Writing Tips – Emilie Morscheck

Undertaking a Structural Edit: Part 4 – Manuscript Assessments

In 2020, I was awarded the Anne Edgeworth Fellowship to develop my manuscript, The Selkie Curse. The fellowship is generously funding a manuscript assessment and a mentorship. Along with the funds and my project work, those who win the fellowship are expected to undertake some community outreach. This post is the fourth in a series that I will write over the next few months about the process of structural editing. I hope to share my progress as well as any insights I uncover into the challenging task of editing my own novel.

About The Selkie Curse: Elsa and her mother, Queen Tiari, are at war with the Fisherman Kingdom. The young king of the Fishermen blames Queen Tiari for his father’s death, and he is set to destroy Tiari’s queendom. It is up to Elsa, and her best friend Aada to end the war and save their home.

Since my last post, I have done little work on my manuscript—but for good reason! I had to send off the novel to my editor for a manuscript assessment. I spent several weeks doing hefty re-writes to restructure scenes, fix up the prose, and ensure the manuscript was ready for fresh eyes. Even after all that work, I knew it wasn’t perfect, but the plot was as far as it was going to get on my own. With an enormous sigh of relief, (and an impending sense of dread) I hit send on the email to my editor. For the first time since starting this project, someone was going to read the full manuscript.

After that, I took a break. There wasn’t anything I could do while my manuscript was being reviewed. I wasn’t completely idle, however; I finished an outline for an upcoming project and started the draft of my next novel. Working on different projects really helped me to get my head out of the world of The Selkie Curse. When it came time to return to the manuscript, I’d hopefully have a sense of detachment.

While it is impossible to fully separate yourself from your work, when I got the manuscript assessment back several weeks later, I’d already begun to forget what was in the manuscript! I viewed the feedback as objectively as I could. My manuscript assessment was fourteen pages of pure gold. My editor broke down the major elements of the story and suggested how they could be built back up bigger and better than before. My lovely editor understood the story I was trying to tell and how to strengthen my own voice. It was exciting and daunting to read the assessment because I could see how much more work there was to do.

I sat on the feedback for about two weeks, thinking over the issues and brainstorming the way forward. When I had some solutions, I worked them through with my editor, ensuring that they would weave into the story and not veer it off a cliff. After all that, it was time to get back to writing! I estimate I’ll have to add 10k words and cut about 5k.

With my June 30 deadline looming, I better get back to work!

My key insights from the last few weeks:

A set of eyes other than your own can find issues you won’t be able to see on your own (this doesn’t mean you need to hire an editor, find a writing pal to swap manuscripts with)
Those issues are opportunities to improve your manuscript—not problems to complain away
Give yourself time to think and find connections organically—structural editing can’t be done in a single session

Here is Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

Musings

Undertaking a Structural Edit: Part 3 – Scenes

In 2020, I was awarded the Anne Edgeworth Fellowship to develop my manuscript, The Selkie Curse. The fellowship is generously funding a manuscript assessment and a mentorship. Along with the funds and my project work, those who win the fellowship are expected to undertake some community outreach. This post is the third in a series that I will be writing over the next few months about the process of structural editing. I hope to share my progress as well as any insights I uncover into the challenging task of editing my own novel.

About The Selkie Curse: Elsa and her mother, Queen Tiari, are at war with the Fisherman Kingdom. The young king of the Fishermen blames Queen Tiari for his father’s death, and he is set to destroy Tiari’s queendom. It is up to Elsa, and her best friend Aada, to find a way to end the war and save their home.

In the two months since my last post, I focused on the scenes of my novel and getting the manuscript ready for my editor to assess. My first task was to finish moving, deleting and adding scenes as I said I would in my last post. This took quite a bit longer than I expected, but in the end, I managed to add an extra ten thousand words to the manuscript to boost it to my desired word count of 90,000 words. I also cut quite a few words to sharpen up the prose and make sure the text was consistent with my new outline.

Ensuring that changes in one scene, or crucial plot point, are carried through the entire manuscript was an immense challenge. The zoomed-out view of the manuscript won’t highlight where there are references to events that no longer happen or characters that don’t exist. After completing my first pass of the manuscript, I had to do multiple additional rounds to check that I wasn’t going to leave my reader very confused with a redundant reference. In these next passes, I also noticed silly mistakes such as a character’s eye colour changing or a convenient note to myself to find some information later ([solution goes here]).

After this work, I was ready to look at the scenes themselves. The process of reviewing a scene was similar to how I approached the manuscript as a whole. I broke it down into mini-acts. I checked the pacing and setting. I ensured that all the scenes had a clear purpose, whether to drive the main narrative forward, or to reveal something about a character. A scene that was just world-building needed to be merged into another with action.

Finally, I had to prepare the manuscript for my editor. A manuscript assessment is a high-level report on the key elements of a novel such as plot, conflict and character, so the prose doesn’t have to be perfect. But I wanted to save my editor some headaches. I did a quick last pass of the manuscript to fix grammar, spelling and any obvious mistakes. Even though I put lots of effort into this structural edit, there were a few issues I was aware of that still existed (for example, the prose not being as polished as I would have liked). So, I also prepared a letter to my editor for them to look at after their first read.

With everything as ready as it was going to be, I emailed my editor the manuscript and the letter. I should receive my report at the end of April, at which point I will have another round of edits to go. Unless my editor thinks it is perfect as is! In the meantime, while I await my manuscript’s return, I will turn my attention to some other writing projects.

My key insights from the last few weeks:

Keeping a record of your changes makes it easier to check for consistency. Only look for a handful of things each read through so you don’t miss something.
Interrogate your scenes. Do they work internally and externally?
No matter how many passes of revision you do, it won’t feel like enough. Have a deadline (such as someone waiting on your words) so you know when to stop and take a break.

Here is Part 1 & Part 2.

Musings

Undertaking a Structural Edit: Part 2 – The Bigger…

In 2020, I was awarded the Anne Edgeworth Fellowship to develop my manuscript, The Selkie Curse. The fellowship is generously funding a manuscript assessment and a mentorship. Along with the funds and my project work, those who win the fellowship are expected to undertake some community outreach. This post is the second in a series that I will be writing over the next few months about the process of structural editing. I hope to share my progress as well as any insights I uncover into the challenging task of editing my own novel.

About The Selkie Curse: Elsa and her mother, Queen Tiari, are at war with the Fisherman Kingdom. The young king of the Fishermen blames Queen Tiari for his father’s death, and he is set to destroy Tiari’s queendom. It is up to Elsa, and her best friend Aada, to find a way to end the war and save their home.

In the last month, I’ve been tackling the bigger picture of my novel. After my first mentoring session, I had a better grasp of the gaps in my worldbuilding and story. There are plenty of areas that needed a bit of thinking to tease out and develop. I spent several days making new maps, writing world histories and even wrote a sea shanty! (Much to my disappointment I was about two weeks early to The Wellerman craze.)

With a better understanding of my world and story, I returned to my spreadsheet. Each scene in my manuscript was recorded with its POV, setting, purpose, and word count. Then, in the spreadsheet, I began to add, cut and move scenes around. Using a scene outline was like zooming out on the manuscript and enabled me to see where there were pieces of the picture missing, or if areas were blurry, or if they were out of place. I examined the scenes based on which story Act they belonged to, to try and balance plot, setting, tension and pacing. The result was a new order for the scenes and a few new scenes to write.

The next step was to apply my notes and edit the manuscript to make it match the new scene order. I tried to be very deliberate with these edits, making sure that they reflected the new plot elements. I did not fix spelling, grammar or punctuation (unless it was truly horrendous). My goal is to have finished these edits by mid-February.

I also got to meet with Leife again to discuss the next steps and get feedback on my synopsis and first five pages. I had a few more light-bulb moments this time around. Synopses are such a bugger to write and I think I’ve worked out why it’s so difficult for me. A synopsis has to be like poetry where every word counts. I suck at poetry. Moving forward I’ll need to work out a few tricks to make this process easier for me.

A second realisation was that sometimes I need to push my ideas further. Leife gave me some excellent feedback on my opening scene. I know in my head how I want my main character to experience the event that starts her character arc, but I wasn’t doing everything I could to make that moment more emotional. In the coming drafts, I will need to raise the stakes of the scene. I also had some homework to research tall ships, to make sure the sailing scenes have the correct texture to them.

This next month is all about scenes! I’m going to be doing so hefty re-writes to restructure scenes, fix up the prose, and bring the manuscript one step closer to my vision.

My key insights from the last few weeks:

Editing will always take longer than you think and it isn’t just about changing words on the page.
Push the limits of the story and raise the stakes. Is your character having a bad day? Make it worse!
A scene outline can let you “zoom-out” on your manuscript and view it like it is a picture.

Here is Part 1.

Musings

Undertaking a Structural Edit: Part 1 – Planning

In 2020, I was awarded the Anne Edgeworth Fellowship to develop my manuscript, The Selkie Curse. The fellowship is generously funding a manuscript assessment and a mentorship. Along with the funds and my project work, those who win the fellowship are expected to undertake some community outreach. This post is the first in a series that I will be writing over the next few months about the process of structural editing. I hope to share my progress as well as any insights I uncover into the challenging task of editing my own novel.

About The Selkie Curse: Elsa and her mother, Queen Tiari, are at war with the Fisherman Kingdom. The young king of the Fishermen blames Queen Tiari for his father’s death, and he is set to destroy Tiari’s queendom. It is up to Elsa, and her best friend Aada, to find a way to end the war and save their home.

My first step in performing a structural edit was to plan it all out. I spent several days collecting every resource I had from workshops, theory books and editors, to compile a master list of tasks to be done. It was huge and needed a lot more structure in order to execute. So, I did what any sane person would, and made a spreadsheet. A spreadsheet with multiple tabs and tables.

I then broke down all of my information into stages of how I would tackle each component of the structural edit. The plan was to start at the highest level of my novel and work my down to the line-level detail. With everything in order, and the spreadsheet looking pretty, I was ready to start my re-read.

I left my manuscript for two months before starting the re-read. In the meantime I began working on another project to help distance myself from the plot, characters and world. This gave me a fresh perspective on the first draft. What did I find in that first re-read? Lots of mistakes. Spelling, grammar, what have you. But there was no time to fix those. I highlighted everything that stood out as important or terrible prose and moved on. The re-read also gave me a good sense of what did and didn’t work with the manuscript. Flat character arcs, timelines that didn’t add up and shallow worldbuilding.

Using my magic spreadsheet, I set about describing the book as how it was versus what I want to be at the highest level. Did the opening ask a question? Was that question answered at the end of the book? Were my acts balanced? Who is my target audience? What is my main genre? With all of these answered I felt ready (if nervous) to proceed. There was a lot to do!

I was fortunate to meet with my mentor, the lovely and wisdom-filled Leife Shallcross. She shared a fascinating insight into her trials in structural editing and helped me to unpick some of my nastier problems. She also issued me a challenge – to assign my book AO3 tags (more about tags here). I’ve given it a go here:

#LGBTQ Themes
#Slow Burn
#Angst
#Feelings
#mythical beings
#enemies to lovers
#blood
#family secrets
#ballroom dancing
#environmentalism

My next post will be about how I went about fixing the big issues across my manuscript. In the meantime, I will be working hard on the edits!

My key insights from the last few weeks:

Give yourself a break from the manuscript, you’ll be surprised at how much needs work, but also how much solid gold you have that will just need polishing.
Keep breaking down the tasks until they seem easy or at least manageable. Can it be done in under and hour? Will you clearly know when that task is done?
Start at the highest level of your manuscript. What is your dramatic question? Is it in the opening paragraph/scene/chapter? Do you answer it by the end of the manuscript?

Writing Tips

YA Analysis: Aurora Burning (SPOILERS)

This post is a part of a series for my blog where I break down YA novels. It’s not a review, but rather an analysis of what I liked and disliked within a YA context. This post’s analysis is about Aurora Burning by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff.

Warning! Spoilers ahead for Aurora Rising/Aurora Burning!

What I liked:

Multiple perspectives
- Why it worked: Each POV character has a unique voice and way of viewing the world. In this instalment of the series, character backstories are expanded to bring more life to them. By focusing in on certain characters in each book, each POV is afforded a chance to be shown in depth. A takeaway here is don’t cram everything about every character into the first series of a book. We need enough to understand them in the first book, but use subsequent instalments to give each character the space they deserve.
Fast-paced plot
- Why it worked: Keeps you moving through the story and connected to the character’s emotions. The plot also does give scenes space to breathe when needed. Scenes flow seamlessly into each other to build tension.
Worldbuilding
- Why it worked: Book two does a great job of expanding on book one without being overwhelming. Another good example of slowly adding detail through a series to create rich worldbuilding. It doesn’t (and shouldn’t) all happen in book one.

What I disliked:

Cliff-hanger ending
- Why it didn’t work: For me, this made the book struggle to work as a standalone. A cliff-hanger ending might be used to keep readers interested in the next book, however, in the case of this series, the character development is enough to keep the reader interested. Coming into book three will mean there are lots of unresolved emotions and back-tracking required to remind the reader of where the plot is at. A cliff-hanger can also work if there is resolution provided to at least some parts of the plot, but none were offered here.
The romantic conflict
- Why it didn’t work: It’s a trope in romance to have the couple fall out over some lie/perceived betrayal. In Aurora Burning, the main couple effectively spends six months together before a huge secret is revealed. This revelation, of course, causes the partner to turn against her lover. In the case of this narrative, after everything the couple has been through in book one and two, it doesn’t make sense that this act would cause a separation – perhaps a small break given the seriousness of the lie. But the characters know each other, they haven’t lied about their fundamental selves. In the end, it felt very contrived to act as a plot device to get character B into a new location for the finale.

Writing Tips

Creating Compelling Character Arcs

I’ve been planning a new trilogy (Bleed For Me), and for the first time, I’ve really delved deep into character creation. A new area of interest for me is in planning character arcs.

There are a few kinds of arcs that a character can go through: transformation, growth, fall and static. In all of these arcs except for the static arc, the character will change in some way. The transformation and growth arcs are very similar, but the transformation arc requires the characters core beliefs to change. With a growth arc, the character can become stronger, more powerful or more skilled, but their beliefs don’t necessarily have to be challenged. The fall arc involves the character losing their way and is often associated with the antagonist.

To help me work out a balanced character arc. I’ve developed a method which involves choosing the kind of arc, and determining the narrative purpose for the character. After that, I work out what I want my character to look like at the end of the book (or series), and work backwards to the beginning of the book. Working backwards helps trick your brain into making sure each step is logical and will help reach the end goal.

It looks a bit like this (downloads at the end):

This worksheet assumes that the character will go through a transformation arc.

Filled out, it looks something like this:

Claudine is one of the main characters in my new series. I decided that I want to give her a transformation arc over the course of three books. The image above includes her arc from the first book in the trilogy.

My first step was to determine her narrative purpose – why I felt compelled to write her, and what I hoped to use her to illustrate. This could be expressed as a statement or question. In Bleed For Me, the question I want to use Claudine to answer is:

How do you become strong enough to face your past?

I used this question to inform the larger themes of the book as well as suggest the journey Claudine will go through. It also helps suggest the end state for Claudine. As you can see in the image, Claudine needs to learn to trust others so that she can become strong enough to face her past. I set the initial state as the opposite of the end state: Claudine is someone who believes she can only trust herself.

The next steps are easy to fill out. What transformation does she have to go through in order to learn to trust others? Well, Claudine will need to see that her old belief is harmful and change her ways. Keep asking these questions until you fill out all of the boxes. Each step should be logical.

In order to allow the change to occur, the character has to make a choice. This can be physical, mental or spiritual, but it should reflect the transition between each of the states. More complex arcs will have more points in between and possibly combinations of arc types.

From here, I will need to integrate these points into my outline. It will help me determine which chapters might be good to show from Claudine’s perspective. It can help me come up with scenes. It will also help me determine how I can continue to develop Claudine in books 2 and 3.

It can be fun to develop these for your other primary characters. How does the antagonist reflect the protagonist? Do other characters play a part in the main character’s arc?

How do you create compelling character arcs? What’s your favourite kind of arc? What tools do you find useful for plotting?

Download the worksheet here:

Creating-Compelling-Character-Arcs_EMorscheck Download

Writing Tips

YA Analysis: Seafire

What I liked:

Female-led cast
- Why it worked: There are women of all kinds of ability in the main cast showing a diverse range of ‘strong’ female characters. Strength is represented in many ways and provides some great examples for building female characters. Seafire also provides stellar examples on female-female friendships and the power of sisterhood.
Fast-paced plot
- Why it worked: Pulled me through the story. There was a strong sense of momentum without being overpowering or overwhelming. Chapters are short and sharp with their own conflicts. A few slower chapters balance the pacing and provide reflective moments.
Setting details
- Why it worked: In a story mostly set at sea, Seafire does a great job at adding texture to the ocean environment. The descriptions rarely feel repetitive and each part of the sea has its own flavour.

What I disliked:

Worldbuilding
- Why it didn’t work: The world feels hollow. Every piece of information was to further the plot or enhance a conflict. While this is normally good, there was foreshadowing. This leaves the reader knowing that the next location is there to further the plot, rather than being a part of a fleshed-out world. Locations exist in silos. Could have used a little more detail.
Character Histories
- Why it didn’t work: For the same reason as the world-building, the character histories and motivations felt hollow. It was hard to get a sense that any of the characters existed before the plot of the book begins. Motivations are one-note and tied into defeating the villain. I think the book starts too late and could have given a bit more space to understanding the journey the character has been through.
Action scenes
- Why it didn’t work: The action scenes, while fun, lacked a certain punch. Reactions often aren’t realistic and serious injuries are shrugged off. The stakes never really feel that high as the characters move on quickly from the pain. There are minor character deaths, but these feel underused, and mainly service the main plot, rather than developing an emotional response.

Musings

Finding the Motivation to Write

Last month I finished editing the novel that I’d been working on for the last three years. This month it was time to start a new project. In starting this new project, I was looking for a new approach to writing motivation. My main goals being:

Write more often
Get the story out quickly
Be happier with my writing

After doing NaNoWriMo many times, I know I can write quickly, but the speed I’m looking for in this new project also requires a baseline level of quality. What does that mean? I want to write quickly, but not too quickly. I want the first draft of this novel to be done by the end of October.

In order to achieve this, I’ve designed three strategies to help motivate myself. These are:

Rewards
Lowering the hurdle
Accountability

These next few months will be an experiment to see what I best respond to, and what makes me the happiest.

1. Chocolate

What do I like more than writing? Chocolate for sure! As can be seen in my tweet below, I’ve bought many mini blocks and have allocated half a block to completing a chapter. I decorated the blocks with some stickers for some extra encouragement. I’ve already found that having half a block waiting for me is very tempting, and motivation enough to get that next chapter done!

What do I like more than writing? Chocolate! Last time I used word counts as reward points. This time I've got chocolate for each chapter I finish. #amwriting pic.twitter.com/mTxm89AUle
— Emilie Morscheck (@EmilieMorscheck) May 30, 2020

2. Word Counts

In the past, completing a chapter meant achieving a set word target, usually 3,000 words. After years of being trained into doing this for university assignments, I’ve found that applying the same rules to my fiction doesn’t work. It stresses me out and I feel like I have to add unnecessary content to my chapters. My new completion level is 1,500 words per chapter and meeting the main plot goal for that chapter. Eventually, I hope to have all my chapters be 2,000 to 3,000 words long, but, that can come in later drafts. Right now, I want to focus on getting the story out.

3. Accountability

My last strategy is a tactic I know works because I’ve used it many times before. During this project, I will be keeping track of my progress using an indicator on this page of my website: https://emiliemorscheck.com.au/about/what-am-i-writing Everyone will be able to follow along and see how I’m going.

I’m hoping these three new strategies will help me reach my target of a first draft completed by the end of October.

How do you motivate yourself and keep yourself accountable? I’m always looking for new ideas!

Writing Tips

YA Analysis: Six of Crows

This post is the first in a series for my blog where I break down YA novels. It’s not a review, but rather an analysis of what I liked and disliked within a YA context. This post’s analysis is about Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo.

What I liked:

Multiple perspectives
- Why it worked: The multiple perspectives were all unique and gave multiple viewpoints into a complex world. Each character had a strong motivation for why they were a part of the story.
Fast-paced plot
- Why it worked: For a surprisingly large book (130,000+ words?) the plot did not slow down. There was lots of action the whole way through with enough moments of reflection to not exhaust the reader. A great example of pacing for YA.
Worldbuilding
- Why it worked: The Grishaverse is a diverse world with lots to explore. There are cultures, races and class systems that are unique. The strength of this book is that there are no info dumps to explain these aspects of the world. The important aspects are shown or briefly explained. The characters feel like they’re moving through a real world.

What I disliked:

The first two chapters
- Why it didn’t work: There is a lot of information thrown in here (not an info dump) with lots of characters, some who are inconsequential to the rest of the plot. Perhaps the second chapter would be an exciting scene in a film or show but I was left confused and overwhelmed.
The withholding of character backstory
- Kaz, the leader of the heist team, doesn’t have his key character backstory revealed until over halfway through the book. I would have like to have seen it sooner to build empathy for his character and explain his motivations upfront.

Writing Tips

Writer’s Block

Here’s another retro post from 2012 on Wattpad.com on good ol’ writer’s block…

***

Writers block.

I bet you look at those words and tremble with fear because as a writer it is one of the worst things that can happen.

Lately, I have just about every type of creative block you can think of, and it is killing me. I hate not being able to spew out a story at will. It hurts when it is what I love the most.

To help myself I tried to write some story starters. Feel free to use them if you wish but please credit me.

Raquel blinked, not once, but twice. Her eyes were frozen on the lifeless body before her.

“Tell me more,” the voice whispered in her ear. Her whole body flinched with fear.

The frog made a large splash in the pond, arousing Ali from her day dream.

The figure loomed in the shadows, ready to pounce.

The wide eyes of the girl took in the sky. She watched the billowy clouds break apart and clump together to form fantastical shapes.

The dragon roared, a burst of flame firing out between his long pointy teeth.

‘One, two, three!’ she leapt towards the edge dragging Daniel with her. He screamed in terror and she just cackled loudly.

The sky was burning a violent shade of red and the world appeared to be engulfed in flames.

If you do use these please change the character names if you wish and let me know. It would be nice knowing that these story starters have helped people!