Tag: editing

Editing Your Work: 4 Easy Tips for Creating Distance from Your Text

On By nancystohlmanIn flash fiction, flash fiction challenge, Reading, Uncategorized, writing

optimized-shutterstock_595738937-1080x680

Creating Distance from Your Text

So you’ve been writing lots of cool new stuff and now it’s time to think about revision. When you’re in the editing phase, you must find a way to create distance from your text, to see it with fresh eyes. And it’s not always easy to see your work with fresh eyes—it can feel like looking for your sunglasses when they’re on your head! The best way to create distance, of course, is actual distance. There’s nothing more revealing than a month away from your work. But there are other ways to create distance if you don’t have the luxury of time.

Read it out loud. When you use your ear rather than your eye you can “hear” when the rhythm is off. If you stumble over a word in your spoken delivery, chances are that word is awkwardly placed. If you cut or add words in the spoken delivery, cut or add them on the page. If you find yourself amending the text as you read it, pay attention. Your subconscious is giving you clues.

Change the font Sometimes something as simple as a font change can change how we “see” our work. I change the font several times in the process of revision–it’s fun and keeps it fresh. The more distance I need to create, the wilder the font.

Print it out. In our electronic world printing your work out might seem like a waste of paper. Print it out anyway. Just as changing the font allowed you to “see” your words differently, printing it out and holding it in your hand will change the dynamic for you completely and make it a “tangible” thing.

Read it backwards. Not word for word backwards but go backwards in chunks. This is especially good when you are editing at the sentence level. Notice what happens when you read it backwards—and notice how alternate endings start jumping out at you. Pretend that the perfect ending for your story is already in there, buried in the middle somewhere. Watch your sentences come unglued in a good way.

Join me for my Editing Flash Fiction Masterclass
Dec 28–Jan 17
Regular price $149–only $125 until Dec 8–ends TOMORROW!

OR

Writing Flash Fiction Self-Paced Class (DIY)
for $89 in the month of December!
(Regular price $97)

To your success!
xoxo
Nancy

Sculpting Flash Fiction May 7-28

On By nancystohlmanIn flash fiction, Uncategorized, writing

May 7-28, 2018

SCULPTING FLASH FICTION Online Course

Editing is the most important part of the writing process. As serious writers, you know it’s through the editing process that we begin to refine and sculpt our messages.But just as writing flash fiction requires a different set of skills, so does editing flash fiction.

article-2337449-1a32cffb000005dc-882_634x439In this 3-week intensive we will use the tools of ambiguity and implication; we will learn the different between chipping and chopping; we will learn how to shrink-wrap and swap text. You will learn how to achieve the specific needs of flash fiction as I guide you and other participants to edit your real works in progress.

Participants should have a basic understanding of flash fiction and come to the class with flash pieces already in progress. Each participant will have the opportunity to submit 1-2 stories per week.

This is an online workshop format class with limited availability.

Cost: $125

Contact me with questions at nancystohlman@gmail.com

$20 Quick Edit

On By nancystohlmanIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Need a short, fast edit from a professional editor?


article-new-thumbnail-ehow-images-a06-va-fh-fold-bill-twin-towers-burning-800x800The $20 Quick Edit is perfect for flash fiction,short stories, query letters, articles or the opening pages of a longer work. It’s also a great way to test out the services of a professional editor before submitting an entire manuscript.

Send up to 1000 words in a word doc attachment to nancystohlman@gmail.com

Make payment using payment button below.

72-hour turnaround time guaranteed!

Contact me with questions or use the form below.

Ready?

btn_buynow_LG

 

(Current college students of Nancy Stohlman not eligible. Former students welcome.)

Finish That Manuscript: Free Workshop Preview Tuesday, June 25th

On By nancystohlmanIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Summer Project #1: Finish That Manuscript

Each book we write brings us closer to understanding how to write a book. What phase of the finishing process are you in? And…what’s it costing you to not finish?

Three Types of “Finishing”

1. Crossing the Finish Line. In this phase, you’re creating, allowing, and writing yourself to the finish line of that first draft, where you can write The End and give yourself that well deserved glass of port.

In this phase you need the support, motivation, and commitment to get to the end. A first draft is like a lump of clay—it doesn’t have to be perfect, but it does need to be complete before you can start shaping it into the grand vessel it will become.

2. Alligator Wrestling. In this phase you’ve finished a first draft and now you’re in the revision—re-visioning—process. Re-vision. Seeing again. Sometimes it’s hard to see your manuscript with fresh eyes—like looking for your sunglasses when they’re on your head. Yet the true writing magic usually happens in revisions.

In this phase you need new ways of seeing your manuscript differently, both in pieces and as a whole, as well as identifying your strengths and weaknesses as a writer and inviting the potent potential of unexpected possibilities into your work.

3. Becoming a Player. In this phase you and your manuscript prepare to enter the public arena, and the “finishing” has just as much to do with you as a professional. This is the point where we usually long for an agent to swoop in and do all the uncomfortable work of promoting ourselves, but the catch here is that if we want to be taken seriously, we have to start playing seriously.

In this phase you need help with promotional and professional materials including bios, queries, how and why to excerpt, and learning how to avoid the mistakes of looking like an amateur—regardless of your publishing goals.

*Tuesday, June 25th at 7 pm MST, join me for a 30-min FREE WORKSHOP PREVIEW.

Contact me for registration information at nancystohlman@gmail.com