writing a novel Archives

Beta-reader feedback and darker days

Paranormal romance novels, The life of a writer / Leave a Comment / By evelynlux

Hello darlings,

This week I’ve begun working through the feedback I got as a result from the beta-readings of Kilonova Blues. I’ve gotten a lot of love for the story but also some solid things to work through in terms of overused words, show-not-tell, what motivates the characters etc. Since we all want to initially focus on the positive to keep our spirits high, I’ll share some completely biased feedback with you 😉

A strong start – captivating and makes me want to read on!
Love the way that you release information; the text messages, the conversation with the receptionist and the mirror – no info dumping which is great.
You have an amazing way with words.
Did I emotionally connect with them: Alexandra – definitely. I liked her “voice” quite a bit. You do a really good job of getting Alex’s thoughts across.
Overall the plot makes sense. I’m very intrigued by how it ended.
The story is fantastic – I love the twists.

This right here is more than enough to motivate me to improve all weaker parts of the story which were brought to my attention. This is how we learn. We do something, we ask for others’ opinions, we improve and the circle goes on and on. When this story hits the bookstores, my absolute goal is that it will either touch your soul, your memory of something or your hope for the future. For what is the world without love and the challenges we fight to overcome when we believe in something, but a cold and dark place without meaning. We can’t have that now, can we? That is why we write. We write for all sorts of reasons, but that sure is a strong one.

A tip along the way as fall is making its way into our lives: make sure to bring a lot of fresh flowers into your home and to light a lot of candles. Candles and flowers. All the time. It will help, I promise.

That’s all for now,
hej så länge!

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Filter words and the Chinese bamboo

Writing tips / Leave a Comment / By evelynlux

WHEN is spring coming?! I’m probably not the only one going crazy waiting for winter to fade away. My writing company for the day are the lovely flowers in the pictures below; winter outside, spring inside. That’ll suffice for now.

Since English isn’t my first language, I occasionally get stuck on things Google can’t help me wrap my head around. This happened the other day, so I turned to one of the writers groups on Facebook (thank heavens they exist) with the following question;

Help!

“His words sound electric”

or

“His words sound electrical”?

Oh, how I love when you get answers you didn’t know you were looking for. Everyone advised me to go with electric, but one particular soul was kind enough to enlighten me that the word “sound” is what’s called a “filter word”, and she recommended me to get rid of it.

Hm, a “filter word”? I had never heard of it. So I turned my attention back to Google to fill the knowledge gap. After bumping in and out of some websites I’d gotten the message clear:

A filter word is a word which distances the reader from the experience. By using a filter word, you make the reader a passive viewer of what the character’s feeling, and weaken the reader’s engagement with the text.

“Shit! This needs out!” That was my first thought. My second thought was; “Which words are filter words?” Let me enlighten you the way I was (even though I reckon many of you fellow writers already know this by heart):

can
to see
to hear
to think
to touch
to wonder
to realize
to watch
to look
to seem
to feel (or feel like)
to decide
to sound (or sound like)
to notice
to be able to
to note
to experience
to remember

With a surrendering, nervous laugh (wish I could insert a GIF right here), I came to the realization that my revision phase just got extended at least another four to six weeks. I’ll have to do a whole round only focusing on replacing filter words, strengthening the text. To my grateful relief, I’ve been doing this unconsciously up till now as well, but there sure are more work to be done.

Do you know of more filter words? Let me know in the comments here or on Instagram.

But hey, we learn as long as we live and at the end of the day, it’ll be all worth it! Keep getting at it, whatever you’re struggling with right now. Think of yourself as a Chinese Bamboo Tree (Google it and read about how it grows) – one day you’ll shoot your sprouts towards the sky and nothing’ll stop you.

That’s all for now,
hej så länge!

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Perseverance and revision strategy

The life of a writer / Leave a Comment / By evelynlux

It’s #writerswednesday and March 14th. Today I’m wrapping up revising chapter seven of my paranormal romance novel Kilonova Blues. As I’ve mentioned earlier, my naïvety knew no boundaries when I sat down to schedule my work this spring. I estimated to spend one day per chapter for the first revision round, but boy, was I mistaken.

I’m still revising at the same slow, steady pace in which I set off with the first chapter, meaning I’m working through two chapters a week. With the first draft of the book coming in at 18 chapters, that means I’ve still got five weeks to go before the second draft’s finished. Instead of three to four weeks, I’ll end up spending roughly nine weeks in total on this part of the process. Deep breaths Aries, deep breaths… It’ll be worth it.
Since my 30th birthday’s coming up this spring as well, it’ll probably come in at ten or eleven weeks, ’cause I got myself a little trip to celebrate the occasion. 😉 I’ll tell you more about that later on.

So, how have I structured the work of revising the text? Well, for this first round, I’ve just decided to focus on rewriting everything that strikes me as too simply phrased. I try to glue the story together, make sure everything make sense, add to the story where the context seems to thin. I’m basically working through the body of the text. The key of my strategy is to focus on one thing at a time, at least this early in the process. Otherwise it’s easy to get overwhelmed.

While I work, I take notes on what I need to focus on for the next round (or the round after that, or the one after that…). So far, this is what I’ve found I need to work through:

Strike out as many adjectives and adverbs as possible – show, don’t tell
Check consistency for dates and time
Check accurate use of ´ vs. ‘
Check consistency for dialogue and quotes
How often do I use the phrase “a wide smile” – eventually replace?
How often do I use the phrase “a wry smile” – eventually replace?
How often do I use the word “gaze” – eventually replace?
Check “toward” vs. “towards”
Do I really like “eyes pop wide open”? How can I rephrase this surprised facial expression?
Check accurate use of “spark” vs. “sparkle”
“Ok” or “Okay” – choose which one
Check the phrasing of “with a (certain) tone of voice” vs. “in a (certain) tone of voice”

And I guess the list will continue to expand since I’m only half way through the first draft. As you can see, over the last couple of months, I’ve learned what every writer knows but all non-writers have no idea about – it takes time and a great dose of perseverance to write a GOOD book! Not to mention strong character and a considerable amount of self-confidence.

Visualization’s become my best friend, and when I’m not working, you’ll find me either meditating or Googling “kilonovas” or “blue eyes” for book cover inspiration! Some days, when I really get in the mood, I even Google which actors to cast for the movie…

Tomorrow’s an exciting day; I’ll be sharing the first quote from the book on Instagram. I’m beginning to get really excited to let you guys in on reading some chapters as well, it’ll most likely be posted on the blog sometime in May – keep your eyes open!

That’s all for now,
hej så länge!

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Revising shocks and pride

The life of a writer / Leave a Comment / By evelynlux

Writing novels ain’t no walk in the park. However, last week something pretty amazing happened; I finished the first draft of Kilonova Blues!

Ten months ago, I sat down at my computer and succumbed to the pressing urge I felt to write. It was Thursday April 20th, and during Thursday and Friday evening, I wrote the first chapter of 23 pages. The thrill I felt as the words came flowing out of me at that rapid speed was amazing. I was working full time as a project manager at the time, and of course, I didn’t have the energy to keep writing at that pace. But I kept writing. And last Friday, I finally wrote the last sentence of the first draft. It came in on 18 chapters and 111 390 words.

The project I was working with came to an end on December 31st, and I decided to take this opportunity to write full time for a while. So far, I’ve spent my time on building the website, content planning and writing to finish that first draft. AND IT’S FINALLY DONE! It feels surreal.

So, on Monday this week I began revising the first chapter of the text. What can I say but Oh. My. God. The quality of the text was so bad! I altered between laughing and crying as I read and realized that I probably needed to rewrite most of the chapter. I could definitely see the story I have in my head reflected in the text, but the way it was written was just so embarrassing. And I remember thinking something like “Yeah, I’m born to do this!” right after I’d finished it, thinking it was the best I’d ever seen! I’ve decided to view this as proof that my writing’s developed greatly over the past ten months, and that actually feels fantastic. I can only dream of where I’ll be in another ten months!

Development itself, in whatever form it may come, is amazing. It’s there to confirm that whatever we’re doing on this earth is actually worth something. Not financially, but personally. We get something for it. We become better, we refine our skills, we broaden our views of the world and ourselves. To be able to read that first chapter of the first draft of the first book I’ve ever written, and identify progress in my writing skills – I choose to see that as a gift. In ten years time, I hope I’ll be able to look at the five or six of my published titles on the book shelf, and think back on the courage I had to write that first draft all those years ago.

I’ve reworked the first chapter now, resulting in a cut of roughly 1 300 words and better formulations. Can’t wait till the next round where I’ll focus on replacing as many adverbs as I can possibly find and formulate even stronger sentences 😉 But first – chapter two, here I come!

That’s all for now,
hej så länge!

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