Trying to be perfect

Katherine Pickett recently spoke on"Editor’s, Who They are, What They Do and How they Can Help You" at the Carroll County Chapter of the Maryland Writers' Association. She also discussed how writers can make it easier for their editors and help smooth the road to publication.

Katherine Pickett is the owner of POP Editorial Services, so she knows what she is talking about when she talks about editing. She also is the author of Perfect Bound: How to Navigate the Book Publishing Process Like a Pro, published in 2014.

Her keys to success: educate yourself, be flexible and work only with people you trust. Everyone needs an editor, Katherine said. But a well prepared manuscript can save you time and money. She shared lots of information about what to look for when searching for an editor, such as rates, time factors and their track record. You also need to feel comfortable with them.

I enjoyed hearing about self-editing, since I am at that stage now with my YA novel. It seems I can go over it again and again and still find minor errors. To a writer, although there are different levels of problems, but no error is minor. Even after all this rereading, I was still dissatisfied. I was looking for more ideas about how to edit my work and Katherine delivered.

Katherine Pickett talks with Kerry Peresta,
 President of Carroll County Chapter MWA

She stressed that self-editing can save money and time. First take some time off, create some distance from your work. Then as you approach it again try different methods. Read it aloud and pay attention to places where you pause. Look for punctuation, spelling and grammatical errors.

Change to a larger font. It’s easier to find punctuation errors. Print your work and read it on hard copy. Run your fingers under the words as you read. Then go deeper.

Move to a new location while you review your work or try a different time of the day. Check facts, the timeline, characters and consistency. Is the tone consistent? Everything has to be in there for a reason.

Some people even edit it backwards, starting at the end and moving back to the beginning.  Approach your writing from different angles. Think of your audience. Are you speaking to your ideal reader.

Too often we see what we expect to see, not what is actually there. Question motives. Then again, question everything. The idea is to trick your brain. See what is actually there and how you might be able to make it better.

Revise, revise, revise!

Katherine explained that there are developmental and substantive editors. A substantive editor ensures appropriate and consistent tone and smooth transitions, checks for consistency in point-of-view, eliminates ambiguity, and ensures that dialog sounds natural.

More editing follows as a book is prepared for publication. A proofreader goes through a book's layout and tries to catch anything the copy-editor missed. After receiving a manuscript proof, the author should evaluate the editing, answer any queries as completely as possible, make necessary changes and return the manuscript on time.

The better you have prepared your manuscript, the less time editors will need to spend on it and the less it will cost you. The better your manuscript, the more chance it has of publication and becoming popular.

Pickett’s company provides copy-editing, proofreading, and developmental editing to authors and publishers across the country. She has been involved in the publishing industry since 1999, including five years as an in-house production editor with McGraw-Hill Professional and two years with Elsevier Inc. Although the majority of her experience lies in nonfiction trade books, she also has edited children’s, young adult, and adult fiction, memoirs and more.

Her book Perfect Bound was a silver award winner, 2015, IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards and a Finalist, 2014 Foreword Reviews' INDIEFAB Book of the Year Awards.

More information is available at popediting.net or at www.thePOPnewsletter.com.

Writing Craftsmanship

Recently I heard author Tom Glenn speak about “The Forgotten Discipline: Fiction Craftsmanship” at the Carroll County Branch of the Maryland Writers’ Association.

Craftsmanship is seldom stressed in writing classes, he said. yet it may be key to getting published, Creativity is innate and probably can’t be learned, but craftsmanship can. People think, we all learned to write as children. What else is there to learn?

Professional writers know there is so much more to learn. This program focused on the mechanics of fiction—formatting, copy editing, wording/structure, and dialogue.

He quoted Ursula K. LeGuin: “How can a reader trust a writer who seems to be ignorant of the medium she works in?”

Tom Glenn is well versed in his craft. Besides his published books, he won several writing contests, published 16 short stories and interviews authors for the Washington Independent Review of Books.

His Vietnam novel-in-stories, Friendly Casualties and novel, No Accounts are available on Amazon.com. His newest novel, The Trion Syndrome, will be published by Apprentice House this year.

Although formatting can be dull it is important to let agents and editors see that you are serious about your business and can abide by their guidelines. Agents and editors are busy people and often discard a manuscript because of minor problems. It is important for your writing to stand out. Don’t give them any reason to discard it.

Some basic copy editing rules he discussed included using 12-point serifed point, a single space at the end of sentences and flush-left alignment of text. All make it easier to read your text.

Look for repeated words and beware of adverbs. Use italics to show internal thought. Under dialogue he recommended keeping conversations clipped and brisk.

When you finish your manuscript put it away to cool, possibly for several months. Run spell check at the end, even if you ran it periodically during the writing. Read your work aloud to check for hesitations and awkward phrasing. Also, make sure you vary sentence structure using simple, compound, and complex sentences and even non-sentences, such as short phrases. Non-sentences are especially useful in tense situations.

“Get someone who doesn’t love you to critique the manuscript,” he suggested. It doesn't help that Mom, Dad or your best friend thinks you are the world's best writer. Make sure it is ready for other eyes to view.

Besides being a writer, Tom Glenn also worked as an undercover agent, musician, linguist (seven languages), cryptologist, government executive, and caregiver for the dying. With a doctorate in public administration, he toured the country lecturing on leadership and was dean of the Management Department at the National Cryptologic School.

He is available for other presentations including:

“Healing Through Writing: Survival and Craft.” Tom Glenn joins poet Shirley J. Brewer to explore the dark world of trauma: PTSI (Post Traumatic Stress Injury), accidental death, murder, violence. Healing takes place when the writer faces the trauma and orders chaos through writing. The presentation offers techniques to address personal traumatic experiences through writing.

“Uncertain Origins: The Battle of Dak To,” a lecture with slides on one of the largest battles of the Vietnam War. Glenn was there on the ground collecting intelligence. He warned U.S. military commanders of the forthcoming attack and wasn’t believed.

“Bitter Memories: The Fall of Saigon,” a lecture with slides. A speaker of Vietnamese, Chinese, and French, Glenn spent thirteen years as a National Security Agency operative trundling between the U.S. and South Vietnam, working under cover with army and Marine units on the battlefield in the collection and exploitation of North Vietnamese communications.

Readings from his Vietnam novel-in-stories, Friendly Casualties. The book relates the effects of the Vietnam war on men and women, Vietnamese and American, soldiers and civilians. Some are destroyed; others survive, however imperfectly. All are friendly casualties.

Readings from his novel published by Apprentice House of Baltimore in spring, 2014, No-Accounts. A straight college professor volunteers to take care of a gay man dying of AIDS in Washington, D.C. in the mid-1980s. The caretaker promises to be with his patient at the moment of death without knowing what lies in the dying man’s past.

For more information check out Tom-Tells-Tales.org. If you’d like him to speak at a gathering, email him at tomglenn3@comcast.net