Sam Isnt At School The Next Day. You Figure Hes Probably With The Family, Celebrating Jrs Return. You

Sam isn’t at school the next day. You figure he’s probably with the family, celebrating Jr’s return. You resist the urge to snort. You’re not even sure they would celebrate that. They aren’t exactly the nicest people…. But, you’re sure, at least Sam would want to celebrate it… You sigh. You’re really glad they get to reunite with each other and be happy and all that good stuff. But you’re also really bored… You didn’t realise how close you and Sam had gotten nor how much he entertained you, until he didn’t show up today. You sigh again and rest your chin in your hand. You will be happy for them and let them have their family time, but you’ll also be relieved when they’re back to entertain you….

The next few months pass in a blur. You and Jr’s brother go to the wall often, so he can see Jr. Unfortunately, you don’t HAVE any powers, so you can’t go over the wall. You wait outside instead, and he tells you how he’s doing and delivers messages back and forth. School seems almost pointless, but you do it anyway, not paying attention to anything you’re doing. You don’t even know if you’re passing any of your classes. You don’t really pay attention to much of anything, except visiting and frequently questioning Jr’s brother on how things are going with his dad. Sometimes you think you’re annoying him with so many questions, but you can’t exactly do anything else, so you’re left to worry and ask questions… You’re about to go insane with not being able to do anything when you see a car driving slowly down the road. Cars are fairly rare, considering how expensive they are. Most people walk everywhere. Everyone moves out of the way and your heart stops when you glance through the window. Jr… He’s slumped in the passenger seat, head hanging, dirty hair laying limp, covering his face. He’s still in the same clothes he went in, but they’re ripped and filthy. He’s skinny, not healthy looking. You run after the car, following it all the way to his house. You feel tears of relief burning your eyes. He’s ok… Well… Not really, but he WILL be ok… You run up to it when it stops, not even flinching when his dad steps out of the car. You stop at the passenger door, but his dad pushes past you, “Who do you think you are?” You flush, “Oh… Sorry… I’m… A friend of his… I’ve been really worried about him…” His dad snarls, “Well he doesn’t feel well right now. Come back later.” You glare, “I want to make sure he’s ok.” “He’s fine.” “I don’t know that-” “Dad…” Jr’s voice cuts across the argument and you realise he’s opened the door. You and his dad look at him at the same time. He says, “She’s fine. She’s a friend…”, stepping out. He’s a lot stronger than he looks. He’s thin and dirty and his eyes are bloodshot, but he doesn’t seem to have any problem standing. He smiles at you, “I didn’t expect you to be so worried about a monster…”

You have to go to school with Jr's brother the very next day. It's too soon. You're not ready yet... He’s worried. Of course he is… “Do you know where Jr is?” You want to tell him, you do, but you can’t speak. You just stare at him, mouth glued shut. His eyes widen, face filling with dread, “What happened? Where is he? Is he hurt? Talk to me!” You’ve never seen him raise his voice like this. He’s always been quiet, reserved, and shy. Tears stream down your cheeks, unwanted. His face drains of color, “What happened?” You finally find your voice, and whisper, “Did you- Did you know… Jr’s a werewolf? Of course you did… You’re his brother…” He lets out an audible gasp, then grabs you, “Where is he?! Please don’t tell me he got-” He can’t finish the sentence. You lower your head. It’s your fault he got caught. If you had just refused to go. If you hadn’t felt the need to confront him in the first place… His brother turns, grabbing his hair, “FUCK!” You cover your face, shame filling you. You should have done more. You were so afraid. You just sat, frozen. You didn’t even fight for him… ‘What would be the point?’, a voice whispers in your ear, ‘you’re weak. You have no power. You would have lost, been thrown in jail, and Jr would still be taken. Then you wouldn’t be able to come and warn his brother…’ You look at his brother, pacing, pulling on his own hair, tears welled in his eyes. ‘Why am I warning him? If he’s a werewolf too, then he’s a monster… His disease almost wiped out… Well… The world… They need to be contained…’ But watching him pace, looking so distressed, seeing how worried he is, thinking of everything you’ve done with them, the conversations, hanging out, you can’t believe that. Jr may have been a jerk, and maybe, POSSIBLY had it in him to be a monster. But his brother? He can’t even look a stranger in the eye. You saw him step on a caterpillar and get so sad at school. He's the softest, most innocent person you’ve ever met. He doesn’t have it in him to be a monster… ‘They can’t control themselves. When they turn, they don’t remember that…’ But Jr had seemed SO HUMAN… And some animals are gentle…. You look at the ground, unable to say any words of comfort. There are none. Jr is gone, and it’s your fault. You wipe away your tears furiously and walk to school. You’ll think of something to get him out…

You stare, speechless. He’s a CHANGELING? So many secrets everywhere. It makes you question everyone you see, everyone you know. He always seemed so… Normal… Anger suddenly ignites in you. ‘Does EVERYONE have powers except me?!' You feel so small and helpless. Why the Hell do THEY get powers? Why do YOU get stuck with this stupid, weak body. You don’t get ANY powers, you get sick, just like any other human, you even had ASTHMA as a child! You can’t even REGENERATE! You have to where a stupid CHARM to keep magical illnesses away because you're SO UNMAGICAL THAT YOUR BODY CAN’T HANDLE THEM! You really want to punch the wall. But because you AREN’T STRONG LIKE EVERY OTHER PERSON IN THE WORLD it would break your hand. And since you CAN’T HEAL QUICKLY LIKE EVERY OTHER PERSON IN THE WORLD it would last for forever. That just frustrates you more and you stomp around for a while, just letting yourself be angry. Why is life so unfair? Why do YOU have to be weak? Why do YOU have to be human? Why can’t YOU turn into a fucking BIRD and just FLY over the stupid wall? Jr’s brother suddenly lands in front of you, “Let’s go.” You blink, “What? Where’s Jr? Why are you back so soon? I thought we were getting him? What’s going on?”

I just finished my first novel! The feeling is indescribable. Do you have any advice on editing, big or small?

Dear fate-and-chance,

Congratulations on joining THE ENDTIMES CLUB. 

Editing is basically the place the novels become novels — it’s impossible to overstate how the rough draft is only 10% of the process. Here is a pie chart demonstrating the overall gist. It’s messed up because I aggressively and deliberately misunderstand math at all times and also because I traced a ramekin full of discarded date pits on my desk for the outside, but you get the idea.

What I’m trying to say is: be prepared to spend the same amount of time editing as writing. 

GET CRITIQUE PARTNERS

This is the first step to editing. You need outside eyes. You don’t know if you have written the story you intended to tell until readers tell you that you’ve succeeded. A story is not complete until it has an audience. 

You can find some here. 

BIG PICTURE EDITS

It’s important to do your edits in the right order: there’s no point focusing on word choice when you don’t know if you’re going to keep a scene or not. What you’re looking for in big picture edits are

• pacing (is it taking you forever to get to your inciting incident? Are you leaping into breathless action so fast that the reader doesn’t have time to get emotionally invested? Is the general shape correct — do your stakes both emotional and physical slowly ratchet up til the climax?)

• clarity (do we know what the point of the book is? Do we understand who the main character is? Do we understand the stakes of the magic or the mystery or love story, etc?)

• momentum (are your scenes stacked in the correct order, or do you move backwards in stakes or have two scenes that essentially do the same thing?)

• consistency of character (are your characters consistent and inevitable? can we predict their behavior enough to be shocked if they do something out of character for once?)

• correctness of cast (do you have two characters who do the same thing in the plot? do you need to delete or add POVs or characters to your cast?)

• simplicity of execution (does the reader understand where they are in the plot? can they guess they are halfway through when they are halfway through, etc.?)

Title a document “outtakes.doc” and throw stuff that’s not working into it. You can always come back to them if you need them, but it’s often easier to see what you’re doing with the chaff removed.

LINE EDITS

Line edits are when you stop having to move big chunks around and can start fixing things within your newly edited shape. That is when you can start looking at adjusting pacing, tone, and momentum on a line level. Example:

Original sentence: The box rolled out of the truck and hit the ground.

Speed things up: Wham. The box, dropped. Tssss. Glass, exploded.

Slow things down: She snatched at air, and felt the whisper of the box sliding against her fingertips. The sound of the bottles exploding on the pavement echoed down the alley.

Ground us: Everything changed the moment that box hit the asphalt.

Tell us about a character: Ten years before, she’d been watching a box fall from through her mother’s hands in just this way. MORE ANECDOTE HERE 

COPYEDITS

This is the part where you actually fix typos and continuity errors, and it’s the least important part of editing. This is where you can enlist a non-bookish friend to feel useful, because the less invested you are in the book, the easier they are to spot. 

IN CONCLUSION

You could write entire books about revision — someone probably has — but this might be a start.

Happy wording.

urs,

Stiefvater

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! What are ya'll's special plans? Mine are work and schooling XD Hopefully I can get some writing done today too! Maybe I'll post something later ;)