I wish I knew this before...

So I’m going to do a “I wish I knew that before I got Published” series. 

Edits/Revisions

Now, I knew there were still going to be edits and revisions once the ink dried on the publishing contract, but I don’t think I was prepared for the amount of edits and revisions.

So let’s rewind time. You submitted your perfect manuscript. It’s beautiful. Ready for publication, right? Because the publisher accepted your MS. They must love it the way it is. Just like your momma says she loves you just the way you are. Soon, your work of art is going to be on shelves. It’s going to hit the bestseller lists EVERYWHERE. You are a star, because you’re MS was just super-duper perfect.

Um, no.

Sometimes an editor or agent takes on your work because they like the voice, premise, plot, and characters but it needs major work. Which equals major revisions. There’s a phone call preparing you for the “editorial letter” that will be coming your way along with your edited up MS. I find that sometimes the call sort of under exaggerates the amount of edits. I don’t blame that tactic. No one wants you to actually freak on the phone with you. 

You get off the call, feeling good. Excited even. You get the “editorial letter” and…it’s 5 pages long. Single Spaced. Or 19 pages long, single spaced. Your breath gets stuck in your chest. Your heart stops. Your first thought is, “Oh, my God, I suck.”

Take a step back and breathe. An editorial letter is not telling you that you suck. It’s just telling you how they, as a team, are going to make your book better. I don’t really freak out with the editorial letters. I don’t personally get why people do, but I think it’s shocking to see how much has to change.

Then you open the MS…and you actually see what it looks like in track changes. And holy moley, your MS is full of red lines, text and comments on the side that say, “What the …?”

After downing a couple of glasses of wine, you do your edits. Sometimes this takes days, others it takes weeks. Depends on how fast you are and the extent of edits. Time to celebrate. You’re done your first round of edits. Wheee!

Guess what? You get to do that two or three more times. Sometimes even more than that. You read your MS so much that you probably end up hating it by the time it actually makes it to proof pages. One novel of mine was edited around six times before it hit copy edits. Six whole times. 

And then you get the final version of your book back. Sometimes it’s NOTHING like what you submitted. It’s a different book, with better character motivations, a tighter plot, and stronger writing.

So if I knew how much better the book would be after edits before I got pub’d, I probably wouldn’t have freaked so much when I saw my first edited MS.

Don't Tell Me

Show versus Tell is one of the dreaded ones in a writer’s dictionary. Sometimes your editor will mark up your entire manuscript in red text that looks something like this

<------- Telling here. Need to show what is happening. 

This is pretty much where you bang your head off a wall or keyboard. Many times you don’t even realize you’re telling instead of showing until someone points it out. It’s that hard to see when you’re writing. 

So what’s the problem with telling instead of showing? Well, typically, telling a story can be very dry to a reader and at times lacks creativity in the writing. It doesn’t allow the reader to FEEL want the protagonist is feeling. And you want the reader to be in the protags shoes. Not three blocks down from what’s happen. 

Here are some examples of Show vs. Tell.

• Emotion is SO important. You want to reader to feel it. Not see it on paper.

Tell: I was angry as I got into my car.
Show: Blood boiling, I whipped open the car door and slammed it shut behind me.

Tell: The ghost scared me.
Show: Ice slithered through my veins, pooling in my stomach. My breath hitched as the shadows pulled together, forming the upper half of a man wearing an old Confederate uniform, but there were no legs. He was only half there, floating in air. 

• A common one in manuscripts is this one. Sometimes all you think you have to do is say someone is good looking and everyone believes you. Ah, no.

Tell: He was really hot.
Show: Deep brown hair the color of bark fell over his forehead in wild waves. His face was arresting and intriguing, with high cheekbones and a determined mouth. Not conventionally handsome, but universally alluring.
(The showing is from CURSED) 

Need more examples? Comment in the comment section and I’ll make up some more. 

Here’s where I’m going to throw you two curve balls. Because that’s how I roll. 

• First curve ball to the face:

Sometimes telling is okay, when you need to get to the good stuff. You’ll see this happening with passages of time. 

Example: A week crawled by before I saw him again.  

You can’t write an ENTIRE novel in showing. It would be the longest piece of over-written work you’d ever read. Sometimes it’s okay. And the more you write, the easier it is for you to figure out when a quickie and to the point sentence is needed.

• Second curve ball to the gut:

I recently read a book that was ENTIRELY in telling mode. It showed absolutely nothing. Everything, and I do mean everything, was told to the reader. Oddly, it worked for the book. Maybe because it was in 3^rd person, but I couldn’t help but put on my writer hat every time I was told something. It was frustrating for me, because I’m the type of reader/writer who wants to be showed something, but like I said, it kind of worked for the book. 

Also, I believe this book garnered a 6-7 figure advance at auction. Why am I telling you this? That rules in writing are ALWAYS meant to be broken. Now I don’t suggest that you run out there and write an entire novel in “telling” mode, because seriously, it is very rare to pull it off, but some people have. 

Get to know our RPA: Jennifer

Right now you're probably wondering what the hell a RPA is. Well, let me tell you. 

RPA stands for: Resident Published Author

Since all of us here at Tangled are aspiring authors, we figured it would be helpful to have someone around who knew what they were talking about from time to time. You know, someone who had been there and done that. It wasn't difficult to decide on Jennifer as our RPA for several reasons.


First, she has amazing talent. Her debut YA book, Half-Blood, comes out in October. She's already signed on for a second YA book, Cursed, which is set to release next year and if that isn't enough, she's also just signed a deal for three adult books with Entangled Publishing. There will be eight books from in the next couple years---and you don't want to miss her.

Every Sunday here on Tangled, she'll be talking about things she wished she knew before, writing, offering helpful suggestions and holding some special critique contests. She'll also be helping us answer your questions and help connect this awesome web of writers. She's amazing and so, so sweet. We're glad to have her! 

If you could be any item on Mexican restaurant menu, what would you be and why?

Enchilada smothered in cheese. Because who doesn’t like melted, yummy cheese?

When's your birthday?

June 11^th 1980

Why do you want to write within the YA genre?

I think YA novels capture the emotional intensity that as adults we sometimes forget. It’s all about firsts: first kiss, first love, first loss, first fight, first decisions, etc. There is something powerful about ‘firsts’. And there is no audience more passionate about their books than the YA audience.

Which YA book character are you most like? Explain.

Kaylee Cavanaugh from the Soul Screamers Series. Because my scream (and singing) makes people want to cry and cover their ears, too.

Plotter or Panster?

Fly by the seat of my pants

What do you like to do when you get stuck while writing to help work through it?

When I get stuck, I either go to a scene I want to write and leave the scene that’s tripping me up alone for awhile or I push through it.

What is your single most favorite thing (feel free to be as vague as you like) about you're current WIP?

“Sometimes you have to lose everything to gain it all.”

Two truths and one lie about yourself.

I once talked to movie star on the phone, and it took me 15 minutes to realize who it was. Awkward.

I have an obsession with the Civil War.

I want to have a buttload of children. 

 Get to know more about Jennifer and how to connect with her on our About Page.