Producing a Polished Manuscript

I've read a number of books on my Kindle recently, ranging from free books to best sellers. I've been annoyed to outright riled about the quantity of errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar in too many books. When I have to stop and interrupt the flow of a story to untangle a sentence or figure out a wonky-looking word, I lose momentum and interest. Enough distractions and I move on to another book.

The responsibility of presenting the reader with a well-polished, pleasant reading experience lies with the writer. This is especially true for self-publishing. From my reading experiences, I suspect many writers whip off a story, publish it online, and expect the reader to love it as much as they do. That's not going to happen if the reader has to grapple to make sense of it.

I've begun writing a review for each book I read - the person thinking about buying that book has a right to know if it's sloppily churned out. And hopefully, it will send a message to the writer that readers demand their best efforts.

I have a lot of sympathy for beginning writers.  After all, that's what I am. But I'm committed to turning out the best story I can which, aside from plot and characters, includes reading it endlessly, looking for errors, rewriting, and editing appropriately. Don't be too hasty to get your book out there for sale - some extra tweaking might make a big difference in your reviews and sales.

Road to Getting Published

I'm behind on posts for a couple really good reasons.  I made a move of choice from PA to NC this month and have been immersed in getting settled in a new home.  Equally important and possibly even more exciting is that I've been offered two publishing contracts for my first romantic mystery.  Three publishers expressed interest in the manuscript and provided specific suggestions for revisions.  One publisher sent a review by an editor who liked my book and another by a reviewer who didn't like it.  After reading them, I couldn't tell which was which - they were harsh but they were right.  Once I got over feeling offended, I went to work implementing their ideas and resubmitted.  I received a contract from one within a month and the second a few weeks later.  I knew all along I wanted to be accepted by the traditional publisher who will put out the book in both print and e-form.

The publisher complimented me for submitting the original manuscript and revised versions that were well-edited. I like to edit my own work so I'm certain I read it at least a hundred times and it paid off.  All these advice articles about submitting clean manuscripts are true. The last thing you want to do is turn off an editor or publisher because of misspellings, funky punctuation, missing words, sentences that don't make sense, and so on.   Don't shortchange editing.

      

Writing a Hobby?

Recently, in answer to a question, I explained I was a writer.  The woman asked what I wrote and was quite interested in in the writing/publishing process.  At the conclusion of our brief conversation, she remarked it was nice I had a hobby.

I didn't react but I was slightly offended at her perception of writing as a hobby.  In my world, a hobby is something I'd do for relaxation.  I love writing and enjoy it but it's work and I schedule time for it nearly every day.  I don't wait until I have nothing else to do - that would never happen and I'd never write anything!

Have you dealt with people who think writing is a hobby?  How did you feel about it?

Character Descriptions

Somewhere along the way, I was taught or think I was taught to give complete descriptions of characters - physical stats like hair and eye color, body build, and so on.  But for some time now, I've paid close attention to descriptions in books and good television scripts which seem to slip in as snippets here and there and don't follow the old patterns of including every detail.

I just finished reading a novel in a popular mystery series in which the main character is a successful writer and thief.  During the story, he mentions that his passport photo looks nothing like him.  After I finished the book, I realized that was the only description of him in the entire book.  Nothing about age or the typical tall/short, blue/brown eyes, blond/brown hair, fat/skinny, etc.  And yet, I formed my own mental picture of him and could see him clearly.

I remember a description from the TV series, Frasier.  His father commented on a brief affair his wife had and he summed up her paramour in these few words - a urologist with a bad comb-over.  I think it's one of the best descriptions ever.

I tend to make descriptions fairly brief because I don't like them.  So, I skip long-winded descriptions when I read and go for less is more when I write. 

What kind of descriptions do you like to write or read?  Brief?  Detailed?

Abused and Misused Pronouns

We've become speakers of colloquial English and I'm okay with it.  I enjoy using it in my novels since my characters live in the present and reflect their age and time.  I have fun adding -ish and -ism to words or hyphenating words to make up new words.  To me, it's part of the magic of playing with words.

Having said that, I can't believe the number of times in a single day that I hear knowledgeable people, especially television newscasters and commentators who should've mastered basic grammar in college or elementary school, screw up their pronouns. 

*Simply put, a nominative pronoun is the subject of the sentence:  I, you, he, she, it, we, they, who, and whoever.
Ex:  She and Mark like ice cream.  Not - Her and Mark like ice cream.  
Ex:  He and I went to the party.  Not - Him and me went to the party. 
Ex: Who is going?  Not - Whom is going? 

Two subjects can make it a little tricky so take out one of the subjects and listen to the sentence.  If you use the wrong pronoun, it sounds weird and you'll know it.
Not - Her like ice cream.  Not - Me went to the party.

*Objective pronouns are used with direct objects, indirect objects, and as objects of prepositions:  me, you, him, her, it, us, them, whom, and whomever. 

Ex:  The ball hit him and me. (Direct Object)  Not - The ball hit he and I.

Ex:  I told him my secret . (Indirect Object)  Not - I told he my secret.

Ex:  The plane flew above him and her (Object of Prep.)  Not - The plane flew above he and she.

Ex:  To whom does this belong? (Object of Prep.)  Not - To who does this belong?

The use of pronouns extends far beyond these examples but, in my opinion these are the most abused.  I expect my readers have a good grasp of pronoun rules so perhaps they can pass the info to someone who needs it.  At least, I've done my bit for these little words whose incorrect form ends up in sentences more often than the correct form!