And now we move from a solo editing performance to a two-partner dance. A grammatical cha-cha, if you will. A proofreading waltz. A veritable tango of verb tenses--okay, I'll stop there.
What I mean to say is, I've finished the first round of editing on "Timshel" and have sent it to Editor Jenn, who will now work her own kind of tapshoe magic on it before we move on to the next step. From the sound of things they're thinking about releasing the book in a few months. That'll be perfect from my POV: most of the narrative takes place in the summertime, and from an artistic standpoint it'd be great to have people reading it just as the season unfolds around them.
I think an important part of editing being able to remember what you like about a story. If you read back through it and don't find yourself going "oh man, I'd forgotten how awesome that part was!" then chances are the readers won't feel that way the first time, either.
Thankfully, there were definitely some moments in "Timshel" that excited me to revisit. The bandits excited me so much that they wound up getting a whole 'nother chapter; I also remembered how much I love the person that Eiland becomes at the end of the story.
It's those kinds of things that make slogging through the business of verb tenses all worthwhile.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Friday, January 27, 2012
If music be the food of love, play on
Oh shut up, yes, that was Shakespeare. You've got a reformed high school drama geek on your hands, what do you expect?
I've found that I simply can't do much in my life without a soundtrack. For study sessions I usually choose the online streaming classical station of WCPE; for my bike ride to work I go with fast-paced pop rock.
When it comes to writing stories, though, each soundtrack is highly specialized and carefully chosen. I have different playlists on my computer named by individual stories that I am writing or want to write. Each one changes regularly as I discover new songs that make me think of that particular story or old songs get poached into a different story.
This has the advantage of putting me in the "mood" of a story every time I listen to a particular song; it has the disadvantage of making me avoid songs that I know will put me into a particular story if I know that I need to write something else at the time. For instance, I haven't gone anywhere near Coldplay's "Gold In Them Hills" lately because that's the soundtrack for the magical realism werewolf polyamory novel, as opposed to Timshel.
Timshel's soundtrack, in the meantime, is chock full of Enya and Loreena McKennitt. Medieval fantasy calls for some early Enya, I find. It's strange, the things that can inspire us.
I've found that I simply can't do much in my life without a soundtrack. For study sessions I usually choose the online streaming classical station of WCPE; for my bike ride to work I go with fast-paced pop rock.
When it comes to writing stories, though, each soundtrack is highly specialized and carefully chosen. I have different playlists on my computer named by individual stories that I am writing or want to write. Each one changes regularly as I discover new songs that make me think of that particular story or old songs get poached into a different story.
This has the advantage of putting me in the "mood" of a story every time I listen to a particular song; it has the disadvantage of making me avoid songs that I know will put me into a particular story if I know that I need to write something else at the time. For instance, I haven't gone anywhere near Coldplay's "Gold In Them Hills" lately because that's the soundtrack for the magical realism werewolf polyamory novel, as opposed to Timshel.
Timshel's soundtrack, in the meantime, is chock full of Enya and Loreena McKennitt. Medieval fantasy calls for some early Enya, I find. It's strange, the things that can inspire us.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Patience is a virtue
I have reached the midpoint of my editing on Timshel, which can only mean one thing: time for the bandits to show up! Every story should have bandits.
I think one of my biggest challenges as an author is to learn a little patience. There are character authors who spend languid pages on introspection and personal history; there are setting authors who worldbuild like crazy and describe every detail; and then there are plot authors, who know every labyrinthine twist and b-plot.
Every group has its strengths and weaknesses. As a plot-oriented author, I think the biggest weakness of my group is impatience. Everything exists to serve the plot; as such, we tend to rush through the characters and details in order to get to the next plot point. I certainly see myself doing that.
Among published novels, I think the last Hunger Games book, "Mockingjay," was particularly guilty of this: it had two hands full of really interesting plot points and ideas, but (imo) had no idea where to plant them. I kept wanting to tell author Suzanne Collins to slow the frell down and actually explore the ideas she'd raised rather than hurrying on to the next one.
As a consequence much of my editing time has been spent expanding beats and characters that I had only sketched out in the first draft. The ideas are there, I just need to take the time to develop them.
I think one of my biggest challenges as an author is to learn a little patience. There are character authors who spend languid pages on introspection and personal history; there are setting authors who worldbuild like crazy and describe every detail; and then there are plot authors, who know every labyrinthine twist and b-plot.
Every group has its strengths and weaknesses. As a plot-oriented author, I think the biggest weakness of my group is impatience. Everything exists to serve the plot; as such, we tend to rush through the characters and details in order to get to the next plot point. I certainly see myself doing that.
Among published novels, I think the last Hunger Games book, "Mockingjay," was particularly guilty of this: it had two hands full of really interesting plot points and ideas, but (imo) had no idea where to plant them. I kept wanting to tell author Suzanne Collins to slow the frell down and actually explore the ideas she'd raised rather than hurrying on to the next one.
As a consequence much of my editing time has been spent expanding beats and characters that I had only sketched out in the first draft. The ideas are there, I just need to take the time to develop them.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
A tale of two tenses
I'm deep in the thick of editing atm: chapters 1-4 are polished, and I'm halfway through 5. It's going a bit slower than I expected because I've decided to change the verb tenses from present to past.
I've always been partial to present-tense. As a child I read a ficitonalized autobiography by Hatshepsut, the only female Egyptian pharaoh. I don't remember what the book was called; I tried hunting for it just now, but there are a number of different Hatshepsut books around. (If anyone knows the exact one I'm speaking of, please do link me.) What made this one interesting, though, was that it was written entirely in first-person, present-tense, making it seem as though we were somehow inside the mind of Hatshepsut as she told the story of how she rose to power.
The next paragraph contains spoilers for the Hatshepsut book. Though, really, if you know the real-life story, you can probably guess how it goes.
The device made it especially jarring and dramatic when, at the end of the book, Hatshepsut died of poison. She had been in a power struggle with her nephew, for whom she was supposedly regent; the sense of danger was very much present. Yet her death was still entirely unexpected and startling to me. The last thing you expect when reading a first-person story is for the narrator to croak at the end--which, I imagine, is exactly why the author chose to write it that way.
Obviously I imprinted strongly on that device, because I originally wrote Timshel in present-tense (though not first-person, as I've always found it somewhat limiting). There are some harrowing bits in Timshel and I feel like present-tense gives the story some unpredictability: this isn't something that the characters have already survived, it's happening right now.
However, in preparing the second-draft I realized that I had written a fairytale of sorts, and fairytales are stories of the past. After mental consideration and consulting with my editor Jenn, I decided to switch the tense.
That has made editing a much more difficult and time-consuming process, but let it never be said I am not a glutton for punishment.
I've always been partial to present-tense. As a child I read a ficitonalized autobiography by Hatshepsut, the only female Egyptian pharaoh. I don't remember what the book was called; I tried hunting for it just now, but there are a number of different Hatshepsut books around. (If anyone knows the exact one I'm speaking of, please do link me.) What made this one interesting, though, was that it was written entirely in first-person, present-tense, making it seem as though we were somehow inside the mind of Hatshepsut as she told the story of how she rose to power.
The next paragraph contains spoilers for the Hatshepsut book. Though, really, if you know the real-life story, you can probably guess how it goes.
The device made it especially jarring and dramatic when, at the end of the book, Hatshepsut died of poison. She had been in a power struggle with her nephew, for whom she was supposedly regent; the sense of danger was very much present. Yet her death was still entirely unexpected and startling to me. The last thing you expect when reading a first-person story is for the narrator to croak at the end--which, I imagine, is exactly why the author chose to write it that way.
Obviously I imprinted strongly on that device, because I originally wrote Timshel in present-tense (though not first-person, as I've always found it somewhat limiting). There are some harrowing bits in Timshel and I feel like present-tense gives the story some unpredictability: this isn't something that the characters have already survived, it's happening right now.
However, in preparing the second-draft I realized that I had written a fairytale of sorts, and fairytales are stories of the past. After mental consideration and consulting with my editor Jenn, I decided to switch the tense.
That has made editing a much more difficult and time-consuming process, but let it never be said I am not a glutton for punishment.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
The editing dance
Eventually I went with the tagline "To heal is to love." Which is really the character arc of both Eiland and Charon in the story: Eiland learns to love by healing and Charon learns to heal by loving. A trite sappy, but fuck it.
So now we begin the great editing dance. I've always liked editing, sometimes even more than writing. There's something so much more relaxed about editing: everything's already on the page, I just have to whip it into shape. Writing, on the other hand, often finds me pacing the floor. The process of creation is never easy or fast for me.
My dance partner and editor, the lovely Jenn Fitzpatrick of Etopia, has kindly allowed me first pass on the editing instead of just diving in and tearing the story apart herself. I've given her and myself the deadline of Jan. 14th to have my Actualfax First Draft in.
This will be somewhat of a challenge, primarily because for some blasted reason I originally wrote the story in present-tense. As a fractured fairytale it works much better in past-tense; I even wrote the introductory sentence that way, "Once upon a time there was a boy who lived in a village East of the mountains and North of the sea. The village was called Summerton and the boy's name was Eiland..."
I'll be changing that as I go through, and tweaking grammar. I don't anticipate any major plot point changes, but I may alter or expand certain things. Especially the bandits. Because a story can never have too many bandits.
So now we begin the great editing dance. I've always liked editing, sometimes even more than writing. There's something so much more relaxed about editing: everything's already on the page, I just have to whip it into shape. Writing, on the other hand, often finds me pacing the floor. The process of creation is never easy or fast for me.
My dance partner and editor, the lovely Jenn Fitzpatrick of Etopia, has kindly allowed me first pass on the editing instead of just diving in and tearing the story apart herself. I've given her and myself the deadline of Jan. 14th to have my Actualfax First Draft in.
This will be somewhat of a challenge, primarily because for some blasted reason I originally wrote the story in present-tense. As a fractured fairytale it works much better in past-tense; I even wrote the introductory sentence that way, "Once upon a time there was a boy who lived in a village East of the mountains and North of the sea. The village was called Summerton and the boy's name was Eiland..."
I'll be changing that as I go through, and tweaking grammar. I don't anticipate any major plot point changes, but I may alter or expand certain things. Especially the bandits. Because a story can never have too many bandits.
Monday, January 2, 2012
The great CAM
Selling a book comes with its fair share of paperwork, just like any other job. There's the author contract, the W-9, and the almighty Cover and Marketing form (CAM). I don't know if other publishing companies have a similar form or not, but Etopia uses the CAM to communicate with cover artists, develop blurbs, gather information about an author's online presence, and basically lay the groundwork for the book's marketing campaign.
So what kinds of questions do they ask on this form?
What other books I might compare the story to, what I think the target audience is, suggested tag words that would help in online searches, and character descriptions, as well as an author bio. There's a whole lot of other stuff, too: the CAM is 5 pages long.
5 pages? That seems like a lot of busywork. Why can't they just read the story and do it themselves?
Maybe they have people who do that specially at larger publishing houses, but Etopia isn't that big...and also, I'm more than happy to do it. After numerous incidents of inaccurate book blurbs, whitewashed covers, and other buggery, it's encouraging to see a publishing company ask for author input in more than just the story. It's my baby they're putting out there; no one cares more about making a good publicity campaign than I do.
So what are you hoping for in terms of marketing?
Well, mainly I'm hoping that they don't get a couple of ripped male models for the cover. Not that I have anything against ripped male models, but...Eiland and Charon are definitely not gym bunnies. Nor is the story all that much about sex: it's probably a bit heavier on the fantasy side than anything else in terms of genre.
Then why are you selling it as a gay romance novel instead of a fantasy novel?
Because it has a central gay romance in it, and if I tried to pitch it as fantasy, the fantasy publishers would tell me that I'd be better served to go to a gay romance publisher. While queer subjects are becoming more mainstream, they're still very much a niche market.
Okay, okay. So what are you working on right now?
At the moment I'm stuck trying to come up with a potential tagline for the story. It needs to be about 85 characters (though 50 is better) and act as that first hook to get readers interested. Well, second hook: the cover is hook one, tagline is hook two, back cover text is hook three, and critical blurbs are hook four.
The problem is, I'm not great at short, punchy thoughts. That's why I write novels: I tend to think big, and most of my stories balloon up to epic size. A good tagline is all about being cool in small proportions, as exemplified by Braveheart's tagline: "Every man dies, not every man really lives." 36 characters and you already know a lot about the tone of the movie. You can guess that the main character is going to be a gung-ho kind of person, and that he's probably going to die in the end--but dammit, first he's going to live. Combined with the poster image of William Wallace with sword and blue face and crazy hair, and you know you're in for one badass warrior epic.
Are you really taking your cues from Mel Gibson?
Oh, shut up.
So what kinds of questions do they ask on this form?
What other books I might compare the story to, what I think the target audience is, suggested tag words that would help in online searches, and character descriptions, as well as an author bio. There's a whole lot of other stuff, too: the CAM is 5 pages long.
5 pages? That seems like a lot of busywork. Why can't they just read the story and do it themselves?
Maybe they have people who do that specially at larger publishing houses, but Etopia isn't that big...and also, I'm more than happy to do it. After numerous incidents of inaccurate book blurbs, whitewashed covers, and other buggery, it's encouraging to see a publishing company ask for author input in more than just the story. It's my baby they're putting out there; no one cares more about making a good publicity campaign than I do.
So what are you hoping for in terms of marketing?
Well, mainly I'm hoping that they don't get a couple of ripped male models for the cover. Not that I have anything against ripped male models, but...Eiland and Charon are definitely not gym bunnies. Nor is the story all that much about sex: it's probably a bit heavier on the fantasy side than anything else in terms of genre.
Then why are you selling it as a gay romance novel instead of a fantasy novel?
Because it has a central gay romance in it, and if I tried to pitch it as fantasy, the fantasy publishers would tell me that I'd be better served to go to a gay romance publisher. While queer subjects are becoming more mainstream, they're still very much a niche market.
Okay, okay. So what are you working on right now?
At the moment I'm stuck trying to come up with a potential tagline for the story. It needs to be about 85 characters (though 50 is better) and act as that first hook to get readers interested. Well, second hook: the cover is hook one, tagline is hook two, back cover text is hook three, and critical blurbs are hook four.
The problem is, I'm not great at short, punchy thoughts. That's why I write novels: I tend to think big, and most of my stories balloon up to epic size. A good tagline is all about being cool in small proportions, as exemplified by Braveheart's tagline: "Every man dies, not every man really lives." 36 characters and you already know a lot about the tone of the movie. You can guess that the main character is going to be a gung-ho kind of person, and that he's probably going to die in the end--but dammit, first he's going to live. Combined with the poster image of William Wallace with sword and blue face and crazy hair, and you know you're in for one badass warrior epic.
Are you really taking your cues from Mel Gibson?
Oh, shut up.
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