A Secret Post #2

I'm crazy. I'm a butcher. I might be a better writer.

I cut out 24.000 words from Witch Hollow and the Fountain Riddle. Wanna know what's the worst thing about it? I haven't deleted a single scene. And I still cut out 24.000 words. WHFR was 84.000 words before I began rewriting it. Today, it's 60.000. Another 50 pages are gone without a trace.

And again, what does it mean? That my book was filled with so much garbage I hardly made my way through the thicket of adverbs, adjectives, and unnecessary "telling instead of showing."

I feel much better now. Like I've done something very important. And I am also very, very tired. But there's Witch Hollow and the Dryad Princess, and I need to go through it too :((( 

WHDP is 95.000 words at the moment. I'm scared to think how many words I'm going to slaughter. And as I said, I'm really tired, but I can't postpone going through WHDP, because I need to rewrite the first 4 books of the series before publishing the last one. So I better go get some sleep, before sitting in front of my laptop and staying in the same position for another 10 days.

See you on April 25th.

A Secret Post

I hope the readers who love Witch Hollow won't see this post. I am writing this for the aspiring authors, who are still learning to write in English. Remember I said that after I finished the last book of the series, I'd edit the first 4 and move on? Well, I began editing the first book and... cut out 19.000 words!!!

How did it happen? Here's how:

I never liked how the first book had turned out. It was slow, stilted, riddled with awkward phrasing. I had edited it a few times before, cutting out 5000 words, and thought I couldn't make it any better, and that I better moved on to other books. But now, almost 3 years later, when I began reading WHWS, I didn't know if I had to laugh or to cry. My goodness, it was bad! So bad I was red with shame. I knew I couldn't leave it like that, and I began rewriting the whole book.

3 days ago WHWS was 72.000 words. Today it's 53.000. But guess what, the story is the same, all the characters are there, and all the events. Well, almost. I cut out a few scenes, but overall, not much has changed.

So what does this mean?

It means that if you can chop out 19.000 words and still have the same story, then those 19.000 words had nothing to do there in the first place. A lot of them were adjectives and adverbs. And other unnecessary garbage.

Photo from http://laughsandlove.com.

At last I'm not ashamed to mention WHWS when I talk about my books :)) OK, it's 50 pages shorter, but it's 50 times better.

And the book is still free (and always will be), so if you're interested to compare the old and new versions, you can delete the old one from your Amazon account and download the new version.

What am I doing now? That's right, I am editing WHFR. It's 83.000 words at the moment. I wonder how much weight it's going to lose :)) Ha-ha!!!

What was Stephen King saying? Kill your darlings? I don't think he meant only the characters. Kill the words, fellow authors. Less is more.

Game of Thrones and Writing Advice

Finished Game of Thrones, books 1, 2, 3, 4. Oh my goodness!

A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1) -- 820 pages.

A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 2) -- 930 pages.

A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 3) -- 1220 pages.

A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 4)  -- 870 pages.

Cons: almost 4000 pages of blood, gore, and rape. My eyes are aching.
Pros: 700 new words, notepad is full.

 To say I don't like these books is to say nothing at all. I don't care about the story or the characters. I don't care who's going to sit on the iron throne, who will die, who'll survive. I can't think of a single character whose fate more or less concerns me. But after a bit of rest I will start reading the 5th book, and maybe once in a while I'll be rereading passages from the first four. Just because no other writer has given me as much as George R.R. Martin. He's a genius, and to me he's the best living writer in the world. No one writes like Martin. Sometimes I wonder where he finds all these words from, how he comes up with such descriptions and characteristics, how he produces such terrific dialogue. Truly, GRRM is genius. To me GOT novels are like textbooks, I read them slowly and carefully. And that's one of the first advice on writing I am going to give to aspiring writers, especially to those who are not native speakers. Don't just read a lot, but read carefully, think of the ways the words are used, how the author plays with the nouns and verbs, how sparingly he uses adjectives, how he never says very, a lot, beautiful, big, small... There are other words that are better and don't make your prose look cheap.

If you want to learn to write in English, read George Martin. It doesn't matter that he writes fantasy and your book is set in the 1900s or 3000s. Trust me, it doesn't. You can learn a lot from him: character development, beautiful prose, smart dialogues, showing instead of telling. You can enrich your vocabulary. Just don't be lazy, get a notepad and write down new words and phrases. I have three thick notepads and am filling the 4th. Well, what did you want? To wake up one day with the Oxford Vocabulary miraculously inserted into your brain? But 10% of that vocabulary is in my notepads that I keep handy and go through them during the editing. OK now, don't be tempted to use big, smart words when there's a shorter, simpler word. Always go for simplicity. Short sentences are better than the long ones. And stop describing every item in the room. The last thing your reader needs to know is the color of the leather boots placed under the mahogany wardrobe that is pushed against the creamy wall. Better tell them about the characters.

Thank you, Cecile

It was last year when I discovered a most amazing artist, with the most beautiful voice. I mentioned her in a post back in July: My New Muse. She's Cecile Corbel, and since last year I haven't stopped listening to her. Cecile is a French singer, a harpist and a composer. Her songs are filled with Irish traditional themes (and not only), and she sings in English, Irish, Italian, French, Breton, German, and Spanish.

It's obvious I couldn't pass by this blue-eyed red-haired fairy and her beautiful voice. She's meant to inspire authors like me, whose world revolves around witches, flying brooms, and magical potions. As if her beauty and voice were not enough, she also plays the harp and doubles my love for her talent.

Her songs are so beautiful I can't decide which one to feature on my blog post today. Arietty's Song is probably one of her most famous songs, composed for the animated movie "The Secret World of Arietty," written by the great Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle). Arietty is a borrower elf, and she and her family reminded me a lot of the chimney brownies from Hollow. You will have a small glimpse of them in the 5th book. A bit bigger than the food and tea brownies, they live in Hollow's chimneys and for obvious reasons come out only when the hosts of the house are asleep.

But the song that I love the most is My Lullaby, followed with The Land of Bears, Sweet Amaryllis, Mary... alright, I love all of them. Cecile has also covered The Blackbird and The Great Selkie, both of which are featured in Witch Hollow Series, the first in Witch Hollow and the Fountain Riddle, the second in Witch Hollow and the Spider Mistress. It's easy to feature in my books the songs that are already in public domain, but sometimes I want those that are not. For example, Riversong, which is featured in Witch Hollow and the Dryad Princess. The composer, Brunuhville, is just a great guy and gave me the permission to feature his song in my book. For Witch Hollow and the Moon's Daughter I desperately needed My Lullaby. And guess what? Cecile just gave me the permission! Yay!

The Moon's Daughter herself will sing the song, during a rather sad scene. But I won't say more, because in just a month you will find out everything yourself. Many thanks to Cecile Corbel for her generosity. If you are into this type of music, then you should check the shop on her website. Luckily they deliver the CDs to the whole world, so wherever you are, you can order her CDs and enjoy her music.

Ohh, and today is Cecile's birthday! Happy birthday, beautiful lady!

Saving my plant

This is what happens when you abandon everything and think only about finishing your book.

She was such a lush, lovely... flower? Bush? Shrub? I don't know what she was, but she looked beautiful, with long, twining stems and bright leaves, flowing out of the pot and spreading all over the desk. And I was taking care of her. The bigger she'd grow, the wider was my smile. Then I let others take care of her while I was busy. And this is what happened :'(

A single stem has survived. I placed her into a jar, to let her grow roots before putting her back into the earth.

Everyone kept telling me she wasn't worth it, she was just an average plant, and I better used the pot for a better flower, but I sent them all to hell. It's a matter of principle. If one stem has survived, then I'll take care of her until she grows back.

So here she is. Small and skinny, but going strong. All I can do now is wait. And not let anyone else touch her again. At least until she grows bigger and stronger.