Tag Archives: John Christian Hager

Mmm, Better: Editing 1st Five Chapters of MGC Done

Posted on April 26, 2013 | Leave a comment

The first edit of those chapters is done, and I’m very pleased. This is actually two landmarks in one and both of them went swimmingly.

The first was the actual editing itself. Though I didn’t clip much length off of any of it, what I changed those words to mattered. It’s really gratifying to see this world that I’ve been creating off and on for three years now come to fruition. I was concerned that there would be wholesale mistakes and global changes to be made. I did change a lot (A LOT), but the path or the thread of the story stayed the same. I just changed the words that described that path.

And the second landmark was the checklist I came up with.  That was…AWESOME. Usually when I edit, I find myself just skipping over passages because I’m bored. With a checklist, I can concentrate on a single element (such as repeating the same word in a paragraph…sheesh, someone stop me from writing “stopped”) and I can work on just that element in addition to the other elements I might find. I end up reviewing the work many more times and find much more than I have in the past. I did change a few things on the fly (for instance, I do Word’s spelling and grammar check twice, once when I start and once after I finish. It’s very gratifying to see those numbers improve) but those were just icing on the cake.

And here’s the biggest surprise of all:  I liked doing it. I had a real sense that I was improving my work rather than just flailing at it trying to maybe make it better. Yay!

So, how’s your editing process? Need a little pick-me-up?

Thanks for reading!

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Completed PRIMP – Much Prettier

Posted on April 18, 2013 | Leave a comment

Well, that’s all done.  And better. What’d I do while I was away PRIMPing?

I had a backlog of about a dozen items to investigate that might improve my process, productivity, or just my mood. I reviewed them all.

Some of them like this post from AppNewser on Google Reader alternatives aren’t relevant any more.  Some like this post from the Writers on the Storm blog are very useful (I have a longer checklist that I use during blocking, but these five basic elements neatly explained are getting tucked into my new project blanks). 

Some are so unusable that they’re useful. When Writer’s Digest got all biblical and equated self-editing with sin, my response to them was this: get thee behind me, magazines with advice that considers only a narrow circumstance. I cannot afford to hire an editor; labeling me as a sinner because I am too poor to follow your advice irks me. I was doubly irked because I thought there might be some actual editing advice in the article as a way of “returning to the fold”. Nope. So I returned to the fold all right: I folded the article around the long-chewed piece of gum I needed to dispose of at the moment. See? Useful after all. And no, not willing to perpetuate my anger, no hyperlink. No tag, either. Pfft. Moving on.

I revised editing checklists; added a whole new step to my writing process, and set up a “start kit” of lists on my Google Drive account. One thing to change, one thing to refer to, one thing to download when needed. That’s all good.

So when you see something that has to be added to your process, do you add it right away or wait?

Thanks for reading!

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More Landmarks

Posted on April 16, 2013 | Leave a comment

Well, how embarrassing. There are actually two landmarks in this post because I forgot to send the first after I did it.

That was because the cover image for “Of Sentimental Value” came together so quickly and easily that I just kind of breezed on to the next item on the list. Count me as one stunned bunny; I expected much more trouble with it. I finished that one on April 8.

(Shh, don’t tell anyone. The image is part of the north wall of my garage with a few weird Paint.NET effects thrown in. No affiliation.)

The thing that took up the most time between then and now was the synopsis for my project labeled YHR. The synopsis really helped me sort out some really big holes in the overall plot, including the idea that the main character’s name (and the book’s working title) basically revealed his big secret. So, to avoid the “Clark Kent’s glasses” effect, I changed name and title. Am I 100% sold? No, not really, but it’s better. And I’ve got time.

I was also able to sort through a few setting/genre issues. It’s dieselpunk, and, the way I’ve planned it out, it pretty much has to be. That’s good to know.

After this, I’m up for some PRIMP, including a few tweaks to my editing sequence. After that, I go right into testing those tweaks on chapters one through five of MGC. But you’ll hear from me before then. No, really.

Thanks for reading!

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My Goodreads Review of “Savvy Book Marketing Secrets”

Posted on April 8, 2013 | Leave a comment

I’ve just posted a review of Dana Lynn Smith’s “Savvy Book Marketing Secrets” on Goodreads. Read it here.

Thanks!

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Posted in Finished Projects, Landmarks, Uncategorized

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ANG Thumbnails Completed: THAT’S Where This Was Going

Posted on April 1, 2013 | Leave a comment

With the help of the synopsis for the ANG project that I completed a couple of weeks ago, I launched headfirst into writing a series of thumbnails that indicate the basic plot of the work. Some folks call them beats or scenes or whatever. I just call them necessary.

Putting all this together is, in great part, an aggregate process. The point is to make sure the central issues, the journey that your character needs to take, is represented by what happens. The thumbnails provide a general reading of the situations the character encounters while not getting too detailed. I find it to be one of the most difficult and time-consuming parts of the process, because I tend to focus much more on dialogue and character and motivations than I do on strict adherence to “first this happens, then this happens”. Setting that aside and focusing on not just what’s supposed to happen but whether it’s able to happen that way is hard for me.

It’s really a high level look at the shape and viability of the plot and it involves a lot of practical figuring. For ANG, I spent quite a bit of time figuring steam railroad times versus airship transit times. Considering the latter is largely hooey, I allowed myself a little wiggle room, but I couldn’t wiggle the geography of northern Illinois in the late 19th century, where and when the book takes place. It’s a lot like one of those “mole-swatting” games in an arcade; there’s always another fact that needs to be established, rejected, or changed. It’s an essential part of the process; doing it this early sets the fictional world and the story in which the characters exist on solid ground.

So, it’s done. The next step on ANG will be blocking, which I do look forward to, since that’s much more of a character process. It also moves from New projects into my list of Current projects, since now I know it’s a viable concern.

So, what am I doing next? I’m catching up on a little overdue business reading with an eye toward Engagement and PRIMP. After that, it’s Current project cover work for a short piece called “Of Sentimental Value”. Then I move on to a brand new project I’ve dubbed YHR, a little fantasy, a little dieselpunk, a lot of fun.

So, I’m going to go read. Thank you for reading me.

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RSS Reader Change: GR Says Goodbye, I Say HellOwl.

Posted on April 1, 2013 | 2 Comments

A few weeks ago I said that I would look into changing my RSS Reader because of Google’s expected shutter of Google Reader. My first reaction was (excrement), (excrement), (excrement), because I liked GR. It’s available across platforms and browsers, it’s kind of easy to use, and I became comfortable with its limitations. I’m not really an archivist, so I don’t have a lot of feeds, but I do have a wide range of interests and I like to keep up if I have the time and pass things along that seem relevant. It was fine for what I needed to do.

And then Google pulled out the proverbial six-shooter, cocked it, and pointed it squarely at the forehead of my RSS feed horse. So, what’d I do? Got me an owl. Specifically, RSSOwl.

RSSOwl is a free, local (meaning residing on your computer alone), open-source feed reader with great flexibility. It can be synchronized with Google Reader if you choose, or you can build your own feed lists. Adding new feeds is no issue at all. It has a number of preferences to tweak in order to make it the way you want it to be, including labeling articles, highlighting articles with their “sticky” option, and sharing articles with a whole boatload of different services.

In fact, the number of choices to alter, display, keep, destroy, and just generally muck about with the program is one of its problem areas. It’s not terribly intuitive and several areas of terminology are similar enough to provide instant confusion. Combined with its almost irrelevant help pages, that was almost enough to do me in. I got lucky, though; I have two platforms and I managed to get it working the way I wanted on one and literally had both going at once to repeat the settings on the desktop. I’m very pleased with the results. A couple of key points? Use the saved search feature for new news. Saves a lot of headaches. It also helps to have your browser open in the background to provide an easier path to open pages (that may just be my Firefox with all the bells and whistles, but I figured I’d throw it in). Since I have a dumb phone (it only counts up to seven) and no tablets at all, I’m not sure about the usability for those devices. And this is a local application. There is no server that this stuff is stored on, so your entries will be repeated on different platforms.  Some people might find it an issue to have to delete already read material between platforms, but it doesn’t seem all that onerous to me. A couple of keystrokes/mouse clicks and they’re gone.

So, yeah, it took a little bit, but I figured it out. And I’m glad I did.

(I have no affiliation with RSSOwl. Shame, really.)

Thanks for reading!

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On Easter Sunday

Posted on March 31, 2013 | Leave a comment

Here are about the best thousand words I could muster about this holiday of resurrection, rebirth and the resumption of life:

Easter Sunday 2013

Happy Easter, everyone!

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CON First Edit: An Update

Posted on March 25, 2013 | Leave a comment

Overall, the new checklist I devised worked well enough, although my expectations took a beating. I was planning just a high level review of whether the story worked or not, with technical, grammar and word choice changes worked out in a second and final edit later on.  I found myself doing the second edit first just out of instinct. That turned out to be positive, because without the changes, you can’t get a good idea of the document’s value anyway. The initial sequence had value early, but the quality of the manuscript improved with each change made, so it makes sense to make the basic changes first with an eye toward sweeping changes in the second edit.

You could make the argument that the change above was a disciplinary lapse and I agree to a point. As I went through the manuscript, I did try a couple of times to limit myself to the wide view, to the sweeping changes that I was hoping for, but that frustrated more than helped. The issue was so prevalent that the initial sequence seemed to have no better reason for existence than “I said so.” In the land of PRIMP (Process Improvement), those are the things that need changing the most. Do what works. Save your willpower for where you need it.

I did make one more personal tweak. The last step in the process is to have the work read to me so I can pick out stuff that clanks in the hearing. (I use Spesoft’s Text to MP3 Speaker; I have no affiliation to them.) The problem? Microsoft Michelle as a reader is really boring, so much so I fell asleep while listening to the story. Sitting in the sun with my feet up and the chair back had much more to do with that than my prose, I hope. So I started over and stood up for the read back. That worked great and the read back was very helpful.

The edit is done, and it’s pretty good. For the next project I edit (the first five chapters of MGC), I’ll start with the order of the checklists changed and see how that works. Now, CON sits and waits for some other projects to be addressed.

While you’re waiting, find out a little of what I’ve been doing on CON in my Google Public Access file. It’s under CON – A Couple Hundred Words.

Thanks for reading!

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This Week and Next or TWaN

Posted on March 15, 2013 | Leave a comment

Georgie? Georgie? Hmph. Not here. Must have been a great week.  And it was.

(I composed this item on Windows Live Writer (link) because several sources I trust claim there’s nothing better for composing blog posts without having to reformat. I had been using a .rtf text editor for blog posts hoping that the simpler the input, the less cumbersome the reformatting, but no. There was some noise made in the middle of last year, conjecture mostly, that WLW was going the way of Google Reader, but there are no announcements yet. This is a test, so if things get squirrelly, say so. I’ll replace this thing quicker than “a duck on a junebug” as a former boss used to say.)

To review, this is what I wanted to accomplish this week:

  1. Finish the synopsis for ANG.
  2. Get the editing checklists into some kind of a viable form (I hope to need them this week).
  3. Draw a new cover for Turning Springs.
  4. Review a book I just finished for Goodreads.
  5. Start the first edit on CON.

Here’s what I did:

I finished the synopsis for ANG, and I found it to be something of a revelation. I’d never done a formal one before, having never felt the need.  Now that I have, though, I’ve added a version of it to my writing process. It really compresses the essential elements of the story into a neat 500 word package that’s great for quick reference. Although I used a combination of a few recipes, the one at Writer’s Digest is pretty good.

The editing checklists came out great. I’m looking forward to using at least one of them next week.

I put in a bunch of time on drawing a new cover for Turning Springs, and then I stopped. Not permanently, mind you. This is going to take a lot longer than I expected, so I’m going to keep after it every week for a limited amount of time. The visual arts are not my forte, so I’m taking the slow, careful (agonizing, unpleasant, tortuous, excruciating) route. It’s a little like trying to pound nails with an egg.

Finished a review on Goodreads of a really riveting true crime book called Starvation Heights. Very creepy. Find the review here.

Also, I took a little time out on Thursday to do a little PRIMP. No, it’s not manscaping or a mani-pedi, it’s my acronym for PRocess IMProvement. Keeping your process fresh and relevant is crucial for writers, because no one has all the answers for anything. When I see something that might be useful in RSS feeds or online, I send it to my Gmail account. I have a filter in that sorts these to a special mailbox and when that mailbox gets ten items unread, I read them. One of the items I read Thursday was Jurgen Wolff’s recent post about the Three Excitements. I’m putting those into my Blocking checklist in order of importance, so I don’t lose sight of what I’m trying to accomplish structurally when writing my rough.  Handy.

Now, for next week:

  • Work on the new cover for Turning Springs.
  • Perform the first edit for CON.
  • Perform the blocking for ANG.
  • Read “What the Press Wants” and start a marketing checklist.
  • Find a Google Reader replacement (I have a few choices.)

Georgie’s been pretty quiet this week, especially since I usually take off on Patch Tuesday to update my systems and keep them healthy. I still completed three out of the five items and worked extensively on the fourth. I’m expecting to do that well next week, too.

Thanks for reading!

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This Week and Next, or TWaN

Posted on March 8, 2013 | Leave a comment

My friend Gene Lempp wrote eloquently in his blog this week about personifying the resistance you feel when working toward your dreams. When it’s only the voice in your head, the constant bad companion, the banshee song of low expectations, there’s nothing to fight, because it’s you. When you create a persona for that voice, you can imagine that voice as coming from someone or something as real; you can ball up your imaginary fist and punch it in the face. You can slash it in the face with a sword. Or maybe physical violence is too good for your resistance. Maybe humiliation is the weapon you need. After all, he uses it on you, right?

Works for me. Folks, meet Georgie. He was just on his way over to the corner to sit quietly for a while. He laughed when I considered putting my goals in print for the world to see. He thought I wouldn’t do it. Uh-huh. That’s your corner over there. Go siddown. What’s that, Georgie? I haven’t done it yet? You’re right about that. You were on your way somewhere, right?

I have many projects in various stages of development (or re-development, as it happens). I’ll start this out with a listing of the projects from newest to oldest. I’ve spelled out the titles for finished projects; unfinished ones have a three-letter designation.

Turning Springs: a finished novel-length manuscript available for sale at Smashwords dot com. Get your sample or the full novel (if you can stand the cover) here.

Of Sentimental Value: a short work in the same milieu as Turning Springs.

CON: a short work in a modern setting for which I’ve already finished the rough.

MGC: writing the rough and content editing this long novel about mining in the Turning Springs world.

ANG: This steampunk novel screams series to me, but I’m only writing one and I’ve just started.

BRD: a four-book zombie story so new that I haven’t even found all my notes yet.

These are just the six active titles. I have files and files of titles and ideas and little scraps of paper and sticky notes that require translation that haven’t seen daylight yet. But they will. What was that, Georgie? Huh. That’s what I thought you said. Here’s what I said: shuddup.

I’ve been trying to work on four projects a day, but that hasn’t worked out. I have trouble shifting back and forth at an artificial time boundary, so I’ve given up that method.

Instead, I examined the process by which I plan, construct and write a manuscript. I found natural stopping points between individual tasks, perfect for moving on to a different project at its own natural cusp. That method also feeds my need for accomplishment that I might not get in just a couple of hours of work on one project. And Georgie hates that, which I like.

What’d I do this week? I finished the last of writing the rough for Chapter 9 and all of Chapter 10, which brought me to a landmark (20% roughed; take that, Georgie, you punk) and stopping point for MGC. I spent a little time on process improvement (setting up a content editing checklist and much of a line editing list as well). I started a synopsis for ANG, rejected it, restarted it, rejected it, mind-mapped the problematic issues, and restarted it. Better.

So, next week? I’m planning to complete the first four items of the following list and start the fifth:

  1. Finish the synopsis for ANG.
  2. Get the editing checklists into some kind of a viable form (I hope to need them this week).
  3. Draw a new cover for Turning Springs.
  4. Review a book I just finished for Goodreads.
  5. Start the first edit on CON.

In addition to those things, I need to do a lot more checking in on social networks and helping out where I can.

Georgie has reminded me that I don’t know how to draw. And that I haven’t come close to reviewing a book since college book reports, lo, those many years ago. And if I’m expecting to beta-test my content editing checklist on CON, I’d better bring an extra month to work with me next week, ‘cause I’m also going to want to do another one of these TWaN reports.

Yes, well, there will be another TWaN report next week. In it, you’ll find the progress I made for the week. And all about what happened when I reconsidered physical violence in dealing with Georgie.

Oh, you’re running? Georgie, Georgie, Georgie. You’re just gonna be out of breath when I start pounding you.

Thanks for reading!

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