Ah, editing. I don’t know many writers that enjoy it, but it is most definitely a necessary evil. Of a lot of the standard editing advice out there, here’s what has worked for me when I’m trying to be effective and make it more palatable:
1) Walk away from a piece for a while. If you have focused on a certain project for a stretch of time, you tend to get to a point where you are exhausted with it and start hating the sound of your own words. It’s nice to come back to something later refreshed and thinking, “Okay, that wasn’t as bad as I thought it was. Let me just clean that up a little.”
2) Read your work out loud. I’ve caught so many different issues this way.
3) Watch for adverbs. Usually, there’s an opportunity to show not tell lurking behind them.
4) Join a writing group if you can. Having other people’s feedback (besides someone who loves you and thinks you’re wonderful) is invaluable.
The Ghostwriter of New Orleans Laura Michaud
Genre: YA, YA Paranormal
Publisher: Pelican/Arcadia Publishing
Date of Publication: 3/28/22
ISBN: 978-1455626243
ASIN: 1455626244
Number of pages: 192
Word Count: approx 55k
Cover Artist: Julie Buckner
Tagline: What if fate got it wrong this time?
Book Description:
When a boy dies and becomes a ghost in his high school, he creates life-changing consequences for the entire student body when he communicates with his girlfriend by underlining passages in her favorite book in the library.
But he finds that he also has a decision to make–accept his fate or take a dark path back and start a new life?
Excerpt:
How many times have you forgotten to do something small? Shut
a window before it rains? Take your phone with you? Do up a button on your
shirt? Grab your homework on your way out the door? On the day that seals my
fate, I forget to look over my shoulder.
Right before it happens everything is the same. I get the
same rush of freedom that I always get in my stomach when I leave the school
parking lot, hit the gas, and make a right turn onto St. Charles Avenue. The
same line of live oak trees cast their tunnel of shadows over the street. I see
their branches moving, so I turn the air conditioning off, roll my windows
down, ignore the text messages blowing up my phone, and turn the Jimi Hendrix
music (that I only listen to when I am by myself) way up. The sweat starts to
pool up around the white collar of my school uniform, but the feeling of the
wind across my face is totally worth it. What I do not know is that this is the
last time I will ever do it.
I guess if you asked
me what I do know for sure in those last moments I would say that I am a pretty
fast runner, I am decent at guitar, and that Margot Cramer is the love of my
life.
Laura Michaud grew up with her face in a book, so it was natural that she would spend some time in the publishing industry before becoming a children’s librarian and writer. A native of New York and New England, she has called the amazing city of New Orleans home since 2004. The Ghostwriter of New Orleans is her first novel.
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