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March 19, 2021
Oakland, CA
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| | | In a recent bi-weekly call with our group coaching students, we discussed how to be your own editor.
Before you query a publisher or agent, or before you self-publish, or even before you hire a developmental editor, you need to edit your own work.
When you're starting out editing your first novel, or working on your fifth, you may think there is a right way to do things. But actually, each writer has their own unique way of writing and of editing. If you discover and uncover your way specific to you, you can create a process that works for you to get to The End -- every time.
How can you create an editing process that works and helps you get to The End every time?
By answering these questions: - What works for you?
- What has worked for you in the past?
- What would you like the editing process to be like in the future? If different than it is now…
- Your environment: where you work, when you work, other setting sensory details that support and remind you of your work (yes coffee? music? the type of chair and desk? etc.)
- Your mental and emotional state: positive self talk; truth-telling; the space and time to feel all the feels
- Your art tools: connecting to the things that inspire you and allow you to bring in new ideas and motivates you to take risks and be courageous
- Your learning and support communities: to help with answers, accountability, and to be not alone in this work
- Your desired outcome or goal: knowing your WHY helps you stay on course and helps you find your way back to your work when you get lost
- Your audience: even if you're editing your first novel, you're writing to be read; keeping your audience in mind can help you make decisions, and motivate and focus you.
Think about these elements and then ask these questions: - What’s working in your editing process?
- And, what would you like more of?
After this discussion in our group, here are some takeaways my students shared: - I'll be reminding myself to stay the course with whatever "pass" I'm on and whatever task I want to complete. I'll actually feel better when I get it done.
- A sentence is allowed to be a work in progress too.
- Reward myself with chocolate.
- Work on words that are generic and define them better.
- Make the mundane come to life.
Hit reply and let me know what you discover and uncover when you ask: - What’s working in my editing process?
- And, what would I like more of?
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Have a happy and creative week!
All my best,
Beth
*** A request! Please support my cousin's work with the unhoused relatives along the creek in Rapid City South Dakota. I have supported them and hope you can lend a hand too, in whatever way is right for you. - Camp MniLuzahan & Creek Patrol offer care and protection to our cherished unsheltered relatives here in the Black Hills (He Sapa) of South Dakota. There is an active and ongoing effort to provide consistent care through offerings of shelter, food, cold-weather gear, and protection from local harassment/violence. Camp MniLuzahan & Creek Patrol is a vital coalition effort to offer mutual aid for those in need, and your support is needed.
***
You never know what may happen when you put your work out there!
Last year I won an audio book contract for my first sci-fi mystery novel in the Janey McCallister series, Into The Black! (More news on that as it unfolds.)
Unpublished and published novelists can apply.
Check out their prizes here: https://pageturnerawards.com/2021-award-prizes
♥
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| | Top Posts on the Writer's Fun Zone Blog |
| | | | You have been reading the Creativity Sparks Newsletter!
Now in its 15th year, this newsletter is a service of my coaching and consulting business, helping genre fiction writers write, market, and publish their books through courses, coaching & consulting, NLP sessions, a 12-month group program, and books.
You may share this content intact and with no changes with this attribution:
c. 2006-2021 Beth Barany, Creativity Coach for Writers, www.BethBarany.com
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| ABOUT BETH BARANY
Beth Barany is creativity coach for writers, a teacher, workshop facilitator, and speaker, who helps fiction writers experience clarity, so that they can write and polish their novels, and proudly publish them to the delight of their readers.
Owner of the Barany School of Fiction, an online training hub, Beth takes great interest in how humans learn, create, and grow, and includes all her students’ life experiences, including the ancestors, into the moment.
Want a course to help you prepare to write your novel? Discover the comprehensive Plan Your Novel course here, co-taught with award-winning, bestselling thriller author, Ezra Barany.
She's also an award-winning novelist and writes magical tales of romance, adventure, and mystery to empower women and girls to be the heroes in their own lives.
Uncover her Henrietta series here (YA Fantasy) and her Touchstone series here (Fantasy/Paranormal Romance). And her new Sci-fi Mystery here.
beth@bethbarany.com
Barany School of Fiction
Writer's Fun Zone blog
Photo Credit: by c. 2018 Ezra Barany
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