C.W.Holeman III

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Books in Progress

A Rainbow All of Orange

Outline


A Term At Briarwood Academy

Outline


Drafting


Revisions


Beta Reads


A Dakota Entendre

Outline


Drafting


Revisions


Beta Reads


Querying


Random Quote



Joke of the Week

There are only 10 kinds of people in the world: Those who know binary, and those who don't.

My Writing Process

I break my writing process into two main sections: The first is Drafting, and the second is Editing.

Drafting

  1. Collect various ideas and combine them into a one sentence elevator pitch.
  2. Expand that into a three paragraph / three act rough outline.
  3. Expand each paragraph into individual chapters with the important events and emotional beats for each chapter.
  4. Draft each chapter individually (See: Writing Tools). Never edit and never look back. If I realize that I need to make a change in the past to fix something going forward, I simply make a note at that point, and then continue writing onward, as though that change had been made retroactively.
  5. As this is not currently a full-time gig, I set myself an absurdly achievable goal for getting a certain number of words written each day. Currently that goal/requirement is set to 144 words (1 Gross). Once I'm in the swing of things, I rarely stop at 144 words. I typically average closer to 300 - 500 words per day. This is a goal that I can meet while in the line at the grocery store on my phone, or between commercials if I'm watching some television in the evening. By ensuring that my goal is always achievable it's easy to build momentum each day and across weeks and months.

Editing

My editing process is based on the method suggested and outlined by Jonathan Mayberry at the Superstars 2024 writing conference.

Editing Rules

  1. When doing one edit pass, mark & move on from changes you notice from other passes.
  2. Complete one full edit pass before beginning the next.
  3. Update Edit Passes after each book to refine your process.

Editing Tracker

In order to keep track of my editing passes. I try to complete one chapter edit pass per day. This means that one chapter gets one editing pass each day. I keep a spreadsheet like the following in order to keep track of where I should be on any given day. In general, I try to stay ahead of the deadlines. Many editing passes take more time than others, so on the easy ones I try to blow through as much as possible.

Edit Pass Descriptions

Cleanup

  1. Clean up the Voice-to-text mess.

Developmental

  1. Merge Characters to reduce complexity, and streamline story.
  2. Character Arc: Does each remaining character evolve?

Structural

  1. Cut Transitional Content: Skip the cab ride. End chapter. Start @ new place.
  2. Ensure Promises list has been checked off.
  3. Ensure ToDo list has been checked off.
  4. ⚡ Pacing - Short Chapters, ideally: 2k.
  5. ⚡ Chapter ending hooks.
  6. Motif & Theme: Do you need to hammer or trim?

Line Editing

  1. Character voice: Vocal traits, etc.
  2. Flagging & Tagging (Butcher-style).
  3. Rebuild Paragraphs: Change general events into concrete examples.
  4. Ensure Author voice comes through consistently, but without overwhelming the story. (Footnotes)

Copyediting

  1. Eliminate Passive voice.
  2. Use strong / precise word choices:
    • Adverbs: Replace weak adverbs: Very, great, just.
    • Adverbs ("LY"s): keep only the really needed ones.
      Bad: Totally, really, slightly, actually. (https://wd.autocrit.com/editor/324296)
  3. Verbs: Use strong / precise word choices:
    • How often using them? Can you use something else instead half the time.
    • Use strong ones: Ran vs scampered, Sat vs crouched, Looked vs spied, Got vs captured.
  4. Elimination Edit: Cut overused words:
    • A bit, a little, a lot, at some point, Am, are, in, was, were, been, being, glance, appeared to, felt, look, realize, watch, shrugged can, decide, see, saw
    • Repetition
    • Figurative vs literal language
    • Purple prose
  5. Tighten word count, cut to the bone:
    • Sat down vs sat.
    • Stood up vs stood.

Proofreading

  1. Read it Out Loud to find final niggles.

Rules

  1. When doing one edit pass, mark & move on changes you notice from other passes.
  2. Complete one full edit pass before beginning the next.
  3. Update Edit Passes after each book.

History

Still have questions? Ask me.