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Standing AroundPosted by dhoffman on January 26th, 2012

The act of writing, the sitting down and trying to get the story inside your head out onto the screen, is a mainly solitary act.  When I’m taptaptapping away on my keyboard, if it’s going well, I’m not thinking about my job, about whether or not the dog needs to go out, what I’m going to do for dinner.  I’m lost in my little writing world.

And that’s the great part of writing.  It’s the absolute best part.  When things are working, when the engine’s firing on all cylinders, the house could be on fire and I wouldn’t notice (protip: this has not be subjected to fieldtesting yet).

But there’s more to it than just telling the story.  There’s editing, which I’m in the middle of right now.  And there’s all the other stuff which follows the “writing” part and the “you reading it” part.

There’s a lot in there.

And for much of it, a writer can feel like they’re just sort of . . . standing there, watching things happen around them.

As an example: last year I submitted Animals to an editor for consideration.  This was a long, slow process involving, in the main, me staring at my phone, willing it to ring, then staring at my email, willing it to popup that I had a new email.  When I finally did hear back, it was quite unceremonious.  I believe I was in a meeting and I received an email and didn’t notice until sometime later that afternoon.  Then we spoke on the phone for about half an hour.  It was remarkably like speaking to a regular human being.  No thunder from Olympus.  So it goes.

That was a process of waiting something around three or four months.  The response was better than I’d hoped — she didn’t buy the book, but she had a good many kind and constructive things to say about it (this was a friend of a friend, a real publishing heavyweight, who was doing a favor to give me some guidance.  The notion of, “I would like to give you money to print this” was never really in the equation in a real way).

So: three or four months to receive some feedback.  Thank God I’ve got a day job.

Following that, I reached out to several agents the editor suggested I speak to.  This was actually a worse process than the waiting for the editor.  With her, there was no expectation of forward movement.  She was taking a look, letting me know what she thought.  But the agents (there were four of them) this was supposed to be movement.  Four of them!  And I had an editor’s referral!  So I fired off queries, using her name (as instructed).

And then I waited.

Okay, to be fair, one responded rather quickly.  He asked for a ms and I sent it right along.  He seemed like a nice, helpful and somewhat interested guy.

Never heard back from him.  So it goes.

The other three, well, two sent me emails back telling me what I’d already learned . . . my kind of book wasn’t their kind of book.  Hey, that’s cool.  I’d looked them up before sending the email and could tell by what they were looking for that the chances they’d be into my narratively weird, Groundhog Day meets Rebecca story were pretty thin.  Still, I told myself, it was an exercise and, if she’d told me to talk to them, maybe she knew something I didn’t.

The final agent never bothered responding.  I figure I ended up on the spam pile or something.  Honestly, I didn’t sweat it because, as noted above, I’m not their kind of author.  Animals wasn’t their kind of book.

While this was all happening, by the way, I was lost in my own little world, writing Lions Together are Called a Pride and then The Seven Markets. So, it wasn’t really high on my list of priorities and, if I’m being completely honest, I think I figured if the editor had told me to speak to them, to drop her name, to tell them she loved the book, just that it wasn’t her kind of book (it really is a weird book, but not “eyeballs growing out of the ceiling” weird, which ends up being sort of a bad thing), well, I figured that got me some sort of leg up.

Nope.

The moral of the story or whatever you want to call it is this: I spent 2011 waiting to hear back from these folks.  And these folks weren’t exactly keen on getting back to me.  That’s cool, and it’s their prerogative, and I suppose that’s the business.  If you sell 250,000 books in hardcover in the first week, they call you back right away.  Write a weird book where the protagonist doesn’t, strictly speaking, know anything’s going on, and they take longer to get back to you, if at all.

So, I spent 2011 standing around.  Okay, I edited Animals and wrote the first draft of two other books, but as far as forward momentum . . . not a whole lot of that.

For 2012, I’ve got some . . . other plans.  I’m going to attack the problem of getting stories out there on two fronts.  On the one hand, yes, I’m going to see about finding representation or a deal in what we’re calling “traditional publishing”.  Some will tell you this is a poor bet but I think, if nothing else, there’s a lot of good stuff I could learn by going that route.  I would like to go through the process of working with an agent to refine my book(s), working with an editor to make things “marketable” (whatever that means) and I would like to go through what I’m sure would be the painful process of seeing a book go out into the world.

I think there’d be a lot for me to learn there.

On the flip side, I’m going to gear up for self-publishing.  This involves finding a for-hire editor to give the book(s) a look and make some suggestions.  This involves working with an artist and/or a designer to create a cover.  This involves learning how to put an e-book together and how to market said e-book (or books — it’s worth mentioning that my self-publishing plans involved putting out no fewer than three books between now and the 2012 Holiday E-Book Reader and Tablet Shopping Orgy).  Some time ago I looked upon this process with a degree of apprehension.  As I learn more and more about the process of self-publishing and e-books and how that world works, the more I’m becoming curious to give it a shake.  There’s some exciting stuff out there and I think it’ll be fun to play around a bit.

Instead of standing around during 2012, instead of writing with no clear plan for what I’m going to do once “writing” turns into “written”, I’m going to be working the room.  I’ll be pressing the flesh, meeting the professionals, trying my luck with people who actually read and enjoy (and publish) the kinds of stories I write.

I’m also going to be gearing up to do things myself.  Creating a network of professionals to work hand-in-hand with so we can take the book I wrote and turn it into the book you’d like to read.  This will cost a few bucks but I think it’ll be worth it in the long run.

The world of publishing is in a terrible state of flux right now.  I figure I can either stand still for another year, waiting for a phone call that’s not coming (protip: traditional publishers don’t allow “simultaneous submissions” though most agents do), or I can push away from the wall and see what’s going on out there.

If nothing else, it’ll be educational.

Another Afternoon of EditingPosted by dhoffman on January 22nd, 2012

An update on the editing of The Seven Markets

So, there’s that done.  I feel like I’ve screwed around with the progress meter tool a bit too much and I’ll need to standardize things for future use.  So it goes.

Second pass is done.  Next trick is to go back and re-write the end of Chapter Three and figure some stuff out for Chapter Four.  After that, I’ll do some tidying,  make sure my “shopping list” of continuity edits is solid and take things to the betas.

And while they’re working, I get to write something else.  Or nap.  Either way, though, it’s all good.

Editing: Phase TwoPosted by dhoffman on January 21st, 2012

A quick update on the second phase of editing The Seven Markets.

In case that’s unclear, what you’ve got there is me on page 158 out of 396, editing away.  This pass, as I may have shared already, is mainly about implementing (and, in some cases, ignoring) red-pen notes from the first pass.

After this pass, which I’ll hopefully finish sometime tomorrow, then I get to go in and re-write the end of Chapter Three as well as — maybe — the beginning (or end) of Chapter Four.  It’s a bit up in the air.  I’ll have some other re-writey stuff to do and probably a fourth pass tidying things up, tweaking continuity and suchlike.  Maybe a fifth pass to make sure I’m pleased with things and then . . .

Beta readers.

Which means I need to start bugging folks to see if they’ve got time to give me a quick read.  If I can come up with a half-dozen or so, I figure that should be good for some preliminary feedback.  And while they’re working, well, maybe I’ll get to start writing something new in the interim . . .

Phase Two Editing and SOPAPosted by dhoffman on January 17th, 2012

Just a quick update I want to get in before the site goes blank at midnight:

That’s for the first phase of editing, which, as may be inferred, is now complete.  Tonight I’m going to go into phase two, which is deciphering my illegible chicken-scratch (there’s a reason I type) and implementing those changes.  Hopefully I’ll be able to get that done with relative speed and then things get interesting.

Either the second or the third pass will involve rewriting half of one chapter and some serious tweaking to another chapter (to correct some Point of View hoo-ha I was toying with but have ultimately decided — for now — I’m going to toss.

After the third pass I’m going to toss the ms into a word-o-meter and let it tell me which words I’m using entirely too much.  This is a great tool I used in editing Animals as it keeps me from relying too much on words I should be using less.  This could be just about any word (I read somewhere that the first Twilight book has the word “eyes” almost three-hundred times.  That would be a good example of “overuse”).

After that pass, I’m going to turn to my beta readers.  Which is something I need to get on during off-line time in the next week or two.  I figure if I can have four to six people giving the book an eye (see what I did there?) that should give me a good notion of things which need fixing — or if there’s even a point to fixing things.

And from there?  More revisions.  More editing.  And eventually I’ll get to the point where I let Ellie and her friends rest while I start in on something new.  What that “something new” will be . . . I’m honestly not sure.  Then again, I didn’t think I’d be writing The Seven Markets when I was finishing up Lions Together so maybe I’ll surprise myself again.

With regards to the site “going blank” — that’s as part of the whole SOPA protest that’s going on on-line tomorrow.  Major sites are going to be drawing the shades to give the world an idea how things would look in the event a bill like SOPA (the Stop Online Piracy Act) should pass.  As SOPA is one scary mother (and yes, I know SOPA has been tabled — for now — but its sister bill in the Senate is still very live and if I had to bet, I’d say we haven’t seen the last of SOPA either) it’s important even for a site like mine to kill the lights and show some solidarity.

We’ll be back as normal come Thursday, unless the plugin I installed burns the internet down.

Do Not Mess with Japanese HornetsPosted by dhoffman on January 11th, 2012

Holy God.  I can’t tell if this is the worst thing I’ve ever seen or the most awesome.  What is it?

It’s 30 Japanese hornets laying waste to 30,000 bees.  No shit.

A Great AwfulnessPosted by dhoffman on January 11th, 2012

An update on (the editing of) The Seven Markets, a story about pastries and pink gloop, comfy chairs and big dogs cuddling up in your lap:

The third section of this book is the one that gave me the most trouble, during the writing of the first draft.  It should have been simple but it was one of those things where, the more I wrote, the further I seemed to get from the end.  Ultimately, I finished it to my satisfaction, hit my bullet points and moved on to the next section.

I edited it the other night.  And for the first half of the section I was immeasurably pleased.

Then things went south and I became even happier.

The dialog and writing was still working for me but the actual “what was there” needed to go.  I read and read, scribbling editorial notes all over the page.  I crossed out whole paragraphs and marked up pages so much I’ll never be able to read my own notes.

It was great.

It was great because, up to that point — about the first 110 ms pages — I was really happy with the story.  I was really happy with the writing and the characters and a host of neat little things I didn’t remember dong but which put a great smile on my face.

So I started worrying I was seeing through rose-colored glasses.  ”I thought this part was terrible” or “I don’t remember being so pleased with this when I was writing it”.

It was a relief finally getting to something which clearly and plainly needed to go.  I don’t know if that means the stuff I like is really worth liking or if it’s just me being delusional but it’s certainly a push in the right direction.

To wit: if there’s stuff I can find that I hate, it should stand to reason that the stuff I like may deserve to be liked.

Which is a great thing, no?

I’ve got about another hundred pages or so to “soft edit”.  I’ll turn it around and huck into the Scrivener file and start implementing those changes.  That’s my next step.  Past that things get nebulous.  I’ll do a check for oft-repeating words and see about tidying that up.  I’ll read the book aloud and see where my tongue gets tied and decide if that needs fixing or not (a tongue twister in the right place may not be a bad thing).

Apart from that second half of the third section, I’ve made a lot of notes on my manuscript here.  And a lot more changes are going to come down the pipe — revisions and continuity errors and plot points which didn’t quite make the cut during the first draft.  It’s my goal to have something for the beta readers by the beginning of February.  That’s an accelerated timeline, to be sure, but it’s by design.  Instead of taking a year to make sure everything is “perfect” — a highly subjective and suspect term in this case — I’m going to get things to a tidy place and solicit feedback from perhaps a half-dozen people who’ve been generous to offer a helping eye.

From there?  More editing and rewrites and then, maybe, something I can call finished.

Superman Red and Superman BluePosted by dhoffman on January 6th, 2012

An update on (the editing of) The Seven Markets, a book about Princes and assassins, horses and giants:

Perhaps I should explain:

There are eight sections (currently) to the book.  It would be both ludicrous and stupidly difficult to track how “far” I am, from a word-count standpoint, as I’m editing.  Which is to say, I could count pages (I finished page 92 last night) and I could estimate words (~250 words to a page x 92 pages = 23,000 words) but . . . well, where’s the fun in that?

Plus: math.

So, as I finish each section, I’ll toss a progress meter up there.

Perhaps I should (further) explain:

Editing . . . the way I tend to edit . . . it’s a multi-step process.  Yes, it would be delightful to take a single pass at the book, clean up all the untidy bits, tie up all the loose ends (as I told Jessy last night, “I realized tonight there are three people I forgot to kill.  Like, I know they’re dead but I never got around to actually writing the scenes”.  She was amused, I think) and generally get things into a readable state.

The good news: as the book stands now, 25% in, and as, well, me, I feel Markets reads very well.  It’s quick and the things I want to be happening are happening.  So that’s good.  More than once my characters have surprised me with their behavior and more than once I’ve stopped and said, “yow, that’s actually quite good”.

It’s a nice feeling.

I fully expect it to go away when I hit the third section.

Section Three was the one that cost me most of November and, I believe, a good portion of October.  There’s nothing particularly rough about it, it just resisted my attempts to get to the core of what it needed to be and I’m expecting it’s going to need the most work, if not a complete re-write.

And that’s okay.

But that’s not what I’m doing now.

This pass is more of a fact-finding mission.  As an example, Ellie’s mama seems to have changed her name once or twice.  She’s not referred to by name very often and it seems when I made a note of her name while writing the first section I, somehow . . . flubbed it.

I have no excuse for this.  Honestly, names are usually something I’m good on.

And I’m noting Joshua’s eye color, affections to how the Prince speaks, Papa’s pet-names for Ellie, etc., etc.

I’m also making small editorial notes.  Catching typos.  Swapping out repetitive words which are only repetitive because I probably wrote a sentence, got up for some tea, then sat down to write another sentence without looking back.

Once this pass is done, I’ll probably take a longer look at the ms.  I’ll apply the changes I’m making in red ink and work to fix the longer sections which I’m identifying either with a question mark — what the hell were you thinking? – or an exclamation point — get the shotgun out of the attic — so they’re what they should be.  For clarity: most of the problems like this are along the lines of, “oh, it would be cool if I did this . . .” and then I forgot to go in and “do this”.  So now I can.  Or cut it, if it doesn’t work.

The thing about editing is it’s not bad but it’s also not writing.  If I could expose myself to red kryptonite and do a “Superman Red / Superman Blue” sort of thing, one of me would be editing right now and the other would be, say, starting Painted Ocean.

My kryptonite supply dried up, however, so I’ll just have to be patient and persevere.  That’s probably the second most important thing about editing: patience.  The temptation to rush and “knock it out” just means you need to go back and do another pass to catch the stuff you blew past last time.

The first most important thing?  Ruthlessness.  ”Kill your darlings” is how I’ve heard it said.  Be prepared to delete or change the most absolutely perfect bit of writing you ever did in your entire life if it doesn’t help the story.

Now The Fun StartsPosted by dhoffman on January 3rd, 2012

This is always one of my favorite parts of the “writing process”.  To wit: printing the whole thing out and being able to hold it in your hand before covering the pages with red slashes and incomprehensible scribbles, telling yourself everyone changes this much and that it’s not that you, personally need to be taken out back and shot; it’s just a thing writers do.

At any rate: the printed manuscript (in close):

Endings and BeginningsPosted by dhoffman on December 31st, 2011

Here’s one last update on The Seven Markets, a book about fairy tales and soldiers, dragons and your favorite, comfy chair:

So, a bit more than 15k over my original goal and maybe two weeks later than I’d hoped for but overall I’m pleased with how things worked out.

Now comes the deeelightful process of editing the book, fitting in the stuff I missed, fixing the stuff I realized was broken a month after I wrote it . . . and just generally tightening everything up.

And, not coincidentally, a new year with new goals.

I’ve never been a big fan of new years resolutions.  If I want to accomplish something, it shouldn’t take the turning of a calendar page to get me doing it.  More, I’m just lazy enough to let myself procrastinate with, “I’ll just wait ’til X to start that”.  Listen: it took NoNoWriMo to get my ass in gear back in 2007 and that didn’t actually stick until I did it again in 2008.  I’ve got enough obstacles wagging their butts at me without putting one more in its place.

But, with a new year comes new goals.  And as this is more-than-likely my last post of 2011, what the hell, here are some of mine:

• edit and “finish” The Seven Markets
• ditto Beautiful Handcrafted Animals
• second draft on Lions Together?
• first draft on Painted Ocean

I’ve got some other, more nebulous goals involving short stories and literary agents and while it’d be lovely to be able to talk about actual publishing in this here blog, to my mind the concrete goals have to involve writing.  That said, if there’s some movement on these “other” goals, I will, of course, pop ‘em up here.

Beyond that, I wrote two complete first drafts this year, Lions Together from March to about August and Markets from about October to, well, December.  I’ve got some great (I think) ideas for “fixing” Lions Together and I’m looking forward like crazy to diving back into Markets once its had a chance to sit for a drop.

And what else is there?  Family and friends, friends and family.  Everyone is healthy and will hopefully continue to be so in the new year.  We’ll play some games, watch some movies, get Jessy caught up on Supernatural, wait nine or so months for new Doctor Who, keep our fingers crossed for The Hobbit, hope The Dark Knight Rises isn’t as awful as the trailers seem to indicate (we trust you, Christopher Nolan but man it looks awful).

Stephen King’s got a new Dark Tower book coming out, Apple might release an updated iPad (and I’ll have to decide if it’s worth buying).

Prometheus, the return of 30 Rock, The Hunger Games (What?  Don’t judge me) and probably a hundred other books, movies, games and television shows I’m not even thinking of.

The nice thing about a new year is it is a line in the sand and while it’s easy to use that against yourself it’s also nice to get that smack in the ass that makes you say, hey, every day can be a fresh start and maybe I’ll make one today.

Happy New Year, all.  Here’s hoping it’s a good one.