#youonlylineonce

[coffeeandcalligraphy]

You Only Line Once #1 | Line Editing

Sooo, here I am, back at it again with yet another series. I had a lot of fun documenting my line editing journey in my line edit with me vid I posted a while back (which you can watch HERE), so I decided to make this a series on here. I actually intended to start this series back in August, and wrote the intro, but never posted it because I couldn't find a pun for the series title, lol. (I do it for the puns. Pretty happy with this strokes shoutout from You Only Live Once aha.) Two days ago, I wrote up a list of puns based off song titles, and @sssoto​ and @sarahkelsiwrites​ helped me narrow it down to You Only Line Once. Hope you enjoy this new endeavor!

I haven't talked about this all that often, but yessss, I have now started line-edits on my second novel, FOSTERED (which I talk about a lot, lol). I wrote this book when I was 13, and after watching @sarahkelsiwrites​ line edit in her Shrink Line Edit series, decided to take this on. I’m documenting my (very slow) progress on MyWriteClub as well. My goal was actually to get these edits done by the third of February, but at the pace I’m going, am totally going to have to scale that due date up.

I’ve actually re-written a scene from FOSTERED twice just for fun, and I always enjoyed the idea of possibly cleaning up the prose so it was an easier read. I haven’t read this book the full way through since I wrote it three entire years ago. Probably because the prose isn’t all that great, and while I’ve been able to move past that in recent months, I lose motivation after a while, and always stop reading at the same place. So that’s a bit of an explanation as to why I’m doing this exactly (still not publishing these books tho lol).

This has actually been my side project for the last couple weeks, but since life has = chaos the past while, I’m only now launching this thing. Regardless, I hope this journey will be fun (but expect lots of angst because that’s basically all I do when I line edit).

Also a quick disclaimer: *I’m line-editing this book, yes, to improve readability, but this isn't a re-write. My edits will continue to preserve the vibe and writing style of the original draft, so keep that in mind! Depending on the passage, rewrites may be involved (*cough* looking *cough* at *cough* Foster’s *cough* dialogue *cough*), but it’s sort of a selective process (not how I line edit for current shtuff, by the way, thought I’d put that out there).

Onto the shtuff:

Today’s goal: So this actually was my goal two days ago since I’m writing this for that session, but the goal was to (unrealistically, as I admitted) finish edits on chapter 6. If you missed my vid on line editing, I do two rounds of edits, the first pass, then the final cleanup. The first pass takes a very long time, so after I’m done that, I move onto the next chapter, edit that the final time, then edit the previous chapter a second time, etc, etc. Yesterday’s session was for chapter six’s first pass.

What I actually line-edited: I completed the first scene of six, as well as half of the last scene, so not too shabby, since I did make the goal at like 1AM.

Total chapter count: 4 edited in full, chapters 5 and 6 awaiting final pass

Total page count: 25

Updated word count: 89 008 in comparison to the original 88 000

The overall scope: Editing went rather well? The beginning was rusty because I had to remould some very stilted dialogue/fix some pacing issues, but I think the chapter has improved quite a bit. I cut a looooot of things in this chapter, as opposed to adding, which was a nice change, lol.

Music or nahhh: I don't believe so!

How much I angsted on a scale from 1-10: Not all that much. I’d say a 5 at most for the worst of it which was the very beginning of the chapter. I call this a win.

Song title that describes line-editing session: (stole this from my outlannis updates but this question is one of my faves to answer ha) You’re Good by The Narwhals. I felt pretty determined and collected, which was a very nice change, haha.

Favourite chapter edited thus far and why: I would still say it’s chapter one. I like the edits I've made on later chapters, but there’s something about the first chapter that I wouldn't mind reading again. I think I fleshed out Reeve’s voice a lot more in chapter one and made her sound a lot less monotonous which is cool, and I think with the edits, it’s a much better opening. Which is great, because chapter one hasn't really been a favourite!

Excerpt:

(as mentioned before, this is totally still not going to be perfect by any means. this one is pretty neutral/is a good example of what a clean up would look like!)

BEFORE (ft. a surplus amount of exclamation marks):

“Harrison come on! That’s not true! C’mon don’t think like that. If you weren’t here we’d all be dead right now! Do you not remember that little three trick you pulled with Red. Now don’t tell me shit that it was your fault in the first place because if you hadn’t told Red about me blah, blah, blah! You saved our lives regardless! Whether it was caused by a negative decision or not! So stop complaining! Just stop! I’m sick of hearing this because I really don’t like it when you talk about yourself like that!” I snap back, folding my arms over my chest. When he grabs me into a hug, I don’t flinch away, I return the favour.

“So, will you stop it then?” I murmur.

“I’ll try. Thanks Reeve.” He mumbles then has disappeared to the other side, leaving me in the darkness. Yes, there is no light, no sun to warm me. But on the inside, I’m as sunny as ever, my glow revoking every negative thought that has brought me down.

AFTER (ft. a considerable decrease in exclamation marks):

“That’s not true.” My voice is more frantic than I expect. Desperate for him to understand that the mistakes we’ve both made in the last couple days have hurt, but don’t define us. “Don’t think like that, alright? If you weren’t here, we’d all be dead right now. Do you not remember that little three trick you pulled with Red? You saved our lives regardless.” I bite my lip. “I know it’ll take some time, but I think we’re working on whatever this is.” 

When he hugs me, I’m surprised, but return the favour anyway. He’s warm, despite the cool air moulded around us, smells like leather and ground coffee.

I’m not sure how long we stand there like that. But it’s enough time to solidify the lump in my throat, push the stupid feeling of missing something higher and higher in my stomach.

Eventually, he lets go, leaves me in the darkness. There is no light, no sun to warm me. But on the inside, I’m bright, my glow bringing me fresh hope for a new beginning.

she like a lowkey glo up I aint mad. droppin that classic harrisonboiii description tho yasss

So that’s it for this update! I hope you enjoyed seeing how exactly I go about cleaning a few paragraphs up! When I note more dramatic changes, I’ll definitely post about them in an update. :) For now, hope to see you in the next one!

--Rachel

[coffeeandcalligraphy]

Exciting Blog Changes!

Hi folks!!

I’m so excited to announce that I have made some fancy blog changes, some of which y’all might have noticed if you visit this blog’s URL. These changes include:

Font change! You may now read my blog posts in the blessed font of Garamond. I’ve also made the font size for my titles/asks smaller (less intrusive) and increased the font size of the overall blog because if you’re anything like me, I always zoom up (bad eyesight tingsss). Also some colour stuff! General facelift!

I have removed old pages I no longer use, such as the following. If for some reason, you still want to easily access these posts, I’ve included the relevant tag (tho I doubt anyone looks at these anymore)!

Outlining updates (tag outliningupdates)

You Only Line Once (tag youonlylineonce)

Goals updates (tag goalsupdates)

Old writing (tag oldwriting)

Novels (tag novels)

Doing the write thing (tag doingthewritething)

I have added an about page! I’ve been on tumblr for 5 years and at last figured out how to add pages. :))) This about page features a fancy dancy bio including stuff I don’t often mention (i.e. Toronto Raptors, true crime, being a flautist). I will also update it with relevant publications.

WIP PAGES!! The most exciting of them all!! I’ve written/designed pages for all my relevant novels, which you can now take a look at if you want to refer to a stable summary of the books/learn more about the characters instead of scrolling through writing updates. Here are links:

Fostered (Series)

Moth Work (Fostered Spinoff)

Feeding Habits (Moth Work #2 << yes I have named it!)

Houses With Teeth (Fostered #7)

The Sun Only Drowns Us

I’m hyped about these changes! I hope y’all enjoy.

--Rachel