Proofing, Etc.

Been off the grid for a couple of days dealing with family issues that pretty much curtailed any real writing work. Things are returning to normal, though, and I'm back to proofreading galley for "Stranger Faces." With almost one full reading complete, I've found only a half-dozen or so corrections, which is really quite good. Back when I worked on "The Dreamer Gambit" galley, I think I might have gone up to five pages worth of corrections.

One of the sticky things about proofing the galley is that I find things I would like to change, but unless it's something truly necessary, I can't. Missing words, wrong words, typos, formatting--those things are the expected changes. Add a sentence or change something for purely creative reasons? Those are no-nos. And then there are the gray areas. For example, here is how a particular passage appears in the galley:

I heard a sound, all too familiar: a silencer-equipped gun firing. My body went rigid, and I swore I felt the hair on the back of my head move with it.

As I read through this, I realized the last word, "it," is unclear in its reference. Someone fired a gun, but what Tracy feels is the bullet moving the air right above her head. I believe a minor change here makes things clearer, adhering to the rule supplied by Write Words to neither confuse the reader nor make unnecessary work for the editor.


I heard a sound, all too familiar: a silencer-equipped gun firing. My body went rigid, and I swore I felt the hair on the back of my head move as a bullet whizzed by.

It really becomes a judgment call over what constitutes and out-and-out error, an artistic change, or a matter of clarity as above. Of course, I try to take all this into account in proofing before I send the manuscript off, but, heck, sometimes stuff gets by. I think I've alluded to this in earlier posts, i.e., I get excited while reading action sequences, forget about proofing, and overlook errors. Some of them I just have to grit my teeth and let slide, wishing I could have done it better but having to accept responsibility for not doing so at the right time. Ah, well, I'm sure plenty of authors have published works out there with things that make them cringe.

Juggling

Picked up the galley for "Stranger Faces" yesterday and started the proofreading process. My first pass will be reading the PDF file on the computer, although I will also do a pass reading from a printed copy. I usually find more errors in print than I do on the screen. I look for formatting problems--missing italics, incorrect paragraph breaks--as well as the typical grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. I found a few already. For example, the text reads I thought I should feel complemented. The last word should be complimented.  In another spot, the text reads took my bags to a rest room to change. But restroom is just one word. Finding this stuff can be difficult because I also get wrapped up in the flow of the story and the dialog.

I  may find things I would have written differently or something I would have added, but it's too late for that at this point. The only "creative" changes I might make would be to avoid repetition. On one page, I found I had used the dialog tag "snapped" within a few lines. I changed one to "muttered."

My personal debate over the cover art seems to have been resolved as the galley has the second cover design I created. I really do think it is the right choice, both from a continuity with the other covers aspect as well as how it presents in both full size (5.5 x 8.5 inches) and smaller images which are what the reading public will see first.

Work on "Seer Tyro Fiend" stalls temporarily while I complete "Stranger Faces," but I will be thinking about Stefanie's newest adventure in between and hopefully creating new scenes to include.

Going Astray

Having made progress on "Seer Tyro Fiend" after my stuck period, I find my attention starting to stray a bit. Some ideas about the other book I had started working on have intruded and tease me with inspiration. I'm starting to get a better vision of it now, maybe moving it into the not-too-distant future which would be an extrapolation from our society today and projecting it into the future. Whew! Sounds grandiose. And complicated. It will take more time to fully envision this, so I guess I'm not really ready to jump back into writing that one yet.

Back to "Seer," however. The next step is to work out the sequence of events. As I consider the things that have to happen, it seems I can't settle on the order for them. (Ha! says the Voice of Organization. Should have made an outline!) A minor character is the first link in a chain and a confrontation is required, but if it occurs too early, I have to assume that person will take steps to minimize damage and protect the rest of the mystery. I may have to revert to a method of mine which is as close as I ever get to writing an outline. I start summarizing events and scenes, not unlike writing a synopsis, as a list. It helps to organize the ideas and then look at the total picture more clearly. This sort of summarizing has helped in the past and sometimes resulted in more restructuring as I come up with ways to improve upon what I've already written.

On a side note, it's really difficult to talk about the writing process without introducing spoilers of the novel I'm working on. While a more precise definition of the issue at had would come from clearly stating what I'm wrestling with, I don't want to give away the plot or the major scenes ahead of time. I think this springs from a fear of potential readers being turned off or thinking that once they know what's in the book, there's no reason to read it. And I sure don't want to lose potential readers before the book even gets published!

Banging It Out

LOTS of progress on "Seer Tyro Fiend" yesterday. Got through that big scene I mentioned, with Stefanie trying to take control of her psychic talent. I foresee another area of conflict in the making. Now things are really coming together too, with a vision of how the rest of the story plays out. Still some details to work out, as I have laid ground for some events, products of Stefanie's visions, which I'm not sure how they factor into things just yet. I might end up modifying them or editing them out completely. It's all part of the creative process.

There will be intrusions in the weeks ahead, other than my day job. I'm waiting for galleys to proof for "Stranger Faces," scheduled for release February 1. Print edition of "Two Faces Two Faced" is scheduled for that day too. And Feb. 1 - 3 will find me at Love Is Murder. Prior to that, I need to update my promotional materials and maybe run up some chapbooks to put out at the conference. I still have copies of "The Dreamer Gambit" which I'm thinking to sell on consignment there, if I haven't missed the boat by not taking action on it yet.

I would really like to increase my public appearances in 2013, but since I'm still working, I have to choose venues close to home. I didn't do too badly in 2012 with the Glen Ellyn and Joliet book fairs, but I'm thinking about contacting some local libraries to see if they would be interested in setting up anything. Public speaking isn't one of my most favorite things (I basically suck in front of a large crowd), but I don't mind talking with a small group of people and it might help me work up to larger groups. I'm also trying to do more reading of other authors' works and providing reviews in hopes of reciprocity.Little by little, I try to get the word out about my books.

On Research

I became very excited to write the next big scene in "Seer Tyro Fiend" this morning, but when I did, boom, I had to stop and do some research. In this scene, Stefanie asks her friend, Amy, to help her explore her psychic talent. As a self-proclaimed witch, Amy knows all about such things. As part of their preparations, Amy explains aspects of Stefanie's astrological background, and that was where the research came in. First, I needed to find an "air" sign, of which there are only two -- Libra and Gemini. One website I found had considerable information on it, including the influences of adjacent signs for those born on a cusp. I finally decided that Stefanie is a Gemini born on the cusp of Cancer.

Okay, that's not a lot of research, but I wasn't looking to become an astrology expert. While I find the subject fascinating, I don't really want to take the time to dig in with any depth, but I want the details I use to agreed with established and accepted knowledge. The key thing to remember about including details from research is that the extent of their use should be in proportion to their place in the story. This is only one passage, and I only need to include enough detail to make Amy sound like she knows something. Should someone read and wish to learn more about astrology, at least what I include will mesh with simple research. I might stretch things a bit, but as I heard an author say in a panel discussion on writing, "If someone tells me I got it all wrong, I tell them, 'that's why they call it fiction.'"

Now that I have the details I need, I can get back to the fun of creating my new scene.

Back On Track

The adjustments that needed to be made to "Seer Tyro Fiend" are done, and I'm back to creating new text in the manuscript. The exercise has proved fruitful in generating the invention of some new scenes. Where I was stuck before, I suddenly see the way to go now. Magic . . .

Unfortunately, I started imagining some of those new scenes too late in the evening, and thinking about them held sleep at bay until the wee hours of the morning. I'm sure some other authors would have gotten up and started writing those scenes in the middle of the night, but mine were not that well developed yet. Until I can play out the scene in my head, almost like a watching a movie, I can't really put it into words. Sometimes I make notes, and I've thought on occasion to keep a notepad in my nightstand, but the idea of turning on a light and writing stuff down always seems like it would be too disruptive in the middle of the night. That leads to going over and over the ideas in my head to make sure I don't forget, which is disruptive in itself. Perhaps it's the lesser of evils since I would berate myself severely if I did forget an idea and could not recapture it. (It's happened before.)

On another note, Love Is Murder is less than a month away, making February 1, its first day, quite a big day indeed. That is also the date when "Stranger Faces" is released as an ebook and "Two Faces, Two Faced" goes to print. The happy coincidence suggests some promotional ideas, which reminds me that I need to get all my fliers and brochures ready to go. The chapbooks I did last year for "Two Faces, Two Faced" virtually disappeared at Love Is Murder, so perhaps some of the same for "Stranger Faces" would be a good idea. At the same time, I've been trying to generate more interest in "Dabblers" since it is on the ballot for the Lovey Awards. Another set of chapbooks? Hmm. The old printer is going to be glowing red hot in the next month.

Restructuring

Once again, I'm going through "Seer Tyro Fiend" to make the adjustments previously noted. I realized if I shifted a significant event from a Friday night to a Saturday night, the timing works out better. This change, though, impacts a lot of different passages, with the need to invent something to fill the gap for Friday night.

I find myself thinking back to the book I read so long ago about writing fiction, the one that provided the recipe for plotting I've mentioned recently. I tried searching for it to learn the author, but apparently, a great deal has been written on the subject in recent years, and the book I'm thinking about is very old.

Anyway, there was a chapter that discussed the subject of what to put in and what to leave out. The author talked about approaching the task of cleaning out the refrigerator with her daughter. (I think they were going to defrost it, too, which says even more about the book's age.) Her daughter said, "I wish this was a book because then we could just say, 'they cleaned the refrigerator' and it would be done." This bit has stuck with me over the years. Anything that goes into a manuscript must have some reason to be there. A scene might be included to provide a small bit of information or a major plot development. It may give insight into a character's motivations or personality or it might add to one of the conflict layers. But if it doesn't do anything, does not move the story along in some fashion, it doesn't belong. No reader expects to plow through a minute-by-minute recounting of a period of time from the start of the story's conflict to its resolution. No read would put up with it either.

But the inclusion of seemingly inconsequential snippets of conversation or minor events can also be used to give clues in a subtle way. I like to play fair by giving a reader some chance to figure things out, but I still want that slap-to-the-forehead-I-should-have-seen-that-coming effect. It can be tricky, but that's half the fun.