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  • Getting to the Why of Editing

    Getting to the Why of Editing

    In his wildly popular TED Talk video How Great Leaders Inspire Action, author Simon Sinek maintains that most businesses know what they do, and that some businesses even understand how they do it, but that few businesses truly understand why they do it.

    Why does your organization exist? he asks. Why do you get out of bed in the morning? Why should anyone care?

    I spent almost 15 years working an in-house gig as an editor at Recorded Books (a company that will always have a special place in my heart). But nearly six months ago, I left behind regular paychecks and benefits to begin an adventure running my own editing business.

    I’m a copy editor.

    I love copyediting.

    But that’s what I do.

    I’m learning all the time and refining my processes (something I hope and expect will always be the case). But even so, I can give you a good breakdown of how I do what I do.

    But why do I do it?

    Sinek makes a compelling case for answering this question, and I’m sold on the importance of doing so.

    I should answer it for myself, certainly.

    But perhaps more importantly, I should answer it for my clients and for my potential clients. In truth, they shouldn’t just ask the question. They should demand an answer.

    So here goes.

    Anyone who’s chosen the freelance route can rattle off the usual reasons for going it on your own:

    • Being your own boss
    • Setting your own schedule
    • Pursuing the kind of work you want
    • Avoiding office politics

    These are all compelling, but they don’t actually strike at the why of what I do.

    So how do I get to why?

    My Castle Walls Editing home page features rotating images with these slogans:

    • Serving the Author
    • Serving the Audience
    • Serving the Work

    Each represents a different aspect of my why.

    Serving the Author

    In The Subversive Copy Editor (a must-read for any editor), Carol Fisher Saller expresses her philosophy that editors and authors are not adversaries vying for control of the text. They are instead partners working in service to the reader.

    As an editor, I want to help the author. Helping is important to me, and on a basic level it makes me feel good. I have a strong need to please, and editing lets me do this in a direct way.

    Serving the Audience

    I’m a reader as well as an editor, and reading has always been a place of shelter and warmth (Clive Barker, Ramsey Campbell, and all the other writers I admire have gotten me through a lot of tough times, and reading to my children was one of the great pleasures of my life).

    In a blog post, Baltimore Sun editor John McIntyre wrote, “And to be an editor, you must first be an avid reader. You have to hear all the voices to know which one is appropriate for your writer, your subject, your publication, your reader.”

    So reading is important for both personal and professional reasons. And as an editor, I’m able to help deliver text to readers everywhere—and this is a mission I can believe in, heart and soul.

    Serving the Work

    As a child, one of the chief ways I pleased my mother was by tidying up my room. I’ve carried this desire for neatness—and the psychological rewards of tidying up—into my profession. My mother died when I was not yet out of my teens, but I think she would be proud of the work I do.

    Certain kinds of editing appeal to me more than others, but at the heart of all jobs is that sense of straightening up. Addressing a reference list, for example, can be tedious work, but seeing a final product that appears just the way it should, down to the smallest detail, is extremely satisfying.

    My Why

    So why do I edit? It comes down to three things:

    1. I enjoy helping people.
    2. I enjoy being part of the book-making process.
    3. I enjoy cleaning up text.

    Those are simple reasons, but they feel honest and they work for me. I hope they work for you too.

     

     

  • Four on the Floor with Kathe Koja

    Four on the Floor with Kathe Koja

    My Four on the Floor interview with Kathe Koja appears below. I first discovered Koja’s writing in the early ’90s, when as a college student I visited a bookstore (remember those?) and picked up the Dell/Abyss paperback edition of her novel The Cipher. (If you’ve seen either this edition or the Abyss edition of her novel Bad Brains, you’ll likely remember the stunning cover art by Marshall Arisman).

    You can probably easily count the number of times a writer has truly opened your eyes, and reading Koja had that effect on me. Thematically, stylistically, this was a horror novel (though Koja’s writing defies genre) unlike any horror novel I’d ever read. 

    If you haven’t experienced her writing, that glittering promise nestled in 2018 is the experience of reading one of her novels for the very first time. Enjoy!

    About: Kathe Koja’s books include Under the Poppy, The Bastards’ Paradise, The Cipher, and Skin; her young adult novels include Buddha Boy, Talk, and Kissing the Bee. Her work has been honored by the ALA, by the ASPCA, and with the Bram Stoker Award. She’s a Detroit native and lives with her husband, artist Rick Lieder. She also runs Loudermilk Productions, creating site-specific immersive events, including performances of Faustus and her own adaptation of Under the Poppy.

    1. A Library Journal reviewer once wrote that your prose reads like “a collaboration between Clive Barker and William S. Burroughs.” Are there any writers (or artists in other mediums) whose works have exerted a particular influence on your writing?

    The great, fierce, subtle Shirley Jackson was a lasting influence on me as a beginning writer—her “Notes for a Young Writer,” in Come Along with Me, is really a fiction master class in less than 20 paragraphs. And the work, her novels and her stories, pretty much defies category: it’s Shirley Jackson’s work, period.

    David Bowie was a tremendous influence too—not just his genius as a musician, but his indelible example of fidelity to his own instincts and interests, his courage in making the work he wanted to make; he transcended categories, too, his music was Bowie music, first and always.

    I’ve written YA novels, horror novels, historical novels, and what stays constant is my voice, so I very much took those examples to heart.

    2. The beautifully styled and richly atmospheric nature of your prose would require a deft editorial hand. What has been your experience with editors?

    Whenever I send a manuscript to any editor, it’s always complete, or as complete as I can possibly make it—I wouldn’t send it otherwise!—so I don’t invite much in the way of collaborative editing, but I’m of course wide open to close and critical reading and comments: the writer and editor have identical goals, to bring the book (or story) to its highest level of completion, so I listen very carefully to all editorial notes.

    My best editorial experience? I was so fortunate to be able to work with Frances Foster at Farrar, Straus & Giroux: she was thorough, she was subtle, and whenever we disagreed, which was seldom, she was always open to honest argument. We worked on seven YA novels together and the process was utterly seamless. It’s no wonder she was a publishing legend.

    3. In what ways do you play with the overall structure of your novels and at what point in your process are you most aware of structure?

    All my fiction begins with a character—for The Cipher it was Nicholas, the failed poet; for Skin it was Tess, the stubborn sculptor; for Talk it was Kit Webster, the thoughtful and watchful young actor; for the Under the Poppy trilogy it was Istvan the puppeteer and his cadre of fantastic mecs—and the story just accretes around that person, through research, and notes, in a very hands-off kind of process, just letting the thing grow and find its shape until it’s time, finally, to start writing.

    I’m not able to work with outlines, I need to discover what’s being made in and by the making itself. So the structure is never imposed, it’s always organic to whatever’s being written—for one example, I had no idea the Poppy trilogy would be a trilogy, but the story just kept growing, kept showing itself to have more and more facets, until it became three books.

    4. Are there any recent books or films that have frightened or inspired or opened your eyes to something new in the world?

    A true life-changing example is Anthony Burgess’s A Dead Man in Deptford, his biographical novel about the sui generis Elizabethan poet and playwright Christopher Marlowe. I read it, fell head over heels for Marlowe, read all his poems and plays, and ended up writing a novel about him called Christopher Wild that’s also turning itself into a performance piece. A creative force of nature, Marlowe, that’s for certain.

    Recent work I’ve loved: Carter Scholz’s short novel Gypsy, the Netflix series Dark, and Perfume Genius’s album No Shape.

    Kathe Koja can be found online on Twitter, on Facebook, and at her website.

    Readers will also want to check out this interview conducted by Jeff VanderMeer for the Weird Fiction Review and this New Yorker piece about her novel Headlong.

  • A Walk-Through of the Copyright Page

    A Walk-Through of the Copyright Page

    In their zeal to dive into the newest work by their favorite author, readers often flip quickly past the copyright page.

    After all, why pore over a bunch of legal information when the author’s voice is calling from just a few pages away?

    But the page, located on the back (or verso) of the title page, holds a wealth of information that can suddenly become very interesting to writers nearing publication (especially if they’re self-publishing their work).

    Read on for the main parts of the copyright page.

    Publisher’s Address

    The copyright page usually lists the publisher’s name, address, and (often) web address.

    Self-publishers might choose to form their own publishing company, and the U.S. Small Business Administration is a good resource for starting and naming your business, creating a business plan, and other such information.

    Copyright

    While the Copyright Act of 1989 does not require that works contain a valid copyright notice to receive protection under copyright laws, most still choose to list the copyright on the copyright page—and, come on, it’s the copyright page!

    Most copyrights look something like this, with the copyright year matching the year of publication:

    ©2018 by John Doe

    The copyright is also usually followed by some version of the “All rights reserved” statement.

    A substantially new edition of a book will receive a new date assignment and could result in something like this:

    ©1997, 2005, 2018 by John Doe

    Copyrights for books published before January 1, 1978, may also be renewed, resulting in something like this:

    ©1936 by John Doe; © renewed 1964 by the Estate of John Doe

    For books published after this date, the copyright lasts for the life of the author plus an additional 70 years.

    More information about the length of copyright protection can be found here.

    To register or not to register?

    Registering your copyright is not required to receive copyright protection, but some still choose to do so as a further precaution. Registrants must pay a fee and send copies of the book to the Copyright Office. More information can be found here and here.

    What about works in the public domain?

    When a work has fallen out of copyright and into the public domain, no copyright is listed.

    What the heck is ℗?

    This is a performance copyright, protecting the audio narration of a work. As an editor at Recorded Books, I listed the ℗ credit on thousands of audiobook covers.

    The ℗ credit is linked to the year the audiobook is published, so you could have a copyright of 2007 for the original work but a ℗ credit of 2018 for the audiobook edition.

    More information about copyright can also be found on this helpful post from the Chicago Manual of Style.

    Publishing History

    The publishing history of a work is expressed in statement such as this:

    First edition published in 1887.

    Fiction Disclaimer

    This disclaimer may take many forms, but it usually sounds something like this:

    This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

    Country of Printing

    The country where the book was printed is listed on the copyright page, so you will usually see “Printed in the United States of America” or “Printed in China” or “Printed in” whatever other country is appropriate.

    The Number Line

    Perhaps the bit of information whose meaning is least apparent on first glance, the number line (or printer’s key) indicates the print run.

    The number line can be represented in a few ways, but it might look like this:

    2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1

    Whatever the order of the numbers, the lowest number is removed with each printing, so for the second printing of this work, the “1” would be removed, and you’d have this:

    2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3

    International Standard Book Number (ISBN)

    The ISBN is a unique identifier for your book, sort of like your book’s Social Security number. You will need a separate ISBN for each version of your book (that is, an ISBN for the hardcover, another for the paperback, and another for the ebook).

    More information can be found at Bowker, the only official source for ISBNs in the United States.

    Acknowledgements, Permissions, and  Other Credits

    Acknowledgements of previously published parts of the book, illustration credits, and permissions for quoting from copyrighted material are also listed on the copyright page.

    Credits for the cover art, the cover art designer, and the designer for the book’s interior (text) may also be listed here, and will look something like this:

    Jacket design by Jane Doe

    Photograph of lion ©2018 by Shutterstock

    If you see “Design by So-and-So” on the copyright page and “jacket” or “cover” is not mentioned, the credit usually refers to the typesetting and design of the interior pages.

    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication (CIP) Data

    CIP data is bibliographic information prepared by the Library of Congress to facilitate book processing for libraries and book dealers.

    Information about obtaining CIP data can be found here.

    There is no charge to obtain this data, but the publisher is required to provide a complimentary copy of the book.

    Other Information

    We’ve covered the major pieces of the copyright page, but the page may also include such information as the International Standard Serial Number (ISSN), a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), and translation information.

    That’s a lot to process, but the next time you open a book, you just might find yourself lingering over this data-rich page.

  • Four on the Floor with Sophie Playle

    Four on the Floor with Sophie Playle

    A specialist fiction editor who provides editorial services directly to writers, Sophie Playle also trains other editors through her online courses and is the author of the short story collection The Hours of Creeping Night—which I recommend highly!

    I’ve enjoyed following Sophie on Twitter and am also a fan of her newsletter, Liminal Letters (particularly of her approach of writing the letters as if they were letters to a friend). More information about Sophie and about her services can be found at her website, Liminal Pages.

    Now enjoy the interview!

    Do you find that being a writer as well as an editor makes you better at each craft? How so?

    Yes, definitely. Though, for me, being a writer has helped me be a better editor more than being an editor has helped me be a better writer. I believe I’m a more sensitive editor because I know how difficult it is to transfer your vision to the page. But my brain can get stuck in editor mode, which can make it difficult to be creative and free in my own writing.

    Are there any recurring themes you’ve consciously or unconsciously developed in your fiction?

    Hmm, interesting question. I’m not sure. I think I often explore the nature of fear—what can cause it, how it can manifest, what it makes us do. On the surface, I enjoy writing stories about strange beings—monsters, zombies, mythical animals, living trees and all that jazz. So much fun to be had there.

    What is your favorite part of editing?

    I provide two main services: manuscript critiquing (where I provide feedback on the story as a whole) and line/copyediting (where I help improve the artistry of the sentences and fix mechanical issues). I love it when an author hires me for both services and I get to see the improvements they make between drafts. It’s really satisfying to polish a solid story and see the author’s vision take shape.

    Is there an editing strength that you’re particularly proud of?

    My years of literary analysis, studying writing craft theory and being a creative writer myself have made me an excellent line editor, if I do say so myself. I feel I’ve got a pretty good grasp of how much I should intervene and how much I should hold off to preserve the author’s voice and style, but I know exactly the effect a comma placement or word choice will have on a sentence.

  • Book Pick: ‘Quack This Way’

    Book Pick: ‘Quack This Way’

    At one point in Quack This Way: David Foster Wallace & Bryan A. Garner Talk Language and Writing (2013), Wallace suggests that usage dictionaries are perfect bathroom readers because the entries have the appeal of trivia, are brief, and connect with usages the reader will inevitably encounter soon thereafter.

    While Garner’s usage dictionary is one of my go-to references, I prefer to leave it at my desk, as it’s a hefty volume.

    But even so, Wallace’s observation is spot-on, and you can do worse than randomly selecting a page in Garner’s Modern English Usage and reading a few entries.

    A much slimmer volume, Quack This Way can be enjoyed in its entirety over a cup or two of coffee, though you’ll want to make a home on your bookshelf for this transcript of the filmed 2006 interview (Wallace’s last long interview).

    Packed with insights into language and writing, the book features highlight-worthy lines on nearly every page, no surprise considering Wallace’s reputation as one of the finest authors of his generation and Garner’s as one of the world’s premier lexicographers.

    “[T]he average person you’re writing for is an acute, sensitive, attentive, sophisticated reader who will appreciate adroitness, precision, economy, and clarity.” — David Foster Wallace

    In the introduction, Garner touches on the friendship between the two men, and it is here Wallace’s suicide, in 2008, is most immediate, especially when Garner relates the author’s habit of crossing out his name on the title page when signing his work.

    Garner handles these difficult passages well, providing insight into the men’s relationship and leaving the reader with a greater appreciation for the privilege of taking in this conversation.   

    The pages that follow feature the text and only the text of their interview, with Wallace’s speech preceded by a simple “DFW:” and Garner’s with “BAG:”.

    Garner engages, encourages, and steps back enough to let Wallace’s thoughts come to the fore, and Wallace, as Garner described him in the introduction, strikes the reader as “self-effacing, apologetic, and endearing.”

    In what is essentially a master class on writing and language, Garner and Wallace explore the following:

    • Learning to write well
    • The difference between expressive and communicative writing
    • Writing that mistakes complexity for intelligence
    • Vogue words
    • Structure (openings, middles, endings)
    • Passive voice, beginning sentences with conjunctions & buried verbs and nouns
    • Officialese and genteelisms

    In addition, readers are treated to mentions of writers whom Wallace admired (all good additions to your reading list) and Wallace’s thoughts on the importance of a writer’s “big trio”: dictionary, usage dictionary, and thesaurus.

    Quack This Way is a perfect single-sitting read, a welcome addition to your bookshelf, and a smart gift for anyone even marginally interested in language and writing.

     

  • Four on the Floor with Mitchel Whitington

    Four on the Floor with Mitchel Whitington

    [This interview originally appeared in the November 2017 edition of Ramparts, the monthly newsletter from Castle Walls Editing.]

    Writer and lecturer Mitchel Whitington, born in East Texas, has explored haunted locations all across the United States, and on top of that, Mitchel lives and works in a haunted house (The Grove) in Jefferson, Texas.

    Mitchel’s body of work includes Ghosts of East Texas, A Ghost in My Suitcase, Haunted Texas Highways, and Diamonds of Death.

    This Halloween, on an appropriately stormy night, I had the pleasure of meeting Mitchel and touring his haunted (and beautiful) home. I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I enjoyed meeting the man himself.

    Said to be one of the most haunted locations in Texas, your home (The Grove) would seem to be the ultimate residence for a writer. What has it been like writing in such a richly historic atmosphere?

    The stories of the former owners of The Grove are very inspiring to me. It was built by a businessman who was in Jefferson when the city was still being carved out of the wilderness. A freed slave bought the house in 1885, and he’d gone from being someone else’s property to one of the most respected businessmen in town. 

    Each of the owners contributed to the history of The Grove, and I realize that without really being aware of it, I’m writing my own life’s story into the annals of the house. I’ve got to say that all that is extremely inspiring — I’m actually living a part of this house’s history. 

    When I was working on my writing many years ago, I often wrote at the food court of a local mall in the Dallas area. There were dozens of conversations going on around me, people were smoking (it was a different world back then), the Muzak of the mall was piped over speakers, and eventually I still managed to produce a sellable book. 

    Life is much better now. I write in a quiet, historic home heavily steeped in history, with a number of resident spirits looking over my shoulder … how could it not be inspiring?

    What part of the writing process do you enjoy the most (research, writing, rewriting, etc.)?

    My favorite part of the process is the research. I enjoy writing — a lot — but when I’m doing research I feel like I’m trying to solve a puzzle, looking for leads and clues.

    I enjoy it so much that I sometimes wonder if I would have made a good police detective, putting together all of the pieces to solve a crime. Being a writer is a lot safer, though, so I’ll just keep moving along the path that I’m on.

    You’ve dedicated a good part of your life to preserving your beautiful home so that it will endure for future generations. Is this desire to preserve the past part of what drives you as a writer as well?

    Actually, I don’t think so. My drive to preserve The Grove is because I feel a huge responsibility toward it as the current owner.

    We recently rescued a basset hound who had been dumped out on Highway 49 near Jefferson; the dog had a terrible case of heartworms, had never been spayed, and had a number of other health problems. 

    When Bella became part of our family, we took care of all her health issues and have proceeded to spoil her — the baby that once no one loved has become one of the most loved bassets in the world. 

    I kind of feel the same about The Grove. It sat empty for a number of years, waiting for someone to love it, and as its current caretakers, I feel a responsibility to nurture the house. 

    I had a passion for writing long before I discovered The Grove, however, and I think that if I were homeless and living under a bridge I’d be collecting paper scraps and pieces of pencils so that I could write. My drive to write is as strong as my feelings for The Grove, but they’re separate things. It’s just that living in the house provides a wonderful and inspiring backdrop.

    Speaking of living and working in a haunted house, what scares you? Are there any authors whose works you find particularly terrifying?

    After 15 years at The Grove, supernatural occurrences don’t scare me at all. We learned early on that there’s nothing bad or evil here, but instead we feel really blessed that we get to have a peek into the “other side” on a fairly regular basis. 

    What scares me more than anything else are humans. There are people in the world who do terrible things, and they are the ones who wander my nightmares. 

    As to authors, well, I love the master: Stephen King. But while his supernatural stories like The Shining and Christine greatly entertain me, it was Misery that made me lose sleep!

  • Four on the Floor with Writer/Producer/Director Al Gough

    Four on the Floor with Writer/Producer/Director Al Gough

    Alfred Gough III (@TheRealAlGough) is half of the prolific Alfred Gough-Miles Millar writing/producing team. Having achieved success with properties as diverse as Spider-Man 2, Lethal Weapon 4, Smallville, Into the Badlands, and The Shannara Chronicles, Al has ranged far from the quiet streets of his hometown of Leonardtown, Maryland.

    I grew up in that same town and was lucky enough to spend a good portion of my childhood running elaborate Star Wars battles with Al, whose creative savvy was already coming to the fore.

    A little known fact about both our lives is that Al gave me my first job, passing on his gig selling peaches outside the Ben Franklin five-and-dime store.

    Al, you’ve come a hell of a long way! Now on to the interview:
     

    You wear a lot of hats (creator/showrunner/executive producer/writer). Which is your favorite?

    That’s a great question! When my partner and I are writing movies, we miss television, and vice versa when we are knee-deep in a new season. I would say creator and writer are my favorites because that’s the time when the idea and the story and the script are all yours. We don’t have to worry about budgets and network notes and production issues. It’s the time when the potential seems limitless.

    What is your writing routine and what are the benefits and challenges of having a writing partner?

    Miles Millar (my partner) and I have been writing together for 23 years. We’ve always treated it like a job—meaning we would write from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day. And when we started out, we would write seven days a week. 

    Now, as the years have gone by and we have families, we’ve amended that to five days a week. The last few years, with both The Shannara Chronicles and Into the Badlands shooting on opposite sides of the world (Auckland and Dublin, respectively), with our writers’ rooms in LA and post-production in Toronto, we have evolved our process. Thank God for the internet, Skype and email! 

    I have only seen benefits in writing with a partner. First and foremost, we are friends who have always seen eye-to-eye creatively. It’s also nice to have someone who’s got your back in this crazy business!

    How scary is it to jump into an already established franchise or series?

    The challenges of tackling an established character or franchise are twofold—bringing a fresh point of view to the material and dealing with the fact that you can’t satisfy every fan of the source material (whether it is a comic book character or novel series). 

    The important thing to remember is that you need to honor the spirit of the source material while bringing something new to the table. We certainly found this on Smallville, where we had fans of Superman who thought we’d gone too far. But now, 17 years later, the show is considered canon. I guess one generation’s heresy is another’s gospel!

    Authors put faith in me to help cultivate their darlings. How protective are you of your work? At what point do you cede ownership of the work to other creative parties and to the audience?

    The thing about film and television that you learn early—you can’t be precious. They are both team sports. Both require a large amount of people and a large financial investment to get off the ground. 

    Again, the trick is being able to take good, constructive criticism while still sticking to your creative vision for the show.

    Also, once a movie or TV show is out in the world, it doesn’t belong to you anymore. It belongs to the people who watch it and love it and put their own emotional stamp on it. They are your fans. They are the ones sitting around the proverbial campfire listening to your story and making it their own.  

    That is actually a deeply satisfying part of doing this—when I hear from people that a show or movie we did helped get them through a tough time or was one of their favorites from childhood.

    That experience is what makes it all worthwhile.

  • 5 Tips for Winning NaNoWriMo

    5 Tips for Winning NaNoWriMo

    National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is almost upon us. I participated for the first time three years ago and now have three successful campaigns under my belt (meaning I’ve hit the 50,000-word mark each time).

    Brag much, James? I know, I know, but if I’m going to offer tips for the event I should at least let you know that I’ve done it successfully a number of times, right?

    Every writer is going to approach NaNoWriMo differently (hence all the talk about planners and pantsers), but here are five tips I think can help anyone:

    1. Get off to a fast start.
      I can’t emphasize enough the importance of coming strong out of the gate. During November, you need to write 1,667 words per day to hit the 50,000-word mark. Your NaNoWriMo stats page provides a number of different ways to track your progress, but perhaps none is more gut-clenching than the one that displays your words per day to finish.

      It’s this simple: Write more than 1,667 words per day and that number goes down. Write less and the number climbs. Fatigue and pressure mount as the month progresses. Seeing a lower words-per-day-to-finish count assures you that you can actually do it. Seeing the number rise might just have you fleeing the scene.
    2. Remember that anything that isn’t writing, isn’t writing.
      Twitter, Facebook and the NaNoWriMo forums are all great places to meet fellow NaNoWriMo participants, and doing so is a valuable part of the experience, but every second you’re not pounding out words is a second when your word count is languishing.

      It’s oh so tempting to commiserate with other writers about the challenge consuming you or to talk strategy or to discuss your work in progress, but, for my money, your best advice is this: Write now, talk later.
    3. Treat yourself.
      During this frantic month, you’ll have to balance writing with jobs, family, friends and all the other aspects of your life. You’ll feel the rush of knocking out words at a lightning pace, but you’ll also have moments when you’re not sure where your story is heading, and you’ll inevitably also experience the soul-shattering fear that you don’t have another word left in you.

      In the face of all this, every little incentive helps. Treat yourself to the little halo you get for donating to NaNoWriMo. It’s a little thing, but the halo and other accomplishment badges really do give you a boost.
    4. Make a cover.
      Participants who upload a cover for their novel in progress are much more likely to hit the 50,000-word mark. Doing so won’t magically add to your word count, and someone who creates (or has someone else create) a cover is probably more serious about the endeavor in the first place, but you can’t argue with the connection between having a cover and “winning” NaNoWriMo.

      Seeing that cover every time you go to your NaNoWriMo page adds legitimacy to what you’re doing. And if it’s an especially badass cover, it might even inspire your writing to new heights. I mean, how can you see a killer cover for your novel and not throw down the words to fulfill its promise?
    5. Keep your head in the game.
      I’ve found that my best writing is done away from the keyboard. By this I mean that you should use every spare moment of non-writing time to plan your work, so that when you sit down to write the words pour out of you. The last thing you want is to waste your writing time staring blankly at a page.

      Keep pen and paper handy or use your smartphone to type or record audio of story ideas. Be open to inspiration from every source and it will find its way into your work. These notes can be your to-do list, to be addressed in each writing session. My biggest anxiety during the event has been the fear that I’ll run out of story. Having a growing list of events to populate your novel is incredibly reassuring.

     

    I hope those tips are helpful, and if you’re priming yourself to make a run at winning NaNoWriMo this year, good luck and enjoy the experience.

    And if you find yourself in need of an editor in the months following the event, or anytime, look me up. I’d love to help you with your project!

  • Four on the Floor with Author J. J. White

    Four on the Floor with Author J. J. White

    [An abbreviated version of this interview ran in my September newsletter.]

    Author J . J. White has been kind enough to credit my editing with helping him land an agent and traditional publisher. Read on to learn more about the author and to see how he responded to the Four on the Floor interview.

    About J. J. White: Award-winning author J. J. White has written 11 novels, including A Promise to Lena, Nisei, and Prodigious Savant, as well as more than 400 short stories. He lives in Merritt Island, Florida, with his wife, Pamela.

    What was it like to move to a traditional publisher? Did this change how you viewed yourself as a writer?

     

    I should explain how to get traditionally published before I write about what the move was like. In good fiction, the narrative follows a story arc. First an event must change the protagonist’s life. Then there’s escalating trouble to keep him or her from their goal, and, finally, you have a satisfactory resolution for the reader.

    For an author to become traditionally published, you have to go through your own real-life story arc. First, you must have an event that starts you writing. In my case, it was a back injury that laid me up for two weeks.

    Then, after you have been writing for a while, you must endure the escalating conflict that tries to keep you from reaching your publishing goal. This includes a mountain of rejection from agents, acquisition editors, publishers, and reviewers.

    Finally, if all the stars align, a traditional publisher agrees to bring you aboard.
    This separates you from the millions of self-published authors and allows your book to be placed in bookstores. You also have less trouble getting media interviews, and the local newspapers and libraries take you more seriously than they do self-published authors.

    The transition from self-published to traditional is a bit disconcerting. Publishers have certain methods and traditions new authors stumble over. I had no idea what a galley was and didn’t understand the relationships between publishers and the big-chain bookstores, but eventually I learned, though it took three books to do so.

    In most cases, the traditional publisher will defray publication costs such as promotion, travel, editing, and advertising. Although they will edit your book, it’s wise to have a polished manuscript to give to your agent.

    “I was fortunate to have three manuscripts edited by Castle Walls Editing, which helped me acquire both an agent and publisher.”

    Being traditionally published changes you personally and professionally. It has given me the confidence to submit both long and short fiction to the publishing world.

    Without that confidence, I would not have continued writing novels and would not have had my short fiction published in the Saturday Evening Post anthology, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine and the St. Martin’ Press novel A Divided Spy. Like my protagonist in my books, I feel I have reached a major portion of my goals.

    What is your day-to-day writing routine?

     

    Writing is a lifetime commitment. Almost every bestselling author will tell you the six most important things to do to be a successful writer are to read, read, read and write, write, write.

    I read every day, whether it’s a book or audiobook. If it’s an audiobook, I try to imagine the words floating around the car in their literary order to see how the author meant to write them. Of course, this distracts me from driving, though I’ve been lucky enough not to have an accident while concentrating on Hemingway’s prose.

    Writing doesn’t take up much of my day. I can live a normal life of working, golfing, surfing, reading, and cooking dinner, and yet still find time to write.

    Normally, after I watch Jeopardy with my wife, I’ll spend two hours writing in my office. I write in longhand, so after I finish a chapter, I hand it over to Pam, who types it up, edits the ridiculous and the unbelievable, and then emails it back to me in my office, which is only two rooms away.

    Usually, I’ll do the first edit on it that night, and then on Tuesdays, when I meet with the other three members of my writing group, we’ll go over it in detail.

    “Two hours of writing a night doesn’t seem like it would add up to much, but after ten years, it has equated to 11 novels and 400 short stories.”

    Which other writers working today do you admire most?

     

    Writing beautifully is important, but if the author doesn’t give me a good story, I’ll put it down. I tend to drift toward genre writers like Stephen King, Dennis Lehane, and Michael Connelly.

    For a literary read, I enjoy Cormac McCarthy and Joseph O’Connor.

    My favorites for historical fiction are Steven Pressfield, Edward Rutherfurd, and Bernard Cornwell.

    I also enjoy the fiction of Laura Lippman and Paula Hawkins, and I try to read a variety of authors to improve my own writing.

    What do you find most valuable about having someone else edit your work?

     

    When I write, I imagine my characters on a stage in front of me acting out their parts. I dutifully jot down what they say and do. Unfortunately, this gets me so close to them I can’t see their flaws. They become my darlings and good authors will tell you, you must kill your darlings.

    “An independent editor can stand back and see the entire picture and kill those darlings without sentimentality, or at least suggest that I kill them.”

    They can also see my obvious punctuation, grammar, and content mistakes. The reason I miss them is because my attention as an author is on the narrative and the style instead of the construction.

    It took me time to figure this out and to accept suggestions about removing anything that doesn’t belong in the story. A good editor equates to a good book and I’m smart enough to know I need a good editor.

    More information about J. J. White can be found at his website.

  • Book Pick: ‘Do I Make Myself Clear?’ by Harold Evans

    Book Pick: ‘Do I Make Myself Clear?’ by Harold Evans

    Too often people perceive the work of editors as so much pedantry or needless fussiness.

    But editors help authors communicate to their audience, and, as Harold Evans demonstrates in Do I Make Myself Clear? Why Writing Well Matters, writing well does matter—and sometimes it even saves lives.

     

    [bctt tweet=”“Words have consequences.”—Harold Evans, author of DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?” username=”CastleWallsEdit”]

     

    Emotional Response

    I did not expect to react emotionally to a book about writing clearly, but I did.

    Twice, in fact.

    In the chapter “Money and Words,” Evans looks at how the words customer convenience led to deaths because of an auto company’s internal language about faulty ignition switches. I lost two people I love to a car accident, so the subject will always expose raw emotions.

    Words do indeed have consequences. Careless language will not always have devastating results, but easily understandable text touches lives in myriad ways, whether helping people decide on political candidates or choosing new home appliances or almost anything else you can imagine.

    The second emotional response was to Evans’s observations on “The Weasel, Twelve Monkeys and the Shrub,” David Foster Wallace’s 2008 Rolling Stone article about John McCain.

    Evans details how Wallace’s account of McCain’s time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam transmitted that experience in a way no other account had. Evans describes Wallace’s language as “prose with the frost off,” and he points out the techniques, such as asking questions, that make the piece so effective.

    My emotional response came both from the secondhand transference of the power of Wallace’s writing and from my knowledge of Wallace’s suicide, which is always difficult for me to process.

    Why Listen to Evans?

    A former editor for the Sunday Times and the Times (London), Evans holds the British Gold Award for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism and was voted by his peers as the all-time greatest British newspaper editor.

    Methinks he knows of what he speaks.

    Evans’s Approach

    Evans divides the book into three main sections: “Tools of the Trade,” “Finishing the Job,” and “Consequences.”

    Throughout, Evans breaks down pieces of writing and offers suggestions on how to rework text for clarity. As an editor, it’s thrilling to look over the shoulder of a master and take in the process.

    And when I say “breaks down,” I mean it. Evans tears apart writing and shows the reader exactly what he’s doing, why he’s doing it, and how the text sings afterward.

    At one point Evans even—gasp!—takes on Jane Austen.

    Clear as Mud

    Clear writing is always the goal, right?

    Not for the “mistakes have been made” crowd.

    Evans addresses writing whose intent is to obfuscate, and politicians are far from the only ones who don’t exactly want their meaning to be clear.

    For editors, this underscores the importance of working with authors to clarify (ahem) just what kind of editing is desired.

    With fiction, an author might feel like an editor has altered their voice or diminished the beauty of their language.

    In nonfiction or corporate work, a writer might feel like an editor has produced something that “sounds” less impressive (or exposed the fact that little has been said in the first place).

    My experience in corporate work has been that there are those who will do anything to prevent an editor from getting ahold of the work, and I believe this comes from the fear that editors will rewrite just for the sake of rewriting.

    This undoubtedly happens. But if editors are committed to helping authors, in any field, and if there’s adequate communication, then both parties should be able to enjoy a harmonious rather than contentious relationship.

    Readability

    Anyone who needs to write for reading level can benefit from Evans’s section on readability. In these pages, he discusses the following tools:

    • Flesch Reading Ease index
    • Flesch-Kincaid grade level
    • Dale-Chall formula
    • Gunning fog index

    Evans provides an evenhanded assessment of how these tools can help writers while also warning that the tools are blind to meaning and can’t address the thing writers must worry about most: placing “the right words in the right order.”

    Shortcuts

    In one chapter, Evans offers 10 shortcuts for making your writing clear, addressing active and passive voice, adjectives and adverbs, prepositions, and other such trouble spots.

    It’s the kind of chapter anyone can read out of context and walk away with a pocketful of valuable advice.

    Brains!

    In another chapter, Evans tackles zombies, flesh-eaters, and pleonasms.

    Also referred to as nominalizations, smothered verbs, or controverted verbs, zombies manifest themselves in nouns that have devoured verbs: implementation, authorization, etc.

    Evans offers a survival guide for dealing with them.

    Also plaguing the writing world is language that sucks the life out of text, and Evans provides a six-page list that helps deal with these flesh-eaters. A handy reference, the list is broken into flesh-eaters (“We are in receipt of”) and preferred usages (“We received”).

    On pleonasms (redundancies), Evans offers nine pages of examples, with italics indicating words that can be struck out (“complete monopoly”).

    He then ends the chapter with seven pages of cliches you want to avoid.

    In another chapter, Evans looks at word meanings that have become muddled over time, clarifying usage for words such as dilemma, entomb, and loan/lend.

    Bibliography

    One of the benefits of books on writing is that they reference other books on writing, so the bibliography serves as a good must-read list. Such is the case here, and readers will also want to check out the blog list for sites to keep tabs on.

    Final Take

    When copy editors at long-running institutions are losing jobs in the interest of the bottom line, this seems as good a time as any to remind the world that writing and editing matter.

    Evans does this, and he does it clearly.