What an editor does …

I love getting up close and personal to other people’s writing — but what I love the most is seeing how suggestions and comments are put into practice and when the final version comes back it is so much better. I feel then that my role is justified.

New writers often ask  what to expect from an editor. Do they change your work? What if you don’t agree? Can you keep it your way?

In simple terms, an editor doesn’t just change your work and write a whole other story the way they’d do it! If they do — sack them! They do offer constructive and useful comments. I would change grammar errors where there is a hard and fast rule ,and I would remove run-on or words I feel are redundant but ONLY in track changes so the author can reverse the change if they disagree. And occasionally, if I think it’s the best way to show it, I will change a sentence to demonstrate  a point — see how this sharpens it, for example — a more hands on approach if I think the writer needs that and more often for a critique than a copy-edit. I tend to favour making suggestions — this is overwritten, consider sharpening — and I might suggest what could be better but leave it to them.

By marking your MS and highlighting the weaknesses it really is the best and fastest way to identify weaknesses in style, plot, narrative etc. I had read a great many books on writing but just reading that you need to show not tell and even with examples you can not always see how that applies to your own writing. So you have to let an editor into that personal creative space.

There are various tell-tale signs of the new writer, and we all do this  when we start to write — head hopping mid scene (often because the writer hasn’t even thought about it), telling rather than showing, overwriting using ‘awkward’ or ‘clunky’ phrasing, adding too much back-story and lifting the reader out of the story, overly long descriptive passages that slow the story, too many adverbs especially after dialogue (it’s telling), telling what’s already shown and use of other forms of repetition to drum home a point (tell the reader only once) and using as any different words for said as they can find!

Now these will all be ironed out as you learn and get feedback and new writers who invest in a professional critique will most certainly find this is a short cut to identifying key weaknesses so by the time they start sending work out it’s good.

If it’s good enough to be accepted or publication another editor will be appointed and you need to trust their judgement.

In my opinion there is no room for divas! Luckily for me this is incredibly rare and by this point the writers know the importance of the editorial process and have long since shed their tiara and  learned to take constructive criticism. They will already know that a good editor or critiquer  is worth their weight in gold. Because, and this is very  much my philosophy,  a critique, a copy-edit, even a proof read is a teaching aid and if you get a good editor you will learn. It’s still you writing it — but an editor makes it stronger — and we all need that guidance. At the end of the day it’s about making your writing as good as it can be. And this should be the goal of the writer and the editor and it has to be the goal of the publisher as he needs to sell the book!

So can you argue with the editor? Insist on not changing things? Of course you can — it’s only one opinion but it has to be remembered it’s a professional and experienced opinion (or it should be if you pay for it) and so you need to think carefully about the advice. But if you did something a certain way for good reason and make a good argument an editor will listen to you and wants you to be happy too.

As someone who has straddled both sides of the proverbial fence, even when I wasn’t so sure there was something wrong with something my editor had questioned —  I looked at it very closely and nearly always made some kind of change to remove any trace of ambiguity. I trusted her and she did make great suggestions.

Don’t be a diva!

Have a great weekend all — out shopping for a new tiara!

Being consistent …

I thought I would offer a short post about one of the most common errors I see when I copy-edit — be that for my private clients and also for publishers I edit for. I don’t so much mean in terms of the quality of the writing being consistent which I think you will all agree is a given but here I am talking more proof reading and copy-editing points.

There are a number of words with alternative spellings: t shirt, T shirt, t-shirt, T-shirt, Tee Shirt, tee shirt, tee-shirt, OK, okay, ice cream, ice-cream … etc.

Some as you can see with hyphens, some without. We like to capitalise words like job titles, Policeman, the Vicar, we headed North to Birmingham, etc.

The rule is simple: be consistent. If there are different acceptable ways to spell or hyphenate a word, then choose the one you want and make sure you use that one throughout.

Hyphenation is more complex because it can be a stylistic choice and  really the word doesn’t need it — but if you do it — be consistent, the rule is as simple as that.

Capitalisation of words is another one, if you start to give job titles a capital then all job titles now need to be the same way.

For north and south you only really need a capital when the word is part of a name like East London, North Wales, but heading north really doesn’t. But for style you might use an expression like ‘we head North’ and you want north to have more credence as a term for a collection north, but again consistency is essential. With okay there are two forms: OK and okay and not ok! And the rule — be consistent.

I once edited a MS that used capitals for all animals, so ‘he saw the Lion moving away from the Buffalo. This isn’t needed but if you do, you have to … wait for it … be consistent!

And in a proof reads also look at lists. I have read scripts that use bullet points or numbers in lists and the same rule applies — if there is a number and full stop then use that throughout. If the points are sentences that end in a full stop, then all points must end the same way.

And the consistency also means in how you use headings, fonts, spaces between headings and first lines, spaces between asterisks and so on — this is all part of making the MS look as polished as possible. Some of you might think the publisher will do this and yes I do a lot of this when I format the stories but it’s a good habit to get into. And when it comes to spellings — it’s sloppy not to be consistent.

So this is perhaps the most common issue I see when I copy-edit and proof … so thought it might be a useful exercise to show.

Most of the MSs I edit are electronic so all I have to do is do a ‘Find’ to see how the author spelled something  before if I think it was spelled a different way. It’s part of my job to make note of words that I know can be spelled a different way and ‘ Find and Replace’ is a great proofing tool. On paper as I do for one publisher I have to make notes when I see the words I know have different spellings, hyphenations etc and correct or suggest the author chooses the one he/she wants and makes sure they use the ‘Find and Replace’ function.

I can not tell you how often I see this and while it’s more to do with the ‘nuts and bolts’ of writing — it isn’t just about the writing in terms of plot, pace, characterisation etc, you do need to get these fundamentals right!

Have a great writing day everyone!

Editing, where to start?

I have covered many aspects related to writing and editing your work, so which is the most difficult?

I am amazed when I read Tweets and Blogs posts where writers complain about editing. I will tell you why. Editing is what writing is really all about — the nuts and bolts of it. It’s perhaps as much as 90% of writing and is as integral to the process as getting that idea down as a first draft, which is really only the beginning.I think of  the first draft like laying the slab of sculpting clay and forming a tentative shape of what it wants to be — we can see it’s a human or a dog or a tree let’s say and some parts will be more formed and more detailed than others. But do you leave it there? Is that it?

Of course not. Now you must sculpt, deconstruct to reconstruct, mould, craft, tweak and polish. This is the process, this is writing. There does come a point of course where you need to stand back and stop tweaking and perhaps perfection itself is elusive. But indeed it’s the editing that makes bad good and good better, fine finer and great amazing. So never be shy of the process and never think negatively about something that really is the writing process itself.

There are various forms of editing from a full plot or structural edit that usually is where you start after you’ve laid down the first draft; and there’s line editing and copy editing, oh and final proofing. People call the various forms of editing different things, but really I wouldn’t get hung up on a name and they all overlap anyway. I have also talked to people who use the term ‘development’ editing which is more to do with making ideas turn into stories and is very much an initial form of editing akin to structural editing.

When I critique I do a bit of everything. I am copy editing in the sense I am tidying and correcting issues in the narrative itself, explaining rules that are being broken or not understood, so part of it is the nuts and bolts issues, and in some ways I can’t help myself highlighting the clichés and the point of view issues, incorrect formatting in dialogue, incorrect use of semi colons and so on … but what I also point out is the place to start is to look at plot and structural issues first. The corrections and copy editing aspects need to be there to show the writer where they are making fundamental errors, but there is no point correcting all of that first when it’s likely whole sections, even characters will be lost in the big edit. What I think is key to starting the editing process is to look at what’s not working and what is, what needs to be better, as in voice, character, plot and perhaps refer to the story arc as a place to start. Ask yourself what key question the novel explores, what the conflict is that drives the story and is this clear and strong enough? Is the motivation of the key players defined enough to account for their actions and make the plot as credible as it needs to be? These are the big questions and often ones we find hard to see in our own work. So this is where seeking another opinion is useful.

Then look at the scenes in terms of functionality. I use a spreadsheet for this, especially when confronted with a first draft that needs reshaping. People talk about how every word has to count, and perhaps we think this is being too precious and if we teased apart every sentence and every paragraph, the way perhaps a poet might, we would take a lifetime to write a novel. But it does all have to count. It has to be functional; move plot, develop character and explore theme, tie into the leitmotifs you set up from the beginning. So when it comes to your edit, look at function and make sure there isn’t what we call filler … scenes that add little, that are really only padding. This is really where the story’s shape will emerge from your block of clay when you can think it terms of what a scene and then what a chapter does. If you can’t define that then perhaps it doesn’t need to be there. Perhaps there is another simpler way of giving the same information as part of another more functional scene?

Getting started is often the biggest stumbling block, and being able to stand back from your work and see its flaws.

If you can’t afford to pay someone to do this seek a writer’s opinion you can trust or even a reader although they might not have the skills you need, they might be able to tell you something seems wrong, but not how to make it better. But at the very least put that MS away for a while and then go back to it. It’s amazing what distance can do to highlight what you couldn’t see before.

 

And remember editing is process. It can’t be rushed.

If you have any editing questions please ask!

Have a good day writers and readers!

 

What do you want from a crit? Is is the same as a book review?

Is there a ‘critter’ in us all? Is a crit the same as a review?

 

I remember when I first became part of a critique group. It was about 5 years ago now and it was initially two of us who were working on novels. I knew the girl I partnered had a lot more experience than me and I was pretty daunted. In fact I remember Googling what exactly a critique is and how I should go about it.

I did find actually, after a couple of really detailed interesting meetings, and by which time we had started to recruit to a respectable 4 of us, how the art of critiquing is something you develop. And it can come quite fast. But what I also learned was you have to know your stuff. Initially I went with a gut reaction, I questioned parts I wasn’t sure made sense, inconsistencies in voice and credibility, what I thought of the plot and the writing. I guess a little like all of us can do when we review books (basic reviews that is). And reviewing books is a different thing … another valued art and something I will also talk about.

But I think this is where we can all critique; we can all say how we feel about a story or a chapter and this is equally as valid as anything else. But the more experienced you are as a writer, (as opposed to just a reader) and in my case now with an MA under my belt and experience copy editing, proof-reading and publishing, the more you bring to the table. I hope! I also have a lot more experience in terms of having critiqued a great many novels and short stories so I have learned to gauge quite quickly the ability of the writer and this provides context in terms of the bigger picture. What working for a consultancy has taught me is how to ‘rate’ novels in terms of how I think it will do in its current form and what I see as future directions for the author. All of this has been built from experience.

I remember when I was first paid to critique for someone. It was a short story and it was instantly clear the author was relatively new to writing so I felt I was able to offer good advice and she came back with 2 or 3 stories over the months. As I got more and more work I created a template on which to base reports. When I say template I really mean how I was going to order discussion points, and each is different for obvious reasons, sometimes I need to pay a lot more attention to some areas than others. I mark the MS as I read in the same way I would when copy editing for a publisher. I make suggestions, comments, pick up on clunky or awkward phrasing, when voice slips etc. I then formulate a report with the headings Voice (which looks at viewpoint and narration), Style, Plot, Pace, Themes, Dialogue, Characterisation and any other that’s fitting for the piece. If there are a lot of grammar issues I will dedicate a section to that explaining the rules. It varies and I tailor it specifically to the author and their work. It can be as short as 8 pages for a novel (although not usually!) and as long as 40 pages (yeah really!) but is usually about 15. It is as long as it is. And it’s detailed.

Until I did my trial and was sent samples from the consultancy I hadn’t seen reports as detailed as mine so I felt I was on their wavelength immediately. If I was to expand my business at any point I would use them as a model and test reviewers in the same way. Their reports discuss the same things as mine, but perhaps labelled differently that’s all and things like ‘future directions’ I have added to mine as I liked this aspect.

I remember creating the way I wanted these reports to look and I have the guide on my wall now.

I remember creating useful papers where I discussed formatting for publication, story arcs … etc so if I needed to provide authors with additional material it was there. Once it was set up, I rarely have to create anything new to send.

I have come a long way from the days I had to Google what to include in a critique.

A long way from when it was more of a ‘review.’

A book review is similar but it tends to be more in a lay person’s language and is aimed more at talking about the book as a whole. It does have many of the same points and I think now about the book group I attend from time to time. Does the voice work? Do you like the author’s style. is the plot credible? Do you believe the protagonist would go to those measures? Did it sag in the middle? What did you think of the ending? Perhaps there is more focus on the subject matter and the genre in a review. And I guess the biggie for a review: would you read this author again?

You see how it’s the same … but different.

Most of us could write a review of sorts, although a professional or semi-professional reviewer (and I know some amazing Blogger book reviewers) are really well read and this sets them in a league for reviewing above what most of us could ‘string’ together. So no offence intended! I have a great deal of respect for the art. With a critique however it’s not so much about saying what doesn’t work it’s about saying why it doesn’t work and suggesting how to make it work. You need a good handle on narrative styles and devices, an appreciation of the needs of specific genres, a good grip of grammar and eye for small details. It’s a lot more about teasing the mechanics of writing apart and looking for ways to do things better, or in a stronger way. And these are skills that need the experience and the knowledge and what set apart a book review from a professional critique. Or a critique by a novice that is more basic review-like, to a critique by someone who knows. This might help when thinking about the advice offered in critique groups of mixed ability (I have talked about some of the shortfalls of these before.)

One of the things I did learn and the one that really stays with me when I first Googled ‘What is a critique?’ is something that came up on Writer’s Digest website. They said that if a critique is so negative it makes you throw the MS in a closet and wonder why the hell you bothered, then there is something wrong with the crit or the group you attend. You should walk away eager and you can’t wait to get editing, even if the crit did highlight a lot of weaknesses. But the crit should be balanced and also show what works well and therefore show how you can make the whole thing as good as that. Empower the author. And when you show something is weak, show them what small changes might do to really enhance it. If you get the light bulb moment you will send the writer away from a group, or even if sat at home reading a report, eager to make a start. That is what this report said a good critique does. And this is something I have never forgotten.

In fact there are still 3 of the original 4 in our crit group and we all work so well we are closed to newbies.

How far we have all come.

What are your experiences of critiques?

The only way I truly value the business I run is when I hear of successes from clients (and I am still smiling about one I heard of yesterday!), when clients tell me how much it has helped and when clients come back and they nearly all do 🙂

Have a great weekend all!

Random … but beautiful 🙂

Bad advice for writers …

I am aware that on the pages of this Blog and in the work I do with writers, that I am handing out advice. I don’t give this advice without grounding and experience as both a small publisher (well I am 5 foot 3) and a published writer with a Masters in Creative Writing. But advice comes from all sorts of places, including books, other writers, workshops, writing groups and critiques by other experienced writers. And this has also taught me to be discerning about the advice I’m given.  And likewise that I offer.

I have talked also about the challenges of critique groups of mixed ability; and that while all opinion counts, you need to know if you are being given good or indeed bad advice. If you’re a novice, and you’re really not sure about the advice, seek further support for it. Apply it to an extract of your writing and see if you think it’s improved it.

It has probably been a good thing I trained as a scientist and in the last day job was doing a fair amount of research that involved trawling the internet and looking for papers, books etc. What you learn as a scientist is you need not only to find the supporting evidence for a claim from at least 6 sources, they need to be reputable ones. So if someone has suggested changing point of view mid-scene as in head-hopping is fine, look further. The same with grammar rules, which are perhaps the one part that is more set in stone in terms of correct and incorrect … most of the time! Creative licence for breaking the rules must only be undertaken with care and if it’s clear it’s deliberate and it works!

One of the problems with a Blog like this, and in fact the reason why I do Fiction Clinic, is general advice is one thing, and it does help (I believe) but there comes a point, in our writing, when we need that feedback to be more specific and tailored to our own style. For example, I have and will repeat that flowery over-written clunky description can weaken narrative and distract the reader. I might have even plucked an example out of the air for you before now … but how much does that help you? Can you see that in your own writing? By getting up close and personal to your own writing, on the other hand, means I can show it exactly … this is where you do it. But more than that. Flowery, wordy description is acceptable if done well. Yep, it is, it’s a style and genre thing and there are many examples of great literature that do just that. The trick, is to show someone what is good wordy flowery description compared to distracting trying to be too clever description and that’s a lot harder. Imagine I state that rule and then you delete every piece of what you think is flowery description so it now is a lot more succinct, but you’ve now lost its heart. You might have been doing it really well and my advice has ruined something special.  Perhaps also the trick is when and how to use it, and again this might be connected to pace as well as genre. It might hinder a pacey psychological thriller or police detective crime novel, but your period piece set in 17th century England, in the scene after a great tragedy that was fast-moving, well, it might be just what you need to slow it down. And your character might well admire the roses. This is an instinct you will develop often with guidance.

We like to think we can trust our own instincts implicitly, and I know for sure I’ve written lines or paragraphs, even whole chapters I think are wonderful (not that I’d say that out loud you understand — head big enough! It’s the hair, honest!) but no one else sees it.  Damn! So I show a few people. Double damn! They don’t see it either. Now I could decide they don’t know a thing and I am a literary genius waiting for time to catch up with me, or accept there’s a pretty good chance I was wrong. I opt for the latter, in case you had any doubt!

We all need editors, even the best-selling authors … trust me. But the more you write, the better you get, and with an editor that shows you how a change makes it better, you will hone those instincts and you will learn! It’s all about the learning!

This is why we all need to be discerning in how we accept and hand out advice. And why critique and editorial by a professional will show you exactly where you do in fact do something really well, as well as really badly,

 

What is also frustrating as a new writer is being told something doesn’t quite work, but not being able to show why or make suggestions about how to fix it. It’s rare I do that, I give it a lot of thought. I always try to make suggestions. If it is a tricky one I at least point out why it’s not working.

One of the common reactions to being offered advice that something doesn’t quite work (even with a full qualification of why)  is that I didn’t get what the story was trying to say, she had that long drawn out opening with the family getting ready to go to church to establish what type of family there were, so when the little girl gets kidnapped in the next chapter she had established the contrast.

And my reaction is this: great, so she had intention (a lot of writers lack a real purpose for scene placement and direction) but here’s the thing, if she had to explain that, she’s not getting it quite right. Perhaps I suggest she starts with the kidnapping, action, hook the reader and this might indeed work. Or she might keep the opening, but if it’s ‘boring’ then it’s boring, whichever way you look at it (although she might seek other opinions to be sure, I have a thick skin, and hey that’s fine) … what I’m saying is bad or ‘less effective’ writing is just that — we should all be receptive to ideas. Perhaps she could keep the getting ready scene, but make it more interesting, create a lively voice, add something to it that really drives the reader on. That’s the real key — narrative drive. Writing can always be better. If that author really really wanted that scene, even if I suggested she start the action later, then there is always a way. But it needs work whichever way you look at it. I think what I’m saying is you can ‘stick to your guns’ but make it work by writing better! Simple eh? Okay, not always, I know. But no one said writing was a walk in the park! Did they?

No it’s not an exact science, I can’t tell you x + 7 = 10 therefore x=3,  and that’s always the answer, or 42 which is apparently the answer to everything … but I can show you how your writing can be better, or more engaging, or do what you intended it to do.

Is it subjective? Well it’s impossible to remove that factor from the equation, sure,  but advice and critique based on experience does aim to be as objective as possible, and at the same time specific to your writing.

So don’t be afraid to seek advice. If you can’t afford a professional critique there are a heap of books out there. Choose a good one, one that has been recommended. Read the writing mags, looks at what courses you can afford, you might get help. But don’t sit in a bubble alone for too long, not if your goal is to get your work read and enjoyed, which for most of us, I think it is!

Happy Thursday fellow travellers!

Caption anyone?

Be consistent …

I’ve been doing a fair amount of copy editing of late, some for a publisher, a mixture of fiction and non fiction and one of the common things that keeps emerging is more of a typographical issue, but one that I have seen so often I thought I would talk about it. Consistency. I don’t mean like the texture of a cake consistency, although it kind of applies.

I mean in the spelling of words that can be with or without a hyphen or the spelling of words with alternative spellings.

 

Here are some common examples:

T-shirt, t-shirt, tee shirt

okay, OK

ice cream, ice-cream

trade up, trade-up

That kind of thing!

Sometimes we use hyphens where we don’t need to, it might be a stylistic decision, we might describe someone as of those always-on-the-up types … as I’ve done here. And it’s fine to be stylistic.

But here’s the thing. When I copy edit I have to keep track in a notebook of how the author has spelled or hyphenated words and phrases so I can pick up on inconsistencies. In Word that’s easy to do because you search and can just as easily replace with the version you want to use. When I hard  copy proof that’s a different thing and that’s when I have to make note and then correct any diversions from this.

While inconsistencies won’t get you rejected if the writing is good enough, it will show the agent/publisher how much attention you pay to detail and the more you get right, the better you’ll look. So my advice is use FIND and REPLACE and make sure you are consistent in your spellings and hyphenation. Until I started to do more copy editing I hadn’t realised just how often we make mistakes like this … me included!

I now have 4 pieces for Fiction Clinic, I might have to use 3, but I will try to get to all 4. Thanks guys!

No lumps

 

 

Cats and commas

I guess you all heard this? A CAT has it CLAWS at the end of its PAWS and a COMMA has its PAUSE at the end of its CLAUSE ?

I think it comes from the famous Eats Shoots and Leaves (punctuate as you see fit!)

The reason I’m talking about commas was prompted by some work I’ve been copy-editing by a US client and it made me learn something new.

I am going to talk about the serial comma, the one that can come before a conjunction in a list of three or more items. It’s the eats shoots and leaves issue, but I am going to write apples, bananas and pears to avoid the double meaning. I was always taught not to use a comma as in the above example. However, I found myself making a new discovery. In the MS I was editing I kept correcting commas used before ‘and’ , ‘or’ or ‘but’ and given the quality of the writer’s grammar started to question it.

So I looked it up and found the use of the serial comma is the American English grammar … see me use  the ‘Find’ button and have to reject my deletions in the document. So to clarify, in American English,  it should read apples, bananas, and pears.

Although, both forms are really acceptable these days and there is some shift towards not using it, so I read. Confused yet?

So this got me thinking about other oddities in grammar. Now I don’t pretend to be the Grammar Guru, in fact I know I make errors, but since I’ve been doing more and more editing for publishers and having to correct grammar, I’ve really had to think more about it and know the rule.

Commas are odd things.

I mean they’re little squiggles but they have big meanings.

Today the the tendency is to move away from overuse of commas. I remember editing my dad’s Jet-Set stories and removing a bunch of commas that he said were there to denote pauses. However, while this is still often the case, commas are more correctly used at the end of clauses and this  does not always coincide with pauses. Some things can be both ways, take this example:

Yesterday I had to run for the bus.

But I could have written ‘Yesterday, I had to run for the bus.’ Personally for such a short sentence I would not use the comma.

Another — I love to make apple pie even though I hate apples Or I love to make apple pie, even though I hate apples?

Again you could use both forms but the comma gives us a pause at the end of a clause for version 2. Some of this is subjective.

The easiest use is when commas are used instead of parenthesis … The book, with the red cover, is on the table. But even here we could lose the commas depending on what we mean. In the above the clause in the commas is adding incidental information, right? It could read ‘The book is on the table.” But “The book with the red cover is on the table” makes the fact it has a red cover more important.  This is the restrictive use of the comma, because it’s really saying the book you want that’s on the table is the one with the red cover. It restricts it to just that book. The former version is therefore non-restrictive, because it’s saying the book is on the table and oh by the way it has a red cover, but there might be other books with red covers, it’s not being restrictive.

Of course we might not plunge into a discussion of which, that and who and this can get complicated, essentially because the rules of punctuation change. It is accepted that you use ‘that’ for a restrictive clause … The book that has a red cover is on the table.  And ‘which’ for non-restrictive The book, which has a red cover, is on the table.

When writing a restrictive clause, do not place a comma before “that.” When writing a nonrestrictive clause, do place a comma before “which.”

Got it?

But the thing is the rules are now changing and authors tend to use which and that interchangeably, so what becomes more important is how you place your  commas!

With  ‘who’ it’s simpler, use who when the subject is a person and not an object … The man, who wore a hat, is guilty of the crime (non-restrictive) or The man who wore a hat is guilty of the crime.

There are so many variations of how to use commas I am really skirting on the edge of it, but I am still wondering why our US cousins use their serial comma differently. But then again, they don’t always.

A different meaning for shades of grey/gray in grammar?

Have an awesome weekend y’all 🙂

Your journey to find WOW

I am one of you.

I am also trying to get that validation, that publishing deal, the realisation of the dream.

But why is it so difficult? 

We all get better the more we write and as time goes on and we start to have some success we start to believe. But we have to work so hard. Most of us are on about our 4th/5th novel really honing the craft by the time someone might give us a break. We work and work and work and still we’re not getting there. What we have to realise is how we are one of so many all bustling in a highly competitive market place. It’s not just about being good these days, it’s about standing out and parting someone’s lips into a big fat WOW. And because there is an element of subjectivity and what is wow to one person isn’t to another, it only takes one. Doesn’t matter if you have a ton of rejections, all you need is one yes … right?

But it’s easier said than done.

So many will give up at that point, but what if that break is just around the corner?

If you want it, you won’t give up.

I see a lot of manuscripts, some great, some not so great but most have the potential to be great — we are all somewhere along that continuum of development. But there are few short cuts. While self-publishing might well be seen as one way to get the work out there and I am not dissing that in any way, it can be demoralising when you sell 20 copies after months of shouting about it. Or you sell it to everyone in the world you know and it even gives you a high rating on Amazon for a while, but then you struggle to repeat that success with book number 2. Why?

Well, sadly there are too many self-published books that did not benefit from a good editor, or even if they were edited, the writer maybe wasn’t quite there yet and perhaps the book was rejected by the mainstream publishers and possibly agents, for good reason. If the first book fails to wow maybe you’re not quite there,  so can you reasonably expect your readers to buy the next one?

It’s a toughie, one I wrestle with as well, do I self-publish? I have a press for a start, but I think, like many of you, we all seek validation.

I want to tell you about someone I met who did secure an agent. The agent did try to sell his novels but without success in a  really crowded market place. By this time he was beginning to think it wasn’t going to happen, and I have heard many stories of people who get the agent but nothing happens after that. So he decided to self-publish by setting up his own press and moved into the eBook market. He now has over 350 downloads a day and makes about £80K a year. He has a following and writes in a popular genre. So it can happen. I might ask him to be a guest on my Blog to share some of how he did it for those that will find this interesting. But firstly I’d say to have this success you need to be a good writer. (Or you should be, sometimes books have ‘unexpected’ phenomenal success, not saying what, coughs into hankie … fifty shades of hmmm.)  By this writer, I’m telling you about, securing an agent this to me says he must write pretty well. But selling his books and maintaining books sales must be the greatest validation (in most cases, coughs again at thought of certain book). And you have to market yourself and keep going.

But these successes are few and far between, but at least the opportunity is there.

I thought I would also talk about some of the online crit sites. I won’t name any specifically, but I have to say one thing — these can be great but some of them work so you only receive a crit if you crit for other people (fair enough, right?) however, and this is not true  for all, if you ever fall into this (as I know many who have) you not only find a lot of very badly written material (not all, I must stress! I know some will be fantastic!), but you also have  to think about who is critting you. I know some people who showed me crits for the same piece, some giving completely differing and sometimes wrong advice (by this I mean, why not slip into another character’s head mid scene … no!) Or grammar rules being given that are blatantly wrong … some things you can put down to subjectivity sure, but how much of this advice is heeded and is it not hindering? All I’d say, like anything is act with caution.

But what has emerged is how much work is out there and what you have to compete with; some great, a lot not so great … but we are all on a journey, we are all seeking WOW.

And no matter what your route, all I can say (stuck record syndrome) is keep going and keep growing and keep glowing … you will get there.

Heed advice wisely.

And …

Above all …

BELIEVE

All it takes is One Voice

 

Fiction Clinic … being Wordnerdzy

Well it seems we have nothing to critique for Fiction Clinic, but I’ve not promoted it a lot as I was away, or it means you’re all too busy to read the Blog or … you don’t need me, which is a good thing, really … isn’t it?

So I thought, since I have been doing quite a bit of copy-editing for a publisher at the moment, I’d send some of the general things people get wrong a lot, grammar and formatting type things. When I’m asked to copy-edit, rather than critique I’m proofreading with extras. So I’m looking for grammar and typos, formatting and spelling inconsistencies as well as character inconsistencies, changes in voice, point of view slips and clunky or awkward phrasing. I’m basically polishing for publication. This contrasts to the full on critique which involves a much more detailed analysis and is what you need if you’re really still refining your writing. And I do more of these as a rule.

So when I copy-edit, I usually provide some kind of notes. Although I do use specific examples if I need to, the report tends to state the rules in relation to the common errors spotted, so I thought it would be worthwhile bullet-pointing some of these so you can see some of the things you might also be doing wrong. Some I have talked about before, but it doesn’t hurt to recap.

So here goes: Example of Global Notes

• To avoid any errors with type-setting, it is good practice to format using indenting for new paragraphs. For scene and/or point of view changes or the introduction of new arguments or discussion points (in non-fiction), use double spacing and no indent. You can also use an asterisk system (* or  *** ) to emphasise the break in scene.
• Do not shift between double and single speech marks for dialogue – use one or the other. It is also suggested that you might use thoughts in italics to differentiate them from speech and normal text.
• Some words do not need to be capitalised such as the Lion, the King although they can be used like this, so long as this style is used throughout. If the word is used as a name, such as King Arthur rather than ‘the king’, or Mum is lovely, rather than ‘my mum is lovely’, then capitals are needed, otherwise when used as a noun, my dad, lower case is needed. When describing an area as ‘north’, ‘south’ etc a small letter is the correct form unless this forms part of a title, such as Eastern China, Central Americas, North Wales, where it is part of the accepted name rather than simply an adjective.
• Some phrases do not need hyphenation such as ice cream, however ice-cream is also correct  and in some cases hyphenation is a stylistic choice, e.g he looked at her with an I-really-mean-business expression. The rule is to be consistent in its usage.
  
• Some words have alternative spellings, such as OK and okay (ok is not acceptable) and again the rule is consistency — do not use both forms interchangeably.
• To get an ellipsis (…) press alt and semi colon (on a MAC), or ctrl/alt and the period once (on a PC). Three or more consecutive full stops are not correct. It is also considered best practice to use spacing either side of an ellipsis
• Ensure en-dashes (‘– ’) are used instead of hyphens (-) for sentence clauses. En-dashes are created in Word by typing a single or double hyphen after a space, then creating a space after the word that follows it.
• Consider using italics when emphasising a word rather than underlining it or setting it in bold.
• Set all book, magazine and newspaper titles in italics as well as television programmes, collections of poems and album titles. Set all song titles in inverted commas.  Also ensure that titles of books, songs etc, are given capital letters in the correct places.
• Write all numbers from one – one hundred in word form, and all numbers over one hundred in numerical form (101, 202, 303). Exceptions to this can be when writing the date (4^th July), the time digitally (5.30am), statistics (80%), money (£10) and measurements/weight (5 ft 6 inches).
• When writing the time as ‘o clock’ , please write in word form (four o’clock). However, when writing the time digitally, am/pm, then write in numerical form (4am).

Has this been helpful? Spot anything you didn’t know or was unsure of?

Got any questions I might be able to help with?

Email me and I’ll try to answer the dilemmas for you next week, a kind of ‘Ask Debz’ or as I pitched but was turned down in a writing magazine, a column called  ‘Debz Sayz’ … I thought it sounded okay myself!

Have a great weekend y’all!

Last day of the challenge …

Many thanks for all the great entries sent in so far for the Blog 200 Challenge. You still have until midnight to post your 200 word extracts — comment here: LINK

It made me smile this morning to see someone say my last post all about grammar, was full of useful information but they didn’t bother to read it all because it was full of grammatical errors and typos! 🙂  Irony? You can only smile. I’m not so sure it is (is it?) but hey, if it is, then it proves two things:  it’s easy to make errors; to err is human and  I write this before I do anything else, so maybe my brain isn’t quite in gear so early. I have to say, I do try not to make errors but this is me on free flow, so I don’t get over-burdened with detail. Now I’m thinking perhaps I should? Oops 😦 But since there are many other things happening to us in life, many sad terrible things, perhaps I don’t need to stress it. Do I? Is Debz, the WordzNerd, not such a word nerd. Oh dear. Someone help me!

Check out the Blogger though as we might all learn something about grammar! This looks really helpful. I have had a good read this morning, and I can see she knows a lot about this. There’s me told. But I like to be challenged and I will try harder, as they say. Whoever they are! Here it is:  GRAMMAR BLOG

I would never call myself a grammar guru, and as a writer, for me anyway, it’s one of the least interesting aspects to writing fiction, but it is part of the nuts and bolts of the craft. Getting it right does show a level of professionalism in your work if you want to be taken really seriously. I guess the same level of pedantic checking ought to be applied to Blogs: comma placement, typos, semi colon use … but I tend to write from the heart. Perhaps I am not a ‘rigorous enough checker’?

However, this raises a good point. I know people who do worry about grammar, who wonder if they’ve used indirect articles or put the apostrophe in the right place. You know, the best advice I read was from Stephen King in his book On Writing  when he says  do not get hung up on it.

I do have one grammar book. The internet can also be helpful (of you use reputable sites) and I, for one, do have to be sure of the rule not only when I write, but also in my copy-editing. I am meticulous about this, less so than typing a Blog, for sure.  If I’m not certain on a rule, I look it up.

How pedantic are you?

If you get most of it right, and write very well, can you be forgiven the odd blip?

More tomorrow. I hope I haven’t opened a can of worms here, to coin a cliché.

Don’t tell me I’ve made a heap of typos here, I think I’m getting paranoid now.

Have a great day. Don’t worry, be happy.