Studying Other Authors

I learn by reading--either a book on writing or a novel by an admired author.  I've written earlier posts about Nora Roberts's (yes, correct form per CMS 7.18) wonderful ability and her special insight into the male mind.  Still, I am rarely able to jolt myself out of her stories long enough to discern her tricks of the trade.  Doesn't stop me from trying with each rereading of her stuff.  I enjoy every trip.

Today, I'm going a different route.  I am comparing two blogs.  One How-To by David Farland who's tips therein I plan to use to dissect an emotion-filled blog by Barbara Conelli. 

Here's the link to each:

1.  Dave Farland's Bringing Your Scene to Life through Action:  http://davidfarland.com/writing_tips/?a=73
2.  Barbara Conelli's blog post re the life of a travel writer: http://barbaraconelliblog.com/2012/04/06/what-is-travel-writers-life-really-like/
3.  Plus the interview of Barbara Conelli on The Displaced Nation:  http://thedisplacednation.com/2012/03/28/an-italian-with-a-passion-how-to-live-the-dolce-vita-with-barbara-conneli/

Without yet beginning Dave's exercise, I feel the lack of to-be verbs helps with the communication of emotions.  Plus, like Nora Roberts has been known to do, careful word choice resonates the "one thing" the author has chosen to highlight. 

In a Nora book about a magician, she used career-appropriate words to describe the surrounding, the man himself, others.  Like magical, mysterious, spellbinding, ethereal, unknown.  She was setting her scene.

As authors, we color our story with the tone of each individual noun, verb, adjective, adverb. 

So if you want to project "bubbly" within your text, then check your Thesaurus for synonyms, antonyms and go to town brainstorming others.  Write "bubbly" in the center of a blank sheet of paper.  Add other related terms for five minutes, no censoring allowed, and fill up all that white space.  Afterward, cross off the rejects.  What is left are substitutions for those bland verbs and nouns you NaNo-wrote in your first draft.

Remember, you can always morph a noun into a verb (ex. brainstorm becomes brainstorming), an adjective into a noun (beautiful becomes beauty), so rearrange the usage.  Play with Webster's.

I'm still mesmerized by Barbara's ability to totally immerse me in her world in a blog spot.  Do you realize she is limited to somewhere between maybe 250 words to possibly 750?  As an novelist, I am awed.  What I hope to accomplish with 50,000+ WC spilled over 200+ pages, Barbara does with about one word for almost every thousand of mine.  Remarkable.

If you read her interview, you'll find out Barbara knows eight languages.  Eight.  Wow.  Maybe that is what makes her such a descriptive word artist.  She sings with her written word.

I want to do that.

Study on, fellow creators, and share with me what you have learned to effectively siphon off those feelings to your readers via black ink on a white background.

Pinterest

I love this idea of pinning photos of our fav things to online cork boards per category.  Basically that is what those twenty bankers boxes in my utility room represent--just not organized yet.  As an author, I've saved mountains of story ideas for places, people, plot lines, pets, etc., to be incorporated into a novel at some future time.

As a cook, I collect recipes.  Am working on an e-cookbook to release "soon."

As a person, I collect quotes.  You can see my volume one collection online at Amazon and B&N.  Already working on volume two.

This is like those dreams boards I meant to create for each of my goals, but never did.  Pinterest is easier in the sense you don't need poster boards and glue, plus magazine and catalog clippings from years past.

This newest social media is addicting, as I can find myself hunting up stuff to pin to my under-construction Pinterest boards, then reminding myself I have work to do.

Again, as a novelist, I could create a story board for a WIP (work-in-progress book).

Plus Pinterest represents probably our most utilized sense and brings our visualizations to life.  How amazing that this one site combines so many things touted within the self-improvement mind-set.

Repinning several pics from another's boards can be done much faster than one tweet.  Certainly in less time that one of my posts can be published here, or adding to our FB wall.

Not sure when it was first birthed into action, but I initially saw it mentioned within a thread in NaNoWriMo 2011 and more recently among LinkedIn.

Anyway, I've been good about avoiding online games so I can spend my hours more wisely.  Yet, not so good about my Pinterest time.  However, this is the learning curve induction and I'm enjoying getting acclimated to the new setup.

What do y'all think of Pinterest?  Been playing with it, too?

2011 NaNoWriMo Stats

These are courtesy of the NaNo blog at http://blog.lettersandlight.org/post/13851021182, but partially recited here because I had mentioned wanting these numbers in an earlier posting of my own.  Here's the pertinent scoop: 

General Stats Round Up!

For NaNoWriMo main [does not include Young Writers Program]:

• 256,618 participants, up roughly 28% from 2010’s total of 200,530 writers.
• We wrote a total of  3,074,068,446 words, up 7% from 2010’s collective word count of 2,872,682,109.
• This averaged out to 11,979 words per person!
• We had 36,774 winners, giving us a 14% win rate!

Our site traffic was way off the charts this year, as well. In November, we had 5,384,040 visits, up 12% from 2010’s 4,796,947. We had 42,915,395 pageviews, up 58% from 2010’s 27,215,323.

Top 50 NaNoWriMo Cities (according to Google Analytics, based on number of November visits from these fine places)

1. New York 77,947
2. London 62,286
3. Seattle 55,205
4. Toronto 46,413
5. Sydney 46,390 
6. Los Angeles 45,806
7. Chicago 42,720
8. Melbourne 40,588
9. Portland 38,898
10. Denver 37,972
11. San Francisco 36,808
12. Minneapolis 28,521
13. Austin 28,095
14. Houston 25,863
15. Washington 25,812
16. Brisbane 23,033
17. Calgary 22,294
18. Edmonton 21,618
19. Ottawa 21,583
20. San Diego 19,815
21. Helsinki 19,793
22. (not set) 19,435
23. Phoenix 18,556
24. Salt Lake City 18,347
25. Vancouver 18,082
26. Boston 17,850
27. Philedelphia 17,664
28. Columbus 17,558 
29. Tucson 17,551
30. Kensington 17,262
31. Ballinger 16,159
32. Dublin 16,022
33. Dallas 15,761 
34. Albuquerque 15,069
35. Perth 14,949 
36. St Louis 14,910
37. Auckland 14,873
38. Edinburgh 14,575 
39. Montreal 14,260
40. Singapore 13,993
41. Colorado Springs 13,933
42. Indianapolis 13,680 
43. Manchester 13,549
44. Adelaide 13,477
45. Sacramento 13,256
46. San Antonio 13,170
47. Atlanta 13,065
48. Grand Rapids 12,939
49. San Jose 12,925
50. Madison 12,650

Top 50 NaNoWriMo Countries (according to Google Analytics, based on number of November visits from these fine places)

1. United States 3,605,003 
2. United Kingdom 508,260 
3. Canada 385,383      
4. Australia 160,936 
5. Germany 99,752 
6. Netherlands 66,174
7. Finland 51,164
8. France 44,186
9. Sweden 41,244
10. New Zealand 32,109
11. Norway 21,368      
    
12. Ireland 21,365    
    
13. Philippines 20,333
    
14. Spain 18,887
    
15. Denmark 15,888        
    
16. Japan 15,859
    
17. Singapore 14,007
    
18. South Africa 13,861
    
19. Austria 13,436
    
20. India 12,828
    
21. Belgium 12,494
    
22. Mexico 11,762
    
23. (not set) 11,483
    
24. Brazil 11,170
    
25. Italy 10,820
    
26. Portugal 10,261
    
27. Poland 9,711
    
28. South Korea 9,685
    
29. Switzerland 8,956
    
30. Indonesia 6,918
    
31. Malaysia 6,618
    
32. Israel 6,014
    
33. Hungary 5,945
    
34. Latvia 5,303
    
35. China 4,665
    
36. Romania 4,454
    
37. Greece 4,262
    
38. Russia 3,943
    
39. Hong Kong 3,799
    
40. Croatia 3,135
    
41. Argentina 3,067
    
42. United Arab Emirates 3,021
    
43. Puerto Rico 2,949
    
44. Thailand 2,719
    
45. Estonia 2,655
    
46. Taiwan 2,457        
    
47. Turkey 2,089
    
48. Ukraine 1,974
    
49. Czech Republic 1,914          
    
50. Malta 1,850

How fun was that?!? We’ll be adding top wordiest regions by total word count and by average words written per Wrimo, too.

- - - 

I look forward to seeing the wordiest regions stats and will report them here when I know.

NaNo is a force. A power.  A blessing.  And lives on past November each year.

The Beauty of NaNoWriMo Lives On

The benefits of NaNo are immense.  I've blogged about some of them before, but NaNo still beats in my veins.  It lives on.

We all have our speeds.  We all have our strengths and weaknesses.  As a novelist, NaNo is perfect for me.  The ticking-time-bomb-in-the-bus momentum of the short-term goal (thirty days) keeps me striving for those 2K words daily.  I hit my 50K mark early even with a job, a twenty-four bug confining me to bed for twenty hours and one earlier day of complete downtime, which was signaled as necessary by my low WC from the previous day. 

The month-long focus on the WC keeps us honed in on the grand goal.  Like a horse wearing blinders, we keep our eyes on the prize.  I am guilty of multitasking, but the one-goal/one-focus has the benefits of COMPLETION.  There is no procrastination involved.  How cool is that?

Plus I had the wonderful side benefit of a writing buddy, an ex-coworker, who shared his NaNo project with me and I found him to be a genius storyteller.  Which didn't surprise me as he is articulate whether speaking in person or via email.  He has a sly humor that shows up as you listen to him or read his words.  His work, his first draft mind you, is amazingly clean and resonates with intelligence and wit.  Plus, he has the innate ability to juggle many characters within a short novel (just over 50,000 WC) and give them distinct personalities.  Even with three characters whose names all started with N, I could easily keep them separated.

If I thought I could keep myself objective, "above the story," I'd go back to dissect and study his work-in-progress just to see how he so efficiently accomplished the 3-D embodiments of his people in his story land.  Or I could just read it again for the sheer fun of it.

He also had used rhetorical devices, like foreshadowing, similes, metaphors.  There were no plotting problems--no "that doesn't make sense" red flags within his draft.  His FIRST draft.  

The world will no doubt find a wonderful fantasy novelist within his debut novel.  Whether he goes traditionally published or Indie, I cannot wait to read his finished book. I would not dare to share his name without his permission and I surely do not want to pressure this budding author.  Plus he needs to decide whether to go with a pen name or not.

Do not despair.  Upon publication, I will definitely give a grand shout out. 

I feel a little smug in that it was me who mentioned NaNoWriMo to him--like a talent scout who hit gold in finding the next Michael Jordan, or Elvis Presley, or Elle McPherson.  Hopefully he treasures his writing ability as much as I do and we'll all be sharing the gift of his tales in the near future.

So don't withhold your compliments.  If they exist inside you, they should be shared.  One simple encouragement could change someone's life.  Even your own.  After all, what goes around comes around.  Keep verbalizing those good inspirations.  We need to hear them.

Crossed Over the Magical 50K Mark In NaNoWriMo

Yep.  Yesterday.  This is such a wonderful thing.  The process lends itself to turning off the critical internal editor because our focus in on our word count.  Plus with the thirty-day deadline inherent within NaNoWriMo--as its slogan says, "Thirty days and  nights of literary abandon!"--there is the proverbial ticking bomb to get us moving.  So we have forward momentum, with no questioning or doubting to delay, distract, sideline or otherwise sabotage our efforts and presto!  We get words written.  Not an easy job, but can be done.  Obviously.  Check out the NaNoWriMo website for all the past winners each year.

While there is no prize money or plaque given, anyone who makes it over that 50,000 WC mark--and proves it by providing a copy (encrypted, please) of their document to the NaNo site--is deemed a winner that year.  I do not know how many authors participated this year, but I do know that on Thanksgiving Day, at times there were over 80,000 people signed in.  A quick internet search found this fact.  About 200,000 people participated in NaNoWriMo 2010.  Just amazing.

While I cannot maintain this daily November schedule over the remaining months of the year, I can see this becoming a seasonal activity for me, one every spring, summer, fall and winter.  If NaNoWriMo is the fall setting, then February, May and August would be the additional months of writing with abandon.  Then a month off from such strictly writing-generating activity to deal with whatever else makes your life full and satisfying, not to mention just having fun and filling up your memory tank.  The next month would entail editing, clean-up work, maybe enlisting some Beta-readers, a Final Edit, then uploading the finalized e-book version. 

This example precludes any day job is factored in.  If so, the process above slows down a bit.  A lot actually.  But a plan is a plan.  Even if you have to modify it to work around that thing called life.

P.S.  I encrypted my novel before copying and sending to NaNo to confirm my WC.  My actual WC is 50,017.  My "winner" WC shown otherwise within the NaNoWriMo site (which is a much bigger WC) must be due to the encryption adding in characters.  Even if the WC shown within nanowrimo.org is inflated, I'm a "winner" nonetheless.  Congrats to all 2011 NaNoWriMo participants and winners!

Two More Things

Since I already have a post entitled "Two Things," I deemed it necessary to call this one "Two More Things" just for clarity's sake. 

First, one of my pet peeves is when authors do not take enough care with simple things like spelling and basic grammar rules.  I'm not talking about in an email between one friend to another or in a dashed-off birthday card or in your diary of secrets or in your grocery lists.  I'm talking about anything uploaded to the web.  A book excerpt, an article, a blog, a complaint letter, an e-book or whatever is put up for general consumption by the public. 

Note my deliberate use of the word "authors."  I don't hold every Tom, Dick or Harry to this ideal.  But authors?  Most definitely YES.  We are the standard-bearers of the (English) language, using our skills to accurately communicate our thoughts into words on paper (or computer) that are then received by our educated readers just as we expect them to be. 

And I'm not talking about a stray error or two within such internet publications.  We are all human.  We have all had the unfortunate incident of finding ourselves in a position to explain an incomprehensible error.  Which we find unexplainable and would never have committed knowingly.  But by some strange "brain blip," we did.  Although when I find one within my uploads, I hurry to change it immediately.  So far, I've changed mine before any reader comments made me aware of them.  Which is my preference.

But when I read things that have multiple spelling errors coupled with multiple grammatical errors, I cringe in embarrassment for both its creator and myself, as an Indie-published author.  I'm holding myself to a higher standard of excellence and professionalism, so no barbs can be pointed directly at me alleging any level of substandard work in my e-books. 

For all my individual attempts at professional excellence, I really hate to be generically lumped into any grouping that disparages me and my work.  Those overall remarks made about the low quality of e-books being self-published stab at my soul.  I am trying so hard to elevate that perception with each and every e-publication of mine, first to meet my own benchmark, but second also to overcome the negative stereotypes.

I love words.  I love reading.  I love creating both nonfiction and fiction. I love my freelance copyediting work.  That was my first dream-come-true.  I love Indie-publishing my e-books.  That was my second dream-come-true.  [BTW, while "dream-come-true" may not appear in Web11, I'm creating this multiple-word noun based on CMS 7.90.]

So when I see cluttered and clouded communication--caused by simple words being mutilated by misspelling and basic homophones any third-grade student has been taught (there, they're, their for one example and two, too, to for a second) being misused by an adult author--I wonder about the quality of education in America, where the minimum requirements should be fairly high.  As a communicator, as an author, as a copy editor, as a bibliophile, as a lover of words, I find that so very sad.

Plus, when a book containing those errors lands in the hands of youngsters with no formal training or at least not adequate schooling, they are then being mistaught by the very use of these mangled words and incorrect grammar.  We are just passing on these bad English lessons to yet another generation.

Parents want better things for their children.  As authors, we should remember we are surrogate parents to an unseen group of readers who are surrogate children and influenced by our writing to some degree.  We have a great responsibility to them.  I take mine seriously.

Second, on a happier note, I want to say a great big I AM PROUD OF YOU! to all the 2011 NaNoWriMo participants.  I've blogged about this before--probably one of the most repeated dreams is to write a book.  I would posit that almost every single person has had the thought "I could do that" and maybe fifty percent of them have spoken that wish out loud.  Yet, again, my best guesstimate here, I would theorize that maybe two percent do any actual writing.  I'm even broadening the catch of my proverbial net by counting simply writing down a title that's been floating in your head for decades.  Or a paragraph of notes, ideas.  Or an actual outline of your plot.  Just one sentence, one page, one list of bullet points--to me that makes you a newbie wannabe author.

BUT, to finish your creation makes you truly an author in earnest.  Whether published or not, by whoever's definitions.  And we all have been privy to myriad ones.  There is the RWA's definition of "published" which discounted my CP's short stories found in anthologies.  There is of course the snobbery abounding as to whether an Indie-published author (like me) is truly published.  To those snobs, the only definition of "published" is to go the traditional publishing route.  Which we all must agree is "published."  I just happen to think it is not the ONLY way to be "published."  As is my right as a U.S. citizen.

Nevertheless, to complete my thought from the above paragraph, I maintain you are a "published" novelist simply by putting words to paper regarding one story and writing until The End.  You have finished!  What is procrastination but simply NOT finishing?  So you are to be complimented.  Of course, there are other forms of publication--short stories, articles, blogs, poems, flash fiction, novellas, etc., etc.

Plus the Copyright Office agrees with me about the mere writing down of your creation makes you the author and the document deemed published at its inception, whether a copyright application is formally filed with its office or not.  Granted, from my layman's understanding, you cannot use this general pronouncement in a court of law to fight someone who may have infringed your copyright.  For litigation, you do need written approval of your copyright application considered by the Library of Congress, Copyright Office. 

Still, I hear you may be eligible for a minimal fine to be collected from an infringer even without a copyright on file with the government.  Check with your Patent & Trademark attorney or Entertainment lawyer or online for more information.  Links follow:  http://www.uspto.gov/ and http://www.copyright.gov/.  Boy, am I off target here.

Back to my main thoughts on this second topic.  I'm equally as proud of the NaNo-ers whose WC stands at 100 as I am of those with 60,000 and beyond already.  I'm equally as proud of the NaNo-ers who signed up and wrote one day as I am of those who have written on each of the twenty-one days in November so far.  I'm equally as proud of the NaNo-ers who decided to write in November and fell below that magical 50K number as I am of those who make and/or exceed the winner status.

For any action, any step, any decision, any thought that leads you to your dream, you are to be congratulated.  For the dreamers who take physical movement toward those ethereal hopes are rare in this world.  Probably less than one percent of all humankind.  Again, just numbers I've grabbed off the top of my head. 

But you see that same one-digit percentage re the world's finances--three percent have the bulk while the remaining ninety-seven percent live in want.  Same with goal-setting.  I've heard that the three percent who write down their goals are more likely to achieve them than the other ninety-seven percent who didn't and consequently never reached their desired destination.  So, it is not far-fetched for me to make such related claims. 

Just my opinions here.  But concerning two very important topics that are directly linked to my creed for living.

Write on, fellow 2011 NaNoWriMo participants!  I wish you well.  #nanowrimo

Professional Freelance Copy Editor Denise Barker

SUBMISSIONS REOPENED ON A TRIAL BASIS. Beginning March 15, 2013, I will consider copyediting requests from individual authors. Depending on my availability, I will take as many individual author jobs as my time allows.

SUBMISSIONS CLOSED. Beginning August 11, 2012, I am not able to take on new clients for individual author projects as my freelance work for publishing houses is now taking all my available time. Should my schedule change, I will update this post. 

Thank y'all!

~ ~ ~ ~

This is the "long version" as referenced in my NaNoWriMo ad, for those authors seeking a copy edit of their work.  This is not needed when going the traditionally published route as the publishing house hires a copy editor to review the contracted-for novel.  The process involves several rounds with proofreading done, as well.  I don't know all that is entailed, but I do freelance as a copy editor for a well-known NYC publishing house.

Here I am offering my skills and expertise to Indie-publishing authors, based on industry standards within the fiction community of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition (Web11), and The Chicago Manual of Style, Sixteenth Edition (CMS).

I have intimate knowledge of the nine-hundred-page CMS and exacting familiarity with Web11. I implement Microsoft Word's Track Changes features as I edit, showing my suggestions and comments--where I am like the senate edicting laws. The author is then like the president with ultimate veto powers, having the final say; after all, it is his (or her) name on the front of his book. His brand, his ultimate responsibility.

NOTE:  No MS will be accepted for copyediting that has not already been spell-checked and grammar-checked via Microsoft Word and had one proofreading by either the author or beta reader.

Rates:  $25/hour – one read-through only. 

Estimated Rates per Book:  One novel (200-300 pp.) approximately $250 to $500, depending on the cleanness of the writing and the actual length of the document.

Writing Sample:  Give me your blog site or the first five pages of the novel to be copyedited or another story of your creation, so I can predetermine if your copy edit will be easy or hard and can therefore more properly estimate the total fee.

Self-Help:  If you would prefer to do-it-yourself, consider my e-book, A Copyediting Checklist for Novelists, available at both Amazon and Barnes & Noble online.  Links follow.

• http://www.amazon.com/Copyediting-Checklist-Novelists-ebook/dp/B004U2FLLM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317054041&sr=8-1

• http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-copyediting-checklist-for-novelists-denise-barker/1030986300?ean=2940012456953&itm=2&usri=denise%2bbarker

Also check out previous posts to my blog here where I delve into many matters regarding authors and their creations and copyediting concerns.  While I have Indie-published my own e-works under this DBA, I am not a public publishing company.  I do not wish to be a public publishing company.  I only wish to be an author and a freelance copy editor.

Background:  As of March 2013, almost five years of freelancing for a well-known NYC publishing house, having worked on 154 manuscripts to date, as well as some individual author projects along the way.  Previous career as a legal assistant for trial lawyers for three decades.  My love of reading and writing began early in life.  I currently have eight nonfiction and two nonfiction e-books offered through four online venues: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords and Kobo. I have another fifteen works-in-progress. I am a perfectionist and a workaholic who loves her creative career.

Reference Materials:

The Chicago Manual of Style, Sixteenth Edition (CMS)

Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition (Web11), which trumps Word’s spell-check

UrbanDictionary.com and the like, as needed

Authorized websites confirming technical knowledge terms

My Copyediting Duties Defined:  WORDS.  I’m very sensitive to word choices and connotation versus denotation.  So while I require all my projects to have been previously spell-checked and grammar-checked by Microsoft Word to cover the basics, the human element is still very much needed for the intermediate to the more complex issues.  Web11 has “preferred” spellings that I double-check among other things, like confirming hyphenated usages over compound word construction.  GRAMMAR.  The CMS has 801 pages of English grammar rules and if I don’t already know them, I know where to look them up.  PUNCTUATION.  Proper use of punctuation is a communication skill.  Even with slang or dialects and the like, an apostrophe at the beginning of a word still means a missing letter.  If there is no missing letter, then the apostrophe is grammatically incorrect.  An apostrophe at the end of a word usually means possession and there are rules regarding plural possession and singular possession. These are just two examples when it comes to one punctuation mark--the apostrophe.  EDITOR OVERVIEW.  I have a great memory for details and timelines and geography, so the seasons, the months, the places, all fall together into an orderly puzzle in my brain—or if they do not, a glaring error to be fixed.  CONSISTENCY.  In character names, eye color, capitalization and sites.  If your story starts and ends in Chicago, the strange and unexplained mention of Cincinnati at one point will be addressed by me.

Document Defined:  A Microsoft Word document, double-spaced, preferably using Courier 10 font, properly formatted into Chapters.  English language only.

Payment:  Estimated half of total fees due received by my PayPal account before any work commences.  Balance of actual fees due to be deposited with my PayPal account the same day I return the copyedited MS via email.  That specific financial information to be shared later only with actual authors utilizing my copyediting services.

Online Editing Only (no mailing of paper manuscripts):  Only upon mutual approval and agreement to copy edit your novel, then your Microsoft Word Document would be sent via email to my contact info below.  Upon first PayPal payment (of two), online copyediting commences utilizing Track Changes feature within Word.

Estimated Time to Complete Project:  After mutual acceptance by the author and me of this copyediting project plus receipt of the first of two PayPal payments, project completed usually by two weeks but more often sooner.  The NYC publishing house projects I work on take precedence over any individual author’s project.  That is why I quote two weeks, instead of one.  I’ve never missed a deadline and I prefer to turn in my comprehensive work early. I work at least six days out of every seven and, because my career is so much fun, even on holidays.

What does the author do upon receipt of the copyedited MS?  Familiar with MSWord’s Track Changes?  If not, find articles about how to use it on the internet.  Basically, it concerns choices of Accept or Reject, reading Comment(s) and clicking on Final within the Track Changes toolbar to give you the new improved clean MS version.

Your returned MS will be marked to show deletions or insertions or replacement words for clarity or to correct usage (like misuse of their, there, or they’re, for instance).  For each such deletion, replacement or inserted word, the author either chooses to Accept the change I have suggested or to Reject same—in case I have misunderstood the passage.  However, usually the changes I recommend are because the passage confused me and I have attempted to clarify same.  There are also Comment features within Track Changes that give you further information from me, like why I did it this way here and probably the CMS rule to back me up.

My changes are suggestions based upon reference materials like Web11, CMS16 and authorized internet websites (meaning I will confirm with an authorized Ford website that it produces the Ranger truck).  Any such correction is made to improve communication via the book, to increase the reader’s understanding and to make the author look really good. The author chooses which remain or can stet the original wording by clicking Reject. 

Caveats:  My estimates for any project are not the final fee due.  The final fee due can only be calculated once I have spent the actual hours completing the project. 

I am human and, try as I might, I still make mistakes.  If I did a second read-through (which I no longer have the time to do), I would catch any of my mistakes overlooked during my initial read-through.  Since I am limited to only the one read-through, I would suggest noting any consistent errors marked within your MS so that you can perform your own search using Find/Replace.  Like “Philip” showing up as “Phillip” or too many times “canvas” (noun) showed up when it should have been “canvass” (verb).  As an author, I know my weaknesses and I am sure you know yours, too.  Double-check your weak areas.

I never share your creation with others.  Your work is safeguarded by me.  However, we all know about hackers and with email there is always that possibility.  If I could rid the world of malicious hackers, spammers, spoofers and phishers, I would have done so already.  In the meantime, we do what we can to prevent the possible theft of Intellectual Property.  However, I assume no responsibility should hackers make off with your manuscript.

Personality Differences:  If an untenable working relationship develops between the author and me, for whatever reason, we will agree to disagree and part company.  I will keep fees to cover the hours I have invested to this point of unworkability.  I will refund any overages paid.  I will return the UNFINISHED COPYEDITING JOB AS-IS to the author.  Thankfully, this has only happened once and it showed up pretty much immediately.  I had wasted six hours of my precious time.  I do NOT want a repeat of that.

I love copyediting and require that it remain a fun profession, shared between two serious authors (as I am an author as well as a copy editor) who both want to present a wonderful work of literary art--utilizing grammar rules and generally accepted spelling practices—by which they clearly communicate their story with their educated readers.

What I Will Not Do:

No marketing - No publication - No critiques - No promoting - No formatting - No uploading for e-publication - No cover art - Nothing but copyediting as defined above.

No research except as needed to confirm a technical term or career-specific phrase within the copyediting process.

Again--No MS will be accepted for copyediting that has not already been spell-checked and grammar-checked via Microsoft Word with at least one proofreading by the author or authorized beta-reader.

No telephone number for me will ever be given out.  Please do not ask for one.  It is a distraction from my copyediting work as well as my own writing.

No face-to-face meeting with me will ever be granted.  Please do not ask for one. It is a distraction from my copyediting work as well as my own writing.

No emails bouncing back and forth re the project.  I am as fast as I can be and still maintain the highest degree of accuracy.  Track Changes shows my suggestions and any further information can be found within Comments.

Copyediting is not a debate.  Within Track Changes, I am like the senate with the laws spelled out and the author is like the president with ultimate veto powers.

I have intimate knowledge of the nine hundred pages of the CMS and also with Webster's. I share that expertise regarding those grammar rules and preferred spellings when I copyedit. Each author has the final say; after all, it is his (or her ) name on the front of their book. His brand, his ultimate responsibility.

Referrals:  One of my CPs also has a copyediting service. For additional info, e-mail her at: Editor@CopyeditingSavesLives.com.

MY CONTACT INFO:

LivingTheDreamPublishing@gmail.com

#nanowrimo

The Magical Elements in NaNoWriMo

As a 2011 NaNoWriMo Participant, I have learned that inspiration can hit AFTER you start writing.  That even with worrying about your late start on the day's NaNo WC, the muse can still show up pretty much immediately upon tapping those keys.  

My mantra this year is to have fun with it, to keep my Internal Editor gagged and to not question the writing.  I leave notes that remind me to add this, or move that, and I've hit a sweet spot two days in a row, so I'm jazzed.  

As of late yesterday, my NaNo WC reached 17,489.  If I can keep up my current daily pace, I should hit the magical 50,000 WC mark by November 22!  Wow!  Of course, I intend to continue on.  

What helped me is that I took a character, the grandfather, from my soon-to-be-released debut novel, "Good Ole Boys," and am working on his story in the NaNo prequel novel.  In fact, some interesting details came out in the NaNo prequel that alters my timeline of some events in the original tale.  Good thing I know that now, so I can edit those entries before uploading the first story.

Two amazing things happened (so far) during NaNo.  I needed something on two occasions--two surprise factors--that slid home what emotion I was trying to hit, and hit hard.  It was astounding what came to me WITHIN NANOSECONDS (pun not intended here!) that I DID NOT KNOW about my own story creation.  They continue to shock me.  Just goes to prove that once you set about to do something, the universe or God, or whoever is your personal favorite, steps in to aid us.  Simply stupefying.  In a good way.

Oh, and just so you know:  Before a book is published, it is correct to put it within quotations as I've done above.  See CMS 8.195.

Of course, after publication, it becomes the italicized version we all know and love.

Write on, fellow NaNo peeps!  #nanowrimo

My New Characters Woke Me Up Early This Morning

Day Six of NaNoWriMo and I was up early, 6:10 a.m., already typing while my coffee brewed as these four newest characters were giving me my lines before I left my bed and could get my laptop booted up.  You know those great lines that, for want of paper and pencil, float right back into the ether and evaporate?

Yeah.  Those.

But I still captured some to paper--or radio waves or whatever makes my computer work.  And I've been going at it strong till now, 7:02 a.m.  I've added another ten pages.  One more chapter in my NaNo novel.   This is so great!

Hope they keep dictating to me.  These four guys are quite the characters.  Don't you just love it when they show up, take over, tell you what to write?  Writing heaven.  An author's dream.  Which is what happened to J.K. Rowling when she was writing her seven-book series on Harry Potter.  How utterly cool is that?

And for some probably long-buried-but-Puritanical reason, I feel better when I create first thing in the morning.  (My apologies to my LY-hating CP for my expansive feeling which can only be expressed, obviously, through adverbs.)

So, how is your day going?

#nanowrimo 12,356 WC