Author: Tron (page 2 of 2)

With Corona and everything, things have gone slow lately. But I’m now glad to be able to announce that I have found an editor to help with book one. Her name is Beth, and she will help me with copy editing and proofreading. She has a lot of experience, and I think we will work well together.

A talented editor doesn’t guarantee a successful book. There is just so much they can do if the concept and draft they are given are rubbish. So the question is how good my drafts and story are, to begin with. As you might guess, this is both a scary and exhilarating process.

I still have two days to work on the manuscript before handing it over for copy editing. So there will be some late evenings to get everything ready.

I will get the manuscript back in a few weeks and will then have some time to work through the feedback and suggestions before the proofreading stage.

Because there are so many who are writing books these days, I have not even tried contacting a publisher. I don’t have any delusions about how hard it is to write a good book and get a chance with a publisher. Especially for a new writer like myself, this would be a tall order. So self-publishing is the route I have chosen. I, therefore, pay the editor out of my own pocket. But having seen how much improvement the story got just from my beta-readers’ feedback and my own revisions. I’m sure that it will be money well spent to get a professional working on it as well.

I will post again when I get the manuscript back.

TB

I’ve been working slowly towards finishing draft no 3 of book one (sorry for no update in a while). Now that’s complete, and I will send it away to an editor. I’ve got some good leads on freelance editors that I might work well with. I suspect that the next weeks might be exciting.

Self-editing has been useful, but also a laborious exercise; it’s so easy to read yourself blind in the text (adding in words that are not there). It’s also a challenge to get it right when the language you write in is a second language. To help me out, I used text-to-speech software. It helped tremendously in sniff out spelling mistakes and also to my surprise to highlight sentenced that were too long or did not flow well. Add on some format cleaning, and it’s a rather significant improvement over the last revision (hopefully). There is still a lot to improve with the editor, but I feel that the project is on the right path.

When I wrote the first draft of book one, I didn’t have a clear image of how many of the areas looked. I could vividly imagine the specific places the characters visit, but not the spaces in between.

The story takes place in a valley near a large city. The valley has a wide, flat center filled with suburbs and farmland, and villages are scattered along the hills on either side. At one end lies the city proper, and at the other, a dam holds back Twin Lake.

As I revise book one and begin work on book two, I’ve been searching for artists to create visual representations of the valley. I plan to include the best illustrations in the book as reference material. I also want to feature them on my website—and, just as importantly, use them to help me better visualize the setting myself. (I may need to come up with a more fitting name than “the village,” but I trust that will work itself out.)

This is the first artist’s rendition of the valley (name still pending), and I have to say—there’s a lot to like about it.

he overall speed I can do each task, but I think that it’s the best way forward. The status on the different fronts is as follows.

• I’m working on doing the second draft revision of the first book before I send it to an editor.
• I know my draft needs some love and attention from someone more professional than me. So, I have done some research trying to find a suitable editor for my book. An editor is one of the biggest expenses with my writing project, and the external input is so valuable to be able to raise the quality to the next level. So this is both an exciting and scary process.
• I’m working on a publication plan to publish the first book this autumn. The work with the editor will hopefully show if that is an attainable timeframe or not. I’m also working to find possible reviewers to send ARK copies to when that time comes.
• A good cover is essential to catch people’s attention. As a new writer, this is even more important. So I’m working to find the right artist I think can help me get the spirit of the book out on a single page.
• I’m still working with a few beta readers to get more input on the first book.
• I’m currently working on the first draft of the second book. I’m about 18 000 words in, so hopefully, the first draft will be done sometime after the summer.
• I have sent the first six chapters of the second book to my primary alpha reader. She helped me with alpha and beta reading of the first book and knows the story well. I’m curious to find out what she thinks of the direction the second book will take.
• Lastly, I’m collecting character information as I am doing the revisions. There is a lot of details that I’m unable to remember. Keeping track of the most important is something I should have done from the start, but now is better than never.

So that’s the status mid-February 2020. It’s a lot more moving parts now that I’m done with the first draft of the first book. But it’s interesting to learn all the different things that are needed to transition a draft to be a full-fledged book ready for publication.  

Welcome to this first post on my brand new author webpage. It’s been one and a half years since I started on my little writing project. I started writing mostly to see if I could (and because I read a published book that was so rubbish that I knew I could do better, well I thought I could do better). And it worked. I wrote a book and are now working to revise it.

Since you are here, why not have a look at my first chapter?

Tron Bårdgård

(updated with revised first chapter 10.06.2025)

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