Beautiful Books #3 – Where Editing Hopefully Occurs

The third and final round of Beautiful Books is here! During the NaNoWriMo season, our dear hosts Sky and Cait take a slight break from their Beautiful People linkup to focus on our novels instead of characters. This month, with NaNo over and so many fresh new first drafts all written and ready for their time to shine, they’re focusing on that ever elusive thing called. . . *shifty eyes* editing. Who else but Sky and Cait can get us pumped over editing, am I right?
You can link on up over at Sky’s post or Cait. And, don’t forget, these linkups are for anyone, not just those who participated in NaNo. You know you want toooo! *poke, poke* *wink, wink*

I’m sort of cheating this year (like I did last year *cough, cough*). But come on, rules. Psssh. Who follows them? Here’s the problem: I’m not going to be editing my NaNo until I finish the series and then edit the first five books that came before it. I could be in my 40s by the time I’m ready to edit More Black than Night! (Okay, that may be extreme, but you never know.) The good news is, I will be editing a book soon. Just not in the Colors of a Dragon Scale series. BUT come January, I shall be diving straight into deep edits of my Beauty and the Beast retelling Burning Thorns annnd I’m quite excited. I’m very, very much looking forward to returning to my fairytale world and Beast and Rose’s story. Ecstatic really. Also a little nervous because, ya know, editing, but let’s try to stay positive here.
So shall we?

1. On a scale of 1 (worst) to 10 (best), how did the book turn out? Did anything defy your expectations?
Hmm. . . This question is hard to answer for your own book. 7? Maybe even an 8? I haven’t read back through it since finishing, so that number may go way down once it’s had a read over. But I’m kind of in love with this story. I also tried to take my time on it and not just hurl as many words on the page as possible and call it a novel like I usually do with first drafts. . . Ahem. Beauty and the Beast is my favorite fairytale and I’ve wanted to write a retelling of it since I was a small thing, so this story is very dear to my heart. And, though I think it could use quite a bit of expanding, I really enjoyed the world. Then there’s the cast. Ah, the cast. They’re all so precious to me. So yeah, I love this story.
Defy my expectations? Huh. Well, one character arc turned out way deeper than I thought it would, which was a happy surprise. I also rather like the style of the writing. I tried something a smidge different and (I think) it turned out better than I expected.
Again though, once I read back through it I may disregard all of this and return saying it’s a total pigpen of a book. These things happen.
2. Comparative title time: what published books, movies, or TV shows are like your book? (Ex: Inkheart meets X-Men.)
The story world was deeply inspired by the Maleficent movie. I had just seen the movie when the first inklings of this story were coming together, and being as how Maleficent is one of my favorite movies and has my favorite feel of a fairytale story, it definitely leaked into Burning Thorns. So I guess you could say the Beauty and Beast story meets the Maleficent movie? I don’t even know. I’m the worst at comparing my stories with things.

3. Do you enjoy working with deadlines and pressure (aka NaNoWriMo)? Or do you prefer to write-as-you’re-inspired?
DEADLINES. Give me allll the deadlines. I would never write, ever, if I didn’t have things like NaNoWriMo or give myself personal goals. I feed off goals. The only reason BT is finished is because I set a 30k goal during June to get a huge boost on it, then promised myself I’d have it done by the end of July. Otherwise it’d probably just be a sad, unfinished story sitting in the dark places of my laptop. If you give me a goal, I’ll get things done, almost to an OCD level. But left on my own I’ll. . .have Netflix marathons and scroll on Pinterest all day. >.>
4. How do you go about editing? Give us an insight into your editing process.
I’ll let you in on a secret. I. . .haven’t edited much at all in my life. I’m terrible about getting distracted by shiny new ideas and not taking the time to polish up all those first drafts waiting around. It’s a horrible habit, I know. But I WILL edit BT. I WILL. You guys have to keep my accountable, okay?
My plan for editing is to first just read through the whole thing and take notes as I go. Then go back and fix any major things. Once that is done, I’m going to open a fresh document, put the manuscript next to it, and rewrite the whole thing. Yep, word for word. From beginning to end. I feel like it might help instead of just looking through the mass of text and fixing it that way. If I’m actually retyping each and every word, I might catch more problems that otherwise I’d miss. Then, once the whooole thing is retyped out and fixed up, I’ll probably go back again and tweak things.
It may be long and tedious and not work at all, but right now I’m feeling optimistic. (I’m sure by around February or so I’ll be crawling back here moaning and sleep deprived and questioning my life choices. As one does while editing.)
5. What aspect of your story needs the most work?
Like I said earlier, I feel as though the world could use. . .more. I like the world, a lot, but it needs some expanding. I want to make the creatures more unique, put more history to things. Just make it in general more interesting. I tend to be limited and cliché when it comes to worldbuilding, it’s a pretty bad weakness of mine. I hope to remedy that with this story. Hope being the keyword here.
6. What aspect of your story did you love the most?
Gracious, I loved so many things while writing it. But my answer to this question, with any story, is always the same: The characters. I don’t care what I’m writing, my favorite part is always the characters. They are the heart and soul of a story after all. And they come from my heart and soul. I will never tire of writing solely because of the characters. This story I really felt like I dove deep within my characters because this was probably the smallest cast I’ve ever had. Usually I have pretty big casts, but, to my surprise, this story showed me I may enjoy smaller casts better. First of all, it’s not nearly as overwhelming; but second, I’m able to more deeply pour myself into each one. These characters was without a doubt my favorite aspect of BT.
7. Give us a brief run down on your main characters and how you think they turned out. Do you think they’ll need changes in edits?
Funny how my last answer perfectly brought us to the next question. XD
My main main character, Rose, is naïve and still clings to a childlike wonder that keeps her from falling too deep into the darkness that has become her world. Sometimes this is a very good thing, but sometimes. . . not. She’s gullible and trusts people far too easily which gets her in quite a lot of trouble. Usually I want to hug her and tell her everything is okay. Instead I ruin her life. As writers do.
The Beast is one of my favorite types of characters. The seemingly callous, dark guy who ends up having a big heart, even if you have to dig pretty deep to find it.
Lystraea  (some of you may know her as Selia, she’s had a name change) was one of my favorite surprises. At first she was a little too perfect and it kind of distressed me, but eventually I discovered some serious backstory that really brought some interesting messages in the story and showed she’s quite human (even though she’s technically a fae and not human at all, but details).
Anya is mostly an antagonist and malicious and hateful. And yet I found her way of thinking completely fascinating. I don’t even know why. She felt different than any character I’ve ever attempted to write. Her POVs were always interesting.
Marigold was the most surprising of all. As Anya’s lapdog basically, and a spoiled brat at that, I expected to be completely annoyed by her. Instead she stole my heart. She’s still a brat, but her spoiled ways were more amusing than annoying. And I discovered a lot more to her than I originally knew. Her childish, fiery spirit provided a lot of fun adventures.
And if you’ve read my blog since the beginning of this year you probably know my feelings on Larke, the sarcastic, mischievous fae that decided to steal the show and cause all sorts of fun trouble.
Right now I don’t feel like they’ll need much changing, but I really need to read through it before I can properly answer these questions.
8. What are your plans for this novel once you finish editing? More edits? Finding beta readers? Querying? Self-publishing? Hiding it in a dark hole forever?
Edits, edits, and more edits. I’ll be sending out a chapter at a time to my beta readers as I deem each chapter readable enough for mortal eyes. Once that is done. . .well, querying shall be considered. *hides under blanket*
9. Share a favorite snippet!
Rose picked her way along the Forest floor, clinging to her fading candle. Yet no dark fae stirred in the shadows, no thorny vines reached out and caught the skirt of her dress, no thick branches barred her way. Instead the cold mist pushed at her ankles until the castle’s entrance loomed over her. The Forest wanted her here, craved vengeance.
10. What are your writing goals and plans for 2016?
Drinking too much caffeine and crying. Ahem. I mean, editing. I plan on pouring myself into BT to the best of my ability. Then, once October hits, I’ll start planning the final book of the Colors of a Dragon Scale series for NaNoWriMo. Buuut let’s not get ahead. Of course, plans hate me and love to dump out like a box of crayons and splay all over in a jumbled mess, but for now we’ll pretend this is my plan.
Wow. Now I’m even more excited about returning to this story. I’ve left it completely alone for months. I’m rather thrilled to go back. Hurray for Sky and Cait and their awesomely helpful linkups!
So, I need to know, am I the only one still in shock that NaNo is over? Do you have any big editing projects in the horizon? And what are YOUR 2016 writing plans? Do tell me of all the beautiful writerly things that shall spawn with the new year!

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
23 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Anonymous
Anonymous
December 15, 2015 3:38 PM

Ooo, Burning Thorns is inspired by Maleficent? That's cool! I … actually haven't watched Maleficent yet. But I really want to!
I agree with your thing about deadlines. Without deadlines, some of my stories would probably lay abandoned forever. Until I remembered they existed and that I loved them :).
AAH, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE ALL YOUR CHARACTERS!!! *takes a deep breath* Your characters are very much absolutely wonderfulness :).
YOU'RE GOING TO CONSIDER QUERYING? *flails wildly* *dies* Christine Smith, you are braver than I :D. When (yes, when, not if) Burning Thorns gets published, I will buy it. For sure.
~Savannah Perran

Mary Horton
December 15, 2015 3:50 PM

Asdfjkl YAY MORE CHRISTINE THINGS! *huggles post* You make me want to read your stories soooo badly. They sound absolutely beautimous! ^_^

Oh my goodness! Your charries!!! Rose, Larke, Lystraea…EEEEP THEY ALL SOUND SO AMAAAZING! *flails*

My writing plans have been rudely shoved back in a corner by Life. (Nasty little thing, Life is.) I had JUST reached winter break when my immune system decided to take a break. So yesh. Now I have a cold. BUT I am still trying to churn out a mystery novel that's been demanding my attention for the past few weeks. *glares at the shiny new idea* And there are about a gazillion other stories that I want to write. *coughs* Ah, the life of a writer…

Skye Hoffert
December 15, 2015 10:00 PM

Can I be a beta for it when you send it out. I loved 'Burning Thorns' the world, the characters, the feels. Lovely snippet, editing is just painful.

Deborah O'Carroll
December 16, 2015 5:39 PM

Beautiful Books! On Burning Thorns! YAYYY!!! *cue excitement*

I'm so glad it turned out well and that you like it! (At least before reading over it again… I know that feeling… *cough* But believe me, it's not a pigpen! It's going to be awesome, I just know it! :D) It being your favorite fairytale just makes it more special! THAT'S THE BEST! ^_^

I have a love/hate relationship with deadlines because they DO get me doing stuff and otherwise I just plod along and get nowhere; but at the same time I tend to bite off more than I can chew and then perfectionist me gets stressed out when I don't finish what I wanted to do when I wanted to finish. I's a silly person. 😛 I'm so amazed at your goals and power through on this one! YOU ARE AWESOME AND SO INSPIRING! <3

Ooh, I like the idea of retyping the entire thing! I've thought of doing that but… never have. Sounds awesome! Hope that'll work good for ya!

CHARACTERS! <3 (Also, the pics you always find for your posts that just FEEL like the story you're talking about! It's awesome! ^_^) The BEEEEAAST!!!! *huggles him* *huggles all the others* I still can't wait to meet Larke, and to re-meet all the others in their new deeper roles! 🙂

*squeal of delight* It's gonna be for beta-ers?? YAYYYY! I hope I'm on this list…!!! >:D BECAUSE I DEMAND AND I MUST READ THIS BEAUTIFUL STORY ADKJFLSKDJF;SKDJF;LSKD!!! <3

Intriguing snippet. o.o Mysterioussss…

Editing BT and doing your final Colors of a Dragon Scale sounds like an AWESOME 2016! O_O I hope that'll go well for you! …Though I know both of us tend to have our plans laugh in our faces, sooo… >.> Hee. But I'm sure you'll have a splendid year of writerlydom! ^_^ I should probably plan my writing plans but right now I just want to get through this month's editing and then take January off because I'm soooo done with writing right now. o.o

a;lskdjf;slkdjf I loved this post and I got really excited getting a peek back at it again too! Huzzah for Beautiful Books! <3

Victoria Grace Howell
December 16, 2015 6:25 PM

Beauty and the Beast is my favorite fairy tale too! I really like the title and the character names. ^ ^ You edit similarly to how I do. I also rewrite the entire book before doing line edits. XD I find it easier to let the book grow.

I did Beautiful Books too! http://storitorigrace.blogspot.com/2015/12/beautiful-books-editing-process.html

Victoria Grace Howell
December 18, 2015 3:29 AM

Good! I'm glad it encourages. ^ ^

You can survive!

Anonymous
Anonymous
December 18, 2015 3:22 PM

Oh, Christine, I forgot to ask you this earlier, but is there a chance I could be one of these beta-readers? Don't feel bad if you would rather me not, I'm not even 100% sure I would be able to do beta-reading (I would have to ask my mom first to see if it's alright with her), but I thought I would ask ya just in case :).
~Savannah Perran

Sophia White
December 18, 2015 3:33 PM

I'm not exactly in shock that NaNo is over, but I've put my story aside till New Year's and I miss my world a lot. I keep wanting to go play in it again. Thirteen more days is a long time to try not to think about those characters, and focus instead on the other ones that keep saying I've been neglecting them.
Next year I'll be editing my NaNo, Of the North (I've got a surprisingly large number of people interested in beta-reading it), finishing my Civil War-era novel (which will be around 100k when it's done, I think), maybe editing it, and writing another novel in my Robin Hood-ish sprawling series that grows if you even blink at it. It's a lot of fun, just. . . long, I guess. And the plot needs work. I'd like for this time next year to see something of mine published or on the way to publishing, but we shall see. Plans rarely go just as we'd first intended.
Can I be a beta-reader for Burning Thorns too? 🙂

Tracey Dyck
December 20, 2015 8:25 PM

CHRISTINE. I seem to be making the unfortunate habit of commenting late on all your beautimous posts! I jump to read them often the very day they go up (because that's what I do with my favorite blogs), but because that often means reading between other activities going on, I usually don't have time to comment right then. So I make a mental note to come back later and… well. You see how that goes.

ANYWAY.

YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW EXCITED I AM RIGHT NOW. Your answers brought all the lovely memories of BT rushing back. *group hugs all the charries* It's thrilling that you're about to dive into editing this novel! And perhaps even MORE thrilling to think of beta reading in the near(ish) future. 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 #allthehappy That is, I assume I'll be on that beta list. 😉 Otherwise I may just have to hop a dragon and cross the border to come knocking at your door, demanding to read about Rose and the Dragon and Larke and Lystraea and everyone.

About the retyping method–I've done that too! I found it really helpful for my first "big" edit, when so much about the story and my writing style was changing. It's a good way to get into both editing AND drafting mode at the same time.

Eeek, I hope the edits go really well! If you ever have a stubborn plot knot or an uncooperative character you need help straightening out, let me know. I'd love to brainstorm if needed. <3

Tracey Dyck
December 28, 2015 7:14 PM
Reply to  Tracey Dyck

Really? You too? Whew, I'm glad I'm not the only one. XD

I'M SO GLAD. AND I'M STILL SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS EDITING VENTURE. (Well. That is quite the thought, isn't it? Intentionally keeping me off the list so that I'll arrive via dragon. Force me into it. That's a splendid idea. Now where to find a willing dragon… XD)

It is lots of work, but I really couldn't have edited any other way. There was so little that I could salvage, sentence by sentence, so retyping new sentences worked best.

Awesome! *hugs back* Happy editing!!!!

Anonymous
Anonymous
December 23, 2015 11:01 PM

Can I just say that I'm getting really excited about Burning Thorns? Because I'm getting really excited! 😀

I actually enjoyed Maleficent way more than I thought I would. It rose to one of my top three favorite Disney princess movies (the others being Tangled and Frozen :P). I loved how it compared Maleficent and Stefan… and Diaval was just plain awesome! (But I'm chasing a rabbit trail.) I can totally see how the movie helped inspire the story! ^_^

Deadlines are, I've found, quite helpful. My problem most of the time is putting off writing, and before you know it, the day's gone. So maybe I should give myself personal deadlines. 😛

Retyping the whole thing?! I salute you for your bravery. How exactly would you go about doing that? When I entered a LEGO story contest earlier this year, I had to type what was in the document into a post on the site. It kinda hurt my eyes/head after maximizing and minimizing the document for a while. Good luck to ya! XD

Creating unique worlds is definitely not the easiest thing to do, but I have complete confidence that you'll do it! 🙂

And your characters are AWESMAZING! Rose, the Beast, Lystraea (good name change, by the way), Anya (the conniving little… -_-)–I'm looking forward to seeing how they've changed or grown! Getting to know Marigold better should be good too, and Larke… well, I don't know what I'll think of him. XD

I can still be a beta reader, right? I've been looking forward to reading it and coming up with a playlist (which is, of course, already brewing in my brain). *looks at you with my best attempt at puppy dog eyes* XD

Such a well-written snippet! ^_^ I'm sure your editing will go fine. I did my first serious edit this year with Darkened Slumber, and it went much better than I thought it would!

As for next year's goals… well, there's next year's retelling contest. (I'm actually not sure if I'll be entering anymore should I not win this year, simply because I'd like to retain the rights for the stories so I can expand them into a six-book series. 😛 I would still write the stories with their deadlines; I simply wouldn't enter.)

Anyway, moving right alone: I also have another story I've been working on since fall of 2013. Hopefully I can ram through it with all due speed! Plus I have a smaller project I'd like to finish, and I'm working on a co-authored story with five other people on the LEGO Message Boards (which is a lot of fun, actually). I would love to be able to buy a laptop so I can start writing a trilogy that has been in the making for quite some time. That's what 2016 looks like for me. XD

May the writing force be with you as you brave the perilous quest of editing! ;D

-Josiah

Anonymous
Anonymous
December 24, 2015 8:21 PM
Reply to  Anonymous

It's been a while since I've watched Maleficent. But I agree with you; I had no complaints about it either. Tangled is your favorite animated movie? Wow! That is CERTAINLY saying something. XD I don't think I could choose a favorite animated movie. There's just way too many. One of my favorites is (no surprise) The LEGO Movie. 😛

I didn't know you could have documents open side-by-side. Maybe it depends on the type of document.

Was that poking supposed to imply that I have that talent? XD If it was, then thank you! If not… well, then it's kinda awkward. 😛

I'm looking forward to that as well. And all those feels… It's going to be so much more emotional this time around since I get to know everyone better.

Trust me when I say that the soup of your playlist has been cooking on the backburner for quite some time now. (That was a pretty awful metaphor. XD) Happy to be a part of the team! I'm the one who considers it a great honor. 😀

Personally, as cool as it would've been had you won, I am glad for you as well. It's nice knowing that if you enjoyed the story, you have the freedom to expand it. So yeah, I doubt I'll be entering next year. (Would you believe if I told you I'm already formulating the playlists for the next two retellings? Tracey thinks it's kind of crazy. XD)

Thanks! I hope so too. 🙂

Thank you! (And I totally forgot to wish you a merry Christmas before, so…) Merry Christmas to you! 😀

-Josiah