Writing tip #5: Note what you like/LOVE to feel encouraged while editing
Exciting writing update, the importance of balance, and the seemingly small, big thing that's making it easy for me to edit my book
Dear reader,
Hi! How ARE you? I have been thinking of you and I’ve been itching to submit another newsletter. I hope you—and your writing, if that’s what you’re up to—are doing well!
In this newsletter…
The Heart of Storytelling: Reflect on what you like/love about each scene
The Writing Life: Balance is important
Exciting Writing Announcement! You’re invited to participate in creating a story!
Writers’ Corner: Think about or share something you wrote that you love
The Heart of Storytelling
This is where I’ll share writing, editing and publishing tips, based on my experience.
Note: This editing tip is for when you’ve already written and edited your story and think it’s pretty polished.
I recently embarked on a readthrough of my book In Your Dreams in preparation to send it to literary agents this year. What I’m doing is I’m reading the book as though I’m a reader—I don’t let myself make any changes to the manuscript. Instead, I take notes in a separate file of edits to consider.
I also make sure to start my notes for every scene by writing what I like or love about each scene. It could be a sentence, a phrase, a feeling drawn out by the scene, the way a character talks, a description, anything!
Part of our job while editing is to look for ideas for improvement, but it’s also so important to recognize the value of what we’ve created and to feel good about it too. This editing practice ensures that I recognize the value, hard work and tough decisions that went into making each scene better. It feels really good to read a scene I remember working hard on and to realize, ‘It works now! All those decisions and word choices came together and I love it!’
Editing brings the book closer to being ready and I’m very excited to share it with you!
Editing your book can be a very long process filled with moments of doubt and decision making, but also moments that are exciting and rewarding. I hope this process helps you ensure you recognize your hard work while you’re editing and that you feel good about your writing too along the way.
Do you want to try this editing process? If you wish to share, what’s your strategy?
This is one of my favourite places to write.
The Writing Life
This is where I’ll share updates on what I’m writing and working on.
As I shared in the February newsletter about believing in yourself, I have been working hard to edit my YA/NA sci-fi novel In Your Dreams in preparation for publication and I’m so happy to say it’s going amazingly well!
It is, I will also say, taking longer than I expected. For different reasons, I’ve spent more time on different work projects this past couple of months, so it became rarer to spend an evening editing In Your Dreams. I made time for writing regularly by reading my book during shorter editing sessions (based on one of the absolute most useful writing tips I am eager to share about writing regularly!)
Balance is Important
This section of the newsletter is called “The Writing Life” but that’s not to mislead you—all aspects of your life interact with and affect each other. We’re writers or creatives because something inside us calls us to create. We also need to rest and relax so that we can focus, appreciate and enjoy being present in the moment.
We’re writers or creatives because something inside us calls us to create. We also need to rest and relax.
I recently experienced firsthand what it can feel like when balance shifts. For different reasons, I took on so many projects at once that I found myself spending more evenings working on different projects than I did working on my book or resting.
I love every project I’ve been working on, but the fact that the balance was off affected me. I recognized this, talked to my husband about it and, together, we looked at ideas for getting the balance back.
I also see this as an opportunity for growth. I tend to take on a lot of projects because I’m excited about them and I love learning and growing, and I also really love a healthy balance. Both interests were kind of competing, I guess I could say. And one way in which I’ve grown through this is by “letting go” of the “need” to do each of those projects at once.
I’ve been very goal-oriented from a young age—getting ideas, setting goals, and achieving them or adjusting them and growing from there. I don’t think I’ve ever felt before that I had taken on too many projects for where that balance feels healthy for me, but this time there was most definitely a shift. You may have recently read the poem I wrote called “Breathe”; I wrote that one day when I was really feeling the shifted balance, so I went on a walk and, minutes later, the words just came to me. A couple of people told me what the poem meant to them, and that really meant a lot to me. We all need to take care of our whole selves.
This healthy balance is a big part of the reason why this newsletter hasn’t gone out in a while! I announced in February that I would be taking a break from the writing tips newsletter to focus on In Your Dreams, and I’ve been slowly working on this newsletter draft in the background, accepting that there is no pressure to release it yet, and now that the balance is back, I’m excited to share this with you!
I really hope that, if you’re feeling that the work-life balance is off, that there are ways for you to adjust it. I know that we aren’t always in a position to adjust it right away, for different reasons. I know that taking care of you is important too and it can feel like a struggle to do all the things you do. I hope that you’re doing okay.
Breathe. You got this.
And if you need to talk, the writing community is here—we can listen.
Exciting Writing Announcement!
One of the projects I’ve been so working on is something that could involve you!
I’m excited to announce that I’m working with Leong on our first Collaborative Tale! This is a fun experience in which readers are invited to take part in shaping a story together!
You can learn more about how to participate and you can also start reading the first section of the story. It’s a YA contemporary story about a grade 12 student who, in order to address growing anxiety, needs to dig into family secrets that have been locked away for years, which means flipping her comfortable, loving home life completely upside down. If you love stories about friendship, family, romance, love, family history and growth, come read and join in the creation of the story On the Other Side of the Ocean!
We just published the first section this week so you’re on one of the first to know about it. Please feel free to spread the word to anyone you know who might love to participate by reading or sharing ideas! I’ll send out another newsletter soon announcing the project in more detail.
Writers’ Corner
This is where we’ll gather around the virtual cozy fireplace to talk about writing and participate in fun writing exercises and contests!
On the topic of encouragement, I encourage you to identify something you’ve written that you really love. It could be a section of a book you wrote, or a poem, or a social media post—something that you wrote and that you feel like in terms of the actual writing. It could be something you wrote recently, or in the past, or even today. You’re welcome to share!
Thank you so much for your patience with this newsletter, reader! Your continued support means a lot.
Coming soon: a Q&A with writer Nicole Nwosu!
Congrats on the collaborative tale, Marisa! Excited to read!