After a long and laborious process (well over a year late), my next book, Sins of the Father, is finally available starting tomorrow, 11/27/2025! Why did it take so long to get this creative masterpiece out the door? Life. Plus a laborious editing process where the perfectionist in me went back a thousand times over and over tweaking, nudging, and caressing the words to make them as engaging and actual as possible.
Tag Archives: editing
The “Scene” of Death
As writers, we live and die by our words.
Particularly, the avenues we choose to formulate and describe a scene in a chapter become critical ways for us to convey emotions, fear, and acceptance for our readers to relish in our books. There are formulaic frameworks, tried and true structures, even the dreaded copycat of previous works. Pick your poison. Each comes with its own set of dire consequences.
I like to wing it.
The Depths of Research
First person research.
It is one thing to pick up a book (surprise!) and read descriptions and information that you then decide to use as background or pieces of the puzzle to your writings.
It is another thing to dive headfirst into the weeds so to speak and get your hands dirty.
Well, for the last few weeks, I have been silent. Not a word written since my last blog post. That includes work on my #wips. I have been neck deep in research, activities, tasks, and utilizing my hands, all in the name of my craft to ensure that what I write about it grounded in knowledge and my own expertise tackling subjects I will use in my plots and stories.
It is something I have always done.
Enough “Said”
I do not like the word “said” at all.
There, I said it.
To me, it is the go to word utilized in writing when you just can’t find the right descriptive to use. That’s not to say I do not use it. I have and will in the future. It simply lacks any feeling or emotion. All it performs in my mind is to denote that a person spoke some dialog.
Plot Location
The plot location can make or break a story.
So, some people say.
There are different viewpoints on whether detailed locations add or distract from a book. Get into too much detail that it takes away from the actual story trying to be presented.
My humble opinion? I believe it all depends on you, the writer, and what you want to come across for your readers. Dive in and sell it so they feel like they are right there. Or, tease the descriptions with enough to paint an outline they can fill in themselves.
Editing: The Bane of Writing
Editing sucks. There, I said it. It really does. No writer says, “I can’t wait to rip my book apart and edit the hell out of it!” If they do, check their head into an insane asylum.
A Long Time in the Making
The reason for my absence has been for a positive outcome. The publishing of my psychological suspense thriller novel, Pandemic-19, with the publishing company Good Twin Publishing, has come to fruition. The editing process to get to the point of publishing took considerable time and effort, my focus solely being there and unfortunately leaving my posts to wither in the wind.
Jason McDonald 