Writing a Novel – Page 2 – Read First Chapter.com

2nd Edition or Relaunch – What Happened in Scrivener

COPYING INTO SCRIVENER

I watched a video on YouTube teaching how to import a Word document into Scrivener. It suggested that you could use a symbol like the pound sign (#) to indicate the end of a chapter. It sounded so easy, but it didn't work. At least for me, it didn't work.

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So I just copy and pasted each chapter into a new document. By breaking up the novel back into separate chapters and having the tools inside Scrivener to keep an overview of things, it made the whole process seem a lot easier.

CHANGES I MADE:

I decided not to change the actual plotline of the story because I still liked it. I chose to polish up my prose and add some additional foreshadowing.

When I originally wrote the book, I wasn't sure there would be a second book. I wound up writing 5 books in the series. There wasn't much foreshadowing in the book, and the characters had developed over the series, so I was able to beef up the characters in the first book and add some foreshadowing now knowing how the series would end. I decided that these changes would bring Book 1 to a place I would be happy to then let go of the series.

Now, this decision was made in real time. In other words, until I hit a stride in about the fourth chapter, I was still unsure if I would even continue on with the rewrite. But by the fifth chapter, I realized that the changes I was making, even though it wasn't changing the actual plotline, were good and well worth the effort.

The advice I would pass on to anyone who is considering a 2nd edition and you're not sure of it, try to be okay with proceeding one step at a time with some general doubt. Let that be okay. This is the advice I would have given myself on the day I started in Scrivener.

WHAT I LEARNED FROM THE PROCESS AND WHAT I WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY NEXT TIME:

Now that I have been through the entire 2nd Edition process once already, I realize that there are continual doubts along the way that I needed to just push through.

The one change I would make to how I did things is this: I would make a separate copy of my final manuscript and go into Word first. If I decided to change the actual plotline, then I would bring the book into Scrivener as I would need to use the outline mode to keep track of everything. However, since I only added foreshadowing and improved he prose, I would have done the work in Word.

The only reason for proceeding in Word only is because compiling the book from Scrivener to Word does mess up the styles and the formatting a bit. This gives rise to a need to re-read the book again before handing it off to an editor.

TIME OUT FOR A LITTLE ADVICE ON EDITING:

I had the book edited originally, but I just changed every other sentence, so it had to be re-edited. I knew that going into this, so it was okay. Now, I like to edit the book myself and I have an elaborate multi-layer stage of proofreading that I go through so that when I pass the book to an editor, his or her time is not eaten up with correcting silly typos and adding forgotten commas.

By doing a thorough proofread, and with a suggestion that my weakness is verb tense and reading over my own typos, the editor can focus on the things I need the most help with.

THE NEXT DECISION TO MAKE:

The rewrite with prose improvement and foreshadowing added turned out to be MUCH easier than I anticipated. So after passing off the first book, Darius - A Vampire Story, to my editor, I decided to do an upgrade on the second book too. I just passed that one off to the editor yesterday.

SHOULD I MAKDE A NEW BOOK COVER?

I wish I could say this was an easier decision to make, but it wasn't. I really like the present book cover on my first book, but I changed the artwork a little bit for one reason:

I wanted to tweak my marketing strategy when I get the second book done so I wanted the book cover to look like a cross between a cozy mystery and a low-fantasy paranormal romance. My book has a ribbon of Catholic morality running through it, as well as a satirical commentary, so readers who are used to vampire hunters, or dark despair-saturated books like those of Anne Rice, or teenage books like Twilight would be disappointed in my book.

So as I move forward, I'm still experimenting. I decided to go with the new cover, but I'm planning a marketing relaunch when this 2nd book comes back from the editor and then I will watch to see if the new cover or even the 2nd edition makes any difference in sales or reviews. If it doesn't make a difference, then I may go back to my original book cover and then let go of it entirely.

So even now, I'm still proceeding one step at a time. I'm still waiting to see what happens. All I do know for sure is that once this last change is done, I will be ready to let go and let the series be what it is.

The Long Saga of My 2nd Edition of Darius – A Vampire Story

THIS IS NOT THE 'HOW-TO' BLOG POST

Before I get to how to do a 2nd edition of your book, the preliminary questions you need to answer are:

1. Should you do a 2nd edition of one book or the entire series?
2. Why should you do it?
3. Is it worth it?
4. Should you just accept the earlier book as not your best and move on?
5. What will I get out of it?
6. Isn't it easier to just move on and write a better book or book series?

The reason I'm sharing my experience in publishing a second edition of Darius - A Vampire Story is because it seemed overwhelming when I was thinking about doing it. It turned out to be one of the hardest decisions I had to make in my writing career, and I had doubts the entire way through the process.

However, in looking back, the decision itself -- answering all the above questions and deciding to move forward with it -- was the hardest part. I assumed reworking the book would have been the hardest part, but it wasn't. But in the end, it was much easier than I thought.

SHOULD I DO A 2ND EDITION OR NOT?

Although I decided to move forward with doing the 2nd edition, I was unclear even as I went about it.

I read Chris Fox's book Relaunch Your Novel and he had great advice. He got my wheels turning and he asked the right questions about why you would want to relaunch your novel.

These questions were what triggered the process. There are lots of reasons why you would want to relaunch a book. It's important to know what your particular reasons are because although it is not hard, there are a lot of steps to it, some costs, and you will need a sense of mission to spur you on in the process.

THE BIGGEST TEMPTATION:

The biggest temptation along the way was to take the attitude that everyone's early books aren't that great, so let go and just move on. This would have certainly given me a quick fix. But in my case, I just couldn't leave the book alone knowing that I could probably polish it up a bit before moving on. So for me, even though it was tempting to just let go and move on, I decided I want to fix the book -- and maybe even the entire series -- but I wasn't sure whether I just wanted to do a re-edit or to change the storyline, etc.

ONE STEP AT A TIME:

I decided that I wanted to just fix the first book in the series because it had the lowest ratings. The second reason I wanted to make the effort with fixing the book is that I have now finished the series with the 5th book, and now that I know how the story ends, I wanted to put a little foreshadowing into the book while I was buffing it up.

I let go of the idea of redoing the entire series because I knew I could be happy to just fix the one book, so that's one reason I proceeded forward.

WHAT WILL I GET OUT OF IT?

This was the one question that led me down the road of choosing to write a 2nd edition: What will I get out of it? The answer was and is: I knew if I fixed Book 1 that then I would be able to let go of the entire series and move on. I still like the stories and the series itself. It's not my most popular book series, but I still like it. So fixing the first book was important to me in terms of 'my body of work'. I knew I had more experience and I could improve the book, even if it was just adding some foreshadowing or improving on the prose.

The first decision I made was to pull the novel into Scrivener, divide it up into chapters and read through it. The next question I had to answer was: Do you want to change the plotline? Or do you want to add some foreshadowing and just improve the prose?

To be honest: I wasn't sure but I knew reading the book chapter by chapter would lead me to the answer. So I pulled the manuscript into Scrivener. The first question I needed to answer was: What do you want to change? Will this just be a normal update or will it be an actual second edition.

In the next installment of this blog series, I will go into what happened when I went into Scrivener and began the read through.

Converting a Word Docx to an ePub for KDP

IS THIS CONVERSION NECESSARY?

If you only sell on Amazon and don't give your books away, you may not need to convert your docx at all. You can successfully upload a Word docx document and the converter behind the scenes at Amazon KDP will convert it usually without a problem.

HOWEVER, I would caution you that you should do all of your styling using the style gallery. I have a few videos on my YouTube Channel that will show you how to format and how important using the style gallery is.

That being said, if you use the style gallery, don't give your books away and only sell on Amazon, you are good to go with only a Word document.

EBOOK GIVEAWAYS - THAT'S ANOTHER STORY:

If you, however, are self-publishing and are planning to do your own marketing, giving away your book, especially when you are just breaking in as an author is crucial. Once you decide to give away your books, you will need a PDF document and an ePub document.

As I'm sure you already know, you can create a PDF inside Word, so that's not a problem. However, you will need a conversion program to create the ePub. I use the program called Convertio.co. This is a paid plan, and it comes to $9.00 a month at the time of this blog. If you only have one book, you can sign up for one month and then stop the service -- but check to make sure that's an option before you do that.

Otherwise, you can take a trip over to Fiverr.com and search convert DOCX to ePub and see who comes up. One word of caution: I tried this and Fiverr is now defaulting to a slightly higher price on almost all services, so look for the drop down that lets you put in your budget. I was able to find someone who was willing to do it for $10.00.

However, if Convertio.co allows you to quit after one month, you may be able to use it a few times. I offer this suggestion because I remember when I was brand new, I had to do things multiple times -- I'm not even sure why. So be aware that you may want to do more than one per month.

Another example is that I am presently preparing an ARC copy of the document and will need to add several pages for the final manuscript when it's back from the Final Edit. So, I will need two conversions at least on this one book. So be aware of this type of thing.

TO SIGIL OR NOT TO SIGIL:

Sigil is a program for making or polishing up ePubs after conversion. I always had to get rid of a lot of crazy codes in the ePub so that's why I used Sigil throughout the years.

However, what I noticed with this last time I used it, and this is because I have disciplined myself to use only the Style Gallery in Word and not use individual changes, I had very little clean up in Sigil. I could have even skipped the Sigil step all together.

If you are intimidated by computer code -- and it can be a little tricky -- then you may want to clean up your formatting in Word by using only the Style Gallery.

I have a video below where I go into a little detail as to why you have to be so careful with sigil and computer code. I wish I had known about the importance of the style gallery when I first started, but at least I know now and I'm passing on the knowledge to you!

WHERE TO GET THE TOOLS:

Here is a link to go to Convertio.co This is a service you use online. There is no download or anything. You simply upload the Docx file and then download the epub.

Here is a link to go to Sigil to download it. This is an actual free program that will download and put an icon on your desktop. When you want to open it, you will double-click the icon and it will open a blank document. Then you will click on File > Open and bring in your converted epub.

IT HELPS TO SEE IT IN REAL LIFE:

Below is a short video I made going through the process starting from pulling the document into Convertio and then taking it through the rest of the process to checking it on KDP. I hope this helps you if you are struggling in any way or if you are new and just need information.

Advanced Reader Campaign – The Recipe

THE RECIPE FOR AN ARC CAMPAIGN?

Yes, the recipe. I just finished planning a Private Advanced Reader Campaign and although it's not hard, it does require several steps and knowing what order you need to do each step is important. If you do them in the proper order, it will be an easy process.

I've made this list for myself and decided to share it on this blog because knowing the order can remove a lot of the stress and having to go back and forth between the book, the forms, the website, etc.

INGREDIENTS - AN OVERVIEW:

You will need an eBook and a book cover.

For any Advanced Reader Campaign, I would suggest you add a disclaimer that it is an advanced copy, a watermark, and a link to fill out a questionnaire about what the reader thought about the book.

You will need to produce the eBook in a pdf and ePub format, which will require you to convert it from a Word file to an ePub. The ePub may need to be cleaned up a bit in a free program called Sigil. Then you will need to test the ePub with the KDP viewer. This step may or may not be necessary.

You will need to create the questionnaire for the readers to fill out. Now, if you don't have a website where you can create a form, you can use a google forms or you can ask the readers to send an email with feedback about the book to your email. I have found the forms get more interaction.

Also if you don't have a website, you will have to upload the ePub and PDF onto Google Drive and record the share link in order to include them in an email to send to your ARC readers.

I also need a form for readers to sign up to become an ARC reader, with an auto-responder that will send them the book.

And lastly, you will need graphics to post on your website or social media.

Now that I have given you an overview of everything that is needed in the whole campaign, I'll post below the order you need to create them in.

THE ARC CAMPAIGN RECIPE INSTRUCTIONS

Finish your eBook and have it edited. When the editor has your manuscript, you at least two weeks to prepare the ARC campaign, which is enough time.
Create the eBook cover. If you don't have your final cover, you can create a temporary cover for the ARC campaign, if necessary.
Create a questionnaire form for your readers to fill out when they are done. I find asking about 10 or 15 short questions, most with yes or no answers that it makes it easy for the readers to give me the specific feedback I'm looking for. This should be done right after the cover because you will need to put the link to this questionnaire into the back of the book so the readers can click on it.
Create a sign-up form to become an ARC Reader. I use a form from my WordPress website using a plugin called Contact Form 7. This allows me to get the names and emails of the ARC readers. I keep a running list on my work diary so that I can then send them an email when the book is published asking for a review.
Create a page on your website, or whatever social media platform you use, that has a graphic of the final book cover, with a short summary of what the book is about. Add the form to sign up to this page. I also put a notice that I am looking for ARC readers on the homepage of my website.
Make social media graphics (1000 px x 1000 px for most platforms and a 1000 px x 1500 px for Pinterest) so you have them when you launch the book. If you have the time, skills or budget, create several graphics: ARC Campaign Sign Up, Coming Soon, New Release by AUTHOR NAME, Release Date, and a seasonal graphic based on what season you are releasing in.
The above steps can be done with the manuscript in the editor's hands.
Once the editor returns the book, make the corrections and add a request to fill out the questionnaire and add the link to your form.
Add a watermark that this is an early release. This allows you to change the book or tweak the book based on feedback.
Once the manuscript is finalized, save is as a docx and PDF.
Then convert the book from a docx file to an ePub using a conversion tool. I use Convertio.co which is $9.00 a month. Check their website and see if you can cancel at any time and you can create your ePub once or twice (after your feedback if you change anything) and then cancel the membershipAnother strategy for conversion is to go to Fiverr.com and search convert docx to epub and make sure you select a budget because they default to showing you people who charge $25.00 to start. I found someone that would have done it for $10.00.
Once you have the epub file, upload it to KDP -- as a draft -- and check it using their previewer. Check every single page! If there are no errors and everything looks good, you will then be good to go.
If you have some formatting issues, you may want to watch my video on using the style gallery for best ePub results (which I'm planning to do at this time).
Once you have a PDF and ePub, you are ready to launch the ARC campaign. You can use whatever service you use for your newsletter to create an auto-reponder form or you can answer each sign up by sending them an email with both documents attached, the epub and the PDF.
The campaign is now set to go. Post it to your newsletter, social media and on your website!

Why Have a Private ARC Campaign

WHY HAVE A PRIVATE ARC CAMPAIGN?

private-gathering The one main reason I have right now is that I want to avoid offering this to the general public because I am not sure if the book, even though it is edited, is in its final form.

I normally will offer the ARC copy knowing that people want free copies, but this book I’m unsure about. I want to at least start with my newsletter readers who I can ask to help me with feedback and fill out a questionnaire about the book.

I’m not sure I will go with this exact ending. So this is not set for pre-order and although it has been edited, I may change the book based on feedback and then it will need to be re-edited. So I don’t want a lot of copies of this book floating around.

By limiting the number, I can make sure I send a free copy to the ones who read it for me and I can tell them where and why I changed the text.

THE STEPS I WILL BE PASSING THROUGH:

checkline and outline In order to offer a limited ARC copy, I will use my newsletter list, which is really my reader list, and my website. I will limit the invitations to these two places.

Here is a list of the steps I will need to go through. I will be making short videos and/or blog posts to share what I did in each of these phases. Nothing is hard, but it all takes time.

Finalize the ARC copy of the manuscript in Word docx file. Add a watermark indicating this is an ARC copy. Make sure this copy has a link to the ARC Questionnaire where readers can share their feedback with you.
Convert the docx file into an ePub. I use convertio.co, which is a paid site. It costs $9.00 a month. I used it more than the old plan used to give you as a free trial. However, I believe it is all paid now. So you can go to Fiverr and search convert docx to epub and choose the budget of $5 or $10 — because it now defaults to people who charge $25.Once the document is converted, download it onto your hard drive.
I usually bring these epubs into Sigil, a program to create and/or edit ePubs in order to make some global changes and/or clean up the extra codes it may bring inside. I will have a video on this one.Create a PDF from your docx file. Once you have the epub and PDF, you are ready to upload to KDP and test it. I will cover this in one of the videos.Upload the PDF and the ePub up to google drive and copy the links; you will need them later.
The next steps are done with my website. They have to do with pages and forms. So if you don’t have a website, then you can use google forms or whatever system you presently use to get signups. I use Mailerlite and could have set this up through them, but I want to receive the emails and names myself so I can keep a list of who the ARC readers are so I can ask them for a review when the book is ultimately published.

I need a page with graphics introducing the book.
I need a graphic and link for the front page of my website.
I need a Contact Form 7 with an auto-reponder where I put the two links from Google Drive to download either the PDF or the ePub. I need to check the form to make sure it works.
I need to create a form for my feedback questions and post it on a separate page on the website.
Then I need to create a list to keep track of who my ARC readers are and their emails.

So that is the process I am now going through. In the next blog posts and videos, I will be addressing these very creations and/or changes.

Writing Short Stories with Downloadable Worksheet

SHARING MY ANALYSIS:

In my quest to improve my marketing in 2005, I decided I needed a couple of short stories to offer as giveaways. Although I’ve written 14 novels, I’ve never written a short story.

I went on a quest and read several classic short stories and below are my findings. I’m not an authority on this, of course, but I’m just offering my observations and what I learned to far.

STORY CONTAINMENT:

Woman-writer-containment The first thing I noticed is that the story needs to be contained or confined to a shorter version than a novel. This means that you won’t have the same space to build the characters.

The other thing I noticed is that the storyline is about one event or one meeting of some kind. For example: A weekend visit, or a train ride, or a meeting on the street that leads to something happening.

Keeping this need for containment in mind I believe will prevent us, as writers, from setting out to write a short story and somehow writing a novelette or even a novel.

SENTENCES PACKED WITH INFORMATION:

The next thing I noticed was that the sentences in many of the short stories were longer than in novels, as they contained so much added information. In other words, you need to pack the background and characterization inside the action of the story. Every word counts and the writers wrote succinctly and every word served the story.

Knowing the need for this, I believe it will help with story containment.

DOWNLOAD THE WORKSHEET:

short-mystery-story-template There are templates all over the internet for story crafting, but they all seem to follow the hero’s journey, which I find doesn’t work for mystery books. At least I was never able to make them work for me.

So I have created a template for a Short Story Mystery Template that asks all the who, what, where, when questions that you will need to set up the bones of the short story.

If you’re interested in downloading the form, click below to access the form.

Writing a Novel in 8 Layers – Work Flow Demonstration

HOW TO VS. WORK FLOW DEMONSTRATION:

There are many blog posts and videos on the internet about how to write a novel. Much of the advice is general in nature and only broad-stroke tips. This video seeks to go one step further and open my last book, which is still being proofread in Layer 8, and show a work-flow demonstration.

WRITING TIPS AS AN APPLIED SCIENCE:

Many of the tips that I came upon when I first started writing were great but I didn't know how to apply them. Many techniques require a second phase of 'how to apply this advice'. This is most times missing from the how-to blogs and videos.

THIS IS THE VIDEO I WISH I HAD WHEN I STARTED WRITING:

I am not holding myself out as an authority on writing or even writing techniques. The purpose of this video is to show one work flow that other newbie writers can see that will hopefully help them see the theories in these how-to videos and blog posts in action. That's my purpose here.

WRITING IN 8 LAYERS:

I am in the process of finishing my 14th novel. I started out like many of you as a self-taught author who took in unorganized, uncurricularized information and had to make sense of it all. I devised this 8 Layer system to try to write a novel as efficiently as was possible. I offer it to you for whatever weight you wish to give it.

VIDEO 1 - Layers 1 to 6

In Video 1, I go into the process of coming up with a broad-stroke storyline that you know you can use as a story spine. Presently I use FreeMind.com software; it's free and it's easy to use. I go into a little detail about this, but I have other blog posts and videos on my YouTube Channel where I go into more depth about how I do this.

Then I go into Scrivener for Layer 2 through Layer 6. I demonstration what happens in each layer and I try to give beginner tips in each layer to further help the newbie.

VIDEO 2 - Layers 7 & 8 - in Microsoft Word

In the second video, I go into Microsoft Word and complete Layers 7 and 8. I believe by seeing this behind-the-scenes look at a real novel, it will encourage newbies who may be struggling with the actual work flow of writing a novel. I hope you enjoy it.

Be sure to join my newsletter for book promotions, free books, movie reviews from a writer's perspective and some other goodies I will share along the way.

Writing a Novel in 8 Layers – Explanation and Time-Saving Tips

LAYER 1 - Putting Together the Skeleton of the Mystery or Crime

In a mystery, crime novel, or thriller, the clues and their revelations need to be planned so the story clues can remain disjointed in the beginning, but then slowly come together like a jigsaw puzzle. This keeps the reader guessing -- which is part of the mystery readers' enjoyment.

Layer 1 requires the skill of story engineer, not so much an author. In my humble opinion, trying to write around this initial phase of story scaffolding is is one reason why novels can take authors years to finish. Scaffolding-panel.png

So the first layer is to storyboard only the crime or the mystery of your novel. This layer can look like a long list of crimes and clue elements,
or it can look like a mind map sketched in pencil on the back of a large piece of wrapping paper, or it can be done in a mind-mapping software.
But there will need to be initial planning of where the mystery begins, where it leads, and how it ends. That's what goes on in this layer.

WHAT TO FOCUS ON IN LAYER 1:

An example for a Layer 1 crime mystery would be the following:

1. Lay out the chronology of the crime.
2. Who is or are the Victims?
3. What is a list of clues that could lead to the solving of this mystery?
4. Determine what the final clue will be that reveals the true culprit and think about how you can hide this clue in plain sight. This will be the clue that solves the mystery.
5. Determine what the first three or four clues will be that will bring in multiple suspects. Give each suspect a motive for the crime and decide how and when you will reveal this motive
6. Choose an unlikely suspect and give this person a good cover story.
7. Even at this early stage, figure out how the mystery or story will end. This can be changed during the creative process, but knowing where your story will end, will give you a writing destination. This will prevent you from winding up writing yourself into a corner somewhere or writing yourself into a tangent that will have to be nixed anyway.

WHAT ABOUT OTHER GENRES?

Now, sometimes you will be writing a story that has a mystery ribboning through it but it's not as organized or as detailed as an actual crime mystery. Your outline will be shorter but will contain a skeleton of all the action. Below are two examples of writing a ghost story and writing a Gothic scary-house story.

LAYER 1 IN A GHOST STORY:

1. Who is the Ghost? Why has the Ghost arisen? Why is the Person not Resting in Peace? What is the Ghost's purpose for appearing? This is the backstory that will be dropped like breadcrumbs throughout the storyline. (Ghost-Story.png)
2. How can the Ghost first appear that will raise the question that maybe the viewer is just crazy? Or maybe the viewer is just paranoid? Give them a reason for this paranoia.
3. How will the Ghost appear and what clues will the ghost drop in order to trigger more of the mystery behind the Ghost's restlessness to play out?
4. Choose how the story will end and if the Ghost will achieve its goal and whether the ghost will now rest in peace or will the Ghost be back for another book in the series?

LAYER 1 IN A SCARY-HOUSE STORY:

1. What is it about the house that's creepy?
2. What is the House hiding? Is there a secret room? Is there a hidden person?
3. What happened in the house to make the house haunted or unsettled?
4. How will the mystery of the house play out? What is the chronology of the clues about the history of the house and why it is haunted? These are the breadcrumbs in this kind of a storyline.
5. Choose how the story will end and if the house is destroyed or if the house destroys someone, etc.

FORMAT OF LAYER 1:

Layer one can be done in a list format or with a mind-mapping software, or even with a pencil drawing your own game board or storyboard on the back of a large piece of wrapping paper. Choose whatever format helps you the most. If you're new, try each one. Finding the right tools for the right job is very helpful.

If your Level 1 looks like any of these, you get A+ Layer 1.

LAYER 2 - Break up the Story into a four-part structure or 3-act structure.

Open up a fresh manuscript document and split the clues and events into a four-part novel structure or a 3-act-story structure, whichever one you prefer. So this layer is easy and takes about five minutes.

LAYER 3 - Writing the Scene Outlines (Scaffolding & Storyboarding)

In Layer 3, you will refer to the Skeleton of the crime outline you already created. Following the chronology of the crime and the clue drops, write an outline of each scene. This is nothing more than another list of what needs to happen in each scene. You are not the writer yet. You are still the story engineer or the storyboard creator. This is the second phase of scaffolding that is setting the story up for when the writer comes in. The list should be concise, more like a list than big paragraph chunks.

Below is a Scene Template I use. I don't worry about the Point of View in this layer because you can wait to choose it. I wait to see who "steals the scene" when I'm actually writing. But I include it in a Scene Template.

POV:
TIME/LOCATION:
PURPOSE/CLUES:

CHOOSE A TIME AND LOCATION:

Choose a time and location, but don't describe any locations or characters yet. Purpose and Clues is a reminder that everything written has to have a purpose and every scene in a mystery should have some clues or a crime.

In the video on this subject matter below, I go into a few extra tips on using the scene template to help you in other ways.

LAYER 4: DOWN-AND-DIRTY FIRST DRAFT - NOW YOU'RE THE WRITER!

In Layer 4, you are finally the writer. The scaffolding is in place and now it's time to start writing the story. The first draft is the hardest layer of writing.

It may help to think of yourself as more of a Town Crier.

Your job in this layer is to blurt out the entire story. Just get it down in paper. Don't worry about spelling, grammar, descriptions of people. Like the cops say -- Just the facts. Write out the story and don't look back. Don't re-read anything. Don't get lost in verb tenses. Write and don't look back. Only look at your scene outline to make sure you have covered everything. That's the only concern.

THINGS TO WORRY ABOUT IN THE FIRST DRAFT:
Choose a location for the scene and a time. (Nothing is written in cement)
Make sure all of the clues and anything else from your scene outline gets into the scenes.

THINGS THAT DON'T MATTER IN THE FIRST DRAFT:
Spelling, grammar, sentence structure, too many adverbs, scene or character descriptions, foreshadowing, cliffhangers, quote marks, etc.
Just write what happens in each scene with whatever dialogue comes to you.

In the video below, I go into some detail about why this is important and how it can save you time in the end.

LAYER 5: 1st Proofread (The Read-through)

I call this the first proofread but it's really the first readthrough. Run a grammar and spell check in the beginning. This will clean up some of the down and dirty mistakes.

Begin to read through the novel as a writer. This is the layer that you will put in the descriptions of your main characters and the scene descriptions. You are not line-editing in this layer. You are reading for context and to make sure that your sentences flow one to the other and that the chapters flow from one to the other.

LAYER 5 CHECKLIST:

1. Are there any descriptions you need to add to this scene?
2. Is there any surprise in this scene? If so, can you rewrite it to make the surprise be a cliffhanger at the end of the chapter?
3. Has the POV been established?
4. Check on head-hopping.

SCRIVENER TIPS FOR LAYER 5:

Using Scrivener Find and Replace feature, set things up where you will automatically focus on your weak points. For example: I make all "ing" endings capitalized. I also capitalize the words BEGIN and BEGAN as well as the phrase IN ORDER TO. This way, I can't just scan over them without noticing them. It forces me to check whether I can change the format of the verbs or the sentence structures to past tense, etc.

Then I proofread the entire novel and focus on these changes. Here is a checklist for the scenes in this layer:

LAYER 6: The 2nd PROOFREAD

This is the layer you start polishing your prose in. Spellcheck and grammar check again before you begin. Then read through the entire novel for context and this time look at your sentence structure and verb choice.

SCRIVENER TIP: USING KEYWORDS FOR A CONTEXT CHECK:

Layer 6 is where I add the keywords in Scrivener. By using keywords, you can isolate certain scenes and then see them isolated from the rest of the novel. This is a great way to check on certain things in any story. Examples: Romantic Subplot, wedding talk, vampire events, interviews, clues dropped, etc.

Layer 7 - The Hardcore Proofread

Below is a list of things I do in Layer 7:
1. List Troublesome words - Just, like, adverbs. Compile a list of your favorites. I have compiled a long list of words that trip me up and I go over them in this layer.
2. Check your chapters in Grammerly for grammar verb tense.
3. Then I compile from Scrivener to a Word .docs file and paste it into an eBook template and save it as a Manuscript. I file it in a folder called Pre-Publication. Then I open it in Word and run Word's spell check and grammar check on it again.
4. Then I read it as a final proofread (even though it's not the final proofread!)
5. Check all Chapter Names are in Heading 1's for the Table of Contents
6. Fill in the Other pages: Title Page, Other Books By Page, Title and Author Page, Copyright, Table of Contents, Note to Reader, Acknowledgements, About the Author, Other Books By Page)
6. Find and check all quotes to make sure your quotes are in sets.

LEVEL 8: - FINAL PROOFREAD AND NARRATION

1. Using the read aloud feature in Microsoft Word, I read the book aloud as I read along with it. This gives you an idea of how the book will sound in the reader's mind.
2. I make any final corrections in this last proofread.
3. From here the manuscript goes to an Editor.
4. Then I forward it to myself as an ePub and while it's being edited, I read it again on my Kindle to see how it looks and feels from the reader's perspective.

VIDEO ON WRITING IN 8 LAYERS IS BELOW:

5 Mistakes I Made in Publishing My Vampire Book Series

LET ME SET THE STAGE:

This post will be about 5 Beginner Mistakes I made in Self-Publishing one of my book series and what I did about it -- which was pretty much nothing. I'll also go into what I am going to do about it now that I learned a lot more about what went wrong.

Most of these mistakes were ones that were not even on my radar at the time they were made.

Let me give you a bit of context: As I came close to retirement, I decided to write a novel or two. I chose to self-publish for many reasons that I've gone over in other videos and I won't go over now. And to this day, in spite of the mistakes I've made, I still consider self-publishing a good fit for me. (Just me)

When I first got the idea of writing a novel, I did research for about a year. I read several how to books on every subject under the title of writing a novel and self-publishing. (Cat on book shelf)

I also watched hundreds of videos on the subject. Like most people, all the information I came upon, especially in video format was great advice, but none of it was curricularized. When you self-study online, you take in just a steady stream of random information and then we're all left to sort it out ourselves. That's how free education works on the internet. (Text Panel 2: Information wasn't curricularized

So above is a list of the chronology I pieced together as being the proper chronological list of how to write and publish a book:

MISTAKE NUMBER ONE:

In this big cloud of random information I took in, I got ARC Readers and Beta Readers kind of mixed up or thought they were too closely related. But they are two different animals.

Beta Readers often times read books very early in the process -- before the book is even finished to give early feedback. This is a great idea if you're not sure about your characters or if the plot is good enough, etc. Let's face it, in the beginning it's hard to think you're book is a masterpiece when it's your first one -- at least it was for me. There is a definite high-level purpose in having Beta Readers. They are worth their weight in gold.

However, here is where I made the terrible mistake and found out the hard way about this particular landmine: I offered my Vampire book Darius - A Vampire Story as a beta book but it had not been finalized, professionally edited or proofread. Now, in the ad copy for the link to download, I clearly posted it as a beta copy that had not been edited, etc. However, once a book is downloaded to an eReader, no one will remember this book is only a beta copy. And the second mistake I made here was that I didn't put anything in the book itself.

I didn't put any explanation paragraph before the First Chapter. I didn't add a watermark. I assumed my explanation about the Beta copy that invited the download was enough.

Well, when I finalized the book and released it, I got slaughtered in early reviews. I assumed as a new author that maybe it wasn't that good. However, several of the reviews referenced typos and/or grammar mistakes. When I went to the finalized copy to of course correct them -- they didn't exist.

The first time this happened, I just thought the reader was a bit crazy. But after this happened several times, it was only then that I realized that I had released hundreds of beta copies that now lived on people's eReaders. And for some reason, there are a lot of readers who take typos or grammar errors personally. It seems to trigger them and their reviews are more like rants.

So poor Darius got all beat up in the early review.

MISTAKE NUMBER 2

Mistake Number 2 was what I did about this problem -- which was pretty much nothing.

I wish I could say that I recognized the gravity of the mistake right away, but I didn't. I just thought that some people had read an earlier copy and that's a shame, but what can I do about it now? I didn't realize that there were probably hundreds of these copies out there. I had no list of who I sent these early copies to.

Now, I also didn't realize that this series was going to go on for 5 books. So, in hindsight, what I should have done was pull the first three books and re-release them as a second edition. This is what I plan to do in January of 2025 because that's when I'll be releasing the fifth book in the series. So doing nothing about this was the second mistake.

Now I have a hard and fast rule: I never give Beta copies in download format. I now only pay for beta copies and send them in Microsoft Word format. I also include verbiage that it is a beta copy and hasn't been edited or proofread.

MISTAKE NUMBER 3:

GoodReads is probably the largest single pool of avid readers and book lovers out there. But goodreads can be a tough crowd for new writers. This is where Darius's bullying started. If I had to do things over again, I would not have focused on Goodreads as a first place to release my books -- even after they were fully edited and proofread. Unfortunately, many of the videos I watched during that first year, talked about how great goodreads was helpful to find beta readers and arc readers and launch a book.

To be honest, I never found any true beta readers or arc readers there. I found mostly people who like to download free books. So I would just caution newbies that GoodReads is not the only game in town and you may need some boxing experience before you enter that ring. That's all I'm going to say about that.

A SIDE NOTE ABOUT GIVEAWAYS:

Goodreads has been purchased by Amazon, I believe, and they did offer a giveaway for $119. At least that's what it was at the time I used that service as a giveaway for edited books. However, I found the reviews very harsh or even snotty at times. I had much better experience giving the books away with Freebooksy and even Fussy Librarian for less than $119. I also got better reviews using Bookfunnel and Storyorigin free book giveaways. As long as you don't put your books into Kindle Select, you can still give them away on these websites.

MISTAKE NUMBER 4:

I didn't realize that the categories on Amazon have a hierarchy to them. It may have been because we were originally allowed to put each book into 10 categories. I had watched a video by Author Chris Fox about writing to market and he was explaining about drilling down in the categories and writing to a specific sub-category. Now, he writes sci-fi and in particular, military sci-fi.

At the time he said this, I thought writing to a specific market just to make marketing easier would be awful. It would be like pulling an assignment out of a hat and having to produce a book about it. I'm just not that type of writer. So I let that concept float away in the wind and just picked ten categories that seemed like they would be a the best fit for my books and the rest of the concept of writing to market was lost on me, at least at that time. I moved onto other things.

Over time, pretty recently, I did figure out that the categories are hierarchical and Chris Fox' advice came back to me. What he was saying was that new authors can focus on subcategories in order to dominate in those smaller categories in their to number 1 on the best seller list. In other words, you can rise to number one in a sub-sub category way faster than rising to the top ten in Romance, which is a top tier in the hierarchy.

In the video below, I do go live at Amazon and demonstrate how the categories are hierarchical and how to dig down and see which ones are available for you.

So the time to think about the categories is before you even plot out or write the book. Once you have a plot idea, that's the time to look at the categories and think about where the book would fit, and what you can tweak about the storyline to fit into a sub category or a less competitive category? Can you make the story happen in the west to be a Western Romance? Can you put the story into olden times to make it a historical novel, ore even better, put it in a specific time period? The time to think about categories is right after you have know you have a workable plotline.

In looking back, I could have tweaked a few of my books to fit them very easily into sub-sub categories without changing the storyline much.

MISTAKE NUMBER 5:

Mistake Number five requires a little explanation. My inspiration for my vampire series was the old Dark Shadows Soap Opera from the late '60s and early '70s. I never watched it as a kid but everyone I knew did. I didn't watch it because I had to walk too far to get home from school in time. This vampire series, like most soap operas at that time, was melodramatic and being a gothic and supernatural story, the storylines were completely crazy. But I loved the show anyway.

What I didn't realize at the time I watched it was that these crazy storylines came from real books. They just seemed crazy to me as they played out in this soap opera. In fairness to the writers of Dark Shadows, they had to produce 5 shows every week without fail.

So, with limited knowledge of the whole vampire genre, I went on to write a vampire book series. My vampire owns and operates a funeral home and keeps a bevy of 3 women to supply the blood he needs. He normally picks up runaways from the train and bus stations, but he winds up falling in love with the daughter of a wealthy, influential family in Newport Rhode Island. There is also a monastery of monks that live on the opposite side of the cemetery that Darius also owns.

No one in the area has any idea they are living next to a vampire and there are some supernatural events that start happening around the Balmont Funeral home, one of which is a mobster from New York looking for his daughter who was last seen with Darius. That's all I'll say about the plotlines.

Now, my series does follow the classic rules on vampirism with a tweak or two. However, there is also a little subtle tongue in cheek narrative in the story, which was more prevalent in the 1960s and 1970s vampire movies.

So how does all this fit into mistake number 5? Well, there's no category for tongue-in-cheek vampire stories. Also, fifty years have passed since this show ended and a lot has happened to the vampire genre in that time. First there was Anne Rice and her books and subsequent movies which are all dead serious and there's no tongue in cheek humor of any kind. I only read the first book and it was steeped in darkness and despair. Because I read for enjoyment, the level of despair was too much for me so I never read the other books.

Then there were the Twilight movies, the TV shows of True Blood and The Vampire Diaries, which were targeted to much younger people. Some of the backdrops were high school or college. And there was the rise of the vampire hunters. My book is a vampire book for adults or young adults who are not interested in high school or college anymore. But there's no amazon category for vampire books for adult. And my books also have no vampire hunters.

None of these were on my radar when I wrote the book. I thought books were judged on how well they were written and if people liked them. I didn't know reader expectations was even a thing!

Then I came upon two videos on a channel called Tristan and the Classics that changed that. It changed my whole trajectory and sent me on a new journey where I learned so much information that is not only helpful but I consider it crucial for newbies.

So as I realized that my books were not really fitting well in any of the vampire categories, I went on to create my own Teach Yourself Gothic Literature course based on Tristan's suggestions. This journey helped me to understand more about writing to market, and about reader expectations in particular, both are which I now feel are critical in self-publishing.

I actually took Tristan's suggestions about the self-study program one step further which I'll go into in the next blog post and video.

WRITING EXERCISE YOU CAN DO WITH A SPOUSE

CHANGE THE WAY YOU WATCH MOVIES:

Turning the viewing of a movie into a writing exercise will change the way in which you watch the movie. For your spouse, it won't change anything. Most people love to go into the story not knowing anything. There are some who any hint of a spoiler will ruin the movie for them. You may be one of them now!

However, in order to watch through a writer's eye, you will need to watch not only the unfolding story, but you want to know ahead of time what action will be playing out. This way, you can watch for the subtleties. In other words, you will be on the lookout for foreshadowing and tiny insignificant clues that are being dropped that will wind up being the clue that solves the mystery.

I started to watch movies in this way several months ago and I have to say it didn't ruin my movie watching, it has enhanced it greatly. Knowing what will happen doesn't ruin a movie for me. I have always been that way, but I get so much more out of the movies I watch with this technique, that I will continue to watch in this way.

So how does it work?

WATCHING A MOVIE WITH A PURPOSE:

Find a summary of the movie on Wikipedia. Most movies have a page about them and it gives all the technical information about who wrote the original story, the producer, director, stars, etc. But there is a section entitled PLOT. This is where the plot is laid out for you.

If you are scheduled to watch a horror movie, decide ahead of time what you will look for. It's important to notice how the movies create a spooky atmosphere. Is it done with fog or lighting? Or maybe sounds of footsteps. These will all come in handy if you write horror yourself.

If you are watching a mystery, watch how some clues are planted but made to seem insignificant. This is slight of hand that is required in writing mysteries. Seeing this play out in a movie will give you many ideas on hiding clues in your books.

For any movie, notice how much information is dropped in the beginning to set the stage. Do they show a panorama of famous buildings to let you know you're in New York or Paris? Do they show carts and horses to let you know you are going back into the 1800 or 1900s? Notice how much information is conveyed with just the presence of certain props and locations. Almost every scene is a lesson in itself.

WON'T KNOWING THE PLOT RUIN THINGS?

To be honest, most plots are too long to even remember or put together with one reading. I can usually follow the plotline for about the first four paragraphs. After that, I can't remember who is who but it doesn't matter. As long as you have a gist of an idea of what will take place, it allows you to watch for it.

You can see whether the drama plays out slowly or whether there is a jump scare to introduce a twist in the plot. All of this is what you will feed on as an author. You are getting an up-close look at how the script writer and the director have choreographed the telling of the tale.

WHY I CHOOSE THE OLD MOVIES:

I choose to watch old movies from the 1960s and 1970s because the method of shooting movies was different back then. The directors tended to fill the scene and writing fiction requires you to 'fill the scene' too. In modern movies, although they spend a fortune on sets, you see the set once in a while, but most scenes are one close-up of one star with a quick move to show a close up of another star. It's not as rich for a writer.

EXAMPLE MOVIE: THE GORGON

This is one of the Hammer Film Production movies that I have recently fell in love with. They are old movies from the 1960s but so charming. These are easy to follow as an author and you can learn a lot about adding suspense, atmosphere, how people show fear, methods of showing distrust. These movies are short and shot on or in one set at a time, so there's a lot of action and background for you to pick up hundreds of tips.

You can even watch with a notebook and pen. Jot down the things you see that would be helpful to you in your writing. If you watch mystery movies with police work, you can write down the specific terms for things that come up over and over. For example, the words having to do with arrest warrants or fingerprint evidence, etc.

A WRITING EXERCISE AFTER THE MOVIE:

CAPTURE A SCENE: If you are watching on a computer, pause the movie in the middle of a great scene. Take a screen shot of the scene for later. If you're watching on a TV, pause and take a picture on your phone.

WRITING EXERCISE: Next time you are sitting down to write, pull up the picture and create a scene in your head -- not from the movie, but from your own imagination. Using this setting as inspiration, think of something that is about to happen in the room or what just happened in the room. Be sure to include a description of the room and/or the main elements in the room. This exercise alone will improve your descriptive writing and could even lead to a short story! You never know.

CONCLUSION:

Read the plotline -- at least three quarters of it so you can be on the lookout for all the techniques of storytelling.
Think ahead of all the information you will want to keep watch for. Make either a mental note of all the techniques you see or write them down.
If you watch police procedurals and write them, jot down all the technical names for things so you have them at your fingertips when you are writing your own fiction.
Take a picture of a great setting in the movie for later. Using that scene as inspiration, think up your own small plot for what is going to happen in this room, what could happen, or what just happened. Be sure to describe the setting adding all of the emotions and/or mood elements you saw in the movie.

So that's it. Follow me on social media and let me know if you like this method of watching movies to learn.