts I use. They are:

Seventh Sanctum: there is a long list of writing prompt generators on this page: https://www.seventhsanctum.com/index-writ.php but be sure to check out the other types of generators as well. There are more then 500 generators on this site, you can be there for weeks and not test them all. One of my best selling stories started out as a result from this generator: https://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=tavernname it spit out the name of a tavern, and I was like damn that's a great tavern name, I want to write a story about a tavern named that, and I did, and it was published a few weeks later, and it sold 300k copies, making it my 2nd highest selling story I ever wrote, and the whole thing was mad dash improv written based off the name of a tavern this generator gave me.

Chaotic Shiny: http://chaoticshiny.com/ all those links in the sidebar-each link is a prompt generator. There are around 150 generators on this site. This one is the one I use most of all: http://chaoticshiny.com/wegen.php I just opened it and it gave me this:

Write for at least 1000 words about a runaway, a painting, and a priest. Focus on describing unusual details.

So, you can see the type of stuff it gives you. This one is great because you can use it in any genre and any time period and any plot. It always gives 3 random items, a word count, and a focus. I've used this for dozens of stories I've published.

The Writing Prompts subReddit: r/WritingPrompts is a mix bag. You never know what will be here. It's user submitted and some of them are just off the wall weird. The way most people use the sub is to take a prompt, write a story in 10k CHARACTERS/LETTERS or less (about 1k WORDS usually) and post it in the replies of the prompt itself.

HOWEVER... as I am a career writer, and I publish first rights to print mags, I thus do not post my stories on the sub. And they are usually a lot longer, usually around 12k words. And I also remove anything that is copyrighted.

Like for example, if the writing prompt says something like: "BatMan knocks on your door and tells you Robin has been injured and you are his replacement for the night..." the intention is for people to write BatMan fanfiction in the comments, but as I'm writing to publish, I will change the prompt to something like this instead: "A caped crusader knocks on your door and tells you his masked side-kick has been injured and you are his replacement for the night..."

I try to do at least one story a week from the writing prompt sub reddit, and often do more then that.

And as I write a lot of "holiday special" tales for my series (like for Christmas my MC meets Santa Claus) I am prone to be heavily active on lurking the writing prompts subreddit during holidays, because the holiday writing prompts are some of the most fun to write.

What's good too, is no matter what the prompt is, I can always change it to fit my series. Like if a prompt says: "You meet a friend from high school, whom you've not seen in ten years..." well, my MC didn't go to high school, due to the setting he is in, plus I'm not writing in first person or second person; but, I can easily change the prompt to say: "My MC meets a friend from his youth, whom he's not seen since he was a teenager..." and it still works.

I try to visit that sub daily, and just grab whatever the newest prompt submitted is, no matter what it is, and see if I can write my series MC and my series setting, with that prompt,, and usually, I can.

But some of the prompts are just so screwball off the wall bonkers, that making them actually fit my series, my genre, my setting, and my MC can be quite the challenge, but I love the mental workout of meeting that challenge so I have loads of fun with it.

So, yeah Seventh Sanctum, Chaotic Shiny, and the Writing Prompt sub are really good places to get some super random prompts. If you've not checked them out, definitely do so. All three are invaluable sources of endless writing prompts.

So, no, I kind of don’t really do any planning at all. I never have a story idea. I never have a plot. I never know ahead of time what I'll write. I write a new story this way every day. Most are 7k to 15k long.

I did spend 10 years building the world and creating the characters, but that was fifty years ago, and I’ve published more than 2,000 short stories for the series since 1978. I’ve kind of reached a point where I just know everything there is to know about this character, so I don’t even have to think about anything before I write any more. I just automatically know what he is going to do and say, no matter what situation I toss at him.

Yeah, just start writing and see what happens is pretty much my method.

So, not a lot of planning today, no, but it did have intensive world building at the start, and I’ve been writing this for forty-four years now, so it’s kind of become second nature for me and planning is not really needed any more. Plus the whole it being absurdism/Kitchen Sink/Bizarro genre means I can get away with a lot more randomness then most genres, and thus less planning is needed. If you were writing a more serious, less comedy, less satire genre, or are focused on novels instead of short stories, my scatterbrained writing method might not work so well.

But anyways, yeah… that’s kind of the full step by step writing method I use, for writing a high output of short stories and being able to write enough short stories, often enough, consistently, to a sort-of formulae that allows me to write short stories as a full time career as well.

And my stories tend to be very simple, not much “meat” in their bones. I’m not someone who uses big words, or makes use of thesaurus often. I have a few words which I know I use way too much (was, have, has, could, that, and about a dozen others similar.) They are lazy, passive words that I know I can change to make the scene better. So I keep a list of those specific words and I search for those during editing. And I change them out with better words/phrases. But even then it’s just general, simply everyday words.

I think I use fewer unique words than the average person does. Heck, half the words people use on this sub, I'm left asking what they mean because I never heard them before. English is a second language for me and I didn't learn it until I was 37 and where I live (we are in the pine forests a few miles south the tundra line , we get snow all year, and only 3 hours of sunlight in winter, my town only has 3k residents and there are a mile or more between houses, so it can be weeks between seeing someone to talk to them, and most people up here speak French-Quebec French which is quite different from France French-so it's rare to have English speakers to talk to) and I think that contributes to my having a smaller than average vocabulary.

I slowly try to learn new words and study vocabulary books but I rarely seem to pick up new words in my everyday use, and since my writing tends to be very simplistic because of it.

According to the Hemingway app, my writing ranks at 3rd grade level and I think it's because I use simple 3rd grade level words and don't have any high school level words in my vocabulary.

Well, that means my stories don’t use any purple prose or pretentious verbology, like I see used in the writing of a LOT of posts on this sub. I sometimes feel a lot of the OPs use the biggest words they know to ask their questions, just to try to make it look like they are high brow literary writers, but it just comes off looking like they are arrogant, because they are using words that are so very difficult to read or understand. It’s hy I reply to so few threads on this sub, because I often can’t make heads or tails what the OP is asking because their questions look like they grabbed a thesaurus and just throw words at random at Reddit.

I also don’t write with themes or metaphors or similes or morals or messages. (I only just heard of metaphors and similies for the first time, last summer when I saw a thread on this sub asking how to incorporate them and my reply to that thread was to ask what the fuck they even were because I never heard of them before.) And it seems like from what I see a lot of new writers say on this sub, that trying to write around those things, starting with one of those things, is a reason why their books get so big and ambitious.

So, with that in mind, I would add here, to try to NOT think about purple prose, big words, using a thesaurus, or using themes/metaphors/similes/messages/morals in your story. Just write about the main character doing one task: sitting and thinking and watching the world he lives in. And see if that helps you to write shorter, less ambitious works.

Like I said, I don’t know if any of this will help you or not. It works for me and the series I write, but I don’t know how well it would apply to other writers and their stories, so no clue if it’d work as well for you as it does for me or not.

Hope that helps!

How do I stop using "and" too much? I use "and" in way too many of my sentences. I try to structure them without it but it sounds clunky. Any advise?

Three most common ways are these:

Remove and replace with a coma, if in a list of items.

For example this:

• The colours of the rainbow are red and orange and yellow and green and blue.

Becomes:

• The colours of the rainbow are red, orange, yellow, green, and blue.

Remove entire clause if at start of sentence.

For example this:

• And so then I said to him that I liked the colour green.

Becomes:

• Then I said to him that I liked the colour green.

Or:

• I said to him that I liked the colour green.

Remove and replace with a period if connecting two complete thoughts.

For example this:

• He took the wash to the laundromat and I did the shopping.

Becomes:

• He took the wash to the laundromat. I did the shopping.

And I'll do it again! Lol

Yep. You just did. LOL!

Let's see if we can find ways to fix this.

• And I'll do it again!
• But I'll do it again!
• Yet I'll do it again!
• So I'll do it again!
• However I'll do it again!

Can all be rewritten to become:

• I'll do it again!
• I know I will do it again.
• Did I do it again?
• Why did I do it again?
• I always do it again!
• I did it again!

Now the meaning is some time changed, slightly, by rewording, so watch out for that. Make sure when you reword a sentence that it still has the same meaning you intend for it to have.

How can I structure sentences without starting them with conjunctions? Especially with limited time to do this?

I've been instructed not to start sentences with conjunctions for an assignment I'm working on. This is giving me flashbacks to high school when I had to do this. My sentences often ended up reading terribly.

However, unlike how I was in high school, I care quite a lot about this current assignment and I want it all to sound good, but don't know how without the use of conjunctions at the beginning of certain sentences, ironically enough. Any advice?

"and" "but" "so" and probably conjunctive adverbs as well.

I'm even having trouble with "and" "but" and "so".

I should specify that I'm transcribing a spoken story into written form, so it's not just creative writing off the top of my head. I think that makes things a little more constrained

If it's just those 3, then it shouldn't be too difficult. But there are well over 300 conjunctions and if they mean ALL conjunctions of all types, well, that could get a bit more complicated.

In proper (not conversational) English, conjunctions of all types are usually used in the middle of a sentence and are usually incorrect if at the start. I suspect your assignment wants your conjunctions used in the middle and not at the start of sentences because they want you using proper English instead of conversation English, yes?

So, let's see if I can give you some examples of how you could do that.

• Because he would not wear his seatbelt, he was no longer allowed in my car.

This is conversational English with a subordinating conjunction at the start. To correct this sentence (make it proper English instead of conversational English), you reverse the order of the clauses, like this:

• He was no longer allowed in my car, because he would not wear his seatbelt.

Now it is proper English, which is the exact opposite of how most people speak things vocally.

Proper English often "sounds" wrong, because often, it's reverse of how people actually speak in everyday conversations, and in many cases, correcting the sentence is as simple as reversing the clause order, like I just did above.

You can also remove the conjunction completely by making it two simple sentences instead of one compound sentence, like this:

• He was no longer allowed in my car. He would not wear his seatbelt.

And if you was writing it as dialogue between two characters you could break it down like this:

• "He was no longer allowed in my car," I said to her.
• "Why not?" she asked.
• "He wouldn't wear his seatbelt," I explained, thinking back to the last time he was in my car.

Depending on your assignment, if you are not allowed to use ALL types of conjunctions, that would also include well over a hundred words. Depending on how strict your assignment giver is being, you many need to avoid ALL of the following words at the start of your sentences. Hold on to your panties, it's a looooong list, and includes a lot of words you might not have thought to avoid:

• a day ago
• a day later
• a decade ago
• a decade later
• a minute ago
• a minute later
• a moment ago
• a moment later
• a short time later
• a short while ago
• a while ago
• a while later
• a year ago
• a year later
• accordingly
• actually
• additionally
• after
• after a short time
• after an hour had passed
• after next year
• afterward
• again
• all of a sudden
• almost
• also
• although
• an hour ago
• an hour later
• and
• another
• anyway
• as
• as a consequence
• as a result
• as an example
• as as much as
• as far as
• as if
• as long
• as long as
• as much as
• as soon as
• as though
• as/as
• at last
• at length
• because
• because of
• because of this
• before
• besides
• both
• both/and
• briefly
• but
• but also
• by the time
• certainly
• comparatively
• consequently
• contrarily
• conversely
• days ago
• due to
• either
• either/or
• elsewhere
• equally
• even
• even if
• even though
• eventually
• every time
• finally
• first
• first off
• first time
• firstly
• for
• for example
• for instance
• for the hundredth time
• for this purpose
• for this reason
• fourth
• from here on
• further
• furthermore
• gradually
• hardly
• hardly ever
• hardly/when
• hence
• henceforth
• how
• however
• if
• if only
• if then
• if when
• if/then
• in addition
• in as much as
• in case
• in case of
• in conclusion
• in contrast
• in fact
• in order that
• in order to
• in short
• in spite of
• in spite of this
• in summary
• in the end
• in the event that
• in the meantime
• in the meanwhile
• in the same manner
• in the same way
• inasmuch
• indeed
• instead
• just as
• just as important
• just as/so
• just/so
• last
• last of all
• last time
• last year
• lastly
• later
• least
• lest
• likewise
• meanwhile
• moments ago
• moments later
• moreover
• neither
• neither/nor
• nevertheless
• next
• next time
• next year
• no sooner
• no sooner had
• no sooner than
• nonetheless
• nor
• not only
• not only/but
• not only/but also
• not/but
• now
• now since
• now that
• now when
• of equal importance
• on the contrary
• on the following day
• on the other hand
• once
• only
• only if
• or
• or not
• other hands
• otherwise
• presently
• provide that
• provided
• provided that
• rather than
• rather that
• rather/than
• scarcely
• scarcely had
• scarcely/when
• second
• secondly
• seconds ago
• seconds later
• similarly
• since
• so
• so that
• soon
• still
• subsequently
• such
• such as
• such that
• suddenly
• supposing
• supposing that
• than
• that
• the first time
• the last time
• the next day
• the next time
• the next week
• the next year
• the/the
• then
• thereafter
• therefore
• third
• though
• thus
• thusly
• till
• to be specific
• to begin with
• to illustrate
• to repeat
• to sum up
• too
• ultimately
• undoubtedly
• unless
• until
• until dawn
• until now
• until then
• until when
• what
• what with
• what with all
• what with/and
• whatever
• when
• whenever
• where
• where if
• whereas
• wherever
• whether
• whether or not
• whether/or
• which
• while
• who
• whoever
• whomever
• whose
• whosoever
• why
• with this in mind
• yet

I just counted and that's 253 words that you'll need to avoid...

...and there may be more that I missed or didn't think of. Those are just the ones I could think of, I'm sure I probably missed several more.

Because of how many conjunctions there are, in addition to the common and/but/for/nor/yet that are often the only ones that most people commonly think of, it's possible your assignment giver, may or may not want you to avoid only the common 5 or they may want you to avoid the full 250+. So, I would definitely double check/ask them do they mean just the common 5 or do they mean the full 250+, because that will make a big difference with how you do this assignment.

If you are dealing with "peer reviewed" academic writing for science journals or technical writing for business, then it's probable your assignment giver wants you to avoid the full 250+ words entirely.

He, she, his, her, it, they HOW DO I STOP? I noticed that i got shit at forming sentences after a long writing break. Now I cant stop using „(pronoun)“ at the start of most sentences and its deiving me nuts. Anyone has any advise?

Sentence variety. For example, all of these sentences say the same basic thing:

• Albert jumped over the wall because he was frightened by the big dog.
• He jumped over the wall because he was frightened by the big dog.
• The frightened boy jumped over the wall when he saw the big dog.
• The big black dog frightened Albert, causing him to jump over the wall.
• The big black dog frightened him, causing him to jump over the wall.
• The big black dog frightened the boy, causing him to jump over the wall.
• Did Albert really jump over the wall when he saw the big dog?
• Did he really jump over the wall when he saw the big dog?
• Did the boy really jump over the wall when he saw the big dog?
• After being frightened by the big dog, Albert jumped over the wall.
• After being frightened by the big dog, he jumped over the wall.
• After being frightened by the big dog, the boy jumped over the wall.
• Frightened by the big dog, Albert jumped over the wall.
• Frightened by the big dog, he jumped over the wall.
• Frightened by the big dog, the boy jumped over the wall.
• Thus frightened, Albert jumped over the wall upon seeing the big dog.
• Thus frightened, he jumped over the wall upon seeing the big dog.
• Thus frightened, the boy jumped over the wall upon seeing the big dog.
• The big dog frightened Albert so badly, he jumped over the wall.
• The big dog frightened him so badly, he jumped over the wall.
• The big dog frightened the boy so badly, he jumped over the wall.
• Yesterday, Albert was frightened by the big dog, so he jumped over the wall.
• Yesterday, Albert jumped over the wall because a big dog frightened him.
• Jumping over the wall, Albert escaped the big dog.
• On his way home, Albert jumped over the wall because a big dog frightened him.
• By jumping over the wall, Albert escaped the big dog.
• It occurred to Albert that the big dog was going to attack, so he jumped over the wall to escape.
• If Albert had not jumped over the wall, the big dog might have injured him.
• Panicked, Albert jumped over the wall to get away from the big, scary-looking dog.
• In his panic, Albert hastily jumped over the wall to get away from the big dog.
• Fear gripped Albert as he scrambled over the wall to get away from the big dog.
• It was either jump over the wall or get bitten by the big dog. Figuring he'd be less likely to get hurt that way, Albert chose to jump over the wall.
• Albert, knowing the big dog would bite him, jumped over the wall.
• Did you see Albert jump over the wall to get away from the big dog?
• With no time to think, Albert, scrambled over the wall to escape the big dog.
• Remembering the last time the big dog had attacked him, Albert quickly jumped over the wall to safety.
• At this very moment, Albert is climbing over the wall to get away from the big dog.
• Since the big dog was blocking his path, Albert climbed over the wall.
• Hopefully, Albert wasn't hurt when he jumped over the wall to get away from the big dog.
• Yikes! Albert had to jump over the wall to get away from the big dog!
• Whether he liked it or not, Albert knew the only way to escape the big dog was by jumping over the wall.
• With the big dog blocking the path, there was nothing else for Albert to do, but jump over the wall.
• In spite of how tall the wall was, Albert jumped over it to get away from the big dog.
• Of course, Albert would jump over the wall when seeing a big dog. Pfft. Stupid Albert. It was probably a Chihuahua.
• To get away from the big dog, Albert jumped over the wall.
• How did Albert make it over that wall? Did you see how tall it was? He must have been really scared of that big dog.
• How did Albert get over that wall? Do you see how high it is? Was he really afraid of the big dog?
• A big dog frightened Albert, causing him to jump over the wall.
• While Albert claimed he couldn't climb the wall, he had no trouble scaling it when the big dog charged at him.
• Climb over the wall, like Albert did, if you see that big dog.
• The big dog lunged at Albert, as he jumped over the wall.
• Once Albert saw how scary the big dog was, he jumped over the wall.
• The big dog was so scary, Albert jumped over the wall to get away from it.
• When the big dog barked, Albert jumped over the wall.
• Meanwhile, Albert was climbing over the wall to get away from the big dog.
• Wasn't Albert climbing over the wall to get away from the big dog, last week, too?

Notice how 'Albert' is interchangeable with 'he', 'him' and 'the boy'. As a general rule, you usually should use the character's name once every 5 times, a pronoun 3 times every 5 times, and a descriptor once every five times.

For example:

• Albert went to the store. He stopped to pet the big dog. However, the dog was asleep, and he startled the dog, making it angry. The next thing the boy knew, he was running away from the dog. Cornered, Albert had to jump over the wall to get away from the big dog.

By using 'Albert' and 'the boy' twice and 'he' three times, the flow reads better (less redundantly) while keeping the reader aware of who 'he' is.

Changing order can change the meaning, though, so be mindful of that too:

• The big dog was so scared of Albert that it jumped over the wall.
• Albert wouldn't have jumped over the wall, had he not been frightened by the big dog.
• This time, Albert climbed the wall to get to the big dog.
• Yes indeed! Albert has to jump off the wall to get away from the big dog!

To find out more about sentence variety, and different ways of starting sentences, look up the following search terms:

• Sentence starters
• Diagramming sentences
• Sentence structure
• starting sentences with a subject
• starting sentences with an adverb
• starting sentences with a gerund
• starting sentences with an infinitive
• starting sentences with a subordinate conjunction
• starting sentences with a coordinating conjunction
• starting sentences with a past participle
• starting sentences with a verb
• starting sentences with an introductory word
• starting sentences with an adverbial clause
• starting sentences with a past progressive
• starting sentences with a denominal adjective
• starting sentences with a phrasal verb
• starting sentences with a preposition

For those of you who have used editors, good and bad, what do you look for?

Sentence diagraming.

Sentence diagraming is a simple, basic skill that ALL traditional publishing houses REQUIRE their in-house publishers know, use, and be proficient at.

In fact it is the ONLY skill which ALL publishing houses REQUIRE that ALL their editors know.

And yet, 99.99% of so-called freelance editors who hire themselves out on fivver and social media, have no clue what sentence diagraming is.

I'm sorry, but how the fucking hell can they call yourself an editor when they don't even know the ONLY THING editors do, the ONE THING that makes an editor and editor? What the fuck?

It just pisses me off so damned much, to see so many liars parading themselves around, pretending to be editors. Yes, I call them what they are: liars! Because they are bold faced lying to us authors, telling us they are editors, when they do not know the one thing that makes and editor and editor.

Sentence diagraming.

If they never heard of sentence diagraming, then they are not an editor and have no business calling yourself one.

Sentence diagraming.

If they don't know how to diagram a sentence, then believe me, they have also never edited a fucking sentence in your life either. UGH! It just annoys me so much.

I run into it all the time, where I ask them what their editing method is and they'll say some shit about how oh they read the text looking for grammar errors and such.

Uhm... wait... what? They are going to READ the manuscript? Why? They're an editor not a beta reader. If I wanted someone to read it I'd give it to alpha readers and beta readers. They're an editor why in the hell are they going to READ my manuscript?

And then they'll be: I have to read it to look for errors.

No, you don't.

You diagram sentences to look for errors. That does not require reading. That requires you take one sentence, write it on a chalkboard or whiteboard, and diagram it. Them rewrite it to whatever the grammatically correct way is supposed to be. No reading required. If they were an ACTUAL editor, they would KNOW that and I wouldn't have to tell them.

Any competent editor knows the basic skills of editing.

And that means they know how to disect a sentence and place each word on the correct line, under each other word in the diagramed equation, and then use that word map to reassemble the sentence by placing the disected words back together in their correct order so that any grammar errors are 100% completely removed from the entire sentence. That does not require reading the manuscript.

They stand there dumbfounding and then say: Uhmmmmmmm... what... ugh... what exactly is sentence diagraming?

What do they mean what is sentence diagraming? It's a simple basic pat of grammar that every single 8 year old in America was taught how to do in 3rd grade. You used it every day in your grammar and composition classes in grade school and high school, from the time they started 3rd grade. No school text book in America does not focus anything fewer then 70% of it's book on diagraming sentences. Every single grammar book used by every single public and private school in America, teaches it in every single chapter of every single grammar text book. Federal education laws REQUIRE it to be the basic standard used in text books. Public schools legally can not use a textbook that does not use sentence diagraming as the basic teaching method of English grammar.

I'm sorry, but if you don't know sentence diagraming then you clearly also don't know an iota about grammar rules, because the ENTIRE POINT of grammar rules is specifically to show you how to diagram a sentence after you write it to make sure you put the words together in the correct order.

Then they answer with something like: Huh. Well, I didn't pay attention much in school.

Oh god, they're one of those! I really hate working with people who are lazy, incompetent, can't follow order, thwart the rules, and have no self discipline. If they didn't pay attention in school, chances are high they were either lazy, a brat, a bully, or too self absorbed in trying to impress some one or some group. All of these are very bad personality traits when it comes to business professionals. And when I'm looking for an editor, I'm looking for a competent, reliable, trustworthy business profession, who is not going to be too lazy to get the job done on schedule, not going to be goofing off with their buddies instead of working on my manuscript, not going to be too busy putting on lip-gloss and showing off to the hot crowd to have time to knuckle down and do hard work.

An editor who does not know sentence diagraming is incompetent at their job.

What makes you choose a particular person over everyone else to trust with your novel?

Sentence diagraming.

I've run into so many dozens and dozens and dozens of so-called phoney ass, fake, pretend liars trying to pass themselves off as editors, who have no clue what a sentence diagram is, that now I just send the editor a form that includes a mess-up paragraph, and tell them: "Diagram these sentences into good and correct, perfect grammar. If you do it correctly I'll consider hiring you for editing my manuscript."

90% of them respond with: "What does it mean to diagram a sentence? I never heard of that before?" And I put them on my blacklist of editors to be sure to never allow my work within a mile of.

I want nothing to do with an editor who says they have never heard of the one, single, solitary ONLY thing that editors are required to do when they edit.

Or what totally puts you off?

Sentence diagraming.

See everything else, I just said.

And because every time I mention sentence diagraming on this sub I get flooded with people asking me what the heck that even is. It's a basic thing that exists in every single high school grammar text book I have ever bought - several hundred grammar textbooks now, and so it was something every American was taught every year from 3rd grade to 12th grade and it looks like this: http://www.german-latin-english.com/diagramamend6.htm

Do you know how I practice writing? Not by writing short stories, like everyone always recommends. No. I buy hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of high school grammar textbooks, and every day I do whatever the daily assignment is from that book. I read the chapter, I write the exercises, and good god, look at that, I diagram anything from 10 to 100 sentences every single day, because every single chapter of every single textbook, published by every single publisher, has at the end of every chapter a list of sentences and paragraphs with the instructions: Diagram these correctly.

It takes me about 3 months to finish a textbook, I often work on 5 to 10 textbooks side by side, because I'm not in school so don't need to devote part time to English and part time to History and part time to Math, I can just focus all on English alone. So I go through 20 to 30 textbooks every 3 months. Then I move on to the next book. And I have done this since 1987. I have diagramed tens of thousands of sentences, from having completed close to 500 high school textbooks in that time. I'm a female, I wasn't allowed to go to school, I made up for it as n adult by doing this method of buying textbooks and teaching myself reading and writing that way. And know for a fact that there does not exist a Grammar text book that is used by American public schools, that does NOT teach sentence diagraming, because I set out to looking up every school in every state to contact them and buy their used/discarded textbooks - because guess what - the companies who publish those textbooks do not sell them to the public, they sell them in bulk cases of 144 books per box to schools, so the ONLY way to buy these books s to buy them from the schools themselves, so I know for a fact these are the books used by the public schools because I bought them from the schools themselves.

I have yet to see a high school text book of any grade that does NOT contain chapter after chapter after chapter on diagraming sentences so I'm left wondering wtf do public school teachers teach in grammar classes, do they even use textbooks? Are they just skipping those chapters and not teaching it to students? Or are there really that many students who are so ungrateful for the blessing of being allowed to learn to read and write that they just don't pay attention to anything the teacher taught out of the textbooks? I don't get how not only 99.99% of a writing sub claims to have never heard of sentence diagraming before, but 99.99% of every freelance editor I seek out to edit my books also has never heard of it. :(

Yes. I find the to be a deep disappointment, because it's pretty damned obvious that people who have access to free education, don't take advantage of learning it. But me, I come from a culture that cuts off the hands of females who try to go to school or learn to read and write. And so when I first encountered American women (when I was 31) and found out they were allowed to read and write without punishment, I threw myself full swing into reading and writing. As a teenager I used to try to read and write. I always wanted that.

When I was 14 years old one of my uncles beat me in the face with a cinderblock brick and broke my jaw, deliberately broke my jaw because that's what he was trying to do, as punishment because he caught me reading a children's chapter book and trying to teach myself to read from it. Twice he broke my fingers for catching me with a pen and trying to learn how to write my name. Another time he broke my hip. And he did the same thing to all of my female cousins and aunts as well. I went through years of hell, physical violence, beatings, and broken bones, because I just wanted to learn how to read. That's why I am so stunned and shocked and horrified by Americans who take reading and writing for granted and don't even bother to learn it.

And I am always amazed, the high levels of ignorance and illiteracy and just people who don't know grammar basics in America. They don't know what a huge blessing their education is so they goof off and throw it away in exchange for stupid silly things like socializing and being part of some crowd, then they graduate high school not knowing how to read or write and there's no excuse for that. Do they even know how many people in the world would kill to receive even a fraction of the education they throw away?

Ugh.

This is a huge pet peeve for me. Probably the biggest pet peeve of all of anything in my whole life, any topic, not just my biggest pet peeve for writing. Which I guess explains why I went off on a rant about it here.

But yeah. What it boils down to, is, when I'm looking for an editor, I want someone who knows how to edit better than I can. By the time my books get sent to an editor, I've already gone through 5 or 6 or more edits on my own, including to diagram the sentences. I expect the editor to be able to do better then me. I am looking for someone who can do better editing then I do myself, but I struggle to find editors wo even know basic editing and grammar rules and it's just so annoying that thy want me to pay money for something I literally am able to do better on my own.

Hope that helps!

When should I start rewriting?

You can rewrite as you go. Nothing wrong with that, if you are the type who finished projects.

If you are the type who as lots of unfinished projects, you should probably edit after. Getting the project finished should take priority over rewriting and editing, as least during the 1st draft stage.

I’m about 32,000 words (~30-40%) into my story.

Consider yourself a better writer then most on this sub, then. Few around here, who call themselves "writers" have yet to write anything.

They plot.

They plan.

They outline.

They build worlds.

They create characters.

They research.

They read books on how to write.

They ask writing questions.

They daydream stories in their head.

They get college degrees in creative writing.

They think about writing.

They talk about writing.

Something a lot of writers seem to never learn: thinking is not writing.

Thinking about what you want to write, is not writing.

Thinking about what you are going to write, is not writing.

Planning what you want to write, is not writing.

Outlining what you are going to write, is not writing.

Daydreaming about your characters is not writing.

Daydreaming about your world is not writing.

Daydreaming about your plot is not writing.

Daydreaming about your story is not writing.

Character creation is not writing.

World building is not writing.

Plotting is not writing.

Planning is not writing.

Outlining is not writing.

Researching is not writing.

Studying is not writing.

Drawing is not writing.

Talking about writing is not writing.

Thinking about writing is not writing.

Sure each of those things is an important tool for writers to use and writers should do them on some level, but more often than not, one or more of those things takes center stage to become a major procrastination time sink, that hinders the writer far more than it helps the writer.

While each of those things are useful tools a writer needs, you really can't call yourself a writer until you start writing and for many on this sub, the problem is they are in love with the idea of being a writer, but they have yet to actually start writing anything.

You are way ahead of most on this sub.

You have written something.

Be proud of that.

The issue is that as I’ve gotten further into the book, I’ve noticed how I failed to flesh out a lot of characters and do important world-building.

This is fine.

Write the notes of what you have noticed lacking, and you can rewrite them while editing the 2nd draft.

I’m not sure if I should keep writing or start rewriting.

Just keep writing. You can edit later.

I’ve done a rough outline and I know where the plot is going, so I’m not worried about losing myself in the editing, so to speak. It’s sort of difficult to keep writing when I keep running into issues related to earlier chapters.

Open a second file and write up each issue as you find it, and use this as your guide while editing the 2nd draft after you have finished the 1st draft.

I feel like I’m creating more problems, but I’ve always heard that it’s best to finish before editing. Thoughts?

If you can edit as you go and still reach the finish line then editing as you go is fine.

Many writers fall down the endless editing rabbit hole and never reach the finish line of their story. If you are like this, don't edit until after you reach the end.

Neither way is right or wrong, just pick the way that works best for you personally.

When should I start rewriting?

After you have finished your first draft.

If you start editing, revising, and rewriting BEFORE you finish the first draft, how will you know what to revise, what to rewrite, what to edit? Sure, grammar and spelling, can be fixed as you go, but when it comes to characters, plot, world building, and loss ends, you won't know which ones need work until you have finished the first draft.

If you start trying to fix things before you finish writing, you may end up creating more problems than the ones you fix. So write first and fix later after you can see the entire draft as a whole.

I’m about 32,000 words (~30-40%) into my story.

Uhm... so you are aiming at 60k to 85k words?

And you are talking about world building which means you are writing Fantasy because you don't world build in any other genre.

Which indicates that you think 50k is a novel and Fantasy is longer than normal novels, so you are aiming at 75k. I've been seeing A LOT of that the past 4 or 5 years. I hope you are planning to SELF-PUBLISH and NOT submit to a trade publishing house, because they look for around 200k for a Fantasy novel with world building.

You DO know that 50k words is NOT a novel... right? It's not even a novella, according to Harlequin who publishes short story collections that are 150k words long and contain 3 short stories that are 50k words each.

And yet, millions of wannabe, newbie writers who know nothing about the publishing industry, bounce around the internet saying stuff like:

“How Long Is a Novelette? Any work of fiction with a word count between 7,500 and 19,000 is generally considered a novelette. A novelette is longer than a short story, which usually has a word range of between 1,000 and 7,500 words, and flash fiction, which is usually under 1,000 words.” (You can read the full article here.)

You know the funny thing about that is: Stephen King's shortest short story is 47,000 (forty seven thousand) words and his longest short story is 75,000 (seventy five thousand) words ... yet many people would call those numbers novels... and both those where published in magazines that had stated a short story was anything 25k to 75k, while short-shorts were listed as 10k to 25k and flash fiction listed at anything under 10,000 of course that was also in 1983 when most novels were 200k minimum Of course most of his novels top 300,000 words so, I suppose it's all a matter of perspective.

I am fascinated though by the fact that what we called a short story in the 1980s is considered a novel by today's standards. I think it's weird how everything in publishing - novels, novellas, short stories, is about 3/4 the word counts they were in the 1980s. I'm wondering what caused it? Do writers just write less so publishers changed the definitions to match or did publishing houses change the definitions first and writers wrote less to make new shorter publisher guidelines?

Bailey School Kids, easy reader chapter books for 5 to 8 years olds, are 30k words by the way, and the teeny little skinny Nancey Drew Books for 10 to 12 year olds are 75k words. While Harry Potter is 230k words. So kids books are still published by the old word counts of the 1980s... it's only stuff for adults that have deeply warped shorter numbers these days.

I think it's probably a reflection of adults reading less these days so publisher guidelines for word counts are being drastically cut down just to try to keep books marketable to people who don't read much anymore

Either way, it feels strange. Back in the 1980s I was constantly struggling to get my short stories long enough to reach the 30k to 75k that literary mags wanted, and now today, I can submit novels to publishers that are shorter than the short stories lit mags in the 1980s wanted. It feels weird looking back on that. I'm still writing stories stories in the 75k range, but in the 1970s and 1980s those were short stories, now today I still write that and they are published as novels. Weird.

Back to your question of editing though, after all, editing is what we are supposed to be talking about here.

Of course, you can't edit a novel if you don't even know what constitutes a novel, right? So knowing what word count = a novel, should be a good place to start.

Of course if you are planning to self publish, than who cares about word count, right? You can self-publish in the knowledge that you will be publishing things that are too short to be called a novel, along side around 20million other self published authors on Amazon who also had no clue 50k was NOT a novel either. So you certainly will not be alone in your ignorance.

I point all of this out, because you said this:

I’m about 32,000 words (~30-40%) into my story.

...and implied that you are writing an Epic Fantasy novel (which was confirmed by reading your profile and other posts on Reddit) and yet, you seem to be of the delusion that 75k words is a LONG or EPIC sized novel, when in fact 75k words is considered ONLY A SHORT STORY by the ACTUAL publishing industry.

Remember, any idiot can say a thing, but that doesn't make it true, so just because 20million brain dead idiots on NaNoWriMo call 50k words a novel, doesn't mean it's true, and heaven help you when you submit a short story as a novel to a publishing house that is going to laugh in your face while they toss rejection slips at you.

I'm sorry to be a barer of bad news but, if you want to PUBLISH your Epic Fantasy novel, than 32k words is closer to only 5% of the word count you should be aiming at, not 40% of it.

You want to know how to edit your novel and you don't even know what word count publishing houses classify as a novel. I think you might have bigger things to worry about than editing, and I think your Fantasy may be a Novella not an Epic Length Novel.

Now, there is nothing wrong with writing Novella length Fantasy. There is a market for it, and in fact, that's the market personally write for. The Quaraun novels are VERY SHORT most of them only 80k to 115k words each, so classified as long novellas by most publishing houses, which is WHY I self publish the Quaraun books, because they just ain't long enough for publishing houses, who expect 150k to 300k for a Fantasy novel.

There is nothing wrong with your story being just as long or as short as it needs to be, but, from your posts, you seem to be aiming at trade publishing an Epic Fantasy and that means a publishing house like TOR and that means you should read their publishing guidelines to find out what THEY classify as an Epic Fantasy, because they want 150k to 300k PER VOLUME of a trilogy, meaning the full story you are writing should end at around 900k words. Yes, just short of a MILLION words for ONE story.

And you say this?

I’m about 32,000 words (~30-40%) into my story.

Yeah. You haven't got a clue. You might want to try READING some ACTUAL Epic Fantasy novels to find out how big those things really are.

Again, writing short Fantasy is not a bad thing, I just think you are quite a bit ignorant of which word counts = which book sizes and which genres = which word counts.

EPIC in Epic Fantasy means NUMBER OF PAGES in the book, not wizards and dragons. You seem to be confusing EPIC Fantasy with HIGH Fantasy. EPIC Fantasy means a novel with 800+ pages per volume. HIGH Fantasy means it has wizards and dragons. This is why there is also EPIC High Fantasy and EPIC Low Fantasy and EPIC Dark Fantasy and EPIC Historical Romance (aka The Fabio books) and EPIC Paranormal and EPIC Horror (think Stephen King) genres as well.

Remember EPIC means the printed paperback is 800+ pages long and if you are 40% finished at 32k words than your story isn't even close to Epic length.

And perhaps this seems off topic to a page on editing, but, part of the editing process involves editing your manuscript to be what the publisher wants and if you don't even know what word counts trade publishers expect from your genre than you are in for one hell of a surprise after you spend months of editing, only to find out no one will publish it because you seriously misjudged what wordcounts publishers look for because you believed lies taught to you by NaNoWriMo.

Moving on...

The issue is that as I’ve gotten further into the book, I’ve noticed how I failed to flesh out a lot of characters and do important world-building. I’m not sure if I should keep writing or start rewriting.

The fact that you have noticed it is good.

TYPE RIGHT INTO THE DRAFT So I noticed I failed to flesh out this character; flesh out this character during editing than move on and keep on writing.

And when you notice you've missed some world building, TYPE RIGHT INTO THE DRAFT So I noticed I need to add more world building details here than move on and keep on writing.

This is what I do.

That way I won't forget that I wanted to improve the character and I'll have a note typed right in the draft, to remind me to fix this character. At the same time, it doesn't stop me from writing. I just keep writing the story.

I’ve done a rough outline and I know where the plot is going, so I’m not worried about losing myself in the editing, so to speak. It’s sort of difficult to keep writing when I keep running into issues related to earlier chapters. I feel like I’m creating more problems, but I’ve always heard that it’s best to finish before editing. Thoughts?

Yep. This is what I was talking about before, back when I said if you start trying to fix things before you finish writing, you may end up creating more problems than the ones you fix. So write first and fix later after you can see the entire draft as a whole.

Personally, I like to just rush through and finish writing down the whole thing, so that I get the entire idea down on paper before I forget it. For me, writing is like reading and I never know ahead of time where the story is going to go. I just give the characters free reign and follow them where they go.

So, yea, I finish it before I start editing it, but my 1st drafts are usually a total mess, full on shit, because I just write it out as fast as I can to get the whole thing out on the page. It generally takes me 3 to 7 days to write the first draft. I don't pay attention to grammar or spelling or logic. At this point nothing matters other than getting the full story out on the page. I can fix everything later.

In the end, this means the 1st draft will have a lot of plot holes and things not fully fleshed out or well explained, and some lose ends will not be tied up at the end either. But, I've got the whole idea down and now I can go back and flesh it out.

Usually my 1st draft ends around 50k to 80k words (I average 17k words a day; but I'm also doing this as my full time "9 to 5" job and write 8 hour work days, and have been doing this for 42 years now - I don't recommend striving towards those kinds of word counts when just starting out, build up to is slowly over time, just like you would for lifting weights in the gym).

In the 2nd draft, I read the whole thing, and as I get to points that make me think: "Wait, shouldn't this happen?" I add new scenes in those points. In places where I think characters are lacking, I add more info. In places where the world seems empty I add more life to it.

While it took me under a week to write the 1st draft, each rewrite may take 3 months or more of 8 hours a day of doing nothing but editing and revising and rewriting. I usually end up adding 17k to 25k words to the story during each rewrite I do, but I also end up removing a lot of scenes, and saving them in a new file for maybe using later in another novel.

I repeat the whole thing again in the 3rd draft.

I often do 7+ drafts of each novel, editing out errors, fixing mistakes, added scenes, removing scenes, reordering scenes, fleshing out characters, changing up dialogue, building the world, and fixing plot holes as I go. I don't set out to do a planned amount of drafts, I just do a full rewrite and if when I'm done, if it feels like it needs more work I rewrite it again. And I just keep doing that until the story feels completed and polished as best as I can make it.

Usually my final published novel will be around 115 to 120k words, even though my 1st drafts usually ends around 50k to 80k words.

Also, I usually put the 2nd draft away for a full year, before going back to start work on the 3rd draft. But again, I'm doing this as a full time job so I usually have 12+ novels I'm working on at any given time, so I have other drafts to work on while that one sits for a year.

This method may not work for everyone. I'm a full on pantser, so it probably won't work for people who plan ahead and outline. But for me, this is what works so this is how I do it, but yes, I finish writing the full first draft before I start editing, revising, and rewriting.

do you write/edit daily?

No.

I mean, if you want to write every day, go ahead, but don't feel it's required, you know?

I knew a guy a few years ago (2016), from a Twitch writing group, who thought he HAD to write every day. It was weird, I'm not sure how exactly to describe it because I never saw anyone do it like he did before. It was just deep end bizarre. But he was over the top obsessed with the fact of writing every day, and he kept this online counter, that said "__ days of writing 0 days missed" and he kept it going for a year - almost.

The group was a bunch of writers who got together and multi streamed on Twitch our writing sessions, so we could write together, similar to an offline group. Well, there was around a dozen of us in the group, and usually about 4 of us on each day, but not the same 4 as everyone had varying life schedule, so it was always rotating who was streaming at any given day. I usually only streamed on weekdays, taking weekends off. But this one guy never missed a day and had a counter tracking it, which in and of itself was not the issue.

The issue showed up about a month in, when we started to realize, for him, the writing itself was nt important, for him, keeping track of the days was important. Like I say, it's hard to describe and you would have had to been there and see it unfold to realize, damn, this was totally freaked out on so serious levels.

But when he hit 30 days of writing in a row, he "celebrated" by bullying the rest, for not being as great as he was. It wasn't gentle teasing of buddy's joking around either, he went total psycho meltdown to the point 3 people not only left the group, they deleted their entire Twitch accounts, terrified of how deranged he had gotten. It was like a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde personality change.

Most of us assumed he had been drunk or high or both, that day, because the next day he was back to normal again. But every 30 days this repeated itself, and escalated with him become more threatening to any one who had missed a day of writing. More people left the group, again, citing that they were outright scared of his temper tantrums and his dictator like demands that everyone had to write daily or else.

And then, it happened... about a week before his hitting 1 year (365 days) of writing without missing a day - he got the flue, and missed 4 days in a row from being sick in bed.

No one thought anything of it. We had all missed days for sickness or work or school of family. While we strived to write as close to daily as possible, it wasn't a big deal if we missed a day.

When he came back on, the first thing he did was reset his counter. It now was back to 0 days of writing, adding 4 days missed, and the total number for most days not missed. And then he sat there and refused to write. Note, this was not a child or a teenage or even a young adult. He was 33 years old. Plenty old enough to NOT do what he was about to do.

He sat there in front of the camera, arms folded, fuming, and repeating over and over again: "back to day zero, back to day zero, back to day zero, back to day zero, back to day zero, back to day zero... DAMN, YOU BASTARDS, ALL TO FUCKING HELL, I'M GOING TO KILL EVERY DANED ONE OF YOU!!!!! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!" And then he grabbed his key board and we watched in horror as he smashed it over and over on the table until it split in half, he them pulled out his phone, laid it on the table, pounded his fist into it until it smashed, then lept up from his chair, grabbed it up over his head, smashing it into the wall until there was a hole in the wall, then lunged at the computer smashing it -a $5k gaming rig, mind you, being beat with a now shattered $2k gamer racer back chair-until the stream went blank because he had destroyed his computer.

He never returned to the group after that.

Neither did half the rest of the group as most of them were scared shitless of his extremely over blown over the top reaction to having missed 4 days of writing.

This flabbergasted me. I've never before or since seen anyone react like this to the idea of writing every day.

But it really got me to thinking: exactly how important IS writing daily?

It never occurred to me before this event that it was possible to take it way too seriously, but that is exactly what this guy did. He was so caught up in the obsession of never missing a day, that he completely lost focus of what was important: just getting into a habit of writing regular, so that you can finish your project.

This was a case of taking something that really was not important at all, and completely overblowing it way out of proportion to levels of extreme.

He latched on to the fact of never missing a day, instead of just focusing on writing his draft.

And it made me realize, it is possible for someone to get too hung up on the fact of writing daily, to the point that writing daily in and of itself hinders their writing.

The focus of writing daily should be on WRITING and not on DAILY.

Sure, striving to write daily is a good goal and all, but, not if it is stressing you out.

So, yeah, I definitely think the goal of having a schedule that works for your on personal levels, is way better then striving to write daily.

Personally, I don't write daily. I take weekends off. I also take off the entire months of November and December, partly because holidays are hectic and partly because we are so far North we only get 3 hours of daylight that time of the year, and once blizzard season hits we are often without power weeks or months to a time, so, we often just don't have any light long enough in the day to write to then.

So, I say, figure out a schedule that works around your life. Could be just one hour a week. Don't have to be daily.

what do you write about in your daily writing?

I'm writing full time as a career, so I treat it like a 9-5 type job (only I start my days at 4AM because I get up with the sunrise - except in winter when there isn't a sunrise for months on end. Deep North, we have strange sunrises/sunsets and lack of sun for months on end).

But, what I do is I write in 3 writing sessions that are 4 hours long each, with two, 2-hour long breaks in between, and a 15 minute break every 45mins of each 4 hour session.

Each of the writing sessions will be a different project. I have a dozen or more manuscripts in various stages of drafting/editing/revision on any given day and I rotate between them.

So, it typically looks something like this:

• Monday session 1, 4AM-to-8AM I work on Draft A
• Monday session 2, 10AM-to-2PM I work on Draft B
• Monday session 3, 5PM-to-9PM I work on Draft C
• Tuesday session 1, 4AM-to-8AM I work on Draft D
• Tuesday session 2, 10AM-to-2PM I work on Draft E
• Tuesday session 3, 5PM-to-9PM I work on Draft F
• Wednesday session 1, 4AM-to-8AM I work on Draft G
• Wednesday session 2, 10AM-to-2PM I work on Draft H
• Wednesday session 3, 5PM-to-9PM I work on Draft I
• etc. through Friday. Take Saturday and Sunday off. Start over again on Monday.

Draft A may be the 5th revision of a Romance novella and Draft B may be the first vomit draft of a Horror short story and Draft C may be the 3rd edit of a Fantasy novel. (I write 15 genres under 15 pennames, mostly short stories, but also novellas, novels, stage plays, and comic book script for Disney).

The thing is I never plan ahead of time which story I will be working on that day/session. I either grab the one I'm most in the mood to work on or start a new one.

Needless to say I have a lot of projects started and going at once. Which is a bad thing for some writers, because they will start lots of projects and finish none of them. But for me it works, because personally I get burned out fast if I stay on one project more then a couple of days. But if I take a week or two break off that project, I end up missed it and get excited to jump back into it again. So, by rotating a cycle of lots of projects, I end up not burning out on any one project, and end up finishing all of them.

I used to try to focus on just one project to the end, before starting another, and I'd end up procrastinating and getting no writing done at all and the project would never get finished.

For some reason, I can't finish projects if I focus all my energy on just one, but when I cycle through several projects, I end up finishing all of them. I don't know why. It's just how my brain works.

Do you work on a specific project during that time or just anything that pops into your head?

My primary focus is on one big series of short stories, that is on MC, in one world, where he travels a lot and is kind of a tourists type character just strolling around the world taking in the landscape. I spent 10 years building the world with no intention of writing stories for it. Worldbuilding is a hobby of mine. Well, I reached a point of mostly finishing the world and wanted to live there and explore it, so I created a character to live there so that I could write about him exploring the world.

And with that in mind, most of my writing sessions, involve me writing a full story all in one go, all in one session. I just grab my MC, drop him on some location in the map, grab some weird ass writing prompt off r/WritingPrompts throw that at him, and them write how he deals with the situation the prompt flung in his way, while exploring the location of the world I threw him in.

It's also Absurdism, so when I say I drop him into a location - I mean that literally too - he literally falls out of the sky and lands in a location that he has never seen before and has no clue how he came to be falling out of the sky to get there either. Him falling out of the sky is the start of a large portion of the stories.

Flinging a writing prompt at him is literal as well. Chances are high the prompt will be written in a brick that also fell out of the sky and hit him on the head. I'm not joking when I say I throw the writing prompts at this guy. The readers actually see the prompt flung at him in the story.

The Absurdism/Kitchen Sink/Bizarro genre, is a place where you can get away with stuff like that, because anything goes in Absurdist fiction, which also explains why I can take any genre from r/WritingPrompts no matter what the prompt is and make it work.

So, if you was writing a more serious, less comedy, less satire genre, or are focused on novels instead of short stories, my scatterbrained writing method might not work so well.

While beta-reading, is it better to ask for feedback after every chapter or only after they've read the whole book?

I request that mine keep a legal pad with them as they read, and just write done any impression they have the instant they have it. I'm mostly interested in their first impressions. I find that first impressions of characters, places, settings, scenes, worlds, magic system, etc is what is going to make or break the book's success.

The reader's first impression, good or bad, is going to stay with them the whole story, even if the story tells them the opposite of what their impression was.

This is why my drafts are edited several times before beta readers get it. I don't want my beta readers being mini editors looking for grammar errors, typos, and plot holes.

A beta reader is not an editor and they shouldn't feel compelled to make comments an editor would make. If my beta readers are pointing out grammar issues, plot issues, etc, then I've not done my job of seeing to it that my draft was edited well enough before it reaches them.

Most of mine go through 7 drafts. But it can be as few as 4 or as many as 12, sometimes more. I like my work finished and self edited and revised as perfect as I can do on my own before handing it over to others.

A beta reader is there to be a test reader. It is a beta reader's job to be the first readers and give first impressions.

Because of this, my beta readers also get physical paperback print copies. Cover art is done. Formatting is done. Typesetting is done. It has already been seen by alpha readers, editors. The beta reader is the last one who sees it before it goes to press. And they receive their print copy around 10 days before publication date, and usually if they don't read and respond within 48 hours, I don't use them again. I don't have time to dilly dally around and neither will I waste my time on lazy people who can't be trusted to do the job I paid them for.

Should editors care for writers’ feelings?

Mostly as the title. I get a lot of rejections but last night before I’m sleeping I get a rejection from an email pitch. There wasn’t even “dear writer” or “best, editor” but just one line like “I’m rejecting this, thank you!” (Yes, there’s the exclamation mark.)

I was a bit devastated and thought even if the editor doesn’t like my work, they can reject it in a better way (like form rejection), but then again I’m also thinking whether I’m asking too much. They are busy people and probably send out hundreds of rejection every day.

Any thoughts? ps this is a pretty big magazine

Think of it this way: When was the last time you jumped for joy and ran to wipe up the feces of some random stranger's baby?

That's all you are to the editor... some random stranger who threw your baby, vomit and all, on her desk.

She cares nothing for you or your baby.

An editor is not a nursemaid. Its not her job to change your diaper and powder your ass. You are just another faceless name in the pile. You mean nothing to her. Your story is your baby, not hers.

An editor has no more obligation to care about your feelings, then you have to care about hers.

Do you edit as you write or wait until the story is fully written before editing? I find myself editing each chapter as I write, although it’s only 1 pass through and I’m not looking for every issue. I’m more rereading to make sure it sounds fairly good before moving on. Then, when the book is fully written, I’ll go back with a more thorough edit.

I do a mix of both.

If I notice an error, mistake, plot hole, typo, etc while I'm writing, and it's a quick 5 second fix, I'll fix it and keep going. If it's a major issue, like a plot hole that will require hours/days to rework and fix, I'll add a note in the text (I start all notes with a tilde ~ sign so I can find them later with find/replace function) and keep on writing. Years ago, I used to try to fix big issues as I wrote, but, it just slowed me down and made it so I never got to the end of the first draft. It was frustrating never feeling like I could finish a draft.

Now, if I hit a big plot issue, instead of jumping back to rewrite to fix it, I just make a note that I found it, then, keep writing what I was writing.

You see, the thing is, my story/plot will likely evolve and change a lot before the end, so it's pointless for me to try to fix the plot hole as I write, because, by the time I reach the end, may have fixed it anyways or that whole sub-plot may have been removed from the story and fixing it would have been a waste of time, or maybe that plot hole gave me an idea for something else, and so fixing the plot hole would have stopped a new story arch from showing up.

So, minor stiff like spelling errors and grammar/punctuation issues, and typos, if I see them, I fix them as I type, and the big stuff, I just make a quick note of and move on without fixing it. The thing is, I'm going to edit at the end anyways, so I focus mostly on writing while I'm writing the first draft.

During the rewrite - which, for most stories, I end up doing 4+ rewrites, and 7+ rewrites is not unusual for me... and during the rewrites, all the plot hole stuff, is going to get scrutinized a lot, so it's kind of pointless for me to worry about it during the first draft stage anyways, just because I know I'm going to do several rewrites anyways, and during the rewrites I'm LOOKING for errors, so I'll see most of them then, and just worry about them then. So, I edit while I write during the rewrites.

Also, I tend to underwrite my first drafts, so most end around 40k to 60k words, but the published novels are rarely under 150k and my biggest one was 230k. So, my rewrites involve a lot of adding scenes, making scenes longer, and well, actually rewriting, thus why I call it a rewrite verses calling it an edit. I see rewriting as completely rewriting the whole story vs editing as fixing errors.

And so, when I'm writing the first draft, almost no editing happens, but during the rewrites, lots of editing happens, and the whole thing gets a massive edit after the final rewrite, before I send it off to be published.

When I'm doing the first draft, though, I just try to get the whole thing down on page as fast as possible and try to ignore my inner editor, because I don't want to forget the story before I have a chance to finish writing it.

In the end it's a mixed bag of editing as I go, editing as I rewrite, and then a big dedicated edit at the end of the rewrites.

Write drunk, edit sober... huh? Can we just let this phrase die? I don't know about anyone else, but I can't write for shit while drunk. Sometimes, if I'm lucky, I'll get a good idea or an epiphany while buzzed, but any halfway decent writing is out of the question.Thoughts, both agreement and dissent are welcome.

I am a 5th generation FLDS (Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints aka Fundamentalist Mormon) so I have never drunk or used drugs, nor have I known anyone who has. I'm afraid I can't wrap my mind around the concept of why anyone would do either, so this phrase has always had no meaning to me.

Do you think use of "-ing" verbs can be a problem?

I saw this one bit of advice to cut out "-ing" verbs from your prose. I don't recall what benefits were claimed to come from this practice, but I do recall a lot of people saying this advice was silly.

Regardless, since reading this advice, it's badly affected my reading experience. I am now prone to hyperfixating on the frequency of "-ing" verbs in someone's writing, when it probably would've been invisible to me, before.

I just wanted to hear from people here if there are any reasons at all to actually moderate how often an "-ing" verb might show up in one paragraph. Is there actually any reason to try and find ways to swap them out with something stronger? What consitutes another verb being stronger?

. . .

With everything, don’t overuse it is the key. When you use -ing too much, you have this -ing -ing -ing pattern to your prose, and it gets tiresome.

The second problem is that it slows down the actions because this is the present participial form, so it feels dragging out. If you say “the tiger leaped over the fence and lunged at me,” it sounds more immediate than “the tiger was leaping over the fence and lunging at me.” With -ing verbs, it makes you think you still have time to do something about it.

Yep, yep. So much this.

What the OP is referring to is the grammar rule about "sticky words" or "glue words".

Specifically these words: "was", "were", "of", "as", "in", "from", "about", "and", "to", "would", "up", "beyond"...and more. These are what are known as "glue words" or "sticky words" because they glue the reader in place, causing the reader to get stuck in place like a slow motion scene. It slows down the action, and brings the reader out of emersion.

"Passive voice", "glue words", and "sticky sentences", take a perfectly okay, fast paced scene, and dragged it to a full stop, forcing your reader out of the action, out of immersion, and, most likely will also cause them to put down your book, give you a bad review, and never buy another book from you again.

These words are a problem because they are usually part of a long phrase, and can be switched out with a single word. Gerunds (-ing words) are often in the phrase.

So it is not the -ing word itself that is the issue, rather the issue is the sentence meanders on for 20+ words when the same thing could have been said with greater clarity in 7 or fewer words.

This is the #1 cause of why new writers pound out a 250k first draft, and then say they can not edit it down because everything is needed.

No, In most cases, you can remove 2/3rd of the words in your first draft, without removing any scene, without changing the plot, without deleting anything.

Simply diagram your sentences.

THIS is a sentence diagram: http://www.german-latin-english.com/diagramamend6.htm

Then rewrite your sentence in correct grammar.

It's incredibly simple.

Sentence diagraming is how, actual, real, professional editors edit your manuscript, and why they can take your 250k draft and rewrite it into a 80k novel without touching your plot or characters at all.

I don't know why so many writers think editing out words, involves deleting chapters, removing characters, or altering the plot. Really, all you need to do is a line edit.

Take one sentence out of your draft, write it on paper, diagram it, rewrite it in correct and proper grammar, type it into your draft to replace the sentence removed. Move on to the next sentence and repeat for every single sentence of your draft.

This is WHY editors rarely know what your story is about. Because they DO NOT READ your draft, they simple pull out one sentence at a time and diagram it into perfect grammar.

The sentence diagraming of the line edit process is the simplest, easiest part of writing your novel. And it'll remove 2/3rds of your word count. If you have a 300k draft, it'll be only 100k words by the time the sentence diagraming is finished, and nothing about your story, plot, or characters will have changed, no scenes or chapters deleted, just sentence reworded to remove clutter and increase clarity.

When you do your line edits, diagraming each sentence, which should be the 3rd or 4th edit you do of your draft, you are just going to naturally remove 2/3rds of your words, including you'll remove most every "-ing", "-ly", "was", "were", "of", "as", "in", "from", "about", "and", "to", "would", "up", "beyond"...and more.

It's the basic way you edit a draft, I don't understand why so few writers know how to edit. Your ability to do a line edit and diagram your sentences, removing the clutter and increasing clarity, really is going to be the reason you do or do not get published.

I am personally prone to over use "was" a LOT. It's to the point, where it slows down the reading pace way too much and actually distracts from the story.

Well, because of this I end up removing a lot of -ing words during editing, simply because (for me at least) they are often pared with a "was".

-He was cooking a meal.

-He was running on the beach.

-He was playing football.

-He was reading Harry Potter last night.

So in editing they become:

-He cooked a meal.

-He ran on the beach.

-He played football.

-He read Harry Potter last night.

I don't remove/change all of them. Sometimes the "was -ing" combo is the best wording for the scene in question.

Basically, in places where I want to make the pacing of the story flow faster, I remove "was & -ing" and replace with an active verb instead. This allows the reader to move through the scene at a much faster reading speed. But in places where I want the pace to be slower, where I want to reader to slow down and pay attention to some clue in the scene, I leave the "was & -ing" combo.

My goal is clarity.

I want my readers to be able to enjoy what I write.

I don't want my readers getting stuck, being slowed down, or tripping over my over use of words.

We as writers should care about our readers.

Here, read this:

• https://prowritingaid.com/grammar/1000165/What-is-a-sticky-sentence
• https://www.ingramspark.com/blog/how-to-identify-sticky-sentences-in-your-writing
• https://www.kibin.com/essay-writing-blog/avoid-sticky-sentences-better-writer/
• https://readable.com/blog/what-are-glue-words-and-how-do-they-affect-readability
• https://readable.com/blog/what-are-glue-words-and-how-do-they-affect-readability
• https://write.co.nz/delete-glue-words-to-unstick-your-sentences/
• https://successfulchristianselfpublishing.com/a-list-of-glue-words/

It'll help you understand why glue words are removed.

These articles will also show you that -ing words are not the problem, and that just removing -ing, does not fix the issue.

The issue is too many words, repetition of phrases in a single sentence, and slowing pace down.

If you just remove all -ing, you don't fix the issue and could in fact make the issue worse.

You need to actually know the actual grammar rules and be changing stuff when you NEED to change it, as opposed to just hack and slash deleting every instance of -ing.

Any aspect of language can be beneficial or detrimental to a book, and its appropriateness is better evaluated in context instead of applying some blanket "no -ing verbs" or "no passive voice" or "no adverbs" approach.

Yeah, I think the people who say: "REMOVE ALL ___ !!!!" are just too lazy to do it the correct way. The correct way being, know when to use it, know when to delete it, and only delete it when it's a problem that could trip up the reader. Its easier for them to just use find/replace to mass delete. They don't want to take the time to pay attention to the grammar rules and put in the effort to improve things for the reader. These would be the same ones who what to be seen as a writer but don't want to put in the work it takes to become a writer.

Remove -ing, -ly, and passive voice, are all good things to do WHEN and WHERE it is appropriate to do so.

Just because there are certain times and places when -ing, -ly, and passive voice are bad and shouldn't be used, doesn't mean they are always bad and should be avoided completely.

Every word that exists, exists with a purpose, and should be used; it's just about knowing when the right time to use it is, so that you are using it effectively and to it's best advantage.

When to use "he"? I am writing a story in 3rd person omniscient viewpoint. When do I repeat the characters name when he is thinking or performing an action and when can I just use he?

https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/vfqifq/when_to_use_he/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb

It depends.

Like it depends on:

• The tone of the story. Is it fast paced, moving quickly, heart pounding, monster chasing, need to move for speed? Or is it an elderly couple slowly meandering along, chatting while watching the sun set, and just enjoying the view?
• The flow/pacing: do I want the reader to slow down and look around the scene noticing clues that'll be important to the plot later on? Vs do I want the reader to be so immersed in the scene that they flow through it quickly like melted butter?
• The narrator: If 1st person, how does the character refer to themselves? If 3rd person, which character is the narrator (if so how do they call themselves?) or is it a "bird on the shoulder" type of narrator (if so, how do they refer to the character?)?
• The setting/atmosphere. Is it in a boat on a nice, warm, safe, sunny day on the lake? Using a name comes off more friendly and inviting. Or is it on a ghost ship that just rose up out of the sea during a deadly, dark, and stormy hurricane? Using a personal pronoun only and never saying a name creates mystery and suspicion, leaving the reader intentionally asking: "Who is he?" To promote a sense of fear.

All of these things are going to play a part in what exactly I decide to do, so it's going to change on a scene by scene, story by story basis.

Also, I'm someone who puts a big, heavy focus on character emotions, inner monologues, and the setting/atmosphere/tone of the scene, so I change what I do based on how these things change as well.

However, as a base general rule, I have a starting point, where I start from and then change from there, depending on what the scene in question needs.

Now, keep in mind this is just a thing I do in my own stories and it may or may not be a good fit for yours. It's not an actual grammar rule, but rather a thing I found that personally helps me out.

I have a personal "rule" that I gave myself (it's not an actual grammar rule, just a rule I made up for myself, in order to not have pronoun confusion in my own works) to never repeat he/she/they/etc pronouns more then 5 times in a row, and replace 1 in every 5 with the character's name, placing it where it reads/sounds best when read, and to add descriptors in places where 2 characters of the same gender might be confused with one another if too many pronouns are too close together.

But also don't just replace the pronouns with descriptors like "the blonde girl", "the brown eyed officer", etc. Because those don't always fit and could confuse the reader. Use descriptors, yes, but don't just replace them at random. Use them only when it is logical to do so. Read it out loud to make sure they don't interrupt pacing, flow, or logic.

With that rule in mind, I personally write it something like this:

• James T. Brody was a rookie patrol officer of The Old Orchard Beach Police Department, hired on for summer beach duty. After responding to a minor call with a tourist being bitten by a seagull, he went to lunch. Jim bought a jumbo slice of pizza from Bill's and poured vinegar on his Pier Fries, then sat on the edge of the town square water fountain to watch the amusement rides of Palace Playland. After his lunch break, Officer Brody finished the remainder of his shift without incident. It had been a long, dull, boring day. He was glad to be home for the night.

You could add additional details like this:

• James T. Brody was a blue eyed, bleach blond, rookie patrol officer of The Old Orchard Beach Police Department, hired on for summer beach duty. After responding to a minor call with a tourist being bitten by a seagull, he went to lunch. Jim bought a jumbo slice of pizza from Bill's and poured vinegar on his Pier Fries, then sat on the edge of the town square water fountain to watch the amusement rides of Palace Playland. His dark blue uniform contrasted starkly with the dark red brick sidewalks. After his lunch break, Officer Brody finished the remainder of his shift without incident. It had been a long, dull, boring day. He was glad to be home for the night.

...which now tells us more details about what he looks like (blue eyes, bleach blond, wearing a blue uniform) but don't get carried away with it and add so many details that it becomes clunky and jarring to read. You want to add enough flavour that the reader can visualize your character, but not so much detail that it becomes a dull, dry, boring info dump.

I don't think there is anything wrong with sprinkling in descriptors, as long as you read it out loud so you can hear if it flows smoothly, and do it in a way that adds to the scene, rather than breaking the reader out of immersion.

Now, let's count the pronouns, so you can see my "rule of 5" in action:

• 'James T. Brody'(1) was a 'rookie patrol officer'(2) of The Old Orchard Beach Police Department, hired on for summer beach duty. After responding to a minor call with a tourist being bitten by a seagull, 'he'(3) went to lunch. 'Jim'(4) bought a jumbo slice of pizza from Bill's and poured vinegar on 'his'(5) Pier Fries, then sat on the edge of the town square water fountain to watch the amusement rides of Palace Playland. After 'his'(6) lunch break, 'Officer Brody'(7) finished the remainder of 'his'(8) shift without incident. It had been a long, dull, boring day. 'He'(9) was glad to be home for the night.

This section contains 9 nouns for one character, and I mixed them up in a logical/clarity order, that allows for none to be repeated more then 3 times within a 5 noun sequence.

• This: James T. Brody(1), rookie patrol officer(2), he(3), Jim(4), his(5), his(6), Officer Brody(7), his(8), He(9)

It combines variety with clarity, in a way that does not distract from the scene or confuse the reader.

It's not repetitious, while also not posing confusion for who is being referred to. It also alerts the reader to both his full name (James T. Brody) and his nickname (Jim) and his title (Officer Brody) so that the reader knows from now on, these 3 pronouns are the same man.

Notice when I introduced him I used his full name, including "James" instead of his nickname "Jim", but when he was off-duty I used the less formal "Jim" and then, when he went back on duty I switched to more formal "Officer Brody". These variables create different moods, and also alert the reader of the type of setting through character name use, helping the reader to identify changes in setting and atmosphere throughout the story.

There is nothing wrong with "overuse" of the character's name and gender pronouns. It's actually worse if you don't use the character's name in every paragraph, because then the reader risks forgetting which character the scene is happening to, causing them to flip back a page and ask: "Which character is this again?"

Let's read that same scene again, with only "he" so you can see the difference.

• He was a rookie patrol officer of The Old Orchard Beach Police Department, hired on for summer beach duty. After responding to a minor call with a tourist being bitten by a seagull, he went to lunch. He bought a jumbo slice of pizza from Bill's and poured vinegar on his Pier Fries, then sat on the edge of the town square water fountain to watch the amusement rides of Palace Playland. After his lunch break, he finished the remainder of his shift without incident. It had been a long, dull, boring day. He was glad to be home for the night.

Now there is nothing wrong with it only being "he" BUT the character has become a faceless nobody. Stripping them of their name removes them from being an important character in the story and regulates them to being a minor side character, not important enough to be given a name. Without a name, the reader doesn't give a shit about him and skims faster in his scenes, because they want to get on with the story of the main characters who do have names.

You want the reader to keep seeing the faces of the characters as they read, and doing that requires using the character's name often and frequently.

If you use the name once and then go 10 pages with only using "he" the reader doesn't form a clear visual image of the character in their mind and the character becomes a forgettable faceless nobody.

You don't want readers forgetting who your characters are, so you want to err on the side of overusing the name rather than underusing it and overusing pronouns instead.

Remember you the author always have a clear image of who is who in your head, because you are writing the story, but the reader does not. You need to think of it in terms of how do you make sure the reader never forgets who your characters are and write accordingly.

There is no actual grammar rule about how often to use pronouns vs names, but I found the rule of 5 works well for me, the types of stories I write, and the types of readers my stories attract.

The rule of 5 might work for you as well, or, you might find the mood you are going for needs fewer uses of names and more uses of pronouns or vice versa.

As you get a few dozen stories finished and edited and a few published, you'll start to gain a feel for what works for you, and adjust to that.

It really is a thing that just comes with practice and writing lots of words.

As they say, you aren't proficient in writing until after you've written a million words, and everything before those first million words is just going to be unpublishable practice.

I wonder how many on this sub have done their one million practice words before they set out to write something publishable?

Are you aware that I average writing 3,650,000 words each and every year?

And I publish an average of 1,400,000 words a year.

I write a 10k word short story every single day. I publish 1 to 3 of those 10k word stories every week.

And that doesn't include things like these huge Reddit posts I also write.

I write more than 17k words a day.

I write more than 4 million words a year.

I publish just under 2 million words a year.

If you want to know how to get better at writing, the answer really is to just write a lot, keep writing a lot, write a whole bunch more, and, you'll figure it out just from that practice alone.

Combine that with daily reading professionally published paperback novels and on topic nonfiction, and you'll get better faster.

And onto pictures nonfiction, I don't mean writing books. I mean if your main character is a silk weaver, then read every book you can find on the history of silk weaving, read craft books on how to weave silk, buy some silk threads and silk cloth to touch how it feels and smell how it smells. Visit a silk weaver to ask them questions and touch their looms and feed their silkmoths, and prune their mulberry for yourself. On topic nonfiction reading does wonders for making you a better fiction writer as does hands on research of actually tasting, smelling, and touching the real items.

Write a lot, read a lot, and get off the internet, go outside, and interview real people in your town. That's what is going to help you figure out best how to write.

And yes, this helps with pronoun overuse as well.

How?

Before visiting the local silk weaver, you had a mental image of a faceless nobody, so you wrote, he, he, he, he, he, and left the reader asking who is he?

After visiting the local silk weaver and talking to him face to face, spending the day in his workshop, walking through his mulberry groves, seeing the process of how he takes moths to cloth, now you have a name and a face and a voice in your head, and now he becomes real to you the author because you talking to a real person offline in real life and that experience shines through in your writing as you use names more often because you yourself are no longer thinking of a faceless he, but rather now see the face of the man you met.

Try it and you'll see. Offline, actual first hand research, is going to change how often you use names vs pronouns, because you'll start thinking of your characters as people instead of characters.

As I said above, I personally try to never repeat he/she/they/etc pronouns more then 5 times in a row, and replace 1 in every 5 with the character's name, placing it where it reads/sounds best when read.

So, something like this:

• Jim(1), he(2), he(3), his(4), Officer Brody(5),

The character is mentioned 5 times, the first and fifth mention are her name, the three mentions in between are gender pronouns. But I don't stick with that so rigorously that it causes confusion.

As you saw in practice in the example above, this:

• James T. Brody(1), rookie patrol officer(2), he(3), Jim(4), his(5), his(6), Officer Brody(7), his(8), He(9)

... does not EXACTLY follow the 5 times in a row, and replaces 1 in every 5 with the character's name, because doing so would have made the section confusing to read. But it follows it close enough that the rule still applies and is used with minor adjustments.

Remember: always opt for clarity first and foremost. You don't want to leave your reader confused, and you don't want to break them out of immersion. You want variety to fit naturally and flow smoothly without being clunky or jarring, so always read what you wrote out loud to make sure it's not jarring to read.

Also, every time I start a new paragraph, I make sure the first mention of the character is always their name, that way their name is at least once in every paragraph they appear in.

Likewise with dialogue, I use a 300 word rule of making sure the character's name is in the dialogue tags at a rate of about every 300 words.

I frequently write my 1st drafts with no dialogue tags at all, just because my brain is thinking the story faster than my fingers are typing it so I tend to skip typing anything I can remember to add during editing.

When I'm working on the second draft, I copy 300 words to a time into ProWritingAid. There, no matter where in the story it is, if there is any dialogue, I add tags to the first 2 lines. Usually said/replied or asked/answered.

"Blah blah," Sam said.

"Blah blah," Pip replied.

And that's it.

The rest of the dialogue in that 300 word section has no tags.

When I have finished editing that 300 word section, I paste it back into the draft. Then I copy the next 300 word section and repeat.

The end result is if a 900 word dialogue appears in the story, it has 3 sets of 2 dialogue tags, 6 dialogue tags total.

I edit the entire draft in this way.

My reason?

A paperback book has 250 to 350 words per page depending on font size. By editing in the way I do, it results in every page of dialogue always including tags somewhere on the page, ensuring the reader knows who is talking no matter which page they are reading.

I don't know if any other author does anything like this or not, it's just an editing habit I developed for myself over the years, because it worked out to make my dialogue easier for readers to follow.

But, also, not just with dialogue. When editing my drafts, I highlight every 300 words of text, read that 300 word section, and if a character is there, I make sure to add his name into that 300 word section.

I make certain that the name of the character appears AT LEAST ONCE on every page that character is on, that way my readers never have to flip pages back to remember which "he" this character is. The name is on every page.

I feel it is better to overuse proper names then it is to underuse them.

I used to have a problem, where I would write the character name the first time they appeared and the the entire rest of the story would be he, he, he, him, him, he, him, he, his, etc, and I never mentioned his name again, and I didn't realize I was doing it.

One day I was in a creative writing class at a local college, and we had to exchange short stories and read the other person's story out loud in front of class. The girl reading mine, stopped in the middle to ask: "Which character is this one again? You got two guys here and it says he for both and hasn't said either name in a few pages and I can't tell which guy is which any more."

See, in my head, because I was writing it, I knew which he was guy 1 and which he was guy 2, but the reader was just left so confused. And the teacher told us for the rest of the semester to never use a gender pronoun more than 5 times in a row, and see how much that one change improved the clarity of our writing.

Well, by the end of the semester I was in the habit of doing "name, pronoun, pronoun, pronoun, name" and OMG! The clarity of my writing improved so much, just on that one change alone.

It was a good lesson for me because it stopped me from being so repetitive with pronouns, taught me that the clearest reading flow is to use the name a lot, and that descriptors, while good in some places, are not good replacements for any place where I could put the name instead.

Hope that helps. Good luck with your project!

For an Editorial Assessment on Reedsy, an editor quoted me $4,000 for 133k words. Is that possibly reasonable? Just under 3 cents a word. That seems really high, especially for an Editorial Assessment. Was just hoping for some context, from anyone whose used the service?

If you trade publish, the average advance is only $2k, even big names rarely get an advance over $5k. You'd have to be a super big mega name to expect $10k+ advance.

And if you self publish, the only way to earn $4k is to be publishing a novel monthly, and still it'd be earning $4k after about 3 years of monthly releases, having 36 novels uploaded might bring in at best a couple hundred dollars a month, unless you are one of the very, very, very rare few who makes more.

I budget $2k total for a book, and that includes the beta readers, the editors, and the cover artist. And I've never yet had to pay that much for all things combined.

So $4k for an assessment, not even a full edit, that's just insanely high by my mind.

I've never paid more then $2k for any type of edit. I usually budget $2k as the total amount to spend on the book, not the amount for just one edit. So I would think $4k for just one thing, no matter what it was, is really high.

Debut trade published novels rarely get an advance of more then $2k. Royalties don't kick in until after the advance pays out and in most cases the advance never pays out so you never get royalties and worse, some small publishers ask for the remainder of the advance back if it doesn't pay out.

You are very highly unlikely to earn $4k on a trade published book. Not even big name authors would expect that much.

The movies showing authors with $10k or $100k advances are fair tales in movies, and not a real life fact of writing.

https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/vd6uy2/for_an_editorial_assessment_on_reedsy_an_editor/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb

I am really bad at writing romance in my stories . Any suggestions on how I should improve the romance will be appreciated. If you have any good reference for subtle romance then that would be helpful.

Because there are millions of ways to write Romance and millions of variations depending of genre, sub genres, niche, sub niche, and fetish, it's difficult to answer questions like this, because different factors are going to cause differences in how you would write it.

The best advice is to just read Romance novels to see how they do it and apply what they do, to your story.

I would suggest going to your local Walmart, head to the nearest checkout that has books instead of candy, and grab 10 or 12 of this week's newest Harlequin releases. Harlequin publishers 100+ new titles every week, so you are going to have a huge selection to pick from. Most Walmarts keep 200+ Harlequin titles in stock and change them out bi-weekly.

Spend the week reading them...Harlequin Romance novels are very tiny, only 82k words/200 pages long... unlike Zebras that are 150k+word/500 pages long. Because they are only the size of children's Nancy Drew books, you can easily read 4 or more in a single day, so it'll take you only 3 to 5 days to read 10 of them.

Harlequin is the king of Romance and not only the biggest publisher of Romance, they are also the publisher who publishes more titles per year then any other publishing house of any genre on the planet. They also account for 64% of all books sold in America. Making them also the top selling of the Big Four dominating more than half of all books sales in the country.

But they deal in paperbacks not ebooks...they only release 1 ebook a week and those are handed out as freebies to mail order subscribers, and the papers backs are not available on Amazon, with the exception of old editions sold by readers, so, you do, have to take the effort to turn off the computer, get off your ass, go outside, risk. Exposure to sunlight, because there's a sun outside, head to the store, talk to a cashier, you real people, not the internet, and buy actual physical real life, omg, look at that, paperback books. made out of paper and everything, with pages you can flip.

I am aware 99.99% of this sub has no clue books with pages made out of paper exist, or that there are people or sunlight outside, or that there is anything beyond the internet at all, big shocker that those three things exist, I know, but, if you really want to know how to write a thing, your best way to learn is to just read how the best of the best professional level writers write it.

And if you want to know how to write Romance, you want Harlequin. They are the best of the best when it comes to Romance.

The thing is, Romance isn't just a single scene you can write, and then declare you added Romance to your story.

Romance is a process, a series of steps, that occurs throughout the entire story. You can't just one and done slap in one or two scenes and say your story has Romance in it.

Which is why it is so difficult to answer a question like this one on a forum like Reddit.

If you read Romance, the genre, you will quickly learn that "romance scenes" kind of are not a thing.

Sex scenes are a thing that would be described. Scenes of sitting and talking get described. Kissing scenes are described. Describe scenes of worrying and fussing about each other’s injuries. Hugging scenes are described. Describe scenes of cooking a meal for a date. And so on. Each of these things on their own, is a scene that when combined with the rest, equals Romance, but each on their own is not necessarily a Romance scene.

Keep in mind too, sex has absolutely nothing to do with Romance on any level whatsoever. That's why Harlequin, the world's largest publisher of Romance novels, went from 1941 until 2013, publishing tens of thousands of titles, and never once publishing a single, solitary sex scene. Not one.

Think about that.

Think a lot about that.

The largest publisher of Romance, went 72 years, selling millions upon millions of Romance novels, before they decided: "Maybe we sure include sex scenes in our books."

So this is a thing to keep in mind when writing Romance, a thing which will help you to write Romance. Why? Because if you think of writing Romance in terms of writing “just a Romance scene” then, you miss out on all the build-up, all the tension, all the anticipation, that comes in the many scenes surmounting to the point of climax. Romance requires a few dozen interconnected small scenes spread out across the entire story, in order to create the “Romance”. This is why thinking in terms of writing just a Romance scene is going to mess you up and feel like the scene falls falt and not romantic.

Romance is not a scene, because romance is the chemistry that happens over the course of the plot that the story is telling.

You build up romance chemistry by showing the couple interacting: talking together, playing tennis together, getting coffee together, walking on the beach. arguing over petty things, laughing at each other's mistakes, having fun together, eating lunch together, cooking together, going on a picnic, going camping, hiking... anything... just show the two of them together, laughing, smiling, giggling, chatting... and show that for dozens of scenes spread out over hundreds of pages. THAT is romance. And THAT is why romance is not a single scene you can describe, because romance is NOT sex.

Let's take one aspect of Romance: a kiss.

How do you write a kiss? How do people kiss?

It depends.. who are the people in question? Pre-teens? Teens? Young adults? Adults? Friends? Lovers? Siblings? Parent and child? Grandparent and newborn grandbaby? Fur mom kissing her new puppy? Man with his prostitute? Man at a business party kissing his wife in front of his boss to make himself look good hoping to get a promotion? Elderly couple kissing good night before going to bed?

The age and experience level of the person changes how they kiss. As does who they are kissing and why they are kissing them?

How do you write it?

It depends on the genre I'm writing, the heat level (how sweet vs how spicy) of the overall story is intended to be, the setting/location of the scene, the personality/religious beliefs/characteristics of the characters in question, what part of the body is being kissed, why the kiss is happening, and possibly other various things could affect how I write it.

Romance and its many subgenres are what I write most, so I write a LOT of kissing scene. I've written hundreds of them, due to I've also published 138 novels and more than 2,000 short stories. (Bizarro Romance aka Monster Porn featuring a gay haram during a zombie apocalypses being my primary genre, but I also write most every subgenre that exists within genre as well.)

I don't write sex (intercourse) scenes. Instead, I write a lot of (very graphic, porn level, full nudity, groping/touching/fondling/etc, pierced and tattooed penises and balls on parade) lead-up to fade to black scenes... that involve a LOT of kissing... and kissing everything, not just two people kissing on the lips. I'm noted/loved by my fans for my graphic scenes of nipples, cocks, and balls being kissed, more often than lip on lip kissing.

But there is a big difference between a couple sweetly kissing on the cheek in public, as the train station, saying goodbye because one is leaving on a business trip...

...versus a couple amorously suckling each other's genitals in the privacy of their own bedroom.

So to ask:

How do people kiss? How do you write it?

...requires a bit more detail as to what exact the context of the kiss is.

Are you dealing with 2 virgin pre-teens, nervously kissing for the first time.. or an adult man ravenously kissing his favourite prostitute... or an elderly couple kissing on their 50th anniversary second honeymoon? Each setting results in a dramatically different type of kiss.

Kisses vary from a light peck on the cheek, to locked lips, to deep throat tongue action, to nibbling ear lobes, to biting nipples, to sucking sperm out of an erect penis.

So, what type of kiss are you asking about?

And no, you don't need to answer that here, because I don't reply back on Reddit, no big name author does, largely because our lawyers advice not getting into petty battles with trolls, and once Reddit discovers an account belongs to a big name author the trolls start crawling out of the woodwork...thus why I have more than 300 members of this sub alone blocked.

So, when I say: What type of kiss are you asking about?

I'm asking it as a personal assignment to you.

Look at your story: why do you need your characters to kiss?

Look at your characters: why is kissing just now important to them at this exact moment?

Look at your scene: how would these specific characters kiss one another in this specific situation?

Get a spiral bound notebook, grab a pen, and write down each of these questions, one question each on three pages, and then, try to fill up the entire page writing your answer.

Figure out what it is about this story, these characters, and this scene that requires a kiss, and what type of kiss does it require?

And a thing to ask, is they making out? Or are they kissing? Is there a difference between making out and kissing? Usually, yes. Usually, "making out" involves a combination of hugging, kissing, necking, groping, and dry humping. But, depending on the age of the characters and the scene in question, "making out" could mean doing a lot of repeated kissing.

You see, things like that need to be considered in the context of what kind of Romance you are trying to write, the ages of the characters? Etc.

Still thinking of the kiss scene, what other things are there to consider when writing this scene? How about, what position would they be in?

My primary MC is usually doing something, not expecting anything to be happening -like he'll be washing the dishes after the meal- and his primary lover will tackle him, shove him to the ground, rip his clothes off, and launch into kissing his neck and ears while dry humping on top of him. It's a common situation for this particular couple who has a very amorous love life.

On the other hand, my MC’s other lover is very shy, very timid, very anxious and is prone to ask before kissing the MC, then be very gentle, more romantic.

The MC himself is asexual/demisexual, and so initiates no level of sexuality at all. He's not prone to even thinking of kissing his lovers and would be content to never do so at all. But he also doesn't refuse to engage in sexual activities or kissing, if one of them starts it.

Each of the trio deeply loves the other two, but due to their differing personalities, each shows that love in different ways, including in the difference in how they approach kissing one another.

How about: Do people talk while they kiss? Is that even possible? Were they talking before they kissed? After? What do they talk about? Is it romantic? Serious? Nervous? Again, it depends.

My trio of MC lovers are frequently in taverns, the 3 of them sitting side by side in one bench, and the more amorous of the trio, is prone to randomly plant kisses on the other two, throughout their conversations. He'll kiss the MC on the top of the head, on the cheek, on the nose, on the hand, and the MC will not stop talking throughout because he's just used to this happening.

What other questions could you ask about this hypothetical kiss scene we are writing? Maybe, do they have their eyes open? Again, it depends. In a scene like the tavern one mentioned above, yes, often. In scenes of them alone in bed, not so much.

What are the different ways of kissing? What's a way of putting it that isn't just "and then they kissed"? Talk about what they are kissing, where they are kissing, how they are kissing. Are they hugging tightly and grinding groins while they kiss? If they are naked and one or both is a man, is he having an erection? Describe it. If the MC is having an erection, describe his thoughts on this. If the MC is kissing a man who is having an erection, have the MC describe what it feels like to feel the erection of his lover. If the male is flaccid during the kiss, contemplate on why? Is he not aroused by the one he is kissing? Why not?

Where are their hands? What are they touching? What are they squeezing? Are they rubbing their hands on chest/breasts/bums/legs/backs/bellies/necks/cocks/balls? Describe it. Yes, it’s a kiss scene, but follow where their hands are going too. Follow where their thoughts are going.

What other questions could we ask, to figure out more to write? How about: how long does the kiss last? Depends on the characters and the situation. If my MC and his two lovers are alone and feeling amorous, I can take the grouping parts of a kissing scene and describe them out for 20+ pages of non-stop love making. On the other hand, if they are in a crowded public place, the kiss may be a 2 second peck on the cheek.

Just keep asking questions. What if this? What if that?

And you would do this with ANY of the “romantic scenes”, not just the kiss scene. Ask lots of questions about every scene. What do the characters think about? Who are they thinking about? What do they see? Can they taste anything? What do they smell? What are they touching? This thing they are touching, what does it feel like?

And this may sound off topic a bit but, don’t forget to describe the environment: what is the weather like? Talk about the rain, wind, snow, fog, sun, shade, heat, cold, pollen season, thunder, lightning, clouds, stars, moon… Why? Because these things create mood and atmosphere. And in Romance, mood and atmosphere is a big part of every single scene.

Again… read Harlequin Romance novels and pay attention to how often a character is thinking about the weather in the middle of a kiss. It’s pretty often.

When it comes to fiction, I don't like bogging my readers down with long narratives. (Non-fiction, and things like Reddit posts, that's another matter!) It's a case where I write what I know and let my readers fill in the rest with their imagination. Take the kiss for example, I add in tiny details like instead of saying:

-They kissed.

Well that is just plain dull. I'd say:

-They kissed under the willow tree.

or

-He kissed her passionately.

or

-They kissed under the willow tree. It was her first kiss. It seemed to last forever.

I only added one or two paltry words. That's it. But it changed the entire picture in the reader's head. Nothing big. Just little things.

Now those are just quick examples and I didn't focus on editing them to be very well written, as this is just a Reddit post. But you get the idea. In editing I would go back and remove things like "was" and "seemed" replace them with more active verbs, rewrite the sentences so they didn't start with "he" or "she" or "they" and I would add sensory words (smells, sounds, tastes, touches, and sights) to give the scene vivid imagery and fill the scene with mood and atmosphere, but, that's a topic for a different post, so right now, I'm just going quick and simple for sake of example.

I think many people get caught up in the mechanics of kiss/love scenes, when the mechanics aren't really what we want to read. I mean, yeah, okay, we want that, but what we REALLY want is the emotion. The feeling. The passion. Character thoughts and emotions draw the reader in better than any amount of writing a description of physical kissing ever could.

Another thing that goes over well with readers is to get inside the character's head. Show don't tell.

-They stopped under the willow tree. He pulled her close and kissed her long and hard. She felt the world disappear around her. Nothing else mattered. No one else existed. It was just the two of them alone in the universe. He had kissed her. Her first kiss. She could hardly believe it. She wondered now if it had only been a dream.

It's short. Quick. Simple. It doesn't stop the flow of the story. Doesn't describe the kiss. It describes how she felt as she was being kissed. (And yes, it needs editing to make it better/publishable, because all the pronouns start in a row and too many was/passive verbs…but at this point, we are just talking about writing the 1st draft, and not discussing the editing of a 2nd draft.)

Whatever you do, keep it short, keep it simple, keep it familiar, let the reader interpret the minor details themselves, and you'll write a book that's easy to read and seems familiar to your readers and your readers will love you for it.

That said; (coming from a girl's PoV) being kissed can be the most amazing feeling in the world, if the guy is "the one" and not "just some guy". Soft lips, wet tongue, warm skin, the smell of perfumed skin, the tingle down your spine, the lightheaded feeling, the feeling that you could walk on air. French kissing is better in my opinion.

And if you haven't been kissed, then just imagine that you are experiencing the most amazing wonderful feeling possible and go with it, write how you imagine it would be like. Write what you know and bluff the rest. Chances are your readers will never know you've never been kissed... they'll be too busy imagining their own first kiss- past or future.

A good kiss is one that sends everything else around you packing. The world fades away, you lose your train of thought, your worries and concerns evaporate, nothing else exists except you and the other person.

But then after all of that… the kiss itself is not Romance. A kiss is just one part of Romance. I am just using writing a kiss scene as an example to show you how you can take one single thing (in this case, a kiss) and write it into infinite various directions, creating lots of different types of scenes that build Romance in your story.

And before they can kiss, you have to build up tension, so that when they finally do kiss, it's a tension release.

You want the reader to see the Romance interaction going on for page after page chapter after chapter, before the couple kisses. You want to reader to reach a point of yelling at the book: "Fucking kiss already, damn you!" And then have the couple kiss.

So before you have a kiss, you first have a buildup to the kiss.

The build up will be a series of 10 to 20 brief interactions between the couple. Awkward and shy in the first 2 or 3, getting up the courage to sit near each other, speak to each other, by the 4th or 5th interaction they should be at least smiling and giggling together if not holding hands. Shoulder hugs between friends should appear after this. By now they should have gone on a couple of dates, be getting coffee together, hanging out at the mall food court, sharing a burger, sharing a drink, going to the movies.

Show them talking together. Show them concerned for each other.

Remember Romance is about love, Erotica is about lust. So you DO NOT want to have then talking about each other as sex objects. They should NEVER be describing boobs or bulges or muscles. Nothing that indicates lust should ever appear in Romance. For example, he will call her pretty or cute, not hot or sexy.

Phraseology is important here because it only takes 1 or 2 lustful words to make a Romance novel turn into Erotica or Porn. Careful choice of words is a must, to keep it Romance and not Erotica. You want love words not lust words, caring words, not sexual words.

Show them in love, not in lust.

Show them caring about one another's safety and well being.

Show them worried if one gets hurt.

Lust cares only for physical beauty and what a person looks like.

Love cares for the person's emotions, feelings, and wellbeing.

Also, not sure if it matters to your story or not as it'll be different for different stories, but when I say scene, typically that means 300 to 900 words, in my own writing.

So 10 scenes of 300 words each, means they wouldn't kiss until at least 3,000 words into their relationship, while 10 scenes of 900 words each, would put it closer to they wouldn't kiss until 25k words into their relationship. In my own work, that would be dependent on if I was writing a short story (300 word scenes in a 15k story), a novella (600 word scenes in a 35k story), or a novel (900 word scenes in a 75k to 115k story). Those numbers being the average word counts I personally use for my own writing. What you do for your writing will vary depending on genre and format and style.

So when I say, I write about 10 scenes (could be 7 or 12, doesn't have to be exactly 10) of them interacting before they kiss, I mean ten scenes of at least 300 words per scene.

Also, it's never 10 scenes total from them meeting to the kiss, because there are additional scenes: one character alone, character with friends, character doing events in between each scene. Note, I said 10 scenes of the couple INTERACTING. But there will be other story scenes between those 10 scenes so it could be 20 or 30 scenes from the scene they meet until the scene they kiss.

Somewhere around the 10th interaction scene (20 if you are dealing with an epic length novel) the first kiss should happen.

Usually there will be 3 kiss scenes before a sex scene occurs. Each kiss is more intense then the one before it. There should be another 4 or 5 interaction scenes between kiss 1 and kiss 2, and 2 or 4 interaction scenes between kiss 2 and kiss 3.

Kiss 1 should be mild, awkward, and innocent.

Kiss 2 should be bolder.

Kiss 3 should be done with assurance.

Kiss 4 should appear at the start of the 1st sex scene.

Sex scenes can fade to black if you don't want to write the actual sex, but we should show the kiss at the start of the sex scene.

Kiss scene 5 should be the next morning after sex, showing them cuddling and kissing.

Now, in most Romance novels, there is going to be a fight. Usually with a day or two after the 1st sex scene (most professionally published paperback Romance novels of the current era have 3 sex scenes).

The characters start second guessing their relationship and start arguing. The fight segment is usually very short, and before the halfway point of the story, to give the characters time to kiss and make up, bond with each other, before pitting them against whatever the primary plot's big bad villain is.

A real fight only lasts a few seconds (even though it may seem like hours). I figure it should take the reader no more than 5 seconds to read the fight. Thus, my fight scenes tend to be quick and short.

Regardless of how many people are fighting (even if it's an enormous battle) I pick out only two fighters and focus on them. I describe the actual action between the two fighters, focusing more on the inner emotional response of the one that is losing, (even if they are not a MC) thus making the winning fighter seem much more fierce. Usually I focus more on the pain from the blow, than the actual blow itself.

My fight scenes are less than three paragraphs long. Short sentences of less than seven words. I use simple small words. I let it flow past the reader quickly, giving them the illusion that they are being pulled through the action at the same breakneck speed in which the action takes place.

In romance, fight scenes vary greatly. It can be as simple as a quick lover's spat that is forgotten and forgiven an hour later. It could be a bitter quarrel over something petty, and result in them not speaking to each other for a day or two. It could be a scream and throw things fight, where they yell and threaten each other, but never actually hurt each other. Or it could be a full-blown battle, with one or both characters becoming violent and hitting the other one.

How they fight will be determined by how they act otherwise. Think about the things they do and say normally, and remember that you can usually tell how violent a person may or may not be, by little signs they give off in their daily life.

Women throw things. Cliche, yes, but it's true. When women get mad, they grab the closest thing and throw it, usually in the man's direction they are angry with. Women are also likely to cry hysterically or scream at the top of their lungs (depending on if they are the type to back down or fight back.)

Men are prone to shaking their fist in your face, and a more violent man is not above punching the woman in the face or shoving her down the stairs-I have personal experience with violent men, and they don’t think twice about beating a woman or a child, unconscious with a brick. Again, cliche, but still true. It happens in real life, and if you want your story to seem real, then it's something you should consider writing into the fight scenes.

Do keep in mind when dealing with Romance, you are dealing with rabidly obsessed readers who read as many as four novels a day, often reading a dozen or more novels each week and they expect specific tropes to happen at specific times and locations of the story. And while you may think something is too cliche to add, they may stop reading if you do not include those expected cliches.

When in doubt, head to Romance reader forums, subreddits, and groups and ask them what they expect to see, what they love to see and want more of and what they hate to see and want less of. You may find yourself often surprised by how much they WANT certain cliches and tropes.

I say this because there is a major issue of children who have no clue what Romance is, writing very dark and toxic relationships that are full of rape, cheating, abuse, angst, and domestic violence.

And if you read Harlequin, Avon, Signet, Carina, Zebra/Kensington, and other publishers of Romance novel submission guidelines, you will find that every one of them specifies outright that they will automatically reject any story containing: dark relationships, toxic relationships, drinking, drugs, fornication (sex outside of marriage), dubious consent, rape, cheating, abuse, angst, animal abuse, death of an animal, death of a child, and domestic violence.

Children and immature childlike adults tend to write haha let's giggle at boobs and feces and poop jokes, while glamorizing the dark brooding abuser who pounds his girlfriend to a pulp, and then call that Romance and then wonder why no publisher will touch them so they are forced to publish it on WattPad.

These writers have no clue what Romance is, not in real life from experience or in novels from reading it.

I read Harlequin Romance for adults and not YA Romance for children.

Harlequin Romance isn't dark or toxic, it's not abusive, there's no cheating or rape. It's about people who actually love each other and don't hurt each other. And, unfortunately this DOES NEED to be said: poop, farts, feces, and piss are not romantic and have no place in a Romance novel. Sorry. Yes. That's a thing that has to be said. I was a Romance slush pile reader for 2 years and a good 90% of rejections were rejected simply because of feces scenes, poop scenes, fart scenes, and pissing on each other scenes. Newsflash: eating feces out of someone's ass is not romantic and is also the #1 thing manuscripts calling themselves Romance get rejected for.

And on this note, THIS also needs to be said:

• 1: There is nothing seductive about a pedophile.
• 2: There is nothing seductive about a stalker.
• 3: There is nothing seductive about a pervert.
• 4: There is nothing seductive about a rape.
• 5: There is nothing seductive about a man watching a girl bathe.

Now, maybe you think that is obvious, but believe me, as a slush pile reader I saw a lot of manuscripts that:

• Treated 50-year-old men chasing after 12-year-old girls as the most romantic thing in the world. It’s like one of the top ten most common reasons for Romance manuscripts to be rejected.
• Acted like a man doing stalker creeper shit, was a-okay and seen as sexy, not terrifying.
• Thought the definition of a seduction scene was a man peeking through a bathroom window with his friends so they could get a peep at boobs.
• Treated a girl saying “No” as though “No” was a coy way of saying “Yes” because all girls “really just want to be raped.”
• You’d be surprised how many “Romance” manuscripts have a scene early on, where the guy-a total stranger whom the girl has never seen before-sees a woman bathing, steals her clothes, and then stands there making fun of her boobs while she dances around naked to tease him, then instantly she’s in love with him and doing anything to be his “mate”. No, not in Porn or Erotica, but in so-called “Romance”.

90% of the people who submit manuscripts to Romance publishing houses have no clue what Romance is, clearly never picked up a Romance novel in their lives, and didn’t even bother to read the publishing house’s guidelines before submitting to them.

When I became a slush pile reader, I was excited about the job. Within 18 months I quit that job because I was so disgusted with the heaping, craptastic piles of shit, that slush pile readers have to read.

Here's another tip about seduction:

• 1: Pedophiles send women running for the police, not running into your arms/bed. It’s not romantic and Romance readers don’t want to read it.
• 2: Stalkers send women running for the police, not running into your arms/bed. It’s not romantic and Romance readers don’t want to read it.
• 3: Perverts send women running for the police, not running into your arms/bed. It’s not romantic and Romance readers don’t want to read it.
• 4: Rapes send women running for the police, not running into your arms/bed. It’s not romantic and Romance readers don’t want to read it.
• 5: A man watching a girl bathe sends women running for the police, not running into your arms/bed. It’s not romantic and Romance readers don’t want to read it.

Need some more tips on writing seduction? Here:

• 1: You need a hell of a lot more than a single scene to seduce a girl. You should be peppering at least the first 100 pages with hints and scenes of the King trying to get her attention, trying to get up the courage to talk to her, giving her flowers, inviting her to promenade around the garden with him, etc.
• 1a: After 2 or 3 chapters of subtleness, kindness, gifts, and getting her to trust him, then he can start getting closer to her, holding her hand, brushing her hair, massaging her shoulders, putting his hand on her knee while they sit and talk... nothing sexual, perverted touching, but instead, just friendly, "I'm here for you when you are sad" type of caring touching.
• 2: Men often are only interested in sex, women know this and usually just want to kick the son of a bitch in the balls and ran screaming for the police. As such, if a man wants to seduce a woman... WOMAN, not a girl who's mother is going to castrate his child raping ass... than he's got his work cut out for him as he need to convince her ‌he is safe and not just another run-of-the-mill degenerate male looking for sex. This is one of the major differences between Romance and Erotica.
• 3: Seduction is a tool of romance and has nothing to do with sex, but many badly written “Romance” scenes just imply the man is just out for sex and has no interest in either seduction or romance.
• 4: If a man wants to seduce a woman, he needs to convince her that he is NOT a pervert and that he is a moral, upstanding gentleman whom she can trust with her virtue. If a woman can not trust a man to let her sleep in his bed WITHOUT him trying to have sex with her, than he has not won her over and if he has not won her over, then he has not seduced her. THIS is of major importance to a lot of Romance novels, especially Regency or Historical Romance novels, where a common scene is the woman needing a safe place to stay for the night and the only place being, male lover’s bed. Him letting her sleep there without threat of sex, is a huge bonding trope that is used in most Historical Romance to let her know he is safe.
• 5: Any idiot can fuck any other idiot. Seduction is a device to get someone romantically invested in you. Seduction is not sex. You don't need seduction for sex. A seduction scene‌ implies he loves her and wants her to love him in return, which is what the meaning of seduction is (convincing someone to fall in love with you, NOT convincing someone to have sex with you). Seduction, trying to get one to love you, is a big part of Romance, and takes lots of little small scenes, to build up over time.
• 6: Stealing a girl's clothes while she is swimming/bathing is a childish prank that ONLY WORKS IN PORN BOOKS/MOVIES WRITTEN/DIRECTED BY CLUELESS MEN... do that in real life and the man will be lucky if the girl doesn't castrate him; she most certainly will never speak to him again, and in America, he's looking at 15 years in prison for being a peeping tom.
• 7: Remember the vast differences between Romance vs Erotica and Love vs Lust. If you are aiming at perverted male readers looking for Erotica, stealing a bathing pre-teen girl's clothes will work if you just want the shitheads reading your book to jerk off. It'll turn off all your female readers, and every male reader with any amount of morals, decency, or self respect, and anyone looking for Romance. Before my slush pile reading job I never would have thought this needed saying, but since my slush pile reading job, I now know this needs to be screamed from millions of rooftops and still wouldn’t be said often enough.

I hate YA Romance plots written for children because they dark and toxic, it's abusive, there's lots of cheating and rape. It's about people who don't actually love each other and just want to hurt each other to get off on some power trip.

In ACTUAL Romance novels, the fight scenes are going to be quick, under 3 pages of the total story, and it's going to be verbal yelling, flinging hands frustrated in the air, and throwing a pillow at the wall. There is never going to be abuse, threats, hitting, bullying, drugs, drinking, cheating, rape, dubcon, weapons, feces, or domestic violence involved.

If you want subtle Romance woven throughout, you want to write lots of little scenes, a seven word sentence here a 100 word paragraph there, showing the couple interacting. But, not sexual interactions. Not perverted descriptions of body parts. Not thoughts of sex. Not lewd jokes or behaviour. None of these things are romantic and in fact are a huge turn off for most women who read Romance.

Instead, smile when they look at each other. Giggle when their hands touch. Finish each other’s sentences. Blush when they finish each other’s sentences. Open doors for each other. Give small gifts. Chit chat over egg salad sandwiches. Walk the dog together. The list goes on and on.

Small, subtle romantic interactions, have nothing to do with lust and sex and have everything to do with spending time together, smiling, laughing, hugging, sharing a meals… just being together and doing things together. Simple, everyday things.

Source: I used to write Romance novels for Harlequin in the 1990s and this was the method I used. Since 2010 I've self-published 402 novellas that are all one sub niche or another within the Romance genre. I still write these to this day, and this is the method I still use.

Hope this helps. Good luck with your project!

My book is going to be too short Currently I'm planning 6 chapters. each one is 2.5k rn, and that leaves me with an incredibly short book. the reason for this is I'm trying to avoid any subplots, dialogue or saying how a character feels to make it feel as lonely and isolated as possible. my questions are as follows: is this too short to publish? and, if the first one is yes, how do I increase its length?

12k to 15k words like you are suggesting is not even long enough to be a novella, let alone a novel. Word counts up to 35k are counted by most publishing houses as a short story. And the mega giant publishing houses like Harlequin, count it not a novella until 50k words.

Standard word counts for big publishers is:

• under 10k = a short-short
• upto 35k = a short story
• 35k to 75k = a novella
• 65k to 120k = a novel
• 120k+ = an epic novel

It varies from one publishing house to the next. When in doubt what your story is, take your word count, go to your favorite publishing house, read their submission guidelines. They always tell you which word counts are classified as which format within their house.

What you are writing is a short story and has no need for chapters. You will rarely see chapters in any professionally published work under 50k words. You only see chapters in the self published shorts of writers who are not in the habit of reading professional published short stories so have no clue what the published format looks like.

If you plan to publish something under 50k words, you will most likely be publishing:

• As a short story in a print magazine.
• As a chapbook with a small university press that specializes in literary fiction.
• As a single story with in a collection of stories.
• As a children's middle grade chapter book.

6x2.5=15

The average chapter in a Stephen King novel is 20k words... so one chapter of a Stephen King novel has more words then your entire planned story.

The internet mantra of chapters being 2k to 3k words, is for people who are uploading to places like WattPad where the text box allows fewer characters then Reddit post. The preteens preaching 2k to 3k for chapters have no clue what a chapter in a printed paperback book looks like or that in standard publishing chapters are very rarely under 10k words.

Anyone telling you 2k words is a chapter is flying high the red flag of proof that they don't read actual paperback books printed by actual publishing houses.

What you are writing isn't big enough to be one single chapter of a professionally published paperback novel.

So, no, you will not be able to get it published outside of print magazines or university chapbooks, as a short story.

What you are writing is most definitely a short story.

As for how to make something too short, longer, I wrote a Reddit post answering that here: https://www.reddit.com/r/WriteEditPublish/comments/v6klz9/my_editing_process_how_i_lengthen_my_writing/ do be warned that it's more then 50k words long and will take you a few hours or a few days to read all of it. This is my full step by step process of how I edit a manuscript.

https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/vakx72/my_book_is_going_to_be_too_short/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb

Just write the story you want to write to begin with and make it work in the second, third, and fourth drafts.

This.

My method is to grab a character, fling him into some location, toss a situation at him, and start writing what he does given those variables. And just write it until I reach the end.

In the 2nd draft I fix grammar.

In the 3rd draft I rewrite the whole line via a line by line edit of each sentence one at a time using sentence diagraming.

In 4th draft I fix grammar again. And now make changes for clarity. I also make note of things I need to research (is my character a silk weaver? Now is the time to research silk weaving history and compile notes for details to sprinkling throughout the story to bring my silk weaver to life... note, I never research anything before I start writing, because until the 1st draft is finished, I won't even know what details I'll need to use, so won't yet know exactly which parts to research).

The 5th, 6th, and 7th drafts are where I do major amounts of adding sensory words, expanding scene, fixing plot holes, and deleting garbage. This is also when my research notes will be used, to weave things like culture, ethnicities, traditions, and details into the entire story so its not info dumpy in one place.

It's rarely publishable before the 7th draft.

The first draft, is just for getting the idea out of your head and on to paper.

Write, write, write, write and write some more.

Vomit your first draft on to the page as fast as possible.

Remember, you can't edit what you never wrote down.

Do anthologies do as well as Short story collections?

I'm working on a short story collection but i don't know if to include, poems or non fiction work. They would have slight connections. Just wondering do anthologies do as well, what's your opinion on them?

An anthology is always a COLLECTION of short stories, but never by a single author, never first editions, and always put out by a magazine showcasing the best authors in their backlog.

An anthology is a collection of previously published works, via a single magazine. Rarely does an anthology include more than one story per author.

For example if Ellery Queen Magazine decided to release an anthology called The Best Murder Mysteries of 1975, they would be taking twelve of the top rated stories they published in 1975, one from each monthly issue, contact the original authors, ask for reprint permissions, and publish the reprints of those stories in a single collection called an anthology.

Remember just because teens who don't have a grasp on vocabulary meanings or dictionary usage, can slap up anything on Kindle and call it anything they want, don't mean they did it right or know jack shit.

The Kindle mass flooding of people who clearly never saw a dictionary in their life, self publishing single author first edition short story collections as anthologies does not change the meaning of the word, and only serves to make editors, agents, and publishing houses blacklist that author as someone who is too lazy to be bothered to even open a dictionary, let alone do any research. As well as, they clearly don't read professionally published paperbacks within the genre they write, otherwise they would know what is and is not an anthology.

This is a case where if you were reading professionally published words in your gene (short story collections and anthologies) you would already know the difference between a collection and an anthology. Not knowing the difference between the two is a big red flag that will land lots of editor, agent, and publisher rejection slips on you.

If an author can not be trusted to even do enough research to learn the difference between things like a book vs a novel or a collection vs an anthology, can they really be trusted to have done any research in anything within the story either? THAT is what agents and publishing houses will be asking themselves when they see a single author first print collection with the word anthology on the cover.

Sure, you CAN do whatever you want, but if you use words incorrectly on such a huge level of incorrectness, it makes you look immature, lazy, ignorant, unintelligent, and unprofessional, all things that will kill your chances of ever getting traditionally published later on.

• An anthology is NEVER a first printing on anything.
• An anthology is NEVER a collection by a single author.
• An anthology is always done by a magazine reprinting a collection to feature the best authors whom they have previously published in their magazine.

You won't get far in the publishing industry if you don't know simple basic word meanings, especially when they are words like anthology that is a common word in the publishing industry.

I wish I didn't have to copy and paste this same post on a weekly almost daily basis here... this is a writing sub after all. We use words for a living. We don't need to know the meanings of every word, but we should at least know the meanings of words we use.

That said...

Do anthologies do as well as Short story collections?

When was the last time you paid money to buy either an anthology or a short story collection?

That alone will answer your question.

If you wouldn't, don't, are not already in the habit of regularly, weekly, seeking out and buying print magazines, anthologies, and short story collections by other writers, then why would you expect others to buy yours?

Can you see the logic here?

Fact of the matter is, the biggest readers of print magazines, anthologies, and short story collections are also the biggest writers who get published the most often in print magazines and anthologies.

And as a general rule, until you have gained a following in both print magazines and the anthologies put out by those print magazines, you are unlikely to succeed with a short story collection.

I know this because writing short stories is my full time career. I write 15 different short story series. My biggest, longest running, and most popular with my fans series has had more then 2,000 short stories published in more then 200 print magazines since it was first released 44 years ago in 1978. In that time reprints of the series has appeared in dozens of anthologies. And in the 1990s there was a 138 volume novelized collection released which put all the stories into a chronological reading order.

Keep in mind that outside of the one that went viral in 2016, only 3 of those 2,000 short stories ever sold more then 27k copies, while more then half of them struggled to reach 1k copies sold, and many of the earlier ones published in the 1970s and 1980s rarely surpassed 100 copies sold.

I am a big enough name in short stories that magazines send requests to me, asking me to write them a story, just so they can put my name on the cover in the hopes that it'll increase sales.

And yet, my income from writing has never surpassed $4k in a single year.

Writing short stories does not come with advances and royalties, like novel writing does. Instead it comes with a lot of one time pay of often as little as $10.

As a general rule, whatever the cover price of the print magazine is, you can expect less than that for how much they pay you. If the magazine sells for $20 per issue, you'll likely receive $5 per story they publish.

That's the harsh reality of being a short story writer.

Do anthologies do as well as Short story collections?

Usually anthologies sell better then collections because with an anthology you have the magazine name and the names of 2 or 3 big name writers increasing sales.

Unless you are already a big name bringing in a lot of sales for print magazines and anthologies, it is unlikely a single author short story collection is going to sell much, if it ever sells anything at all.

If you plan to self publish, and you are not already established in print magazines and anthologies, you will quickly learn that single author self published short story collections on Kindle rarely result in even one hundred sales even after having been on Amazon for several years.

Again this is a harsh reality that many new to this genre, really don't want to hear, and will often only realize the hard way, after they've spent three years self publishing a dozen or more collections and still have yet to sell one hundred copies total across all titles.

If you plan to make a career of short stories, you need to be publishing A LOT.

I succeed at this, where millions of others fail, because:

• I write a 10k word story everyday (most writers struggle to write even one thousand words a week and I am writing ten thousand words daily)
• I publish 1 to 3 of those stories every week in print magazines
• I write 3 sessions of 4 hours each, every day.
• After the first rights expire, usually in 6 months, I immediately self-publish the chap book reprint edition on Kindle
• I am not dependent upon my writing income, I have a husband whose income pays for everything, actually I have two husbands but my first on in crippled and requires 24/7 medical care, that I do, as basically his live in nurse, while my 2nd husband's income provides for both my expenses and my 1st husband's medical expenses, while allowing me the freedom to both take care of my 1st husband and write as an additional income.
• In other words, I write whatever I want, whether it is marketable or not, because there is a primary income source elsewhere. Because I don't have to work elsewhere, I have more time to write, and because most of my day is spent watching over a crippled elderly man who needs 24/7 care, I am spending nearly all day sitting in one spot just watching him sleep and so have 24/7 to write all day long, thus why I can write 3 sessions of 4 hours each, every day.

I have been taking care of my crippled veteran husband since 1978. You will notice this is the same year I started publishing my writing. Because I opted to stay home and take care of him.

I met and married my 2nd husband in 1987. He is an exhorbitantly wealthy asexual man who very simply married me because he had money and wanted a family without sex and decided to find a wife who actually needed his money rather then wanted his money. Our medical bills, to keep my 1st husband alive are in excess of $2million a year, without my 2nd husband's income, we wouldn't be able to afford to keep my 1st husband on life support. This is also why it's pretty idiotic the ufo-crazies who make up alien abduction rumors and lies about me and Etoile. The people who actually know us, know the levels of retarded brain dead jackassery there is in the stupid alien and cryptid and demon rumors that conspiracy theories spread about Etiole.

So all of these things combined, contribute to my ability to succeed as a short story writer because I have huge amounts of time to write a lot and I don't have to worry about whether my writing brings in money or not.

I'm working on a short story collection but i don't know if to include, poems or non fiction work. They would have slight connections.

Some writers do this.

I personally don't, but that's a me thing. I have OCD actual medical diagnosis, and I sort things a lot, just everything around the house, in the yard, and when I publish.

So I do in fact publish all 3 things.

I have over a hundred short story collections (each with 4 to 12 stories) and I have one poetry collection and I have a few nonfiction essay collections.

But, like I said, I separate them like that because that's just a me thing.

I buy hundreds of print magazines, anthologies, and collections every year. I'm a huge reader of the short story format, and it's pretty common for single author collections to include poems or easiest along with short stories.

Just wondering do anthologies do as well, what's your opinion on them?

See the first half of my post.

It's very clear, you don't know what an anthology is.

A mix of different sorts of writing from a single author, is still a collection.

One author publishing short stories, poems, and essays in a single volume is called "Collected Writings" not an anthology.

So what you would be publishing is "The Collected Writings of OverallAd" not "The OverallAd Anthology"

But, yeah, overall I would recommend you try to publish each story individually in a print magazine and then try to get into magazines anthologies, and then after that, after your first print rights expire (which is usually 6 months to 2 years after the magazines issue went to press) then, reprint your stuff as a self published collection on Kindle.

That's what I do and it works out pretty well. People who become fans from reading my stuff in magazines, buy the anthologies, and then go looking to see if I have any collections besides.

I don't think I would have the success I have with my self published collections if it wasn't for the fact readers first find me in print magazines and anthologies and that in turn causes them to find my collections because they are looking specifically for my pen name to see what else I wrote.

Hope this helps, and good luck with your project.

https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/vd2037/do_anthologies_do_as_well_as_short_story/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb

Here is the June 1, 2021 update to this:
(The original article from 2018 is below this update.)
(You can see the difference in what I do now from what I did than, and it'll probably change some more if I update this again 3 years from now.)

>>>When should I start rewriting? 

After you have finished your first draft.

If you start editing, revising, and rewriting BEFORE you finish the first draft, how will you know what to revise, what to rewrite, what to edit? Sure, grammar and spelling, can be fixed as you go, but when it comes to characters, plot, world building, and loss ends, you won't know which ones need work until you have finished the first draft.

If you start trying to fix things before you finish writing, you may end up creating more problems than the ones you fix. So write first and fix later after you can see the entire draft as a whole.

>>>I’m about 32,000 words (~30-40%) into my story. 

Uhm... so you are aiming at 60k to 85k words?

And you are talking about world building which means you are writing Fantasy because you don't world build in any other genre.

Which indicates that you think 50k is a novel and Fantasy is longer than normal novels, so you are aiming at 75k. I've been seeing A LOT of that the past 4 or 5 years. I hope you are planning to SELF-PUBLISH and NOT submit to a trade publishing house, because they look for around 200k for a Fantasy novel with world building.

You DO know that 50k words is NOT a novel... right? It's not even a novella, according to Harlequin who publishes short story collections that are 150k words long and contain 3 short stories that are 50k words each.

And yet, millions of wannbe, newbie writers who know nothing about the publishing industry, bounce around the internet saying stuff like:

>>>“How Long Is a Novelette? Any work of fiction with a word count between 7,500 and 19,000 is generally considered a novelette. A novelette is longer than a short story, which usually has a word range of between 1,000 and 7,500 words, and flash fiction, which is usually under 1,000 words.” (You can read the full article here.)

You know the funny thing about that is: Stephen King's shortest short story is 47,000 (forty seven thousand) words and his longest short story is 75,000 (seventy five thousand) words ... yet many people would call those numbers novels... and both those where published in magazines that had stated a short story was anything 25k to 75k, while short-shorts were listed as 10k to 25k and flash fiction listed at anything under 10,000 of course that was also in 1983 when most novels were 200k minimum Of course most of his novels top 300,000 words so, I suppose it's all a matter of perspective.

I am fascinated though by the fact that what we called a short story in the 1980s is considered a novel by today's standards. I think it's weird how everything in publishing - novels, novellas, short stories, is about 3/4 the word counts they were in the 1980s. I'm wondering what caused it? Do writers just write less so publishers changed the definitions to match or did publishing houses change the definitions first and writers wrote less to make new shorter publisher guidelines?

Bailey School Kids, easy reader chapter books for 5 to 8 years olds, are 30k words by the way, and the teeny little skinny Nancey Drew Books for 10 to 12 year olds are 75k words. While Harry Potter is 230k words. So kids books are still published by the old word counts of the 1980s... it's only stuff for adults that have deeply warped shorter numbers these days.

I think it's probably a reflection of adults reading less these days so publisher guidelines for word counts are being drastically cut down just to try to keep books marketable to people who don't read much anymore

Either way, it feels strange. Back in the 1980s I was constantly struggling to get my short stories long enough to reach the 30k to 75k that literary mags wanted, and now today, I can submit novels to publishers that are shorter than the short stories lit mags in the 1980s wanted. It feels weird looking back on that. I'm still writing stories stories in the 75k range, but in the 1970s and 1980s those were short stories, now today I still write that and they are published as novels. Weird.

Back to your question of editing though, after all, editing is what we are supposed to be talking about here.

Of course, you can't edit a novel if you don't even know what constitutes a novel, right? So knowing what word count = a novel, should be a good place to start.

Of course if you are planning to self publish, than who cares about word count, right? You can self-publish in the knowledge that you will be publishing things that are too short to be called a novel, along side around 20million other self published authors on Amazon who also had no clue 50k was NOT a novel either. So you certainly will not be alone in your ignorance.

I point all of this out, because you said this:

>>>I’m about 32,000 words (~30-40%) into my story. 

...and implied that you are writing an Epic Fantasy novel (which was confirmed by reading your profile and other posts on Reddit) and yet, you seem to be of the delusion that 75k words is a LONG or EPIC sized novel, when in fact 75k words is considered ONLY A SHORT STORY by the ACTUAL publishing industry.

Remember, any idiot can say a thing, but that doesn't make it true, so just because 20million brain dead idiots on NaNoWriMo call 50k words a novel, doesn't mean it's true, and heaven help you when you submit a short story as a novel to a publishing house that is going to laugh in your face while they toss rejection slips at you.

I'm sorry to be a barer of bad news but, if you want to PUBLISH your Epic Fantasy novel, than 32k words is closer to only 5% of the word count you should be aiming at, not 40% of it. 

You want to know how to edit your novel and you don't even know what word count publishing houses classify as a novel. I think you might have bigger things to worry about than editing, and I think your Fantasy may be a Novella not an Epic Length Novel.

Now, there is nothing wrong with writing Novella length Fantasy. There is a market for it, and in fact, that's the market personally write for. The Quaraun novels are VERY SHORT most of them only 80k to 115k words each, so classified as long novellas by most publishing houses, which is WHY I self publish the Quaraun books, because they just ain't long enough for publishing houses, who expect 150k to 300k for a Fantasy novel.

There is nothing wrong with your story being just as long or as short as it needs to be, but, from your posts, you seem to be aiming at trade publishing an Epic Fantasy and that means a publishing house like TOR and that means you should read their publishing guidelines to find out what THEY classify as an Epic Fantasy, because they want 150k to 300k PER VOLUME of a trilogy, meaning the full story you are writing should end at around 900k words. Yes, just short of a MILLION words for ONE story.

And you say this?

>>>I’m about 32,000 words (~30-40%) into my story. 

Yeah. You haven't got a clue. You might want to try READING some ACTUAL Epic Fantasy novels to find out how big those things really are.

Again, writing short Fantasy is not a bad thing, I just think you are quite a bit ignorant of which word counts = which book sizes and which genres = which word counts.

EPIC in Epic Fantasy means NUMBER OF PAGES in the book, not wizards and dragons. You seem to be confusing EPIC Fantasy with HIGH Fantasy. EPIC Fantasy means a novel with 800+ pages per volume. HIGH Fantasy means it has wizards and dragons. This is why there is also EPIC High Fantasy and EPIC Low Fantasy and EPIC Dark Fantasy and EPIC Historical Romance (aka The Fabio books) and EPIC Paranormal and EPIC Horror (think Stephen King) genres as well.

Remember EPIC means the printed paperback is 800+ pages long and if you are 40% finished at 32k words than your story isn't even close to Epic length.

And perhaps this seems off topic to a page on editing, but, part of the editing process involves editing your manuscript to be what the publisher wants and if you don't even know what word counts trade publishers expect from your genre than you are in for one hell of a surprise after you spend months of editing, only to find out no one will publish it because you seriously misjudged what wordcounts publishers look for because you believed lies taught to you by NaNoWriMo.

Moving on...

>>>The issue is that as I’ve gotten further into the book, I’ve noticed how I failed to flesh out a lot of characters and do important world-building. I’m not sure if I should keep writing or start rewriting.

The fact that you have noticed it is good.

TYPE RIGHT INTO THE DRAFT ***So I noticed I failed to flesh out this character; flesh out this character during editing*** than move on and keep on writing. 

And when you notice you've missed some world building, TYPE RIGHT INTO THE DRAFT ***So I noticed I need to add more world building details here*** than move on and keep on writing.

This is what I do.

That way I won't forget that I wanted to improve the character and I'll have a note typed right in the draft, to remind me to fix this character. At the same time, it doesn't stop me from writing. I just keep writing the story.

>>>I’ve done a rough outline and I know where the plot is going, so I’m not worried about losing myself in the editing, so to speak. It’s sort of difficult to keep writing when I keep running into issues related to earlier chapters. I feel like I’m creating more problems, but I’ve always heard that it’s best to finish before editing. Thoughts?

Yep. This is what I was talking about before, back when I said if you start trying to fix things before you finish writing, you may end up creating more problems than the ones you fix. So write first and fix later after you can see the entire draft as a whole.

Personally, I like to just rush through and finish writing down the whole thing, so that I get the entire idea down on paper before I forget it. For me, writing is like reading and I never know ahead of time where the story is going to go. I just give the characters free reign and follow them where they go.

So, yea, I finish it before I start editing it, but my 1st drafts are usually a total mess, full on shit, because I just write it out as fast as I can to get the whole thing out on the page. It generally takes me 3 to 7 days to write the first draft. I don't pay attention to grammar or spelling or logic. At this point nothing matters other than getting the full story out on the page. I can fix everything later. 

Now, this next step, I'm not sure if YOU would classify it as rewriting while writing... I do not, but I think some people might see it that way.

Anyways... here is a thing that I do WHILE WRITING the first draft...

When I write, I get into a "ZONE" a mind set where I just zone out everything around me and I get full focused on my writing, to the point that I literally can not see or hear anything going on around me. People have had to physically shake me to break me out of it so that I could see them in the room or hear them talking to me... I have Kannar's Syndrome aka ACTUAL Autism, not to be confused with Aspergers which is in no way, shape or form related to Autism. NO illness on the "Autism Spectrum" has ANY relation to Autism. The Autism Spectrum simply means "an illness that is sometimes misdiagnosed as Autism because of similar symptoms". Zoning out and becoming fully focused on what you are doing, to the point you can not see or hear anything around you is a symptom of Autism.

Well, when I write non-fiction, this zoning out doesn't happen.

Zoning out like this ONLY happens when I write fiction.

And here's the "weirder" part of it... I CAN NOT write fiction UNTIL after I have already zoned out.

This means, that before I start writing a novel, I have to meditate for several hours to trigger this state of mind to begin with. This is WHY I never know what I am going to write ahead of time.

But than, even with my 91 words per minute typing speed, at best it takes 3 or 4 or 5 or more sittings to finish the first draft.

Well, this means I need to get back into the zone before each writing session, BUT, it'll be a different novel that I write each time, and NOT a continuation of the one I started the day before.

So... to avoid starting a new 1st draft each day and instead finish the one I started yesterday, I start out day 2, day 3, etc. of writing the first draft, by reading everything I wrote so far.

Yes. I start at the beginning of the draft and read the entire manuscript, fixing grammar and spelling as I go, adding things as I think of things to add, and by the time I get to the point where I left off, I'm back in the zone and start writing again, like I had not stopped at all.

I suppose you could say it helps reimmerse me in the story?

So, that may seem like rewriting to some, but, I don't see it as rewriting. I see it as part of my personal method of how I write my first draft to completion.

In the end, this means the 1st draft will have a lot of plot holes and things not fully fleshed out or well explained, and some lose ends will not be tied up at the end either. But, I've got the whole idea down and now I can go back and flesh it out.

Usually my 1st draft ends around 50k to 80k words (I average 17k words a day; but I'm also doing this as my full time "9 to 5" job and write 8 hour work days, and have been doing this for 42 years now - I don't recommend striving towards those kinds of word counts when just starting out, build up to is slowly over time, just like you would for lifting weights in the gym).

In the 2nd draft, I read the whole thing, and as I get to points that make me think: "Wait, shouldn't this happen?" I add new scenes in those points. In places where I think characters are lacking, I add more info. In places where the world seems empty I add more life to it.  

While it took me under a week to write the 1st draft, each rewrite may take 3 months or more of 8 hours a day of doing nothing but editing and revising and rewriting. I usually end up adding 17k to 25k words to the story during each rewrite I do, but I also end up removing a lot of scenes, and saving them in a new file for maybe using later in another novel.

I repeat the whole thing again in the 3rd draft.

I often do 7+ drafts of each novel, editing out errors, fixing mistakes, added scenes, removing scenes, reordering scenes, fleshing out characters, changing up dialogue, building the world, and fixing plot holes as I go. I don't set out to do a planned amount of drafts, I just do a full rewrite and if when I'm done, if it feels like it needs more work I rewrite it again. And I just keep doing that until the story feels completed and polished as best as I can make it.

Usually my final published novel will be around 115k to 120k words, even though my 1st drafts usually ends around 50k to 80k words. 

Also, I usually put the 2nd draft away for a full year, before going back to start work on the 3rd draft. But again, I'm doing this as a full time job so I usually have 12+ novels I'm working on at any given time, so I have other drafts to work on while that one sits for a year.

This method may not work for everyone. I'm a full on pantser, so it probably won't work for people who plan ahead and outline. But for me, this is what works so this is how I do it, but yes, I finish writing the full first draft before I start editing, revising, and rewriting.

>>>At what stage do you pull in beta readers?

>>>I've been working on a project for a while now and have spent some time charting the plot and getting a feel for the characters. Now I've actually started writing and working through the story, but I can't help but wonder at what point I need to start thinking about beta readers. Are beta readers only sought out after you've completed the first draft? The second? Is it ever beneficial to have a beta reader work through your draft as you draft? Do you even need a beta reader or is it possible to self-edit well enough to by pass one?

I see different people do it different ways.

I feel, if you want beta readers before the first draft is done, go ahead, just make sure they are aware they are reading a WiP. 

Do know that what Reddit users CALL a beta reader, is NOT what the actual publishing industry calls a beta reader.

Most Reddit users usually mean friends, family, and random strangers they meet in writing subreddits, when they say "beta reader". They'll read anything for free, and don't mind inkject printed stacks of loose paper or drafts in the body or an email or pdfs in an email attachment. They are not trained professionals so they WILL miss seeing most spelling errors, they WILL NOT see most grammar errors, they often have no clue what the industry standards are for word counts and genres, they rarely have any training or knowledge of character development or plot structs, so they'll they'll tell you how they fell but shrug and say they don't know what made them feel it.

Just know that ACTUAL professional beta readers, people who do this for a living an charge $40 to $60 an hour to read your books, EXPECT a proof copy of a paperback book that a mock up that looks identical to what the finished paperback will look like. They have English degrees, they know grammar rules like they were tattooed on the back of their hand. They know how to dissect and diagram a sentence - and if you don't know what sentence diagraming is - few people on Reddit do - you might want to consider if you know grammar well enough to write.

>>>I ask because recently I've been running into small issues as a write, usually concerning small details or decisions I need to make about characters which could affect how the story plays out long term. Sometimes when I have these dilemmas I write make a quick decision and move on, but other times I feel at a complete loss and have the urge to consult someone and discuss what would be best from the story. I definitely don't feel like I am at a point where I'd feel comfortable showing this work to someone else, but I'm interested in knowing how to determine the right time for this.

Take your draft, start at the first sentence, diagram it.

Move on to the next sentence: diagram it.

Continue this way, until you reach the first sentence that is written incorrectly. You will know it is incorrect, because you won't be able to diagram it. 

Pull out your English Grammar and Composition book. Look up the grammar rules about the error in your sentence. Read the entire chapter. Do all the writing exercises it says to do. Now review your sentence. Fix it. NOW diagram it.

Continue to the next sentence in your draft: diagram it.

Move on to the

 next sentence: diagram it.

Continue this way, until you reach the first sentence that is written incorrectly. You will know it is incorrect, because you won't be able to diagram it. 

Pull out your English Grammar and Composition book. Look up the grammar rules about the error in your sentence. Read the entire chapter. Do all the writing exercises it says to do. Now review your sentence. Fix it. NOW diagram it.

Continue to the next sentence in your draft: diagram it.

Move on to the next sentence: diagram it.

Continue this way, until you reach the first sentence that is written incorrectly. You will know it is incorrect, because you won't be able to diagram it. 

Pull out your English Grammar and Composition book. Look up the grammar rules about the error in your sentence. Read the entire chapter. Do all the writing exercises it says to do. Now review your sentence. Fix it. NOW diagram it.

Continue to the next sentence in your draft: diagram it.

When you reach the end of your draft... NOW read it start to finish. With all the bad grammar now removed, the plot will flow smoothly, and you'll able to see what the issues WERE (they won't be there any more) with your story and you will find writer's block melt away and your troubles writing disappear.

Bad grammar is VERY difficult to read, even for the author writing it. Authors who haven't mastered proper grammar rules, struggle deeply through writer's block and plot holes, and when you write in bad grammar, you unknowingly CAUSE your inability to think clearly about your plot.

When you go back to read what you wrote, to think of what to write next, and you can't clearly understand what you read, because your wrote it in bad grammar. But fix your own bad grammar and BOOM, it's clear to read, clear to understand, and suddenly BOOM, you know what to write next because your brain is no longer tripping on your bad grammar.

Learn how to diagram sentence, practice by diagraming 100 sentences a day (yes, I do this). It really WILL be the best thing you do to improve your writing.

Most people who can't put their finger on an issue in their story, have that problem because public schools stopped teaching sentence diagraming in 1997, something that used to be a required class. Once you learn how to diagram a sentence, words, plots, and stories start flowing very smoothly. Just as houses without foundations crumble, so too do novel plots written in improperly structured sentences. Before you pay someone to be a beta reader, ask them to diagram each of the first 100 sentences of your novel. Than heck to make sure they did it correctly. If they can't, than find another beta reader, because they don't even have knowledge of basic 4th grade grammar, if they can't diagram a sentence.

If you are having trouble with your plot and you can't put your finger on it: diagram the sentences.

>>>At what stage do you pull in beta readers?

Me? AFTER, I've done all of my drafts and edits and rewrites (there are usually 7 drafts, over a period of 3 years, for each novel) and after I do the proof copy mock up typesetting. So it has the final cover art, back blur, copyright pages, ISBN, 13 blank pages at the beginning and end, and everything all ready in it and looks EXACTLY as it'll look when it gets delivered to local bookstores. My beta readers are getting an ACTUAL paperback proof copy of the book, not a bunch of loose pages printed off an inkjet or worse the whole thing as a pdf in an email.

 I have paperback proof copies printed up, one for me, one for my editor, one for each beta reader, usually around 30 proof copies are printed. I tell the beta readers take a red sharpie pen and write EVERYTHING you think of in the margins, cross out things you don't like, correct anything you think needs correcting. Massacre it. Make it bleed read. Write whatever comes to mind right in the book, as they read it, don't want to write something later, you might forget it. Get your first reactions down as you think of them, so I can see EXACTLY where you had that reaction.

It's the very LAST step before publication. And they have 1 week to give it back to me. When I get the proof copies back, I go over each book line by line, consider their notes/advice/edits/feedback, while I have the final typeset manuscript open on the computer, and I make changes to the draft as I see fit, based off what I read in the proofs as I read the notes readers wrote in the proofs.

Within 2 or 3 days of getting their feedback back, the final typeset is delivered to the printer and the final copies of the books go to press. The book will be published and on local shop shelves within 2 weeks after the beta readers have seen it.

No one, and I mean, NO ONE, sees ANY of the drafts until less than 30 days before it is ready to go to the printer.

I use a lot of "free online resources" when I am editing, and I've listed a lot of them further down this page, including to detail how I use each one. But before I get to that, here is a list of "infographics" which I also use when editing, just because damn, do these have good editing advice on them, and it's easy to open them on the screen beside my draft and look through my draft for the things on these lists.

Source: www.grammarcheck.net

Source: www.grammarcheck.net

Source: www.grammarcheck.net

Source: www.grammarcheck.net

Source: www.grammarcheck.net

Source: www.grammarcheck.net

Source: www.grammarcheck.net

Source: www.grammarcheck.net

Source: www.grammarcheck.net

Here is the original article from 2018:
(You can see the difference in what I do now from what I did than, and it'll probably change some more if I update this again 3 years from now.)

>>So, I have come across many people saying things like "the first draft is total shit" or something along those lines. They say they rewrite their story multiple times until it is 'perfect'. To me, this just seems like a case of bad planning.

>>I have made a more-or-less complete outline from start to finish and am now busy writing it all out. Sometimes I expand upon a scene or add a new interaction between characters, but nothing big. It is far from being 'total shit', it just needs some careful editing here and there. So far, it seems completely unnecessary to me to create a second draft when I can just edit the bad parts out of my first one and make that into the final version.

>>Do you guys often rewrite parts or even the whole of your story? Is your first draft really that bad compared to the final product? Personally, I prefer spending a lot of time on creating a good outline instead of meticulously rewriting the same chapters over and over.

I can not speak for others as each author has their own methods, but I can tell you what I do and the hows and whys behind it.

Depending on how you look at it, you could say that each of my novels goes their 12 to 17 drafts a piece OR that it was never anything other than a first draft. Yey, how is this possible? Well, here's what I do...

An idea pops into my head, and I could be anywhere, doing anything. I have a very busy life and am often on the road or otherwise away from the computer. So, I keep a notepad (pen & paper) with me at all times, and whenever an idea pops in my head, I write it down. It may be just a one sentence idea, but in most cases it's an entire 2 or 3 page scene of dialogue between 2 characters. It could be an idea for a project I am working on already (I currently have 81 novels in various levels of completion) or an idea for a completely new novel.

When I get back to my computer, I'll create a new text file on EditPad7 and type up exactly what I had written down earlier. Depending on how much time I have at that moment, I may either just type up the exact words and save, or I may, right then and there simply keep on writing and see where the scene leads to. Often, what started as a quick 400 to 700 word jotted scene on paper, will expand to 10,000+ words within 2 or 3 hours of typing it up.

If this was a new project, this quick mind-flow hash out will serve as a shaky first draft or quasi-outline for the finished product. If it was for a project already started, I will move it to the folder, where the original project's draft is stored. Each novel has it's own folder, and the files with-in it include not only the draft itself, but also any research notes, character profiles, world building notes, rules of magic, rules of the land, random stuff written about the characters and setting that will never be included in the novel but I need to remember for how those things affect the story, links/bookmarks to sites with more research, and of course, any of these previously mentioned random brain-fart ideas that may or may not become a fleshed out part of the story.

Each of my novels, usually takes a 4 or 5 year process of starting with a random idea and then letting it slowly snowball into something bigger. And while I personally consider it to be one long process of creation, and therefor simply one draft, that eventually reaches completion, I feel that most other authors might look at what I do and translate it as many drafts being reworked and editing, a dozen or more times.

The finished product is considered (by most of my readers) to be what many have termed "avant garde" or "artsy-fartsy" and technically is classifies as Literary Fiction, because it does not stick with the norms in terms of grammar, style, and prose. In other words, a grammar nazi would have a heart attack looking at just one page and the finished novel itself would have them jumping off a cliff. I have an English degree, focused in teaching high school grammar and literature, and I can, if I wanted to, sit down and write perfect grammar and recite grammar rules for hours on end... but you wouldn't know it to look at my novels.

This deliberate lack of perfect grammar is a style choice, and one that often results in many of my books receiving bad reviews with the reader saying "this was unedited!" No. None of my books has ever gone through fewer then 12 edits and most go through 17 or more edits.

If you are finding bad spelling and poor grammar in my books, believe me, I'm well aware it's there and it's there intentionally, on purpose. The reason being that all of my books are part of a long running series about the same set of characters. The primary POV character is an unreliable narrator. An opium and LSD addict, he often does not know up from down, reality from hallucination. He contradicts himself constantly, inconsistencies are overboard, stuff he sees happening around him may in fact be only a hallucination, but he can't tell and neither can the reader, and a talking cat is following him around writing down everything he does and says. His best friend/lover is illiterate, unable to read or write, and barely has a clear grasp on the English language, English not being his native tongue; he says things wrong, often not realizing it, saying one thing when he thought he was saying something else. The cat who is writing this down does not make a distinction and does not correct him, and thus the story is written by someone who is not an person and has a lingo of her own, while she is trying to write about a mentally unstable main character and his illiterate lover.

The grammar is not only deliberately bad, it is at times horrific, to the point of leaving the reader asking: "What does this even mean?" And again, this is intentional. The finished product is intended to read as though it were written by someone on LSD. The cat is a 4th wall breaking narrator, telling the story of a drug addict from the drug addict's point of view. It is a genre known as "Psychedelic Fantasy" and while popular in the 1970s when the series started, Psychedelic Fantasy is a genre rarely seen today.

So back to the topic of the process of writing and editing...

>>So, I have come across many people saying things like "the first draft is total shit" or something along those lines. They say they rewrite their story multiple times until it is 'perfect'. To me, this just seems like a case of bad planning.

I am one who does not believe the first draft is shit theory. I believe each first draft is different, even from a single author. Some drafts will be gold bricks vomited on the page and others will be just plain vomit. It depends on many factors, including the current level of stress and health the author is in at the time of writing. The more calm and relaxed and healthy a person is, the better the chances of a clean first draft that needs only minimal spelling/grammar/typo edits, even without an outline. That same author, when dealing with stress and sickness will struggle to get their draft polished even after multiple edits and with a good outline. No author always writes pure gold and no author always writes crap. Heck, you want to see how crappy a first draft can be, try writing a story when you have the flu! LOL! :P

With this in mind, it is my belief that how many drafts a novel goes through is a reflection of many things, including, but not limited to the author's skill level, their stress levels, and their current state of health. Even just being hungry because of skipping a meal while writing, can cause a change in levels of crappiness. Some people are affected by the weather and write better on sunny days or rainy days, then vice versa.

It's been my personal experience, that the more stressed I am, the more free-flow and neurotic my writing becomes. So for me, I don't think every first draft is shitty, and I do think, that under the right conditions, most authors can put out first drafts that are near publishable with only a minor edit. A also think MOST authors seem to write when they are stressed, such as being inspired to write after a break up with a boyfriend or the death of a grandparent or being told they have cancer or struggling with depression or whatever else... high stress is often cited, by many authors, as the trigger that inspires them to write, thus it is perfectly logical and reasonable to expect the resulting draft will be rushed and shitty and need a lot of work. Many authors (myself included) write through struggles as a way to deal with stress. Whereas if that same author writes from a well planned out draft and does it on there summer vacation, in a peaceful relaxed environment, there is no reason to think they couldn't write publishable first draft that doesn't need edits.

I do however feel that every novel, no matter how good the first draft is, can be improved by simply putting it away for a few months or even a year, and then rewriting it as you read it. Because after a year, you've had time to forget what you wrote and can now read it a bit more objectively with a bit less "this is perfect" bias that you had upon writing it. I do this and am constantly taken back by the reaction of: "What the hell did I write? How did I think this was good?" Every year, my work from the previous year, seems less good then I had thought it was when I finished it.

>>I have made a more-or-less complete outline from start to finish and am now busy writing it all out. Sometimes I expand upon a scene or add a new interaction between characters, but nothing big. It is far from being 'total shit', it just needs some careful editing here and there. So far, it seems completely unnecessary to me to create a second draft when I can just edit the bad parts out of my first one and make that into the final version.

I used to outline. Decades ago. I have many massive notebooks and binders full of hand written outlines, many over 100 pages long.

I don't do outlines anymore.

I found that I would waste months on end outlining and planning and outlining and plotting and outlining and worldbuilding and outlining some more... and it was great fun to do, I loved doing it, BUT... I'd get done outlining and be: "Okay, that's done, now what can I write?"

I can make some really amazing outlines, but that in itself became the problem. I made my outlines too good, and the act of turning the outline into a novel became a chore. It took me several years to figure out what the problem was too. I'd be all excited to write this novel, I'd plot and plan and write out these massive, highly detailed outlines and then I'd be bored out of my mind when it came time to write the thing.

It turns out, I'm something called "a discovery writer". I like the thrill of discovering the story, thus why I was so excited to to the research and planning and outlining. BUT, once I know the end of the story, once I know what happened and why, suddenly the thrill of the discovery is gone and I lose interest. Thus making an outline became the very reason I struggled to finish so many novels in that time period of my life.

I stopped writing outlines and BOOM, I suddenly had no trouble writing novels again. It's weird, too, because I had it in my head that I HAD to write outlines. I thought you couldn't write a novel without an outline, so I never even tried to work without an outline before that point.

Now, instead of outlining, I just free flow it. I'm a person of extremes too. I went overboard extreme with my outlines, filling them with hundreds of pages of details, that I really had no reason to include, but I detailed out all the little pointless details anyways, just because it was fun to do. There is so much joy for me in the creation process. Well, now that I've stopped outlining (I wrote my last outline in 2006 so it's now been 12 years since I last used an outline), my drafts have improved substantially. All those details I used to put in the outlines, I now put in the drafts instead.

Usually I have no idea what the plot of the story is or where the story will go or how the story will end. You remember those random scenes I mentioned earlier? Those quick handwritten pages that I later type up and start expanding? The process goes like this:

I take this random scene idea and I start asking questions about it:

• Why did he say this?
• How will this other character respond when he finds out?
• What would happen if he went forward with this but that happened to interrupt him along the way?
• What would happen if this person disagreed?
• What if it suddenly started raining/snowing while he was doing it?
• What is she thought he was doing it because of this when he was really doing it because of that?
• How would the result be different if he did it here instead of there?
• What if while he was doing this, that happened to mess up his plan?
• What will she say when she finds out he did that?
• etc...

I'll write and write and write and write, maybe 1,000 or 2,000 or more words, full free flow with no clue what direction it'll take. When I get to the end of the scene, I'll go back and read it, while tossing questions like the ones above at it. Next thing I know, I'll be writing the next scene. The question will have inspired me to toss another person or item or event into the end of that first scene, and I'll write it out to see where it goes. I'll write and write and write until I reach the result of that change. Then I'll start throwing around some more "What ifs?" Wat if it started snowing? So I'l write it snowing and see how the characters react. Wait, what if it had rained instead? I'll go back to where it started snowing, write a new version of that scene now with rain and see where it goes. Then I'll look at both scenes and determine which one better fit the way the story was going. I'll use one and save the other as an indea file to maybe be used in something else later.

I think of it as though I was reading a book. When I read a book, I'm on the edge of my seat wanting to know what happens next, so I keep turning the page and reading more to find out.

I write like that. I don't know what's going to happen next. It's the thrill of discovery, to write a scene and not know where it'll lead. I'm on the edge of my seat while I'm writing wondering: What's gonna happen next?

This is the same experience I felt while writing my outlines, but then after I finished the outline, it was like I had finished reading the book, so had no more desire to go back into it, thus I wouldn't write it.

But now without an outline, I get the novel written in a few days because I'm so excited to discover what is going to happen.

>>Do you guys often rewrite parts or even the whole of your story? Is your first draft really that bad compared to the final product? Personally, I prefer spending a lot of time on creating a good outline instead of meticulously rewriting the same chapters over and over.

You'll often hear me talk about revising and rewriting, but I think, what I call rewriting, may not be what most others would consider rewriting? Not sure. It seems to me, when I see people saying they are rewriting, that they are actively writing their story over again, and for me, that's not what I do.

When I revise a novel, it' not so much me writing it over, as it is me continuing to snowball ideas at the story.

After I finish writing a novel, I like to put it away for 6 months minimum, before going back to edit it. These first drafts are usually very short only 70k to 80k words, barely the size of the finished novel it'll become when published, with most novels of the series being 140k to 200k words and some reaching over 300k. I'll immediately move on to my next novel. As it takes me about 2 to 3 weeks to write a "first draft", I'll have written 5 to 8 more novels by the time I go back 6 months later to edit that first one. I've now had time to forget a lot of what I wrote in this particular novel.

Now it comes time to "re-write" the novel. My process is this:

I read the novel, and as I read it, I'm now thinking of the additional 6 or 7 new novels I've written for the series since writing this one I'm now editing. I'll realize "Wait... did I have him doing this in that one? But I have him doing that over here in this one instead. That's not right. He can't do both. Can he? I gotta change one of these."

I'm now off to read the novels already published, read the drafts written before the one I'm editing, read the drafts written after the one I'm editing, and am now writing new scenes for this draft, in order to match up the chronology and consistency of the series as a whole. I'm now looking for plot holes and lose ends to tie up. I'm looking for places where what he did in the already published volume 22 does not match up with the now being edited volume 122. I'm writing new scenes to fix these inconsistencies and making old story lines match up with new story lines.

Keep in mind that the series in question, was started in 1978, has 130+ novels already published, and has a grand total of 275 novels in the series already started, with me currently working on 81 volumes in various stages of completion. And the way I write this series, it'll likely pass 400+ novels published over the next couple of decades, seeing how I have no plans to ever stop writing it, am writing new novels (80k to 300k words each) at a rate of 10 to 12 a year (though I publish 3 to 4 a year), and will probably keep right on writing into my 90s.

As I am doing this consistency checking process, I'm also STILL asking those "What if?" questions and so, new scenes start being written into the story, often resulting in very dramatic changes in the story line. I consider the 70k first draft to be nothing but a bare bones skeleton, completely lacking in meat, and this process of writing new scenes to answer the "What ifs?" to be the process of fleshing out the story and putting meat on the bones. So in an essence the first draft was actually an outline written in story form, and it is now evolving into the true story that will go on to be published.

The editing process after this point, consists largely of spell checking, grammar correcting, and combing for typos. I'm currently using 3 different editing programs for this, but I used to have 7 different programs I was using. (I got a new computer and have not yet bought new versions of the remaining 4 programs.)

In the end my process is this:

• A first draft written in fast free flow, often written in a single weekend, that acts as an outline for the novel. (Done in EditPad7)
• A revision/2nd draft written in a slower, more well thought out manner, usually taking 2 or 3 or more months to complete. (Done in yWriter5)
• 3 to 7 edits via editing programs, counting as drafts 3 through 6 or 3 through 10. (Done in LibreOffice5)
• A editor taking a look and a final draft being made via those suggestions. (I used to use beta readers, but haven't in nearly a decade.) (Sent to the editor vis Google Docs)
• A manual eyeballing it while I format it for publication, edit. (Done in LibreOffice5)
• Order the printed proof copy, and do the final edit, red sharpie on printed page, then typing those changes into the final draft.

The end result is a grand total of 12 drafts being made of each novel from start to finish.

Anyways, there is it, my editing process.

I edit after.

I'm one of those people who loves editing. I find it very relaxing and peaceful, almost meditative you could say.

On the other hand I find writing to be very energizing. Thus I write myself into an energitize frenzy, then edit back into a state of calm again.

Weird, I know, but that how I do it.

Another Update for 2021, yep, putting this one at the bottom, no reason why, it's just here.

>>>First draft Vs Rewriting Do most people write a lengthy first draft and go from there or do they write a minimized first draft (30k+) and then rewrite the whole manuscript? Quite confused about it and deciding whether to switch methods (originally rewrite).

Me, I just write the story down as fast as I can, in a basic text doc so that none of the spellchecker red underlines show up to distract me. The goal is to get the full story idea out on paper. These usually end around 50k to 70k long. I save that file as "Story Title First Draft - today's date" and don't edit directly in it. Instead, now I open LibreOffice and copy the entire first draft and paste it into a doc file. I save this on as "Story Title 2 Draft - today's date but next year" Than I set it aside for a year and go work on something else. A year later, I open the doc file (not the txt file) and now I have the auto-spellcheck do it's thing. Than I read it and edit/rewrite as I read. This 2nd draft edit/rewrite usually takes a couple of days to a couple of weeks. When finished, I open a 3rd file (doc) and paste a copy of the 2nd draft into it, name it "Story Title 3 Draft" and put it aside for 2 or 3 months, than edit/rewrite the 3rd one and make a 4th one for editing a few months later, name it "Story Title 4 Draft" and so on, for however many times it takes the novel to feel "done".

Usually I end up with around 7 drafts before the story feels finished and polished. And most of my novels, though they start out 50k to 70k in the 1st draft, most of them are 120k to 230k by the time they reach publication (I'm writing door stopper brick sized Epic Length Fantasy so they are longer than most other genres. You'd expect fewer words in say Romance or Cozy Mysteries).

I never throw anything out or "fully delete" scenes/chapters either. If while editing I reach a point of thinking: "This scene/chapter has to go". Rather than delete it from the draft, I create yet another doc file, copy the whole thing paste it into the new file, save as "Story Title 2A Draft" save the "Story Title 2 Draft" file at the point where I stopped editing. Now pick up editing where I left of, now in "Story Title 2A Draft" and now I deleted the scene/chapter and keep on going. That way I have removed the scene/chapter from the story, but it's not gone forever, in case I decide in a later draft to put it back in, or in case I decide to use it in a different novel entirely.

I end up with a separate file for each draft, which I do because I teach writing lectures and workshops at conventions, while cosplaying characters from my novels, and I show attendees what each version of the draft looks like so they can see how much the manuscript changes during each step of the editing process.

Even though I publish several novels a year, which makes it seem like I write/edit the whole novel in only 3 months time, each novel actually has 3 to 4 years of writing/editing/rewriting to them, it's just that I have so many WiPs going that appears less time goes into each one than what actually does, because I can set the draft aside for a year, edit last year's draft, set it aside, edit draft from 2 years ago, set it aside, and so on. Very assembly line process and probably a method that will not be well suited to most writers. I usually have anywhere from 12 to 30 novels in various stages of editing at any given month, which is how I'm able to publish 3 to 6 novels a year. So even though it looks like I rush each novel with only 3 months of work to it, from start to finish it takes on average 3 years for me to take a novel from 1st draft to publication.

Before using this method I had tried several others: outlining, 13 steps, snowflake, etc, and each was okay, but none of them ever felt "right" for me personally, and I struggled quite a lot early on. It was several years of trying different methods before I found one that actually worked for me and it was kind of just years of trail and error before I settled into the routine I use now.

I would suggest, looking at all the methods everyone uses, try out each one, do a different method for each of your novels, and see which one works best for you. Not every method is going to work for every writer and it may take you 3 or 4 novels before you settle into a method that feels right for you.

>>>I finally finished the first draft to a horror short story. I'm thinking about what's a good time away from the project before coming back to it. How long do you guys wait? (if you do at all)

I think the time between drafts, should be whatever you're personally comfortable with, and it's going to be vastly different from one writer to the next.

Because I publish 2 to 3 stories a week, and 4 to 6 novels a year, there is often the misconception that the story was written, edited, and published in only 4 days (novel in 3 months), but this is extremely inaccurate. I've had people who never read my work contact me to say they would never read my stories, because "anything written and published 4 days later must be crap". They are completely clueless as to my writing/editing process, and the fact that 2 years of work go into each story. Just because a new story is published about every 4 days, does not mean it was written 4 days ago. In actuality, if I publish a story today May 21, 2021, it was likely written May 21, 2019, edited May 21, 2020.

Because I have so many ideas, I'm constantly writing. As soon as I finish a story I immediately jump into the next one.

Well, when it comes to how long do I wait between drafts: a full year.

Yep.

A year.

Maybe a bit long for others, but for me it works.

By the end of a year, I've written so many other stories that I've completely forgotten what I wrote a year ago and so now I'm able to open up the first draft and read it with the same "eyes" as one of my readers, and I'm able to get rid of a good 99% of the spelling/grammar/flow errors with only one round of edits, and publish straight from the 2nd draft.

But than, I'll set it aside for a second year.

Yep.

There are 2+ years between writing the first draft and the publication, even my super-short-shorts of only 10k words.

So, a story published May 21, 2021, was actually written in 2019, edited in 2020, and formatted & published in 2021 with a final proofread to catch any errors that still remain.

But, this year wait between edits method, I think would only work for others who like me are just bombarded with way to many ideas ad are constantly working on new projects every few days/weeks. If you've only got one or two pet projects that you are working on, you might not be able to distance yourself enough to wait 2 years or have enough other projects to fill up the time between drafts. 

I think, in the case of short stories, waiting a year would probably only work for career writers, who HAVE to publish weekly if they want to pay the bills, and probably wouldn't work for someone without a pre-established relationship with publishers. S if you are just getting started and still looking for publishers and/or don't have lots of story ideas to work with in between, maybe it'd be better to wait only a few weeks? 

But I also think there is no hard/fast rule about it. No right or wrong way/time. Some people write with fewer errors the first draft and can publish a week later. Others, like me, have a lot of spelling issues and can't immediately see them so need to have a very long waiting period. It's all about testing and seeing what works best for you personally. After you've edited a few stories, you'll start to get a feel for what works best for you.

>>>How long does a book typically take to go from final manuscript to publication? I usually see Goodreads reviews appear about 3-4 months before publication. But the final manuscript could have existed before then. So if a book is published on May 28, 2021, approximately when was it probably finished being written, on average?

It's going to be vastly different for every book an author writes, depending on huge variables and factors, like life/health/family/job.

Plus if it's self published, most authors are able to have the book in reader hands days after the last draft is finished, whereas if it's trade published, the average id 2 YEARS OR MORE from the time the author finished the last draft and gave it to the publishing house before the publishing house gets around to actually publishing it.

For me, personally:

The longest one took several years, about 6, maybe 7 years, I forget now, to go from first draft to being published.

The shortest took 7 days, to go from first draft to being published.

Both were around the same word count (about 115k).

The difference in time was because, for one, I was writing it between surgeries and doctor visits and relearning to walk and court cases and police investigations and FBI investigations because this book was being written just before my family was murdered and, so there was lots of life issues going that pushed finishing the book aside.

The shortest time, was only 6 months earlier, 6 months before my family was murdered and life went to shit, and the entire first draft written in a single sitting in one day. It was 47k words and written for the 50k in one day challenge. The next day I rewrote the whole thing, fleshing it out and adding an additionally 25k words. The 3rd rewrite the following 2 days added 17k words each day to it. It was edited the 5th day and edited a 2nd time the 6th day, adding more words each day during the edits. Ending at 114k words total (about 350 pages in the paperback edition). I formatted it the 7th day, made the cover in a about an hour, uploaded it to Kindle and CreateSpace and SmashWords and went on to be one of only 5 people who won the "7 Day Novel" contest challenge that year.

About a month later, I read the print version and I found huge amounts of errors (spelling, grammar, punctuation) and used that print copy to edit right on the pages, then went back to the doc file, made those edits, reuploaded the new file, notified my readers of the updated version so they could get the free revised version Amazon offered back than. 

>>>How long does it take you to write a first draft? Personally for me, it takes 3-4 months of writing everyday- or most days. Everyone has different spans of time to get their creative work done. We each lead different lives. So, how long does it take you?

The first draft takes about 3 days, ends between 40k to 70k and is the "full" story told beginning to end, as though someone was describing the story to someone else. 

I took secretarial typing in college, which requires typing 175 words per minute to graduate, but I'm a bit slower than that now outside of college, typing at only 91 words per minute average, but faster around 120 wpm when doing the first draft, so my typing speed when writing novels is around 5k words per hour and writing is my full time job, so it's straight up my typing all day and all night for 3 days, only stopping for naps, meals, and bathroom breaks; I usually average around 25k a day, and end with a 60k vomit draft after 3 days.

It's generally full of huge errors, lots of typos, grammar and spelling are a mess, and at this point, it's usually without dialogue, without scene descriptions, etc.. It's JUST the story itself, bare bones, nothing fleshed out.

In essence my first drafts are kind of an outline written in a story format, instead of an outline format. Basically it goes like this: I get an idea in my head, so I just write the full story idea down with as much detail as I can spur of the moment hash out, while I speed write it. My goal during the first/vomit draft stage is to just get the idea out on paper with as much detail as possible, before something distracts me and I forget the idea. So, the 1st draft is FAR from publishable and is a total mess, due to how fast I write it up.

I typically put it away for 2 to 3 years before I look at it again. The first edit, is usually just to go through a fix spelling and typos, than to do a full rewrite, fleshing out as I go, adding the dialogue and scene descriptions. This takes 2 to 3 months.

It gets put away again for another year or more, before it receives the major edit and rewrite where I work it into something publishable, and that can take 6 months or more to do as I slowly go through it line by line, diagraming each sentence, and reworking everything.

In the end, it usually takes 4 years+ to go from idea to published. I write an Epic Length Fantasy series, so the finished novel will be at minimum 115k words, unto 230k words, but most are in the range of 150k to 180k (and average 450 to 520 pages when published to paperback).

People often miss-assume that it takes under 2 months for me to go from idea to publishing because I publish 4 novels a year, most years, but, that output is just because I'm usually working on 10 or more novel drafts at any given time, so they are always in rotation and I end up with something ready to publish every few months, making it look like almost no time goes into the novel, when in fact, that novel will have been something I've been working on for several years.

>Once it's done you'll be rewriting the whole thing again.

This.

Each of my novels goes through 4 to 7 or more full re-writes before I ever feel they are good enough to hand over to an editor.

> I know it's necessary but does that not drain the vitality and magic out of the craft to some extent?

I actually have more fun rewriting than I do writing the first draft. For me, the first draft is more of a slog, so I write it vomit draft style as fast as possible to get it over with and move on to the fun part - editing and re-writing.

I think because, during the first draft, I'm still formulating where the story will go. But during the rewrite, I now know the full beginning, middle, and end, so now I know what I want each scene to be, and can spend time rewriting each one.

> (I mean everyone rewrites to some extent but it’s not like all authors write from scratch their whole book 5 times like some people here seem to believe), 

Every writer may not, but I certainly do. 

>When you feel like your writing is better in the latter half of your book, what do you do?

Re-write the full thing.

I never edit over each draft though. Each draft has its own file, that way I have copies of each edit/rewrite it goes through, just in case I remove scenes/chapters and later want to have them back. Plus I can compare how much it changed from 1st draft to publication.

I name the first draft "Title of Novel 1st draft". I put it away, for a year minimum, so I have time to forget what I wrote.

After writing the first draft, I create a new file, and name it "Title of Novel 1st edit". I paste the first draft into this file to do the first rough edit. At this point, I run it through several different spelling and grammar checkers, so that when I rewrite it I won't have to worry about those things slowing me down. 

Then I created the 3rd file and name it "Title of Novel 1st re-write". I paste the 1st edit version into it and, then, I open the file in EditPad or NoteBook and open LOTS of tabs (a 100 or more) creating a new tab for each page of the draft.

Now comes the first major rewrite. I take one page of the draft (200 to 500 words depending on the font, margins, etc), paste it into NotePad, and I make it my goal to rewrite this scene into at least a 1,000-word scene, without looking at the page before or after it for context. Completely rewrite the page. Then I paste the end result back into the 3rd draft. I repeat this for each page.

Most of my first drafts are 40k to 70k words long. But this full rewrite, turning each 350-word page into a 1,000-word scene, results in the 3rd draft now being around 150k words by the time it's done.

This gets put away for another year, the same way the first draft did.

A year later, I create another file "Title of Novel 2nd edit". Paste the 3rd draft into it. Like I did with the first draft, I run it through several different spelling and grammar checkers so that when I rewrite it I won't have to worry about those things slowing me down. 

Then I created the 5th file and name it "Title of Novel 2nd re-write". Paste the 4th draft into it. I create a 6th file  "Title of Novel 2nd re-write - copy". Here is where I now open the draft in 2 files side by side one on each monitor/computer screen, and now I do a full rewrite. Writing the entire novel beginning to end all over again. Basically looking at one and retyping it, now making changes for flow, etc. I end up editing both files at once, moving and combining stuff, between them.

This gets put away for another year. Yes... at a minimum by this point, 3 years have gone by since the first vomit draft was written.

The 7th file is USUALLY the last one, but sometimes there are more. The 7th one I name "Title of Novel - final edit". Paste the 6th one into it. This file gets run through 7 different spell checkers and grammar checkers then gets run through each of the 20+ ProWritingAid reports. Then I read the entire thing out loud on live stream (Twitch usually, YouTube sometimes) and reading it out loud, I find a TON of stuff that got overlooked. This is a major edit and massive rewrite, that takes 5 to 8 months of daily 5 hour live streams as I edit the final draft live with my readers helping. I usually get 3 to 4 pages edited per 5 hours of live stream, as we do a line-by-line dissection of the entire novels. This will be the biggest most intense re-write of all. (I've been doing these live stream edits with my viewers since 2004. 2021 is my 17th year of editing my novels on live stream.)

In the end, it takes each of my novels 4 years to go from 1st draft to publication, with a grueling edit and rewrite process that slaughters the draft ripping every inch of it apart scene by scene, line by line. And because of this, the feeling that it was weaker at the beginning, is totally obliterated.

By saving every version of the draft in a separate file, I'm able to go back and compare the first draft to the finished paperback, and the differences are often astounding, with how vastly different they are. Huge changes get made during each rewrite, to the point that some finished chapters bear no resemblance to their first draft versions.

>I just want to know if anyone else feels something similar and how you deal with it—especially considering how important a strong opening is.

This statement, tells me that you are not in the habit of rewriting your drafts or if this is your first novel, you are unaware of how important rewriting is.

Know that, if you plan to publish, your draft will NEED to go through 3 or 4 edits and as many rewrites... and yes an edit is different from a rewrite. One edits grammar and spelling, the other completely rewrites the entire story. 

No one who publishes high-quality work, did so, by publishing their first draft after just a spelling/grammar edit.

With this in mind, I would suggest not worrying about your first draft's weak beginning, because, after you rewrite your novel, your 2nd draft will be starkly different from the 1st, and after you rewrite it again, the 3rd draft will be different from the 2nd.

Think of it as a rough dirty pebble you found in your driveway. You take that pebble and put it in a rock tumbler with a large grit to chip away the dirt and grime. Then you run the tumbler with a finer grit to smooth out the cracks. Then you run the tumbler with an even finer grit to make the pebble nice round. Finally, you run the tumbler with a super fine grit to get a nice fine super shiny polish on the stone. Now you put the stone in a setting and what started out as a rough dirty ugly pebble in your driveway is now a beautiful gemstone necklace you are proud to wear.

Novel writing is like that. Your first draft is that dirty, rough, ugly pebble. Each rewrite chips away the rough parts and smooths out the edges. With enough rewrites, you'll end up with a shiny gem worth putting a pretty cover on and publishing.

So, don't worry about flaws and weaknesses you are finding in your first draft. You are 4 or 5 rewrites away from it being publishable anyways, and you'll sort out the flaws and weaknesses during those revisions.

>I noticed that the first two chapters don’t feel as smooth

Same.

With me, I noticed every novel, the first half needs tons of editing while the last half, not so much. I think it's because at the beginning I don't have a clear direction where the story was going, and am still experimenting with "what if...?" but by the latter half of the novel the story has started to fully form better and I know where it is going.

End result is the first half of every novel's first draft is usually full of plot holes and loose threads that need major fixing and rewriting.

>>>Hiya! So I recently finished my first novel and am now looking to edit my work since I'm working on a deadline. I need with a couple of things I hope you don't mind me asking:

>>>Characters texting. I can't seem to write this without it sticking out, any tips on how to make it flow with the plot?

>>>Time skips. I have a lot of these (although very small) and i want to decrease them, was wondering what's the best way.

>>>Editing tips in general

>>>Characters texting. I can't seem to write this without it sticking out, any tips on how to make it flow with the plot?

I've never written texting, due to time period of my novels and short stories all being pre-1800s, but if I were to write a novel with a text, I think I'd do it as either part of dialogue (if the character was reading the text out loud) or part of internal monologue (if the character was silently reading the text)

For example:

>"So, then I said was... oh wait, I got a text." She quickly checked her phone, than started yelling. "Will you look at that! *'Text me now.'* Doesn't she know I'm busy?"

>She showed me the message. It was from her mom. *TEXT ME NOW!* It said in all caps. Must be important.

>>>Time skips. I have a lot of these (although very small) and i want to decrease them, was wondering what's the best way.

I do this a lot. What I do is type a tilde design and than say how much time passed, than keep on going with the next scene. 

It looks like this:

>The MC finishes doing things in this last sentence of the paragraph.

>~o0o~

>Three days later...

>The first paragraph of the next scene continues the story.

>>>Editing tips in general

Before I send my final draft to be edited by others, I edit it first in LibreOffice with it's spell checker/grammar checker. I like to use LibreOffice for the final formatting of my drafts as well, because it has so much editability in the settings, with regards to page margins, paragraph indents, page numbers, spacing, fonts, etc. But the spell checker and grammar editor that comes with it, is one of the best out there. It'll get most of your typos, misspellings, and punctuation issues. It's free. https://www.libreoffice.org/

Than I run it through Hemmingway App. But I ignore most of it's advice (adverbs, adjectives, and passive voice - I don't edit for those, because the series I write is a very slow paced, laid back, hippie vibe, with an MC who is usually mellowed out of opium, LSD, hashish, and absinthe, and he's the PoV narrating character, so both his dialogue and the bulk of the narrative is deliberately written in passive voice with a lot of added adverb wordiness to slow the reader down to the MCs same chill pace, thus, I don't edit to remove adverbs, adjectives, or passive voice, and simply ignore those sections in the Hemmingway App.) 

However, I do frequently have issues where I write very long run-on and compound sentence that average 70 to 120 words per sentence, and the Hemingway App has 2 editing features, one called "hard to read sentences" (the yellow highlights) and the other called "very hard to read sentences" (red highlights), and because it highlights these sentences in bright yellow or red, I'm able to quickly find them and edit them.  

So, for me, personally, the Hemmingway App is the best editing software for fixing the hard to read sentence issue. If that is a thing you struggle with, I highly recommend it.

Also, if you actually wanted to remove adverbs and change passive voice to active voice, (most authors do want to remove/change them) it highlights those in bright blue, purple, and green, making it super easy to find and fix those issues.

While it doesn't fix things like spelling, typos, and the bulk of grammar issues, and it doesn't tell you how to fix the issues it highlights, it's great for simply highlighting common flaws that trip up flow and affect readability.

It's free as well. https://hemingwayapp.com/

Next I run it through Grammar Coach by Dictionary dot com.

This one is not that great and it frequently has HUGE grammar errors in it, so definitely don't rely on it 100% because often the suggestions it gives you are outright bad grammar. 

However, I have trouble with commonly repeating simple words, due to American English not being my native language. And this program has a great "Thesaurus swap" feature. It's the best Thesaurus feature of any editing app out there. 

This app bugs out and crashes at around 2,000 words, so I can't run the whole novel at once and just put 2 pages at a time in.

This one has a paid subscription version, but I've never used it, so I'm not sure wat it does different from the free version. I've only ever used the free version. It has so many hugely bad grammar errors in it, that I didn't feel it was worth paying to upgrade it. https://www.thesaurus.com/grammarcoach

Next I run it through ProWritingAid. This can take 2 or 3 months to do, as I run 4 pages at a time through it and it has 20+ different sections to run it through, and I run it through each one.

As with HemingwayApp I don't change everything it recommends I change, because again, for this particular series I write, I WANT the passive voice and excessive adverbs and vague verbs, as a style choice due to the very mellowed out hippy-like elf who is the MC. 

Also, because the MC is a very sensory driven, emotional person who likes to get flowery in his monologuing, I like to use the sensory checker, alliteration checker, overused words checker, repetition checker, and  transition checker, to look for things these sections highlight and than ADD MORE of them instead of removing/changing them. I have a goal of 10 of each type of sensory word every 500 words (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste) and so I use this checker to find where my sensory words are, and than add lots more in the places where none show up. 

I check all of the MC's spoken dialogue and internal monologue for alliteration and repetition, and make sure to add both to every sentence he says that doesn't have them.

I used the free version for several years. But I eventually upgraded to the paid version because the free version only lets you edit 500 words to a time and I write epic length Fantasy that averages 115k to 175k words per volume and it got tedious editing them 500 words to a time. But otherwise there is very little difference between the free and paid versions. https://prowritingaid.com/

Next I run it through Article Spinner.  It has different settings:  1) HUMAN  2) AI ROBOT  3) REMOVE PLAGIARISM  4) FIX GRAMMAR  5) FIX SENTENCE STRUCTURE 6) AI Paraphraser Pastel 7) AI Paraphraser Vibrant 8) AI Paraphraser Extreme 9) Text Summarizer

Now, a warning about this program: it is NOT an editing program and is one of the shadiest software programs ever invented. What it was created to do was: you steal an article off a blog, paste it into this program, run it through each of the 5 settings, and it spits out a "original article" that is the exact same article reworded. Yep - it's the infamous plagiarism program that is used by all those shady blogs that steal content from other bloggers and spins those articles, that come out reading horrific.

For example:

>I'm going to type a sample block of text for you to read, so that you can see what happens when you take this segment of words and put them into the article spinner. It gives you things that you would never have expected to see. Some times it rewords it to sound better than how you originally wrote it and other times it spits out the most utterly ridiculous bull crap you ever saw. 

>Especially when you are writing fantasy genres and talking about things like elves and wizards and dragons and gnomes. You will see what I mean when you see what it decides to do with this text here right now. It likes to change things like animals and birds to other words. So chickens cross the road to get to the other side and find out that the egg got there first, causing wishes to become horses. Yeah. Watch what that turns into. 

>Now I'll give the article spinner a section from one of my novels. This scene comes from the novel titled BoomFuzzy, from volume three of The Adventures of Quaraun the Insane.

>But this is why I run my novels through it. You see, when it rewrites the sentences and paragraphs, often the mistakes it adds are so outrageous that it allows me to see where my own errors were in my writing. Spinning my novel drafts through this shady program, has caused me to see flaws in my writing that I never would have noticed otherwise. Because of this, I find the article spinner program to be invaluable for the rewriting part of editing my novels.

So... yeah... did you see what it did? It took my sample of 3 paragraphs explaining what it does, and spit them out reworded 9 different ways. Like I said, it allows you to see your manuscript in a different light and inadvertently causes you to see things that need fixing, that you simply never would have seen in a standard spell checker or grammar editor program. I love article spinner for this, because it has made me so much better at finding my own flaws in my drafts.

Watch out though, this one is on an ad heavy website. There are 7 ads on the screen at any given time. It's really annoying.  I use Chrome browser settings to open Chrome Task Manager and have it close the ads via closing the "sub frames". If you don't use Chrome browser, you'll definitely want to have some sort of ad block program before opening this website. https://aiarticlespinner.co/

I follow this process for each rewrite of the manuscript as well. Usually I have 5 to 7 drafts per novel, and so I end up running the manuscript through each of those apps/programs 5 to 7 times before I send the draft out to human editors and beta readers.

>>>Why do most beta readers never respond back?

>>>I get it that reading can be time consuming, but it seems like most people who volunteer for beta reading never respond back. Not even when you're only sending them a few sample chapters rather than the whole thing.

>>>One possibility that comes to mind is that some did not like what they saw, but weren't willing to share negative feedback. Yet I've had others give me possitive feedback, so I don't think my work is terrible enough for that to be a likely possibility. Or at least not the main reason.

>>>Is it merely normal that most people who offer to beta read don't respond back?

I think the issue here may be that you sent it to people CLAIMING they were beta readers but they were not ACTUALLY beta readers?

If they were ACTUAL Beta Readers, than you can (and should) report them to the Better Business Bureau (you can file a complaint here: https://www.bbb.org )  and file a lawsuit to get your money back. Considering Beta Readers are one of the biggest amounts of money you will spend on writing your novel, you will find yourself quickly in heaps of debt if you run into this issue too frequently.

Do know that there is a DRAMATIC difference between an ACTUAL beta reader (the career) and random forum users you meet online who CALL themselves beta readers without knowing what the term means or that it's an actual professional career.

A REAL beta reader is going to charge on average $50 an hr and most authors plan on budgeting $2,000 to hire 4 beta readers. Figuring that it takes about 10 hours to read the book and write the report up, and most pro-beta readers charge $50 an hr = you can expect to pay roughly $500 per beta reader and generally speaking having 4 beta readers is best, thus the standard industry practice is to plan on spending $2,000 per novel to have it beta read. 

>>>Is it merely normal that most people who offer to beta read don't respond back?

Beta Readers DO NOT offer to Beta Read.

Again, there is a DRAMATIC difference between an ACTUAL beta reader (the career) and random forum users you meet online who CALL themselves beta readers without knowing what the term means or that it's an actual professional career.

A real Beta Reader will have a website and an application form for you to fill out. They will want to see your resume and portfolio. Usually you will need to submit (via actual post office mail, not email) 2 to 4 of your previously published books (ACTUAL books aka paperbacks or hardcovers, NOT eBooks) for them to read your work to decide if you write the type of novels and short stories they work with.

Beta readers NEVER read chapters, drafts sent by email, or stacks of paper printed up. You MUST have the book already in the pre-publication typeset stage, aka ALREADY PRINTED UP IN PAPERBACK FORMAT, aka the PROOF copy, which the publisher will send you a year or so before publication if trade pubbing or you can have printed up from a local copy shop in your town if self-pubbing.

While reading your proof copy, they will write with red China-ink pencil right in the books itself. (proof copies have wide untrimmed margins and are about one inch larger on all sides than the finished paperback that goes to press. They will write in your book USING ACTUAL EDITOR'S MARKS and SHORTHAND, so make sure you know how to read both (yes, BEFORE you hire a beta reader you ARE going to have to learn not 1, but 2 new languages), because if you don't know how to read them, what you get back is going to look like utter gibberish that a 2 year old scrawled across the pages.

Additionally they will type up a report. Yes, an actual book report, like what you wrote in high school. The full 10 page classic book report with a 3 page character breakdown a 3 page story break down and a final page opinion sum up. Beta Reading IS the job you are training for with every book report your high school teacher made you write.

They will schedule a SINGLE DAY of the week to devote to your book, and read it in a 9 to 5 office setting, write editors marks and short hand notes all over the book as they read, they WILL being editing grammar errors, spelling errors, typos, making notes of plot holes and issues with characters. The average beta reader can read a full 100k word novel in about 5 hours. They usually plan a 10 hour time slot spaced over 2 days. 5 hours to read on day 1, 5 hours 1 re-read and write the report on day 2. If they go over 10 hours, you'll be charged for those hours, so your $50 an hour fee, could go over $500. Make sure you plan for that. Overnight shipping is often included, so, you WILL receive your proof copy and the 10 page report back within 48 hours of their reading it.

Know that Beta Readers are trained editors who are usually also in-house copy editors and/or line editors of big house publishers (the big, big, big publishing houses - think the Random Penguin Houses type), they often have Master's Degrees in journalism and/or teaching high school English, and they can spot a grammar error from a mile away.

Keep in mind that people who will tell you online that Beta Readers don't edit your work or say that Beta Readers are volunteers doing work for free, DO NOT KNOW what a Beta Reader is.

Friends, family, and random strangers from the internet reading your work, ARE NOT Beta Readers. They are "peer critics" offering feedback on what they read. They are no different from average people writing Amazon book reviews, and likely know nothing about editing, grammar, plot flow, building characters, or story structure, and will only give you a look at what you can expect to see general public write in reviews, but will NOT help you to actually improve your work and get it ready for publication the way a Beta Reader will.

These people are NOT going to refuse to reply. You paid them $500 or more to make your draft bleed red and they are going to eviscerate your work with brutal abandon. 

Beta Readers are NOT going to refuse to reply because they are scared of giving bad feedback or because they couldn't find anything good to say. **No Beta Reader worth his salt is EVER going to give you positive feedback.** Authors seeking positive feedback really don't want to seek out Beta Readers. Positive feedback is not their job. It is NOT their job to enjoy the read. They will still read it even if they hate it, find it boring, or even if your grammar is so bad it's nearly illiterate. They WILL read to the end, because it's what you paid them to do.

**The feedback from a Beta Reader WILL ALWAYS BE negative - because looking for flaws in your work is their job.** You DID pay them to LOOK for flaws and tell you where they are, so they WILL rip your baby apart and tell you EVERYTHING that is wrong with it. It is NOT a Beta Reader's job to pat you on the back and tell you your story is great. It is their job to look for every error they can find and highlight it in bright red ink, in order to help you rewrite your work to the best it can be BEFORE you send it out to an editor to be edited. A beta reader is not your yes man. They will NOT tell you it's good. They will NOT sing your praises. They WILL be merciless and brutal with the negative feedback, because it's what you paid them to do.

>>>Is it merely normal that most people who offer to beta read don't respond back?

Perhaps, it would help, if before you send them your work, you ask them what THEY think a Beta Reader is and does, that would help weed out the people who just want a free book or just want to pat you on the back and be your yes man?

If someone offered to read your work and tell you what they think, they are NOT a Beta Reader. They are someone who has no clue what the career of being a beta reader is, probably didn't even know Beta Reading was a career, and was just looking to bum a free book off an unsuspecting author. They have no intention of telling you how the book was or helping you make it the best it ca be, because they just wanted to get a free book and once you sent the your draft, they got that and have no more need for you. And unfortunately, they exist in droves on the internet, scurrying around looking for the next author they can scam a book out of. 

Now, that's not to say everyone you meet online is going to be like that.

Are there good free/volunteer beta readers out there? Sure there are. There are plenty of people online who really do want to help authors out and are willing to Beta Read for free or very cheap. Some of them are really good at it too. The problem is sifting through the chaff to find them, because online free Beta Readers is a place where the bad far out number the good. So when you do find a good one, keep contact with them, and remember to have them on hand for your next book.

I have personally found that just paying a pro-level beta reader is overall better than sifting through the internet looking for the 1 or 2 gems in the rough. Why? Time sink. It takes way too much of my time to scourer the internet searching for a few good beta readers lost in a shuffle of so many bad beta readers. Why waste my time searching for free or cheap beta readers, when I could just pay a pro-reader and get back to writing.

And yes, I understand money is an issue. The big dogs are expensive. But, a few years ago, I found a great alternative, that worked well for me. A local community college, which has a better than average English degree program, and has several rather famous authors on staff, has a very high rate of students who want to get a writing degree because they want to be the next Stephen King. So, they are also more than willing to beta read for extra credit in the honours program of the school. So, they get to read my work before it gets published, they write up reports of it as homework assignments, and a week later after they get it back from the teacher, they send it to me. Takes longer, because it has to be graded by the teacher before they can hand it over to me, but, I get my work beta read for free and they get extra credit towards their degree.

I highly recommend that if you have a community college in your area, that you head to the English department, ask to talk with a few teachers/professors/adjunct authors and see if they are willing to set up a program from students to earn extra/honours/vocational credit towards their degrees by beta reading. Though, you might want to already have a few books published and be a local author willing to come into class and talk to the students as a "special guest" 1 class per semester. The school might not want to do it if you are new/unpublished yet.

>>>I heard from a published author that publishers prefer books on the shorter side during the pandemic, due to the cost of printing and mainly due to limited resources. Is this the case?

No. 

Not for Big House press it isn't. 

• * Tor still asks for 120k minimum up to 200k, 

• * Baen still asks for 180k minimum up to 230k, 

• * Zebra still asks for 135k minimum up to 300k.

All 3 of them say if you send anything under 100k they are going to toss it in the paper shredder unread, because 120k is barest minimum and bordering on too short.

I just checked their websites, and those are the numbers they got listed right now July 13, 2021.

Just go to the publisher websites and read their submission guidelines. 2021 is actually seeing requests for LONGER works, not shorter.

In fact, near as I can tell the ONLY publishers going smaller word counts are the Indie Press publishers.

I don't know why so many writers are running around saying publishers want less words, because, no big house publisher is saying they want shorter, that for sure. All you have to do is look at the publisher guidelines posted right on their own websites to find out they are NOT asking for shorter works.

>>>My question to the group is whether or not there is better advise for writers who find themselves with a 150k+ draft?

Yeah there is. It's called, look at some REAL books. Most trade books ARE +150k words. Only in the world of self-pubbed Kindle ebooks do you see skinny books with no meat on the pages.

Just because everyone SAYS big house pubs want under 90k, doesn't mean they ACTUALLY want that. Look at the submission guidelines of big house publishers. You'll see many of them outright say don't send them anything under 120k and stick closer to 180k. Yeah. 30k MORE than 150k.

My question to the people telling them to cut it in half would be: **Why the hell are they all so clueless as to how long MOST trade published books ACTUALLY are?**

Look at the word counts of trade pubbed Fantasy: Sword of Shanara, Lord of the Rings, Mists of Avalon, Dragon Riders of Pern, Lord Valentine, Harry Potter, Wheel of Time, Legend of Drizzt, The Witcher, most of those books have 10+ volumes in the series and each volume is 150k to 230k EACH volume. Most of those series is a single story that spans 2 million to 8 million or more words, divided across 10+ books of +150k.

You can tell, the commenters who are neither writers nor readers of the Epic Fantasy genre when they say 150K draft is too long. No. It's NOT. 150k is bordering on too short in the Epic Fantasy genre. Most people saying they wrote 150k draft, usually they say it's the Epic Fantasy genre, so they ARE in the expected word count that publishing houses are looking for.

I'm sorry, but, commenters telling someone to cut a 150k Epic Fantasy draft in half, REALLY don't know the genre at all.

Sure a lot of genres want smaller word counts. That's true. Westerns, Medical Drama, most Horror, most none-Paranormal YA/NA, those genres do want you to stay around 90k. If that is what the question asker wrote, well, editing is the answer.

I worked as an editor in chief for 16 years. I've seen a lot of manuscripts in my days. Most have the same issue: Long run on passive voice sentences, that could easily be cut down into 3 or 4 easier to read active voice sentences.

USUALLY most writers can remove 10k or more words, without changing the story at all, simply by doing this:

Use find replace to make the following changes:

• * change ", and" to "." then capitalize first word after "and"

• * change ", yet" to "." then capitalize first word after "yet"

• * change ", but" to "." then capitalize first word after "but"

• * change ", however" to "." then capitalize first word after "however"

• * look for 2-word or 3-word phrases that you can change into a better single word: for example: change "similar to" to "like", change "obediently obeyed" to "obeyed", change "prior to" to "before", change "after that" to "afterwards", change "being bullied" to "bullied", change "way bigger" to "bigger", etc - note that these phrases often contain "to", "that", "was", "be", "being", "were", and "-ly", so search for those and you'll find a lot you can change to one better word.

• * remove ALL of the following words: very, rather, instead, supposedly, suddenly, actually, literally, nearly, simply, just, utterly, elaborately, starkly, that, really, fully, barely, hardly, hardly ever, permanently, indefinably, exotically, etc.

• * remove "And/But/Yet/However" from the start of every sentence then capitalize first word after "And/But/Yet/However"

THOSE are the types of changes editors want when they say something like: "good story, great characters, I like it; tighten up your text and resubmit it".

Those things listed above, THAT is what "tightening your text" means. It doesn't mean cut out scenes, it means, reword those scenes to fewer words, to make them read better.

Yeah. For most writers, that is all you have to do to remove 10kor more words from your novel, without making one single change to the story.

To every body reading this right now, go to your current draft, and try that right now. You'll be amazed, both in how many words you remove AND in how much easier it'll be to read your story, without changing or removing a single scene, sentence, or chapter.

In my experience, being an editor for Horror/Fantasy/Sci-Fi for 16 years, most writers use more words than they need to. They often can say things better with fewer words.

For example:

This:

>>>MC made it back to his village without further incident, but when he arrived, his father was less then happy to see his son dressed in a dress and looking like a daughter instead of a son and immediately began arguing with him, and thus MC never got a chance to mention his encounter with the primary villain or inform the village that the villain's army was travelling only two days outside from the village.

75 words and difficult to read.

Can be edited down to this:

>>>MC arrived at his village without further incident. His father was unhappy to see his son dressed in a dress, looking like a daughter instead of a son. They began arguing. Because of this, MC never mentioned his encounter with the primary villain. Nor informed him, the villain's army was two days outside from the village.

56 words and easier to read.

...without changing the scene or the story, at all.

It really does boil down to: if you know good grammar skills, you'll write better stories with fewer words and be understood better too.

So, yeah, just buy a few high school Grammar & Composition textbooks and spend a few months reading every word and doing all the exercises. It'll do wonders to tighten up the over wordiness issue that many authors suffer from.

And remember, in most standard paperbacks, 150k words is ONLY 300 pages!

A 500+page book is also a +200k word story, and when you start looking around at the new releases in the Fantasy, Historical Romance, the 50 Shade Knock Off genre, Paranormal Romance, War Story genre, Women's Lit genre, and most YA novels, you'll also notice that NONE of them is self published because big box brick and mortar book stores don't shelve self-publishers that's why you don't see self-pubbed books in the real world of actual trade market paperbacks, and you'll also notice a good 80%+ of those books in the above listed genres have page counts of 400+ pages, meaning not one of them has FEWER than 150k words, and most have upwards of 180k words.

You can tell a person who only reads self-pubbed kindle e-editions and never saw a mass-market paperback  in an actual bookstore, by what they think the average word count of books is.

Heck, all you have to do is grab yourself a copy of The writer's Market and start reading what trade publishers WANT to see 150k to 180k is the average requested manuscript size more than 90% of big house publishers ask for.

Many Stephen King books are +300k words.

EACH volume of Harry Potter and also the Witcher is between 180k to 230k words

In the past 50 years I've published more than 300 novels, 138 of them for a single series, and the shortest novel I ever wrote was 115k, with most of them being 150k to 180k and often considered TOO SHORT by most the big Random Penguin House type publishers.

Zebra won't even look at anything under 180k for their Historical Romance line (aka The Fabio Bodice Rippers) and prefers +200k

The difference between Fantasy and Epic Fantasy is the LENGTH of the novel, NOT the topic. Fantasy is any Fantasy novel UNDER 150k while EPIC Fantasy is anything OVER 150k and most big house publishers of Epic Fantasy REQUEST +180k

Want to read 80k light novels or long novellas? Get yourself a Harlequin subscription. Everyone of their slim little itty bitty short 100 page reads is EXACTLY 82k words. Also the Cozies (Think those little itty bitty skinny, not thick enough to be a novel, Agatha Christie type Murder Mysteries) are in the 80k range.

You want to read a 50k word book? Head to the middle grade chapter books, Read Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Choose Your Own Adventures or Bobbsey Twins.

Want 20k word book: go to the grade 2 to 4 early/easy reader section. Grab yourself some GooseBumps and Bailey School Kids.

There's some word count perspective for you.

A LOT of the people on Reddit's many writing subreddits give really bad advice, that does more harm to new/young writers, largely because a good +80% of the commenters are NOT published authors, have no intention of being published authors, and don't know heads or tails of how the actual publishing industry works.

Unless that advice is coming for a TOR in-house editor, reading your draft and wants to publish it, the advice to cut a 150k draft in half is REALLY bad advice. And in most cases, it's writing advice from people who don't have writing careers and don't have any real concept of how novel writing works.

Now, that's not to say they don't mean well. I think in most cases, they don't know what to say, they want to help the question asker, and they've seen so many others saying "cut the book in half and publish it as 2/3 volumes" that they assume it MUST be good advice if so many others said it, so they just parrot that advice without really knowing how improbable that advice really is.

When all is said and done, I think the writer who is looking to Reddit or any other online place for advice only a publisher should be giving them, probably doesn't know how the publishing industry works and probably,, has bigger issues (like plot and character development) to worry about, than their word counts.

In the end, if the story is good, the plot flows well, the characters are engaging and well developed, most publishers will work with you to get the book published no matter how many words too long or too short the novel is. When it comes to trade publishing, story, plot, and characters are going to trump word counts every time.

Writers SHOULD be worrying about developing good characters and telling a great story, first and foremost. Word counts are far easier to fix than plot holes and flat characters are.

What Is This Site?

I'm an author. This is an author home page. It's about me, my life, my books, my hobbies, my home town, and anything else that applies to me and my life. 

Since starting my writing career in 1978, I have written 130+ novels, 2,000+ short stories, 6,000+ non-fiction articles (ALL are found on this site), a few dozen stage plays, 12,000+ blog posts, and a few comic book scripts for Disney's Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck (I only worked for Disney one year (in 2005) and only wrote a few stories for their Danish comic books).

NOTE: I ONLY write the Quaraun series (aka The Twighlight Manor series aka The Adventures of Quaraun the Insane). In recent years there has been an issue with impersonators trying to pass books off as written by me, notably several non-fiction and Erotica books. I write neither nonfiction nor Erotica.

ALL of my books and their cover arts are listed on my website here. Beware of any books you find claiming to be me. If the books are NOT listed here on my website, they are NOT my books.

In fiction works, I specialize in Weird/Bizarro Tales set in 40th century CyberPunk-Quasi Medieval, Cozy Dark Fantasy and Science Fiction worlds featuring an intersex Elf and his Faerie husband main characters.  I DO NOT WRITE ANY OTHER SERIES - THIS SERIES IS THE ONLY ONE I WRITE.

Non-fiction (found ONLY here on my site) is daily updates of events in my life, and how-tos on how I write my novels.

I DO NOT write Erotica.

I DO NOT write books with HUMAN characters.

The Erotica books and books with Human characters, that you are finding, are written by scammers trying to impersonate me.

There is an ongoing FBI investigation into this matter. If you find any such books, please report them to FBI Agengt Andy Drewer @207–774–9322

The FBI believes the people behind the impersonation accounts showing up, are relatives of the woman who murdered my son.

 | Index |

How did you build your audience?
Not online, that's for sure.
aka How to sell ten million books
aka How I sold ten million books.

The Park Bench Method of Writing

(just the article)

or

The Park Bench Method of Writing

(with the list of 10k writing prompts - takes a LONG TIME to load - SEVERAL MINUTES!)

Why I am not proud of Disability Pride Month.
In fact, I think it’s deplorable and downright offensive.

Crazy Woman Just Attacked - No Clue Why or Who She Is

(August 14, 2025)

Thank you for stopping by and have a nice day! ꧁✨🌸🔮🦄🔮🌸✨꧂ And if it’s your birthday today: ִֶָ𓂃 ࣪˖ ִֶָ🐇་༘࿐꧁ᴴᵃᵖᵖʸ☆ᵇⁱʳᵗʰᵈᵃʸ꧂🤍🎀🧸🌷🍭 Wendy Christine Allen 🌸💖🦄 aka EelKat 🧿💛🔮👻

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The Park Bench Method of Writing 30 Cozy Fantasy Writing Prompts - June 2025 - 30 Day Edition 30 Cozy Fantasy Writing Prompts, Queer Throuples/Polycules Slice of Life Edition 30 "TRUE COZY" Cozy Fantasy Writing Prompts 🫖 30 More Cozy Fantasy Writing Prompts - June 2025 What's New (Newly Published or Recently Updated or Edited) 146 Portland Ave Old Orchard Beach Maine is Not For Sale - Call FBI Sep 02, 25 10:55 AM 146 Portland Ave Old Orchard Beach Maine is Not For Sale - Call FBI Murder Tipline to report it if anyone tells you it is Read More GhoulSpawn's Toasted Marshmallow Magic Aug 30, 25 10:38 AM Domestic Lives of Dangerous Faeries - LGBTQAI+ Queer MPreg Cozy Fantasy Fiction w a F2M Elf Wizard, a Gay Faerie Chef, & a BiSexual Demon, Free To Read Online Read More GhoulSpawn's Toasted Marshmallow Magic Aug 30, 25 10:00 AM GhoulSpawn's Toasted Marshmallow Magic Read More The Pink Necromancer’s Dawn, Kits, The Lich King’s on the Blue Monkey Aug 29, 25 09:52 PM The Pink Necromancer’s Dawn, Kits Kicking, and The Lich King’s Breath on the Blue Monkey Read More Index of Pink Necromancer Fiction on Space Dock 13 (EelKat.com) Aug 27, 25 05:11 PM Index of Pink Necromancer Fiction on Space Dock 13 (EelKat.com) Read More A Mysterious Door Aug 24, 25 04:42 AM 🌸{A Pink Necromancer Triple Drabble} 🦄🌸 Read More Clam Digging in the Rain Aug 23, 25 05:02 PM ☁️⋅♡˚‧｡🦄🌸🧿 {A Pink Necromancer Triple Drabble} 🌸💖🦄 🎀𓍢🌷ִֶָ͙֒𓂃 ࣪˖ ִֶָ🐇་༘࿐🌸˗⋆.˚⋆𓍢☁️⋅♡˚‧｡ Read More Trigger Warnings: To Trigger or not to Trigger, that is the question Aug 23, 25 10:27 AM Do we really NEED to use Trigger Warnings for trans characters and Black characters so white readers don’t accidentally contaminate themselves? Read More Acid Slugs Aug 23, 25 08:00 AM Part 1: Monsters & Mayhem: The Story of How Black Tower Became Pink Read More The Washer Woman & The Fae Aug 22, 25 01:11 PM A Pink Necromancer Short Story Read More Code Ghosts, A Pink Necromancer Fiction Short Aug 22, 25 12:53 PM LGBTQAI+ FICTION | The Adventures of Quaraun The Insane | TransMan MC Read More The Lurking Fog, A Pink Necromancer Fiction Short Aug 22, 25 10:55 AM LGBTQAI+ FICTION | The Adventures of Quaraun The Insane | TransMan MC Read More Melt, Ya Safe With Me Aug 20, 25 08:35 PM Melt, Ya Safe With Me, A Pink Necromancer Fiction Short; LGBTQAI+ FICTION | The Adventures of Quaraun The Insane | TransMan MC | Read More Crazy Woman Just Attacked- No Clue Why or Who She Is (August 14, 2025) Aug 17, 25 10:32 AM Crazy Woman Just Attacked - No Clue Why or Who She Is (August 14, 2025) Read More The Rapture Is Coming, and Nephilim Are Returning In September 2025? Aug 09, 25 09:32 AM The Rapture Is Coming and Nephilim Are Returning In September 2025? Read More 146 Portland Avenue Old Orchard Beach, Maine, 04064-1520 Aug 08, 25 09:45 AM 146 Portland Avenue Old Orchard Beach, Maine, 04064-1520 Read More The Moon and The Mirror Aug 08, 25 03:31 AM The Moon and The Mirror, A Pink Necromancer Fiction Short Read More Judgement An Ode To The Lunatics Preaching The Rapture of September'25 Aug 05, 25 10:27 PM Judgement (An Ode To The Lunatics Preaching "The Rapture of September 2025"), A Pink Necromancer Fiction Short Read More How did you build your audience? Aug 04, 25 11:27 PM How did you build your audience? Not online, that's for sure. aka How I sold ten million books. Read More EelKat Wendy C Allen: Old Orchard Beach's Author & Art Car Designer Aug 04, 25 08:33 AM Official Home Page Of EelKat Wendy C Allen: Old Orchard Beach's Autistic Author, Artist, & Art Car Designer Read More Where are the writers who love writing? Jul 31, 25 12:34 PM A rant about writers who hate writing, and can't stop writing about how much they hate writing. If you HATE writing so much, why writie about hating writing? Read More Heirloom Tomatoes Jul 31, 25 04:03 AM Heirloom Tomatoes 🌸{A Pink Necromancer Poem, featuring The Dangerous Vegetables} Read More Chaos in The Lighthouse - Shattered Panes, Shattered Minds Jul 30, 25 09:06 PM Chaos in The Lighthouse - Shattered Panes, Shattered Minds, a Kishōtenketsu {A Pink Necromancer Kishōtenketsu} — {NaNoWriMo 2024: Day 26} Read More Dreams of Purple Pearls Jul 30, 25 07:45 PM Dreams of Purple Pearls 🌸{A Pink Necromancer 7 Part Drabble Serial, featuring Etiole} 🦄🌸 Read More Why the Sea is Salt Jul 30, 25 04:12 PM Why the Sea is Salt 🌸{A Pink Necromancer Kishōtenketsu} 🦄🌸 Read More The Golden Mask Jul 30, 25 01:08 AM The Golden Mask 🌸🦄🌸 {A Pink Necromancer Poem; featuring Quaraun as SunTa, King of the Sun aka The Grand High Emperor of The Triple Planets and his Twighlight Manor} 🌸🦄🌸 Read More GhoulSpawn Said The Moon Don’t Laugh Jul 29, 25 01:46 AM GhoulSpawn Said The Moon Don’t Laugh Read More The Park Bench Method of Writing Receiving death threats over a septic tank and a little brown log cabin, but I own neither a septic tank nor a little brown log cabin... what even are these thugs talking about? I am a mute/none verbal wheelchair user and I just had an encounter over my wheelchair, but being mute had no way to defend myself. Crazy Woman Just Attacked - No Clue Why or Who She Is (August 14, 2025) Articles For Writers on How To Write & Publish A Rapid Release  Series MAKE VILLAINS EVIL AGAIN: A WRITER’S BATTLE CRY TO RECLAIM THE DARK SIDE and Need Help Defeating Overpowered Fantasy Wizards? + Wizards and More Wizards and Even More Wizards and Still More wizards Plus Elves and Very High, High Elves  VS Unicorns and Phookas and Demons and also What exactly makes an Elf an Elf? (What is the definition of an Elf?) but Noses, Penis Piercings, And Rapunzel Hair Have you ever considered: How Things In Your Life Affect Your Writing or Currency In Worldbuilding and The Dangers of World Travel or  Dragging a Body Through The Snow and Talking While Falling Asleep or I have everything but the kitchen sink... wait, how'd that kitchen sink get in my pocket? Writing Absurdist Fantasy Books but How long does it take to reach 1667 words? and 50k in one day - is it possible? plus What is the average typing speed? also Validation Is a Cult and Open Strong, Stay Loud and  Where are the writers who love writing? and Where To Get Writing Ideas? and Writing What You Know Might Not Be What You Think It Is and Why I do not attend writing groups...are they all like this or just the ones in Maine? but also Don't Forget To Just Write  because Yes, You Can! Plus The Park Bench Method of Writing (with 10k writing prompt list) or The Park Bench Method of Writing (just the article) plus: How did you build your audience? Not online, that's for sure. aka How to sell ten million books aka How I sold ten million books. Need Writing Prompts? For Anyone Looking for: The "haunted car" people call The GoldenEagle & my response to Stephen King's illegally filming my family and farm in his movies? My response to MUFON's Amphibious Aliens? My response to Coast to Coast AMs Arrival in my yard?

The Park Bench Method of Writing Not sure what the series is about?  Check out  The Quaraun Series Prologue and Faeries vs Elves (In The Quaraun Series) A Pink Necromancer World Lore Post and How well do I know Quaraun? - Let's find out! to find out more about the plot and lore of the series. Or try reading some of the free to read online stories first before committing to buying the books: Absinthe Slushies: An Ode to Frozen Green Fairy Wine Abyssal Addlepated: Stupid and Confused All the roads are gone Alone Ancient Coin Hoard Unearthed Angry Ocean Waves at Sunset The Arrival The Art of Destroying a Human Village for Fun and Profit At the High Priest's Altar Back At The Tavern and Still No Shrimp The Bandits and the Pink Necromancer The Banshee Sisters: Bean-Nighe and Ben-Neeyah In the Swamp of Death The Beacon Room at the Top of the Black Tower Lighthouse The Beauty of a Silk Moth Hatching The Beginning of the End Bellicose: Warlike! Aggressive! Hostile! Beneath a crimson sky, the silk weaver wove pink silk. Beneath Malevolent Stars The Black Sock, Again Blizzard The Boat Fiasco Bone Dice The Book Burning Maggots, a You Can't Spell Hatred Without Red Hats BoomFuzzy's Chowder Dilemma BoomFuzzy's Gingerbread House from Hell The Brownies & The Witch, or Why Faeries Don't Wear Socks The Bumbling Pursuit of The Pink Necromancer Candied Nightmares The Candle Con in Ember Hollow The Candy Corn Unicorn Captured By The Lich Lord The Cast Iron Frying Pan Cattail Pollen Spaghetti with Wild "Oregano" The Cellar's Forgotten Treasure Chaos in The Lighthouse - Shattered Panes, Shattered Minds, a Kishōtenketsu A Chilly Light Drizzle Becomes Snowfall on the Shore Chocolate Bliss Chocolate in the Neon Shadows Christmas in 40th Century Dystopia Christmas With The Krampus Family The City of Death Clam Digging in the Rain The Cliff-Side Temple The Clock Ticks Away Clotheslines, Games, and the Village Code Ghosts Comet Fall Snow Day Blitz Conundrum in the Bazaar Corsets, Elves, and Undead Faeries Crabapples in the Rain Cranberry Muffins The Crooked Dice The Crows Are Restless Crullers and Curses at Midnight The Curse of the Liquid Gold The Cursed Mirror Dangerous Tides Dark Damp Basement A Dark and Stormy Night A Day At Witch Pond & Fleeing To The Forest Deadly Shores of Noodle Beach The Demon Cultists and The Coming of The Darkness The Demonic Music Box Desolate Nostalgia on a Frozen Shoreline The Diamond Forest in the Bio Dome The Disbelief of Humans Discovering A Floating Castle Dismal Day at the Street Market The Doors' Dark Secret - A Wedding In A Zombie Apocalypse Dreams of Purple Pearls The Drunk Moon Elf Echoes of the Glass Forest Echoes of the Unseen An Eclipse in the Faerie Glen An Eclipse Looms Tonight An Eerie Discovery Eerie Symbols in the Snow The Egg That Was Not an Egg The Elf With Crippled Hands Ember Enable The Enchanted Map Encountering ghostly apparitions in the swamp Evil Eggplants Stalking Outside Evil McEvil of The Twirly Moustache Excited For The New Baby Existential Crisis Perspectives - 3 Perspectives on an Existential Crisis Exploring the Swamp's Forgotten River A Fall in the River A Field of Poppies On The Road To Witch Pond 15 Drabbles About Being Transgender The First Flicker of Dawn Fishing in the Rain Five Ways To Save Money in Las Vegas Fizzy and Frigid A Flapdoodle Wizard's Duel Fleeced for Fizz Fog & Peach Melba Toast After Last Night's Rain Footprints In The Sand Forest Kings and Their Antler Crowns The Fragrant Smoke of Flavoured Herbs Freshly Baked Sugar Cookies The Frilly Nest of Panic A Garden of Pink Chrysanthemums Get your hands off my dress! GhoulSpawn & The Cultists A Glass of Fresh Milk Gloom Blob of Doom: The Dreadful Dripping of the Doom Blob of Gloom Glumpish, Grumpy, Sullen, Gloomy The Golden Dragon Keys Golden Field, Pink Glories The Golden Mask The Graveyard That Ate the Living The Great UnSeelie Court Swindlers He Always Comes Back Heirloom Tomatoes Help! He's trying to feed me! The Herd Approaches Herons in the Dunes The Howl on Silent Moor How to Create a Literary Empire with Just Your Bum Poems How To Kill a Lich How to Hijack a Human Supply Train Without Getting Shot How to Overthrow an Entire Settlement Without So Much as Lifting a Finger I Need To Feel Safe If your ass ain’t freezing or your brains ain’t scrambled, you’re ain’t really trying Ignoramus — An Utterly Ignorant Crowd of Humans IkuTursu's Cursed Depths of the Swamp Where Pine Boughs Whisper Incandescent Shadows Over Driftwood Bay Inner Fortitude Insidious Love Invigorating Cool Air Iron Hooves and Burning Roads, Krampus on Wheels The Ivory Tower of Greed The Jar of Pickled Toes Jibber Jabber Ramblings by the Fire The Jolly Red Lich King Journey Through the Zombie-Infested Swamp on the Blue Monkey Judgement An Ode To The Lunatics Preaching The Rapture of September'25 Kelim and The Necromancer: Finding Finderu Kelim Meets Quaraun The Insane Kiss Me Fuckin' Arse - Just Another Day in the Ice-Laced Ruins of The GodForsaken City Lanterns Over the Faerie Glen Leaving Your Bed Messy Isn't Exactly the Apocalypse Lens and Light Maintenance The Leprechaun of The Deep North A Lich's Lament For a Mortal Lover Growing Old A Lich's Reflections On Escaping The Swamp of Death The Lich's True Form Revealed The Lighthouse’s Glass-Eyed Horror The Lighthouse That Leapt, Space Dock 13's First Jump Through Space The Long Road The Loot Tree Lord of the Hive Lost In The Forest of No Return-Trying To Find Directions The Lost Library and The Snowglobe The Lotus' Silent Prayer on the Sandy Shoreline Lover's Triangle The Lurking Fog Macaroni and Cheese: A Creamy Pasta Dish Drenched in Melted Cheese, Often Topped with Breadcrumbs- It's Never That Easy Make tea and go for a rainy forest walk A Map Worth More Than Gold Maple Cotton Candy Served as a Topping on Vanilla Ice Cream A Market Day Disaster Market Day Weekend - Three Days In The Life of The Pink Necromancer Marsh Serenity Reflection Mayonnaise Meeting Mallac Melt, Ya Safe With Me The MerMan's Wrath Milkweed Meadow Mint, Madness, and Motor Parts The Mischief of the Purple Unicorn Misplaced Utensils and the Cascade of Confusion Monsters & Mayhem: How Black Tower Became Pink (8+ Parts) The Moon and The Drowned The Moon Goddess Laughs From The Rooftops The Moon That Hungers The Moon and The Mirror Morning Sickness at The Shattered Stein (TW: MPreg Yaoi) A Mysterious Door Necromancer of the Parched Sands in the Desert of Diona Necromancy-A Day in the Life of a Bumbling Necromancer-Again Nightmare Nook No Goldfish, Today? No Place for Birth The Noodle of Power Not Little Red Riding Hood Obsessive Love-Dangerous Love An Ode to My Shattered Sanity One River In Three Perspectives Open Grave Paddlewheel Maintenance A Path of Twisted Trees A Peaceful Night on the Tundra The Peaceful Shores of Noodle Beach Phantom Tides The Phooka's Dragon School Pickling Perfection Pickles, Panic, & Permafrost The Picnic Pink Marabou Trimmed Rainbow Leg Warmers, a Purple Feathered Black Leather Codpiece, and an Emerald Green Overly Fluffy Scarf The Pink Necromancer's Deceitful Carpet Weave Pink Sheep, Cheesy Burritos, and The Grim Reality of Zombies Pliable Clay on the Potter's Wheel Pocket Lich Unleashed: Quaraun Murders Finderu Preparations for the Street Market of the GodForsaken City Psychotic Dead Things Quaraun's Beauty Makeovers Quaraun's Candle Business Quaraun's Irritable Day Quaraun and The Wandering Turtle City A Quiet Day on The Blue Monkey The Quiet Evening in the Pink Silk Tent A Quiet Evening In The Rain A Quiet Night on The River A Quiet Place To Sweep A Quiet, Relaxing Foot Rub The Rain-Drenched Alley Raining Cats & Dogs Readers vs Readers, What Really Makes a Reader, a Reader? The Red Hakama Remove! The Return of ZooLock The River Boat Man-Woman The Sacred Pink Secret (TW: Mpreg Yaoi) Safety and Emergency System Activated. Please Being Calm Santa's Floating Dead Body Santa's Letter To Satan The Screaming Contest The Seagull Sea Slugs and Clam Chowder Bread Bowls Secret Meeting Hidden Behind Closed Doors Shadows on the Clam Flats Shipyard at Dusk The Silence of the Unseen Silks in the Snow The Singing Crabgrass Crabs - A Green Fairy Wine Tale A Sinister-Looking Stone Well Six Days Earlier The Snake's Prophecy of Doom Upon The Fractured Moon A Solitary Black Sock Spinning Dreams in Silk Springtime by the River The Soul Eater Spacious Space Spooky Scary Skeletons - A Graveyard Waltz Stillness in the Garden's Chaos Stone Cakes for the Road Sticky Rice, Bare Fingers, and Slippery Chopsticks Survival Preppers Of The Zombie Apocalypse The Swamp of Death The Sweet and Sour of Lemons The Temple City of The Green Goddess, Where Every Street Has a Name The Terrifying Cliffs of Noodle Beach, featuring Etiole The Terror Bird That Afternoon When Quaraun Got Stuck In a Crab Trap That Big Bad Darkness in His Heart 3 Perspectives on an Apple Toobe's Well-Prompted Apocalypse (A ChatBot Plans Global Domination) The Trade Caravan A Tumble In The River The Vacuous Tavern Fool The Valuable Mystery of the Talking Saloon Door and How We Nearly Got Shot Over Stale Tacos Vendetta over Vittles A Very Important Clump of Grass Wagers and Wiles in the Godforsaken City Waiter, There's A Head In My Soup The Washer Woman & The Fae What I Wish I Knew Before Not Becoming an Astrophysicist When a Government Tries to Cover Its Crimes Why the Sea is Salt A Winter Wizard Wishing For Lobster Rolls-Never Make Wishes In The Presence of Wizards WORMS! Wrath of the Sacred Pink JellyFish You've Only Known Our World Through The Eyes of a Madman You Never Know What Info You Might Pick Up in the Afterlife You trust that nonsense over a map? Zombies Are Not the Worst Thing Here {TW: Love fucking wins} Zwodder: A Drowsy Stupid State of Mind Hmmm... soooo... I was making the above list to ALL the links to EVERY Quaraun story published on my website here, and adding it into the footer of my site, here as you can see, which loads on every page, and then I realized... wait... there are over two thousand Pink Necromancer stories up free to read on my website, I can't put two thousand links on every single page! Whoops! LOL! So, now I'm putting list to ALL the links to EVERY Quaraun story published on my website here on this page instead and just link that page to the footer instead. But also I'll just leave some of the links in the footer, as you can see above. FacebookXPinterestTumblrRedditWhatsApp ShareFacebookXPinterestTumblrRedditWhatsApp The Park Bench Method of Writing

1. EelKat Wendy C Allen: Old Orchard Beach's Autistic Author & Art Car Designer
2. A Self Published Writer - What Is a Self Published Writer? How Can You Become a Self Published Writer?
3. My Editing Process: How My Novels Go From Draft To Publication

The Park Bench Method of Writing

Some additional thoughts on the FBI Murder Investigation of 144 & 146 Portland Ave, Old Orchard Beach, Maine:

How many murders are caused by cancel culture, have you ever wondered?
I have — because my son murdered by cancel culture, so I wonder this a lot.

I have never been able to wrap my mind around cancel culture. It has baffled me ever since I first discovered it, when the “God hates fags” group showed up in my yard to start a bonfire on my lawn and burn my books (I’m an author, 138 novels published since 1978) and I later found out the group had spent weeks on social media planning the event and gathering followers, because one minister got it into his head I was gay (I’m not) and write gay erotica (I don’t), and used gay hatred and white power rants (I’m not white, it’s the only thing they did get right) rants on Twitter to incite canceling of my supposedly gay erotica books (that were neither gay nor erotic) and get a mob to show up in my yard.

A week later a bomb blew up my house, I had to rebuild, a week to finishing rebuilding a backhoe drove over my house, 2 months (November 14, 2013) later a crazed woman with a golf club showed up at my college class shattered my spine and bashed my 8 month infant sons head in while screaming “transvestite freak” and claiming I (a cis female) was a “man in a dress”.

Because of Twitter’s cancel culture I homeless, now 11 years, I am crippled paralyzed unable to walk, now 11 years, and my son is dead and the FBI investigation of his murder is still going on these 11 years later, and the killer still walks free and unidentified, and the primary reason for being unidentified is there are over 30k people online who spread these false accusations of gay erotica and transgender about me and the FBI has to investigate EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM, yes, ALL of them, yes, if you’ve ever posted hate about me online you ARE being investigated for your potential involvement in my son’s murder, and in 11 years, they’ve only made it a quarter of the way through that list, and not yet found golf club woman..

And the man who started it all, Peter something, is now the biggest YouTuber in Quebec and the biggest anti trans YouTuber on the planet, and has yet to be held responsible for starting the gay erotica and transvestite rumours about me on Twitter because, for some reason there are no laws that hold cancel cries accountable for the the death and destruction their hivemind followers do after being incited into a frenzy by the cancelers tweets.

Perhaps the issue is I am too old to understand the herd mentality of cancel culture, I grew up on a very isolated egg farm and I was 42 years old before cancel culture existed, or perhaps my not using social media causes me to not understand it.

But I wonder how many people out there are like me, lives destroyed by haters, who hate things about me, that aren’t even things I am or do, because they believe one cancelers lies on Twitter and never took the time to fact check before they reacted.

EVERYTHING We Are Allowed To Publicly Release About The FBI Investigation Can Be Found HERE

Do you know who this woman is?
If you have any information about the identity of this child murderer, please call FBI Agent Andy Drewer at 207–774–9322

On November 14, 2013, she used a golf club to bash out the brains of my 8-month-old baby Xavier-Octavian Allen. She called herself “Claire” as though she thought I knew her, but I know no one named Claire and had never seen her before. She was about 65 years old and would be around 75 years old today in 2025. The FBI believes the woman who murdered my son is the same woman who hired the backhoe to drive over my house on August 8, 2013, a few weeks before my son’s murder.

If you have any information about the identity of this child murderer, please call FBI Agent Andy Drewer at 207–774–9322

My house at 146 Portland Ave, Old Orchard Beach, Maine, on July 4, 2013 and on August 8, 2013 after vandals drove a backhoe over it. The backhoe is still running in this photo, I got home from work while they were doing it and the white haired man jumped out and ran away leaving the backhoe running, until it ran out of gas. It sat in my yard for 6 months until the police finally towed it away.

She is the same woman who severed my spine with the same golf club used to murder my baby. She had distinctive two-inch wide stripes in her hair all the way around her head, platinum blond and dark reddish brown, in a pageboy haircut.

If you have any information about the identity of this child murderer,please call FBI Agent Andy Drewer at 207–774–9322

Of the Portland, Maine FBI Office, 4th floor, Middle Street Portland.

FAQ: How Did the FBI get involved?

The FBI believes this woman who crippled me and murdered my baby on November 14, 2013, is connected to the backhoe that illegally drove over my house making me homeless on August 8, 2013.

Between June 2001 and continuing on into 2025, there have been over 200 violent attacks on 146 Portland Ave, Old orchard Beach, Maine, including the beheading of 75 pet roosters April 2007, whose headless bodies were hung in my rosebushes from rope nooses.

The FBI believes ALL of these events are being done in an attempt to drive me off my land. 

According to the FBI, in 2007, a developer went to the Old Orchard Beach Town Hall and filed an illegal building permit for a 27 unit condominium, on my land and CLAIMED to be the owner of my land. This land has been in my family since 1531, we are Native Americans of the Kickapoo tribe and there are more than 500 graves, most dating from the 1500s to 1600s on my land. 

This land has been in my family well over 500 years, and I inherited it from my grandmother Helen Ricker Allen in 1983.

The FBI believes, ALL of the slander/rumours that falsely accuse me of being transgender were ALSO started by this woman who murdered my son, in a further attempt to drive me from my land via working locals of Old Orchard Beach into a trans-hating frenzy.

If you are a real estate agent and ANY ONE contacts you interested in buying 146 Portland Ave, Old Orchard Beach, Maine, PLEASE report that "client" IMMEDIATLY to FBI Agent Andy Drewer, head of my son's murder investigation, and head of the investigation into the 200+ acts of vandalism and hate crimes which have occurred at 146 Portland Ave, Old Orchard Beach, Maine between 2001 to 2025.

If you have ANY information about ANY of the incidents, attacks, vandalisms, and hate crimes that took place between 2001 and 2025, on 146 Portland Ave, Old Orchard Beach, Maine, please give that information to FBI agent Andy Drewer as well.

My land is not for sale and ANY ONE offering to buy it is likely connected to this woman who murdered my son.

ANYONE interested in buying my land has a HIGH PROBABILITY of being hired BY MY SON'S MURDERER, and you MUST send their information to the FBI.

If you have any information about the identity of this child murderer, please call FBI Agent Andy Drewer at 207–774–9322

She shows up at my yard (both in Old Orchard and in Biddeford), at my college classes, at my workplace... always violent and smashing things, always yelling "transvestite freak" and similar hate slurs about transgender people (she seems to believe I am transgender even though I am I cis woman, and her hatred of transgender people seems to be her primary motive.).

At one point the man who was with her called her "Vallerie". But she herself talked of herself (in a bizarre, not how normal people talk "3rd person") Claire. She kept saying things like "I'm Claire, bitch!" and "I'm Claire you fucking transvestite freak!"

She really, really, really, really was going overboard in emphasizing that her name was Claire - to the point that I am led to believe that her name is NOT Claire, and that she was in fact pretending to be someone else, who's name was Claire.

The fact that the man with her (who was later discovered to be a Biddeford police officer - he was identified in February 2025 when he was killed in a car accident in New Hampshire.) called her "Vallerie" and not "Claire" when he talked to her, indicates, that her name is more likely to be Valerie, then Claire.

But I know no one named either Vallerie or Claire, and outside of these events where she shows up and attacks, I've never seen this woman before and have no clue who she is.

She has attacked more then a dozen times, IN ADDITION to the golf club attack when she murdered my son and crippled me.

She frequently dies her hair and wears wigs. And has looked quite different in the over TWELVE YEARS of her stalking and harassment

I have 3 broken vertebrae, 3 ruptured discs, a broken sariliac, hip dysplasia (broken hip and broken pelvic bone, with hip bone pushed back into pelvic bone and fused together), in addition to rheumatism in both hips, both knees, and both wrists, as well as MS.

Rheumatism I've had since I was 8.

MS I've had since I was 16.

All the rest was done by the crazy blonde woman with the golf club, November 14, 2013, at Southern Maine Community College. I was also 8 months pregnant and she murdered my son as well. I was paralyzed for 18 months and had to relearn to walk. Her hair was wild extreme unnatural rave style 2 to 3 inch wide platinum blond and dark blonde-brown stripes.

I found a pin that shows a similar hairstyle:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/tonos-de-cabello-rubio--322148179608879161/

In May 2015 I returned to work, walking minimally with a cane.

On June 24, 2016, the same mystery blond woman with her hair now dyed rusted reddish blond, woman, this time driving a late 1990s vintage gold Volvo station wagon, drove up beside my car, while I was putting groceries in my car at Scarborough Walmart, jumped out, grabbed an empty shopping cart from the shopping cart corral, and attacked again, same as she did with golf club three years earlier. This attack is the one which caused worse damage, and I have still not yet recovered from now in 2025.

In the 2016 attack, her hair was dyed an unnatural burgundy red, with slight grey roots growing out, the same unnatrually straitened pageboy style, and she was wearing a burgundy sweater that time.

In the 2016 attack, her hair was dyed an unnatural burgundy red, with slight grey roots growing out, the same unnatrually straitened pageboy style, and she was wearing a burgundy sweater that time.

She most often looks like this, with the red hair... and it was what she looked like on the December 24, 2016 Christmas Eve attack at my dad's apartment building. And THIS attack we have on camera, and so we have actual video footage of her... including, we have audio files of her yelling and chanting "transvestite freak!" while shooting a gun, during the Christmas Eve attack at 27 High Street, Biddeford, Maine.

Her hair has been a different colour each time she has shown up. In 2021 it was a neon dayglow purple, but still the same pageboy. The 2021 attack she was wearing a black poly satin dress with neon lime green trim

Her hair has been a different colour each time she has shown up. In 2021 it was a neon dayglow purple, but still the same pageboy. The 2021 attack she was wearing a black poly satin dress with neon lime green trim

When she showed up at PortCon 2023 and the Round 1 at the Maine Mall the same day, she was again wearing the black dressed, but this time her hair was died black, but she was wearing a neon dayglow lime green "clown wig".

Her face is covered in deep "smokers wrinkles" and her skin is very, very abnormally dry and flakey.

She had a somewhat large nose, (kind of more like a man's nose then a woman's nose) and very thin lips (almost none existant, again, more like a man's lips, then a womans)... she is a LOT bigger then me... a LOT - I am 5'6" and she's maybe 5'11" to 6'2"... she's like really, really, really big.

When she showed up at PortCon 2023 and the Round 1 at the Maine Mall the same day, she was again wearing the black dressed, but this time her hair was died black, but she was wearing a neon dayglow lime green "clown wig".

at one point at the Round One in the Maine Mall attack, she pulled off the green clown wig while she was yelling and her hair was a black-black super fake dyed black pageboy.

The 2016 attack is the one that did the most damage and. That is why I have the cane, walker, rollator, and wheelchair. And which one I use is determined by how much pain I am in at the time I try to stand and move.

She is the one the FBI is looking for. He said he thinks Bruce’s family knows who she is. He said they become alarmigly, agitated, evasive, and violently hostile whenever questioned about her.

If you have any information about my son’s murderer, please call FBI Agent Andy Drewer at 207–774–9322

• Everything we are allowed to publicly release about The FBI Investigation Can Be Found Here

She is the same woman who severed my spine with the same golf club used to murder my baby. She had distinctive two-inch wide stripes in her hair all the way around her head, platinum blond and dark reddish brown, in a pageboy haircut.

If you have any information about the identity of this child murderer,please call FBI Agent Andy Drewer at 207–774–9322

I have 3 broken vertebrae, 3 ruptured discs, a broken sariliac, hip dysplasia (broken hip and broken pelvic bone, with hip bone pushed back into pelvic bone and fused together), in addition to rheumatism in both hips, both knees, and both wrists, as well as MS.

Rheumatism I've had since I was 8.

MS I've had since I was 16.

All the rest was done by the crazy blonde woman with the golf club, November 14, 2013, at Southern Maine Community College. I was also 8 months pregnant and she murdered my son as well. I was paralyzed for 18 months and had to relearn to walk. Her hair was wild extreme unnatural rave style 2 to 3 inch wide platinum blond and dark blonde-brown stripes.

In May 2015 I returned to work, walking minimally with a cane.

On June 24, 2016, the same mystery blond woman with her hair now dyed rusted reddish blond, woman, this time driving a late 1990s vintage gold Volvo station wagon, drove up beside my car, while I was putting groceries in my car at Scarborough Walmart, jumped out, grabbed an empty shopping cart from the shopping cart corral, and attacked again, same as she did with golf club three years earlier. This attack is the one which caused worse damage, and I have still not yet recovered from now in 2025.

That is why I have the cane, walker, rollator, and wheelchair. And which one I use is determined by how much pain I am in at the time I try to stand and move.

She is the one the FBI is looking for. He said he thinks Bruce’s family knows who she is. He said they become alarmingly, agitated, evasive, and violently hostile whenever questioned about her.

If you have any information about my son’s murderer, please call FBI Agent Andy Drewer at 207–774–9322

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