What I loved about this lesson, was listening to James Patterson talk about how he edits and why- and the reasoning behind it.

James Patterson starts this lesson with talking about editing.~“For me and for a lot of writers. And I think for most of you. Editing, polishing and I’m talking about what you’re doing yourself,- not when your book gets to a publishing house. It’s the whole ball of wax. Its not writing, it’s rewriting and it’s rewriting, and it’s rewriting.  I like to do many drafts. I’ve done as many as nine or ten drafts. But, I do the drafts very quickly. I don’t get constipated! I don’t get worried! I just keep going. Let’s do it again! Let’s do it again! Let’s do it again!”

What I got from this lesson was ‘that your story needs to move forward’, editing your words will help cut the fat and making the story clear and on point. Read your words forwards and backward. Read as enjoyment  does something trip you up?

Before you start to edit, walk away from your writing. Take a short break.  Eat something. Clean  something. When you come back you will see your work fresh.

What I know about editing;

• You need to look for style formatting errors  such as  spacing
• Dates
• Capitalization,
• and make sure your characters have the correct names.
• Check your POV.
• The spelling of words such as they’re, there, or their.
• Conjugations such as ‘should of’, ‘would of,’ instead of ‘could have’, ‘should have’.

When editing, you need to be careful that your story isn’t taken off track. If you’re in the middle of a romantic scene, you don’t want your character to start watching a cat video on YouTube. Unless you’re proving a point against your characters getting together.

Read your writing out loud, straight through before starting to edit. Are you conveying anger, comedy, or sadness correctly? If not rewrite.

“Consider not polishing the book until you’ve written at least one draft.” ~ said James Patterson

When it comes to your dialogue, edit it until it moves the story forward and it conveys what you need to, in the least amount of words. All types of writing will benefit from editing.

Just remember -don’t start editing until you  have  a complete first draft.  Editing  sentences as you write them  will prevent your story, essay, poems, articles from  evolving into a reality.

Procrastination will stop you in the form of early editing.  This is important to reemphasize. Don’t edit until that first draft is fully written. 

Here are a couple of links to Proofreading and or editing  Information.

writing center.unc.edu

Learning English with Michelle.

Friday with James Patterson’s MasterClass

James Patterson starts this lesson saying:

“Mike Connelly said, What Jim does, is, every single chapter moves the characterization and the action forward. -Every chapter. And turns on the movie projector in our heads.”

Then James continued.

“That movie projector in our heads means, that I can see the scene. I can hear the scene. I can smell the scene. I taste the scene. Something about it, I was getting enough information that sets me in that scene. So I can be there ‘with’ that character. And that’s really, really useful.”

He tells us to hear, smell, and see the scene- be there with the character. My take on this is –get in close– and personal. Chapters can be one scene or a few scenes. It all depends on what you have in mind for your story, your novel.

Choose a View Point

James Patterson likes to write in 1st person and 3rd person limited

Then he tells us, ‘It is your creation you can do whatever you want to do if it works.’ There are no rules that’s says you can’t use 1^st and 3^rd in the same story.

He likes to follow the villains and some secondary characters – you can switch off and write from a different character’s point of view. Who makes it more interesting? Which point of view feels right? The victim? The Detective, or the Killer? What is the best point of view you need to make the chapter come alive?

Other points of view emotionally how do you want your reader to feel? What is going to make it sad, happy, scary or sexy – then write in that point of view or rewrite it?

In ‘1st To Die’ all the main character are introduced in that first chapter. 1st to Die (Women’s Murder Club #1) by James Patterson

Starts with a murder of a couple, in a hotel, while on their honeymoon. We are introduced to Lindsay Boxer who is a police officer. The medical examiner, Claire Washburn. We meet Jill Bernhardt an assistant D.A. We see their connection. In this first chapter, we met three key characters. Then we meet a young reporter, Cindy Thomas, the fourth member, and she doesn’t belong there. She lies her way in. By the end of the book they are a unit – James Patterson says, “good shit”

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7EguQQbSmA[/embedyt]

This lesson has a PDF, a comments section, and an assignment.

You may be wondering why I would be blogging about this class.You may be asking. Copyright issues, aren’t they a problem? Well, they could be except in the first class I was told to:

TAKE IT FURTHER
Get your friends to support your new project. Post your intentions on social media and update your status regularly over the course of the class. Identify a few interested friends who would be willing to provide feedback. We’d love to see your progress too! Share your status with us on Twitter and Facebook @MasterClass.

In this class, Mr. Patterson, has us follow along with his book Honeymoon. This way you can see how the book was imagined.

“Keep the passion alive.”

What do I expect from this class?
Well, what I want is a book contract. And to have the talent to put together a story while lying on a beach getting burned to a crisp while having someone’s worrying over me with a fan, SPF100, a large hat, lots of water and…Come on! Realistically! I am standing at a tall table clicking away, wondering why my characters are crawling under the table and wasting away while there is a full fridge just steps away. I wonder, who is sneaking in from the hallway? Heh-heh!

“Love what you do”

In the first video, ‘Introduction’ you hear, “Hi, I am Steven King” James Patterson jumps right in telling you that first lines are important. In those four words, you see that this class “will be reverent and fun and a little jokey at times. And I know who writers like Steven King are.”

Are you good at investing time? Mr. Patterson is very efficient and lets you know he will talk about, “How to invest that time well, taking time wasting things out of the process.”

If you listen you will learn from his talks.

James Patterson tells me. “It is a daunting thing to start a book.”

In this class, he will talk about raw ideas, how to build a characters, how to create a scene, how to make a chapter work, outlines, marketing.

“Believe in yourself”

He will tell me how he writes, how he makes his writing work.
I downloaded the workbook with the Honeymoon outline.
He tells me, to get excited to write. Your first book, he says, may never get published. James Patterson’s first book was never published.

“Endure rejection”

Listen to his videos and read the workbooks, make comments, ask Mr. Patterson a question by making a video and posting it. Hmm. Now where did I put my Jane Jetson mask?

What did I get out of this first video? James Patterson’s voice. There is nothing like hearing an author talk. He is trying to tell his secrets as long as you can hear and absorb them. I can hear you saying, “What the does that mean?” {I kept the space for Hemingway}

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHDeMKOMA7E[/embedyt]

Have you watched a movie or read a book for the second time, then realized you missed so much in that first reading. Listening to someone trying to teach you something is like that. Your mind has to be open.

Is there something you want to know about this class, this video? Ask me!

‘Nuff said.