Copy Edit Blues

Think of your most favorite old blues song, with the wailing sax and mournful bass, and then just wail right along with it, and you'll get the gist of this post. Or to heck with this post, just get into the rhythm and sing your heart out. You'll feel better, I promise. "G"

For those of you who haven't experienced a true copyedit, let me just give you one tiny little peek at what goes on behind the scenes of a book production. I spent 5 hours today and covered only 30 pages of manuscript. At that rate, my 350 pages will take... oh heck, someone else do the math. A Long Time. Long, long, long.

And I can't do it while I'm traveling. Today alone I had to access half a dozen websites, the Chicago Manual of Style, Roget, THE ELEMENTS OF GRAMMAR, and my editor. Oh, and all my research books looking for a song title. Try hauling a library and computer through the desert with all your vacation clothes and Christmas gifts.

But I did learn I can access the Chicago Manual of Style, on line, for a fee, or free for 30 days. I think I'll go with that 30 day option. It took me half an hour to hunt down the capitalization rules my copyeditor is ostensibly following. And breaking.

Remember the word STET. It will stand you in good stead should you get published!

Evil Copyedit Genies

And Evil Page Proof Genies, I might add. I'm quite convinced there are nasty little critters lurking beneath the desks at my publisher who record the time and date of my vacations and then proceed to feed them into my publisher's computers as the very best time to send me work. It has happened so religiously over two decades that no one will convince me otherwise.

So here I am, merrily playing catch-up on all the work that piled on my desk while I was finishing the new historical, anticipating a two-week break, and lo and behold, what do my wondering eyes see? Not eight tiny reindeer, I'll tell you now. It's an e-mail from my editor saying the copyedit for next July's historical will arrive in the morning. Friday morning, mind you, so it can haunt me all weekend. And if I don't finish up next week, I'll be dragging dictionaries and research files with me to California because it's due New Year's Eve.

And readers wonder why they find so many mistakes in books these days? It's those Evil Genies, I tell ya! Who can think straight enough to remember spellings and facts over the holidays? I ask you now, how much work is everyone else doing over the holidays?

Myspace

The page still isn't quite done, and I've not launched a giant "be my friend" campaign as of yet, but trickles of people are stopping by and dropping in (Hi, KYRW!). Sort of like the quiet opening before the grand opening of a new restaurant, I'm learning the basics. Since I've finished the historical edit and my agent says to take a break on the contemporaries until she gets back to me in January, I have a little time to play these next few weeks. So I may spend more time playing around with the page. I tried doing links and other things with this blog but nothing on here is intuitive, and I don't have enough time to learn html, so plain vanilla blogging is all you're gonna get. I have no brilliant words of wisdom today. My ear is falling off from a three-hour phone conference, and I have to put together Friday's wenches blog, so I'll skip out early today.

Hope everyone is working harder than I am!

Free at Last!

Banged my head against the desk reviewing the last few chapters of the historical today after yesterday's rewrite. Couldn't take looking at it one more time and sent it off to a critiquing friend. Big weight off my shoulders and desk!

So now I'm playing catch-up. All the little sticky notes adhering to my desk are being addressed, things like "write Christmas newsletter" (go to my website and sign up for newsletter and you, too, can receive my blathering in your mailbox). I've researched my New Year's blog, drafted my Friday Christmas blog, hunted for plane tickets for a March conference, started "friending" people on Myspace even though the site isn't totally complete, and numerous (ever wonder why that isn't numberous?) other trivial tasks that in total become a heavy weight hanging over my head.

Of course, once I clear off my desk, I have to start considering those contemporary proposals again... What's everyone else doing for Christmas? she asks brightly.

Rewriting Revisited

I don't know how many readers have stayed tuned in to the Saga of the Book from Heck, but I'm reaching the final stages of my editing process. Mind you, this does not mean I'm done by any stretch of the imagination. I still have critiquing, more editing, and polishing before I send it in. And then it gets worse.

But right now, just seeing the home stretch on this stage is an immense relief. So, of course, I decided the whole ending needed to be rewritten. I had a climactic action scene where they literally found the magic elixir and headed home. (Vogler's WRITERS JOURNEY) Since I don't follow the Writer's Journey with any exactitude, this means nothing except that in romance, really, all I needed was the final "I love you's" to end the conflict and complete the story. But I took over 50 pages to do it!!!!!!

And they were very necessary pages, since this is the end of a trilogy and a number of external conflicts needed to be finalized. But the romance is what readers want, and I'd already sealed the deal. Bad for reader expectation! So I've spent the day upping the internal conflicts and increasing the stakes on everything else. I always pull back when it comes to conflict, so I need someone to slap my face and tell me to get over it. Today, I got over it without being slapped!

I'm telling you, writing Regencies was easier!