When it comes to the English
language, I know I have several weak spots.
For a writer this is a handicap to say the least. I study grammar books and browse advice
columns and blogs and even follow several people on Twitter who tweet nothing
except grammar rules and examples. I
would love it if Word was perfect at catching all of this for me, but the
software program and I still argue over fragment phrases and so I think it
holds back on purpose.
Still, eventually my tales go out
and I only pray that I don’t embarrass those indie authors that are doing their
best to prove that they are as talented as those with mainstream
publishers. It has taken a long time to
get my manuscript there, but it has been worth it.
I’ll share with you why I’m a
little nervous going the route of ePublishing.
You see, it’s not because of what I’ve written, but because of what I’ve
read. A couple of years ago I bought the
girls Nooks for Christmas. At first,
they each stuck with the authors they trusted and started buying and
downloading left and right. Once I put the
halt on the outgoing money, though, they went to unknown authors that offered
inexpensive books or even free ones. The
girls experimented and indeed found some great gems. However, they also found some pretty rough
first drafts that obviously had not even been read again by the author once the
words were pecked into the computer.
When I decided I was going to
publish my writing through Smashwords, it surprised most of our family and
friends. I had actually never read a
book electronically. As I stated in Changedoesn’t Scare Me, I love the feel of a hard cover book in my hands. To be honest, that has always been my vision
for my writing. I wanted to walk into a
brick and mortar store and see my name on the spine and my face on the back
cover. I wanted to be invited to hold a
book signing in my hometown and hold a reading in a local coffee house.
It’s kind of hard to sign the
screen of a Nook or Kindle. I know
because I pissed the girls off trying to practice on theirs. It makes it hard to read the books after
that.

There were several that gripped
me and kept me captivated to the screen.
However, there were many more that I couldn’t even get past the first
swipe of my thumb or click of the mouse.
My brain was assaulted with missing words, misspelled words and simply
bad prose. It was bad enough that it scared
me and caused me to worry about my own writing.
As I’ve already stated, I know
that I stumble in some key grammatical issues, and while I am striving hard to
overcome those obstacles, a few slip through now and then. I’m also learning story structure, subplots
and characterization, all of those things that make a novel worth reading. Nothing is ever as good as we think it is the
first time we put pen to paper. However,
we think it’s great. Our moms tell us it’s
great. Our wives smile and pat us on the
head with a “Well done, honey. Now, take
out the trash.” However, stories only
become great in the rewrite. And the
next.
When I work a piece, I’ll write
it out, type it out, and then mark it up with red ink, highlighters, and margin
notes. I’ll examine verbs adjectives,
spellings, and look for contradictions, such as Faith having red hair in
chapter one, but being a blond in chapter ten and there is no record of a dye
job. Once I’ve made sure that body parts
aren’t doing their own thing and I have the correct “your” or “you’re,” I’ll
print out one crisp clean copy and pass it on to the girls for their harshest
criticism and careful eye. Inevitably,
they will notice key pitfalls that I leaped right over. If something makes no sense to them or fails
to generate emotions of some kind about the characters, they point it out and I
get back to work.
Someone besides yourself must
read what you have written, or rather what you have rewritten. If you cannot afford an editor, put it in the
hands of a couple of people who won’t be afraid to be brutally honest with
you. Your goal is to sell books and
people won’t buy the second if they never finish the first, and if you’re like
me you want your stories to get into people’s hands.
Therefore, I take my time. I rewrite.
I beg for criticism. I rewrite some
more. I don’t just worry about the impression
of my books, but of those indie authors who are braving the challenge of going
it alone. I don’t want to give the
reading public or mainstream publishers ammunition against us. So, before clicking “submit” ask yourself if
you’ve put in the honest sweat to make your writing a novel worth reading.
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My Informal Essay professor also said to read your work out loud to catch things that you missed. She made us do that in small groups and it worked really well too.
ReplyDeleteOur minds sometimes add words that aren't really there. I enjoy reading out loud to see how it flows and almost always catch something. Thanks for stopping by.
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