The Layers of Revising

by Maddie Day/Edith Maxwell

I’m beginning the last month of revising my 41^st mystery, due October 1, so I thought I’d talk about what that whole process is like for me.

All writers know that finishing the first draft is only the beginning. I plot very little, and I like to charge through the first draft and get the story onto the page. To that end, I leave lots of notes to myself in square brackets throughout the manuscript to check for facts, for research, for consistency with earlier books in the series. My first revision pass is going through and resolving all those.

Then I do passes for plot holes, sometimes writing several new scenes to flesh out an idea or a subplot. I go through the book checking each scene for hooks at the start and end. I make another pass to make sure I have brought in all the senses, but only in the service of the story. I print out the book and read straight through, marking up whatever I notice, then I put in all my green-in self-edits. I see things so differently on paper than on the screen. For me, this is a valuable and necessary step.

I check for elegant language, again only in the service of the story, and make sure any descriptions of people relate to who they really are. And I run a spelling and grammar check.

All that happened a month ago. When the book is as polished as it can be – or when my eyes glaze over as I’m looking at it – I send it off to an excellent independent editor (Amy in Wisconsin).

She returns it with changes and suggestions marked in Track Changes, and she also includes an editorial letter. The letter includes all the hard stuff: “We need more about what happened to Bella.” “We need more about the beef between Stu and Rick.” “Deanna feels a bit underutilized.” “We need more interaction with the Broads and Michelle.” And so on. Amy asks questions and sometimes makes suggestions on how to implement the comment. 

My process is first to go through the Track Changes stuff. I work in Scrivener, so I have the Word document open next to my Scrivener project for the book. As I go, I knock off all the easy fixes, things like the wrong name, adding missing quotation marks, clarifying language, and other bits.

Then I take a deep breath and start addressing the harder edits. What was Rick’s reason for being angry, anyway? I have no idea, but I either have to come up with one or change/remove the scene where he’s irate. And on and on.

What I’ll be doing in the next month is the hardest part of the whole process. The book is done. I’m ready to move on to the next one. Any big changes I make can ripple through the story. I often have to dig deep to figure out how to address each issue. 

I’m sure it’s hard partly because I didn’t do this work before I started writing, as some authors do. I know my protagonist pretty well, but I might not have spent enough time getting acquainted with my villains and other major cast characters. This particular book, Ruthie Drew Cleans Up, is also the first in a new series, so it’s necessary work.

But I can do it. I have a month left before the due date, and except for a few quick family visits (occasional Grammy day care with my grandgirl, which I love), I don’t have any travel or book events scheduled for September. I know I can meet my deadline by showing up for work every day by seven.

After I turn in the book to my Kensington Publishing editor, I might receive a few high-level comments from him, but for some books he simply writes, “It looks great. No changes needed. I’ve put through the payment.” Yay! A few months later I’ll get copyedits, and sometime after that proof pages to pore over and make last-chance tiny fixes (but nothing that would cause page numbers to change).

I go through this process for every book I write. It happened a year ago for my new book, Murder at the Toy Soldier.Despite all these passes and eyeballs on the manuscript, someone (often my keen-eyed sister in Ottawa) invariably reports a typo or a consistency error. Gah. I’m grateful my editor is willing to make the change in the ebook and in the next printing. I haven’t heard of any errors yet for the new book, which released last week. Fingers crossed!

Readers: Do you report errors in books to the author? Authors, how do you feel about being notified of a flaw in your beloved book that you worked so hard on? Is your editing process appreciably different from mine?

Murder at the Toy Soldier: Cape Cod bike shop owner Mac Almeida is extra busy during a cold, wet February as she and Tim do their best as working parents of a preschooler and a baby. With Ella’s fourth birthday approaching, Mac uses her lunch break to shop for a gift at the Toy Soldier. Behind the counter is Zia Carven, a young woman Mac recognizes. Mac finds a gift Ella will love and Zia offers to gift wrap it. Mac plans to pick it up after work, but when she returns, she finds Zia slumped over the counter, dead, with dried blood on a toy rifle nearby. 

Mac’s mother, Astra, confides that she’d been trying to help Zia, and now the police want to speak with her, which worries Mac. Then Mac discovers that Zia had been in town searching for her birth mother, which only multiplies the questions—and the suspects. One thing is certain: Mac and the Cozy Capers book group will have to double down to find a killer who isn’t playing around . . .

Maddie Day writes the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries, the Cece Barton Mysteries, and the Dot and Amelia Mysteries. As Agatha-Award winning Edith Maxwell, she writes Agatha Award-winning historical mysteries and Agatha-nominated short crime fiction. She’s a member of MWA and a proud lifetime member of Sisters in Crime. Day/Maxwell lives north of Boston with her beau and their cat Martin, where she writes, cooks, gardens, wastes time on Facebook, and delights in Grammy duties. Find Edith and Maddie at mysteryloverskitchen.com and at edithmaxwell.com.

The lady doth protest too much, methinks

By James M. Jackson

“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”
~ Queen Gertrude in Hamlet, Act III, Scene II

I teach a two-week class on story structure. One of the key early lessons is that every good story has two parallel structures: one for plot and the other for character development. Today, I want to talk about character development.

I’ve always been jaded at protestations by politicians about how bad or evil someone else or some other group is. It seems to me that more often than not, fear-mongering or hate is as much inner-directed as directed toward the “offensive” individual or group.

Without naming names, recall the politicians who have been most vituperative describing homosexuals, who were themselves gay. Those most praising the sanctity of marriage were serial philanderers. Those loudest about the need to drain the swamp of corruption are the most corrupt.

Those are perhaps egregious examples of politicians gaslighting the public to hide their misdeeds. Somewhat more subtle are individuals who state what they in fact believe, but they increase their intensity because they know they exhibit the same characteristics they wish to eliminate in the world.

That understanding has taught me to listen carefully when someone sounds off because it can provide clues about what things they don’t like about themselves. This applies equally to people and fictional characters.

It took me a while, but I realized Niki often espoused her appreciation for teamwork and lambasting those who looked out primarily for their own best interests. She points to her participation in team sports, particularly her college championship softball team, on which she played second base, to demonstrate that she practices what she preaches.

And yet, softball is one of the most individualistic team sports. Yes, teamwork is required to turn a double play or to sacrifice bunt or hit behind the runner. But it’s you as the batter against the pitcher and catcher; it’s you who has to catch the ball. Her other high-school team involved target shooting—again a solo event.

She joined one of the most team-oriented law-enforcement agencies in the world—the FBI—and became an undercover operator. She relied on the team—until she went undercover. Then, she was by herself and wanted it just that way.

In Niki Unbound, the final book in the Niki Undercover Thriller trilogy, she learns of a plot to kill the president and disrupt the presidential succession. And she cannot stop it herself. If the enemy is to be defeated, it will require a team's coordinated skills and actions. This realization means Niki must address part of her shadow that she has danced around and actively tried to suppress: she does not trust other people to the extent necessary to be a true team player.

Her challenge in this story is to find some way to change so that when the pressure becomes intense, she maintains her trust in her team. Or will she revert to what’s worked for forty years and go it alone?

Sound interesting? Niki Unbound is available in paperback, Kindle (and free to read on Kindle Unlimited), and as an audiobook on Audible.

Have you ever caught yourself protesting a little too loudly against something you quietly recognize in yourself? For me, it’s lamenting people wasting money on crap with no value other than a quick endorphin boost. Any confessions?

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James M. Jackson writes justice-driven thrillers with brains and bite, including the Niki Undercover Thriller trilogy and the Seamus McCree series. To learn more information about Jim and his books, check out his website, https://jamesmjackson.com. You can sign up for his newsletter (and get a novella and two free short stories featuring his protagonists).