The Essentials of Revision

-->I was on a panel at the most recent Public Safety Writers Association Conference. Our moderator for “The Essentials of Revision” was Austin S. Camacho, thriller writer and editorial director at Intrigue Publishing. On the panel with me were Lori Rader-Day, George Cramer, and Jim Guigli.

As is usual, we were given questions in advance so we could prepare a bit. One of the questions was about my revision process. I shared this picture of a word cloud I made for free at the website www.worditout.com.

This is the first chapter of Slipping into the Future, a women’s fiction novel I’m writing. The size of the word indicates frequency of appearance in the text. When I look at the word cloud, before editing, I see that my main character, her father, and her brothers’ names appear a lot. That’s good. I also see some words I need to edit out: just, like, about, back, and many more are bigger than they should be. Search and change or delete. Easy.

 The audience didn’t know about doing word clouds so I felt I contributed something to the discussion. I also distributed a handout with some tried-and-true and (maybe) new-to-you techniques. People like stuff for later reference. Here is most of the handout.

Tried-and-True Revision Tips

Focus first on plot structure, point of view, and pacing, followed 
by characterization and dialogue.

Read aloud to hear your pacing and dialogue.

Search for your killer words (really, just, actually, was/were, etc.).

Don’t work in isolation—have a writing group or buddy to read your work.

Put it aside to “percolate” and to get distance after completing 1^st draft.

As you read, list what needs to change, but keep reading! Fix later.

Circle passive voice verbs and replace with strong verbs.

Do the hardest first, whatever that is for you.

Reward yourself for meeting a revision goal (e.g., deleting clichés, 
revise 50 pages, etc.).

Maybe New-to-You Revision Tips

Change the font and print out the manuscript. You’ll read closer.

Read your draft three times and make changes each time.

Compare scenes to a template: who, where, when, what, and why.

Does each scene end with a hook? Does each chapter end with a hook?

Make a word cloud to see which words you used most. I use worditout.com

Select “the” for a word search. Often, “the” is unnecessary.

Edit chapter by chapter from the end to avoid flow and missing things.

Now. Don’t you feel as if you were there? Nah. Not really. You missed all the humor stuff. Join me next year at PSWA Here’s the link to where you can sign up when they put up the new registration materials.

Do you know others who would like to read this post? If so, please post on social media. I’ve included a Facebook message as well as a tweet you can copy and paste. Thanks for you help.

Facebook: Do you struggle with making novel revisions? Maybe these ideas by Sharon Arthur Moore-Author will help. Especially check out word clouds. So cool! http://bit.ly/2fPTZVb

Twitter: Novel #Revision can be more fun with #wordclouds. See @good2tweat’s revision ideas and how to do word clouds at http://bit.ly/2fPTZVb

Left Coast Crime Conference

-->

I am sort of a conference junkie. In my previous professional life, it was expected that I attend and present research at several conferences a year. I always loved it. The kissing, the hugging, the renewal of old friendships, the introduction to new friends! And the chance to learn! What’s not to like?

In my current professional life as author, I have total control over what my life looks like from work schedule to continuing education to purchased resources to conference attendance. No more mandates from on high. I take on-line and in-person classes. I buy every writing book on Amazon. And I attend conferences. (But not yet as a presenter.)

An editor told me a bit more than a year ago that I needed to stop taking general writing classes and attending general writing conferences. I needed to focus attention instead, spending my time and money, on genre-specific resources. To that end, I attended my first-ever Public Safety Writers Association (PSWA) conference last July. Spectacular. I learned so much, and I am returning this July to get more.

At that conference, I was told that I had to attend the Left Coast Crime (LCC) conference. So I did. I got home last Sunday evening from that conference. Again, I learned a lot, but it was different.

PSWA is a craft-focused conference. Public safety workers in a range of fields present their expertise so you can bring a level of authenticity to your mysteries. You learn about DNA and how that is used (and abused in TV shows), what a vice cop does on the beat, and how to spin out clues at the right pace.

LCC is primarily a fan conference. There are lots of writers in attendance, but the majority of registrants are fans of mystery writing and writers. Thus, the sessions were geared to fans and how authors do what they do in their books. It may sound like a subtle difference between writing craft sessions and sessions for fans, but it is huge.

For example, I attended one session on what makes villains memorable. The panelists all described their villains and what made them villainous. As a writer, it was my responsibility to translate that into a craft lesson to see what lessons I could learn to apply to my own books. My brain got a workout!

Of course, in keeping with my major interest, I ate up, so to speak, the session by culinary mystery writers! And I was shocked to learn that several don’t cook or enjoy cooking but they like writing culinary mysteries.

Also a thrill was seeing Mission Impastable for sale at a conference bookstore for the first time. That is a rush!

And spending the day before the conference in an all-day writing workshop geared to authors was a special treat, especially since the fabulous presenters, Jan Burke and Jerrilyn Farmer, surprised us with a special session with Sue Grafton.

Oh, and did I mention the great bonding time Oak Tree Press authors had with publisher Billie Johnson at our own special session one afternoon?

There is much to be said for attending writing conferences featuring both tangible and intangible rewards. So where are you headed for your next conference? Maybe I’ll see you there.

Mystery Author Marja McGraw: The Hand of Fate?

I am delighted to welcome Marja McGraw to Write Away today! I met her at a Public Safety Writers Conference last July and immediately connected with her warm personality and terrific sense of humor. You'd be hard-pressed to find a more cheerful demeanor in any room! And guess what? No surprise that persona manifests itself in her books. The cover of the latest is here. Check her out in the links at the bottom. You will be delighted with your find!

 Many years ago my young daughter and I lived alone due to circumstances. We were living in a small apartment, and there had been several instances of prowlers lurking and mysterious occurrences, like keys disappearing from apartments. Everyone in the building was on the lookout for each other.

One night I was awakened when I felt someone’s presence in the room. Surprisingly, I was sleeping soundly that night and it took me a moment to wake up. I was trying to figure out why I thought someone was in the room when I realized my hand rested on that of someone else. Mind you, I was very sleepy. I wondered if I was dreaming.

I started to feel the fingers of the hand. Yes, someone was definitely in my room. I wanted to jump up, grab my daughter from the next room and run, but I was so groggy.

I touched one more of the intruder’s fingers and suddenly I was wide awake! I was on the verge of screaming, when all of a sudden I realized… I was feeling my own hand. My head rested on my right arm and my hand had gone to sleep. Needless to say, my right hand had no feeling and didn’t know my left hand was touching its fingers.

The point of this story is, there are so many things that happen to us in real life that we can twist and turn until they’re fodder for a mystery. Think about your life. You must have had something odd happen at some time in your personal history. Use it.

A few years after the hand incident I’d moved and lived in a very old house. There was a local bum/drunk who watched my house, unknown to me until he began arriving on my doorstep. He’d tell me the things he’d seen me do, and he’d leave little “gifts” like a soft drink or a bag of potato chips on my porch when I wasn’t home. Without going into detail, he was a scary guy who really wanted me to let him in. Interestingly, I’d call the police and somehow they could never find him. There’s a story behind that, but it’s better left for another time.

When I wrote “Bubba’s Ghost”, I used the bum/drunk as a basis for the story. I created twists and turns galore and ended up with a pretty good murder mystery.

You can create a scene or an entire book out of one instance in your life. No one has to know your story or scene is based on something that really happened to you, or that you saw happen to someone else. Real life can become fiction, although sometimes it needs a little help.

That fickle finger of fate can actually cause the direction our lives are taking to turn down a side road. The same thing can happen to our protagonist or other characters in our books. Sometimes we can even turn a traumatic occurrence into a funny scene.

Don’t get me wrong. Not all of my books are based on real life experiences, although a menopausal woman takes down a mugger in “A Well-Kept Family Secret”. That scene was based on something that happened to a friend and me when she was mugged in a bank parking lot several years ago.
Hmm. I’ve lived kind of an interesting life. Maybe I was meant to be a mystery writer. I sure have enough life experience for it.

As a reader, I hope you enjoy what mystery writers write, and I hope you can relate to some of the lighter parts of stories. I don’t want anyone to relate to the dark parts, but things happen.
As a writer, I hope you’re watching and remembering. I hope you’re using memories as well as your imagination.

If anyone can relate, readers or writers, it might even be a little therapeutic. One can always hope.
Thank you so much for letting me share a little about turning reality into fiction, Sharon. You have a lovely site and I enjoyed visiting.

Links:

Blog: http://blog.marjamcgraw.com/

Website: http://www.marjamcgraw.com/

Buy books: http://amzn.to/1c1bf4D

PSWA

I heard about the Public Safety Writers Association conference in Las Vegas through other Oak Tree Press authors. Lots of them were going to the conference, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to network with them and meet my Editor, Billie Johnson, and Sunny Frazier, the Acquisitions Editor who signed me.

Only 4 ½ hours drive from our summer place. Take in a show. Yeah. That was the plan. Attend. Talk and stalk. You know--normal conference behavior.

OMG!

Who knew I would learn so much? Well, I guess my fellow authors did, but at this stage of my life, after dozens and dozens of conferences, I didn’t expect much.

The PSWA may be the best-kept secret in the writing of mysteries. I had never heard of it. Shame on me. The better known organizations/conferences like Boucheron, Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, Left Coast Crime, and so on attract large crowds of various flavors of mystery and thriller writers.

Not so PSWA. This small, intimate conference was packed with information and expertise. Almost all the presenters have backgrounds in law enforcement and public safety fields. Oh, and they write books, too!

Seriously. I sat next to Pete Klismet one day. He had been on a panel and had moderated another one. He was with the FBI for 25 years and was in the first group of psychological profilers trained. Yeah, he writes books, too.

Guy Painter, who was on a Homeland Security panel, does airport security, so I hit him up for help with my paranormal book’s airport security bid problem. He gave me his personal e-mail for future questions.

Sue Vondrak is an Illinois CSI who had me clinging on with fingernails during her fabulous DNA presentation. She also helped with the accuracy of a plot point for an upcoming culinary mystery book. Oh, did I mention she writes books, too?

Joe Haggerty presented jaw-dropping information about prostitution and the prosecution thereof based on his years dealing with the streets in D.C. He was more than generous on more than one occasion to help me with my Streetwalker series questions. He has a great book about a pimp.

Oh, and there were so many more. Thanks to all the unnamed from whom I learned as well!

Additionally, PSWA hosts a listserv so if you have a question like “Where could an ordinary person buy a body bag?” or “What is an undetectable poison during a normal tox screen?”, pose it and people will jump in to help. Wow! Just, wow!

The goal of all these sessions and informal conversations was to help me and other authors portray public safety workers and procedures accurately. Membership is the best $55 you’ll spend if you are writing mysteries or thrillers. Check it out at http://policewriter.com/wordpress/