The BIRTH of ATL ENGINEERING

I’d always liked to write, in school, my fiction essays got ‘A’s. I still have quite a few of them, from ‘My Volcano Island Journal’ to a three-page rhyme about Lancelot. I wrote something longer, either an Indiana Jones or Allan Quartermain book. I think I made up an Indian Jones version of Dungeons and Dragons, so it was probably Allan Quartermain, or maybe James Bond? Regardless, my dad pulled it out and passed it around the family, they laughed and I was utterly humiliated. I tore it up and never wrote again . . .

Most of my friends had moved to Atlanta, I didn’t because I had a great job and was making a lot of money. But to make that money I was working 70-80 hours a week. I was coming home and going to bed early so that I could wake up early and go to work, a viscous cycle. Working the weekends, I couldn’t even go out Friday or Saturday night, (when I did, I was so exhausted that it didn’t take much for me to get drunk and pass out prematurely.) It wasn’t what you could really call living.

One solace I had, besides watching reruns of the Power Rangers, was reading. Back then, you were members of book clubs, ‘Buy 1, get 5 free!’ One of the books I got was called ‘The Weekend Novelist’ by Robert J. Ray. I started using it, writing the opening “Sunlight peeked through the blinds, casting a pattern of stripes onto the form on the bed . . .” The next step was to write character sketches. For inspiration, (this was before the internet, like 1999), well, I had a pack of nudie playing cards that I used for marathon sessions of . . . playing solitaire (insert jokes here). I selected my favorites, shown above. The 4 of Hearts became Eric, the 9 of Hearts Adam, the 3 of Diamonds Nelson, the 4 of Clubs Dave, the 2 of Clubs Tony, and the King of Clubs Jorn. (The main character, Stephen, I modeled loosely off myself.) I wrote their physical descriptions and back stories, (which I incorporated into the story later as flashbacks).

Now that I had characters / actors, they needed a story / stage. As I was planning on doing, I had Stephen move to Atlanta, where he would meet everyone at his new job. I wanted this to be like ‘Melrose Place’, an over-the-top primetime soap opera, where calamity and copulation ensues. For good measure, I threw in a murder, and based the cop assigned to the case off a female actress of some notoriety back then.

I’d be remiss not to mention that, at that time, I wasn’t comfortable being gay, and the book started off being primarily ‘straight’, with only one gay sub-character. (This, of course, changed over the years.)

It really took off, scene after scene after scene and I finished the first draft in like 6-8 weeks, three hand-written spiral-bound notebooks full. For the next step, I purchased a word-processing typewriter, with an LCD screen and hard disk drive! Typing and editing took months instead of weeks. I think when I finished I had like 180 typed pages.

Just like the main character, I moved to Atlanta, started a new job, got a bunch of new friends, and had lots of wild and crazy fun.

Fourteen years later, I was unemployed, I had moved from the city to the mountains, and the isolation I once appreciated, (I could piss off my front porch), was now, well, isolating. I pretty much left my house once a week to attend graduate school, grabbing cigarettes and groceries on the way back. So I wrote because I was not only bored but also because it was a good creative outlet, and I needed a creative outlet, at least that's what my therapist said. It worked, writing was not only entertaining, and gave a sense of accomplishment, but also gave me this imaginary world with imaginary people to play with, the next best thing to having a real life!

After having expanded it to its now 240 pages, I shared it with a friend who offered encouragement and too-gracious praise, (ATL 1 is dedicated to her). I submitted it to a couple/few publishers and got rejected, rejected, rejected. I was about to throw in the towel when I had a chance meeting with a self-published author who encouraged me to, well, self-publish. She was my cheerleader during the editing of ATL 1 and the finishing and editing ATL 2, (ATL 2 is dedicated to her).

I entered ATL 1 into the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards and made it through to the second round. For participating, I got free proof copies for a book using createspace. I felt that ATL 1 needed work, but that Duke 1 was ready, so I used the free proof copies for Duke 1. This was more of a “hey, I got these free proof copies, it might take years to find a publisher, so why not upload and get a free print copy for myself?” I was so impressed with the quality, and so unimpressed with the independent publishers I’d contacted, that I decided to go it alone. And now, Duke 1, 2, and 3 and ATL 1 and 2 are available with more to come!

When's the best time to write?

From my NaNo friends, what I've been hearing is, 'it just isn’t the right time'. When is the right time to write?

Myself, I started writing because I was terminally bored. When I wrote 'ATL Engineering' I was living up north, working in engineering, and most of my friends had moved down south, (sound familiar, it's the premise of that book.) Just like the main character, I moved to Atlanta, started a new job, got a bunch of new friends, had lots of wild and crazy fun, and forgot all about writing. I picked it up again fourteen years later after getting laid . . . off. I had moved from the city to the mountains, and the isolation I once appreciated, (I could piss off my front porch), was, well, isolating. So I wrote not only because I was bored but also because it's a good creative outlet, and I needed a creative outlet, at least that's what my therapist said.

Well, Margaret Mitchell was laid up with an ankle injury, and had to do something to keep from getting stir-crazy:

In May 1926, after Mitchell had left her job at the Atlanta Journal and was recovering at home from her ankle injury . . . (her husband) was growing weary of lugging armloads of books home from the library to keep his wife's mind occupied while she hobbled around the house; he emphatically suggested she write her own book instead: “For God's sake, Peggy, can't you write a book instead of reading thousands of them?” (wikipedia)

Which is an approach my brother-in-law took with my sister: “All you do is sit around reading trashy vampire books. Why don’t you write one? If (your brother) can do it, it can’t be that hard!” So she did.

John Grisham was quite occupied, being a husband, father, and trial lawyer, but found time to write an hour each day:

“If there is one thing I’ve learned since I started writing it’s that you can’t just wimp out of it. You write when you’ve got time, and you write when you haven’t got time, and if by the end of that you’ve still not got a novel then you stay up until three in the morning to get the thing on paper.” (mark williams international - http://markwilliamsinternational.com/2011/09/07/a-time-to-write-with-apologies-to-john-grisham/)

J.K. Rowling was divinely inspired to write, and did so through grief, depression, and joblessness / poverty:

“Failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy to finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one area where I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter, and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.” (wikipedia)

I guess my point is, you either have to have a gaping hole to fill . . . in your life, socially and/or psychologically, and/or be like the local news, ‘Dedicated, Determined, Dependable’. When is the best time to write? Not when you WANT to, but when you NEED to.

the ugly truth about self-publishing . . .

It’s been a year since I self-published, and I’m going to do what I haven’t seen another self-published author do, give my results!

The first question that comes to mind is, why did the Duke series sell and not the ATL series? The Duke series had a foot in the ‘furry’/anthro genre, was promoted on FurAffinity.net and soFurry.com, and ‘furries’ are friendly and supportive creatures. The ATL series is genre-less, being so broad, a romance/mystery/humor novel featuring gay, bisexual, and straight characters, that the only category for it is general fiction, unless I wanted to dump it in gay fiction, but I didn’t feel right about that as it features a straight relationship, as gay men don’t want no chocolate in their peanut butter, if you know what I’m sayin’. Now that the ATL series is out on eBook, and the Duke series has been read, it may pick up more sales.

Which brings me to my doomed experiment. This summer I published ATL 1 serial. It made sense, each chapter is an episode of a season, like on TV. But readers don’t want to have to buy and download twelve chapters per book. And once they’re out there, it’s not really serial anymore, as you can buy them all at once. While serial books are gaining popularity recently, it would be for chapters posted to a subscribed to blog, not individual eBooks. Now ATL 1 and 2 are in eBook in their entirety.

Next question, what’s with the recouped costs? Well, here’re some lessons I’ve learned:

1) don’t commission multiple artists for cover art at the same time, as the one not used is mostly a waste, unless you count the exposure you get from the artist themselves. The Duke series features art by jailbird, but I got little exposure from it. The alternate cover art was by tsaiwolf, and I picked up quite a few followers/readers through this exposure. In fact, (if I had the money now), I’d planned on commissioning artists not only for some great character art, but also for exposure; this would be a marketing cost though, not production.

2) convert your files to eBook yourself! At first, I thought the process was daunting and paid createspace $69 each to convert my files, often a couple of times. It really is too damn easy though, not to do yourself.

3) don’t buy inventory! I wanted to have an inventory of my books for sale, but in this digital age it’s too easy, and convenient, to make changes. I’m always reading my own books and if I find a typo, I can have all the files updated in a half hour. Now I’ve got a dozen copies or so with typos, which I might be able to sell at a discount, but will most likely trash.

Next, let’s look at trends: (as of August and September)

 



 

So what reversed this downward trend? Towards the end of August, having only sold one book, I entered Duke 1 into amazon’s KDP Select and offered it free for five days. Those who enjoyed Duke 1 went on to buy Duke 2 and 3, and it generated enough buzz that others were buying Duke 1 after the promotion ended, as you can see in these charts: (before and after)

Some words of advice on offering your book for free:

1) as you can see with the Duke 1 trendline, it didn’t have much effect on the individual book, but more so on the books as a whole. Offer a book for free only if you also have related books.

2) offering a book for free attracts ‘bookmonsters’. These people aren’t serious in their interest of your book and they read it only because it’s free and they read it only to slam it. Duke 1 was new, virginal in ratings, and now has a 2-star rating because of a couple of bookmonsters; if I don’t get more positive ratings soon, the book and the whole series will be dead. Only offer your book for free after you have a positive-rating buffer and your book can take the hits by the bookmonsters.

3) in my experience, to get to be a ‘Top 10 FREE gay fiction eBook’, you have to ‘give away’ about 300 eBook copies, so, someone touting ‘Top 10’ has only given away that many. With the PAID category, it’s even less, as people ‘buy’ free books in bulk to maybe someday read later.

Also, those ‘spikes’ in June and July came about by my posting on gay author sites, blogging, commenting on blogs, etc. As you can see, I haven’t hit that ‘magic bullet’ yet, until that happens, all those hours devoted to online marketing don’t create more value than if I’d have written more and published more books.

So, in a nutshell, if I had to do it all over again, I would’ve cut costs, which would’ve made the free promotion unnecessary.

Feel free to ask questions!

My story and I'm sticking to it!

I’ve written and self-published five novels so far. I released them into the world and watched the steady, however minimal, sales. I knew that my job wasn’t over, in order to sell them, really sell them, I’d have to market them.

Market research was quite disturbing. “There’s no market for gay fiction novels. If you want to succeed in the Gay & Lesbian genre, you have to write novellas / short stories for women. That’s what’s selling. There’re massive online eBook retailers devoted to it. And it wouldn’t hurt to develop a female alias.”

I considered it.

I recently promoted Duke – Book 1: Alpha Rising, my pride and joy and the first in a series of three (so far). I posted a notice in a M/M Romance group I was a member of, among other places. I was very pleased with the response, until the reviews came in . . . from women:

While they all liked the writing, characters, and world-building, etc., they added, “It wasn’t a bad book; it just wasn’t for me – 2/5 stars.” I wanted to say, “Well, I didn’t write it for you.”

“It’s awful that someone in a relationship would have that much recreational sex with others – 2/5 stars.” I wanted to say, (or actually, I did say), “The book blurb clearly states that the main character had a lover and someone else would compete for his affection.”

Another along those lines, "I have a bit of a problem with all the cheating/swapping - 1/5 stars."

“All the sex is just frivolous. I don’t think the author had any other purpose than this – 2/5 stars” I replied, “The book blurb clearly states that the book is an EROTIC drama, with laughter and tears, his story will touch you and have you TOUCHING YOURSELF.”

“There’re no werewolves – 2/5 stars.” I replied, “The book blurb clearly mentions a German Shepherd, an Irish Setter, and even a tortoise.”

Instead of appreciating the book for what is was, they were not appreciating it for what it wasn’t.

In challenging their reviews, I was told that, “Negative ratings can be useful to an author to learn what appeals to readers and what doesn't.”

What appeals to WHICH readers? That’s when I snapped.

THIS ISN’T A M/M ROMANCE WEREWOLF ‘STORY’, NO FUCKING WEREWOLVES! THIS ISN’T A M/M ROMANCE, THIS IS GAY FICTION. I DIDN’T WRITE IT FOR YOU! I WROTE IT FOR GAY MEN!

And reviews came in from gay men, and they were positive.

To think I almost kowtowed to these people.

I’m glad women like M/M Romance, good for them, but NOT to the EXCLUSION of gay men; I find this completely IMBALANCED.

Websites and blogs celebrate ‘the best in gay fiction for women’ . . . M/M Romance groups started and dominated by women . . . gay Literature retreats where 80% of the featured authors are women . . . gay male authors stop writing gay fiction for gay men to write M/M Romance for women . . . and a gay man releasing a gay fiction book written for gay men that gets slammed for not catering to what women want.

That’s when I started a new group, no girls allowed! (gay men only). The response by gay men has been positive. The response by women, well, I was cautioned that I might be thought of as misogynistic for excluding them.

I’ll have to find a word to call them for what they’re doing.

NO GAY FOR YOU! trends in gay & lesbian fiction

Well, I entered Duke – Book 1: Alpha Rising into the amazon Prime program to take advantage of its promotions. I was hoping to spur interest in Duke, maybe get some reviews and bleed-through sales. So how did that work out? I ‘gave away’ 700 copies of Duke, got some reviews, and some bleed-through sales so, mission accomplished? Here’s what I found:

(Let’s call books over 200 pgs. NOVELS, books under 200 pgs. NOVELLAS, and books under 100 pgs. SHORT STORIES.)

1) Forget sales rank, because Gay & Lesbian Fiction is fraught with ‘beaters’.

Beaters: 10-20 page SHORT STORIES, typically of one drawn-out ‘scene of affection’, which seem to be gobbled up. Research shows that only 25% of the books listed under ‘Gay & Lesbian’ are NOVELS, 35% are NOVELLAS, and 40% are SHORT STORIES. Six months ago, it was 50% NOVELS, 25% NOVELLAS, and 25% SHORT STORIES.

These ‘beaters’ kept beating Duke down in rank on the ‘Best Sellers in Gay & Lesbian Fiction’ list, (but that’s not why I call them beaters . . . you’ll figure it out.)

 

 

2) No gay for you!

I think that there’s a divide, between books written by gay men for gay men and M/M books written by women for women.

Research shows that 75% of the books listed under ‘Gay & Lesbian’ are written by women. Six months ago, it was split evenly men and women. I would like to think that there’s no difference, but there obviously is.

Do gay men enjoy books written by women? I’ve read some posts by gay men looking for books written by gay men because they’re just not satisfied with how women write gay romance. Gay men are my target readers and seem to like my books.

Female readers, while they think it’s a good book, say it just ‘isn’t for them’, as they have different sensibilities. (I wanted to tell them, “Well, I didn’t write it for you.”) This market is taking off in its own direction, there are lots of blogs and book review sites for ‘celebrating the best in M/M romance for women’, which says a lot.

I think we should have a ‘blind taste test’, any volunteers?

(One note, most non-heterosexual fiction, like ménage, is put into the ‘Gay & Lesbian Fiction’ category.)

3) Correlated research from both points leads to the following:

While the prevalence of Gay & Lesbian Fiction NOVELLAS and SHORT STORIES by male authors has stayed relatively the same, NOVELS are being pushed aside, along with gay male preference, by NOVELLAS and SHORT STOIRES written by women for women. (And this is imbalanced, as I’d say that we’ll never see the obverse being true.)

 

 

In summary, there is no market for gay fiction NOVELS, it’s all about the beaters and what women want.

But I did ‘give away’ 700 copies of Duke – Book 1: Alpha Rising, which I hope will be enjoyed, so thank you to all of you who do!

(The ‘research’ is from a survey of the Top 100 Best Sellers in Gay & Lesbian Fiction on amazon.com in February and August of this year.)

Thank you for reading, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this!

the BIRTH of DUKE

Duke - Book 1: Alpha Rising

An erotic drama, with laughter and tears, his story will touch you, and have you touching yourself.

Two worlds collide as Duke has to tell his boyfriend Mike his secret, that not only can he change into a black German Shepherd, but also that the Irish Setter he brought home from his family vacation is actually his lover Rourke.

Rourke, a 'purist', his primitive people brutalized him for being gay. By becoming his 'Alpha', Duke rescued him, but to remain an 'Alpha' Duke has to lead a pack. The machinations of the purists not only lead Duke to gather a pack, but also to take action that will have far-reaching ramifications.

For Rourke's sake, Duke has to tell Mike his secret, to do so they have to mate. Their love on the line, the real threat comes from within as another competes for Duke's affection.

Animal experimentation, a knife-wielding homophobe, the local whore, and an ailing grandparent, who has to pass along his gift of 'change', add to his troubles, but a hundred-year-old tortoise with a secret saves the day.
__________


My little (22 year-old 6 foot) cousin brought up ‘furries’, people who ‘dress up like animals and have sex.’ That put the bug in my ear, or head, or is it butt?

Furries . . . fur ‘art’ (anthropomorphism) . . . guy’s a furry . . . guy IS a furry . . . changes into a dog . . . it’s a secret, from his boyfriend . . . his whole life . . . and they’ve been friends since childhood.

He’s a man who’s also a dog . . . how would he act differently . . . a scene with him and his boyfriend and, they way he acts and is treated, you don’t know if he’s a man or a dog . . .

Human vs. canine sensibilities . . . what they do as affectionate, if we were to do it, would be gross . . . like cleaning each other . . . he could clean a friend . . . unbeknownst . . . because that guy wouldn’t think anything of having him around while he jerked off, as a dog . . . the guy next door . . .

Got to have a place where they can be ‘furries’, and work in an Irish Setter, a redhead . . . with fangs . . . a big guy . . . a savage!

Let’s just say that I have a lot of reference pictures of guys and a few had caught my eye, one had dark features and I could see him as a . . . German Shepherd, the blond could be the boyfriend, another was your all-American boy next door . . . for the Irish Setter, a friend.

I’ll admit, I started off using the plot to only get them all together to have sex, but then so much affection was added, Duke’s affection for Dustin, for Rourke, Duke and Mike’s love for each other, Duke’s loving family. After the touching scene with grandma, I considered dropping all the sex because, by then, it had too much heart. I didn’t want it to be thought of as porn, but the ‘porn’ had become integral to the plot. But how much porn could a drama have? That’s when I decided to call it an erotic drama, to let readers know that, while it’s a book with a story, there’s also some of the SEX. But I’ve been told that the sex is the right amount, it may or may not interfere with the plot depending on if you want it to or not. Besides, my sex scenes are paragraphs not pages because, let’s face it, that’s all it really takes.

The rest of the story ideas were just gifts, especially Genevieve. I don’t know how my little brain does it, but somehow all the plotting is done in my subconscious. I was writing so much and so fast that I wasn’t even actually acknowledging what was being written until after it was typed, as if I were reading it for the first time myself. And it just blew me away and consumed me, day and night, for three weeks. I started making some notes for the sequel, and, OOPS, three weeks later that was done too. I felt truly blessed to have it all come to me so easily, I felt like an actual writer, but the pressure was on for the third installment, which I planned to do for NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writer’s Month. Duke – Book 1 had general research, Book2 had historical research, but Book 3 had regional research, as it took place in a country I’d never been to, and I was incorporating friends I’d met though Duke into the story, (which I had to get right). I almost gave up, but I bust out over 5,000 words in one day towards the end, which allowed me to finish on time, 50,000 words in one month.

Black German Shepherds, Irish Setters, Huskies, cows, horses, cats, dolphins, turtles, gazelles, and lions, from cotemporary rural Michigan to WWII-era coastal Georgia to contemporary Israel, growing a pack, saving friends from abuse, getting married, reconciling love, and dealing with loss, the Duke series has it all, and lots of wild and crazy man-beast sex.

For more detailed information, including, synopsis, summary, chapters, characters, and, WATCH OUT, spoilers, see the shelfari listings:

http://www.shelfari.com/books/25791067/Alpha-Rising

http://www.shelfari.com/books/26035253/Genevieves-Tale

http://www.shelfari.com/books/28039474/Transformations

(picture by tsaiwolf, http://www.furaffinity.net/user/tsaiwolf/)

reverse-engineering the supply chain

In marketing it’s suggested to think about your purchases and how you came about making them, so I looked at the last ten books I bought:

1. Boundaries by Drs. Cloud and Townsend, recommended by a friend
2. The True Story of the Builderberg Group by Daniel Estulin, (as a gift), by related key word search
3. Casket of Souls by Lynn Flewelling, because it’s the next installment in a series that I love
4. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Amigurumi by June Gilbank, (as a gfit), by related key word search
5. The Picture of Dorian Gray, Original Text, by Oscar Wilde, from a blog article
6. A Man on Summerland Beach by Nathan Grant, a fellow goodreads author
7. Star Trek – Killing Time by Della Van Hise, a blog article mentioned that it was “yanked from the market for being in bad taste” (so I had to have it!)
8. Beyond Sanctuary by Janet Morris, by related key word search
9. Skin by Nya Rawlins, a facebook friend
10. Choptank Blues & Other Stories by Diane Nelson, a facebook friend

• Three were purchased by key word search, and only one of those for me
• Three were purchased to support a fellow authors / friends
• Two were purchased because of blog articles I stumbled upon, (am not subscribed to)
• One was due to being a fan of the author already
• One was recommended by a friend

So, ‘word of mouth’ played a part in 7/10 of the purchases, social media being 5 of those. Using ‘reverse-engineering’to push my books out there I’d:

• support fellow authors and friends, as they reciprocate
• keep on blogging and stay involved in social media

Interesting?

Twitter: #badwritingtips

@LynnFlewelling: Always add an adverb to your dialog tags, she said sagely. #badwritingtips
- I DO THAT, BUT APPROPRIATELY - TO DESCRIBE THEIR VOICE

@LynnFlewelling: #badwritingtips Always introduce your protagonist looking at his/her reflection in a mirror and describing each feature lovingly.
- I DID THAT IN DUKE 1

@gypsyroots: Kill your MC halfway through the novel. Once you establish a new one. Kill her, too. #badwritingtips
- I DID THAT IN DUKE 3

@gypsyroots: Writers know best. Especially new ones. Editors and agents are stupid. #badwritingtips
- I AGREE! (too many posers out there)

@gypsyroots: Semi-colons and exclamation marks change things up; use them often! #badwritingtips
- I LOVE SEMICOLONS!

@gypsyroots: Commas are like confetti. Toss them into the air and let them fall where they will. #badwritingtips
- I TRY TO KILL AS MANY AS I CAN!

@LeighAnnKopans: The rules don't apply to you. Your story and art are so brilliant, you don't need to worry about them. #badwritingtips
- I AGREE! (oh wait, she’s being sarcastic)

@by_scavola: there's a right/wrong way/formula for writing, that's why it's so easy and everybody gets published #badwritingtips

MY FAVORITE:
@jennbrissett: Describe all your characters of color like food. Her chocolate brown skin was enhanced by her almond eyes. #badwritingtips
- GUILTY OF USING 'COCOA'

My Editing Process

Well, since I'm not 'in the mood' to write tonight, might as well talk about something relevant, like my editing process. I've got it down to a science, unfortunately it does take a long time, but I find it's worth it. Phase I is using the AutoCrit Editing Software. The software analyses your text for overused words, repeated words, dialogue tag use, and initial pronoun use. This eliminates a lot, typically 10% of my words, getting rid of sentences with little meaning, and making the text read a lot cleaner. I can't speak more highly of this software, if used properly. Initially, in my quest to remove all overused words, I was reconfiguring my sentences into Yoda-speak, so, it must be used with care.

Now that the book's been trimmed, it's time to add, bringing the word count back up. Each chapter is outlined per section by character use, plot, and other pertinent information. This gives a clear 'flow' of the story, if it's moving too fast or slow, if we don't see characters for a chapter or two, which sections are linked back-to-back and which have gaps between that can be filled. This process allows for a lot of 'eureka' moments as you put the final pieces of the puzzle together. It's these little 'off screen' moments with the characters that add heart to the book. Then, repeat Phase I. When is a story done? When you've crammed everything you can in there without making it cumbersome.

Here's the AutoCrit report on what I've written so far:

Well, since I'm not 'in the mood' to write tonight, might as well talk about something relevant, like my editing process. I've got it down to a science, unfortunately it does take a long time, but I find it's worth it. Phase I is using the AutoCrit Editing Software. The software analyses your text for overused words, repeated words, dialogue tag use, and initial pronoun use. This eliminates a lot, typically 10% of my words, getting rid of sentences with little meaning, and making the text read a lot cleaner. I can't speak more highly of this software, if used properly. Initially, in my quest to remove all overused words, I was reconfiguring my sentences into Yoda-speak, so, it must be used with care.

Now that the book's been trimmed, it's time to add, bringing the word count back up. Each chapter is outlined per section by character use, plot, and other pertinent information. This gives a clear 'flow' of the story, if it's moving too fast or slow, if we don't see characters for a chapter or two, which sections are linked back-to-back and which have gaps between that can be filled. This process allows for a lot of 'eureka' moments as you put the final pieces of the puzzle together. It's these little 'off screen' moments with the characters that add heart to the book. Then, repeat Phase I. When is a story done? When you've crammed everything you can in there without making it cumbersome.

Here's what I've written edited with AutoCrit:

Since I'm not 'in the mood' to write tonight, I might as well talk about something relevant, like my editing process.

Phase I is using the AutoCrit Editing Software, which analyses your text for overused words, repeated words, dialogue tag use, and initial pronoun use. This typically eliminates 10% of my words, getting rid of sentences with little or no meaning, and making the text a lot 'cleaner'. Initially, in my quest to remove all overused words, I was reconfiguring sentences into Yoda-speak so it must be used with care.

Phase II is bringing the word count back up. Each chapter is outlined per section by plot, character use, and other pertinent information. This gives a clear 'flow' of the story, if the plot is moving too fast or slow, if we don't see characters for a chapter or two, which sections are linked back-to-back and which aren't, with gaps between them that can be filled. This process allows for a lot of 'eureka' moments as you put the final pieces of the puzzle together. Then, repeat Phase I. A story's done when you've crammed in everything you can without making it cumbersome.

Phase III is combing the proof copy for typos.

So, that's how I edit my books; unfortunately it takes a long time, but hopefully the benefits of the process can be seen in my writing.

Link: AutoCrit Editing Software