Write Now Editing

How I Write: Linda Rondeau

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Linda Rondeau’s been on both sides of the manuscript — as an author and as an editor. Today she shares about how she strengthened her writing skills.

Welcome! You’ve written several books in your career. Which was harder: the first book or the following books?

Writing is hard, whether the first or the most recent book. After fourteen published works, I’m still fearful when I start a new manuscript. I think the first book was the easiest because I was not encumbered with fears of failure; I was too enthralled with the ride. After the first book was published, I was overcome with the responsibilities of the aftermath—thinking about marketing as I was writing.

What’s your favorite book on writing? What do you like about it?

The best book on writing I have read is On Writing by Steven King. The first half was about his life and how he came into writing. The second half was basic concepts. I liked the book because he understood and encouraged every writer to follow their own style. It can be harmful for an author to think there is only one correct way to manage a manuscript or to even create one. While traditional concepts may be helpful, they are not commandments. Like the pirate’s code, they are guidelines.

What’s your favorite writers conference? What do you like about it?

I have to give the Blue Ridge Christian Writers Conference two thumbs up, at least for me. I attended the first one in 2001 and received the Writer of the Year award for a poem. God had called me to write in June of 2000, but I had no clue what I needed to do. At that conference, God cemented his call and reinforces that call each time I attend. Though the conference is managed by different folks, I still feel that same anointing.  

What’s your writing day like?

I must laugh whenever asked this question—I never know what my day will bring.

When my husband and I married, we made only one promise to each other: never a dull moment. Very few of my days resemble one another. I might have a plan when I wake up, but the Hubs and God are very good and rearranging my lofty ambitions.

I do have a few habits involved in my day-to-day life, certain must-do activities in order to function. When I get up, I’m in fog territory. I grab a cup of coffee and do brain exercises to wake up. Then I have my quiet time with God. I look at what I had written down as must do, should do, and maybe can wait a few days. I do try to plan out my writing and marketing tasks as well as my editing expectations, but I’ve learned to be flexible.

What’s surprised you the most about the publishing process?

So many things I had to learn in this process. Perhaps the most humbling was how much editing my works would require. The carpenter’s house barely stands and the plumber’s pipes are always leaking. No matter how much we think we know about writing, we are unable to be adequately objective of our own manuscripts. I was surprised because I thought I had a good command of English, grammar, and syntax. I was humbled as I learned the craft. Writing fiction is much different than writing  a term paper!

What advice do you have for new writers?

Don’t be in a hurry to get published. Learn the craft, get involved with writers’ groups, take online courses and/or attend writers’ conferences, join a critique group, and be patient. Good cooks are not born as good cooks, though they may have talent. To become a master chef takes preparation, thought, and practice.

Don’t start with a book. Perhaps start with a blog. If you’re writing fiction then start with some flash fiction, then perhaps short stories, and then evolve them into books.

How do you self-edit your manuscripts?

I often tell writers the person who edits their own work has a fool for an editor. I’m an editor and I desperately need a pair of objective eyes on my manuscript. That said, there are things we can do to polish our manuscripts other than proofreading. I go over each chapter a dozen times or more. I will look for inconsistences in description. Did my character with blue eyes all of a sudden have brown eyes? Did I change the name in places? I highly recommend the book Self-editing for Fiction Writers.

What does your revision process look like?

Revision is not the same as self-editing. Besides some of the above, I put my manuscript aside for a minimum of three-five days. I need to look at my work with fresh eyes and a less fatigued brain. Ideally, Steven King recommends six weeks or more. I often don’t have that much luxury of time.

While some authors prefer to work chapter by chapter, I prefer to complete the story first. Because I’m a more intuitive writer, I can’t really critique myself on story development until I’m finished.  Then, I examine the work for cohesiveness, consistency, impact, and relativity. Rather than look at the trees, I examine the manuscript as a forest.

Award-winning author, Linda Wood Rondeau writes stories that grip the heart, inspired by her nearly thirty years of social work. When not writing or speaking, she enjoys the occasional round of golf, visiting museums, and taking walks with her best friend in life, her husband of forty-five years. The couple resides in Hagerstown, Maryland where both are active in their local church. Readers may learn more about the author, read her blog, or sign up for her newsletter by visiting www.lindarondeau.com.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/lwrondeau
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/linda-wood-rondeau
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Linda-Wood-Rondeau/e/B006FNG1BI
Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/lindawoodrondeau
Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/authorlindawoodrondeau/ 

How I Write: Ane Mulligan

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An author’s brand is important, but sometimes it takes a while to figure out exactly what it is. Christian fiction author Ane Mulligan wrote several books before realizing her brand wasn’t genre specific. She’s here to tell us about it, as well as sharing some of her fiction writing tips and tricks.

Welcome! Let’s start with the basics: what do you write? How did you pick your genre?

I started writing contemporary women’s fiction, but a story set in the Great Depression continued perking in my brain. After the four contemporary books were published, my agent told me to go ahead and write the depression era one. She had noted that all my books feature an ensemble cast of strong Southern women, helping one another through life’s issues. That became my brand/genre: Southern-fried Fiction.

How long does it take you to: write the book? Edit it? Finalize it?

I used to write one a year, since I am the managing director of a theatre company. But when COVID-19 shut the theatre down, I wrote 2 ½ books in nine months. The two were edited and turned in. Now that our theatre is open again, I’m trying to find the middle road and write two per year. We’ll see.

What’s your favorite book on writing? What do you like about it?

Early in my career, I loved James Scott Bell’s Plot & Structure. It taught me a lot about the structure of a book. Jim has a great way of teaching. Then his book Quantum Story helped take my writing to another level. I must add my favorite writing companion book is The Flip Dictionary. It’s more than a thesaurus. For example, the word fear: The Flip Dictionary gives you synonyms for different types of fear. I love it and always have it beside me when I write.

What’s your favorite writers conference? What do you like about it?

The Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference is my favorite. It’s at a retreat center near Ashville, NC. The accommodations are beautiful, but the main reason is the selection of classes. It’s amazing! They offer a wider variety of classes of any conference I know. I took a continuing, in-depth class on Scrivener, the writing software I use. I found a class I loved on Bullet Journaling. Who knew I could design and customize my own planner?

How do you prepare to write your books: pantser, plotter, both, something completely different? Describe your strategy.

Once I have that “what if” of an idea, I choose my characters’ photos and names. I’m a visual writer and I must have photos to interview them. I also believe names are so important. I’ve had characters change names on me after I’m part way through a book. So, I spend a good amount of time finding those things first.

Then I do an intense interview and write their backstory, sometimes going back several generations. Most of this never goes into a book, but I’ve got to learn about the character’s fears, the lie they believe about themselves, and their motivation, before I can begin to write word one. At that point, I will finally note a few scenes I know must happen to get from the beginning to the end.

With every book I write, I find I get stopped about one quarter or a third of the way in. That’s when I stop and call a critique partner to brainstorm. After a few minutes, I’m filled with ideas and have no problem finishing book.

How do you self-edit your manuscript?

I always edit yesterday’s work top start my new writing day. I also have three of the world’s best critique partners. They catch everything. Interestingly, each of our editors (and we are all at different publishing houses) say we have the cleanest manuscripts they see. And finally, before I turn in the manuscript, I have two beta readers who pick-up little details we might have missed.

To make ends meet, the Fitzgerald women must open their home as a boardinghouse, but will the secrets they uncover prove their undoing?

The day Cora Fitzgerald turned sixteen, she fled Sugar Hill for the bright lights of New York City, leaving behind her senator father’s abuse. But just as her career takes off, she’s summoned home.

The stock market has crashed. The senator is dead. Her mother is delusional, and her mute Aunt Clara pens novels that expose the town’s secrets. Then there’s Boone Robertson, who never knew she was alive back in high school but now manages to be around whenever she needs help.

And the Fitzgerald women need a lot of help, indeed. They are forced to find a way to make ends meet, whether it’s mining for gold or doing what Southern women have done for generations in times of need—turning their home into a boardinghouse.

But will the people of Cora’s past keep her from returning to a brilliant future?

Ane Mulligan has been a voracious reader ever since her mom instilled within her a love of reading at age three, escaping into worlds otherwise unknown. But when Ane saw PETER PAN on stage, she was struck with a fever from which she never recovered—stage fever. She submerged herself in drama through high school and college. One day, her two loves collided, and a bestselling, award-winning novelist emerged. She lives in Sugar Hill, GA, with her artist husband and a rascally Rottweiler. Find Ane on her website, Amazon Author page, Facebook, BookBub, Goodreads, Pinterest, Twitter, and The Write Conversation.

How I Write: Patrick E. Craig

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Most people think of Beverly Lewis when they think of Amish fiction, but did you know there are several men writing Amish stories? Today I’d like to introduce you to Patrick E. Craig, one of those writers.

Welcome, and thank you for being here! How/why did you pick the Amish genre?

Most of my books are Amish fiction although I’m branching out into Literary Fiction and YA. As far as my Amish books, I don’t write traditional happily-ever-after romance that seems to be the mainstay of the mostly women, mostly older readers who follow the genre. I try to write outside-the-box stories about desperate people who face desperate situations that only God can fix, and who happen to be Amish.

I got started in this genre … well, basically on a dare. My friend, Nick Harrison was Senior Editor at Harvest House and asked me for an Amish quilting story one-sheet. I knew nothing about the Amish or quilting, but I submitted an idea for a story about an Amish woman lost in a terrible storm who saves a lost little girl by wrapping her in a prize quilt. To my great surprise, Harvest House bought the idea and asked for two more. So there I was, an Amish writer who was unencumbered by any previous knowledge of the subject. Thank goodness for Google!

What’s the most difficult part of writing your genre? How do you work through those challenges?

When I first started writing Amish, I had never read Beverly Lewis or Wanda Brunstetter and basically did not understand the inner workings of the Amish community. Then I connected with Sicily Yoder, a woman who had grown up Amish and left because of the grace issues surrounding shunning, and that was a huge blessing. She took me under her wing and schooled me thoroughly. Any question I had she would answer in great detail.

One thing she told me was that despite their squeaky-clean representation by the bulk of Amish authors (most of whom are non-Amish, by the way) there are some grim sides to Amish life. Jerry Eicher, an Amish man, writes about one of those issues, sexual abuse, in his recent book, When Hearts Break.

The hardest issue most Amish face is that they do not have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. Many Amish think they are saved by following the Ordnung, the verbal law that has been passed down since the days of Menno Simons and Jackob Amman. I try to point all my books toward the great truth that the law cannot save you; only Jesus Christ can do that. My stories have to be set up with a plot that brings the protagonist to the great crux of their life: the law or Christ?

How long does it take you to: write the book? Edit it? Finalize it?

Most of my books take about three months to write because I’m still working part-time. Sometimes it goes a lot faster. When Murray Pura and I wrote our recent book, Far On The Ringing Plains, it took us thirty days to finish 90,000 words.

As far as editing, I give my Indie books to one of several outstanding editors I’m connected with and do my third draft rewrites as they send back their edited copy. I also use Pro Writing Aid software to pick up the most glaring grammar and style issues. If I’m doing an Indie book, I will finalize the project in Vellum, a great piece of software that produces all the different files I need.

For my covers, I use Simona Cora Salardi at Cora Graphics and she is brilliant. I am also producing several books for Elk Lake Publishers and when I do, I will do edits with one of their staff and then they do the final cover and formatting.

If you’ve written multiple books, which was harder: the first book or the following books? Why?

My first book, A Quilt For Jenna, was the hardest to write because I had never done a novel before. I didn’t even know how many words should be in it. My agent told me around 80,000 but when I sent the manuscript to Harvest House, they sent it back with a request for 20,000 more words. Believe me, it’s much harder to add words to a finished book than remove them. When Harlequin bought The Amish Heiress for their Walmart Amish program, I had to remove 20,000 words for the mass-market paperback. Compared to adding, it was a breeze. After the first book, I had an idea about how to go about it and had established my preparation format, so it was much easier.

What’s your favorite writer’s conference? What do you like about it?

My first writer’s conference was The Mount Hermon Writer’s Conference. I was told about it by Barbara Curtis, a brilliant friend who encouraged me to write fiction when I was a pastor writing teaching books. The first year I met Tim Riter, Nick Harrison, Kay Marshall Strom and her husband, Dan Cline, Sue Loeffler, James Scott Bell, and a bunch of folks who have been my friends ever since. I went several more years until I moved to Idaho from California and have attended other conferences, but I would say that Mt. Hermon is still my favorite.

What conference do you most want to attend? Why?

If I can be very blunt here: I would like to attend a conference where the faculty, the speakers and the awards are not dominated 90% by women.

The truth is, the Christian Publishing Industry has been pushed into a tiny box since the seventies: publishers drove out Christian Literary Fiction and now generally want books written by women, for women, about happily-ever-after romance. Even my genre, Amish fiction, has been over-romanticized and double glossed. Instead of real, gritty life challenges the biggest obstacle in most Amish books is the wheel coming off the Brad Pitt look-alike Bisschop’s son’s buggy as he’s on his way to court the drop-dead gorgeous Amish girl. Actually, that’s why I put together my latest book, The Amish Menorah and Other Stories, and only invited the men who write Amish fiction to take part.

I want to see a return to gritty, honest, literary writing that challenges readers where they live. And I think that will take men authors to lead the way. So if anyone out there knows of a writer’s conference for Literary Fiction featuring male authors, drop me a line.

How do you prepare to write your books: pantser, plotter, both, something completely different?

I’m a plotter. Before I write, since most of my books are not contemporary, I research the period I’m writing about. Then I do a timeline for the story and after that I lay out the chapters. I do a blurb for each chapter so I know what will happen inside of it. I don’t set them in stone though. In the Amish Princess I moved a prologue into the middle of the book. Once I get the prelims done, I do a first draft. I don’t edit; I don’t stop; I don’t rewrite—I save all that for the second draft.

What does your revision process look like?

Once I finish the first draft, I go to a second draft and do heavy rewrites, salvaging the flotsam and jetsam of the terrible writing in the first draft. Then I will use writing software like Pro Writing Aid to clean up the spelling and grammar stuff, put that into draft three and send it to my editor. What they send back becomes draft four as I work through their suggestions and changes.

Draft four goes to my copyeditor (my wife) for a close scan for all the grammar and spelling again. Those corrections become draft five. Then I reread and do any final adjustments and that becomes draft six. I put that into Vellum and format the book. I usually do six drafts on my Indie books, because I am responsible for everything: writing, editing, cover, format. When I write for a publisher, it rarely takes that much work because they take over a lot of the load.

Six short stories that will entertain and educate you. You’ll journey with an Amish man and the Jewish woman whose life he saves, suffer with an Amish girl in love with an Englische man, agonize with two sisters both in love with the same man, pray with the family whose child is injured in a fall, join forces with a non-violent Amish sheriff in a violent western town, and laugh at the girl forced to be Amish for the summer.

Amazon Best-Selling author Patrick E. Craig, is a lifelong writer and musician who left a successful music career to become a pastor in 1986. In 2007 he retired to concentrate on writing and publishing fiction books. A writer of Amish fiction, he has collaborated with several authors to publish The Amish Menorah and Other Stories (available now). Patrick and his wife Judy live in Idaho. They have two daughters and five grandchildren.

www.patrickecraig.com
https://www.facebook.com/PatrickECraig
https://twitter.com/PatrickECraig

Find his books online at: http://tinyurl.com/n6sfagg

How I Write: Kathy McKinsey

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Writing a book is not easy. In fact, from the time most authors think about writing their first book to the time that books is actually published can take years!

A lot of authors give up, but not Kathy McKinsey. She committed to her writing, and it paid off. Here’s a look at why she writes and how she does it:

Thank you so much for being here! Let’s start with the basics: what do you write? How did you pick your genre?
I write women’s fiction. The stories that come to my mind are the ones I’d like to read.

How long does it take you to: write the book? Edit it? Finalize it?
I worked on my first book for more than five years, with editing and re-editing and rewriting and re-editing. It took about a year once it had been accepted by my publisher, Mantle Rock Publishing.

What’s your favorite writers’ conference?
I have attended the Ken-Ten Writers’ Retreat, and I plan to attend again. I enjoyed having a small group of writers to get to know and focus on the craft we love.

How do you combat writer’s block?
This is still a battle for me. I try to make sure I do something writing-related every day, studying writing books or lessons, proofreading or editing for others, editing something of my own.

How do you prepare to write your books: pantser, plotter, both, something completely different?
I am mostly a pantser, but I have a general idea of how the story will end. I do write down a very simple outline at the beginning, including main parts of the story, character names. Not much else.

Who’s your publisher? Why did you decide to go with a traditional publisher?
I am published by Mantle Rock Publishing. I never felt that I could handle all the many things involved in publishing by myself.

What advice do you have for new authors?
Don’t give up. My dream of publishing a book lived for close to fifty years before God gifted me with it.

How do you self-edit your manuscript?
My editing style has changed much over the years. As a teen writer, I was pretty sure the story was just as it needed to be when I first finished it. When I came back to writing after more than thirty years, I was much more humble. I’ve learned much about the writing craft, and I believe I will always need to keep learning. I thoroughly do a line-edit of my stories multiple times. Having critique partners gives me a widening in my thinking about the stories. I am able then to rewrite and re-edit multiple times.

Kathy McKinsey grew up on a pig farm in Missouri, and although she’s lived in cities for nearly 40 years, she still considers herself a farm girl.  She had two careers before writing—stay-at-home-Mom and rehabilitation teacher for the blind.

She’s been married to Murray for 32 years, and they have five adult children. She lives in Lakewood, Ohio with her husband and two of her children. Besides writing, she enjoys activities with her church, editing for other writers, braille transcribing, crocheting, knitting, and playing with the cat and dog.

Kathy.mckinsey@gmail.com
https://www.kathymckinsey.com
https://www.facebook.com/kathy.brinkmann.mckinsey
https://twitter.com/kathymckinsey
https://www.amazon.com/Millies-Christmas-Kathy-McKinsey-ebook/dp/B07YTF53KT
https://www.amazon.com/All-My-Tears-Kathy-McKinsey-ebook/dp/B07P92QZPJ

Continuing Education: A Writer’s Best Friend

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After more than a decade in the publishing industry—writing, editing, and now working for a publisher—I’m still learning. If you’re hoping to publish and sell your book manuscript, you need to be learning too.

Publishing a book involves more than simply writing a book, especially in our current state of the anyone-can-publish-anything-on-Amazon market. If you want to set yourself apart (e.g. if you want to sell more copies of your book), then you need to learn everything you can about every aspect of the industry. Then go back and do it again.

Right now I’m re-reading Plot Versus Character by Jeff Gerke. I recommend it to many of my clients and authors because I read it years ago and it changed my approach to characterization. But recently I wanted to reference something from it for an author and I couldn’t remember where to find it (or if it had even come from that book). That’s why I’m reading it again, and I’m learning just as much this time as I did the first. When I finish this book, I’m planning to re-read Self-editing for Fiction Writers by Rennie Browne and Dave King.

I’m not only re-learning, though. Later this year I’ll be attending the Mt. Hermon Writer’s Conference as a faculty member. My primary goal is to meet writers and take pitches for Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolina’s women’s fiction, historical romance, and western imprints, but I plan on learning while I’m there. I applied for and have been accepted into the Professional Writers Track, taught by Randy Ingermanson and James Rubart. Just because I’m there to help others advance their writing careers doesn’t mean I shouldn’t take advantage of the opportunity to advance my own.

I realize not everyone can afford to attend a writer’s conference, and not everyone has the time to read (though you shouldn’t be writing if you aren’t reading, but that’s another topic for another time). That’s why I strive to share helpful writing and editing tips on this blog. Don’t let time or money prevent you from learning. Hone your skills one blog post at a time. Just don’t stop learning!

What’s your biggest struggle right now—plot development, attracting an agent, book sales? Leave a comment below, and we’ll get you some suggestions and recommendations to help you out!

My debut novel—Summer Plans and Other Disasters—is now available on Amazon! Sign up for my monthly newsletter and you’ll receive the unpublished prologue: find out what inspired Calista Stephens to make those summer plans. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for writing tips, updates on Guiding Light, and more!

ABOUT ME

Editor. Teacher. Novelist.
A passionate lover of fiction, Karin doesn't just write novels, she helps others write their best stories! A certified substantive editor with the Christian Editor Connection, her goal is to help authors to put her out of business by equipping them with the tools they need to become better writers.

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Substantive Fiction Editing: A substantive edit looks at the big picture. Start here to tackle the big issues before moving on to the nit-picky details. Substantive edits not only point out … [more]

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Lover of all things fiction, I also love University of Michigan football, the Detroit Lions, Tigers, and Red Wings, kayaking, gluten-free cupcakes, and my husband.

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