Saturday, May 23, 2015

Vampy Black: Editing Continues

I am back at editing Darthaniel's urban fantasy vampire thriller book today, and I just finished a great chapter. It isn't action or fighting or anything else like that, just a 'going home' scene that turned out to be critical for character development in many more ways than I expected.

Normally, I would say 'cut out the nonessentials' and get rid of it for more vampy-sexy investigation, but we got to share some incredible character building time with two of the central characters here that I cannot leave on the editing room floor.

Like a good pastry dough, a story gets better the more you fold in layers and the more you work it. I went through this chapter and did my usual clean-up, but I found a lot of places I could hide secrets, show character through environment, and give some meaningful interaction between two characters that gives you a feeling of why you should care.

Secrets? Yes, I hide secrets in things the read has to pull out by being attentive and careful. Knowing what I know about the book and the series, there are things characters do that they don't immediately explain that should key you off to character motivations or even foreshadow major plot elements.

But more importantly, why should you care? This chapter gives you a slight breather and answers that question. It also kicks off a very hot romance that stays within the boundaries Darthaniel has set, but it managed to turn a flame on in me to 'ship' these two characters in a major way. So there is  another layer, another subtext, and the tension ratchets up a couple more notches.

I like romance, and for those who know me, they know I can push limits and characters right where I want them to go.

The fun thing is we did a read-through today and Darthaniel approved most every change so far. He is a great writer to work with and he understands the collaborative nature of how I work with writers. His dialog is wonderful, and it is a joy to work action and narrative around. He has this sharp, movie-like tone that I love working with, most all of the dialog is unchanged, and a lot of the work I do is in support and detail surrounding dialog.

My methodology is to keep the essential action, dialog, and flow to the story and keep those sacred. Where I work is in narration, detail, showing/telling, and the fundamentals of story and flow. I get to put some artsy flourishes that aren't too purpley every so often as well, so a bit of my style inevitably creeps in.

We are at about 40,000 words for this book, and I am moving on to chapter six. My editing passes typically add 10-20% to a book's length, so this could push 45-50,000 words soon and be a full-length novel. It is wonderful to have a writer that trusts you that much to make significant edits and approve them, and I am honored to work with him so much.

Look for this soon, I know Darthaniel is working on the cover, and it is great to be working with another writer as an editoress again. More news soon, stay tuned.

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