Book Writing Advice
From a novice novelist, who has finished their first round of edits.
I've done it. I've completed my first round of edits for my debut novel, Bottle Trees and Broken Dreams. This round of edits consisted of checking for spelling and grammar, omitting issues I found in the full read, and adding things that would help build the world and clear things up. I took this draft from 55,000 words to 60,000 words, which is something I'm very happy about.
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About the Creator
Ashley Lima
I think about writing more than I write, but call myself a writer as opposed to a thinker.
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College Degrees
The most expensive piece of paper one may ever own. Signed off and sealed, making the empty promises that higher education brings extra official. Garnered after many nights of justified tears and many words written on topics one can't even remember. C's get degrees, but good jobs are never promised.
By Ashley Lima2 years ago in Critique
Comments (10)
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Become a paid subscriber to get access.Wooohooooo congratulations! I'm soooo happy for you! *does my little happy dance*. Anyway, I'm a chaotic planster! I just never knew there were terms for these, lol. Also, give yourself grace is such an amazing advice!
This was compelling. Thank you for your honesty, especially about taking breaks from the book. Some don’t understand how necessary that is. I found it so cool that the story evolved from a nightmare. I get a lot of my ideas from dreams too. Apparently I’m a neutral pantser.
Ashley, congrats on your book. This article really had some good tips as I'm still in the "the draft sat stagnant, for a really long while." stage. The chart is so good though, feels like I'm a neutral plotter right now. Thank you for sharing.
Amazing advice! Thank you so much for doing this. All this advice was so great, & thank you for addressing my question! I definitely am probably overthinking outlining. I am a planner by nature so I tend to do that if I'm being honest and it does stifle the creative flow for sure. But I really like the writing exercise idea you gave. I'm going to try that for sure!
Multifaceted look at the process, and infinitely useful. Congratulations on finishing so much of the momentous work, now it's just around the corner! I thought the table you gave was interesting, and find myself all over the place in it. I combine aspects of absolute chaos and rigid order in my own process. I like to build it out of order, but I usually do start with the opening. I'm very meticulous about structure, but in the fabric of my events I wish for a blended sense of temporality that bridges past present and future. The mind processes the present through the light of its past, but always forwarding itself into future projections. I think collective consciousness works similarly. I look forward to the future of your book!
Dear Ms. Ashley - Such a Brilliant How-to; I'm certain you will help so many with this advice. As an aside: I've had a career of writing franchise offering prospectives from the 'reverse' ie; "Lawful Plantser" If they couldn't get past the ending they were unworkable. *I plan to stand in line for a book-cover autograph. Jay Jay Kantor, Chatsworth, California 'Senior' Vocal Author - Vocal Author Community -
Congrats on finishing. When i read the part where you rewrote a 1/3 of the novel from 3rd to 1st know how soul crushing that can be. Great resilience! I can write 30 short stories no problem, but writing 30 chapters of one book looks insurmountable: ive seen what you said before… plot out the characters and then the plot can write itself based on the situations you put them inn, like the broken mobile. Good luck with the novel and the next round of editing
Also, I love the D&D -ahem- Writing Alignment chart lol
This was very enlightening. I find myself a chaotic writer. When I have a chance to write, my brain just goes on a tangent and I try and keep up and clean up after it. I need to get better at planning lol.
Thank you Ashley for your advice! Our brains are definitely funky sometimes. I like to think that ADHD is our superpower and kryptonite, and it's nice to be reminded that it's okay. Thanks for the encouragement, I will definitely take you up on your offer to help out if need be.