The Editing, It Never Ends ~ @AuthorKristina Knight

You Can't Edit a Blank Page.

Sometimes I feel like there hasn't been a time I haven't been editing. In journalism school we edited and edited to get our news articles just so and once they were perfect on the page we printed them out and pasted up the paper. When I moved into TV news I learned that kind of editing was simple. In television they send you out in the big, wide world, tell you to shoot good pictures and get good interviews...and then come back and make the hour of footage you just shot into a story of a minute or less. And then I started writing my own stories and learned all that editing would stand me in good sted...because writing the perfect story the first time through is truly a myth. At least for me.

But I've learned a few things along the way and editing isn't the heinous crime against creativity it once was.

First, don't tackle it all at once. There are layers to my editing. As I'm writing the first draft, I read through the previous chapter before starting fresh with a new chapter. During that pass I correct small misspellings or grammar issues. I don't allow more than that. Once the book is finished I allot time for 3 full passes: 1 to check on grammar issues, 1 to check continuity - is that character's name really Reginald? WTF was I thinking?!? - plot and flow issues (this sounds like a lot but I've found they work well together), and a final pass to see what I've overlooked. On that final pass I print out a copy in 14ish point type and some kind of color ink (lately I like blue). I find the bigger font and color change helps me catch little issues I haven't to that point.

Second, time is my friend. You know those editing layers? I don't tackle them on the first, second and third day after finishing the draft. I wait at least 2 weeks before starting any kind of editing. And I try to let at least a few days slip by before going from one draft phase to another. Those built-in waits help me 'forget' the story so each time it's like looking at it with fresh eyes.

Third, new projects are a great carrot. During those wait times, I'm not twiddling my thumbs. I'm reading - out of and in the genre I write. I'm writing - sometimes on a new book, sometimes researching a new book, sometimes just free-writing some really, truly, horribly bad poetry that will forever be locked under my bed. But I'm still working on the creative side of my brain.

The subject line up there comes from La Nora herself. She said something to that effect a few years ago and it's kind of caught on in writing circles. Because she is 100% right. You can't edit a story that hasn't been written. In some cases you can't tell a story that hasn't been edited.

Do you have an editing tip that you live by?

Kristina Knight's latest release, Moonlight Match, is available now! 

Moonlight Match is part of the Resort to Romance continuity project ~ 10 sweet romances, all set during a week-long matchmaking event in the Bahamas! 
Aster Harrington believes in love but love doesn’t seem to believe in her. She’s hoping Goldie and Ginny, the matchmakers who’ve matched on two generations of Harringtons, can work a little love magic for her…

Some call Ethan Talbot rigid, but he prefers to think of himself as prepared. Unfortunately, when he’s matched with Aster Harrington at Joy Island’s Matchmaking Week, all those carefully prepared plans go out the window. He can get back to finding a suitable wife once he’s home in New York. After all, how much damage can one week in the Bahamas do to his plans?


Kristina Knight is a contemporary romance author, part-time swim-kid wrangler, and full-time ThinMints enthusiast. You can find out more the book and Kristina on her website, and feel free to stalk follow her on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Power to Encourage

"It does not matter how slowly you go, as long as you do not stop." --Confucius

by Joanne Rock

            I don’t claim to be a wise old crone, but nothing reminds me of how long I’ve been in the writing business faster than speaking to a writing group. Earlier this month I had the pleasure of speaking to the Tampa RWA chapter about tropes and series romance. It was a fun topic, and the group was a supportive, engaged audience. 

            The joy of events like this continue after the formal topic is done and I have the chance to speak with members of the group individually. Writers begin sharing more about their journeys, and firing questions of all kinds. We talk about the writing process, the drive to maintain creativity, the tricks behind writing synopses, but most importantly, we talk about persistence.

            Because by and large, I hope that’s what I offer people attending workshops that I give—reminders of how big a role tenacity plans in what we do. I hope that through my own tale of persistence (six full manuscripts, a partial and at least five synopses for other stories completed before I ever sold a single word I wrote) will provide some inspiration for writers who are drowning in rejections. Not many of us get to that first sale without wading through those waters. It can be disheartening. Creatively draining. But it’s truly part of the process.

            That’s the point of the workshop where I feel the wisest. Not because I know a lot about

tropes, or series, or any single point of craft. But I do know what that slog through rejection feels like. I’ve been there, fending off complete demoralization with nothing but blind faith and a good dose of stubbornness. It takes grit to keep writing in spite of the odds, to keep teaching yourself and flexing the writing muscle to improve. I remember that what helped keep my feet on the path were the occasional tales from the trenches from other authors who took many years and many manuscripts to make that first sale.

            So more than any writing wisdom, I hope that I pass along some of that courage in the face of rejection. I hope that I'm inspiring a certain level of persistence. If I succeed at this, I’ve given a truly valuable a gift. Finding the courage to believe in your dreams is hard to come by, but we close ourselves off to too many wonderful possibilities if we don’t keep taking steps to achieve them.

*** From a pep talk for a girlfriend to a heart-to-heart with a nervous child, we all take on the role of mentor and cheerleader sometimes in or lives.  When was the last time you exercised your power to encourage someone in their goals? I'll give one random poster an advance copy of book 1 in my new Dynasties: Mesa Falls series, The Rebel!

Michelle Styles: Curing my writing resistance (or attempting to)

One of the things about being a writer is that sometimes the words flow easier than others. It can be for a variety of reasons but I know I am in trouble when I keep finding excuses to do other things. There are often really good excuses for procrastinating. The trouble with procrastination is that the manuscript doesn’t get written if you are busy doing something else.

Over the past year, I have noticed my daily word count which used to be respectable has started becoming more and more pathetic. I didn’t have full blown writer’s block, but I definitely had resistance. So when a writer friend mentioned she was reading a book  Around the Writer’s Block by Roseanne Bane about the science of the brain and writer’s block, I knew it was something I had to read.

After all why write, when you can read about why you might not be writing?

 To my surprise, Bane has some very sound things to say about why a writer (any writer) might be avoiding writing. It has to do with the way your brain works. When you are under stress, your limbic system takes over. And even though you think you are in charge, you are really in panic mode. The big revelation for me was that I did not need to know why I had gone into panic mode, simply to acknowledge that I was and to refocus so that my cortex, the higher functioning part that allows me to write could take control. It was about recognising the pattern, rather than finding the source. She pointed out that acknowledging the fear is there is more important than examining precisely what the fear is.

She suggested a three part strategy – breaking your work down into process time, product time and self care as all three were important for writing. I was pleased to see with my daily exercise habit, I was doing good on the self care. But what was immediately clear — I had fallen down was scheduling my process time – ie free thinking time where my hands were doing something and my mind was allowed to think.  For a variety of reasons, I had stopped keeping a journal and had not done much needlework recently. I have started doing these things again and it is helping.  15 minutes of freewriting about whatever pops into my head first thing in the morning is great. Also instead of focusing on word count, I am focusing on the magic 15 minutes. For me this means working in 15 minute stretches where my focus needs to be on the work in progress. It is also the realisation that product time does include freethinking time, research, editing, revising and not just the raw word count.

It does take time to rewire your brain, particularly if it has been used to behaving a certain way. You need to keep doing the new habits so you can force out the old ones. I know this to be true from when I first started exercising seven years ago. You have to schedule and force habits until they become second nature.

In doing the magic 15 minutes when nothing is allowed to interrupt,  I have found that about the 7 minute mark, I have really have to refocus or I will find a reason to check my email, FB or something else. Until I had done this experiment for a few days, I had not really recognised that I did that.  But I can work for 15 min at a time and so I have started doing a series of 15 minute stretches. The net result is that my word count has gone up considerably  instead of stagnating and I am making significant progress on my latest Viking. 

Bane has a lot to say on rewards and finding out about your Saboteur. She also maintains a website and blog on engaging your creative brain which deals with some of the issues.

 I throw this out there in case someone else is suffering – not from writer’s block from resistance. I suspect the theory can apply to anything that you want to do well.

Michelle Styles writes warm, witty and intimate historical romances for Harlequin Historical in a wide variety of time periods. Her next Viking set historical Sent as the Viking’s Bride will be published in January 2019. She is also brilliant at finding new and unusual ways to procrastinate but is currently hard at work on her next novel. You read more about Michelle and her books at www.michellestyles.co.uk

#WriteTip: On Meeting Goals

So it turns out I'm a bit of a procrastinator. This really shouldn't have been a surprise to me because I've always worked well with deadlines - not getting done ahead of deadline, but rushing around and finishing a task at the second that deadline bell rings.

That working well under pressure thing isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does lead to more stress...and it can take away from the fun parts of my job as a writer. It's hard to enjoy a Facebook party or a conference or an afternoon curled up with a favorite author's new book if I know I've got three days to write 20,000 words.

I've been on a bit of an organizational tear for the past few months. I bought a new planner, I've re-organized my office, I've set up my days according to a plan...and yet there were still times when I didn't meet my goals. At the beginning of this year, I decided to try something in addition to the daily goals and monthly goals: I set progress reminders that ping my phone and email. These reminders, I've found are the key to staying on-task.

Here's how I'm not setting up my planner and organizing my organization:

First, I look at the big picture. I can write a book in 6 weeks, depending on length. So if a book is due
May 13, for example, I know I need to start writing by March 31. That means writing, not research or plotting...the actual writing starts March 31. So I mark both of those days in my calendar like this:



Once I've looked at the big picture, I break down the weeks and days...this is where reminders come in. When I ordered my new planner I intentionally chose one with a vertical layout - my days have big Morning, Afternoon and Evening sections...that doesn't mean I only write in the afternoon or that all evenings are family time. Instead I usually washi over the dividers and set up my days according to Family, School/Errands and Writing. The top (morning) section includes grocery lists or bank runs or stuff at bebe's school. The middle (afternoon) has my daily writing goal, and the bottom (evening) holds movie night stuff or bebe's swimming and choir schedules.

After I've broken out the big goals and the daily goals, I set a couple of reminders. When I'm drafting,

I'll set 2 additional reminders in my online calendar. They are literally 'check progress' goals - I look at my deadline, I look at where I'm at in the book and I figure out what needs to happen each day and week between the reminder and the deadline so that I'm not hopped up on caffeine and not sleeping during the week leading up to deadline. I sometimes write the reminders in my physical calendar, too, but usually I keep the reminders only in my online calendar because my paper calendar gets full just with deadlines and family stuff and school things.

I'll also set reminders about new project research, when I want to get sample chapters of uncontracted work to my agent and things like that.

So far, I'm loving not only my new planner, but the setting reminders addition to my planning - I'm staying on task, I'm more relaxed, and I don't feel guilty for taking a little extra time here and here for myself and my family.

Are you on an organizing kick? What do you do to make sure you meet those deadlines? 

Kristina Knight's new release, Protecting the Quarterback, is available for pre-order now, and

will release May 1, 2016.

This is more than just a game...to her

Sports broadcaster Brooks Smith has always been more involved with the game than the players. But after she shares the spotlight at an awards ceremony with tabloid sensation Jonas Nash, one night of letting her guard down around the infamous quarterback spirals into many heated days and nights together when she gets assigned to the story of the year….

The hottest player in professional football is hiding a secret that could end his career for good. Now Brooks is caught on the sidelines between the job she loves and the man she is falling in love with.

Amazon    B&N    iBooks    KOBO    Harlequin

You can find out more the book and Kristina on her website, and feel free to stalk follow her on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. 

Michelle Styles's tips for the New Voices 2011 competition

The Mills and Boon New Voices 2011 Competition really gets  under way next month on 13 September when unpublished authors can start uploading their first  chapter. You can find out more about this brilliant completion at www.romanceisnotdead.com The winner will have her book published in a Mills and Boon series and gets a Mills and Boon editor for a year. And entry is free!

To help get people going with their entry, I thought I’d give a few tips.

1.       Do your research. Decide which series you are targeting and read a few of the debut authors as well as reading guidelines and listening to podcast.  Know the promise each series makes to the reader. Think about what themes you like to write about. Which series can you see yourself writing forty books for?

2.       Make sure you have sustainability. Even though the contest only requires the first chapter, try to write a complete draft or at least a partial. Many times my first chapters change after I have finished the book.  You don’t want to suffer from first chapter contest syndrome and remember you can submit the manuscript through normal channels afterwards. Yoiu want well developed characters rather than cardboard cutouts moving through plot points.

3.       Series books are short and don’t have much room for subplots. Make sure the meet between the hero and heroine (the incident which causes their world to change) takes place in the first chapter. Don’t go for a long set up. Hook the reader with the premise. Make her want to turn the pages and find what is going to happen next to this couple.

4.       Keep your chapter focused on the hero and heroine, rather than adding lots of secondary characters. The reader wants to know who to root for! Everything starts with strong  main characters. Make sure they shine in the first chapter.

5.       Make sure your heroine is empathetic  and the reader wants to spend time with her.  Give the reader a reason to identify with her the very first time she appears.

6.       Make sure the reader will fall in love with your hero instantly. It might take the heroine a bit longer BUT the reader does have to think yum rather than yuck. If your hero needs to be redeemed, show that he is capable of redemption.  Think Richard Armitage in North and South. The first time the heroine sees him, he is beating someone up. But  the viewer knows he is doing it because that man’s smoking amongst the cotton bales endangered the entire factory.

7.       Above all remember they are looking for a NEW author rather than a carbon copy of an existing author.  Work with your voice. Create the sort of characters you love rather than trying to create characters you think the editors want.

Michelle Styles writes warm, witty and intimate historical romance for Harlequin and Mills and Boon. She writes in a wide variety of time periods including ancient Rome, Viking, Regency and Victorian. Her latest book To Marry A Matchmaker was published in the UK in July 2011 You can read more about her books on www.michellestyles.co.uk
You can also find her on twitter @MichelleLStyles