Today is special because fellow Canadian author, Kristina Stanley, is here to talk about her fabulous app for writers. I first noticed Kristina in the blog world as she wrote her posts about and during her sailing journey with her husband. It just sounded so romantic and so “out there”! She loves dogs and writes tirelessly. And now she’s going to tell us about her app. Take it away, Kristina!
I’m very pleased to be invited onto Elaine’s blog to share my writing and editing journey. I’m an author who loves to edit, and I believe today’s author must also be their own structural editor.
The difficulty with editing is the time it takes and the cost of an editor. So what if I could speed up the process, spend less money, AND write better fiction?
This is the story of how I’m developing an app to help writers edit faster, for less money, and create a novel readers love.
What is the Feedback app?
The Feedback app will help writers turn a first draft into a great story by becoming their own big-picture editor.
With Feedback, you can focus on plot, character, and setting. You can evaluate on a scene-by-scene basis or on the overall novel structure. Feedback will show you the most important structural elements to work on first and guide you through the rewriting process.
Why a big-picture editing app for writers?
Creating Feedback began when I finished the first draft of my first novel. By then I’d read over 50 how-to-write and how-to-self-edit books. I’d taken writing courses and workshops, and had 100s of writing and rewriting tips swirling about in my head.
I knew I had to begin the editing process and improve the quality of my draft before sharing my work, but I didn’t know how to go about it.
My Worries:
How was I supposed to remember the torrent of advice and apply it to each scene? A spreadsheet, that’s how!
I created a spreadsheet with a chapter-by-chapter, scene-by-scene structure. Then I listed the different writing advice I needed to consider for EVERY scene. I ended up with over 75 “key elements of fiction”. I used the reports from the spreadsheet to visualize my novel.
Did Feedback Work For Me?
After the hard work of self-editing and rewriting my drafts, the high quality of my fiction was validated when my first two novels were shortlisted for prestigious crime writing awards and I landed my publisher (Imajin Books).
My first editor said: “If every manuscript was this good, my job would be so easy!”
The next exciting moment came when DESCENT, my first novel, hit #1 on Amazon’s hot new releases. I’ve since sold the German rights to Luzifer-Verlag for publication in Germany, and the audio rights to Auspicious Apparatus Press. Imajin Books also published BLAZE and AVALANCHE.
Building The Feedback App
I wanted to share my process, so other writers could benefit from an immediate approach to self-editing and rewriting first drafts. But who would want to use a spreadsheet? Perhaps a fun, fast, app that helps writers visualize and self-edit their novels would be better.
I formed a company called Feedback Innovations just to build this app. The prototype is being developed. We’re currently testing the app on my novels. Then we’ll reach out to beta testers in April.
Download our free eBook BIG-PICTURE Editing And 13 Key Elements Of Fiction and learn how big-picture editing is all about evaluating the major components of your story. We call these components the Key Elements Of Fiction. Our eBook shows you how to use the key elements of fiction to evaluate your story and become your own big-picture editor.
At Feedback Innovations, we believe the app will help authors turn their first draft into a great story.
Kristina’s Bio:
Kristina Stanley is the best-selling author of the Stone Mountain Mystery Series.
Her short stories have been published in the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and The Voices From the Valleys anthology. She is the author of THE AUTHOR’S GUIDE TO SELLING BOOKS TO NON-BOOKSTORES.
She is the co-founder and CEO of Feedback Innovations, a company started to help writers rewrite better fiction. She loves the self-editing process and wants to help other writers learn how to do a structural edit on their own work.
If you’d like more self-editing tips, you can find out more about her and Feedback at www.FeedbackForFiction.com. Connect with her @FictionRewrite.
Descent Blurb:
When Kalin Thompson is promoted to Director of Security at Stone Mountain Resort, she soon becomes entangled in the high-profile murder investigation of an up-and-coming Olympic-caliber skier. There are more suspects with motives than there are gates on the super-G course, and danger mounts with every turn.
Kalin’s boss orders her to investigate. Her boyfriend wants her to stay safe and let the cops do their job. Torn between loyalty to friends and professional duty, Kalin must look within her isolated community to unearth the killer’s identity.
The Loyalist’s Wife, The Loyalist’s Luck, The Loyalist Legacy
