Do You Know R. C. Murphy? (new release!)

Editing for the Forces of Good

By R.C. Murphy

 You've finished the first draft of your book. The pages zip out of your printer and you make a pile in the center of your office to dance around in a fit of pure joy. Nothing, nothing can bring you down off of Cloud Nine. In that moment, you are convinced nothing so brilliant has ever been put to paper. It is a wonderful feeling . . . until you send your brilliant manuscript to an editor and they hack your baby to pieces and feed it to the wolves.
Okay, I’m exaggerating a little. But in the heat of the moment, it feels like you’re watching someone rain all over your hard work.None of us are perfect. I have an amazing editor who I've worked with on my last two releases. Despite my newest book, Enslaved, having a pretty clean manuscript (her words, not mine), things popped up during editing I couldn't fathom being there in the first place.
For instance, a mysterious tense change from past to present at random intervals starting halfway through the book. Despite all my complaints, (Word must have changed it after being swapped from .doc to .docx, aliens abducted the manuscript to make me look silly, demons ate the proper words!) I knew it was my fault. I got caught up in the heat of creating new, exciting words and went on automatic while writing. It happens. We aren't gods, even though we are responsible for creating whole new worlds and universes.
Going through the editing process also gives you a chance to run your newborn manuscript past another set of eyes. The editor can’t read your mind and must rely on what is on the page to tell the story. If there is a weird gap in the action or a character veers too far from where you've established, there is someone there to wave a flag and say, “Yo, wait! This doesn't make a lick of sense.”
Editing has been cast as the bane of a writer’s existence. However, I've used each round through the editing wringer as a learning experience. Each time I come out with more information to help me write the next manuscript cleanly. A clean MS means less time in post-production before publishing (if you are self-publishing or going through a small press publisher). Basically I’m telling you to suck it up, listen to a professional editor (or read the heck out of editing guides), and become nice and friendly with the editing process. It would be a shame to spend months, years on a book just to have it ripped apart by readers due to simple fixes you could have fixed by taking just a little more time and editing it thoroughly.
My favorite editing tip? If your dialog is a constant problem, read it out loud. Each character should have a different rhythm to how they speak. Hearing it will allow you to tweak the dialog to fit the character. Also, you’ll sound crazy. But hey, most writers are anyway, right?

* * * * *

R.C. Murphy spends her nights writing urban fantasy novels and a slew of short stories for her blog, The Path of a Struggling Writer. By day she is a not so mild-mannered housewife, wrangling vampires, demons, and various other nasty creatures. R.C. has joined forces with fellow writers, artists, and actors to form the Zombie Survival Crew where she reviews movies, TV shows, as well as penning articles on important survival skills.

Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Zombie Survival Crew | Just Ink Press

* * * * *

EnslavedThe gods are flawed . . . and they make awful parents.Deryck knows first-hand the cruelty of the gods. Three thousand years after his birth, he is still trapped, forced to service humans as an Incubus—unable to choose whom he sleeps with, and living a life completely devoid of love. There is no out for him. No hope. Or so he thought.Shayla McIntire spent five years getting her life back on track after the accident claiming her husband’s life. She is content to a nice, boring, subdued life free of the abuse she suffered before. Her friends are worried. They want her to find the man of her dreams and move on.Little do they know, the Powers That Be have decided the man of Shayla’s dreams for her. There’s just one hitch, he’s enslaved to the gods and it will take power she doesn't know she has to free him. Deryck isn't the only one hoping Shayla will free him, though.

Buy it here!