Episode #257: How Do I Edit Thee? It's A Seriously Zen Level Of Nerdvana

The tranquility of a waterfall is the perfect outlet to bathe your brain in the zenith of the moment before you wash it with the tonal sounds of the wind meandering through the tentacles of the universe.

At the close of the last post, I stated that the fat man (moi) had a final aria to perform prior to the intermission of Act III. Suffice to say, to semi-quote a well known lyricist, I can't dance and I certainly can't sing. But what I can do is channel my inner microscopic micro-manager and present to you a blog post on how not to edit like normal folks. 

For the past umpteen years (translation: a number between the high end of a tween and mid-nadir of young adulthood), no matter what length of story I had decided to write, a printed copy I did create for editing purposes. I was one those seriously short attention span people who could not stay glued to a computer screen to read a story for longer than ninety seconds (which is why I do not own an e-reader). So editing my work straight up on my computer screen was not a viable option for me employ.

However, what was a viable option for me was to print out a story, use a pen to write copious amounts of notes/make copious amounts of corrections, and then add those edits onto the original computer copy. Simple enough for a short story. But....would that same philosophy apply to something longer than a short story, like a novella or a novel? Well, as you're probably no doubt aware of, the answer to the question is a resounding YES.

Let's use two projects as good examples of this philosophy: an upcoming novella for 2025 and my current five volume (I pinky promise) project that should be finished (I triple dog dare myself) by the end of this month.

Novella: This upcoming 2025 novella has a boatload in common with my 2024 novella: long gestation period (10+ years); no current title after multiple tries (7 I think); no real blurb or synopsis going for it either; lots of R-rated violence, just to name a few. It also has the very odd editing philosophy applied it as well.

So when we were writing draft #4 (I think, maybe it was #5?) we would simply print out each completed chapter, three hole punch that bad boy, pulled out a 1" three ring binder (note, if it says 220pg capacity, they are lying like a sleeping chow-chow), a bunch of dividers, and shmashed it all together into a cohesive pile numbering 126 pages containing just a kiss under 56k words.

In the course of one day, with my handy-dandy generic version of a Bic pen, we took copious amount of notes, circled incorrect words and typos, and generously added blue and black ink to those formerly unblemished pages of a intelligently written story. Those copious notes were actually written on the pages themselves, because you know, short attention span theater here.

Anyways, we washed/rinsed/repeated a few more times before putting this lovely story back into the Comfy Chair's estranged sibling, the Comfy Bed. In total, it took me about three weeks of manual editing before deciding it was (at that time) good enough to move onto the next phase, which were creating a title and synopsis (long and short). Novellas are easy enough to handle without getting a professional involved until you got to the nitty-gritty portion of it.

Now if you thought this was a time consuming and perhaps that time would be better spent editing on the computer, then you're very welcome to your own opinion on performing your editing chores. I, however, found editing on the computer actually hindered my ability to make any kind of writing progress, which was one of the main reasons of editing this way. The other reason was that it was a great meditation tool.

With my current project, with the odd blog tag of Hot Mess, I settled down into a routine of writing two chapters (later expanded to three until constricting back to two), transcribing those chapters, and doing all of the stuff mentioned earlier with the novella before editing. The way it became a meditation tool for me was that until I had finished editing those chapters, I simply did not produce any new writing. 

This had produced a few pleasant side effects: 1) it allowed me to concentrate on how each particular plot line needs to move in that particular direction; 2) it allowed me to mentally plot out how best to continue each plot line; and 3) it became my bi-weekly sojourn into non-stressful me time, which was something that I've been able to continue on for the past 2 1/2 years.

So my friends, this is how I edit my work: write it, transcribe it, print it, then manual edit. I should note that I have yet to apply ANY of the editing notes/corrections that I have made so far, as I want to wait until I type in the proverbial, "The End", which marks the completion of this five volume journey. And let me tell you, that's when the genuine milkshake is going to consume the inside of your lungs as you try to inhale that goodness through the straw, because the edits I have to apply will, at the very end, make me want to pluck out my mustache follicles with my fingernails.

Happy Monday to one and all.

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #256: How Do I Write Thee? It's A Complicated Process

To semi-quote Yogi Berra, "It's deja vu all over again."

Even though this was taken two days after Christmas 2023, we were greeted by the same exact display two days after Christmas 2024. Makes me want to play this Valentine favorite from my high school days.

My writing process, for lack of a better word, is "complicated". It wasn't always this way though, as previous to 2021, I wrote like every other writer on the planet: with a computer (laptop/PC/any other computer related device). But unlike everyone else, my output could be calculated in weeks/months, instead of hours/days.

And the worse that my genetic malady affected my hands, the more that my output dried up. Until finally in late 2020, I decided to become like the writers prior to the creation of the computer and typewriter, and do everything with pen and paper. I had last done pen and paper with my blog between 2007-2009 before the motivation dried up, so resurrecting the pen and paper seemed like a no-brainer.

But, a funny thing happened along the way of doing my writing the old fashioned way (not completely as draft 1A was transcribed to the computer): I began to actually pay attention to what I was writing for characters and scenes. For those who constantly battle with variations of the old adage of "distractions often drain the creative juices dry", I managed to bring that battle to a well deserved stalemate.

Here's how I managed to accomplish this feat of daring-do.

1.  I do not have Meta Inc on my phone, nor do I play with any other of the popular socialized media platforms save YouTube (I am forever connected to Alphabet Inc). In fact, I have seven apps that get regular use: two music/podcast apps, two news apps, YouTube, a crossword puzzle app and a sports app.
2. I use Google for research purposes while I'm writing (e.g. grammar, culture, religion) at least 97% of the time with the remaining 3% used for crossword puzzle breaks to recover from hand fatigue.
3. Because of the previous two points, my actual total digital time spent while I am actually writing totals about one hour, out of a typical six hour blocked out day for writing (normally 2 hours in the morning, an hour in the afternoon and the remaining three in the evening), with the remaining non-sleep hours doing other non-computer things.
4. Finally, more writing by hand equals less total time spent on the computer per day. Add in the fact that I'm happily retired and enjoy doing other things than doom scrolling on my computer, and my total time on the computer per day is a generous 1.25, 1.5 if I'm struggling to properly start a new chapter.

So what is the cumulative result of this digital malnutrition? A vastly improved writer. Allow me to elaborate.

I've long ago, at least 15+ years, paid closer attention to the books/stories that I was reading, partially to see how the good reputable writers properly crafted their stories. While I did, and continue to do, pick up valuable writing tips, I was often at a loss on how to properly apply them. Only when I had consciously decided to make the switch to pen and paper in 2021 was I able to really apply those tips.

Unlike when I was exclusively using my computer to write, in which beefy characters/scenes were frustratingly inconsistent, using pen and paper forced me to slow down my thought process by a factor of twenty. This slowing down allowed me to properly use the various writing tips that I had acquired, e.g. judiciously drip-dropping background info so as to more fully flesh out the characters, which in turn made my stories to be (hopefully) more compelling.

As with every preferred writing style/routine that a person decides to use, there were a few minor inconveniences that took me a very long time to get used to.

1. Word count: this was the first major hurdle that I had to overcome. I believe I've explained this elsewhere in the past four years, but to refresh everyone's memory, I never lost the ability to cramp my printing yet maintain that legibility at the same time. In short, I've learned to estimate what my word count per chapter is based on the amount of handwritten pages I would generate. So roughly 20-22 pages of handwritten text would equal about 12 computer pages totaling 5,300 +/- words per chapter. Consistently I might add.
2. Mistakes: this was the second major hurdle that I had to overcome. In short, I learned to use great quantities of liquid paper/white-out and blank file folder labels if I'd made a mistake while writing. This has basically forced me to double/triple check to make sure that what I was writing was what I'd wanted to write. In extreme cases, this would lead me to doing the following laborious task.
3. The type of mistake that would send a story off in the wrong direction: There were times throughout my current project where, after taking a break to think about what I had written while doing other things, I would realize that a particular scene was going in a direction that did not jive with the a given plotline. This would necessitate, regardless how bad the error was, to rewrite from where it began to stray and make it right. The amount of aggravation I would have to go through to fix and get the story back on track would boggle your mind. 

To be fair, point three is where I would often envy normal writers, because for them it would be the simple matter of either wiping out the entire error and restarting, or printing out and restarting, both of which required a few clicks of the mouse to fix and only two to three minutes wasted. For me, to fix an error of that magnitude would require, depending on the severity, fifteen to twenty-five minutes to fix.

Still, the one main point that I had managed to accomplish by writing with pen/paper, is that I was able to forcibly slow down my thought process so that everything coagulated properly, and most importantly, made sense. I often had the problem, no matter what stage of life I was at, to miss things while writing so that the final product did not make sense, or worse, shoot from the lip (aka, speak/type without thinking, often with disastrous results).

In general, I am extremely happy with the way I now create my stories, both fresh and rewrites. My aggravation factor is almost nil since changing, which is directly due to being able to concentrate more fully on what I'm writing (especially when I finishing up for the day, more often than not, I don't stop in the middle of a thought, but carry it through to the natural conclusion), whether it's a particular character or a specific scene.

I will say one thing though, that I have carried on/carry forward one particular computer related process to my current process, and that's printing out every completed chapter written. T.L.; D.R., there is a serious issue of control freakiness/microscopic micro-managing attached to that last statement. Blog reader beware, as the fat writer has a closing aria for the intermission of Act III.

It's Monday of the official first week of January 2025, why aren't you still on holiday?

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #255: Research Is The Essence Of Good Writing

Our doggo Oreo chilling out in preparation for a very busy and fulfilling Christmas day.

As any good writer will often tell you, on the point of poking you very hard in the chest, thoroughly researching the main topic of your book, along with the other various tangents that make up the meat and potatoes {or the bean burger and organic fries if you're a veggie} of your story is essential to creating a fantastic product.*

*sorry, but old work habits like using three dozen words instead of an eighteen pack to explain something never really goes away, they just stay dormant.

Since I write fiction, today's post will be about doing the required research in order to make your story as realistic as possible, no matter the genre.

I've always been a bit of a macadamia when it came to researching a particular topic, whether it was work related or personal amusement, and I took that macadamia-ness to a whole new level of neurotic clarity when I started writing. For example, with my first published novel, some items of note included motorcycles, the adult entertainment industry and the feminine form.

The more that I grew as a writer, the more widespread my research efforts became for the stories I was creating. Even though at this point I was writing mostly fantasy based stuff, I still wanted certain elements of the story to have some basis in reality. So my current project became the ultimate test of my research skills.

Different cultures: I became enamored of different cultures a few decades ago with all the books/documentaries/videos that I was consuming, so it became a no-brainer to introduce those elements into my current project.

So I performed what I considered to be a deeper than normal research dive for the cultures that I chose to have a larger than normal focus on in the story: Aztecs, Incas and Mayans. And when I say a deep dive, that included things like family life, language, certain culture norms and deities. In regards to the cultural norms, I made a conscious decision to err on the side of being conservative, since I had no real way of knowing how those cultures felt about certain elements that were woven throughout the story (except maybe the Incas). And can't forget that I created a whole other culture from scratch that had all kinds of other historical elements woven into their fabric.

Different time periods: This probably could go hand in hand with the previous point, since I decided to have different time periods intermingle. For example, I had various characters that were part of the aforementioned cultures, directly or indirectly. A few other characters were part of the modern civilization (mostly North America), while another was part of the late medieval time period. 

Modern/old-fashioned technology/norms: This particular aspect of the story is where I had the most fun playing with. From a modern perspective, both major areas of action (Earth and Pod Planet), were heavily peppered with references to the use of modern technology: drones, cctv, computers, weaponry and digital media; old fashioned technology like having the horse as a main mode of transportation.

Odds and Ends: This particular category is for mostly all of the various bits of research that I had to do for various subjects like grammar (description mostly), certain concepts that I wanted to make sure I was using properly (e.g. slavery & sexual orientation), animal/personal traits (e.g. can horses sleep while walking and certain human characteristics), and other assorted items that would randomly pop into my head while writing a particular scene and I would want to know if it would fit or not.

Names and languages: This one was an ongoing issue throughout the entire series. First, I wanted to make sure that the names made logical sense for the adventure I was writing about AND that they emanated a powerful aura; Secondly, except for one made up language, I wanted the languages to be universally known and used. Which is why I chose English and Spanish as the two dominant languages that were used throughout. I also threw in the languages of the Aztecs (Nahuatl), Incas (Quechua) and Mayans (Yucatec Maya), as those cultures are moderately featured throughout the story. And I threw in ASL, as I have one character who uses sign in addition to telepathy.

One should also note that I didn't use any of the actual languages involved beyond English. A very good editor told me years ago that one should state what foreign language is actually being used in a given conversation, as opposed to actually using the language itself. Less aggravation and definitely less verbiage.

So overall, I enjoy most aspects of research, whether for personal curiosity (e.g. a used c.d. of a band that I've never heard of before) or for writing (clothing was in the top three of the biggest non-culture items that required heavy research). I find it's always better, at least in writing, to sound like you know what you're talking about, as opposed to actually knowing what you're talking about.

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #254: Is The End Really In Sight, Or Is It Just A New Beginning?

Another candidate in my continuing quest of finding books about any kind of topic under the sun: the Oxford English Dictionary. Acquired from my public library's perpetual gently used book store (also features c.d.s, DVDs, puzzles and children's books).

In case anyone was thinking the worst about my blog, have no fear, as this is a writing update on my now five volume series that has a working title of "Sister v Sister".

As the post title hints at, the end is really within sight with this series. Over two years of hard work, totaling (as of the day of this post) 1,200+ pages/112 chapters and a shade over 550k+ words. Oh, least I forget, this is also (currently) spread out to 8 three ring binders.

In the time spent writing this weighty tome, I have developed what I believe is a solid theory that can be applied to all books, consisting of two good points and one incredibly fugly point.

Good point #1: The basic idea for the story. This, in my opinion, is the easiest goal to accomplish. If you consistently carry a small pocket notebook and a pen, you can easily jot down ideas for stories as you go about your day. In my particular case, the story idea was a kidnapping. We fleshed it out afterwards, but the premise was very simple and very basic.

Good point #2: A starting and ending point. Again, in my opinion, it's another easy goal to accomplish. You decide on how you want it to start and how you want it to finish. In my case, it was a home invasion that was the actual starting point to the story. As for the ending point, it was to be the two sisters and the husband of one to become co-rulers of an unknown planet.

Fugly point #1: It has to be the journey itself from the beginning of the story to the perceived ending of the story. It truly does become something with all of the meaty entrees, appetizers, salads and desserts. A true smorgasbord of delightful pieces that make your story complete, but man, it can drive you to pull out a pair of Zircon encrusted tweezers so you can remove all those hair follicles from your body just to kill the mental pain.

With all of the various side plots, side tangents and the solid growth of all the characters involved (e.g. dribbling in almost one dozen highly necessary backstories for all of the characters involved, no matter how long they hang around for), and if you're like me, a pantster, you have to find a way to keep track of all of those various story parts.

For me personally, it was the chapter-by-chapter print out, which was soon followed by a bullet point synopsis that made it up to chapter 96 before petering out. Still, it has been a nightmarish process, as it seems that the closer I get to the actual ending, the harder it's becoming to write each chapter that takes me to that actual ending. Especially since it's taking me a bit of time to wrap up the various plot lines as I progress to the ending.

And even when I finally do write the intended ending, which is still in flux as we speak (think of it as a movie anecdote where the scriptwriter is furious pounding out enough re-writes in order to film the movie for the next few days, only to wash/rinse/repeat), I still have to write a bunch of epilogues. Why, you might ask?

Well, wouldn't you like to know what the immediate aftermath for all of the characters once the final ending is written? I certainly do, because even though I'm toying with the idea of writing a few adventures for those characters, I still want to know what the final outcome will be for them. For example, I would like to know what the final fallout will be with the kingdom after the coup d'etat is enacted.

So the T.L.;D.R. of this post would probably read something like this: our blog host is finally heading down the home stretch of a typical writing marathon and desperately trying not to be the very last runner to cross the finish line, but kept getting sidetracked as he learned and applied new (to him) writing techniques in order to create a thoroughly enjoyable tome.

So my question to you is this: does my proposed theory sound off the mark, spot on, or somewhere in between?

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved