E is for Editing

Editing, or the art of revising and perfecting your manuscript, is a large part of the writing process. In every writing class I took I had to write several drafts (I think the magic number was three) before I turned in a finished assignment. While editing may not be the fun part of writing, it is still one of the most crucial parts.

And editing doesn't just come in handy with writing. The world would be a much better place if everybody would give a quick look before sending a text, tweet, email, or status update.

I'm a big believer in it as it gives you the opportunity to remove ambiguities, strengthen your writing, tighten the language, and make your communication clearer. And you don't have to do it alone, though I usually suggest doing an extra draft or two before involving others. Here are other places you can find some:

1) Friends and family. Ask your friends and family who wouldn't mind helping you out. Who knows, you might find one or two who would love to do this. I know a lot of writers who have stated that their spouses are the first to read a draft before being seen by others. Drawbacks: These people are rarely professional and know what to look for. Also, they may not give honest feedback because they have a relationship they need to preserve with you and might be afraid to hurt your feelings. I've personally had little success with this and rarely get anything back beyond, "This looks fine. Yeah...."

2) Writing groups/critique partners. Look for a local writing group. If that isn't available then look for one online. Basically, you are exchanging services. You will send your writings critiqued in exchange for doing the same for those in your group. They aren't just great for editing purposes, they are also a fantastic way to network, make new friends, get writing ideas, and learn new writing techniques. Drawbacks: While you can get more honest feedback than you can with friends and family, they aren't always the best to be taking advise from. It helps if they write in the same, or at least similar, genre as yourself. I find that of the feedback I get back, I only take about a third of it to heart. Of course, that number changes based on the critiquer.

3) Professionals. There are people out there who perform editing for a living. You will get honest feedback and very professional results. Drawbacks: Because they do this for a living they aren't going to do it for you for free, so be prepared to spend a little bit of money for their time. They are also in very high demand, so don't be surprised if they don't get your work returned to you the next day. I've heard stories similar to, "Yeah, I'll look at it, but I'm booked the next three months."

As a side note, if you are looking for a professional editor then I have two I would suggest. One is a friend I made in my critique group who has recently taken editing up as a living. His name is Paul Yoder and I can't wait to throw some business of mine his direction. I haven't used his work yet, but I know him personally and consider him a friend and an honest individual.

The other is Tristi Pinkston, who has already edited some of my work and I've been nothing but impressed with her results. She is busy and was the inspiration behind the comment, "I'm book for the next three months." If you can wait three+ months I can personally vouch that she is WORTH IT. Well, it was three months the last time we chatted, it may have adjusted up or down since then.

4) Your publisher. When you publish your book, traditional publishers usually furnish an editor to clean up your story. A word of warning: don't wait until your book gets to the publisher. A publisher rarely pick up stories that haven't not gone through a few drafts already. A publisher won't take un-edited stories seriously and will only consider stories that are almost ready to be published and some minor fixing.

D is for Dogs and Decisions

I *was* going to do today's A to Z challenge on decisions, but I'm going to talk about dogs as well for two reasons. 1) I ranted a bit on cats in the last post (clearly, I'm a dog person), and 2) I just read a book with a dog and it just seemed to be a sign.

So...

Dogs!

I've owned both dogs and cats. Cats to me have the same condescending personality and only one of them has held any significant meaning in my life. Dogs, on the other hand, are loaded with personality; I love them all! I know, I know, I'm going to get comments on how cats are better. It's okay for you to have your opinions, even if they are wrong. ;)

Case in point, is there a movie where a cat has died and has left theaters filled with people crying like a a little girl? No? Yeah, I agree.

How about dogs? There are tons of them!! Lady and the Tramp. The Fox and the Hound. Eight Below. White Fang. Iron Will. Where the Red Fern Grows. Marley & Me. And who can forget... Old Yeller!

Quick confession: this morning a book had me in tears when one of the main characters, a dog, dies while saving his master. I won't tell you which book it was because I don't want to blow it for you. Seriously though, it left me an emotional wreck. I haven't had a book do that to me since 2003 (almost made it a decade).

I like books where the main characters have a familiar or similar type of companion. My advise to you: make it a dog! And if it has half the character my dog does you are going to win the hearts of your readers.

And now...

Decisions!

All good books have a theme to them. One of my favorite themes is how a person is defined by their choices, not by their power. For instance, Harry Potter and Volde--- He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named have a lot of similarities between each other:

Both were chosen by the same kind of wands (with the phoenix feather core from the same phoenix)
Both viewed Hogwarts as their real home
Both have bad tempers
Both are parceltongues
Both are only children
Both were orphans
Both were raised in homes where they were despised
Both are powerful wizards
Both are very inventive, inventive, cunning, and creative
Both were very determined
Both had a disregard for rules
And more!

But what made them different was their choices. Harry's choices were noble and selfless while Voldemort's were quite the opposite. This lead to them having very, very different destinies.

I love this theme. It is one of my favorites. It is an excellent theme to work into your book if you are currently looking for one.

C is for Cats. I mean Computers!

I debated internally on what to choose for C. I originally settled on cats. Truth is, I don't care much for cats, but they make great characters in fantasy books because of how contentionist they can be. Contention = conflict = moving the story forward.

But then my mind said to me, "Self. You're an idiot! You work on computers for a living, why can't you blog on that instead of cats, which you despise in general." And I said, "Brain, you're a genius! Where are you when I'm writing?"

So, C is for Computers.

Nothing irks me more than to read a book or watch a movie where computers are a character and it is handled like the writer knows nothing of computers. Take the new "Doctor Who" for example. In one of the earlier episodes Doctor Who is combating a robot (robot = movable computer) who has a power surge for about five seconds and then stops and says, "Okay, I have downloaded the entire Internet and with this knowledge I will destroy you." (or something like that)

My mind and I both yelled, "WHAT?!?!?"

I hate to say this, but everybody raves about Doctor Who and I couldn't bring myself to watch another episode. I know, I'm sure I'm breaking some sort of law of nerdyism, but there you have it. It just ruined it for me!

Ever see The Net with Sandra Bullock? My brain feels like it just divided by zero every time I think about it. Ugh! And what was that other disaster that came out lately? Oh yeah, Eagle Eye!

There have been notable exceptions. I loved the first two Terminator movies, they seemed to have gotten it mostly right. Except that if machines do decide to take over the world it won't be John Conner who saves the day, it will be somebody on par with Stephen Hawkings and Bill Gates armed with an arsenal of EMPs. Either that, or a fleet of robots coded to defend you (ie, Transformers).

If you pit humans vs computers in a physical confrontation, especially in any story set in the future, the humans are going to lose. Machines are faster, more adaptive to their environment, have faster reflexes, have perfect aim, and are MADE OF METAL for crying out loud.

If you are going to write about computers, please, for the love of all that is digital, DO IT RIGHT!! Learn about Moore's Law. Understand the limitations on data storage, bandwidth, processing power, heat, and data access speeds. Don't be fooled by Watson on Jeopardy. You saw a little box, what you didn't see was the large data room filled to the brim with a ton of servers. If you are going to have a robot in modern days with the brain power of Watson you aren't going to fit it in something the size of your average human. 

I know, this is a rant, something I'm not usually prone to do (too much). But know that I'm not alone here. Do it right, or lose credibility. And if your story loses credibility it isn't going to go far, unless it has a big star like Sandra Bullock or Shia Le Bouf to give it legs.

And now for a little known fact. One of the first things I had learned about when working with computers is if they are programmed wrong then it is called a bug. Want to know why? In 1947 computers used to fill entire rooms and even university floors. Sadly, they had far less computing power than your cheapest cell phone. Anyways, they threw a math problem at one computer and the result came back wrong. So they investigated and they found a moth was causing the error. They removed the "bug" and the computer started working. Since then, computers gone wrong have been known to have bugs in them. One more interesting thing... here is a picture of the world's first official computer bug: