Huckle Writing

I Was Asked to Edit?

Once you join a writers’ community, you quickly learn it’s like a village. You can get a lot of help, but only if you are willing to provide help too. 

But Huckleberry, what do I know about editing? I can barely get my cool ideas down on paper in a coherent way! If it weren’t for my friends Angela and Wes I’d look a COMPLETE fool!

Trust me, this is how I felt too. There is a term for this: imposter syndrome. I didn’t believe I had the credentials to tell people with an English degree that their writing needed work. I am a dyslexic with a mathematical background. Who am I to tell them their writing isn’t perfect? 

This took me a while. I’ve always been an avid reader. I knew when a story was missing pieces, or there were loose ends that needed wrapping up. My confidence grew in messenger and text messages. Sitting down and discussing their work with the writer was scary at first, but more times than not it resulted in their appreciation. 

In the end, all writers want to share a good story. We have this world in our head, and we sometimes don’t communicate it as well as we wish. Having a reader tell us that something doesn’t make sense just lets us know we need to fill in those missing pieces. It’s better to be told early on in the process when the fixes are possible than finding out at the end. 

When a friend or a critique partner asks for you to read their writing, just be honest with them. Comment on things that don’t make sense, such as missing plot points. Let them know when you want more: more emotion, more detail. I usually miss out on that last one in my initial draft. My critique partners ask me to add more detail all the time. In contrast, I tell them to pull back on detail because they can go on forever.

Let your partner know if they’ve “told” you something that they could “show” instead by using character actions or other cues like dialogue. Often showing is more interesting and engaging, there is an example below. It pulls the reader in. Also, look for repeated words. I have had several words I’ve caught myself over using. I won’t let you know, or you’ll look for them in my writing, and I don’t need that pressure!

You aren’t there just to smooth out the pokey parts, either. Let the writer know if what you read made you laugh or smile. If what they wrote was good. Everyone wants to know what they did well. 

In the end, you’re there to partner up and share in the ride. The goal is to grow the good, and help smooth out the rough spots every writer has. 

Telling: I sat in the tree, afraid of what would happen next.

Showing: Sitting in the tree, my heart began to beat, I could barely breath around the lump forming in the back of my throat, my mind had gone blank. What had Dad told me to do when I was attacked? Where had everyone gone? Could I do this alone?

Huckle Writing

There Are How Many Editors?

As I separated from the writers group, I was nervous. There are many groups on facebook, and other social media groups, and it can be overwhelming. If you google for help, you will be swamped with information. I decided to join the group: Fantasy Writers Critique & Support Group. After being told by the member of my writers group, and seconded by a few others, that they didn’t understand my style of writing, I figured I needed to find people who understood urban fantasy, werewolves, and young adult. 

A member said they were a beta reader. I hadn’t heard that term, or many, and in a few short weeks, I learned more about the world or writing, authors, and true support than I could have hoped for.

Let me start at the beginning of the types of editors you’ll find.

Alpha reader: My son is my favorite alpha reader, quickly followed by the person who was roped in to pre-edit my work when I was in a writers group. These are people who read the raw writings. You write your work. You read over it. You are happy and proud. They read it. They are your cheerleaders. They also will tell you the raw deal of when you’ve messed up with your characters. 

If you are lucky, these people can brainstorm with you when you need help ironing out areas of your story that are tricky. I will tell my son an idea and he’ll give me a thumbs up or down. Sometimes he’ll inform me he knows where I sleep…these ideas have not come to fruition.

Critique Partners (CP): Critique partners are similar to alpha readers, but more involved. Often you have more of the story written. You swap a couple of chapters on a schedule and dig down into the story. Usually they don’t worry about grammar. This is the point in which you worry about flow, characterization, and growth. Is the emotion strong enough? Do you have enough conflict? Have you shown enough or are you just telling the story? A good CP is amazing.

Beta reader: Once you have your story done. You’ve finished it. It is glorious. Your next step is a beta reader. You can pay for this service. If you go this route, make sure they are reputable and that the deal is you pay after services have been rendered. I have heard stories… However, I have found that agreeing to swap manuscripts with another writer is a great way to find this service for free.

Beta readers read the story beginning to end. They add comments every time they think something is funny, something is confusing, any time they have a question. They may note when you shift your verb tense, but again, their job isn’t about grammar, it is about flow, characterization, and overall readability of your book. 

Editor: Now is when you’ll probably have to start paying. Finding a good editor is important. If you are on a social media page for writers, you may ask for recommendations. If not, make sure the editor offers a sample. You have to make sure the editor enjoys the style and genre of writing you produce. You want to ensure you have a connection with the editor so that you get the highest quality editing for your work that you can get. You also want to protect your wallet. Editors can be expensive, so shop around. Don’t jump into an editor too quickly. Unlike all of my other suggestions, this one should be checking your grammar!

When I found my editor I lucked out. They not only could check the grammar, they could also sensitivity edit my writing of Bevin, my transgender character. Having this character at first was a whim. I wanted my characters to mirror the diversity of people in my life, but Bevin very quickly explained to me that he was going to be a major part of my writing. The advice of Gavin and my sensitivity editor has been priceless. 

Now, good luck. Find a writing community. Writers have a stereotype of being solitary hermits. With the invention of the internet that doesn’t mean you have to go it alone.

Huckle Writing

So You Think You Want To Write…

The first step: Write!

There is no magic recipe, you just need to start. 

To give a bit of background, I’m dyslexic and words can be hard for me. I spent most of my school career avoiding anything that dealt with words, which was mostly English and history. I always thought I was bad at these topics. I knew I wasn’t horrible, but I also thought they weren’t my forte. I could understand the classes, but struggled with showing the teachers, instructors, and eventually professors what I knew. 

I was lucky. One of my moms would always look over and edit my work. I would hand her my papers–back when writing was done on this crazy by-product of trees called paper–and a red pen. When I got my work back, the pages often resembled a crime scene. 

This leads me to a valuable piece of advice. Check your ego at the door when you ask someone to critique your writing. As my son would say, when someone critiques your writing there is a good chance they’ll beat it to the ground, but like a phoenix it will reemerge better. No writer is perfect at everything. Every writer has readers and editors who help them clean up their story. When people give you suggestions, edits, and criticism–assuming it is constructive–thank them. You can always decide their suggestions don’t work for your story, but if several people make the same suggestion, then they may be on to something. 

What makes criticism constructive? After I wrote my first book I had no idea what to do. I joined a writers group. Some of the people in the group were amazing and helped me grow as a writer. They challenged me in structure, word choice, plot, and my purpose in writing things the way I did. Throughout my year and a half of being in that group these people were supportive and helpful.

However, there were also people in that group who weren’t as helpful. There was one member whose specialty was poetry. I remember during the times when he shared that many of the group remained silent. I tried to comment once or twice, but poetry is hard for me. My genre was hard for him, as well. He told me that. One comment stuck out in my memory. On my last meeting with that group, over zoom because of the pandemic, he said, “Your paragraphs are like soggy oatmeal.” This is not a constructive comment. I don’t really know what that means. I don’t know how to fix that. 

What it did was get me to look up facebook groups. There are several out there for writers. The one that supported me the most was Fantasy Writers Critique & Support Group, though I joined others as well. On that site, I found a member who was also a professional beta reader. She read the selection I had been critiqued on that week. She not only said that she disagreed, she agreed to beta read my full book, as well. Since then, she has become a good friend. You can find her writing at www.katherinedgraham.com. 

Another of the people in the writers group did two things which I would call hurtful, especially to someone who is dyslexic. First, he told me I had to get my work pre-edited. He said my writing was too hard to read and the group would have a much easier time helping me if an editor went through it first. Ironically, I don’t think my offerings had the worst grammar. I found a fellow writer who was willing to help with editing. You can find her work at www.cycleoftehara.com. 

But the group member’s lack of empathy didn’t stop there. A few months later, he returned my submission with highlights. At the top he left a note saying it was my job to puzzle out what was wrong with each highlighted section, and then fix it. It could be a spelling error, incorrect grammar, an extra word, anything really. The thing is, being dyslexic, such an undertaking was beyond my ability. 

I wrote him a letter explaining that this type of editing was beyond my abilities. I had a learning disability and if he wasn’t going to fully critique my work I would prefer that he didn’t edit my work at all. I had two people look over and edit the letter, and then I sent it. Well, for a couple of months it looked like he had decided to refrain from critiquing my work except  during our meetings. Then, one day, I got an email with four of my submissions, and each was topped with the same kind of notes. He’d done it again and again.

When you are writing, you want to find someone who will help your writing become the best it can be. A person or a group who will make suggestions to help you improve your writing, not make you doubt yourself. There are amazing groups of people out there who will help and support you if you are willing to search for them.

But first and foremost, if you want to become a writer, the first step is to start writing.