Now I Believe The Economic Recovery Is Real, But How High Can It Go?

Here comes the sun. photo, Jon Sullivan

For the last year, economists have been saying the U.S. is now digging itself out of the Great Recession. That’s obvious if you look at stocks (bailout discussions aside), and of course Silicon Valley is enjoying another heyday, but so far it has been a jobless recovery for most of the country. I have tracked right along with this trend, having been laid off from full-time work in 2008 just before the market tanked. Of course I can’t sit still, so I founded 29 Diapers, started writing a novel, and did freelance editorial work where I could find it. Oh yeah, and had a baby. It was a busy recession for me.

But today I saw signs of real recovery.

LinkedIn: hiring.

Oxford Press: hiring.

Time Magazine: hiring.

Wall Street Journal: hiring.

The gutted Conde Nast, of all companies: hiring.

The help wanted signs are back, all over the Interwebs!

And me? Hired. Well, sort of. Right now ideal gainful employment for me means freelance writing and editorial work while I stay home to raise my daughter. Last month I was brought on board Inhabitat as the new Transportation Editor. Huzzah!

But how high can it go? The U.S. has enormous debt problems, has outsourced nearly all manufacturing, and faces stiff global competition for jobs that just aren’t coming back. I think we’re seeing signs of real recovery now, but at some point it will plateau and we will start the conversation about a new reality in America. Do you think we will innovate our way out of this economic mire? Move upstream to a creative economy and leave the information economy to the developing world? I’d love to hear your thoughts in comments.

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!

Ah Well…

I wondered how I was going to keep up with this blog and my new baby blog AND write a novel AND write another nonfiction book AND be a full-time mom AND do part-time book editing work for 3-4 different publishers. What apparently had to give was my posting on this blog and answering my email–well, and housework, but let’s not pretend: I never did much of that anyway. I now answer the important messages and have mostly given up on following all the blogs I used to subscribe to. 100 newsletter emails got trashed over the weekend without being read. But I’m still here! And I still love hearing from you!

Right now, I’m working on filling out the characters in my novel, giving them a little more time on-stage and figuring out how to reveal their personalities by illustrating the ways they react to one another. I feel like the next time I try this, it’s going to go 4 times as fast. It’s a lot of fun to figure out how to do this from scratch, but it sure is slow going when I only have a couple hours a day at most to even think about it. I’m going back and forth between feeling dismayed to have discovered that so much more needs to be done on this novel, and feeling good that I’ve figured out how to make it a more complete story. Three chapters are short and can easily be filled out with flashbacks that demonstrate the contrast between the way the characters’ relationships are now and the way they used to be. The trick for me is to catch myself when I write a summary of a scene instead of making it a specific and interesting story. Right now I’m going back and replacing all these “summary memories” with very specific (and hopefully interesting) memories that the main character has of happier days. Every time I do this, it improves the narrative threefold.

Have you written a novel or short story? How did you fill out your characters so they’re three-dimensional, real people? Were they there for a purpose, to move the plot forward, or did the people appear in your mind before the story? Just curious. Thanks for reading! I’ll be back and posting more regularly at some point.

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.

Can You Help My Emoticon Lose Weight?

My husband loves to send me this xkcd comic about the “emoticons in parentheses” problem. It’s hilarious, but tricky. Many editors just dismiss it with a wave: “You should never use emoticons in professional writing!” Well, how simple. But email is devoid of emotion, and emoticons can clarify your tone. I find myself using them more and more often even in professional emails, to smile it up a bit. Otherwise, I seem to come across like Ben Stein.

Here is one solution: simply convert your emoticon to a smiley face before transmitting. But that doesn’t always come through. What happens if my “angel” smiley face turns into “(A)” before it gets to the recipient? Message not received.

My solution is inelegant, and it bugs me every time I use it, but I think this may just have to work for now:

(My Emoticons Get Double Chins : ))

Yup, my emoticons are fat, and they will remain fat until one of you can give me a better solution to this little problem. Can you help my emoticon lose weight?

Two Simple Ways To Become a Freelance Editor

A few people have weighed in on my little poll, indicating you would like to hear more about freelancing. No problem! I’m regularly asked how to do what I do: freelance editing. Well, there are many ways to go freelance (the easiest involves the insertion of your full-time gig into a bodily orifice of your boss), but here are a few tips I hope will give you a solid start. Please note that I am still only freelancing part-time while I stay home with my daughter, so I can’t be your shining example of how to “make it” as a freelancer–not yet, anyway. These are just tips to get your foot in the door of the publishing world, which really is the hardest part.

Route #1: Create your own internship.

I schmucked around trying to find paid gigs even while I was still IN college, because back then we all still thought we could find paid work in our field of interest, with minimal experience. Not so much. My first paid gig dried up after college, and by the time I started looking for internships (because publishers wouldn’t even call me back about paid jobs), the window of opportunity had closed. That = several years wasted time. If I had known then that it would take me so long to find a paid job without internship experience, I would have viewed 6 months or a year of indentured servitude as an investment rather than an insult.

Problem is, LOTS of folks know better than I did and are clamoring for just a few internships, so what you should do is find a small publisher you like and offer to work for them for free so you can gain experience. You just found an internship with zero competition, and you made the overworked editor an irresistible offer: free help. Just set a time limit on your internship and be ready to say goodbye (and thank you!) if they can’t offer you paid work after that time.

Route #2: Start small.

This is what I ended up doing: I tried my damnedest to get jobs in publishing or as close to publishing as possible in order to pay bills and keep myself occupied. On the side I was working for one or two small book publishers at a time, doing occasional work. Yup. I had to cold-call a lot of people to get those gigs, too. S’just the way i’tis. There are oodles of online lists of publishers. Start there and research each one until you find one you like. It would help your case if you knew something about the genres they publish, too.

Over time my part-time experience looked better and better on a resume, until I was able to land an in-house, full-time, pull-your-hair-out-stressful, gloriously satisfying copyediting job, which in turn bolstered my credibility when I went back to freelance.

All these ideas take some guts, because you have to pick up the phone and call people (gah! anything but cold-calling!). If you want to freelance, though, you’re probably the ballsy sort anyway, right? Anyway, I hope these tips give you some new ideas. Good luck!

Chicago Says, Place Commas Wherever You Might, Pause…

The Exclamation Point Freaks Out Again by andrea_daquino, Flickr

Okay, here goes with my new experiment discussing nitty gritty grammar and style….

Here’s one that annoyed the crap out of my former managing editor and has ever since bugged me: The Chicago Manual of Style lists the usual rules for comma usage (use around appositives, between items in lists, after or before direct address, etc.), but then totally cops out with a CYAQ (Cover Your Ass Qualifier) that states you should use a comma whenever you would pause in speech. Um, okay. I get that–commas do indicate a pause in speech–but what about people who talk slowly? Are we doomed to trip and fall over all those commas, which make the page look like a pen sneezed on it? It’s slow death by commage!

Thoughts on this one? How do you decide whether or not to use a comma? What other style and grammar issues grind your gears? Let me know in comments.

Ichubbawha?? (The Sound of Me Doing Another Double-take.)

One of the desires of my heart: my stunningly beautiful back yard.

I ask you: What is UP with this serendipity thing? We just moved our daughter from her co-sleeper mini crib to a full-size crib, and she has adapted so well that I have gotten my two best nights of sleep in months… which means that my relentless drive has come out of hibernation and I started thinking about how to find more work–maybe even break into a new genre. As if I need to diversify, I know! I just would love to get into editing fiction–sci-fi/fantasy and mysteries, specifically–in addition to the Christian nonfiction and automotive work I’m already doing.

I just said (there seems to be something about saying these things out loud) to my husband that I was thinking of pursuing a new client, and ran an idea by him regarding how I might make it easier for myself to break that new-genre barrier. He said go for it, and before I could look up the company I was thinking of cold-calling, someone else came to me and asked if I might be interested in my dream editing job. Well, one of them. I have a lot of dream jobs. Well, yes! Yes, I would. It’s in Christian publishing, so maybe I’ll wait on that idea to pursue fiction work for a few weeks. We’ll see where this goes.

Lately this scripture verse keeps running through my head, and I hope that it encourages you as it has been encouraging me: “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4, NIV). Every time I hear this verse, I’m reminded that I don’t have to slave for the things I want, nor do I have to choose between the relationship I want to develop with my Daddy in heaven and the dreams He has given me to pursue here on earth. “Relax, Laura!” that scripture says to me. “Just breathe, enjoy God and life, and everything will fall into place.”

And so it has, once again. Maybe I should spend more time meditating on this verse and less time ranting about Jeremiah 12:1.