David Weller Author Blogspot

As 2015 draws to a close I can look back on the year with a certain amount of satisfaction. A request for my full manuscript back in February, from a brand new literary agency, got the year off to a good start. Sadly, after nine months of patience and at times a lot of frustration, it came to nothing. It wasn't that my submission resulted in a letter of rejection. It resulted in no decision at all. In October, I decided to draw a line under this unhappy event and sent off a query to a very well respected agency in London. As they represent a whole host of best selling authors I rated my chances as slim at the very best. To my complete surprise, and delight, they liked the 50 page sample I submitted and requested to see the complete manuscript. I have now sent this off and hope to receive a decision early in the New Year. With this MS off my workload for a while I can now divert my energies to completing my current WIP. But, with Christmas looming ever closer, I might not make...

I've expended a lot of energy on Truthseeker over the past three years of which two have been spent editing. Even now, I'm still tweaking parts and this week I completely rewrote the first page because it wasn't doing what I knew it should do. This got me thinking about the sequels. I wrote brief outlines for these at the same time as I plotted the first book and haven't looked at them since. I looked at them today and this has rekindled my desire to write the books. Next step before I begin writing is to plot them thoroughly.

I've lost count of the articles I've read which tell you not to do this or not to do that when writing a book. Trouble is, when I read books by bestselling authors I find their work littered with these things. A case in point is the use of adverbs. Apparently putting these into your work weakens your writing and marks you out as an amateur. Or does it? I suppose if you wrote something like 'he ran quickly' or 'he said quietly' there might be a case to answer. Words like sprinted and whispered would convey the same meaning. However is there anything wrong with any of the following: she said, doubtfully . ...and kissed her clumsily . He sat absolutely still, ... He felt for it delicately . ... Well at least one acclaimed author and his publisher don't think so. I think the truthful answer is that anything goes, providing it strengthens the writing.

A few months ago an agent requested my full MS. On 1st September it will hit her inbox. Wish me luck.

It's been a while since I posted anything on this blog and with very good reason. Recently, all my energy has been devoted to rewriting parts of my MS. Following an agent request I spent a month adding another 20K to it. Whilst I was pleased with the result at the time I quickly realised that it left much to be desired. I then cut 14000 words and started writing again. With that now accomplished I am in the process of a giving my work a final polish before submitting it for consideration.  Whilst I'm more pleased now than at any other time in the writing process, I don't think for a minute that this will be the end of the tale. If there is one thing I have learned it is that a manuscript can always be improved. 

I was going to write about using a 27 chapter outline to plot your work for this post, but will leave that for another time. Once we’ve completed our draft MS it needs to be edited on several different levels. Spelling, punctuation and grammar obviously come top of the list bu t there are other things that need to be considered. Overuse of prepositions is one of them. Fo r the past few days I’ve been on ‘preposition patrol.’ This entailed going through my work and highlighting every preposition I’d used to see which could be culled. Words like up and down are the obvious ones and it’s amazing how often they appear. Sometimes the use of these words is valid but quite often they can be cut out . Recognising a verb or a noun when you see it is fairly obvious. But, instantly recognising that a word like despite is a preposition eludes most people. A word like but can also be off putting as it is usually thought of as a conjunction. So too with the word ...

I recently decided that the first part of my novel would be stronger if I reordered some of the material. I believe the changes I've made achieved this aim. However, I also needed to consider the structure. I wrote this story using a four part structure. Part 1 introduces the character in their ordinary world and includes the Inciting Incident which occurs within the first 30 pages. At the end of Part 1, something happens which launches the MC into Part 2. In this part the MC responds to events and this leads to the halfway point where a decision has to be made. This is sometimes referred to as the Recommitment. When the MC enters Part 3 they stop reacting to events and actively go on the attack. This culminates with the Crises,  which is the darkest moment for the MC. In Part 4 the tension drops slightly as the MC goes through the scenes which lead to the Climax . After this point the story is essentially over and enters the dénouement phase. Whilst the changes I made di...

I've always known that the first four chapters of my first novel were the weakest. Despite all the time and effort I'd put in to editing this material, the story never seemed to take off until the beginning of Chapter 6. I was on the verge of scrapping the first four chapters, and doing a complete rewrite, when I had a eureka moment. I realised that by reordering some of the events in the story, I could make the early chapters much stronger. The first chapter only required minor editing.  Chapter 2 contained elements which I didn't like, and so I decided to keep the first two scenes and take out the rest. I then removed a scene from Chapter 3, and added what was left to the first two scenes from Chapter 2. I renumbered Chapter 4 as Chapter 3, and kept the first half. The second half of this chapter was replaced by material from the second half of Chapter 6. I discarded the whole of Chapter 5, and the first half of Chapter 6. My new Chapter 4 now consists of the ...

For the past six months I've devoted all my energy to editing Truthseeker to the best of my ability. It certainly paid off as a sample resulted in a request for the full MS by an agent. What the outcome of remains to be seen. My second novel, Secret of Heathcote Manor has taken a back seat for as long as I can remember. It is, in my opinion, a much more saleable story than my first, but I've just not had the desire to edit it until now. I took a look at it yesterday and the errors just jumped off the page. On the one hand, I cringed at the sight. On the other, I realised just how far I've come since I wrote it. Today I finally bit the bullet and set to work. The first thing I did was to copy the whole MS into a 5x8 template, which I downloaded from CreateSpace. For reasons, I'm unable to fathom, I seem to be able to work better on a draft in this format. Perhaps it's because it looks more like the finished product. So far I've worked through the first tw...

This was the final chapter and drew just one comment from my editor. That was about how the MC reacted to one particular discovery she made after the climax to the story. My editor was quite right and I made changes to this to show the MC behaving in a more believable manner. Just with other parts of the MS which didn’t draw much comment from my editor, I found myself making changes. Although this chapter is still recognisable when compared to the original draft, it has been fleshed out to include some more interesting detail. It includes one small scene not found in the MS my editor read and this helps to set up the story line for the sequel. Is this the end of the story about my editing endeavours? Hell no, we’re not even halfway there yet.

This was another chapter which didn’t draw very much lead from my editor’s pencil. There was one instance of a missing comma and one small typo to be corrected. However, in the rewrite, I cut the whole of this chapter and pasted it into my trusty reservoir of discarded text. A small portion of it found its way back into the MS in a rewritten form. The main reasons I decided to cut this whole chapter in its entirety included: ·          It did nothing to further the plot. ·          Much of it had become redundant because of changes to the story-line. ·          The MC was being reactive instead of proactive. ·          There wasn’t enough tension to grip the reader as it led up to the climax of the story. All I can say about the current version is that it makes the first look weak.

My editor made very few pencil marks on the pages of this chapter. There was one instance of a missing comma to indicate a possessive, one instance of incorrect capitalisation, one missing word and one small typo. All of these were easy fixes and I should have spotted them before I sent the MS away. However, one thing I’ve learnt about self editing is that tired eyes don’t work as well as ones which have been closed for eight hours. Still, it seemed that there wasn’t much I needed to do to this chapter. Two minutes work and it would be perfect. Wrong! This one involved a lot of rewriting. I kept the first four pages but added a lot more detail. Then I cut the remainder of the chapter and pasted into a file I keep for this purpose. I would use this material in a revised format later on. I then set about writing some brand new material which would introduce an additional character to the story. This character and the events surrounding them would enable me to show the reader t...

A few weeks ago, I was asked if I could add another 20,000  to my current word count. Whilst this sounded daunting at the time it hasn’t been as much as a struggle as I imagined it might be. To help me on my way, I was advised to try and even out my chapter lengths to 3000 words plus. This advice was given based on the length of my first chapter which was about 3200. Each of the four parts of a novel should ideally be of equal length. To help me to achieve this I have always kept a chart where I record the number of words and MS pages in each chapter. When I looked at what I had already achieved, I was able to see where I should focus my efforts to add the extra words. As I was now looking for a revised total word count of 75000, I set a target of 18750 for each part and set to work. By the time I had read and edited my material, I’d added another 12000 words to the count. A glance at the new totals showed me where I still needed to focus my attention to keep the balan...

Thank you to everyone from the following countries who have taken the time to view my blog: United Kingdom Republic of Ireland United States Sweden France Germany Italy Netherlands Poland The journey is far from over and so I hope you will look me up again soon.

There were a few pencil marks on Chapter Twenty to draw my attention to things I’d missed. They were all things which I’d have eventually noticed myself such as a missing letter on the end of a word or a missing comma.  There were also a couple of tick marks to indicate parts my editor liked. So on the surface not much to do with this chapter. The end of the previous chapter marked the Crises point of the story. This is the highest energetic marker in the story so far. It is the scene of highest intensity in terms of Character Emotional Development and Dramatic Action. It is the point in the story when the MC is at their lowest ebb, sends them to their knees and cracks them wide open. As a result, the MC is transformed and comes to a new awareness. This is followed by the threshold scene when the character asks why they are in this mess. It is a period of self reflection when they rethink who they are. It is a time when they can reflect on their own back story and begin t...

When my editor read Chapter Nineteen, her pencil homed in on two missing commas, two small typos and struck out three superfluous words. She also made two valid suggestions. The first involved something which had vanished. My editor suggested that the MC, who’d never been to the place before could suggest to the others that they’d either got lost or come to the wrong place. I wondered why I’d never thought of it myself and quickly inserted a piece of dialogue to that effect. The second involved the MC suggesting something which she knew wasn’t possible. On this second point I had to stand back and try and look at it from my editor’s viewpoint. When I wrote this I was in my MC’s head. She knew it wasn’t possible and knew why. However, the people she was talking to were not aware of this impossibility because they had not experienced it for themselves. In effect she was holding back information. I can see why this was confusing and got round the problem by getting one of the oth...

If I hadn’t seen a comment from my editor on the final page, I might have thought she hadn’t read this chapter. I’d used the cliché ‘It’s vanished into thin air.’ My editor suggested that I could have used ellipses and stammering to add tone to the dialogue as follows. ‘I-it’s vanished!’ This was a technique I had already used earlier in this chapter when I wrote: Ramona’s expression deepened. ‘Ray...Ray...’ she stammered as tears welled in her eyes. ‘He... was taken... by Beasties as well.’ In my latest draft I changed this to: Ramona’s composure shattered into fragments. ‘Ray... Ray...’ she stammered as tears welled in her eyes. ‘Yetis...took him... as well.’ I’m still in two minds as to whether the use of the word ‘stammered’ is necessary. It didn’t draw a comment from my editor but is something I will need to think about. The term Beasties is one which Elisha’s community had coined to describe the mysterious hominids which had been sighted near their villa...

Chapter Seventeen extracted very little lead from my editor’s pencil. Her observations are summarised below. ·            A small arrow to indicate that the start of the first paragraph for a new chapter or section should always be against the left hand margin. ·            Two commas which shouldn’t have been there. ·            A missing question mark. ·            A missing letter on the end of one word. ·            One paragraph of information already revealed earlier in the story. ·            A big tick and the comment ‘Nice’ against one of the scenes. On the surface it seemed that this chapter wasn’t going to require too much work. However, that’s where an author ne...

Chapter Fifteen only required minor revision. This occurred at the end of the chapter and included one instance of the passive voice and a small amount of telling writing. For comparison I will show you both the original and amended text. The original version: Elisha’s heart raced as Jack led them away from the hide on a route which took them in a wide circle of the Scavengers camp. She felt conscious of every sound they made and feared any one of them might alert the Scavengers to their presence. Once they found themselves inside the tree line she felt slightly more relieved. Amended version: Elisha’s heart raced as Jack led them away from the hide on a route which took them in a wide circle of the Scavengers camp. Conscious of every sound they made, she feared they might alert the Scavengers to their presence. Once inside the tree line she exhaled with relief and wiped the sweat from her palms on her dress. Chapter Sixteen contained a few instances of missing co...

At the end of Chapter Twelve I came up with a more dramatic way for the MC to be pulled in a new direction at the midpoint in the story. As a result chapters thirteen and fourteen needed to be reworked. Following my usual practice, I copied and pasted the whole of Chapter Thirteen into a document I use for discarded text. Although most was redundant as far as this chapter was concerned, it contained some material I would be able to reuse later on. All of the material in Chapter Fourteen was still relevant to this part of the story but the first half needed to be reworked. I began the revision by writing a continuation of the final scene from Chapter Twelve. This included material from the beginning of Chapter Fourteen which was reworked to fit in. I followed with some new material which convinces the MC to change direction. To complete Chapter Thirteen I used the remainder of Chapter Fourteen. The result of my editing cut my chapter count by one at this stage but with ...

Apart from a small arrow indicating that the start of the first paragraph should be against the left hand margin, a missing question mark and one small typo, this chapter didn’t draw any criticism from my editor. At first glance it seemed that it required almost no work at all. Appearances can be deceptive. This chapter marks the midpoint in the story. It is where something happens to set the MC off on a new path. In the first draft, the MC became less proactive from this point on. This was the main issue which needed to be addressed when I set about revising. Because of changes I’d made to earlier chapters, much of what I’d written became redundant and so I cut out almost 80% of the original text. The manner in which the MC is forced to change direction wasn’t as dramatic as it could have been. This is where I needed to go and lie down, close my eyes and come up with something better. I’m not going to give away too much here but the solution was so simple, I still wonder w...

When I looked at the MS for chapter eleven there wasn’t a single comment by my editor on the first two pages. Great, I thought. I must be getting the hang of this now. How wrong I was. Fortunately for me, revisions to earlier chapters enabled me to remove most of page three and tweak what was left. Page four was much the same. Page five required only minor changes and I incorporated a suggestion my editor made about the MC welcoming the opportunity to meet up again with someone she once knew. The main change to this chapter came on page six where a plot line concerning a minor character reached its climax. I didn’t exploit this to its full potential in the first draft. Apart from the reader learning that the minor character’s scheming hadn’t paid off, it was a bit of a letdown. This was mainly because she didn’t react against the fate which awaited her. In chapter two, the MC’s best friend was completely caught out by events, so didn’t have any time to put up any resistance. I...

The purpose of this blog is to illustrate how critical self editing can improve an aspiring author’s work. It is also to show the value of seeking an opinion from someone qualified to give an honest and unbiased assessment. If you’re not sure what I mean, read through my posts.

Apart from a small amount of rewriting to show character reactions in more detail, Chapter Nine required only minor editing. However, a comment my editor made about the MC disobeying orders provided a catalyst for me to make changes elsewhere. This comment was highlighted again in the editorial report and made a very valid point. In my first draft, the MC was just a little too nice and as the story progressed this became a hindrance. In my rewrites I have shown the MC being rebellious from the start. This aspect of her character is one which helps to define her as a person and makes her actions later on more believable.     Chapter Ten is where the editing stopped and some serious rewriting began. In summary, this is what I did to improve it. In the original version, the MC witnesses the Watch leave the village to try and catch one of the mysterious intruders. The following morning, she learns that they’d had an encounter and several people were hurt. She pays a ...

I said in an earlier post how I’d written the initial draft of this novel in 1 st person, present tense. This was to enable me to get closer to the MC’s POV. Once I’d completed it, I changed it into 3 rd person, past tense. Whilst I’d succeeded in my aim, I did manage to trip myself up. The problem was that the first draft resulted in a couple of events in which the MC wasn’t present. She learned about these events from a third person. This resulted in ‘telling’ not ‘showing’. The first of these involved an incident which resulted in the MC’s nearest and dearest being arrested. I discussed in an earlier post how I’d rewritten this into a scene shown through the eyes of the most important character present. The second occurred in Chapter Ten and involved an encounter with mysterious outsiders. The MC witnessed some of the other characters set off into the night and learned about their adventure when she visited a friend who’d been injured. The third and fourth examples oc...

The saggy middle plagues many novels, even published ones. My first self edited draft was no exception. When a Literary Consultant read my one page synopsis, her expert editorial eye spotted this immediately. When I received my MS back from the editor, she commissioned to read my work, this aspect was highlighted in far greater detail. I’m not sure what causes this. Perhaps it’s because we’re all fired up at the beginning and lose steam as our stories take shape. Maybe it’s down to complacency, or impatience to get to the end. Whatever the reason it is something we need to pay attention to. The second half of my novel has required ten times more work than the first. It is where the editing stopped and some serious rewriting began. Over the next few posts I’ll try to illustrate some of the changes I have made.

Throughout most of my MS, I showed characters' reactions in an appropriate way and with enough detail. Chapter Eight was one place I could have done better. To illustrate this point, I’ll show you the original text followed by the amended version. Jennifer opened the door with anticipation. Jennifer held her breath; her body tense as she opened the front door to let them in. "Guardians and suspected Scavengers," Jack moaned. Jack sprang from his chair with resentment creasing his face. "Guardians and suspected Scavengers," he said, storming out of the room and slamming the door behind him. "Best we try to get some sleep," Ellie said. "It will be dawn in a few hours." Ellie struggled to keep her hopes alive. "Come on," she said, getting to her feet and offering a hand to help him up. "We could both do with some sleep." Dawn came before Ellie was ready and she stumbled from her bed more asleep than awake. ...