WICKED WEDNESDAYS

Editing 101 Continued

In a blog not too long ago, Linda talked about her editing process which included retyping the manuscript. My fingers grew tired even thinking about such a challenge and I knew I’d never do that. But I realize why I must edit at least four times before I even send the words off to the ever patient and always helpful members of my writing group.

For my first book, Cut Off His Tale, I had an outline. I knew who the killer was and what rationale he use to justify the murder.

Then, because some of my critiquing group, notably Barbara Fradkin, claimed it was more fun for the writer and later for the reader if you winged it, I tried that method. For a type A Virgo it was a challenge because it forced me to wait until the synopses clicked in my brain and inspiration arrived. This frustrated me but I did find that I liked the unexpected twists and turns that happened.

At times I worried that it wouldn’t work out, that I couldn’t knit the strands together. It did eventually coalesce into finished form. Once I had that I read through to see if it hung together. It more or less did but ghosts of ideas partially explored or incorporated and then erased lingered. Because it took almost a year to write the ending turned out to be much stronger than the beginning when I’d been feeling my way and I had to go back and beef up the beginning.

Once I reached that stage I worked through unifying the text, checking time sequences, names, ages, all the things that need to be attended to if I was to persuade a reader to suspend belief.

Then I began honing the manuscript, eliminating cliches, passive voice, redundancy. For guidance when doing this I rely on Theodore Cheney’s, Getting the Words Right: How to Rewrite, Edit and Revise. In the last part of his book he deals with figurative writing and while I understand simile, metaphor, analogy and personification I have never quite understood metonymy but probably use it along with hyperbole and allusion without realizing that I am.

Three times through but it wasn’t ready for inspection. At that point I checked the beginning and ending of chapters, questioned the pace, the tension and asked whether or not I’d resolved all the issues without rushing to a conclusion. When those questions were answered to my satisfaction it went out to my critics. When it returned there was more work to do and then, finally, the manuscript was ready to go to the publisher.

Is there any easier way or is this the way all writers prepare for the end?

A member of the Ladies Killing Circle, Joan Boswell co-edited four of their short story anthologies: Fit to Die, Bone Dance, Boomers Go Bad and Going Out With a Bang. Her three mysteries, Cut Off His Tale, Cut to the Quick and, Cut and Run were published in 2005, 2007 and 2007. The latest in the series, Cut to the Bone, was published this month by Dundurn Press. In 2000 she won the $10,000 Toronto Star’s short story contest. Joan lives in Toronto and Ottawa with two flat-coated retrievers.

WICKED WEDNESDAYS

Editing Yourself

On a recent two week voyage from Greenland to Ungava Bay, around the northern tip of Labrador and down the Labrador and Newfoundland coast ending up in St. John’s I considered editing.

Faced with 108 fellow passengers I had the opportunity to create myself. What would I choose to tell and what would it reveal about who I’d chosen to be?

With four books and many short stories to my name I should be an old hand at this. After all writers have to know their characters. What does she wear? How does she speak? What obsessions does she have? The list goes on and on. The importance of knowing your character and how she will behave cannot be overemphasized. Without taking the care to make sure your characters behave in ways compatible with their personalities you jeopardize the believability of your story.

Because I have created many characters and enjoy thinking about them and their lives long before I write a word I thought I’d be good at deciding who I’d be and what facts about myself I’d choose to share.

Not so easy.

In the first place, a small voice in your head goes into critical overdrive.

If you say where you’ve chosen to travel will the listener think it’s interesting or not. If you tell people your age will they write you off as a little old lady off on a trip? If you reveal that you’re a writer when Margaret Atwood, Graham Gibson and Kevin Major are on the trip will it seem presumptuous? If you mention that you’re planning to paint for three months and plan to use your photos as reference material will they think you want them to ask for jpegs when the paintings are done? If you wear fancy ear rings and bracelets will they think you aren’t really a traveller but a tourist?

And so it went. Every time I thought of something to add or introduce in a conversation my inner voice questioned why I wanted to say it and asked what impression I was trying to make.

The result. I found the first few days challenging. All that changed one evening when I looked across the dinner table at a man sitting opposite and asked him his surname. Turned out he and his wife had gone to university with me as had another man on the ship. No hiding or creating a new persona. They knew me.

It was a relief.

Editing myself had proved a daunting task, much harder than creating fictional characters. But it might have been fun to present myself as a retired juggler, bank robber or secret romantic interest of some nefarious character. I expect that people on trips do invent exciting lives for themselves knowing they are unlikely to ever see their fellow passengers again.

Next time.

A member of the Ladies Killing Circle, Joan Boswell co-edited four of their short story anthologies: Fit to Die, Bone Dance, Boomers Go Bad and Going Out With a Bang. Her three mysteries, Cut Off His Tale, Cut to the Quick and, Cut and Run were published in 2005, 2007 and 2007. The latest in the series, Cut to the Bone, will be published by Dundurn in November. In 2000 she won the $10,000 Toronto Star’s short story contest. Joan lives in Toronto with three flat-coated retrievers.

TUESDAY BRINGS TROUBLE

Release Day!

This is it -- the official release day of A Killer Read! I can't believe it's finally here and in another way, how time has flown. I guess that's always the way with good things.

I did get a sneak preview though. Yesterday I wandered through my nearby bookstore -- just to look -- and there it was. Face out, even! I was so thrilled, I took a picture.

The various stages have made me aware of the reality but it's been a long process.
The cover conference was probably one of the highlights, as it gave a texture to what had been only words, up to then. Then came the advance reading copies. What fun! Followed by my author copies of the actual book. You wouldn't believe how many places in a house you can find to display a mass market book!

And now, it's out there for the world to see and hopefully, to enjoy.

It's also a significant day because I'm emailing my finished edits of Read & Buried, the second Ashton Corners Book Club mystery, back to my editor. I enjoy working with the editor's comments. They're a jumping off point for new ways of saying things, different angles to view the plot, and methods to ramp up the pace, when needed. A challenge to the brain...and that's always good.

So when my excitement level settles down, the piles of filing that have been gathering over the past few weeks are finally whittled down, and a celebratory glass of something titillating happens with dinner then it will be time to get back to work.

Tomorrow, that is. Because a deadline's approaching for book #3 and I'm anxious to get back to it.

First...to take another look at those pictures!

Linda Wiken/Erika Chase
A Killer Read
Berkley Prime Crime
www.erikachase.com

TUESDAY BRINGS TROUBLE

Sweating the small stuff

I remember very well speaking with a woman who wanted to be a writer in the worst way. She buttonholed me at a bookstore signing in a large chain store in western Ontario. Because the store wasn’t very busy that Sunday, I was standing there, flyers and bookmarks in hand, waiting to waylay anyone who even glanced in my direction.

I saw her from the corner of my eye, speaking with the assistant manager who pointed in my direction. I thought to myself, This might actually be someone who’s heard of me and came to meet me and buy a book. With so much spare time on my hands, it was certainly a gratifying turn of events.

“You’re an author,” she said after she marched over and stood in front of me. “So am I.”

My heart sank. Anyone who’s ever done a signing knows enough to cringe when this sort of thing happens. These people usually want to talk about themselves and figure you have all day to speak to them – usually right about the time a busload of mystery fans arrive. It’s very difficult to speak with these people since they all seem to want to make some point. It’s also very difficult to extract yourself from a conversation with them. (They also seldom buy books.)

Still, there’s never any reason to be rude to people. “So how many books have you published?” I asked.

“None.”

This was looking worse and worse. If they haven’t published, then one of these “authors” probably wants you to recommend them to your publisher/agent/editor or tell them how they can get started.

“And do you write crime fiction?”

“Of course!” she said with a look that made me completely aware she thought I was an idiot for asking.

Another shopper was looking at my neglected display of books. “You’ll have to excuse me for a moment,” I told her, and I turned away to speak with the woman who’d picked up one of my books. I also handed the author one of my flyers, hoping that it would impart the information this woman desired and that would be that.

About five minutes later, the other woman had bought a book (!) and I’d also sold one other to a man who’d also come over. The author was still there, so I turned to her.

She handed back the flyer. “This is very well written. Who did it for you?”

“I did,” and explained that someone at my level of importance has to produce most of my own promotional material.

“But who corrected it for you?”

“No one. Well, that’s not true. My wife looked it over to see if I’d missed anything.”

“I never correct my own writing. That’s what editors are for.”

I’m certain my eyebrows went up. “So you have submitted manuscripts?”

“I have, but they tell me I’m not yet polished enough for them to consider my novel.”

“Well, surely you send them a polished version of it.”

“It’s as polished as I can make it. Certainly there are no misspelled words or poor punctuation. But I also believe that it’s possible to polish something so much that the prose becomes dead.”

I nodded. It is possible to do this, I supposed.

It turned out that this woman’s novel was set in England and it concerned the murder of a man who turns out to be a Soviet spy who’d been living undetected in the UK for years.

Now here’s the kicker: this woman had never been to the town in England where she had set her story. She’d never been to England. From talking to her, it was pretty obvious she knew nothing about spying and didn’t care to learn. Her protagonist was a real estate agent, while the author had been a school teacher. She didn’t know and real estate agents, either.

“Do you call your character a real estate agent or an estate agent?” I asked.

“Is there a difference?”

I explained. “In the UK they’re called estate agents.”

“I wasn’t aware of that.”

I felt like shaking her. She should be aware of that if she wants to write a book that’s convincing. I tried to explain that, especially in crime fiction, the author needs to gain the trust of the reader. If you set your novel in the UK, it has to have all the correct terms and language. Lose that trust (or never gain it) and you’ve lost you’re reader. That trust is found in the little details.

“But the editor will correct those things, won’t they?” she asked.

I spent a further ten minutes with her, explaining that any writer has to know as much as they can about their subject matter. Publishers, editors, agents and eventually readers want things to be accurate and based on fact, and they won’t be forgiving. If you’ve got those kinds of errors in you manuscript, it won’t be considered seriously.

“So I have to know every little detail?”

I nodded.

“Being an author is much more difficult than I thought it would be.”

I could only nod again.

Rick Blechta is a Toronto author and musician. Oddly enough, his thrillers have musicians as their main characters. Next September will see the publication of his eighth novel, The Fallen One. In June, he will be the Master of Ceremonies for Bloody Words in Toronto. You can catch him playing trumpet in The Advocats big band on the first Monday of every month at People’s Chicken

LADIES' KILLING THURSDAYS

Thanks

I have finished the first go-through of proposed changes, additions and deletions to the manuscript, Cut to the Bone, which Dundurn will publish in November.

My editor, Allister Thompson, changed punctuation not only to conform to Dundurn’s guidelines but also to correct mine which is random at best. As one of those who managed to avoid grade thirteen in Ontario and the insistence that every English student master punctuation I do my best but it really isn’t my long suit.

He did challenge some of my word choices. He replaced sneaked with snuck and I again chose sneaked which to me sounds like the action and reminds me of other similar words such as leaked, crept, sidled and slithered which suggest furtive action whereas snuck seems to me to be an abrupt, in-your-face, harsh kind of word. We’ll see how sneaked fares.

Allister questioned whether an irate street-wise eleven-year-old would refer to a puppy that had chewed her hoodie as a ‘little bugger’ saying that was much too English. My writing group made several suggestions and I went with ‘ass-hole’. We’ll see if that flies.

There are a number of First Nation characters in the novel. This brings up tricky issues of political correctness. It seems to me that we who are not Aboriginals must tread carefully whereas those who are may refer to themselves as Indians or Natives. This issue also arose in the ms and I usually opted for First Nation or Aboriginal rather than Indian or Native. I’d be interested to know what other people think.

Allister pointed out a timing problem and I added a torture scene to prolong a tense situation and allow the police time to reach the scene. I hope it fills the bill.

He went on line to check several facts and as a result I changed my characters’ menu choices in a particular Toronto restaurant from Caesar salad which they don’t serve to a green salad which they do. Now I would never have thought to do this but will in the future.

He also drew to my attention that since amalgamation it is the Toronto Police Services not the Metro Police.

I suppose that with the exception of needing to extend a scene to fill more time no changes were monumental but each one adds to the authenticity of the book and that is important for readers. We have all had the experience of being an expert in a field and finding an error that jars our sensibilities.

Having a thorough editor is wonderful and I feel grateful that my ms was read so carefully. Thanks Allister.





A member of the Ladies Killing Circle, Joan Boswell co-edited four of their short story anthologies: Fit to Die, Bone Dance, Boomers Go Bad and Going Out With a Bang. Her three mysteries, Cut Off His Tale, Cut to the Quick and, Cut and Run were published in 2005, 2007 and 2007. In 2000 she won the $10,000 Toronto Star’s short story contest. Joan lives in Toronto with three flat-coated retrievers.

CRIME ON MY MIND

Gotta love that book!

So how much do you love that book you’re writing? Do you enjoy going back to it each day? Do you look forward to spending time with the characters? Entangling them in all sorts of sticky situations? Having them solve the crime?

You’d better because you’re going to be spending an awful lot of time with them! I don’t mean writing time. That varies with each writer of course. You may whip through a draft in a couple of months, revise in another two or three and have the finished product off to the publisher within a year. Or, you may have been working on this baby for too many months to count.

It matters not in this context. Because once you do send it off, you’ll be revisiting it again and again. And again when it comes time to doing the promotional gigs.

Here’s the scenario – you finish the manuscript, breath a massive sigh of relief and perhaps, feel a tiny let down because those long months of visiting (insert name of setting) are over. So is the routine of writing daily. What – you have a life again?

Only for a short time. So make the most of it. Because it’s on to the next book.

And after a few months of writing, at a point where you’re brain is so wrapped up in the new plot, then you get the editor’s comments. If you’re an amazing writer, there may not be much to touch up or re-do. Otherwise, dig your head out of the new and get back to reading the entire manuscript and doing those changes.

Off it goes again. Maybe you can actually break the back of the next book. Oops…that email from your editor just came in. Now it’s time for a cover conference, so write the cover blurb please and send suggestions about the cover. What? That next plot has enveloped your mind again so it’s back for a scan of the first book. Do it and send it off and wait. It won’t be long until another email appears.

Only this time, it’s from the copyeditor with his/her suggestions which could mean a lot of red lines and hidden comments. Put the next book on the cold back burner once again. Start reading the manuscript from start to finish, once again. Do what needs to be done. Send it back.

Think you can really immerse yourself into writing at this point? Forget it. Next come the proofs and that requires a very thorough reading for typos, etc. Mmm, the plot seems way too familiar. But it gets done.

Another sigh of relief and back to writing. Until release date of the first book and then you have a launch which requires a reading done by you. Hadn’t thought of that, had you? Better re-read and find the appropriate portion of your work of art that will have them hooked.

All done? Not likely. But enjoy the moment. And by the way, do you still love that book?

Linda Wiken/Erika Chase
A Killer Read coming April, 2012
From Berkley Prime Crime
(available for pre-order on Amazon)

CRIME ON MY MIND

And we're off!

Erika Chase is sending book #2 in the Ashton Corners Mystery Book Club series off to the publisher today! Yay! Finally!

Erika & I say 'finally', because the final polishing round can be endless. All writers know what I'm talking about. You go into a section to insert something and suddenly you're re-writing that entire page, then the next. Every time you read the thing, your editing pencil comes out and we know what that leads to. There's never a time when a writer is totally satisfied with her/his work. You just have to say to yourself, "Enough. It's time. Send it off!"

Besides, when the editor returns it for re-writes, you can then go through the same process all over again.

It's a relief to be packaging it up for emailing off. There were a few slow months, round about March, April when I wondered if I'd ever be able to pull it off. Could I actually finish the thing? Would it make sense? Would I have to send back my advance? I went through the same process with the first book. And, there's that famous story about Harlen Coben, I think...his rant and his wife asking if he was at chapter so-and-so, because that's where this always happened. Sorry, my brain is in neutral today. I'm sure someone will correct me with the right name, if this is the wrong one.

I's also a sad day because it's been so much fun. Really it has, even with those two horrid months. I've enjoyed my time in Ashton Corners, Alabama...getting to know Lizzie Turner and the other book club members even better. They're old friends now, you know. And it's hard to leave old friends. Even with that feeling of accomplishment vying for top emotion.

But I won't be away from them for long. Book #3 has to be started because it's due in 9 months. And this is all before Book #1 is even published. Are you still with me? That's right, A Killer Read, the first in the series, is due out in April, 2012.

However, even #3 has to wait awhile -- for two weeks as I'm taking a Blog-oliday! I'll be touring France with my choir and I'm not taking my computer!

So, it's a holiday for readers, too. All guest bloggers have been given a break, with many thanks for all their wise & witty words. But we'll all be back on Monday, Aug. 29th (starting with Mary Jane Maffini). I'm hoping you'll remember to come back to Mystery Maven Canada on that date, also.

We'll start a new season of blogs; I'll start a new manuscript; and Canadian crime writers will all have an amazing year of sales! Thank you readers & commenters. Where have your summer travels taken you?

Linda Wiken/Erika Chase
A Killer Read coming April, 2012
from Berkley Prime Crime