WriMo

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on November 17, 2008
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Here’s a timely question I’ve received for the middle of November:

How do you feel, as an editor, about NaNoWriMo and other writing activities that stress quantity of words and sheer output over things like, say, quality, or editing?

The answer is, I’m all for them. (As long as they don’t take away from your time working on the next draft you owe me!)

Anything that hones your skill and makes you more disciplined about writing, is a good thing. Whether it’s NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), or a workshop, or a blog or story group you contribute to regularly, or even if it’s just writing fanfic for fun, you’re still writing, you’re still practicing your craft and working your creative muscles.

If you end up learning that you can crank out a huge word count in a month, that’s a good thing to know about yourself. If you end up learning that you can’t, then you’ve pushed yourself and you know where your limits are, and you might still have a good start on something you can finish up and polish later.

Additionally, the forums that spring up to support and offer resources for projects like this are often great sources of inspiration, information and networking. They’re worth checking out and keeping up with. You may find something that helps you on your work in progress, an expert you can query, or a writing group that decides to keep the momentum going all year.

So, to those of you slogging toward your 50,000 words, I cheer you on!

(And, my rates are reasonable should you want someone to edit them for you in December.)

Sadistic tools

Published
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on November 13, 2008
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I don’t advocate this for a serious writing project (see: Kamikaze Mode, below), but as a tool for writing exercises, I think it’s brilliant.

Meet Write or Die, a cruel and twisted little application that nudges you when you get distracted and stop typing.

You set the delay interval, and you also choose your consequences, from the following:

* Gentle Mode: A certain amount of time after you stop writing, a box will pop up, gently reminding you to continue writing.
* Normal Mode: If you persistently avoid writing, you will be played a most unpleasant sound. The sound will stop if and only if you continue to write.
* Kamikaze Mode: Keep Writing or Your Work Will Unwrite Itself

Evil.

Brilliant.

In fact, I’m using it to write this post.

If you try it, let me know how it turns out!

Why they call it “work”

Published
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on November 10, 2008
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Q: What do you do when you have to work on a book you don’t really like?

A: Your best.

There are several differences between reading for pleasure and reading for work.

When you read for work, you have to read more carefully and thoroughly. As an editor, I’m on a mission to catch errors, and I have to be aware and alert at all times. When I feel my attention start to fade, I stop. I take a break. I walk around a little. Focus on something else for a few minutes. An error can’t be allowed through because you skimmed a paragraph. It doesn’t matter whether you skimmed it out of disinterest or out of haste to see what happens next.

When you read for work, it doesn’t matter whether you like what you’re reading or not. I’m not getting paid to like a manuscript. I’m getting paid to make it the best that it can be. Can it be a struggle? Sometimes, yes. Sometimes I find that I work more easily in subject matter that doesn’t interest me, because I never get so caught up in the story that I forget to check the words.

Do I take on work that I wouldn’t read for fun? Absolutely. Do I tell the client that I wouldn’t read it for fun? Absolutely not. It’s not tactful or professional, first of all; additionally, my personal tastes don’t matter. Besides, I can almost guarantee that as long as the manuscript is well-written, I will find something in it to praise and to enjoy.

It never hurts to broaden your horizons and expose yourself to a topic or genre that you wouldn’t expect to hold your interest. At the worst, you’ll have a nice check in your bank account and a satisfied customer. At best, maybe you’ll find a gem in there to take away with you, too.

Dash it all!

Published
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on November 6, 2008
in Tips and Hints
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I’m beginning to think that the em dash is the least understood of the punctuation marks, and that the fault isn’t with writers. It’s with computers.

If you’re joining words or separating syllables, you want a hyphen.

If you’re describing a range of values, times, or scores, you want an en dash. An en dash is the dash that’s as wide as the letter n.

If you’re using a dash in your writing for any of the other purposes you’re likely to use a dash for—such as setting off parenthetical statements like this one, or indicating an interruption in dialog—it’s almost certain that the em dash will be the one you need. (So named because it’s as wide as the letter m. Clever, no?) As Mental Floss Magazine says, “The em dash is the spork of English grammar: It ain’t particularly pretty, but you can use it for most anything.”

Go on, now. Find the em dash on your keyboard. Go ahead. Find it.

You can’t, can you? You’ve got a minus/hyphen thing, and you’ve got an underscore, and…that’s it.

If you ask Microsoft Word nicely, it’ll consider turning two hyphens in a row into an em dash for you automatically. It’s equally probable that it won’t, and that your happy editor will have the enviable task of converting all those hyphens to dashes for you.

How do you find the elusive em dash, then?

In HTML, it hides in plain sight. Just as & will give you an &, – will give you an en dash, and — will give you an em dash.

In your word processor, it hides among the symbols. You probably have an “Insert” menu, with a “Symbol” choice as a submenu, which brings up a whole box of arcane-looking glyphs from which to choose:

the symbol menu in Microsoft Word

The longest dash in the bunch is probably your pick, but check carefully, because it might be a misleadingly-centered underscore.

Once you’ve selected the em dash in the symbol menu, you may notice that it’s been assigned a long-winded series of keystrokes that will let you type it directly into your manuscript. In Microsoft Word, as you can see above, my screen tells me that I can hold down “alt” while I type “0151″ and get an em dash on my screen free of charge. That’s a lot of work to do for a single character, and I wouldn’t expect anyone else to bother to do it. But there is also, on that same screen, a clickable option called “shortcut key”. If your editor is smart, she’s gone into this menu and assigned the em dash a convenient shortcut. This editor has chosen “ctrl -”, because it’s easy for me to remember where I’ve put it when it’s on the key with the rest of the dash-type-objects, but you should choose something convenient that you’ll remember.

According to Chicago Manual of Style, em dashes should not be surrounded by spaces. If you’re going by another stylesheet, your mileage may vary. Check your style, check with your editor or publisher. Whether you space or don’t space, though, you’ll save your editor a lot of time if you use the right dashes in your writing.

We type, ergo…

Published
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on November 3, 2008
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If you work at a computer for eight hours a day for a large company, in a large office, there’s probably an ergonomics consultant or coach, or at least a set of standards that the company conforms to, in order to make sure that workstations are set up in such a way that they foster the most productivity and cause the least harm to the workers who use them. When you work from home, no one comes around to make sure that your computer is at the right height, that your mouse doesn’t cause you undue strain, and that you’re not curled sideways all day with your laptop balanced precariously on the arm of your couch.

Ergonomics are just as important in the home office as they are in the corporate office. Moreso, arguably, since the freelancer’s work is done when it’s done, not at some arbitrary point on the clock. In fact, the later the hour and the longer the workday, the more likely we are to sacrifice the rigid, correct posture at our workstation and go curl up on the couch or in bed to finish up those last few tricky chapters while we try to slip in a couple hours’ quality time with the family.

Repetitive stress injuries may sound like wimpy, modern-age disease, but talk to anyone who suffers from one and they’ll tell you just how agonizing they can be. And they’re a vicious cycle. You put stress on your body because you need to do the work, so by the time things have degenerated enough to put you in pain, you feel as though you can’t afford to stop and take care of yourself because the work needs to be done.

Think about your workstation, take a good look at how you spend your online time and your working time, and make sure that you spend that time in configurations that don’t do you harm. There are many good websites with tips on how to set up an ergonomically sound work area (Seating Ergonomics is a good one), and you’ve probably heard the tips a million times before. Arm height, posture, foot position, wrist position, monitor position… You know these things, but do you do them?

Contact stress, force, and repetition are the three types of ergonomic stress. Contact stress can be internal (tendons, blood vessels or nerves rubbing against ligaments or bone) or external (your wrist rubbing against a rough edge on your wrist-guard, or the edge of the chair cutting off circulation in your leg). Force is the stress of exertion. Even small exertions, like reaching for a mouse that’s too far out of your way, or straining your neck upward to look at a badly-angled monitor, can have cumulative negative effects. Repetition of isolated movements over an extended period of time doesn’t allow your muscles and tendons to recover. Combined with contact stress or force, extended repetition can cause serious harm. (source: http://www.safecomputingtips.com/)

You owe it to yourself, and to your clients, to keep all your tools in good working order. Keep your mind sharp and your body healthy. Invest in an ergonomically correct work area, and your investment will pay for itself repeatedly over the length of your long and healthy career.

Contrariwise

Published
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on October 30, 2008
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After a brief hiatus, one of my favorite literature-related blogs is back in business. Contrariwise: Literary Tattoos.

I don’t have any literary ink on my own skin (…yet?), but the thought fascinates me nonetheless. It’s always as interesting to see what people have chosen as important to them as it is to see the creative ways they’ve chosen to immortalize them. I check back with this one often.

EFA SF Bay

Published
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on October 27, 2008
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The Editorial Freelancers Association is (as its website will tell you) “a professional resource for editorial specialists and those who hire them”. Its members include editors, writers, indexers, proofreaders, researchers, desktop publishers, translators, and more, and some of the benefits of membership include networking opportunities for members, job postings, online references and resources, and the prestige of belonging to an editorial association endorsed by the Chicago Manual of Style.

As of today, I have agreed to become EFA’s San Francisco chapter coordinator. I’m excited to have this opportunity, and I’m looking forward to getting to know more of my fellow professionals!

Work, and groundwork

Published
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on October 23, 2008
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Time is money, and that’s something you feel keenly when you go into business for yourself. Whether you’re a writer, an editor, a designer, or a freelancer in any other field.

Your first priority, when you’re starting up, is to get work. You’re probably still doing something else full-time, whether it’s some kind of schooling or some other kind of employment. This is when your focus should be on taking whatever work you can. Get a portfolio or a resume together. Get experience. Get clients, paying or not, who can vouch that you’ve done work—and done it well!—for them.

Once you’ve got some footing, your next priority is to get paid for your work. I know, this sounds like a given. It is. It’s great to be able to do what you love full-time, but if you can’t pay the rent with it, you won’t be able to do what you love for very long.

Here’s where it gets tricky, though. If you’ve started out by taking free jobs, or low paying jobs, it’s hard to get out of that mindset that tells you that you have to accept every request for free work that comes along. It’s hard to say no to a project. It’s hard to learn to be picky. What if this is the one that gets you the exposure that you want? What if this is the one that makes it big?

This counts for other sorts of self-promotion, as well. Whether it’s attending a conference, agreeing to speak publicly, getting involved in an organization that promotes your business or your field, or even taking time out from work to write regular posts to a forum or blog. *cough*

Chances are, no one paid you to print up your business cards, but business cards are a good promotional tool, and that makes them a worthwhile business expense. When you consider taking unpaid or low-paying work, treat it as same sort of thing.

The key is balance. Ask yourself the following questions:

  • * If this project isn’t paying me financially, am I going to be equally compensated for it some other way?

Worthwhile non-monetary compensation can take such forms as exposure, which could lead to referrals and more paying work; or improved credentials (through professional certifications, for example) which could justify charging an increased rate for your paying work.

  • * Is this project going to take time away from my paying work?

Your paid work is the goal of your self-promotion. If you pass up paid work—or if your paid work suffers because you’re spreading yourself too thin—for an unpaid project, you may be shooting yourself in the foot. Ideally, an unpaid project shouldn’t take time away from your other priorities.

  • * Is this project a step forward, or a step backward, for my career?

As a professional, you need to always be thinking about and moving toward your professional goals. Constantly set your sights higher. If a project is going to take you up a rung in some way, whether in credibility, exposure, networking, etc., then jump on the opportunity. If it’s going to take you down a side path that you feel is a dead end—one that would only provide exposure or opportunities in a direction that you wouldn’t want to pursue—let it pass.

As a freelancer, you have the opportunity to choose your projects. There is freedom in that, but there is responsibility in it, too. Each job you choose should be moving your career forward in some small way: either by paying you at the rate you’ve deemed reasonable and acceptable, or by advancing your exposure, networking with the kinds of professionals whose connections can help you advance, or improving your professional credentials. It’s a balancing act, but a necessary and worthwhile one.

Think globally, write locally?

Published
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on October 20, 2008
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Several years ago, I had the good fortune to attend a talk given by one of the top editors in the children’s lit field. In it, he discussed the decision that had been made to Americanize a very popular series of books written by a prominent British author. The reason, he had said, was so that the novelty of the unfamiliar-but-real foreign words wouldn’t get in the way of the novelty of the author’s world and the unfamiliar-and-made-up magical words that were an integral part of the story.

When there’s a balance to be reached between preserving the original work of the author and making that work more accessible to its readers, there is a lot of room for compromise. There are many levels of cultural adaptation that a novel can undergo, and the decision is often out of a writer’s hands. It rests with the publisher, ultimately, because they want the book to be as marketable within their market as it can be.

I’ve worked on manuscripts which followed UK rules for spelling and punctuation rules. I had to be well enough versed in the differences so that I didn’t change anything that looked ‘wrong’ to my American eyes. I’ve also worked on manuscripts for which I’ve had to change an American manuscript for the UK, or a UK manuscript to American.

There are more international differences in spelling than the casual reader might realize. If you’re going to be undertaking such a project, it’s important that you do your research and not just go with what you think you know. You’re responsible for all the rules, not just the obvious ones. Do know whether to use toward or towards, and whether you have the right shades of gray and grey. Know whether—and when—to leave an e before an ing, even if it looks horribly wrong to you.

Often, an author will alternate between the correct and incorrect words, out of a simple lack of certainty about which choice is right. (Even when there isn’t an international issue involved, I always make sure to check a manuscript’s greys and grays.)

It’s not just the spelling, either. It’s the vocabulary. This gets trickier, because it can become a more substantive change, but it’s no less important. A reader may get momentarily tripped up by kerbs and tyres instead of curbs and tires, but you might throw him from the car completely if you expect him to know its boot from its bonnet. Words like pavement are especially slippery: does the author mean the sidewalk, or the road?

In a case like this, it’s simplest, of course, to translate the unfamiliar into the familiar. The unfamiliar, as that editor I mentioned said in his talk, will stand out and catch the eye. The thing to watch out for, obviously, is becoming so familiar with the foreign rules that they aren’t novel to you anymore, and your mind accepts them as normal and skips right over them. It’s a natural thing, but honed practice at attention to detail will help you overcome it. In time, a fluency develops and it becomes like flipping a switch between UK/US rules. A color or realize will stand out to you in the wrong context just as boldly as honour or aluminium. In this field, knowing British and American really does make you bilingual.

What Writers Read

Published
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on October 16, 2008
in Musings
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I’ve noticed that my audience here is predominantly writers and other editors, with a sprinkling of a few friends and fans (hi, mom!). Today I thought I’d pose a question to you, the writers (and editors) who read this blog.

Writers seem to fall into two camps with regard to reading. Most of them love to read, of course. If you didn’t love to read, you’d probably have very little interest in forging a career based on writing things for other people to read. Finding time to read is another matter entirely. That’s a matter of circumstance, and not due to any particular personal philosophy on the issue. The division I’m talking about is more in what writers read.

Some writers read extensively. Some pay particular attention to what’s going on in their own genre, to keep up with the field, with the trends on the bestseller lists, with the hot names and the up-and-coming.

Some writers avoid their genres just as studiously. They may read about the market, but they won’t read the books themselves. They worry that anything they read may soak into their subconsciouses and become accidental fodder for their own creative processes, lessening the originality of their own work.

I can see both sides. I’m curious about your perspective as writers, whether hobbyists or professional. Do you read your genre and keep up with the trends, or do you avoid it to maintain intellectual distance and keep your ideas your own? Please drop me a comment.