Guest post Rachel Rossana ~ Editing

Today Rachel Rossano is stopping by and talking editing. 

Editing Checklist

Editing is the necessary evil every good writer endures in the journey to publication. I used to hate editing so much that I refused to edit until months (sometimes years) after I finished a manuscript. Now I am wading through those old manuscripts, bringing them up to date, polishing the writing style, correcting the cliches, fixing typos, and eradicating my bad writing habits of the years past.

Here are some items from my editing checklist.

Words that usually need to be removed:

that

-        had (frequently not necessary)

-        said (or other dialogue tags when it is clear who is saying what)

-        was/were/is (can usually be easily replaced by an active verb)

Words that usually need to be changed for something else or deleted entirely because I use them too frequently (They are allowed in extremely small quantities.):

-        look, looked, noticed

-        felt, feel

-        could, would

Things to watch for:

-        

Head hopping (switching POV without a break)

-        

Poetic or high description from a character that isn't a writer or inclined that way

-        Pace (Is the story moving forward at an appropriate pace)

-        Sentence structure (too many long sentences, too many short, too many of the same kind, or an inappropriate one for the pace, e.g., a long complex sentence at a point of high action in the story)

-        Guys talking like girls (for example, about their feelings)

-        Too much crying

-        Conversations that are realistic (sort of) and dialogue where characters sound like themselves (good thing)

-        Phrases that pull the reader out of the story or draw unnecessary attention to the POV character. For example, "I looked up. His face tightened with grief." Deleting the first sentence would actually make the second stronger by focusing the reader's attention on the person being observed, not the observer (the POV character). I hope this makes sense. It tends to be tricky to explain.

-        Telling when I should be showing and the opposite, showing when I should be telling. The reader doesn't need to know the minute movements necessary to fix tea. But, she/he would probably be interested in the physical response of everyone in the room when the hero drops a plot bomb in the middle of the tea party conversation.

-        Cliches

So, what items are on your editing checklist? I might have missed something.

Book Plug

Brielle Solarius struggles to keep her village from starvation. The men rode off to war and never returned. The remaining women and children face a winter of starvation if they do not find a solution soon.

Tomas Dyrease, the newly made Earl of Irvaine and the village of Wisenvale, owes his good fortune to his king. When that same king demands Tomas marry the impoverished daughter of the late Lord Wisten, he obeys. However, no one warned him that she wasn’t a typical noblewoman.

Duty: a novel of Rhynan follows their journey from strangers to friends as they face complications from their pasts and the shaky politics of a changing regime. Then Brielle is implicated in her cousin’s treasonous activities. Can a marriage of duty survive treason?

Author Bio

Author of a growing stack of novels, novellas, and short stories, Rachel Rossano balances her time between the chaos of raising and homeschooling her three children and the world of drama and high adventure in her head. With her faithful husband and chief consulting editor by her side, she dreams of many more adventures to come in both of her double lives. Check out her work at http://Rachel-rossano.blogspot.com.

Buy Links

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Duty-novel-Rhynan-ebook/dp/B00BAI41RO

Smashwords - https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/281699

Thank you,

Rachel Rossano

Blog ~ http://rachel-rossano.blogspot.com/

Website ~ http://anavrea.webs.com/

Twitter ~ http://twitter.com/#!/RachelRossano

Facebook ~ http://www.facebook.com/RachelRossanoRambles

YouTube ~ http://www.youtube.com/anavrea

Sequel to Armed and Outrageous Now Available

Senior snoop, Agnes Barton, has taken up residence in a Winnebago at a campground in East Tawas, Michigan. It’s not the ideal place for a woman of seventy-two to live, but she’s making do. She had planned to start a detective agency with partner in crime, Eleanor Mason, but a snag with the license has them free wheeling it, not that it matters because they are the ones folks call when dead bodies turn up.

A frantic phone call has Agnes and Eleanor racing to the scene of yet another crime scene. Herman Butler has fallen to his death from a third story window, and the widow, Betty Lou, is beside herself with either grief or competing for the Oscars, and it’s up to Agnes and Eleanor to unravel the mystery, which gets more interesting when a ghost is listed as a possible suspect.

This time around, Agnes and Sheriff Peterson can agree, the widow is nuts, but wait, a few days later the ghost ship, Erie Board of Trades, was spotted off the shores of Lake Huron. Ghost hunters, G.A.S.P., hightail it into town, and East Tawas is overrun with ghost sightings.

Agnes and Eleanor must sort fact from fantasy before another body is found or a curse is realized.

Now available on Amazon and Smashwords. 

Agnes and Eleanor sound off!

Dorothy Alton listened intently to Eleanor and I as we were exercising at the County Medical Center in Tawas, MI. Sure we could always go to the YMCA, but as luck would have it, not a one near Tawas. 

I knew a busy body when I saw one and knew Dorothy had best mind her P's and Q's is she didn't want to tangle with Eleanor today. It's bad enough the pair could barely stay in a room together without fighting. I just hoped to be spared the hassle of explaining to Sheriff Peterson what happened and why. If he had his way he'd lock El and I in a jail cell permanently. It's not my fault I happen to be great at sleuthing. Then there was Miss Fancy Dancy Administrator to deal with. She had it in for El and I ever since the last bake sale. Again, totally not our fault. How was I to know what were in the brownies or what uproar it would all turn out to be.

Eleanor picked up the weights, nearly bending to the ground and gave me more of a view of her backside than I cared for. That's just Eleanor. I think she does it on purpose.

I cleared my throat, I hated that I was the one that had to share the news with her. 

"Did you hear what Madison Johns is doing now?"

"Agnes Barton, why on earth are you picking on poor Madison like all the times. She gave birth to us or did you forget?"

"Of course not! It's just that," looking around to make sure nobody was within earshot. 

"She's telling everyone that we're giving it away for free."

"Well we do that already."

"You might, but I certainly don't." I straightened my back which caused a stitch in my side. 

"Why do you try and act all dignified, you know you ain't, right? I mean, what kind of woman your age drives around in a red hot Mustang?"

"Why do you always harp on me about my car?" I pushed a loose strand of hair from my eyes, changing the subject. "She's giving the whole damn book away!"

"Why is that a bad thing? Just think about how many more people that will be able to read about our escapades."

"Maybe she should just write the sequel already."

"Oh Aggie, just calm down."

"I can't. People will start to talk." 

"Again, they already do that. We live in a small town and that's what folks do for entertainment."

"They will spread rumors I tell you!"

"Will you two just exercise," Madison said. "You're gonna need all your energy for the sequel."

"Oh God, I don't like the sounds of that," Aggie said.

Madison smiles. "Don't worry, I promise that the two of you will have many adventures to come, okay?" She coughs. "I'm doing a free run on Amazon of Armed and Outrageous Sept 5th - 9th."

"I guess, it's not like I have a choice is it?"

"No Agnes, unless you want to be written out of the sequel. I could always let Eleanor run the show for awhile."

Eleanor rubbed her hands together. "I'm loving the sounds of that."

"Please don't encourage her!"

Madison walks away shaking her head. "Don't forget to snap up your free copy of Armed and Outrageous on Sept 5th - 9th!

Available at:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

KDP Select Rules

Okay so I won't get into the pot of gold over this one and I don't much care. The best reason to do the KDP Select is that you can change the price of your eBook to free for five days. Everybody loves freebees, right? For a writer like me, that's huge!

I did not plan to wait until January either. It was quite by accident. I had no idea how to change it to free, but after reading that all my Facebook writer buddies were doing it, I said what the hey. It took some fiddling around, but I figured out how. I enrolled in KDP Select a little after it started. I wasn't really getting any sales from Smashwords. I hated to un-publish it, but it's one of the things you have to do as terms of service for KDP Select.

To date, my sales of Coffin Tales Season Of Death isn't huge, but I am selling them, and my sales are continuing to grow.

Starting Jan 2nd, Coffin Tales, changed from 99 cents to free. Downloads went through the roof. Not only am I amazed. I'm astounded.

I didn't get 1,000 or what many of my other writer friends are getting. I'm not concerned about that. You can't get yourself wrapped up in if you are better or sell more than most of your other writer friends. Just be you.

My promotion ran from Jan 2-6, and most downloads happened during the weekend, but I lost the momentum I could have had because I had to work. Us writer types need a job until we become J.A. Konrath. We don't want to be him, just successful like him.

So I suppose my downloads could of ... would of ... should of ... been much higher. Maybe. Giggles. This further proves shorter fiction has a place on Amazon.

I want to thank everyone that snatched up a free copy of Coffin Tales and of course, everyone that bought a copy, and continues to buy it.

Yes, that's the beauty of it because it's still ... selling.

I want to thank every writer that shared my book link or retweeted. I couldn't have done it without any of you. Facebook without question rules!! I love all of my friends followers and stalkers.

Also, thanks to everyone that posted a review on Amazon.