Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas
Those we meet can change us, sometimes so profoundly we are not the same afterwards. Life of Pi
Yesterday I went to The Writers Group after being away for a few months, our fearless leader is ill but the meeting was handled well. I had the good fortune of sitting beside a published author who attended the meeting for the first time. We had some time to talk so I asked about his publishing process. He’s published on Kobo and if anyone wants to check out Paul Stegweit’s books you can find a link to purchase them through his website paulstegweit.com.
One of the things that struck me when I went to Paul Stegweit’s website is his covers. His granddaughter produces his latest covers and even though we know we can’t judge a book by its cover we are drawn first to the cover.
It is great meeting people who are ahead of us on the journey. The editing stage is taking me forever, partly because I don’t want to pay someone until I think I’ve made it as good as I can.
Paul Stegweit uses Grammarly for editing and so do I, although I’m still using the free version. Yesterday, I found a new editing tool I’m trying out. I have a free fourteen-day trial of ProWritingAidPremium. It looks amazing. I was able to print out a report showing sentence length, something called sticky sentences (sticky sentences contain too many common words, they slow the reader down). One of the comments I’ve gotten from readers is they found it slow getting into my novel. I have 961 sticky sentences the goal is zero. I need to pick up the pace of my novel by looking at verb tenses. There are many other reports generated and I printed it out so I could compare where I am after editing compared to where I started. On my spelling, I got 97 out of 100.
I find it’s hard to edit when I look at the pages I’ve written. If a word is misspelled that is easy to correct but little inconsistencies in our writing are one of the hardest things to catch. This program helps with this. They even have a report you can run on your manuscript for that.
At the end of this edit, a human editor is still advised. After all, it is not computers that will read our work, but when we give an editor something better to work with they can help elevate our novel to a higher level instead of finding the mistakes we should have found ourselves.
How far we travel in life matters far less than those we meet along the way. Robert Louis Stevenson
The journey of becoming a writer is a long one; at least it is for me. Writing fits in the periphery of my life, perhaps that is why I enjoy it so much. Writing doesn’t have to pay the bills. No one tells me what to write about, or what not to write about, or how often I need to write.
I hope my writing is an interest that carries me into my later years with passion and purpose. It is in speaking to writers whose journey is for the love of doing not just money that makes me believe it is possible.
It is the journey, not the destination that is important. It isn’t just about publishing a novel, but it is also about that. We can spend time fixing, and tweaking, because we don’t want to put our work into the world. It is time to put in the work to make it as good as I can and then release it. Then write something else. Paul Stegweit has ten books on his website, he started writing after he retired. That is a big accomplishment.
One of the questions we need to ask ourselves is what do we want to do when we retire? What will a great retirement look like? Is there something we can do in retirement we never had time for that brings passion and purpose into our lives?
And then there is the most dangerous risk of all – the risk of spending your life not doing what you want on the bet you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later. Randy Komisar
Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.
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The Writing of Paul Stegweit
E-Books
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What would it be like to have a baby born on Mars?
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Chief Petty Officer, Sterling Kincaid has returned from Iraq and Afghanistan, having spent too many years as a Marine. His psychological health was being effected due to PTSD, and he genuinely longed for a peaceful and quiet retirement.
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Ethan Manderack lives a quiet, uneventful life, driving a taxi for a living.
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Otis Cage is a highly respected private investigator. He is also noted as a one man war
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Otis Cage is a highly respected Private Investigator. He is however, a no nonsense private eye that on occasion will use illegal justice if necessary. This attitude no doubt stems from his years spent in today’s Okinawa’s US Marine Jungle Warfare training facility.
Otis Cage and his former Marine buddy Nick are planning a bear hunting trip in Northern Canada. Nick is to arrive at the commercial hunting lodge two days before Otis. Upon Otis’s arrival he is devastated to hear his friend has been mauled and killed by a Ghost Grizzly Bear, called The Mistaya.
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