Going Unplugged

First – thanks for all the lively discussion on yesterday's post. I do want to make it clear that I wrote this for exactly that reason—to discuss the role of an editor, and how an author should approach making changes based on editorial input. It's a matter of choosing one's battles, and in this case, as of the time I'm writing the, it's not even a battle, as I haven't sent in my edits yet.

And, here's the preliminary cover for the anthology. Doesn't look much like an assortment of cozy mysteries to me, which makes it all the more curious as to why readers wouldn't expect some "hard boiled" content.

I will send my editor my rationale for rejected her word choices. I will offer to find a new word that's mutually acceptable if she absolutely can't bear the idea of the word "ass" in any form being part of a book put out by her publishing house. (And it IS her publishing house.) There are plenty of other word choices, and I have faith we will find one that works for both of us if I can't use my original wording.

As you read this, I'm paying a much overdue visit to my parents in Los Angeles. It's a relatively short visit—I'll be back late Monday night—but I'm traveling light, so no laptop. My folks have computers, so I'm not totally cut off from the planet, but I'm certainly not going to be doing anything other than checking email once or twice a day.


So, what will that mean?

First, I'm not going to be visiting many websites or blogs, because I won't have my bookmarks and passwords, and it's not worth the trouble to bring them along, even if I do have more computer access than I anticipate.

Revising in the Dark

What I'm reading: Love me to Death, by Allison Brennan

When you're an author, you sit and write the books in your head. Sometimes the story flows, sometimes it slogs, but you write. Most of us have critique partners or groups—people to bounce ideas off of, and to offer feedback on the WIPs. If they say they have trouble with a plot thread, or even the way you've worded a paragraph, the decision to change things is yours. But what happens when someone with more clout than a crit partner wants changes?

Late last week, I heard from my agent, who finally heard from the editor. We'd submitted a three chapter proposal last November, and, as happens so often in this business, we waited. And waited.

The news. Good and not quite so good. The good. The editor didn't say no. The not so good. She wanted me to revise.

Turning the Tables

In the world of writing, one of the dreaded chores is submitting. Whether it's a simple query letter (or is that an oxymoron?), a proposal, a partial, or the exhilaration resulting from a request for a full manuscript, you're still left relying on the decision of someone else. And, odds are, given the percentages of acceptances in the business, you're going to have to deal with a dreaded rejection letter.

Right now, I'm waiting to hear from one publisher about a full manuscript submission, and from my agent about a new proposal. To avoid stressing, I'm also back to working on my 4th Blackthorne novel (although that's stress enough, since it's book number 3 that I'm waiting to hear about). I'm a little over 200 pages into it, and I'm still a non-plotter. Yesterday was one of those two steps forward, three steps back days. However, even though I'm writing 'on spec', with no guarantee of a sale, I find even a day of frustrating writing is better than a day of not writing at all.

As followers of the 'real life' portion of this blog might recall, we've been renovating and remodeling our house. Whereas the upper floor was a simple matter of swapping out existing materials, downstairs, we're converting a basement that's basically one large L-shaped room with a bathroom and laundry area into functional living space, including a tv room, an exercise area for those snowy days, and a dedicated guest room..

Copyedits and Me

What I'm reading: Sizzling Sixteen, by Janet Evanovich
Thanks again to Mark Danielson for yesterday's post and photos.

Double-duty today. I'm also over at Author Expressions, so you get two blogs for one!

Picking up from Monday’s post:

Quick recap. Some differences between submissions, first-round, and copyedits.
Once your manuscript hits the editing phase, you should be fixing things, not changing things. This isn’t the time to do your searches for overused words, or clunky construction. That should have been done before you sent the manuscript off. When your first round editor sends comments, focus on what she’s said.

What do you do if you DO find a word or phrase keeps popping up as you’re dealing with first round edits? If you’ve got an understanding editor, you can probably make the changes. But do everyone a favor, and make sure those types of problems get noted so you don’t make them again. (Although you’ll find new crutch words will replace the vacuum you’ve created.)

Your first round editor might ask for more significant changes. In When Danger Calls, I’d carefully written around a scene I didn’t want to show on the page—a combat scene, and I wasn’t sure I’d get it right, so I had written a generic “seven minutes later when the gunfire stopped” kind of transition.

Nope, my editor said. She wanted those seven minutes on the page. That required writing, not fixing.

Back to the copyediting. Here’s my process (and it’s pretty much the same for both first round and copyedits):

Who Needs Directions?

What I'm reading: Hard Rain, by Barry Eisler

Thanks, Randall, for being my guest. You've given me a wake-up call too. Time to stop procrastinating and start submitting. Where to start?

Way back when, when I was in school, teachers would give a test to see if you could follow directions. You've probably seen them. You're told that you have to finish within a specific time limit, which seems all too short when you look at how many questions there are. You start reading, ignoring the first item, which says "read all the questions before proceeding." That's a total time-waste, right? Maybe you read the first few, but you want to get on with it so you finish. Only trouble is, at the end, it says, "Only answer the first three questions" or some other sneaky variation. Needless to say, there was a lot of groaning as those who answered all the questions found they'd failed the test.

Have we learned the importance of following directions? (I'm not touching the male-female question here.)

Moving along to writing:

The manuscript is finished. It's time to query. Agents? Publishers? Either way, you have to create that proper first impression. Hubby grumbles when I nag about all the staging when we have a house showing, but it's no different for a writing project. Home buyer or literary agent: you've got to grab them from the outset. They don't care that at this time of year the trees are shedding leaves and it's a losing battle to keep them away. The buyers look at the property and see "LEAVES TO RAKE." The editor sees "REQUIRES MASSIVE EDITING."

And Even More Quebec and Edits

What I'm reading: 9 Dragons, by Michael Connelly

As I write this, I'm home again. A cold front had blown through and we returned home to glorious weather. Today, it's laundry, so while the machines do their things, I thought I'd recap more trip highlights.

Thursday, the weather was crisp and sunny enough to walk through the old city, although I felt the aftermath of the previous night's walk to and from the port. One of my goals was to visit the Choco Musée, which is a small display and shop outside of the old city, not too far from the hotel. The distances aren't great, but the changes in elevation are killer. I can't imagine navigating those sidewalks and stairs in icy conditions.

I did get to the museum and chocolate shop, and treated myself to a box of assorted confections. The box was almost too pretty to open -- almost.



These are the chocolates I picked out.



And if you have a few minutes, check out their website.


On my wanderings, I found a couple of Irish pubs, so we decided we'd go back down there for dinner. We ended up at St. Patrick's where the Guinness was on tap (although it was a fast pour), and the fish and chips were … well, they weren't the same as the ones I had in England. Of course, after walking down to the pub, we had to walk back up to the hotel.

Keep Reading...

As for the 'working' part of the day:

After turning in my revisions, and getting editorial comments, I mentioned that I had originally written a different sort of ending for the book, and since she was having trouble with the way the current ending was going, I said I'd send it to her. Luckily, I had an old, old draft on my laptop with that first ending.

I didn't want to spend TOO much of my 'vacation' time working on edits if she didn't like the concept, but I did give it a rough polish and figure out where it would fit into the existing manuscript. She liked the new version better, so we're back to editing again. Cutting, pasting, checking for continuity, weaving in transitions was a challenge. I'm used to working on my PC, and having a printer on hand so I can look at a hard copy to catch things like repeats, places where I hit 'copy' instead of 'cut', etc. But, I trudged through it, and sent it back to her.

She sent her comments and edits. This time, she not only said things like, "here she should look at him, searching for ... 'something' … and then "and here she finds whatever it was" but she also added bits of dialogue, touches of narrative. The issue then becomes deciding 1) if I agree with the premise; and 2) if the wording is not my voice (or the voice of my character), and how to adjust it so it is.

I'm fortunate to have an editor who's willing to discuss why she wants changes, and who will listen to my reasoning when I don't agree. We must have gone back and forth half a dozen times on the final paragraph of the manuscript, before we found the wording that evoked the right reactions in both of us. I don't like to think of our process as one of compromises, because that implies that we end up with something neither of us really likes.

Tomorrow, my guest is Sheila Deeth, who will be talking about alternative routes to publication.

Editing - Phase 2

What I'm reading: Blood Hunt, by Ian Rankin

Thanks to Mona for sharing her editing techniques. I’m going to add my thoughts, but if you haven't read hers yet, scroll down. I can wait.

All right. I've already addressed my story board technique for keeping track of plot points and characters when I write, which is just a different way to accomplish the same goal we all have. Making sure our manuscript gleams before we turn it in.

Now, on to the next step. The publisher wants your book. You have a contract in hand. That gleaming manuscript now goes to an editor. And then it comes back. All scratched and tarnished.

First – if you get a manuscript back that is NOT marked up, or only has a few comments, don't feel proud. Don't dance for joy. It's more likely you need a better editor. There's nothing out there that can't be improved. But that doesn't mean you should click on "accept all changes in document" either. There are some editors who prefer a 'hands off' policy, who don't want to change the author's story or voice. That's all well and good. But letting sloppy writing get published isn't helping anyone. A good editor can keep the meat of the story and let the author's vision shine through while still trimming the fat and suggesting improvements.

Second -- Your relationship with your editor shouldn't be adversarial. You have your ideas about the book. She has hers. But you've also got a common goal. Make the manuscript as good as it can be. Swallow your pride, your indignation. Find some chocolate, or wine, or take a hot bubble bath. Shoot some Snoods. Sleep on it for a day. Or three. Then open up the file again and get to work.

Keep Reading...

My recent manuscript, as I mentioned, came back 10,000 words shorter than the one I sent in. Sure, it's an ego-deflater, but no matter how magnificent the words were, if they didn't advance the story or develop the character, they probably didn't need to be there.

There are lots of editing workshops, each with its own system and methods. Far from me to say there's a 'right' or a 'wrong' way to edit. Or even a 'good' and a 'bad.' In the end, we all do what works for us, so I'm just adding a few possibilities to the mix. My "system" for dealing with edits at this stage:

Go through the manuscript for the easy fixes. I look at her 'deleted' and 'inserted' changes first (all the while ranting about using Track Changes. I'm a 'fiddler.' As I write, I and love moving things around, changing a word here and there, playing trial and error until it flows for me, and all those colors freak me out. Plus, half the time I can't remember to check to make sure TC is off or on.)

Here, you might notice some editorial biases. Do they matter? Ideally, an editor should think only of the story, but sometimes their personality might bleed through. It could be minor, such as using "asked" instead of "said" when there's a question. Both are acceptable.

Maybe she objects to a specific word a character uses. If it's because she doesn't feel it goes with the character, consider it. Let's say she has a bias against a specific profanity. In that case, maybe she's going a little too far. There's a difference between, "Don't use "*^&*" and saying, "Your character swears too much", or "He swears in inappropriate places", or "All your characters use the same swear words." Those are legitimate and should be addressed.

Okay, so you've made all the quick and easy fixes. If you're lucky, your editor has also left comments as to why she's suggested the changes. Look at them. Deal with them. Get out of your own head for a while and think of the overall story. Did you stray from your plot? Are you letting secondary or tertiary characters take over scenes because they're fun to write?
If you can handle it, deal with the reasons behind the cuts, and if they make sense, bite the bullet and accept them. You'll have another chance to see if you made the "right" decision.

Did she point out a glaring plot hole? This is a good time to start fixing those, because they might lead to major rewrites. Those aren't really "edits", they're revisions. My editor caught a spot where my heroine wasn't behaving in what she considered an honorable fashion. It worked great for adding conflict and sexual tension, but when I looked again, I had to agree. I either had to shore up her reasons for behaving unethically, or find a way to get my plot points across without that scene. And after checking with my cop consultants, I decided the latter was the wiser choice. This meant ripping out a chapter, rewriting it, and then going back to weave the dangling threads I'd created back into a smooth fabric.

Now you're ready for the next phase. Did you reweave seamlessly? What other clunkers appeared while you weren't looking? This is where I need a hard copy, but if you prefer the computer, the technique should still work. But I highly recommend a paper version. Why? Come back tomorrow and I'll have more. I'm out of time and space for today.

More on editing (and some South African eating)

What I'm reading: McKettrick's Heart, by Linda Lael Miller

What I'm working on: updating my website, a workshop on e-publishing, edits for Hidden Fire

I've added another page of photos to my website: our South African eating experiences. Check the link on my home page. It's also time to get down and dirty with the e-publishing presentation I'm working on. If anyone wants to help with a quick survey, shoot me an email. (Link to the right). Opinions and experiences from readers and authors needed.

And I've promised myself I'll have the "final submission" version of Hidden Fire to my Cerridwen editor by January 5th. As life insists, that's also a work deadline. Plus, my agent wants me to go through Unexpected Danger before she reads the full manuscript, using her guidelines. She's actually more of an editor than my editors have been.

I've worked with at least four editors (not counting my critique groups) on my publications, and each new one is like a first date. Although the Chicago Manual of Style provides a unifying thread, one holds fast, another uses it as a guide. Some editors make their presence felt on almost every page. Others are hands-off, correcting only typos and house style issues. Some are specific about what to change, others say, "there's something 'off' in this scene."

Unlike critique partners, comments by agents or editors carry that English Teacher Terror. That what they say is right and what you have is wrong. So far, I've been fortunate in that all my editors accept a two-way dialog and will listen to my justifications for word choices, character behavior, scenes. That doesn't mean they agree, but at least they listen.

Right now, I have two manuscripts to polish, but since they're for two distinctly different editors, I can't hop back and forth. Much as I want to get Unexpected Danger ready for submission, I have to keep my focus on Hidden Fire. I know some authors can work on more than one book at a time. I can't write that way. It turns out, I can't even edit that way. Or start a new book.

Counting Down to South Africa T minus 9

What I'm reading: The Witness by Sandra Brown

What I'm writing: "THE END!"

Yes, finally! I "finished" last night. This morning, I made the last-minute changes to the manuscript, which now has a name only slightly better than Book 6 -- Hidden Fire. I had to change a bunch of character names. Not good to have 3 major players with similar names, which I know, but somehow wasn't thinking when I named them. I got to a scene with all three of them in it, and it hit me smack in the face. However, by then, I 'knew' them by those names, so I finished the book before deciding what I'd call them.

It's not a polished manuscript, but my editor knows my writing and should be able to decide if it's worth accepting. If it's inside the ballpark, we'll take it from there.

Yesterday's plans took a detour when I called the tour company to find out where our final travel documents were. "On the FedEx truck." Since the delivery window was 8 AM to 7 PM, and they had to be signed for, I had to postpone all the 'out of the house' chores and errands.

The other glitch was their "minor" change in wording about needing malaria meds. While their first guidelines said simply to check with your physician, and according to all the websites, malaria isn't a problem in South Africa, we assumed we would be fine without it. However, the final instructions say they 'require' it. Deeper research indicates we might be better off with yellow fever shots, too, because our plane refuels in an airport that falls within the 'if you're going to this country, you need proof of immunization.' We're not supposed to be getting off the plane, but at this point, I suppose it's smarter to get the shots. Too bad none of this was clear from the beginning. At any rate, all the checking was one more slowdown.

Now I can work on more edits for When Danger Calls.

Off to do all the things I wanted to do yesterday -- including a little food shopping. Of course, today, it's raining.

Anyone have a Ford F-150?

What I'm reading: Shoot Him if He Runs by Stuart Woods

What I'm writing: Chapter 27

Does anyone know the exact dimensions of that middle sliding panel in the back of a Ford F-150? Late model -- no older than a 2003.

Editorial delays on two fronts have created one of those half-full/half-empty glass situations. My short story editor decided to devote more time to her writing, so she quit her editorial duties and turned my manuscript over to another editor. The final edits were done, but who knows whether it's going to be in the same spot in line now. The other editor had family health issues and emailed me to say she'd be getting to my manuscript as soon as possible.

I decided to take the advice of Frankie Castor, the heroine of my upcoming When Danger Calls and find the bright side. Rather than think about how much more pressure there will be to approve galleys and do edits before I leave for my trip (or even if I'll see them before I leave), I spent the day at the computer working on my current WIP.

I reached the point where my stalwart hero is locked inside his Ford F-150. He's unconscious. Now, we don't have an F-150. Originally, for Finding Sarah, I'd given Randy a Ranger, which was the truck we owned at the time, but my husband said Randy needed a more "manly" truck, so he got the Ford.

At any rate, he's locked inside and Sarah is outside trying to get in. I called the local Ford dealership to get my facts right, because the last thing an author wants is to look like she didn't bother to do her homework and get the facts wrong. I leaned:

Windows are all closed and won't open with the ignition locked. It's a 4-door, but the rear doors won't open unless someone controls them from the front if the safety locks are working, and Randy would always have that feature enabled. I'd seen a similar model the night before, and there's a sliding window in the rear of the cab, but it looked very small. I posted a question to one of my writing groups as well as talking to the salesman. He'd said no way a woman could squeeze through that window. Answers from the group varied; some said no problem, other said it would be tight, but maybe, and some said no way.

This is going to be one of those "no matter how you write it, someone's going to say you got it wrong" spots, and how much explanation it's worth in the text becomes a sticking point. Sarah certainly won't know whether there were optional window sizes, or that if Randy's truck had been 10 years older, the window would have been bigger.

I think I might have to get down to the dealership today. Wonder if they'll mind if I try to climb into the cab through the back window.