Catch The Wind

Bald Eagle, photo credit PDImages.com

I want to share something with you that I found inspiring, and I hope it doesn’t sound preachy. The author of a book I’m editing tells a story about how when a storm comes, chickens flap their wings and run around in circles. Eagles are different. They sit on a rock and wait, and when the storm arrives they rise up to catch the wind and use the storm to soar higher into the air than they could normally go. Isn’t that how we all hope to react to the storms in our lives?

I tend to get nervous in the face of a coming storm, but also excited. Something in me recognizes an opportunity in upheaval; the trick is to time my actions just right to take advantage of upheaval instead of being uprooted by it. It’s tough to know how to do that, or if I’ve done it right even after the storm has passed. I do believe that if we keep an ear open for God’s voice of wisdom, though, we have a chance to react like eagles to tough times.

I have a habit of panicking in situations like this; taking matters into my own hands. But last year, I think I actually handled a storm like an eagle. The month before I was laid off from my last full-time job, I had three dreams about tornados in quick succession, and I knew something was up. I always dream of tornados before big upheaval in my life; they represent the winds of change to me–hence my interest in this metaphor of eagles rising on the winds of a storm. These particular tornado dreams dealt with my workplace and my family life and seemed to be warning me that a big change was coming in my work that would make a lot of noise, but that it wouldn’t do any damage to my personal life, that my family would be completely untouched by it. That couldn’t be more true, as it turns out.

Now, of course business was bad enough in the company I worked for that I had expected things to go sour long before they did and wasn’t at all surprised that things ended the way they did, but there was some inside information in the dreams that really encouraged me (even made me laugh!) that God was in control and I didn’t have to worry. For once–FOR ONCE!–I listened, and saved myself a lot of worry. Learning to listen to God’s direction can be as simple as paying attention when a small voice in your spirit warns you to do something (or often not to do something) that you wouldn’t otherwise have done, and that advice lines up with Scripture and the character of God, or it can be more involved–after all, communicating with God is all about relationship. But it’s so worth it, even if there are no clear road signs to show you the way.

I hope that was encouraging to you to pursue a relationship with God and to approach the storms in your life as opportunities instead of disasters, and didn’t sound too preachy. Blessings!

Are There 25 Hours in a Day?

If you're in a creative rut, The Artist's Way will peel you off the pavement, then The Creative Habit will set your mind dancing again.

I can hear my little sister’s reaction now: “Riiiight. So how’s that workin’ for ya?” she will ask me with one eyebrow up (her eyebrow goes up so high I can hear it over the phone). She knows me. She knows I like to DO things. And boy am I ever doing things right now!

I am in a groove, as Twyla Tharp would call it. Every time I take a walk, an idea for a piece of my novel or an entirely new book project springs into my mind. “Structure the book as an escape to the outdoors in the same way Robbe-Grillet structured The Erasers city in a circle to hint at the story’s ending!” I gasp into my iPhone’s voice recorder, and suddenly the whole novel gels and the symbolism that’s already central to the plot is perfectly sewn together. Sweet! It’s not effortless, but it’s the fun kind of working up a sweat.

If you include my full-time “momming,” I am currently working 75 hours a week, but I’ve never felt more energized. That is the definition of a groove, or it should be. All grooves come to an end, but I am riding this one like a wild horse. No way am I going to let fear or distractions or anything else deter me from getting every drop of fun out of this groove.

How did I get here? I don’t really know, but the one thing I’m doing differently this time that might have something to do with it is this: I’m not over-thinking my plans. I have plans upon plans–that’s what I’m so excited about!–but I am focusing on the short-term plans right now to explore these rabbit trails, then later I’ll see if I want to pick one trail above the others. I also took Pete Michaud’s advice not to make everything perfect before launching my new blog, and that has paid dividends in creativity and forward momentum. Thanks, Pete!

Two years ago I had barely worked up the courage to say aloud that I wanted to write at all. So my self-confidence has changed as well. All I can say is, it’s about time!

If you’re in a groove or remember a good one, how did you get there? If your groove turned to a rut, what caused that to happen?

“People Will Think We’re Amateurs”

"A living, breathing, beautiful organic lifeform."

This endearing comment from a client of mine this week who cares–really cares–about perfection. And why shouldn’t he? His entire career has been based on his meticulous choice of words, and he’s an incredibly skilled writer. What was he so worried about that he thought our reputations depended on getting it right? Well, we were operating under different rules for what exactly qualifies as a “bad break,” or an inappropriate way to split a word in two when it falls on two lines of text. Yup, we publishing types fight bloody wars to break words between lines where we see fit.

I don’t mean to rag on him in particular. In fact, in general we see eye-to-eye on issues of style: He’s the only writer I have ever allowed to misuse the subjunctive case, because he doesn’t believe in using it at all–and that is part of his style. That kind of purposeful use of the English language is admirable, in my opinion, because it means he has thought out why he should or shouldn’t use the subjunctive and has a method to his madness. And that is my point, dear reader. Style is not there simply as a ruler to rap your knuckles.

So back to amateur night. I respect a passion for perfection. But this comment reflects a point of view that I have largely abandoned, and that is that writing can be perfect. Writing can be perfect in the same way my daughter is perfect–as a living, breathing, beautiful organic lifeform. While I am quite competent at following a style guide and crossing all my Ts, I don’t subscribe to the notion that a piece of writing can always be made just right by following one set of rules. Writing needs to breathe like its author, needs to reflect his tone and at least some of the idiosyncrasies of his speech. And don’t forget the audience. All writing has an intended audience, even if it is the author himself, so the form of a piece of writing must also follow the function. And that requires flexibility in style rules to accomplish the objective.

I am adamant about consistency, so don’t think this is an excuse to throw all rules out the window or be lazy. It can be quite challenging to determine the right approach to editing a piece of writing, as I imagine it must be difficult to figure out the right approach to disciplining a child whose temperament is the polar opposite of her sibling. When there is no one-size-fits-all, you have to think.

This is what it boils down to: I believe that writing has a soul–the soul of the author–and needs to be treated with respect and a little flexibility. These are couture garments we are creating; this is not an assembly line. Just thought you might like to know… your editor might have a soul after all, too.

What Are Style Rules and How Do You Choose Them?

Many people seem to misunderstand, or underestimate, what an editor does to polish up a manuscript or article for publication. Yes, we do proof for typos, but typos are the bare bones of copyediting. An editor missing a typo in your copy is like your mechanic not noticing that a wheel is missing from your car: you should expect a lot more! Just as your mechanic should check your vehicle for fluids, worn brakes, engine problems, rust, a leaking clutch cylinder, an editor should check your words for not only typos but also consistent and practical style usage, proper formatting, and a logical organization of thoughts and words.

So what are style rules?

Some grammar and punctuation rules are flexible, meaning you can choose which version of the rule to use to fit a certain type of writing. Style rules are choices between these versions of grammar rules that help determine how formal or informal your writing appears. Ideally, your style rule choices are logical so they help your writing become even clearer to a reader.

Common style rule choices are:

• Series comma or no series comma? In a book, which often has a more conservative style (which means slower-reading and more spelled-out style), you will often find a series comma, a comma before the last item in a list–”Tom, Dick, and Harry.” In a blog post or a magazine article, which are shorter and more informal kinds of writing (which means the reader wants a quick read), you often will not find a series comma–”Tom, Dick and Harry.” Once an editor chooses which version of the series comma rule to follow, it must be consistent throughout the book.
• Number formatting: spell out numbers up to 10? Up to 100? In a book, you will often see numbers spelled out up to 100 (ten, twenty-one, nintey-nine, 100, 101… ), which is a standard rule governed by the book editor’s Bible, the Chicago Manual of Style. Magazines often follow the AP Style Guide format, which dictates that numbers should only be spelled out up to 10, which saves precious space on the page (one, eight, nine, 10, 11…). Blogs hopefully choose a simple style and stick to it, but often blogs are run by people who write but don’t edit, so you will see no rules followed. That’s what makes blog writing look so informal: if the writer follows consistent rules about how to present their writing, suddenly it looks polished and professional–and that’s why these rules exist: to make your writing clean and easy to read.
• The most common spelling of a word is used for its main dictionary entry, but variations on that spelling are often listed underneath. When there is a choice to how you spell a word (gray or grey? V12 or V-12 engine?), an editor chooses which way the word will be spelled throughout their entire lineup of books (an in-house style guide), or in a particular book, hopefully following an author’s lead.
• Time formatting is important because using inconsistent formatting of times in a book or article can look really messy and make it difficult to read. An editor may follow the author’s lead on which format to use, based on which format the author uses most often in his work, or may have a reason to make everything follow a particular rule. The options include “3 p.m.” “3 o’clock” “three in the afternoon” “3:00″ “3:00 pm” “15:00″ an so on. You might choose “15:00,” military time, for a book about the military or to give the effect of a military environment. “3 o’clock” would be a good choice for a story where specific times are not used, because it is a rounded number. And “3:00 pm” is a good choice when you want to be specific about times, as in “3:12 pm.”
• Number formatting is a similar issue to time formatting: an editor chooses whether “three million” will become “3 million” or whether percentages are spelled out (“ninety percent” vs. “90 percent”) and if four-digit numbers include commas (“3000″ vs. “3,000″). These rules may or may not clarify your writing in particular, but they become very important in an article about a car’s engine specs. If the publication has rules for how to format numbers, it is easy for the reader to compare one torque figure to the other, because the similar formatting helps the numbers jump off the page. No number formatting rules = number soup.
• Ellipsis spacing is a minor issue, but you want to look polished, right? Ellipses are the “…” symbols at the end of sentences that imply that the sentence continues or trails off. You should always use three dots for an “internal ellipsis,” or an ellipsis that leaves out words within one sentence, and four dots for an ellipsis at the end of a sentence, because that fourth dot is really a period. BUT, there are several ways to format those three- and four-dot ellipses, with a space between each dot (. . .), without any spaces (…), and with a space after the final dot (… ).
• Uppercase deity pronouns are the province of Christian book publishing for the most part, but they’re important. Deity pronouns refer to pronouns used to describe God, or gods, and you need to decide if you’re going to capitalize them. So, should “he,” “him,” “his,” and so on become “He,” Him,” and “His” when referring to God? Publishing houses often have style guide rules to cover this across the board, but if you have a choice, think about whether capitalizing these pronouns appears to give the deity more authority and whether or not that is the effect you want to achieve (i.e. Does Satan get his pronouns uppercase as well?).

There, see? Your editor is paid to do more than intimidate you. These are just a few rules out of many, otherwise the Chicago Manual of Style wouldn’t be heavier than my front door. Style rules are important, but if you can master just a few of them, your writing will shine and you will be way ahead of the pack getting published and making nicey nicey with your editor, who will love you for valuing what she does.

Do you have any style rule questions? Beefs? Important additions to this list? I’d love to hear them in comments.

Editors Helping Editors

@milehighfool and @LydiaBreakfast have been hosting some great chats on Twitter (#editorchat) for the past couple Wednesday nights, to help editors and writers connect and discuss how to help one another. This week’s topic was fair pay for editors and how free online content and slashed budgets are affecting pay for writers. If you’re on Twitter, check it out. The more the merrier. : )

Also, if there are any topics you would like to discuss here, please let me know. I’d love to get to know more of you and hear about your recent experience in the publishing industry.

Mining for Rich Veins of Typos

Here’s a question for the editors: When you’re working on a new manuscript, or copy from a new writer, how do you get in the groove and figure out what sort of style, tone, repeat problems, or common stylistic errors their copy has? How quickly do you usually figure out how to work with an author’s copy and how much work it will be? Do you ever make a cheat sheet for a particular author or manuscript, or is it generally easy to remember that so-and-so always uses redundant adjectives and has tense-switching issues? Do you make style sheets you carry from one job to the next that help you get started on the basics, like whether or not to use a serial comma, s’s vs. s’, and number/percentage formatting? This isn’t so much an issue when you work for one publication with one style guide, but for clients without style preferences or for working with multiple clients with specific preferences, I find this helpful.

I tend to start with big formatting changes, then read through copy and make batch changes on these style issues as I go. If I’m not yet sure what the best solution is, I highlight the first instance of the word and then come back to do a search for highlighted words, which takes me through the manuscript making one style decision after another. (This also works well for coming back to things that need fact-checking.) I often find that after reading about one third of a manuscript, very few new issues pop up and the rest is smooth sailing and basic copyediting. For new writers and magazine copy, I generally get a sense of the writer’s style within a paragraph or two, but I’ve learned that some writers produce very different copy when asked to write a feature or a product review versus a historical piece.

I’d love to hear about other editors’ processes and best practices. Bring it on in comments.

If You Preach It, They Will Come?

Convento Cristo

A publisher just asked me to review a manuscript and give them a bid for copyediting it. The book started out with a foreword by a respected Christian pastor and speaker, which got me excited. Maybe this would be a great book! Something with some credibility and a great message!…. Um, or not.

The red flags began in the publisher’s email, which warned me my correspondence with the author, a pastor from Texas, would go through his secretary (indicating either a lack of availability or arrogance on the part of the author, neither of which helps me finish a project quickly). Then, the acknowledgments, which thanked five people for editing the book. Christian speaker-pastors who feel the need to thank five people for editing their book generally either need a lot of help putting their thoughts on paper, or they don’t know what editing is, so said editors are colleagues and cousins who advised or proofread. Uh oh.

Chapter One: The author gets down to explaining his thesis, which sounds like it could be true but is getting confused by a lot of buzzwords that could be used for or against his argument, depending on whose definition of the terms you use. Then come the grave accusations against different parts of the Church and society, with no supporting explanation or evidence. Shizzle. I can’t take this project.

This isn’t a copyedit. It isn’t even a rewrite. This is just a crazy bitter dude with a pulpit, who probably doesn’t want the kind of help he needs. So how does someone with such poorly explained ideas become the leader of a church, and how does his book get endorsed by a public figure? Maybe if you just preach it, they will come. He certainly sounded eloquent. Scary.

Mad Libs

Introducing the 2010 Toyota Prius, part of this complete eco-friendly experience.

As an editor, do you ever see the same darn copy coming across your desk, with a few nouns and verbs changed out? As a writer, do you ever get stuck in a formula for writing a certain type of article or story?

My local newspaper’s website, Mlive.com, just posted this lovely piece of copy to their homepage, (sorry, Mlive):

“Heading to Detroit this weekend for the North American International Auto Show? MLive.com has you covered with what you’ll need to know and everything you’ll want to see. With dozens of electric and hybrid vehicles taking center stage, be ready for an eco-friendly experience.”

Nothing really wrong with writing a little blurb like this on deadline, right? But I swear I’ve seen this exact copy, with a tweak here and there, on my desk about 100 times, AND on MSNBC, AND on pretty much any other news site with a “weekend guide.” Is this the weekend guide formula? Let’s break this down into a mad lib and see how hard this little piece of copy can be made to work:

“_VERB_ing to _NOUN_ this weekend for the _ADJECTIVE_ _NOUN_? We have you covered with what you’ll need to _VERB_ and everything you’ll want to _VERB_. With dozens of _PL NOUN_ taking center stage, be ready for a(n) _ADJECTIVE_ experience.”

What can you make of this?

Heading to Neiman Marcus this weekend for the oh-so-hot Reem Acra trunk show? (The girls love Reem!) We have you covered with what you need to wear and everything you’ll want to snatch up to make your day a dream. With dozens of new designs taking center stage, be ready for a bridal smackdown shopping experience. (Hint: Bring your brass knuckles.)

Well, that’s a few extra words, but you see what I mean? Automotive copy reads like this, Access Hollywood talks like this, and on and on. My fix? Rather than hang myself by my press pass, I tend to rearrange the sentence structures. And again, there may be nothing wrong with what you’ve got–unless last month’s copy looked a lot like it, and the month before that…. Here’s a quick “blender” fix for your copy:

The North American International Auto Show is on this weekend, with dozens of the latest hybrids, electrics, and futuristic concepts taking center stage. It’s a lot to take in, but we’ve got you covered. Check out our guide for everything you’ll want to see and do at this year’s show.

Or whatever. It won’t win a Pulitzer, but it may save your editor’s life.