What I've Learned...

About my writing through the editing process:

1) The beginning of my story has stronger writing than the middle.

This is because the beginning gets seen the most, evaluated the most, and fret over the most.  Someone hears I've written a book, I show them the first couple chapters, right?  So those get tons of input, but the middle is often overlooked.  Not only that, but I get in my own way.  Do you do this?  You sit down to write a story; you're motivated and determined to DO IT RIGHT.  You avoid cliches, you use strong verbs, you describe vivid detail.  But then after a couple chapters, you slack off.  You don't take the time to come up with a clever turn-of-phrase, you just plop down plain words on your page.  You are too tired to show so you simply tell. Or you are so excited to write about the big plot-twist up ahead that you rush through the current scene your characters are in, leaving flat, boring prose in your wake.  Have you been there before, or is it just me? 

[A very sad example in my book was the line: "It was very soft".  Oh geeze, how boring!  (And I call myself a writer!)  How about "Soft and smooth as silk."  Better, right?  And you don't even have to know what I was talking about to know that it's better!]

2) My chapter endings are not always page-turners.

And they should be!  You don't want your reader to feel like "This is a good place to stop reading for now".  You want them to think "Oh my gosh, what's going to happen next?  I have to read just ONE MORE chapter before bed!"  Some of my chapters do this well, others might be good closers for the end of a BOOK, but not for the end of a chapter.  Sometimes (often) my chapters end with a satisfying conclusion to a big what-if, the man smiles and thinks God is good and all is right with the world, the girl closes her eyes at night happy that everything will be alright.  Ahh, sounds nice.  But too easy to stop reading!  No, no, no!  It's gotta leave you wondering what big bad problem is about to come crashing into the story, or whether boy will tell girl he's in love, or girl will tell boy her big secret.  As my friend Cathy says- Add tension!  And speaking of tension...

3) My scenes need more tension.

Some of my scenes are quaint and lovely but offer none of that magic tension mentioned above.  Sure, it's great when the hero kisses the girl and they live happily ever after- but it's more interesting when the hero kisses the girl but then finds out it was the wrong girl!  Or when the hero is on his way to meet his lady love but gets a flat tire and never makes it there.  In my story, a great deal of the tension comes from within the characters themselves.  So this means I simply need to open them up more and poke around inside of them to find out what they are feeling during an encounter that may, on the surface, appear easy and honkey-dorey.  What doubts do they have, what memories, what fears?

4) My chapter openings are prone to weakness.

Like the chapter endings, openings need to be strong and mighty and draw the reader further in.  In my case, this falls within the same category of lesson #1 with laziness at the center many times.  Take for example, this sad opening sentence of a chapter: "I was starting to settle in here."  BLAH!  Much better to say: "God was rebuilding my life brick by brick."  Now the reader wants to know what each brick is!  A job?  A home?  A friend?  Once I saw the fraility of some of my chapter openings, I understood how much stronger and compelling they could be if rewritten.  Had any of my friends ever said "You know, Michelle, that line about settling in is really boring."  No, not my non-writer friends.  Just my author friends who know the difference.  The "regular" reader didn't notice weakness but they sure didn't notice any strength there either, know what I mean?   But those non-writer friends will certainly have an even higher opinion of my work when I keep my writing strong and compelling all the way through.

5) I use too much passive voice.

Ok, I hate to include this here because I have a pet peeve about overuse of the active voice.  I like passive voice.  I don't want to sound like I just walked out of the class "Avoiding Passive Voice At All Costs 101".  But I DO use passive voice much more often than I should, and I do need to fix it.  Probably over half of the instances of passive voice can be switched to active without sounding odd to my ear and will make the sentence/scene/description much stronger.  There are still times I will still cling to my passive voice like grim death.  One day my book will BE released, it won't 'release'!  (So sorry to my friends who say it that way, but this is just me!)  I like my passives and I'm sticking to them.... just much less frequently!

*This wraps up my Lessons Learned for now.  I am almost half way through my book, but not halfway through my edits.  It's just that there were far fewer in those first chapters.  So I still have a ways to go, and only a month left to get there- but get there I must! 

Fresh Eyes

I have mere weeks to get my manuscript submitted to the Operation First Novel contest.  I've been combing through it, trying to make it the best it can be, but I need some help. I need some perspective and an outside eye to help me with it- particularly in the middle.  If you are interested and willing to take a look at portions of my manuscript and give me some feedback on it, let me know!  Ideally, I would like to be able to send just the portions I really want feedback on, for time's sake, but I'm open to sharing the full story. 

If you are one of my writing buddies, you may get a direct request from me, but don't feel pressured.  Life is hectic for me and I know it is for you too!  Anyone can either leave me a comment here or send me an email or a FB message and let me know you are available to take a look at a couple chapters of my book. 

Thank you!

What's Going On?

Hello, dear readers. My apologies on the lack of posts lately, but I've been very busy.

Last week I started homeschooling my 7th grade daughter for the first time. It's been quite an adventure! Things are going well so far, though we are still getting the scheduling down and hopefully can shave some time off our day soon. Science has been a blast with 3 experiments under our belts already! Algebra is going great- I'm thankful for our online course through yourteacher.com. History has begun with the creation account in Genesis (far cry from public school!), and the History of Art is a fun addition to our day.  It's very rewarding but keeps me quite busy as you can imagine.

Yesterday my husband and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary!  Last night we attended a dinner cruise in Newport Beach with delicious filet mignon and salmon and a decadent chocolate mousse dessert.  We also danced and watched the sunset and took some pictures.  It was a lovely night, punctuated by the fact that our 14 month old behaved well for my parents (which had been a major concern).

I have begun fundraising efforts for the WFTS conference.  I need to raise about $800- I'd love your prayers in this area!  I'm having a fundraising party/event at my mom's house in a couple of weeks and just praying for a good turn out, lots of fun and love from friends, and of course hope to put a dent in my fundraising goal.  Anyone with fundraising experience want to give me tips?  I'm having a candle party, raffling off a centerpiece, and conducting a Ping Pong Tournament (fun!).  We may also wash cars.  Sound good?  I'll probably put some stuff up on Ebay this week as well.  Maui Jim sunglasses anyone?  All this is par for the course in publication efforts, unless you are wealthy, which I'm not. =)

In the meantime I have about 6 weeks to enter my book in the Operation First Novel contest, so I've been poring over my manuscript to make sure it's ready.  Some days I feel confident I stand a good chance, other days I think mine will be among the first stories cut.  But whatever happens, I'm doing my best and leaving it in God's hands.

So, these are but a few of the things going on in the Massaro household right now.  Real life is much busier than just this, if you can believe that.  (Check out my recent facebook post on my son's school schedule!) But God is so good, I am so blessed!  Can't wait to see what's in store over these next few months.  Stay tuned, my friends!

~ Michelle

Coffee with Jesus

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