Editing ~ By Writers & By Editors . . .

Last night, I was sitting in the Writers’ Block Cafe on Book Island in Second Life.

There were four other writers there and we got to talking about editing our own writing—sometimes called revision—though mere editing of improper grammar or clunky sentences is much different than the larger task of Re-Visioning…

One of the writers, Barbara, the Correspondent for our weekly newsletter, revealed that she loves the process of writing but often doesn’t quite know what to do after the initial act—“I just have trouble seeing past what i think I’m writing down on paper…”

Another writer, Arton (Jane Watson in this First Life), was referencing WebSites for Barb to help her find editors.

Yet another writer, Nicole, indicated yet another take on writing vs. editing and, today, messaged me saying, “To write is human. To edit is Divine.” :-)

Jerry, a writer with extremely unique habits, said, “I like editing. I hate doing the original.”

Then, Dedee came in and we moved on to talking about coffee, tea, and, well, basically, just having a good time…

Writers must always do as much editing as they can on their own, if only to assure themselves they’re turning over an adequate version of their work to the folks who specialize in the editing process.

In the previous post, 4 Very Different Language Sites, I mentioned a WebSite that specializes in writing about editing—the English Editing Blog by English Trackers, an online outlet for professional editing services.

Here’s their description of their blog:

“Here we discuss this ever-changing language and the role it plays in both our business and personal lives. How words and expressions become extinct, how new trends give rise to new vocabulary, and so much more… Come join the discussion.”

The subsections of the blog are interesting in themselves:

Editing

Funny

Informative

Interviews

Guest Posts

Language News

Translation

Proofreading

Having trouble with your self-editing?

Having trouble knowing what a good editor could do for you?

Not up to speed on the changes in what’s “acceptable”?

Do, please, explore the English Editing Blog and come on back and let us know what you found!

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The “Self”-Education of Writers . . .

I must begin this post by making it clear that many fine writers have completed what’s considered a full education—appropriate degrees and banners flying high.

Yet, many other fine writers have tasted the fare of society’s brand of learning and decided, sometimes seemingly “against their will”, to set their own sails on their own ship of pedagogy.

I, for instance, tried college three times—thrice found it wanting—am still a devoted learner…

Many are the writers whose education—beyond that which is learned from living fully and authentically—comes from reading other writers—their creative fiction, not books about how to write.

From the previous post, How To Read Like A Writer—here’s a quote of me quoting Maria Popova who’s quoting Francine Prose from her book, Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them:

Concerning writers reading to learn how to write—”…the connection has to do with whatever mysterious promptings make you want to write. It’s like watching someone dance and then secretly, in your own room, trying out a few steps.”

“You will do yourself a disservice if you confine your reading to the rising star whose six-figure, two-book contract might seem to indicate where your own work should be heading.”

“The only time my passion for reading steered me in the wrong direction was when I let it persuade me to go to graduate school….I left graduate school and became a writer.”

And, concerning authors who stopped their schooling, FlavorWire has an article called, 10 Famous Authors Who Dropped Out of School.

Harper Lee who dropped out during her junior year of university.

Augusten Burroughs, dropped out at age 13.

Charles Dickens, forced out of school at 12 to work long hours for little pay, returned to school, yet many feel his early working days color his writing.

Jack Kerouac dropped out during his freshman year from football injuries.

William Faulkner dropped out at 15 and again at 22.

Mark Twain was forced out of school at 12 due to his father’s death and the need to work for the family.

George Bernard Shaw, dropped out at 14 and once wrote, “Schools and schoolmasters, as we have them today, are not popular as places of education and teachers, but rather prisons and turnkeys in which children are kept to prevent them disturbing and chaperoning their parents.”

H.G. Wells, out at 11 due do his father’s injury.

Jack London, out at 13.

Can you share others in the Comments?

Did you also drop out of school?
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National Punctuation Day ~ I Missed It, #@/%#* … !

Yep, me, a published author, missed National Punctuation Day—for the last nine years!!

Who knew?

Why didn’t we all get a letter from some official?

At least, our publishers or editors or agents could have alerted us!

Now, let us prepare for next September 24th (those of us in the U.S.A.—other countries may adopt it, too…).

I found a guest post on the Missouri State Teachers Association WebSite (and, there just might be a punctuation mistake in their title?) by Jeff Rubin, who “has written and designed more than 1,800 company newsletters since starting his newsletter publishing firm” and is the Founder of the official Day (probably some missing punctuation in that description…)—he says:

“I started National Punctuation Day in 2004 because I was concerned that our language skills are declining. Test scores confirm my suspicions. A study in 2007 by California State University-East Bay revealed that nearly 60 percent of incoming freshmen needed remedial English classes. Nationwide, 28 percent of incoming college freshmen enrolled in remedial classes, according to a 2004 report by the National Center for Education Statistics. This is unconscionable.

“We’re losing more of our language every year. There was an article in the San Francisco Chronicle last year in which parents questioned the need to teach their children how to spell. Unbelievable! With this attitude, it won’t be ‘no child left behind’, but rather ‘all children left behind’.”

By the way, Since I was quoting Jeff, I had to use “s around his words, but he used “s in his sentences, so I had to change his “s to ‘s (double quote to single quote) to abide by the rules of punctuation.

Also, I “broke” a rule of punctuation because the end of his last sentence, according to the rules should have been, rather ‘all children left behind.'”, and I put, rather ‘all children left behind’.”

I feel the single quote mark after the last word belongs before the period since its use is to close the quote; then, the double quote closes the full quote of the full sentence…

The rule that all quote marks Must follow all other punctuation at the end of a sentence is not a rule of literary clarity—it arose when typesetters, in the days of lead type and wooden frames, found that, if the punctuation (thinner) was outside the quote (fatter), it would fall out of the frame—it’s just a mechanical rule and can safely be broken by literary mavericks :-)

Then, there’s my favorite poet, Emily Dickinson, who threw out nearly all normal punctuation and replaced it with dashes of various lengths. From Dashing Genius: Emily Dickinson and the Punctuation of Cognition :

“Edith Wylder analyzed thirty poetry manuscripts…and identified 221 irregular notations, further classified as angular slants, reversed slants, horizontal marks, and curved marks. After an admittedly rough mathematical calculation, I estimate over seven thousand dash-like notations in Dickinson’s holographs. In a videotaped interview, poet Adrienne Rich recalls: ‘I’ll never forget the shock of opening the second edition of the poems in which the dashes had been restored and getting a sense of a whole new reading of the poetry, a whole new voice’;  the resulting typography seemed ‘much more jagged, much more personal, much more original, much more uncontainable than I had ever thought her to be.'”

You can visit the official National Punctuation Day WebSite and find all sorts of curious and fun stuff about these sometimes pesky, sometimes critical marks.

And, The Atlantic Wire has two cool posts about punctuation:

Writers’ Favorite Punctuation Marks

The Imagined Lives of Punctuation Marks
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The War of The Book Worlds ~ E-books & Common Sense

What happens when an online retailer (like Amazon) slashes the price of an e-book from another publisher?

* Legacy publishers act like they’re at war even though the retailer still pays them full price.

* The readers get a break.

* The authors get their full royalty.

Yet, the screaming and threats and lies in the media make it seem like something bad is happening…

Suw Charman-Anderson, former Executive Director of the Open Rights Group and one of the UK’s best known bloggers, in her Forbes article, Ebook Price War Obscures Larger Problem, says:

“Price wars aren’t new to publishing, yet, predictably, various people are up in arms about what’s really just a publicity stunt.”

The war-mongers try to say that this price slashing will make readers expect the new low cost to become the norm and it might even hurt the independent bookstores.

Charman-Anderson says:

“Bookstores of all stripes do promotions and giveaways all the time, and frequently publishers are fighting to be a part of those promotions. And whilst tight-fisted readers can already find more books than they can read in their entire lifetime, your average reader recognises a deal when they see one, knows that deals don’t last, and knows that once the deal is over that prices are going to go back up. This is not a new concept… The idea that this is going to result in the death of the indie bookshop seems like a nice slippery slope fallacy which reads well but makes no real sense.”

She goes on to detail other false perspectives in this war that should be seen as quite normal marketing activity yet is being stoked into a chimerical fire…

She continues her argument by bringing up an issue that self-publishers are quite clearly aware of—the Reader is a critical actor in this Drama and must be dealt with on their own terms—treated like the important people they are.

Certainly, the Author is the central character in this drama—can’t have a book world with out them.

I would say the Reader is the co-protagonist—forget their needs and the book world begins to wobble.

The Publisher?

Unless the publisher is the author (who will decisively keep the reader in mind) they’re one of those characters writers know well—changing their nature as the story progresses—morphing to support the protagonists or being thrown completely out of the story…

Charman-Anderson argues that one thing the publishers need to do is create their own retail divisions:

“The main argument against publishers expanding into retail, over and above set-up costs, is that people now expect to be able to get everything in one spot.”

She goes on to detail a few of those expectations and deals the reader wants then closes with:

“But these are all deals that publishers can’t offer, because they don’t own the point of sale. And there’s only one answer to that.”

I recommend you go read the full article—this lady knows her stuff.
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Writing Advice, Even from Well-Known Authors, Can Be “Dangerous” . . .

The word “dangerous” has the root meaning “power to harm”, based on the Latin dominus, “lord”.

How could advice from established authors “harm” a writer?

Primarily, I feel, by being accepted as hard and fast “rules” or “laws”.

For every “rule” in the books, some book of creative writing has successfully “broken” it :-)

Plus, I’ve weighed in a number of times here on the value and danger of writing advice…

Maria Popova has been featured here a number of times and, due to her blog Brain Pickings, I’ll now give you links to a number of authors’ (and, one TV character’s) advice:

Zadie Smith’s 10 Rules of Writing

Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Tips on How to Write a Great Story

10 Tips on Writing from David Ogilvy

Henry Miller’s 11 Commandments of Writing & Daily Creative Routine

Jack Kerouac’s List of 30 Beliefs and Techniques for Prose and Life

Six Tips on Writing from John Steinbeck

Susan Sontag on Writing

Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing

What are your thoughts and feelings on “writing advice”?

What’s some of your own writing advice??
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