3 posts tagged with "writing process"

Editing should make your book stronger, not make it sound like someone else or bland. Yet many authors know the feeling of reading an edited chapter and thinking that it's cleaner and tighter, but somehow it no longer sounds like them. The good news is that you don't have to choose between a polished book and your own voice. With a few habits, you can have both.

Know what your voice actually is​

It's hard to protect something you can't describe. Before your next round of edits, take a few minutes to name what makes your writing yours. That might be the rhythm of your sentences, the way your characters talk, your sense of humor, the words you reach for, or the things you leave unsaid. Write these down in a short note and keep it next to your manuscript, so you have something concrete to check edits against.

Watch for the signs of a flattened edit​

Some edits improve a book, and some slowly sand it down. Be alert when your rhythm gets smoothed out, when your characters begin to sound alike, when jokes or subtext get spelled out, or when dialect and slang disappear in the name of clarity. Most of all, pay attention when a page reads fine but no longer feels like you. That feeling is usually worth trusting.

Read it out loud​

Your ear will catch what your eye misses. Reading an edited passage out loud is the fastest way to hear whether the rhythm still works and whether your characters still sound like themselves. If a line trips you up or sounds like a stranger wrote it, mark it and compare it with your earlier version.

Keep the version from before the edit​

This is the habit that matters most. Before you accept a round of changes, save the previous version so you can always go back. When you can compare the before and after side by side, it becomes much easier to keep the improvements and restore the parts of your voice that got lost.

Know where each change came from​

Today, edits can come from you, an editor, a co-writer, a beta reader, or AI. When all of those changes blend together, it's hard to tell which ones you actually chose. Keeping track of where each change came from helps you make deliberate decisions about your book, rather than discovering later that your voice drifted somewhere along the way.

Where Bookcicle fits​

We built editing into Bookcicle so it happens right where you write, with your manuscript in one place. Every version stays connected to its history, so you can always go back to how a line sounded before, and authoring analytics show where your text came from, whether you, a collaborator, AI, or something pasted in. Your book gets stronger, and it still sounds like you.

See how it works at bookcicle.com.

First: celebrate that. You wrote a book!

You are amazing. Did you know that only 3 in 97 people who start out to write, finish?

But finishing your first draft and having a manuscript that’s ready to be published are two very different milestones.

So, what happens now?

Before you hire an editor, start formatting, or worry about publishing, take a look at what your manuscript actually needs.

Because there isn’t one universal next step after a first draft.

Start by stepping away​

You’ve probably spent weeks, months, or even years inside this story. You know the characters, the arguments, the research, the twists—and probably every sentence you struggled to get onto the page.

That makes it difficult to see the manuscript clearly.

Give yourself some distance.

Breathe.

How much depends on you and your process. It might be a few days or a few weeks. The point is to come back to the manuscript with enough space to read it with clear eyes and clear mind.

Then, read it.

Not as the person who wrote it.

Look for the things you already know need work. Maybe there's a chapter you've never loved. A character whose motivation isn't quite there. An argument that needs more support. A section that drags.

A first draft doesn't need to be perfect.

That's what comes next.

Your first draft needs editing​

Once the story is on the page, it's time to make it stronger.

Because editing isn't one single pass.

There may be scenes that don't work. Beats that aren't hit. Chapters that drag. Characters who disappear for fifty pages or have it too easy. Arguments that need more support. Details that contradict something you wrote six chapters earlier. You have a habit of telling versus showing.

Reading it before you hand it off to an editor provides you the opportunity to tackle the things you already know aren't working before paying someone else to point them out.

Ask yourself:

• Does the book accomplish what I wanted it to?
• Are there sections that feel slow, confusing, repetitive, or unnecessary?
• For fiction, are the characters, plot, pacing, and world consistent?
• For nonfiction, is the argument or information clear and organized?
• Are there gaps I already know I need to fill?

Do the work you know how to do first, and if you can't or don't know what to do, that's okay too. Then...

Let someone else read it​

Because you need another set of eyes

You've been living inside your manuscript for so long that you know what you meant to write. A new reader only knows what actually made it onto the page.

This could be a critique partner, writing group, trusted reader, or editor. The goal is to get feedback from someone who isn't carrying the entire story around in their head the way you are.

And don't just ask, “Did you like it?”

Ask questions that will actually help you:

• Where did you lose interest?
• Was anything confusing?
• Did you believe the characters' choices?
• Did they get frustrated with the characters? Why? Was it too easy for them? Did you have a hard time connecting to them? Were they too perfect?
• Were there places you wanted more—or less?
• Was their too much explanation?
• How was the world building?
• Did anything feel unresolved?
• What stayed with you after you finished?

You don't have to make every change someone suggests. It's your story. But listen without ego and pay attention.

Then take that feedback back to your manuscript.

Revise. Tighten the plot.

I like to refer to the entire editing process as upleveling your story.

What you thought was magic when you first wrote it, may be confusing to someone else. Or, your characters need you to do another pass for you to craft their voices into their unique, distinct beings.

And when you've taken the manuscript as far as you can on your own, it's time for editing.

Now, what kind of editing does your manuscript need?​

This is where authors can get overwhelmed, because “editing” can mean a lot of different things and come with big price tags.

Are you still working through big-picture issues with the story? Are you ready to tighten the writing itself? Does the manuscript need a copy edit for grammar, consistency, and accuracy? Are you at the final proofreading stage?

Those are different needs at different points in your book cycle.

And sometimes, you don't know exactly what you need.

That's okay.

What matters is that you're not treating editing as a box to check. You're using it to make the manuscript stronger and prepare it for what you want to do next.

What are your plans for your book?​

This is where we come back to you.

What do you want for this story?

Do you want to self-publish it? Query agents? Reach readers in another language? Explore adapting it into a screenplay? Maybe you have an entirely different plan.

You don't have to want everything for your book.

But knowing what you do want helps you decide where to go next.

Because there isn't one book cycle every author has to follow.

What does your story need to get there?​

Maybe the next step is editing.

Maybe it's another round of revisions based on those edits.

Then proofreading.

Maybe you're ready to prepare for publication. Maybe you want to translate the finished work or see what it could become in another format.

Your book can take more than one path.

But this is also where the process can start getting messy.

You send the manuscript to an editor. It comes back. You review the changes. Download another version. Make revisions. Rename the file.

Then it's time for the next step.

Another person. Another platform. Another upload. Another version.

We know that process because we're authors, too.

And when we were building Bookcicle, we pondered:

Why can't the manuscript stay in one workflow?

That's part of why we're building Bookcicle​

We built Bookcicle around the lifecycle of a book because that's how we experience—or want to experience—our work as authors.

We want to be able to write in Bookcicle or upload a manuscript, depending on where we are in the process, and follow that work from first draft to publication-ready without constantly moving files between tools, uploading them again, or sending our stories somewhere else for the next step.

Editing is part of that workflow.

You can bring your manuscript into Bookcicle's AI-assisted editing workflow, review the suggested changes, decide what belongs in your story, decline or accept, and continue from there.

Because the author should still be the one making the decisions.

And when editing is finished, your book cycle doesn't necessarily stop there. Your plans might include translation. Adaptation. Protection. Preparing the manuscript for publication.

They're connected stages of the same creative work.

That's the experience we're building Bookcicle around.

We're authors building for authors, and we're building the workflow we wanted for our own books.

So, what happens next?​

If you've just finished your first draft, you don't need to have your entire publishing journey figured out today.

Start with where your manuscript is.

Think about what you want for it.

Figure out what it needs to get there.

Then take the next step.

And when that step is finished, take the next one.

That's your book cycle. Own it.

By Krysta Maravilla, Co-Founder of Bookcicle

Bookcicle wasn't created because we wanted to build software.

It wasn't created because AI became popular.

And it certainly wasn't created because we looked at publishing and thought, "You know what this industry needs? Another app."

Bookcicle was born because my brother, Andy, and I were experiencing the same frustrations many authors experience, in our own ways. 

Around 2017, Andy was deep into writing his novel, Back Bay Murders, when something every author dreads happened. An entire chapter disappeared. Gone.

No recovery. No built-in protection. No safety net.

As both a writer and a software engineer, Andy was frustrated—because in this day and age, there is no excuse for that to occur, especially with his background. And thus, Bookcicle, our legacy writing app, was born.

In 2018, I began my own writing journey while working on Spark, the first book in my Of Fire and Shadows series. I drafted in Bookcicle, making suggestions to improve Bookcicle’s writing environment and testing every aspect of it. Once I finished my first draft, however, I stepped into an entirely different world where I discovered that writing "The End" wasn't actually the end.

It was the beginning of a completely new phase.

I learned how expensive the editing process was. And, of course, I needed multiple rounds of editing, with one edit alone costing over $7,200.

I learned that timelines don't go according to plan. In one instance, I waited eight months to receive my manuscript back from an editor, and only after I repeatedly requested it. Or another time, I received the edit 4 days before I was scheduled to publish. 

I learned how many moving pieces exist between a draft and a published book. Covers. Formatting. Revisions. Reviewer feedback. Publication requirements. Marketing assets. 

And with every stage came new files, new versions, new people, and new processes to learn, a new tool or professional that cost more money. 

None of this was anyone's fault. It’s just how the writing industry is. 

As Andy and I compared notes, we realized something important. His challenge had been protecting the manuscript while it was being written. Mine was everything that happened after the manuscript was written.

Both experiences pointed to the same opportunity: authors needed a workflow built around the life of a manuscript. So, we built a place where protection, editing, collaboration, translation, adaptation, and publishing preparation are connected rather than fragmented. A place built to help keep momentum and support the writer's journey, whether they use AI support or not. A place built around the reality of how authors work.

Bookcicle continues to evolve, but the reason we built it remains the same.

Because authoring is hard.

Finishing is harder.

Keep going,

Krysta Maravilla

Co-Founder, Bookcicle