The time that I thought that I was a writer.

I was over the moon when I got accepted by my very first literary agent.

But when I got my very first editor's report, Boy, did I feel like I just had my ass whipped?

Due to my passion for historical research at one time, I had as a hobby, written several historical pieces for interested groups that were always willing to pat you on the back. That was for providing some new knowledge that they didn't know yesterday more so than anything. I preferred to read reference-type books over novels at one stage. I'll admit, my attitude at the time was, "If I am going to spend that much time reading something, then I may as well learn something." Ignorant to the fact that the most successful novels are those that are the best researched.

Being naive, l considered that I had a pretty decent grasp of the English language, I did read a lot and after all, I had spoken it all my life so had my parents before me and theirs before them. We are part of the British Commonwealth and have been for the past two hundred years? The first thing they taught us to say at our school is the English word, "Present." To let the teacher know that we showed up for the day. A word that signifies that from here on in everything we learn today will be in English. So I, like many others thought that, was all the tools I would need to be a good writer.

One year we had a bad season which affected my job and caused us to be stood down from work for days. I had just moved to a new country, to a new job, but now too broke because of the days off to go anywhere. So I pulled up an old laptop that I had brought with me and started typing. I ended up with an action-adventure story that numbered about thirty-six thousand words.

I found out a long time later that I am what would be considered by other writers as a 'seat of the pant's writer'. We don't know where the story is going to go, let alone how it will end? We just type and watch the story unfold before us as though we were reading the book for the first time ourselves. I suppose technically we are? It has accompanying spelling mistakes and bad grammar because the thoughts are coming as we type so we are trying to get it down before we lose it. This is what makes writing so enjoyable you can't wait to see what happens next. Something will pop into your head as you write, it doesn’t seem to belong but you put it in there, after all, it can be taken out later if it doesn't fit. As the story progresses its reason for being there becomes obvious. It can even turn out to be just the thing needed to carry the story through. The main plot of the story is all there when you are finished.

Then you have the more structured type of writer who likes to plan each step of the story out, they know before they even start how their story will flow and how it will end. So the actual exercise of putting mind to paper is just a formality? These writers have far less editing to do I assume?

I learned during this time that there are three main points to telling a good story. But it is not as the uninitiated keep waffling out, a beginning, a middle, and an end? A better description of the three principles should be.

1/Introduce your character/s,

2/Throw a problem at them

3/The rest of the story is naturally about whether or not they overcome the problem.

Through confronting the problem, the main character usually would have gone through some changes by the end of the story. Even children's books follow this sequence of events. Adult books just have more problems thrown at them to deal with to increase the complexity of the story. You will also find these three principles in the best told jokes. The first two principles can be interchangeable.

Same as in a non fictional piece like this one for instance.

1/I am the main character, I told you a little about myself.

2/ My problem was that I wasn’t the writer that I thought I was.

3/ The rest of this piece explains how I coped with that problem. Through confronting that problem I now have a different perspective.

Problems make things interesting because we are always faced with them and can relate to them.

As with a good Travel Blogger for instance, usually we already have been introduced to the character that they are. Or they will do a short intro. We are also aware of their inherent problem as a Travel blogger, is to find places that may be of interest to us. As goes for most of these types of storytellers.

Invent a problem, then invent a creative way to solve it or to deal with it. You already have the bones of a good story. The genre whether that be mystery, horror, drama, romance, sci-fi, etc are just settings for your problem to take place in.

During the editing stage, not only was I correcting spelling and grammar, I poured over every sentence. Getting them to make sure that they communicated exactly what I wanted to portray in the story. Does it make sense? Is it overly descriptive? Not descriptive enough? Is it driving the story forward? Am I repeating myself but using different words? Is the sentence too long? Read it aloud see if I can say it in a normal breath. Finally, I thought that I had done a pretty decent job and was quite proud of myself.

I have heard of other novice writers wondering if their finished manuscripts are worthy enough to be read by other people? ...and there are those of us who think, "Other people will like this." Which is why we go through the extra step of finding an agent I suppose?

As you can imagine the editing stage is where you really should get someone else to proofread it. You can read over a sentence a hundred times and still miss the place where a word is missing, because your brain will unconsciously put the missing word in. If you cant have someone else read it get a voice reader on your computer to read it back to you. This makes those missing words and parts that don't make sense stick out as well as words double typed and other small grammatical errors. Yes, I know some people can't stand the sound of these computerized voices but sometimes beggars can't be choosers. Use whatever you have at your disposal to aid you to polish your writing. Or leave it for a few weeks and then come back and read it yourself with fresh eyes.

I of course did...none of that. Like I said, "I thought that I could speak English and pretty well too?”

If you have a good story to tell, you have a good chance of attaining an agent. An agent does have their own little stipulations to make sure that you are up to the requirements of the publisher who lays out the biggest investment in your story. The publisher gets thousands of submissions and usually has neither the time nor the motivation to go through that pile looking for that one or two percent who might just make him a return on his investment. The agent will go through that pile and look for those one or two percent and present them to the publisher on their behalf. Agents don't get paid until you do, so they have to work to get both you and them a good percentage from the publisher. Getting edited by an accredited professional editor was my agent's particular stipulation.

A good agent will have presented the publisher with some good investments in the past and now has a relationship with that publisher. So knows what that publisher expects.

I considered that the editor might love the story as much as the agent seemed to? Was I in for a very rude awakening? The editor as it turns out is not worried too much about how well you can take a reader's emotions from a low to a high then back again. They too are well aware of the stringent writing demands that a publisher expects. In other words, when you see how a book is all set up inside as you open the pages? You the author does that, not the publisher as I had expected? What does the publisher do other than print the book? They also take care of the marketing.

A good editor is not just a human version of 'Grammarly', they are much more than that. The editor will look at your work objectively from a technical standpoint. Not what it reads, but how well it reads. As they say, 'Showing the story as opposed to telling the story.' This means things like, getting rid of words that end in 'ly.' These are usually words that are used to describe movement. Suddenly, quietly, quickly, hurriedly, slowly, carefully, loudly for instance.

I myself keep these words in dialogue though because this is how people talk? I endeavor to keep them out of the narrative where things are being described. When needing to trim a story down these should be the first words to go.

You may find that you end up with a more polished story. See it as a challenge to get your creative juices working to meet these standards rather than an obstacle.

Suddenly, a pig tore out of the bush...telling.

Leaves flew everywhere as a pig tore out of the bush...showing.

Or even just...a pig tore out of the bush. All three descriptions bring to mind the same scenario, the word 'suddenly' doesn't do much to add to it, so leave it out. The fact that you 'suddenly' have a pig appear in that moment is enough.

It could be just a matter of juggling the words to your sentence around?

Suddenly the balloon burst with a loud pop.

With a sudden loud pop, the balloon burst.

You normally hear it before you see it in real life anyway.

Originally I saw this as...torture. I had sweated over those sentences during my own editing phase? I see the editor has drawn a line through most of it? It felt like I was back at school and the teacher had handed my work back with an F+. Some things were a plus but most deserved an F. Geeze, I felt like I had been trolled? I was kinda glad that only myself, the agent, and the editor were the only ones to have read the piece. I was a bit embarrassed to show anyone after that? But if you want to move forward you have to swallow your pride and follow the editorial recommendations then hopefully the next editor's report won't be so unforgiving.

Later I heard that the author of the Harry Potter series, J.K Rowling had been turned down by many publishers when she first started out and ended up going the route via a small unknown publisher. I wondered if it was due to her use of the 'ly' words in her narratives that publishers seem to hate so much? One look at a word containing that ending, the publisher just says...next. Although through tenacity on her part and by word of mouth on her young readers part, she was able to overcome her challenges. Most editors will tell you that she was by industry standards, a fluke more so than a norm.

Nonsensical expressions like...'She almost felt ill.' She either felt ill or she didn't? You might feel a little bit ill. But you never feel 'almost' ill?

Little gems like this their sharp well-honed instincts will hook onto and in their own emotionless tone of derision, will make an inescapable point out of.

We can prepare ourselves much better for the day when we have to submit work to a professional editor. We have the internet nowadays and it is not hard to find people who are willing to impart their knowledge and experiences for free if you can't afford to do a writing course. Use them to help yourself improve. They will tell you about things like overused cliches, overused story intros. An editor mentioned that she sometimes feels like tearing her hair out every time someone starts their story off by waking up in the morning. On the whole, a literary agent is like that encouraging mother and the editor more like that strict dad that wants you to do well but doesn't know how to show it.

Harsh as an editor's report may sound when you get it back, They do want you to succeed. You may even have to re-submit your re-written manuscript back to the editor once or twice before the agent thinks that the publisher will be happy with the final cut. Learn from them don't hate them. As a necessary evil, they have a lot that they can impart that we only think we know. Because at nearly $10 a page a two hundred page novel can be quite expensive to do more than once. I was prepared to pay one more time so I studied everything I could with the intention of making it the last time. By now I would have read my story hundreds of times, the funny bits were not so funny anymore and the exciting bits were becoming mundane. The key is to edit, edit and when you're finished, edit some more, sleep on it, and then edit it again. There will always be some little thing you missed that will annoy you every time you go back to your published story. What I learned from that seemingly heartless editor that I felt I had paid to ridicule me, but turned out to be worth every dollar, was that one needs to detach oneself from their work. To try to look at your work from the eyes of another person, a person that hates you. In other words, purposely look for errors in the piece that you have written. It certainly changes the way you write the next time that you write.

Unfortunately, because I was quite good at my day job and was well rewarded for it. That took preference over my writing for a long while. My manuscript re-written to the editor's recommendations sitting waiting to be re-born.

Since my writing processes have recently been reawakened it motivates me to revisit my novel with the aim of bringing it up to date. So, as they say, when you’re creating and not getting paid, you’re practicing. Been doing a bit of practicing lately which is why I decided to join Vocal.

Platforms like Vocal give story creators the opportunity to compare their work with ample others. The short stories mean that you can sample a lot of different styles in a short time. Looking at the different styles, who is easy to read and why? Why does this person's way of describing things sound more like they are listing things? Why did I feel like I had just read someone’s ordinary day from their diary? Etc.

I, like the editor that reviewed me, now understands that a particular story can be the greatest thing ever dreamt up but it might as well never have been written if people can’t read or understand it or even become bored with it before it gets its message across. We learn from our mistakes, but it is far cheaper to learn from others' mistakes. So I am grateful to those writers who have unwittingly taught me things.

I myself tend to prefer to use plain language when writing. Plain language can appeal to a wider audience as newspaper articles do. Newspapers actually aim at an age group of about twelve years old to ensure a greater number of people can read their articles thereby creating for themselves a large readership and income base. After all, unless you’re Shakespeare or some other notable thinker your story may be remembered more so than the prose you use. Those are just my thoughts.

I have often wondered if writing in plain language could be the reason why the genre written for ‘Young Adults’ is the most popular genre of the literary genres and publishers will usually gravitate towards stories written for it over the others? A genre as popular to mature adult readers as it is to young adults if not more so?

Just a couple of tips I’d like to pass on if I may...

Sticking to one character viewpoint. I have read stories that start off saying “I” then they become “he/she” some have even gone to “you?” This can be a little confusing to the reader who may lose interest in the piece before long.

As well as, who is thinking what? It’s okay to say what’s on your main character's mind if your story is being told from their point of view. But to be able to tell what’s on everyone else’s mind as well can stretch credibility a little bit unless that’s the sort of story it is. Sometimes it is better to show what another character is thinking.

In anger, the old man was thinking, “I want to kill him!”

As opposed to... The old man slammed his fist down onto the table in response.

You know he’s angry and could be dangerous.

I hope that I haven’t wasted your time and that you may have picked up something from my own experiences. Thank you for reading and don't stop learning. Good luck.