Writing Tip: Cutting extraneous words during editing

I know i will be up to this part of editing soon. (Well probably a month or two away)

Rachel Gardiner recommends that before submitting or publishing your manuscript it could be in your best interest to do another round of edits and cut 10 words per page.

How?

Look for -ly words. Are they necessary?
So too for -ing words

cut out passive voice - 'was', 'were' and 'that'

shorten description

shorten internal monologue or show thoughts and feelings through dialogue or action.

repetitive telling what the reader already knows.

And, carefully considering a big list of overused words:
about, actually, almost, like, appears, approximately, basically, close to, even, eventually, exactly, finally, just, just then, kind of, nearly, practically, really, seems, simply, somehow, somewhat, sort of, suddenly, truly, utterly, were.


I don't know what my overused words are - well, actually i think i use 'hoped' too much!

What are your best editing tips, or overused words?

Men's Brains Women's Brains

Following a link from facebook i discovered this awesome youtube video about Men's brains and Women's brains and how differently they work.

Mark Gungor the motivational speaker and minister who runs the marriage course is funny and tells things like it is.
I found it so interesting and so very true! He does explain that in general what he talks about can be confined to men's brains and women's brains but he is sure that there are people who act and think in the reverse, so it is not a blanket that-is-how-you-are type thing.

The two very interesting things i got from this clip (1 hour!):

* Women have to ask their men more than once to do something for them. But women don't want to do this because they shouldn't have to! We want our men to do it without asking.

* Men are interested in 1 thing. And you know what that is ;) So the way to getting what we want from our men is to bargain with what they want!

I found this seminar really exciting from a writer's perspective too. If you struggle to really get into your hero's head, then this can give you some basic background information on how a man's brain works!
For instance, a man's brain is full of little boxes each filled with a different topic - car, money, job...etc. They don't touch! So when they talk about something, it is only about the contents in that one box. And that is how men can be so focussed and why they are so good at single-tasking. (My hubby disagrees with this one, he says he is a better multi-tasker than me, but then, he is wired differently to me and i juggle more things at once than he realises!)

Also they have a 'nothing' box. But i'll let you watch the clip to see what this is, and how funny and true this whole seminar rings! Go on watch it!

Celebrating our successes

There is a theme going at one of banks here in NZ - celebrating success.
We kiwi's are apparently really good at celebrating other people's success, but not so much our own.

So, i just wanted to share some of my successes.

This year (and it's only in it's 4th month!) i have:

1. Become a provisionally registered Early Childhood Teacher
2. Graduated from Waikato University with my Diploma of Teaching
3. Started my first real job in seven years ('cos there are many people out there who think being an at-home mum is not a real job!)
4. Edited 4 chapters of the first story i ever wrote and had kind of given up on.

I wonder if i can somehow make this theme into a story??!

So, please share with me.
What are some of your successes?

Research and Editing

Over the past few weeks i have been doing lots of research for my early medieval period story, Secrets and Lies.
As i am editing this draft and inserting bits of history and solid facts about the place and time, i am finding this story becoming so much richer!
This editing is made easier by the notes i took as i read through it on my kindle. I am moving through this quite fast - though not as fast as i would like (i am not a writer full-time!).

What have you found that has made your editing easier?

Scary Stuff: Copyright Infringement

*shudder*
I just read a legal document shared on Facebook about Kate Walker, author of many many Harlequin novels and 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance being a defendant in an infringement case.
To think that she was accused of copying someone else's work, to me, is ludicrous!

What i got from the legal mumbo-jumbo was basically the accuser's unpublished work had a similar theme or trope as that of Kate Walker's work.
I recently read a fantastic new author's work and thought "hey that sounds a bit like my idea" - our characters are by no means the same, their struggles aren't the same, but my small 10,000 word first draft is about best friends turned lovers which shared the same trope - that's it!

So, similar ideas do not mean copyright infringement - using exact phrases and words as someone else is.

Have a read of the legal document here

And to Kate Walker - thank goodness the case was dismissed!

Book Review - Jackie Ashenden

I have literally just finished Jackie's debut story Falling for Finn and i can't believe no one picked her up for publication earlier. 
Her writing is fabulous! Raw, real and so emotional.
I've followed Jackie's struggles with writing, her bumpy road to publication and i just wanted to say that if that struggle is what produced this story? I can only hope i go through that same process. Phenomenal and no wonder she was finally, finally snapped up!
Here is my review of her awesome story. If you haven't purchased it yet - this is a MUST!

Jackie Ashenden has written a story so mindblowingly good! She goes so deep into her characters psyche you are left without a choice but to love them and know them. This story is raw, beautiful and hot! One of the love scenes left me nearly turning off my kindle so they could have privacy! The emotions and intensity are so real.

It is so refreshing to have a story with real epithets, real, modern cussing that feels so natural.

Awesome, awesome story Jackie and for a debut - wow!When's the next one out ;)

Researching

OMG i hadn't realised just how long it would take or how tricky researching would be.
I've spent the last 5 or so weeks reading through my first draft and researching in history when i will place it. I chose the Hebrides - i don't know why, it seemed to call to me :) - and have narrowed my timeframe to be somewhere between 1103-1156.
The 12th century is rather interesting and because i've chosen the Outer Hebrides it is particularly hard. So many disputed rulers, from Ireland, Norway, and the Isle of Mann.

I've been looking for a peaceful period and i think i've found it during these dates. I do know that just after 1156 is when the Hebrides is broken up into the Inner and Outer Hebrides by a man called Somerled, which will fit perfectly for my last story planned for the trilogy - if it gets that far!

Now i've realised i need to know things like how people travelled in the 12th century, what they ate, what they hunted, how they built their houses, what they farmed, what they wore... and i haven't even really begun to look at the terrain of the Hebrides, which in my story has importance.
I'm rather enjoying it but i can tell if i let it, the research will become very consuming.

So i think i am going to approach the research when i need it. I'm going to start editing until i come to a part that needs specific information. Do you think that would work?

How do you do your research?
I can definitely see the merits of hiring researchers like Nora Roberts does!