Hey guys! So I’d planned to do these every month during my Tag Week, but I was always so busy with other tags that I never had time to get ...

Beautiful Books: Editing Edition: The Wizard Apocalypse

Alexa Mintah

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Hey guys! So I’d planned to do these every month during my Tag Week, but I was always so busy with other tags that I never had time to get to this one. Still, I really wanted to do a Beautiful Books/Beautiful People linkup, so I decided to just go ahead and do it, and say that this one is a Thoughtful Thursday post rather than a tag. So there you go. :)

If you don’t know what Beautiful People is, Cait explains more about it in this post, but here’s the short version: it’s a monthly linkup where Cait from Paper Fury and Sky from Further Up and Further In post 10 questions for bloggers around the blogosphere to answer, so readers can get to know them and their books. The Beautiful Books edition was designed for NaNo projects, but it can also be used for whatever manuscript you happen to be working on. :)

Without further ado:

TO THE TAG!

giphy.com Because, why not?

1. On a scale of 1 (worst) to 10 (best), how did the book turn out? Did anything defy your expectations?

I’d give it about an 8. I mean, there are a couple million problems, and the plot is gonna need so much editing. But I genuinely adore how my story turned out, especially the ending, and I love my little baby charries with all of my being *snuggles the children*

To answer the second question, the length of it really shocked me. As I mentioned last month, I was going to do a series of short stories rather than a full novel, because I didn’t have time to plot during October (even though I am a pantser, I at least try to do a little plotting each year before NaNo rolls around). But thanks to my darling little The Wizard Apocalypse, I worked on that story for about 20 of 30 days and just had time to get a start on my next idea before NaNo was over.

No regrets, though. Like I said, I adore this story. <3

2. Comparative title time: what published books, movies, or TV shows are like your book? (Ex: Inkheart meets X-Men.)

Honestly, I have no idea. It’s sort of Beauty and the Beast plus Wizards of Waverly Place with a dash of Percy Jackson and a boatload of quirky, science-y insanity? I’m really not even sure that’s accurate, but it’s the best I can come up with right now. :p  

3. Do you enjoy working with deadlines and pressure (aka NaNoWriMo)? Or do you prefer to write-as-you’re-inspired?

I think everyone would prefer to write as inspired, but unfortunately, art just doesn’t work like that. And NaNo is perfect for giving me the push to do what I have to do and get the draft down. So I guess if I could miraculously get inspired everyday and have just perfects words flow from my fingertips, that would be wonderful. As it is, the insanity of NaNoWriMo is the next best thing.

*reads over question and answer* You know, I’m not really sure that actually answers the question. But anyways, yeah. NaNo’s awesome.

4. How do you go about editing? Give us an insight into your editing process.

I start with giving the manuscript some time to sit, and then do a readthrough or two to see what big things I have to change. I’m also one of those writers who writes themselves a ton of notes as they draft, so I read over the notes as well to see what I used, what I didn’t use, what I should use, and what I should discard in a titanium box 20,000 leagues under the sea.

Once that’s all sorted, I hop to it: all the big edits get done first (scene changes, major plot twists, character development, worldbuilding), whatever large, story-altering edits need to be done. Then I get down to the smaller tidbits of grammar and word choice, all the tiny, nitpicky, polishing things that make your manuscript shine.

5. What aspect of your story needs the most work?

Probably the plot. As I’ve said before, I’m a pantser, and I really had no idea what I was doing when I started the project. So the plot is crazy, confusing, and convoluted and, while I think everything I need is there, it’s gonna need quite a bit of ironing out to make any actual sense.

6. What aspect of your story did you love the most?

The characters. 100 percent. a million percent, all-around, definitely, absolutely, the characters.

7. Give us a brief run down on your main characters and how you think they turned out. Do you think they’ll need changes in edits?

Well, my three main characters are Irie, a major fangirl, freshman biology major, and amateur kickboxer; her boyfriend Saxen, a shy, aspiring weapons developer, triple science major in biology, chemistry, and engineering; and Todd, Saxen’s conspiracy theorist cousin, who has recently been cursed or spelled or something like that by a wizard named Sid. Still have to figure out exactly what happened there, but the point is, Todd now has superpowers.

And no, I don’t think they’ll change a lot. One of the reasons I love this story so much is that these characters came to me very alive, quirky, and just chock full of their own beautiful craziness. So yeah, they’ll definitely need some editing, especially in the scenes where I was exhausted and just pounding out words for the sake of my word count, but overall, I think they are the strongest part of the rough draft and they will mostly stay the same.

8. What are your plans for this novel once you finish editing? More edits? Finding beta readers? Querying? Self-publishing? Hiding it in a dark hole forever?

Again, no idea. I just wanted to finally write this precious little plot bunny, so beyond that, I really don’t know. Maybe I’ll be able to skim it down to a short story and send it to a magazine, or maybe I’ll it edit into a full-length novel and go from there. Maybe I’ll even post it as a serial on this blog. Honestly, I got no real plans for after the editing stage, but rest assured, I do want other people to eventually able to see it.

9. Share a favourite snippet!

Okay, so here’s the thing: I am a perfectionist, and under most circumstances, I don’t like showing my work unless it is perfect or very close to that. That said, I don’t think I have a full snippet that’s strong enough for me to share right now, but this one line is probably my favorite in the entire book:

Just in case things did go bad, I had my kickboxing skills, my shiny, new brass knuckles, and a trusty can of pepper spray (super-sized). I was totally ready to take on a wraith army from hell.

Totally.

10. What are your writing goals and plans for 2016?

Don’t really have any, tbh. I want to keep working on my projects Low Expectations and Becoming Brave, and, hopefully, get them published. I’d love to start editing another one of my projects, like The Wizard Apocalypse, but I don’t know if I’ll have the time, so I don’t wanna make that a goal and then be unable to reach it.

Overall, I just want to keep writing everyday and continuously better my craft. :)

***

And that’s the linkup! Thanks so much for hosting this, Cait and Sky!

So readers, tell me about your most recent projects! What’s your main character like? Have any plans for 2016? If you did the linkup, leave me a link to your post so I can visit! See you in the comment section!

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