Spelling

It's tough trying to get a foot in as an author when you're not the best speller. There's only so much help spell check can give. Sometimes the errors are simple typos. Sometimes they're not. The odd thing is, you can read quite well over the errors without (for the most part) losing the meaning. Yes, there are times when a letter seriously affects the meaning of the word, at which point you lose a lot of credibility, but it's amazing how much you can read with typos.

I read a chain email once that, using typos, explained that humans only need the first and last letters of a word to be correct for their brains to tell them the words, even if all the other letters are scrambled. Incredible. And yet, as impressive as our brains are, we like words spelled properly. It drives me nuts when I see posts using short forms that don't 'officially' exist. Or even non short forms, that just seem 'cool'.

And it's strange. When I read books (and other things) I hate finding typos. It feels like the person was being sloppy when, in fact, their eyes probably passed over the words, reading them as if they were spelled correctly. And it's so easy to miss letters and mistype them yourself. I find with my own work I often have to let it sit for a while and then print it out to find typos. If I edit on the computer I tend to read what I want the words to be rather than what they are.

In the writing business it's important to catch spelling mistakes before you post or submit work though. Editors look for any reason to disregard you, and bad spelling - even just one typo - seems to be a favourite reason to send work to the discard pile. It almost doesn't seem fair. Yet, from their point of view, if you have one typo you'll surely have more...

So, does anyone have tips on editing so that they can catch these tiny (or not so tiny) errors? Do you use spell check, beta readers, let the work rest for a while or some other tactics?

Bad Blogger!

Looks like I haven't posted here in several months. Oops. In my defense I've been busy planning a wedding (mine) and had to get all the preliminary work done fast. Now I've got a bit of breathing room.

So...

For months I thought I'd post chapters from my chick lit. I know, I know. I'm a SciFi nerd and fantasy freak. Why did I write a chick lit? I can't tell you either. I didn't want to write it. I purposefully tried to get all the chick lit ideas out of my head so I could go back to my nice respectable fantasy but it just wouldn't let go. I like my chick lit - though I've rethought a few things and will probably be editing it sometime in the next few months (ah for more time in the day).

To keep things simple I'll post the chapter in a new post. While I've had several working titles, the one I like the most is:

Dating Plan Desaster

Enjoy.

Calling It Quits

How do you know when to throw in the towel? I've been working on this particular manuscript (a prequel to a completed manuscript) for over 2 years now. Granted, one year of that time was spent writing my chick lit novel. And another half year was spent trying to type a word here, a paragraph there. I've come to the conclusion that the reason this story is no longer flowing for me is because it's flawed. And rather than spend the next 10 years trying to complete it, it's time to close the folder and move onto a different story. Maybe in 10 years, when I'm a better writer, I'll be able to come back to this manuscript and fix it so that it works, but I don't have the skill to do that now and it's time I realize that and stop staring at the blank screen wondering if I'm cut out to be a writer. I know I am. I've finished two novels. So if it's not me, it's got to be the story. Part of the problem could be the fact that I've been working in this world since I was 12 and, as I'm significantly older than 12 now, it's time for me to do something different, something fresh. Another concern is that the more I learn about writing and sales and the more I read other people's novels the more cliched my ideas for that world sound. I did come up with the ideas for it when I was younger, so while they have evolved over time they're certainly dated. As I said, it's a flawed manuscript. But it's hard to just throw out a year of your life. I spent a lot of time on that manuscript. I love the characters. I did some fun things. I have some great passages. But is it worth stagnating over? No. So it's time to move on.

Logo

Yesterday I put up a logo on this page that I designed last year for my business cards. Unfortunately, in my haste to try something new, I posted the WRONG image (an earlier attempt at my logo that I didn't like as much). Seen here:



Notice the tail is a bit stubby and the image is choppy. The writing is uneven and slightly unclear. Though I did get the appostrophe tongue, which I liked, the image is less than stellar.



The image I should have had up was this one, which is a bit wider than tall, and better defined. I figured out how to type the words rather than free hand them, so they look much clearer and are level. Given my lack of skill in using my imaging program it's also less dark than I'd have liked, but I couldn't figure out how to make it black. And when it printed I got little bluish dots around the letters, as the background wasn't perfectly white and the image not as crisp as it should have been.



It's unfortunate that I had the wrong image up because my boyfriend, who is much better at computer graphics than I am, therefore took the worse of my two images to touch up into the beauty that's displayed on this blog. Here's one verson of his finished image in gradiated black, and a second in red. He added a shadow effect that I think looks pretty cool and made the background transparent so it wouldn't interfere with the background colour of the blog.
If I'd realized my error earlier I could have made this process easier on him by giving him a better image to start with. Instead, without complaint, he spent a fair bit of time reworking the image I didn't particularly like - and making it into an awesome logo.

I have the best boyfriend in the world. :D

Thinking Time vs Writing Time

I think one of the problems with writing the middle of a novel is that the beginning and end come in so clear (for me anyway) - almost like you're watching them on TV - while the middle doesn't. The middle requires more thought to know where the action is headed and what events must occur in what order to get to the end. And that requires sitting down and actually plotting the novel.

Now, I tend to do this before I start writing, put down a tentative outline of what needs to happen and when. I don't put in too much detail, because the outline tends to change with the writing anyway, as I get new ideas (generally better ideas) and become aware of inconsistencies and problems that need to be worked out. Which requres a lot of sitting down, after the book has been started, and organizing my thoughts and ideas so that I can keep writing. The problem is, that thinking and planning time doesn't feel like work because you can't see WRITTEN PROGRESS. And yet, without careful planning and thought you get a worse book (just stuff happening that isn't necessarily requred to tell the story you set out to tell - you know, like that scene in the movie that LOOKS cool but makes you ask, "Is there a point to all this?").

So I've had to revise my writing schedule to allow for planning time. That is, time when I'm in my comfy chair with a pad of paper and a pen, jotting down ideas and hashing out the problems rather than at my computer trying to write a scene that just isn't coming (because I haven't decided where it needs to go).

Be Careful What You Blog - And Where

I have two blogs. One is professional (scififanletter) for all things SF/Fantasy related, and one is for personal thoughts and non-SF book reviews, etc. Today I wrote what I consider one of my non-professional posts designed for this blog. Unfortunately I forgot to check which blog I was on and posted it to the wrong one by mistake. I was able to delete the post and post it here, with corrections, as I'd intended. End of story, or so I thought.

I subscribe to Google Reader, which carefully tracks websites that have interesting articles and blog posts. When I checked my reader, after posting my erroneous message, I discovered that the reader kept it - even though the actual post had been erased. In fact, it's still there, on my reader, after I've tried other tricks to get rid of it. Which means other people, subscribed to my professional blog, have just been subjected to my rather more personal thoughts. Oops.

Now that's not to say the post was in any way embarrassing or unprofessional. It's just not a post I'd intended for that particular site.

Just goes to show that once something's on the internet it really is there to stay. Be careful what you type - and where you type it...

The Hardest Part of Writing a Novel

Openings come easily to me. As do endings. I always know where my book will begin and where it's going. Things can change, of course. Nothing's ever set in stone, until it's published that is (and even then, some authors create 'difinitive editions of their work, reediting long after it's been read by multitudes of people).

For me though, the middle is hard. I know where I want my characters to go, I've got a generalized outline of my novel, but somehow, in the middle, things get bogged down. That's where I am right now in the fantasy novel I'm writing. I've got the first several chapters written and the ending's pretty clear in my mind. There's just ALL THE STUFF IN THE MIDDLE to go. And it's not going.

This happened in the last fantasy novel I wrote. That time I got over it by simply plowing ahead, writing whatever seemed to fit and editing it later so that it really DID fit. This time... I took a break by writing another novel in between, something completely different (ie not fantasy) that took about a year and 'cleared my mind'. Cleared it a little too much, I fear. Now I'm back to working on it and try as I might it just isn't coming. I've tried forcing myself to sit at my computer and type - until something else 'important' comes up and I have to go do THAT instead.

One of the authors I interviewed for my other blog (www.scififanletter.blogspot.com) mentioned that the middle often causes authors to doubt. They doubt themselves. They doubt their story. They doubt that anyone will publish it someday. Apparently it's the middle that causes a lot of wannabe writers to give up, deciding they just don't 'have what it takes'.

I guess I am lucky in that I know I 'have what it takes'. I've finished two novels. Nothing's published yet, but I'm comfident that's only a matter of time. I'm planning to have this new book done in time for Book Expo America next year so I can shop them around to the agents in attendence.

That requires getting past this 'mid book block' and completing the book. Which requires determination and dedication. Ah, it's easier to READ a book than write one. Though not half as satisfying!