E-Book Rewrite Update
I am now well into the research process for my e-book. I’ve entered all the text into a plain text editor. For focus, I used CreaWriter to keep my attention on the writing with a full-screen image. If you haven’t tried this, give it a go. It really does help. CreaWriter is free, so you have nothing to lose.
The book I am working on is a travel book that we originally self-published. As I go into this phase, I have to admit being a bit intrepid. With the economy the way it is, I’m sure some of our favorites places are no more. I’m dreading finding out which ones I will have to cut from my draft.
On the plus side, it is going quick. I’m finding a lot of info. I’m also doing some fact checking, which is always a plus. I don’t anticipate this phase taking too long. I nearly had one-quarter of the book researched in one evening. The part that I’m sure will be time-consuming is the formatting end. They don’t pay people for this task for nothing. Fortunately, one of the sites I’m using, SmashWords.com, makes the process very clear with a detailed user’s guide.
I’ve also chosen to go through Amazon Kindle Publishing. Slightly redundant, but you get right to the market you want to reach and what I see as the one with the most potential.
I’m excited about the prospect of publishing again. The sense of accomplishment will taste so sweet.
Watching Your As and Us
This is the kind of blog I like: one that makes me think about my writing. For the most part, I think I do all right on grammar. I can spot a misplaced it’s about as good as anyone. It’s one of my pet peeves, actually. Seeing a sentence like, “it shook it’s head”, drives me nuts. I guess I can thank the nuns for that. The hateful ruler and the mighty eraser performed their tasks admirably during my tenure at Catholic grade school.
Since I’m at the polishing stage on my work, I find the reminders about grammar helpful. I am forced to scrutinize my work. It’s not too much further for me. I’ll be sending out those query letters in no time.
And if you’re still not sure about the difference between further and farther, listen to the soundtrack from Smoke Signals, “Father and Farther”. Or better yet, just watch the movie.
Or better yet, just watch the movie.Is That That Bad?
I came across this post regarding a point of grammar that sometimes leaves me scratching my head. Is that always necessary? As the post points out, usage often decides its efficacy. That bad, that fat, that great all have their place. As a conjunction, one needs to look closer.
The example as given in the article makes perfect sense. It also brings to light an important aspect of revising. If you’re like me and I know I am, during the initial process of revising, my concentration is on the sound and flow of my work as I read it out loud and identify weak areas. Frankly, I’m not scrutinizing my work at that point to determine how my wording may or may not mislead a reader. My focus is style. Which brings me to the next point in my writing process.
Read a few writing blogs and sooner or later, you’ll stumble upon a post regarding strong versus weak words. I’ve inventoried those words, such as could, get, look, and walk. In an effort to view my work critically, I’ve searched through my list of weak words as they appear in my work. I am then taking the time to examine the sentence/paragraph structure and deciding if I can make it stronger. Sometimes it’s perfectly acceptable to say walk because a substitute like traipse while it will add variation, it may not convene the message properly or be too distracting. So, to my list of words to watch, I will add that.
The Bane of Getting It Right
Speaking for myself, finding a blatant error in a book I’m reading especially of a topic that I know something about, is truly vexing. It’s like when you watch a movies depicting a desert scene. There will be that stock footage of an eagle flying overhead, with the scream of a red-tailed hawk in the background. I guess movie makers don’t appreciate the deceptively quieter call of the eagle versus that of a hawk less than half its size.
It reminds me too of a botanist with whom I used to be acquainted. A very intelligent man, he knew his plants extremely well. I remember going to a movie with him and some friends years ago. The setting was sometime in the distant past like 1500s or something. We noticed him chuckling during the movie during a not to particularly funny scene showing a man pushing a cart of vegetables. “That is so wrong,” he said. “Squash wasn’t even domesticated back then.” Alas, the botanist was the only one in possession of such esoteric knowledge.
I plead guilty though of the same arrogance when the topic is one that I have adopted. So as I go back to edit my rough draft, I’m starting to notice those little things that I don’t feel I’m 100% sure about. Since my mystery is set in 1985, I’ve had to research when certain items, icons of pop culture were around. I caught myself in a what would be considered a grave mistake. The original gun I used in my work hadn’t been produced until 1995. Oops!
I want to take the time now to research as many of these tidbits as possible. Heaven forbid I receive the nasty email pointing out my quaff or be the subject of a spiteful blog post. I know that bit about glass houses and all. Living in one myself, I’m going to take out the extra insurance now.
Writing Tools
I’ve given my latest revision to my husband for his critique. I know I still have some work, but I think I’m at a good point to take a break from it for a few days. I’ve been reviewing points of fact that may need follow up. This is a mystery, after all. I want to make sure I’ve covered the case adequately and that my detective’s conclusions are logical. My husband is a good one for tasks of this sort.
I’ve also entered a fine tuning phase of my work. Using websites such as Roy Peter Clark’s 50 Tools To Help You Write and Writerisms, I am going back and identifying trouble spots, overused words, weak words, and replacing them with stronger writing. Both websites list a concise set of guidelines. Have I really used ‘walked’ that many times? It’s amazing how empowered you feel after following these suggestions and seeing your work magically transformed into a better piece. While I try to keep these in mind as I compose, of course, in the heat of the moment getting the story down is the first task. I’d hate to be one these writers that agonizes over the perfect word. So, with coffee in hand, I’ll begin the process.
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