I’ve been meaning to write this post for over a week and for various reasons haven’t gotten to it. But I’m here now, so let’s talk revision!

On an earlier post, Maya pointed out:

What I realized a lot is that many websites talk about how to fix your story line by line, not really how to make it better as a whole such as choosing what to cut and what to add.

The straight up, annoying answer is that if something’s not moving the story forward, cut it.  And if there’s somewhere where the story could be moving more, add.  This is true, but it’s also the kind of answer that doesn’t really explain anything, and I hate those kinds of answers.  I like to know how things tick.

You might also notice that the two options I listed above are two sides of the same coin.  So basically every time you find something in your novel that isn’t moving things along or adding any oomph, whether it’s a sentence, a paragraph, a conversation, a scene, etc., you have the option to either cut it or add to it.  It’s like a sugar cookie.  You can either chuck that boring sucker or add frosting and sprinkles.

But before I get ahead of myself, let’s talk about what “moving the story forward” actually means.  For me, it means that your scene (I’ll use scene for sake of argument, but this applies on all levels of a manuscript) has more than one type of information going on.  A scene can further the plot (or subplot), deepen characterization, or enhance worldbuilding.  But what a scene needs to do is at least two out of the three.

This is also what a sentence needs to do as well.  This is what agents/editors/authors mean by “missed opportunities.”  Every line of your book is a chance to not just, say, describe what someone’s wearing, but to show what they’re wearing reveals about them (characterization), and it’s also a good opportunity to throw in some worldbuilding (what does what they’re wearing say about their world or their particular situation?), and possibly even plot (is that a bloody glove hanging out of her pocket?).  These things can also be achieved by giving us a character’s opinions about themselves and the world around them.

A scene as a whole can have these missed opportunities, too.  Maybe you have a scene you really love and all it is is your two favorite characters talking at the kitchen table.  And in all honesty it’s not really moving the story along, but you like it and you think it has potential.  And yeah, yeah, I know–kill your darlings.  Whatever.  But anyway, you argue that this scene has characterization.  This is where the main couple makes gooey love eyes at each other for twenty minutes.  But we already knew they were in love, plus… twenty minutes?  What is this scene really giving the audience?  Nothing.  It’s not deepening characterization if it’s not revealing anything new.

So what do you do to save this scene?  Change it up.  Add conflict.  Not necessarily between the two characters.  It can be an outside conflict.  But whatever it is should fulfill two of the requirements I listed.  Maybe while they’re talking at the table, having a normal boring conversation, but one of them is surreptitiously checking their phone every five minutes for a text that will call them away to their super secret spy job that the other person knows nothing about and that they probably won’t be coming back from this time.  It deepens characterization because now we’re watching how this person is handling the situation.  How do they talk to their loved one while knowing they might be permanently called away at any moment and the other person has no idea?  Do they get overly sappy?  Do they act super normal and don’t let on at all?  And what choice will they actually make once they get the text?  This also deepens plot because OMG, what is this spy mission?  Why is it so dangerous?  What is so important that they could even think about walking away from an ooey gooey love such as this?  It may even deepen worldbuilding, depending on what we already know and what’s going on, but it could be a great place to slip in some details.  An army of steam-powered robotic unicorns are heading towards the president’s dirigible and are going to shoot lasers at it and bring it down!

Now this scene is moving things along.  And you could easily take it further and add in more issues that make the choice for our gooey spy lover even harder.  You could up the ante on the plot and say if our spy doesn’t go on this mission, their love is going to die, and now it’s not much of a choice for them (though how they handle it still is), and they have to break their lover’s heart to save their life.

And okay, you might be thinking, “That’s great if I have a scene I want to save, but I still don’t know what to cut!”  An easy list of things to cut is anything you feel “has” to be in the book, but that is ultimately boring.  Like, say, a character walking to their friend’s house.  Or a wandering group of minstrels traveling across the countryside to get to the castle.  You may catch yourself going, “Ugh, I hate this… but it has to be here!”

Why?  Because the audience needs to see how the characters get from point A to point B?  A simple line stating “The minstrels spent months traveling all across the countryside, but now were finally here at the castle to play music for the king” (or whatever it is they’re doing there) works great.  Anything that is just there because “the audience” supposedly needs it is most likely filler.  It’s easy to fall into the habit of showing everything your characters do, but leave it out and save room for the good stuff.  And don’t force yourself to write something boring because you feel it “needs” to be there.  You have my permission to skip that scene and write what you really want to write about.  You will be happier, your characters will be more interesting, and you’ll have a better chance of drawing your audience into your story.

If you get stuck, don’t agonize.  Just try something and see if it works.  If your equivalent of the dull kitchen table scene is someone walking from point A to point B and all the books say don’t show that, but you really like that scene and feel it’s important, but OMG, what will people think if you leave it in?!?!  Leave it in.  Spice it up if you need to.  But you might not even need extra spice.  If it’s meat and not filler, then it’s meat and not filler and there’s no reason to cut it.

Following these guidelines on all levels will strengthen your book and make it less swampy and more zingy.  And honestly, I could go on about revision for several more posts, so if there’s something I haven’t covered or you have questions, just ask!

A 7th grade noir detective. A femme – er, fille – fatale. A PTA mafia. Not your average mystery.

Harper Madigan: Junior High Private Eye comes out in ebook on March 2nd, which is this Friday, and also my birthday! (The paperback version will be out later this month, for anyone who’d rather have a physical copy. Or, you know, both–I won’t stop you.) The ebook is $3.99 and will be available for purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads, and Smashwords. I did not know you could buy books on Goodreads, but apparently you can!

To celebrate the release, I’m going to have a Twitter contest and am giving away 10 epub copies and 1 grand prize of an epub and a signed paperback, once it’s available. The contest will start on Friday and run through Sunday, and all you’ll have to do to enter is RT the contest tweet (which I will be posting here and tweeting on Friday). You can RT the contest tweet once per day to get extra entries (up to 3 total). Winners will be posted on the blog on Monday!

Fellow Tenner and local author friend Denise Jaden made this post today about focusing on what we love about our writing, instead of picking at ourselves over what needs improvement.  As she says:

As writers, I think we spend a lot of time thinking about the areas we need to improve. And that’s necessary, it really is, but I don’t think we take enough time to balance out the scale and spend some focus on what we do well. Many a motivational speaker will tell you that what you focus on will be what flourishes in your life, and so it makes sense that if all we ever do is pick ourselves apart, our faults might just get worse instead of better.

I completely agree!  So today I’m making a list of what I love about my writing.  I can’t even remember the last time I made a list like this or really even thought about it.  And it’s important to think about it.  I think in our culture, and especially in the writing culture, berating yourself for never being good enough is the norm.  How can you be getting better if you’re patting yourself on the back?  I still remember in creative writing class (BARF) when the teacher said it was good that we were all making mistakes because that gave us so much to learn from. O__o  Honestly?  I don’t learn from mistakes nearly as well as I learn from someone who’s done something really well.  But that’s another post for another day, so onto what I love about my writing!

–I LOVE my voice.  Whichever character it is, even though they’re different from each other, they’re all still very me.  And, in a way, I get to be them for a while.

–I love reading my own writing.  I’ve known artists who could never stand their own work, whether it was visual art or writing or whatever, and while that might make them strive to get better, the thing is, it wasn’t a matter of being good enough or not.  And I know at least some of them gave up and stopped making art.  So I take the fact that I love reading my stuff as a good thing.  No matter what happens, I’ll always have at least one reader.

–I love my characters.  This ties into voice too, at least for the POV characters, but I love the others, too.  I love how over the top they can be, how realistic and down to earth, how funny or sad or angry.  I love that they’re all great people to spend time with.

–I love that I’m a fast writer.  And that I write better when I’m writing fast rather than slow.

–I love that I write about boys.  I don’t know why girl MCs fall flat for me when writing, but they do, and the boys take center stage.  Sometimes I wish I could write girl books, because maybe they’d be easier sells, but the truth is, I love writing about boys, and I love that I love it.

–I love that my books are quirky and campy.  I need the camp.  Without it, I am bored to tears.

–I love that I write great action scenes.  I dread writing them, which I think is part of why they end up working out so well.  Once I get to them, I just want to get them over with, which means they don’t drag on.

And… that’s probably enough love for now!  Go check out Denise’s post and tell her what you love about your writing!

I updated the title on Goodreads, so I thought I’d do an official announcement here!

The title is….

THE TRIALS OF RENEGADE X

Did I mention I got to see the rough sketch of the cover a while ago?  I don’t think I did, but it is kick ass.  I’m not going to show it off until it’s done, though believe me I am itching to share the awesome.  Newsletter subscribers will get to see it early, so be sure and sign up if you want a sneak peek before anyone else.

In the mean time, I am writing away and loving spending time with these characters and this world again!  I might try and write up a blurb about the book soon, or I might put it off because blurbs are not my favorite things to write and I just wrote one for the Harper Madigan book–that gets me a blurb free pass for a while, right?  Right?

I’m also going to be putting up a Renegade X sequel FAQ, so be sure to comment or email me (Chelsea@ChelseaMCampbell.com) your sequel questions, and I will do my best to provide answers!

I am proud to present the cover and description blurb for one of my upcoming March releases! The blurb was written by me and the amazing cover art was done by Chloe Tisdale.

7th grade detective Harper Madigan works alone. He doesn’t need the vice principal assigning him a new partner to keep him in line, especially a stuffed-shirt wannabe-journalist.

And he especially doesn’t need his troublemaker ex-girlfriend showing up out the blue and asking for his help. She’s accused of attacking the star of the school musical, and with her less-than-sparkling track record, she’s only one suspension away from getting expelled.

Only Harper believes she’s innocent, and now it’s up to him to prove it, even if it means making an enemy of the PTA mafia, risking his agency, and facing the mistakes of his own dark past. But when his new partner insists on doing everything by the book, and his old nemesis–the one bully he can’t catch–starts harassing his clients, it’s going to take more than just detective work to solve the case.

Loud honking announcements that will chase you around the lake and beak you to death for a crust of bread!

Er… probably not.  These are actually very lovely announcements that don’t resemble geese in any way.  But gaggle is a cool word.  It’s right up there with gusset.

Anyway, onto the announcements!

• In exactly 28 days I will turn 30!  (That’s March 2nd, for those of you who forgot it was leap year.)
• I have TWO–count them, TWO–new books coming out in March!
• One is GROWING UP DEAD, a humorous MG about a vampire trying to survive 8th grade.
• The other is HARPER MADIGAN: JUNIOR HIGH PRIVATE EYE, a noir detective novel set in junior high.

I know, neither of these is the Renegade X sequel.  But it’s coming!  And in the meantime you can tide yourself over with some more great reading. ;)  Each of these will be available in both ebook and paperback.

Blurbs and covers will be up very soon!  If you want to be notified when these books are available for purchase, you can sign up for my newsletter in the top right corner of my site. And if you’re a book blogger interested in reviewing either–or both–of these books, please email me at CampChelsea@gmail.com or through the contact sheet on my site.

As I’m trying to manage my time and projects and whatnot, it’s kind of dawning on me that I have a LOT of stuff going on right now. My list, let me show you it–not necessarily in any particular order:

–edit three books for self-publication
–after editing, format them all for printing and ebook formats
–learn to format self-pubbed books for printing and ebook formats
–write the Renegade X sequel
–finish/keep up with all my crochet commissions
–keep up with two grad school classes
–do enough tasks to keep my online job because I like having a safety net
–wait for agent notes on my proposal book, then do edits so it can go on sub

Whew! It’s a lot to do, but I kind of love it. Okay, I definitely love it, but there are times when it’s a bit overwhelming how much stuff I’ve given myself to do.

And yesterday was absolutely crazy. I woke up to over 500 feedback messages on DeviantArt. The day before had been free Premium Membership day, so I thought maybe there’d been some kind of malfunction when it switched my account back to the free version. But I pretty quickly realized that wasn’t the case and that something was driving a bazillion new people to my account, specifically to this picture:

These are the main characters from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (which is an awesome show–go watch it if you haven’t seen it). It turned out it had been picked as a Daily Deviation. I didn’t know what that meant, but I started to piece it together when I saw my picture show up on the bottom of site, along with other artwork that was being featured. So, for those not in the know, basically DeviantArt selects images to feature each day. And they picked mine. O__o I was shocked they picked me, once I realized what it was, and it’s still kind of sinking in.

Good news! You can now subscribe to my brand new newsletter and get exclusive information on the Renegade X sequel! You’ll be one of the first people to find out the title, see the cover, and read an excerpt before any of it goes live on my website. There will also be subscriber-only contests you won’t want to miss, including a chance to get a character in the sequel named after you! You’ll also stay informed on when my next book is available, so you won’t miss out.

To sign up, go to my website (if you’re not already there) and enter your email in the top right corner, then click “Subscribe now!”

As some of you probably know, I crochet. A lot. And in the last two months I started doing design work, which before then I thought I kind of hated. Because it was hard and I wasn’t passionate about anything enough to *want* to put in the work to get past that stage. And then along came My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I LOVE this show! I’m a proud brony. Or, well, pegasister. I’d been obsessed with this show for some time, and then a friend showed me some pics of crocheted ponies on eBay. And at first I was like, “It would be cool to make stuff like that, but I don’t like designing things.” But I couldn’t stop thinking about them and got really excited about trying my hand at it.

And I did! And it’s been going really well! Designing was hard at first, but now that I’ve learned the basics it’s become super addicting. I’m at the point now where I can sit down with and idea and start making it and have it actually turn out how I pictured. I even made sea ponies from the old 80s show (which I also LOVED, even if, sadly, it doesn’t hold up for me as an adult).

I also got over my laziness/annoyance about uploading and posting pictures, so here are some of my creations (you can see the rest at DeviantArt).

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic characters Rainbow Dash, Pinky Pie, and Rarity as sea ponies:

Fluttershy in her gala dress:

And my newest creations, baby versions of Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy:

And I promise I’m still writing, even if ponies have kind of taken over my brain, or at least my apartment, which is now full of pony-colored yarn.

2011 was a pretty crazy year. It feels like it dragged on forever and at the same time was a huge whirlwind of hectic chaos that flew right by. I started grad school (a master’s program in Library and Information Science) and spent a week in Syracuse, NY hanging out with other people in the program, who were all amazingly awesome. I had jury duty the day I got back (again!), but thankfully I didn’t actually have to go in.

Writing wise, it’s felt like a pretty slow year, but maybe that’s just the last couple of months talking. I wrote about 90k over three books (not including notes and throwaway material). One of the books I finished, one of them I put on hold indefinitely, and the other is going out on proposal. And while I sold Russian rights for Renegade X–not sure if I ever announced that–and Disney renewed their movie option, I didn’t sell anything new in 2011, just like I didn’t in 2010. In 2010, that was devastating. In 2011, it was frustrating and sometimes discouraging, but I’ve more or less come to terms with it and learned a lot about myself in the process.

Actually, I learned a lot about myself in 2011 and about what makes me happy. I discovered I like having a variety of odd jobs. And I like jobs you sign up for and test into rather than interviewing for. I suck at interviews, but I’m great with tests. I don’t want writing to be the only focus in my life, but I do want to be able to focus on it when I choose to. So I like having my own schedule.

And I never thought self-publishing would make me happy, but in fact I’m ecstatic about it! (In case you missed it, I recently announced that I’m going to be self-pubbing a sequel to Renegade X.) Everyone’s been super supportive of it, and while I still want to be traditionally published as well, getting to work at my own pace and keeping myself as busy as I want to will be a nice complement to traditional pubbing.

I also finally started crocheting plushies for my Etsy shop. which I’d always sort of wanted to do but never really thought I would. And it turns out it’s wonderfully fulfilling. So between the Etsy shop and the self-publishing epiphany, I’ve been really taken by surprise about what makes me happy. I always thought I’d *know* ahead of time what would make me happy, and it’s kind of pleasantly surprising that I was wrong.

So that was my year in a nutshell. I hate making New Year’s resolutions, plus if this year’s taught me anything, it’s that I don’t always know what my goals are, so I won’t make any. But I can tell you I’m looking forward to the new year. I’ll be turning 30 in March and starting a new decade of my life, and I’m ready to embrace it.