So You’ve Returned…
Greetings, breachlings. Fear not, for I have not drowned in sugar this time, so this newsletter should be slightly tamer. (Cackle intensifies…)
Free Book: Fade to Noir Anthology
I am beyond ecstatic to share that I am part of Fade to Noir (Malarkey’s ImaginOmnibus Book 2), a speculative fiction anthology! This book includes short stories by me and the following amazing authors: NT Anderson, Evelyn Chartres, David DeWinter, SJ Covey, Rose J. Fairchild, Jon Ford, Kayla Hicks, Chris Hooley, Eaton Krone, Peter James Martin, A.C. Merkel, Anya Pavelle, Melissa Rose Rogers, and Ross Young.
It is FREE! GET IT! DEVOUR IT! BUILD IT AN ALTAR!
Free Audiobook: The Heartbeat of a Million Dreams
The Heartbeat of a Million Dreams has a FREE audiobook recorded by the vocal genius Holly Prinsen! Listen and subscribe!
Free Virtual Event: Brooklyn Book Festival
Mark your calendars! Queer Indie and The Writing Community Chat Show are offering a FREE virtual event called “Playing God: Building and Destroying Fictional Worlds and Characters” at 3pm ET / 8pm UK on September 29, 2023. Panelists include Dr. Mario Dell’Olio, TT Banks, Ash Knight, A.C. Merkel, Christopher Aggett, Christopher Hooley, Ross Young, Anya Pavelle, and me.
Don’t miss out! Insert FOMO, YOLO, and other acronyms I don’t fully understand.
Editing Tricks
This might be the nerdiest topic, but I’ve discovered a way to hugely decrease some editing checks I had been doing manually. By using regular expressions (or regex, if you’re cool), you can find and eliminate certain patterns of letters and/or punctuation. It’s basically the search feature on crack.
Regex for Editing
1. To use regex in Google Docs, type [command][F] on a Mac (or [control][F] on a PC) to open the find widget.
2. Next, click the three vertical dots to open the expanded find widget, and click the “Use regular expressions” checkbox. Oh, yeah, you feel the power.
3. Find those pesky grammatical hellions by pasting the below regex codes into the “Find” area of the find widget.
Regex Magic Spells
[\u0022]
Find straight double quotes, ex. ", to change into curly quotes, ex. “”. This uses the unicode escape code for the straight double quote—aka computer magic.
[\u0027]
Find straight single quotes, ex. ', to change into curly quotes, ex. ‘’. Also uses the unicode escape code.
[ ][\.,\!\?”’;:]
Find spaces before punctuation that should be deleted. This regex magic spell locates spaces before periods, commas, exclamation points, question marks, closing quotes (both double and single), semicolons, and colons. For example: Give me cookies . (incorrect) › Give me cookies. (correct)
[”\.,!\?:;][A-Za-z]
Find places where there is no space between ending/clause punctuation and the next word. For example: I want pie.Pie is hot. (incorrect) › I want pie. Pie is hot. (correct)
[A-Za-z\.\?\!,][“‘]
Find places where there is no space and/or punctuation between a word and dialogue.
,” (She|He|They)
Also click “Match case” in the expanded find box for this one. Find places where the pronouns are incorrectly capitalized in dialogue tags after a comma.
\.” (she|he|they)
Also click “Match case” in the expanded find box for this one. Find places where the pronouns are incorrectly lowercase after dialogue ending with a period.
?” (She ask|He ask|They ask)
Also click “Match case” in the expanded find box for this one. Yes, the first two conjugations are wrong, but that’s to accommodate both present and past tenses (it will find “She asks” as well as “She asked”). This regex finds places where the pronouns are incorrectly capitalized in dialogue tags following a question mark. For example: “Do you love cake?” She asked. (incorrect) › “Do you love cake?” she asked. (correct)
(absolutely|certainly|completely|definitely|actually|suddenly|basically|simply|possibly|probably|totally|highly|truly| fully|quite|really| very |just|only|able to|start to|started to|begin to|began to)
Find all instances of the above filler words, then delete as many as you crave. Note that there is a space before/around a few words, ex. very, because if there wasn’t a space, the regex would catch every, too. The same applies for fully to avoid catching painfully.
There are more regex magic spells, such as those listed in this article, but I use the above ones most often to clean up punctuation and filler words. I know, regex is super arousing.
Power Words for Editing
If you’re like me and have an insatiable urge when drafting to overuse flesh, blood, agony, glare, scowl, etc. (obviously for my next lighthearted singalong/carnage party WIP), then I’ve found a few sources that have compiled lists of words to use instead of or in addition to your favorites.
Reedsy: 265+ Forceful Verbs to Turn You Into a Literary Tyrannosaurus
The Narrative Arc: Strong Verbs Power Your Writing
Oklahoma State University: Active Verbs List
Kathy Steinemann: Strong Verbs Cheat Sheet
Also, for metaphors, descriptors, and emotions, the following sites are godsends.
Thing Database (ex. find blue things in nature to describe someone’s eyes)
+ More Thesauri (to become a literary boss and deal ultimate emotional damage to your readers)
Post-Draft Limbo
I finished my WIP, and post-draft limbo is always a weird time for me. I know I need to rest and recharge, to pump my imagination full of new thoughts and ideas and nightmares, but it’s very difficult to do so after hemorrhaging my soul for months on end. Do not worry, I shall not rant for paragraphs and paragraphs about this liminal torture, but if you also feel unanchored and unbalanced after finishing a draft, you are not alone!
Writing this duology led me back to myself after a long writing slump. It’s different from what I’ve written in the past, which makes me both nervous and excited—like when you find a piece of chocolate cake in the fridge that only has a light dusting of mold on one side, and you wonder if your immune system, which you’ve trained with recently expired smoked salmon and aged (possibly ancient) Gouda cheese, can take on this challenge.
Anyway, here are some vibes of my newborn book beast…
News
No news this month, just copious amounts of cookie dough ice cream, belting opera in the shower, parenting in sweatpants, and mischievous light bulbs! On a side note, many of my electronics have died this year, so I have come to the logical conclusion that my dormant Jedi powers are now awakening.
Recent Reads
Here are some recent books I loved!
The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw
Light Bringer by Pierce Brown
Straw into Gold: A Rumpelstiltskin Faerie Tale Retelling by Carol Beth Anderson
Just a World Away: A Collection of Modern Folk Tales by a powerhouse group of authors
The Faerie Hounds of York by Arden Powell
Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat
The Sailor’s Song and Uncommonly Verdant by Daria Vernon
Let Me F*cking Cry by Rhiannon Janae
God pours salt on slugs by drunkaloneagain
Podcasts/Channels to Stalk
The Writing Community Chat Show, Story of a Storyteller, The Tiny Bookcase, Boomers on Books, The Shadow’s Project, Steve Talks Books, What The Book, Human Chapters, Words & Pictures, Talk Wordy to Me
Aggressive Love
I hope you all are fantastic and feisty! May life be gentle—and if not gentle, may life burn all who have wronged you, then dance on the ashes of your enemies! Follow your dreams! No mercy, no prisoners! GLORY IS YOURS FOR THE TAKING!
Lots of love & chaos,
Halo
YEEESSS FREE STUFF, AWESOME CHEAT CODES FOR EDITING, UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, A, B, A, B, START TO UNLEASH EDITED AWESOMENESS!! THANK YOU!!!