Reviled

When I first published Wearing Donnie Torr in 2010, I did not hesitate to think if it was ready or not. Which was a big mistake on my part. A while ago I went back and revised Mr. Dead Eyes. I removed clunky sentences, reworked some scenes and added new dialogue. It made me feel overall better about the book. That happened in 2013.

I was somewhat dreading going back to WDT based on the fact that when I first published it, after what I thought was a good enough edit for $200 dollars, I went ahead and published it to Kindle.

The entire document was 103,000 words.

Yikes.

So yeah, it was way too wordy.

I mustered up my courage, found the old manuscript on a flash drive and took a peak. It's amazing what six years can do to a manuscript. I remember the words just tumbling out of me when I first wrote it. But now that I was staring at it years later and a little wiser on how to write a book; I couldn't help but go back and revise WDT too. I've since unpublished the kindle version, though you can still get the print copy.


Here's a quick pic of the progress.

The blocks highlighted in red are the parts that are getting cut. I was amazed at how many things I found when looking back on it:

1. Clunky sentences
2. Overuse of Commas
3. Repeated sentences
4. Confusing sentences

They all had to go.

Now the manuscript is about  83,000 words long.

That's 20,000 words I've cut from the original.

Also, it needed a title change. Wearing Donnie Torr was just something I slapped on there. But my wife and I talked about it during a trip back from Chicago, and she had nailed down everything the book encompassed in one word: Reviled.

But I think this identifies a common question when it comes to writing: How often should you revise a work?

Gene Fowler once said, "A book is never finished; it's abandoned."

I'm not saying that a manuscript is like a good friend where you can always pay a visit. I think it's safe to drop in and see if the work still makes as much sense as it did when you first wrote it. If not, revise. Make it clearer. Don't go Full-George Lucas and keep updating it with new characters and pump it full of prose that just ends up being filler anyways.

There was one case where Stephen King, fresh from writing three books, presented a copy of The Stand to his publisher Double Day in 1978. They were intimidated with it's size and thought it might sell better if it wasn't such a behemoth. So, willing to play it safe, King went back and cut 400 pages from the actual book. The final product came out to 1,200 pages. Years later, he released an uncut version because there was a demand for it.


Honestly, the author has to make the call whether to go back and tinker, to fix what was still cloudy. But I can say that I do not miss those 20k words I cut. They slowed everything down.

Now you can get your hands on a copy of Reviled on Amazon.com for only $2.99.

Click here to get a copy!

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In That Moment

Don't wait to write.

Write In That Moment.

Yes, I know what you are saying. Nobody writes in the moment. You have to wait for that moment. You must wait to be inspired. Well, sounds like a bunch of B.S. to me.

Why, you ask?

Well, because lately I've been reading Hemingway's A Movable Feast, an account of his early days writing in Paris. I'm beginning to see what he was talking about. Let's say you've got a scene in your head. Doesn't matter what story its for, just bare with me for a second. You know you have a scene in your head right this second. It's been one you've been toying around with for a while. One that you've been putting off because you don't think it's fully developed yet. You have to wait for that golden moment when everything makes sense and not one shred of it is tainted by clumsy dialogue or wooden prose. Am I right?

Well, would you do me a favor and write that scene right now?

Don't worry.

It may seem difficult at first but, before you know it, that one seemingly innocuous scene will come to life. Your characters will start moving around, talking to one another. The plot will veer in stunning directions you hadn't thought of yet. It will be like alchemy when the lead finally turns to gold. And it will all be due to the fact that you took five minutes and just wrote that one scene down.

I'm not talking out of my rear over here. It's been happening to me too. Every day, in fact, I find that I get a small glimpse of a scene in my head and automatically whip out a pad and pen and start jotting something down to see where it goes. Nevermind that it's not part of the short story that I'm writing. Or that it is a scene three books down the line. The point is that after it is done: you will have something written. And the goal to writing consistently is to have a lot of stuff written

Hemingway comments on how he would write things until he felt empty. Then, in time, he would feel his metaphorical writer's well of ideas filling up again. So, you see, if you are a writer who wants to write. Just write. Your well will always fill back up again and you'll have more stuff written.

(P.S. I tried it again tonight. This whole write-when-you-get-a-scene-in-your-head routine and it paid off. I got about 2,000 words out.)

Which Tool is More Productive?

I was thinking about this earlier today and thought I'd list which writing tools I've used over the years and which were the most effective:

1. Receipts - At most these tiny scraps of paper are good for writing titles, character names, plot points and premises. I doubt you could write a full book on them. (10 - 50 words)
2. Moleskin Notebook - I've only owned a few of these. They work pretty well when you have an entire scene you want to block out or some snappy, yes, I just said 'snappy', dialogue that you want to get out. (50 - 100 words)
3. Blank White Paper - 8x11 white printing paper has become the bane of my existence. Yes, you can carry out a scene on one, even several. But, damn are they easy to misplace. I won't write on these unless I absolutely have to. I use them to make lists of ideas. (100 words)
4. Electric Typewriter - Used one once and nearly threw it at the wall. Typed only three pages and gave up because the damn thing was out of whack and kept erasing my stuff. (0 words)
5. Legal Pads - If they are the small, spiral ones, I can get a lot of work done. I don't enjoy writing longhand but lately I've been able to attack my stories (10,000 words) at a time with these things.
6. Laptop - So far, on laptops I've had quite a bit of luck. I pounded out one novel.  (90,000 words)
7. Desktop Computer - First novel was written on an Acer Desktop that was very slow. (87,000 words)
8. Tape Recorder - I was able to block out a few scenes from my first novel onto this thing. It helped with dialogue. (10,000 words)
9. Blackberry Phone - Lately, I've been having a great time typing story ideas as well as whole chapter on my blackberry phone. Recently I had to discontinue my service on the phone to get a cheaper plan but I still keep the phone in order to write more books. Its great. It's portable, simple, and I can transfer all the files via USB port. Just like a compact typewriter in your pocket. (30,000 words.)

So what is your most productive writing tool?

Writer Milestone: 300,000 words!

*340,016

*This is the number of words I have published so far. 6 titles... 340, 016 words. I found this out while creating an Excel writing program for my past and future projects. Call it a Writer's Queue. 


I still can't believe it. 


What a milestone! 


That's over a quarter of a million words. 



So far I put up 25 separate writing projects to organize.



Got three more short stories lined up in the queue. 


I think every writer should make an excel program to keep them on track. What better way to organize your titles, see what date you published, and your word progress so far? I find myself checking and tweaking the program here and there just to see the word count climb.



Just had to share this.