WorldCrafters Guild

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WorldCrafters Guild

Workshop:The Value of Expertise and Research
by
Karen MacLeod

Karen MacLeod is a Freelance Editor, and Editorial Consultant to Simegen.com  

Editing

A few questions I've been asked on occasion:

What kind of mistakes do you see most often?
What I seem to come across in many manuscripts is sloppy sentence construction. I also notice a lot of poor punctuation, fragments, or run-ons.
Some authors take a long time to get to their point, rambling, where concise language would improve the flow of the story.

I also see many sentences constructed with "then" cobbling action together, rather than letting the action continue sequentially. "But" and "next" are also other overused words in many works. Just for fun, how many problems do you find in the snippet below?

Here's an excerpt from an unedited manuscript, which I received:

The captain braced himself for the jump into time warp, and then gave the command to his navigator to activate the opposing propulsion systems.

The silence of space did not provide any audible effect, but the huge ship lurched and careened almost uncontrollably as the time tunnel was traversed. The outside portholes delivered nothing but total darkness. Not even a single star appeared to counteract the feeling of dread felt throughout the ship. The hull seemed to vibrate uncontrollably, as most of the crew felt it would soon split apart. The vibration intensified, centi-timeframe by centi-timeframe, and the pressure seemed unbearable.

Then the motion halted as quickly as it began.
Authors should do extensive research on items with which are unfamiliar that they are using as part of their plot. If you write about horses, as an example, research as much as possible about the types of horses you have in your work. Draft horses are different than saddle horses. The equipment each wears is also different. Know your terms; ask experts if necessary.

If you sit down and think about it, you can come up with a list of experts and resources of your own. A good editor should also have their own source of experts they can call on if something in a manuscript puzzles them. No author or editor is an expert in "everything."

I have a number of experts I can call on for various types of information in my editing work. Here is a partial list:
  • Herbalist
  • Chemist
  • Orthodox Rabbi
  • Biologist
  • Geneticist
  • Professor of Medieval English
  • Private non-commercial pilot
  • Horse owners — I also was a horse owner
  • Computer experts (Windows, Linux, DOS)
  • Website builders, and domain system administrators
  • Computer server operators
  • Authors of Computer programs (people who write scripts)
  • Movie stagehands and prop people
  • People who run lights and sound for entertainment productions
  • Members of the esoteric and Pagan communities
  • Astrologers
  • Tarot card experts
  • Social worker/nonfiction writer — specialties, addictions treatment and prevention; mental health
  • Auditor/accountant, Federal government employee
  • Former Mormon elder
  • Golfer
  • Medieval re-creationists (SCA members and former members)
  • Nurse/nutritionist/health administrator
  • Biker/Motorcycle enthusiast
  • Homeschooler — either a student which is home schooled, or the parent who schools them
  • MENSA members
  • Railroad hobbyist
  • Artists
  • Candlemaker
  • Sign language interpreter

What can writers do to make your editing easier?
Authors should not count on the computer's spell checker and grammar checker. The built-in files may work well for business letters, but in novel writing, they are useless.

A writer might want to invest in an excellent dictionary, and thesaurus. I also suggest they invest in a current bound copy, or find the website for The Chicago Manual of Style. Grammar has changed over the years. Here, I'll use compound words as such an example of change. I've included some website URLs which may be helpful in your own writing projects.

Twenty-five years ago, the following words were written thusly; but how are they properly written today?

  • droop-shouldered
  • well-developed
  • sure-footed
  • worn-out
  • tight-lipped
  • platinum-blond
  • eleven-year-old girl
  • twenty-five
  • ill-considered
Further research on my part for compound words comes up with this:
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/cmosfaq.html 
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ 
http://www.lib.ohio-state.edu/guides/chicagogd.html 

The Webster's dictionary web page makes this notation about The Chicago Manual of Style. The Chicago Manual of Style contains an extensive section devoted to compounded modifiers and nouns. That book's table of compounds categorizes compounds into various types, and helps us discover principles of spelling (and some really strange exceptions). Styles of compounding words change over the years, however, and writers might even find different versions in different dictionaries. The Chicago Manual is especially helpful because it tries to define the principles by which such decisions are made.

Compound words
According to the Webster's page, there are three forms of compound words:
1. The closed form, in which the words are melded together, such as firefly, secondhand, softball, childlike, crosstown, redhead, keyboard, makeup, notebook;
2. The hyphenated form, such as daughter-in-law, master-at-arms, over-the-counter, six-pack, six-year-old, mass-produced; and
3. The open form, such as post office, real estate, middle class, full moon, half sister, attorney general.

Writer's Resource Center:
http://www.poewar.com/articles/compound_words.htm may be worth checking. There is an extensive article on Compound Words: "Compound Words: A Proofreading Pitfall," by Janis Butler Holm
When Are Compound Words Spelled with Hyphens?
How Do You Know When to Use One?

How do you approach editing with your writers?
I read the piece once without informing the author of anything. I check for continuity, flow, clarity of thought, vague or odd unconnected ideas. Then I start a second reading by making suggestions in highlight and color. What you, the author, decides to do with my comments is strictly up to you. Spelling and grammatical errors I'll repair without consultation.

The editor should not change the author's vision drastically, and NEVER make such changes as if the editor wrote the piece. The author has a story to tell. It is up to the editor to make that story as clear as possible WITHOUT changing the essentials of the work.

Here's an example of how I would present my editing ideas. This is from one of Elizabeth Caldwell's short stories The Tandem Rig which was used in completed form on the "Read A Good Story, Do A Good Deed" site on Simegen.com where authors donate short stories, and artists donate artwork, to raise funds for charitable causes.

Lola Montez crouched behind a boulder just inside the entrance of Northern Mine, one fist rammed into her mouth stifling her screams, the other clutched a small bag of gold she'd taken from the mine.

Out in the hot California sun, ten filthy men in ragged mix-matched bits of Cavalry uniforms circled a man tied to a tree. His back covered in bloody welts where the horsewhip had sliced to the bone. He'd passed out half way through the whipping.

Over the man's head dangled the feet of his brother, swinging by a rope around his neck — very, very dead. How do you know it is the brother? Has she observed them for days, or is there a family resemblance? A few feet in front of the bleeding man lay his mistress. Again, how do you know that? Lola had watched as the men gang raped her — right in front of her lover and his brother. Same thing. How does Lola know these relationships? Their screams had drowned the woman's, but now there was only the sound of the marauders looting the nearby cabin and barn. Lola could hear the woman whimpering softly.



 

 

 

HOMEWORK: Keep a list of names, skills and e-mail/snail addresses of people you know who are expert in different fields. An invaluable resource for author or editor. Get involved in volunteer work that requires publishing flyers, tracts, articles, even a newsletter -- Volunteer to edit a newsletter for your favorite writer(s). (There are such newsletter lists on Simegen.com)  

Read the other lessons by Karen MacLeod.  

 

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