I’m so happy to welcome author Kai Strand back to the blog, this time to celebrate her middle grade fantasy DAY OF RECKONING (Concord Chronicles Book 1). Be sure to enter the giveaway at the end of the post and check out my 5-star Goodreads review.
To Revise or Not To Revise – Is Not Even a Question by Kai Strand
Hi Katie! Thanks for inviting me here today. I thought I’d talk about revision. It’s, quite possibly, my least favorite part of writing a book. So, why would I want to talk about it? It’s also, quite possibly, the most important step to writing a book.
Day of Reckoning was the very first book I wrote. Therefore, the first draft was absolutely abysmal. There were more info dumps in it than in my local landfill. My prose was so purple, I could have handed it a scepter and put a crown on it.
Needless to say, I had a lot of work to do. And it took me years to edit this puppy. And even after I worked on it for years, I still had more collaboration with content editors, like yourself, and a line editor to go through.
In my humble opinion, a book is never really finished, but nor is the first draft ever publishable. All these years later, I write a much cleaner first draft, but I could never publish one! It just doesn’t take me a decade to revise anymore. I love how a story, or a character expands with the help of critique partners. Or how a setting becomes more stable or even more important as I get to know my story better with each revision pass.
I have a lot of advice I could share with new authors, but this point is one I hope to make abundantly clear. Revise the heck out of your story. And then when you’re done, revise some more, but stop when all you are doing is tweaking one word here and one word there.
Do you have a favorite revision technique? I’d love for you to share!
DAY OF RECKONING
by Kai Strand
* Series: Concord Chronicles (Book 1)
* Paperback: 289 pages
* Publisher: Independently published
* Language: English
* ISBN-10: 1690603372
* ISBN-13: 978-1690603375
Not only does twelve-year-old Terra learn she’s a Nature’s Spirit destined to serve the peaceful underground city of Concord, but she also finds she is named in a prophecy as the only one who can thwart the leader of the death tribe.
The Trepidus are the death janitors of the Underworld. They’re responsible for the termination and cleanup of Concord’s beings. When their leader, Blanco, learns Terra is the one who can derail his day of reckoning, he does everything he can to get rid of her. Including, dispatch a “Bringer” to complete the ultimate of death janitor duties.
Not only does Terra want to stay alive, but she hopes to complete her training and discover her Spirit talents too. So, Frank, a Spirit of Security, is assigned to protect her. Together, they undertake a secret investigation of how to defeat Blanco. But with the future of Concord and Terra’s very own life at stake, will they find the answer in time?
DAY OF RECKONING can be purchased at the following sites:
Amazon | Barnes and Noble | iBooks | Kobo
For those who aren’t familiar with the author, here’s a bit of background on her.
Award-winning Kai Strand, author of the action-packed Super Villain Academy series, is often found exploring hiking trails and snapping pictures of waterfalls in her Oregon hometown.latest reads as well as what they would like to see in future stories.
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Today I’m doing an interview over at the new MuseItUp Young and YA blog. In my absence, please welcome fellow Muser Kai Strand, author of the middle grade fantasy Beware of the White (check out my Goodreads review), as she discusses her editorial process.
DO THE HARD WORK
Hi everybody! I’m Kai Strand, author of the newly released middle grade fantasy adventure, Beware of the White. I’m thrilled to be on Katie’s blog. Katie was my content editor for Beware of the White and she helped me SO much!
I have a love/hate relationship with editing. I cannot stand the initial revisions, the first pass review that follows the creative high of the first draft. As painfully boring as those revisions are to me, I understand they are crucial to the process. I have great critique partners and I don’t want to jeopardize our working relationship by sending them work I haven’t done due diligence in. It is disrespectful of their time and expertise to send sloppy work.
Once I get their input, I enjoy the editing process again. I like to see how they suggest improvement to the storyline or character development. I love to see where they melt over a character or shake a fist in frustration. I even find the occasional question mark (the ‘what-exactly-do-you-mean-here’ question mark) challenging. As an author, it isn’t my job to defend my work, it is my job to make the story and characters clear to the reader so that no defense is required.
After that, I usually go into another funk of ‘this is so boring’ as I prepare the manuscript for submission. Once I get an editor assigned from the publisher I fall back in love again. I love when an editor really challenges me to improve the book. I love wanting to tear my hair out because it feels like so much work after having put in so much work already. Because I know that will make it a stronger story that will resonate with the reader.
So here comes my last hateful relationship with the editing process. The hard work. Ah, you thought I already mentioned the hard work above, huh? There is one more crucial step. When a content editor reads your work, she examines the story for logic, gaps, motivation. She notes if the pace falls off, mentions an awkward dialogue exchange, points out where your heroine suddenly jumps out of character. You fix the things she mentions and the two of you exchange the manuscript a few times to tweak and refine your words. The line editor points out all of your misuse of commas, grammatical errors, and tweaks to the formatting.
But wait…who is making sure that after all these changes, the words still flow? OH! The author. Before those final edits are turned in, do the hard work and read your story aloud. When you are micro-editing it is so easy to edit in duplicate words or phrases, awkward transitions or a different writing voice. The only way to make absolutely certain the edits are a success is to start at the beginning and read all the way to the end. And do it OUT LOUD! Don’t cry. I know it’s a lot of work, but your story will be stronger for it. I promise.
About Beware of the White:
As is tradition, Terra learns on the Saturday past her twelfth birthday that she is a Natures Spirit. It is her legacy to serve in the peaceful underground city of Concord. Learning she is named in a prophecy and being threatened by the leader of the death tribe…that part breaks tradition.
The Trepidus are the death janitors of the Underworld, responsible for delivering fatalities with a smile and cleaning up after themselves until Blanco, recent leader of the Trepidus, decides the day of reckoning for his species is coming. He begins organizing the creatures and leads them toward an uprising. The prophecy says there is one person who can stop him. Terra.
With Spirit of Security, Frank, protecting her, Terra attempts to complete her training and discover her Spirit talents. Together, they go on a rogue investigation to learn how to defeat Blanco. In the end, it comes down to a battle of the minds. The future of Concord is at stake. Will Blanco, the older, more experienced being win? Or will Terra, the young, new Spirit earn back the peace of the city?
Buy It:
To celebrate the launch of BEWARE OF THE WHITE, Kai Strand has awesome book related prize packages. Be sure to enter to win. And return again and again to claim entries as you qualify. Kai will also have Spontaneous Giveaways during her book tour. Those giveaways won’t be announced so be sure to follow Kai’s tour. Only virtual stalkers will have the opportunity at all the fun!
About the author:
Kai Strand writes fiction for kids and teens. Her debut novel, The Weaver, was a finalist in the 2012 EPIC eBook Awards. She is a (very lucky) wife and the mother of four amazing kids. The most common sound in her household is laughter. The second most common is, “Do your dishes!” She and her family hike, geocache, and canoe in beautiful Central Oregon, where they call home.
To find out more about Kai’s books, download companion documents, find links to her published short stories and discover all the places to find Kai both virtually and in person, visit her website: www.kaistrand.com. She loves to hear from readers, so feel free to send her an email or visit her facebook page, Kai Strand, Author.
