6 Easy Revision Tasks to Improve the Quality of Your Writing

By Jenna Harte

Everyone knows first drafts are bad, but by the time you reach the submission phase, how can you be sure your book is as its best beyond fixing grammar and typos? Here are some of my revision strategies to beef up the quality of writing:

1) Check that each scene has a purpose. Any scene that doesn’t add something new to drive the plot forward is not needed, and in fact, can stall your story.  Although readers occasionally need reminders about past events or the motivation of characters, watch for redundant scenes that aren’t necessary and instead add these reminders into scenes that serve a purpose.

2) Reduce or eliminate weak words and thought phrases. I use the “Find” feature of my word processing program to search for weak or vague words, such as “felt,” “took,” “gave,” “very,” and “a lot,” which I work to replace with stronger words. I also search for “realize,” “heard,” and “thought,” and, in most cases, get rid of them. When writing in a specific point of view, it’s clear who’s realizing, hearing, or having the thought.

3) Fix passive sentences. Your goal is to have the subject of your sentence doing the action, as opposed to being acted on. One way to find passive sentences in your work is to search for use of the “to be” verb (i.e. is, was, etc.). For example:

The house was buried in the snow. (Passive)

The snow buried the house. (Active)

4) Reduce or eliminate adverbs. The easiest way to find adverbs is to use the “Find” feature to search “ly.” Not all adverbs end in -ly, but it’s a start. Replace adverbs with stronger verbs. For example, “She walked quietly,” would become, “She tiptoed,” or “She snuck.”

5) Delete unneeded words. “That,” “now,” and “just,” can usually be deleted. “And” and “but” at the beginning of a sentence isn’t needed in most cases, either.

6) Replace dialogue tags with action when possible. Keep readers deeper in the story by avoiding “said,” “asked,” etc., and instead, include an action to indicate who’s talking. For example:

“I’m going to the store,” Mary said as she picked up the car keys.

“I’m going to the store.” Mary picked up the car keys.

Or

“I hate you,” Mary said angrily.

“I hate you.” Mary clenched her fists at her side.

Theses tricks make it easy to find weaknesses in my writing, so I can tighten and strengthen the prose.  I can’t always get rid of every weak word or dialogue tag, but I’m able to eliminate enough that it significantly improves the quality of the writing, thereby increasing the chance of acceptance by my agent or a publisher.

_______________________________________________________________________ 

Jenna Harte is a die-hard romantic, writing about characters that are passionate about and committed to each other, and frequently getting into trouble. She is the author of the Valentine Mysteries, the first of which, Deadly Valentine, reached the quarter-finals in Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Award in 2013. She's also the author of the contemporary romance Southern Heat series. She's currently writing a new cozy mystery, plotting the sixth Valentine novel, and has several other fiction ideas percolating. Keep up-to-date on Jenna's books; get chocolate recipes and more at her website: http://www.jennaharte.com.

Living a Duel-Life: Writing Under Two Names

By Jenna Harte

Making the decision to use a pen name for my fiction work was easy. The hard part has been marketing a new person alongside my non-fiction writer self. If I’d realized the challenge it would be, I probably still would have done it, but because of the difficulties, I can see why sticking to one name is an easier and faster way to build a platform and sell books. Here are some things to consider when deciding on a pen name.

Purpose
My fiction is romantic mystery and while it has some explicit scenes, it’s nothing close to Fifty Shades of Gray. But people ask me if I use a pen name so my mother won’t know what I wrote. Anonymity wasn’t my reason for choosing a pen name, but it is a good reason and I’ve met several authors who use a pen name for that reason.

My reason for using a pen name was to separate my fiction writing from my non-fiction writing. By day, I’m a freelance writer, author, speaker and online entrepreneur. When people search my name, they expect to find specific types of information, not romantic mysteries. Having two names has allowed me to create two brands.

With that said, many authors write in several fiction genres and non-fiction using one name without any confusion among their readers, so a pen name isn’t really necessary.

Blogging
Writers and authors need a website or blog, so along with the three blogs I manage under my real name; I had to create a blog for my pen name. Anyone who blogs knows that coming up with content required to keep blogs relevant and interesting is a challenge. It’s one I struggle with constantly under my pen name.

Social Media
There are moments when I wish social media would die. It was fine when it was just Facebook and Twitter, but now there’s Pinterest, Google+, Goodreads and more keep coming. It’s challenging enough to manage social media with one name, but with two, it’s a nightmare. So much so that I’ve hired someone to manage Twitter and Facebook for my pen name. But that doesn’t get me off the hook completely. Social media is... well... social. So I still connect and participate in the conversation. Don’t get me wrong. I love connecting with other writers, readers and of course, fans. But it’s very time consuming, which takes away from writing.

Photos
I still haven’t figured out how to get around this issue. The real me and my pen name me look the same. And while it would be alright for people to know that both names are actually one person, I like keeping them separate. In some cases, you can use the cover of your book instead of a headshot, but other times, media sources want to know what you look like. In fact, Southern Writers Magazine wants a headshot.

All-in-all, I like having two separate identities; however, I recommend that people think through the work that goes with platform building from scratch using a name no one has ever heard of.

_____________________________________________________________________

Jenna Harte is a die-hard romantic, writing about characters who are passionate about and committed to each other, and frequently getting into trouble.  She is the author of the Valentine Mysteries, the first of which, "Deadly Valentine," reached the quarter-finals in Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Award in 2013. When she's not telling stories, she works by day as a freelance writer, author and blogger under her "real" name. She lives in central Virginia with her husband, two teenage children and two cats. Website: http://www.jennaharte.com
Media Kit: http://jennaharte.com/jennamediakit.pdf
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Jenna_Harte
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JennaHarteAuthor
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/jennaharte/
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6456441.Jenna_Harte

Amazon Author Page: http://amzn.com/e/B008SYXEZ8