Manuscript Finished, But…

This morning I am feeling… a bit overwhelmed, a little down, somewhat scared… I’ve come to the not fun part.

The main manuscript is finished. I completed it (except for the epilogue, tables of content, and title) on Tuesday. Yesterday I did another read-through and made a couple corrections. The major portion is done. I’m struggling with the epilogue and what would be written on the back cover to capture readers’ attention. I’m still unsure about the title. And I am feeling anxious about the next step of taking all the Word docs and putting them in InCopy.

Epilogue, the ending, the conclusion should be fairly easy, but my mind is either blank or all over the place. So much went on this last year with the move and all. The table of contents is just listing the chapter and also making a list of photos (which I still need to decide which to use). The title – from the first I was thinking “Not Too Cold for Alligators” because I saw many more alligators on this trip than the one in 2013 – but is this title too close to the last book “Too Cold for Alligators?” This isn’t really a sequel and while similar, it’s a totally different book.

Windows freezes up if documents get too long, so each chapter was written as a separate document. Now, it’s time to actually put it all together in one full manuscript. I used Open Office for “Too Cold for Alligators,” but with the acquisition of Adobe Creative Cloud, I have more options. I’m just so… apprehensive about learning these new programs, starting with InCopy and Lightroom. 

The actual writing is the easy, fun part for me. Now it’s time for the technical aspects of putting the book together and that’s what spins my head around. I can’t even put my mind on it at this moment, but I am already anxious to move on to another book (the actual traveling and writing which I enjoy immensely), but I have to get this one done first.

I’m almost tempted to say, I wrote it, now move on to the next. I can’t do that, though. I have to publish. After all, that’s the intent of writing a book. I. Have. To. Publish. 

Book Update

I got so wrapped up in working on the final draft of my book that I haven’t taken the time to blog for a couple of days – heck, it’s been a week. Of course, I’m not just working on that project as other things need to be taken care of.

I’ve made it back through Day 9 as of this moment; only 14 more to go before I’m finished, plus writing the epilogue. I’m printing out copies with a few photos to pass on to Nan, who is proofreading for me. It’s never good for authors to proofread their own work. You get so caught up in your work that it’s easy to miss simple grammatical errors or spelling. Also, another point of view can alert you to the fact that a section might sound awkward or confusing to a reader. There’s nothing worse than reading a good story, but you can’t enjoy it because of the bad grammar and spelling; and for a lot of people, those glaring errors jump off the page in your face.

The finishing of the final draft doesn’t mean the book is ready to go. There are many, many decisions to make. There’s layout and design, choosing the size of the book, the type of paper to have it printed on, front and back cover designs, copyrights, and that’s on top of deciding to just go with a print on-demand-company or to go with a real publisher. These are not easy decisions and this is not even talking marketing, yet.

Print-on-demand is a popular way to go and it’s relatively easy (just remember none of this is as easy as it sounds). However, with the thousands of books being printed this way, what makes your book stand out? And with anyone being able to print anything, your book is mixed in with a lot of poorly written material. These print-on-demand places do not do any editing on proofreading. They are set up and print only. They could care less whether the writing is any good.

I don’t want a cheap, shoddy piece of work. As good a writer and editor as I may be, I still make mistakes. I still need, and appreciate, someone else looking over my work before it goes out to the public. I want my books to look professional and classy. The writing, though time-consuming, is the easy part. From there it gets difficult and to do a good job is not cheap. If you want quality work, you need to pay for it – from editing to designing to printing. And if you don’t have the expertise, then be willing to pay someone who does.

Ouch! But this is the type of work I want to do. I’m learning. Maybe there will come a time when I can do almost all of it myself (as I thought I could in the beginning), but I’m not there yet.

On to Day 10... and I still haven't come up with a title.

New Book Update

I’ve spent the past couple of days working on the book, but once more I am stuck. I made a table in Word to help me track information thinking I could open the file on the Mac and update as I go along while writing the chapters in Word on my laptop. Nope, doesn’t work that way. I can edit material already on the table, but I can’t add new items. 

I also need to decide if this chart is a waste of time. It isn’t something that will be published in the book. It’s only a reference for me. I so easily get hung up on some of these piddly issues that it holds me back from getting any real writing done.

I wanted to add a “Sasha’s Star Rating” to this book to rate the places I stayed and the various sites visited. I’m struggling with this a bit, too. Do I call it a star rating even though I’m not printing actual stars? I think it would be something people would understand.

I swear half of yesterday was wasted. Yesterday, I also re-went through chapters 1-9 and now I’m going to go through them again because I’m not happy with some of what I changed. Early this morning I edited the introduction… again. (How many times does that make?)

I can’t really complain, though. Each bit of work I do is getting towards the end and each time I go and re-edit, I’m making it better. Part of the work includes differentiating front matter from end matter. For those of you who don’t know, front matter is the beginning parts of the book like copyright page, dedication, introduction, and such before the body of the story. The end or back matter goes after the main part of the book. So what part is pertinent for the beginning? What does the reader need to know up front? Oh, if it was so easy to answer.

Still, I’m excited about plugging away at it. I’ll get there… eventually.

You Can’t Write Like You Talk

Writing is not the same as speaking. I say this often. When talking, the mind is trying to come up with words in the moment to convey the point of view while the mouth has to speak the words. Sometimes the flow is smooth, but often it is not. The mind works quicker than the tongue which can cause people to babble a bit as the mouth tries to catch up with the brain. 

Think about it. Think about the way you talk and the way those around you speak. Think about those you are able to carry on good conversations with and those who can drive you a bit crazy. (Not that they are bad people. It’s all in how one person speaks and another hears.) We all have our… ways. We may all speak the same language, but the understanding of how something is said could be totally different than what the speaker meant. 

It is also important to note that when speaking, the mind can be jumping all over the place. Words jumble around each other. Some things slip off the tongue easily while other thoughts are hard to put into words. Look how easy it is to misunderstand. Words are repeated, blank seconds are filled with “er” or “um” as the mind tries to find the correct words to get the point across. 

What does this have to do with writing? 

People don’t speak in full English-grammar-correct sentences. They tend to ramble, use idioms or phrases that do not translate well to the written page and some people repeat themselves, sometimes a lot. There are nuances in the spoken word that is hard to incorporate in the written word. 

Writing needs to be precise. Writing has… stricter, much stricter… rules. And there are rules for the type of writing being done. There is sentence structure and proper grammar and punctuation. What can be picked up in tone and body language from a speaker needs to be translated and described with words and again, depending on what’s being written, can you assume from that body language and tone or do you need to stick to the facts. 

As a writer, I have to be constantly on my toes depending on what I am doing. My daily journaling is open and I can use any style, though I try to follow rules to stay sharp. Working on a book takes a different mindset than writing articles or editing for the newspaper as does writing poetry. 

But even the book work has its variations. Writing from a personal point of view can be looser than recording information on historical facts. Newspaper work follows the AP style and there are certain formats to be adhered to that are different if following the “Chicago Manual of Style” (sometimes referred to as CMOS). 

Dialogue has its own spin. Writing dialogue can’t be put down on the page exactly as someone speaks. There is so much more to the spoken word that a reader would find boring, confusing, or too much to get through, etc. Plus, words cost money in the written world. How can you say what the speaker needs to say using fewer words? The dialogue needs to be catchy to the reader and draw the reader in to the character and the story.

Another side is, especially with newspaper reporting or doing interviews, is the all-important quote. When choosing to quote a speaker, strong statements or a sentence or two makes the point stand out and is exactly what was said. From there, the writer, in his own words, can take other comments and elaborate on the speaker’s point of view. This will enable the writer to choose the important words and not use the unnecessary words and sounds that a speaker will use while trying to get their comments out.

If a writer were to totally type out a complete spoken dialogue, the sentences would run together, there might not be full sentences and where would the punctuation go? Subjects are missing, verbs are misconstrued and thoughts can trail off... (which I tend to do which entails ellipses which are not conducive to good writing – and here is an example of repeated words). 

I am learning all the time with the newspaper business. Plus, for my own processing, I need to break things down and figure out why a rule is in place. I need to understand the why and sometimes it can take many go-‘rounds before I get it. Of course, this is just one tiny segment.

Writing Styles

It’s not an easy job being an editor. I am constantly learning something new about writing. There may be hard rules in some aspects but other areas are a little gray. Just when I start feeling confident that I know what I’m doing, something comes along to keep me humble.

I came across the word en dash. What’s an en dash? I looked it up. There’s also an em dash, both of which are different than a hyphen. Oh dear, what have I gotten myself into?

A hyphen is the shortest of the three and the only one with a designated key on a computer keyboard. It’s basically used to link a compound adjective such as well-known man. An en dash is a little longer than a hyphen but not as long as an em dash. The en dash usually goes between ranges of numbers or scores. The em dash is used to take the place of commas, parentheses or colons depending on the effect desired.

The above is just a basic description of the three. However, other issues come into play. Not all computer keyboards and processors are the same. In Microsoft Word, if I put a space on either side of the hyphen, it lengthens it to a dash. That doesn’t work on the MacBook, though, where typing two hyphens together creates a dash. (Of course, I don’t know if in either of those two cases it’s an en or em dash.) Further reading said operating systems may require going into symbols to insert a dash. Gosh, this is getting complicated.

I went to an AP Style website to research further. This site compared that style with the Chicago Manual of Style of writing. Now I’m in even more trouble. I’ve been using the AP Style while writing my book. Should I be following the Chicago Manual of Style there? It’ll be back to the drawing board with my book and looking up different rules.

I woke this morning with the topic again on my mind. There is writer’s preference. I have so much going on right now that to learn another style on top of learning Mac, packing up this house, and finding a new house is too much to take in. 

Most people aren’t even aware there is a difference in writing styles. I never did or, at least, I never thought about it. I read a book for enjoyment and the style doesn’t matter if it  is consistent, well-written, grammar and spelling are correct, and it’s easy to read. My style will be my style and as long as I follow the major rules, that's all that matters.

Of course, this is how I’m thinking today. Next week may be a different story.