Break It Up

I read a book last week that had a very complex but interesting plot, as well as characters that seemed well-rounded. It was a thriller and it kept me reading throughout, even though it was 400 or so pages. When I put it down, I thought that I might like to read more by the author, except for one thing: I don't want to wade through conversations that are very hard to follow anymore.

It's a shame, but we all have to decide where to concentrate our reading, since there are SO MANY books out there. Maybe I'm being unfair to this writer, but it's also not fair to read a book while thinking how frustrated I am with the writing. So I'll spare the writer further denigration. (Obviously, I'm not going to name the writer here.)

I've already written a blog about how to use "he/she said" and here it is: He/She Said

Now I'm going to expand on the fourth method: not using "said" at all.

This is my own example that I just made up, but it gives an idea of what I was seeing:

     "You can't do that." She took a step back and frowned.

Who do you think made that statement? "She," right? Wrong! In several cases, the writer would have a statement like that and follow it immediately with the listener's reaction in the same paragraph.

Please don't do this to your readers! I was forced several times to go back to where "Jack said" told me who was speaking. Then I had to count lines down to this statement to find that Jack said it and his girlfriend was reacting to Jack saying it. Very confusing!

The solution is so simple:                                 Or even better:
     "You can't do that."                                         "You can't do that," Jack said.
     She took a step back and frowned.                 She took a step back and frowned.

Whenever you have two people speaking and reacting to the other's statements, please make it clear who is speaking and who is reacting. You don't have to use "Jack said" on every other line, but don't mix characters. If the statement is made by one person and then another person speaks or reacts, put that in a separate paragraph.

Give it a try. Your readers will thank you.

Getting Closer

I got the proof copy of The Other Side two days early ... and I was afraid to open the package! I know it's silly, but so much has happened to delay this novel that I didn't think I could stand to see another cover that's too dark. It was Schrodinger's cat! As long as I didn't open the package, the proof copy could be good to go, or not.

I finally opened it. The verdict: the cover is still dark, but not as dark as the first one. My husband thinks it's okay. I'm not sure. The silhouette is now visible, but it's not obvious. The image also seems bluer than the original. I emailed the artist and asked if she wants to look at it before I release the novel. If she does, I'll see what she thinks. If she doesn't (she's quite busy these days), I think I'm going to go with this version.

That leaves a final run-through of proofreading, which I will try to begin in the next day or so. (I confess that I've been a little busy birding: the warblers are coming through SE Kansas so I've been trying to see as many of them as possible. I've also been watching the NHL playoffs. Tomorrow night the Cubs are on ESPN, so forget about me getting anything else done that evening!)

Thanks so much for your patience. We're a lot closer than we were last week!

And Happy May!

Try Again

Things are moving on The Other Side again. As you know, there was a delay because there was a problem with the cover image being too dark, but once again the artist has come through for me and provided me with a revised image. We really hope this one will work!

I made a few tweaks to the story and resubmitted the cover image. After about twelve or so hours, CreateSpace gave me the go-ahead on the files, so I ordered another proof copy today. The ETA is May 2, but I'm hopeful it might arrive a little before that. Then ... cross your fingers that the cover will be okay!

I find it a little hard to believe that it's almost May and my novel isn't out yet. I never would have imagined that it would be delayed this long, but that's how things go. At least you know I'm trying very hard to get it right!

Once I get the proof copy, I'll have to read it one more time, just in case there's one last thing I missed. If nothing horrible jumps out at me and the cover is okay, this novel might finally see the light of day!

Thanks for your patience. While you're waiting, please spread the word about the series and consider writing a review on Amazon for one of the novels. I'd really appreciate it!

Small Setback

I have a proof copy of The Other Side in my hands! (Well, not while I'm typing, but you get the idea.)

It came two days early, so I thank CreateSpace for that. Also, I see exactly why it's important to order a proof copy because there's a small problem with the cover: the image is darker than expected so a silhouette in the image hardly shows at all. Thank goodness I had a chance to see this before the book officially comes out!

I've already notified the artist and she's working on it, so I'm sure we can get this fixed. She's done a great job so far and has always been very patient and willing to make adjustments. (I'll tell you more about her when the novel actually comes out.) Meanwhile, I'm proofreading the text to check for any typos or stray things that need to be fixed.

I have given you some teasers for this novel, but I thought I'd give you a first look at the cover blurb:
       Reggie Hawkins has been in some bad situations ... and being confined to his
     house for weeks has to be in the top five. No appliance is safe when a mechanic
     gets bored.
       Things are about to change, though: a messenger with a warning is on the way
     and gunmen are storming his brother's law firm. Hawkins will have to act quickly
     to rescue his kidnapped brother.
       What he learns about who's behind all this will lead him and the crew of
     Penumbra on a quest to the far reaches of space, where they'll make their
     most stunning discovery yet.

I hope that will pique your interest! It's never too early to start spreading the word about the new novel coming out soon, so we can build interest for it. I'll be sure to keep you updated on its progress.

Escape

I had an interesting vision the other day while I was sitting at work, wishing I could be at home working on The Other Side. I pictured my purple three-ring binder, which holds that tale, on the table next to the computer. Then, unexpectedly, I saw the binder flip open and my characters start to climb out.

It was kind of fun, a bit of whimsy to break up the workday. It also reminded me of two important facts:

1. My characters do not only live in that binder. They live in my head, in the novels published so far, in novels yet to come and in the heads of my readers. (It means a lot to me that they live in someone else's head now, too.) I need to keep in mind that they're "real" characters and they need to be portrayed as such, not as cardboard cutouts. I need to stay true to each of them.

2. What is in that binder is a story, not just a lot of words that I have to shepherd into place. I might write the greatest scene ever, but if it doesn't belong in the story, out it goes. Once I've made sure I have everything worded the way I want, I need to double-check to make sure I still have a story that's fun to read and worth the time.

All of that from one little fantasy! That's one of the fun things about being a writer: you can have crazy little random thoughts ... and then you get to interpret them so you can make something out of them.

Remember Your Readers

I was browsing on Facebook today when I ran across a site that had posted a list of 10 rules for writers. It mentioned reading, outlining and not waiting for inspiration, among other things. As you can imagine, it inspired a lot of comments from writers who agreed or disagreed with one or more of the rules. Most of the comments were very thought-provoking and insightful.

One of them, however, made me roll my eyes and shake my head. The person stated that creativity is more important than grammar or spelling. As if to prove the point, the person used "your" instead of "you're" and randomly inserted commas in inappropriate places in the sentences.

Sigh.

I'll be the first to admit that I throw words at paper without worrying whether they're what I want, spelled correctly or even coherent, but that's why it's called a rough draft. After that, it's my job to make sense out of it ... so my readers can make sense of it.

I'm a writer because I love to write, but I never forget that I intend for someone else to read what I write, so I need to keep that person in mind as I polish the rough draft. I can't expect someone to read gibberish.

All writers should remember this:
If you don't care about your readers, they'll know it.
If you don't care about your readers, why should they care about you or your writing?

Write for yourself, but edit for your readers.

Proofing is Done

Believe it or not, I finally finished proofreading In the Shadows. Of course, I could have continued to go over it forever, but I decided it's time to stop that and let go. Unfortunately, I still have to put it through CreateSpace's review process, so it won't be released in January after all.

But I was close!

This novel proved to be a bit of a challenge in more ways than one, but it taught me a few things. One of them is this: don't put it off until near the end of the year! If I'd worked on the novel more during 2014, I wouldn't have found myself releasing it in February instead of January. Lesson learned and let's hope the fourth one will be ready a little sooner.

No time to worry about the fourth one, however. I'm going to submit In the Shadows to CreateSpace. If all goes well, I might be able to approve it tomorrow and then it should be up on amazon.com by Monday or Tuesday!

If you follow me on Facebook, I'll post there when the book is available. Otherwise, you can either check amazon or tune in to this blog next weekend.

Thanks for your patience and support!

Description of In the Shadows

I got the second proof copy for In the Shadows five days early! That means I have something to do all weekend, which is too bad because the weather here in southeast Kansas is beautiful. I did take a break long enough to go for a walk so I won't permanently become part of my reading chair.

While I was waiting for the latest proof copy, something suddenly occurred to me: I haven't yet released even the slightest description of In the Shadows! I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier, but at least I thought of it before I actually publish the novel.

So here is the cover blurb (fanfare optional):
Assassins are after Captain Ben Lamont and his co-pilot, someone has set an ambush for the crew of Penumbra, and there's a mysterious new wormhole at the edge of explored space.
Lamont has a lot to deal with, but he's determined to find out if they're connected and who's behind them. He'll stop at nothing ... until one of his crew members must make a terrible choice to expose the truth.
Then Lamont must decide: how far will he go for the answers?

I hope that piques your interest. There will be some new characters and you'll learn more about some of the regulars. As usual, I tried to throw a little action in there, too.

Stay tuned! (And please help me spread the word as we get closer to the release.)

Getting Closer

This is going to sound familiar: the proof copy of In the Shadows is on its way to me!

Let me explain. Yes, I did already receive a proof copy, as I reported earlier, but it wasn't long before I realized I didn't have a finished product in my hands. As I told you last week, the cover seemed to have problems, which I hope we've resolved, although I'm not sure. Also, there were a lot of changes to make to the interior.

Changes to the interior? Wasn't that done? I thought so, but I was wrong. I discovered I had two chapters that were simply too long, so I broke those up. I also realized I'd made a big error in one scene, so I rewrote that. I made a few other changes, too.

Since I made so many changes, I didn't feel right approving the novel until I can get another look at it, so that's why I've decided to order another proof copy. This will be the first time I've ever done that for a novel.

So I'm afraid we're back to waiting. The ETA for the proof copy is January 27, so that will give me a few days to check it closely and still release the novel by the end of January. We'll see if it's possible. I hope so!

Thank you for your patience.

Slight Delays

Now that I have the proof copy of In the Shadows, I thought I'd just sail through the rest of the process ... but I wasn't quite right about that.

My biggest problem is that I happen to have a job where I basically proofread all day. During the week, I get home from work to discover that more proofreading just doesn't sound fun, so that mostly leaves the weekend. By then, though, my eyes are tired and need a break. Because of this, I'm moving a little more slowly than I thought I would.

Another issue involves the cover. When I took the proof copy to the artist, the first thing she noticed was that part of the right side of the image was cut off. When I picked up a ruler, I discovered that the width that CreateSpace lists on their site for my cover design is actually about .25" more than what the proof copy width is, so that's a problem. The artist and I are working on that and hope to get it resolved soon. (Actually, she's doing more of the work on that right now.)

So things aren't moving quickly. I promise I'll keep working on the proofing, but I already see that one scene needs a rewrite, which will take a little time.

I'm still aiming to get this novel released in January, but it's starting to look like it will be late January.

Stay tuned for updates.

It's Here

Happy New Year! 2015 has arrived and we are now responsible for making it the best we can.

The proof copy of In the Shadows has also arrived! I almost missed it because we'd already brought in the mail when the carrier apparently made an extra trip to deliver it. My husband happened to be going next door and stumbled on the package tucked in our box. Thank goodness!

The first thing I noticed is that it seems small! When I hold it up to Outsider or Another Shot, it's a little smaller because it's a little shorter. This one is 291 pages (Outsider is 359). I guess you don't have to worry about me getting too wordy this time around.

Since I got it late in the afternoon and I'm working on the fourth novel today, I had to make myself put down the proof copy so I can look at it tomorrow. Once I start, I'll probably be studying it non-stop, so I need some unbroken time. I keep looking over my shoulder at it, though.

Meanwhile, work on the fourth novel continues. I think I have a title, but I need a little time to mull it over and decide whether it will work. The novel has chapters, though! That's never easy because some chapter breaks are obvious but others are hard to shoehorn in there. There were times I thought I'd have a 20-page chapter because I couldn't decide where to break the action. Let's hope it will work the way I have it.

Don't worry, though: I will start checking the proof copy of In the Shadows tomorrow. I want to get that part done so I can keep my promise of publishing it this month. It shouldn't be a problem, but I'll feel better when it's done. Then will come the scary part: seeing if anyone will 1) buy it, 2) read it, and 3) like it. That part is out of my hands (which is probably why it's scary).

Stay tuned!

Another In The Shadows Update

Good news! I finally finished the blurb for In the Shadows, which means I was able to submit the whole book to CreateSpace.com for review. After waiting 24 hours, I got the word: it's good to go!

I've now ordered a proof copy that's supposed to arrive around January 5. (It's hard to wait!) Then I'll finally be able to hold my latest novel in my hands. What a feeling that is. (And it lasts until I start proofreading and find the inevitable mistake. Oh, well, that's part of the process.) I'll let you know how it goes.

Meanwhile, believe it or not, I've starting working on the next one! (It already has a rough draft.) This one will need A LOT of work: it doesn't have a title and it isn't even broken into chapters yet! (I think I have a good title in mind, though. I'll give it some thought and let you know once I'm sure.)

Remember to tell all of your friends and family members about the first two novels. They'd better hurry and read them before the third one is out, right?

I hope you had a peaceful holiday and will have a wonderful New Year. Look for the beauty that's around you, sometimes where you least expect it.


From Photography Workshop, November 2014

Thanks, as always, for your support.

In the Shadows Update

I've made more progress since last week, so here's the latest update.

On Monday, I got the final image from the artist for the cover. It's now on my hard drive, ready to be submitted.

On Wednesday, I registered In the Shadows with CreateSpace.com and received an ISBN for it. (That's always one of my favorite steps.) I then typed the ISBN on the copyright page.

On Thursday, I submitted the interior and it was accepted. Whew! I paged through their Interior Reviewer, which shows me what the interior will look like once it's printed, and it all looked pretty good. I also got some Likes for my posting about it on my Facebook page, which I really appreciated. Thanks for your support, everyone!

Now I'm frantically trying to write the cover blurb. I've told you a little about this in the past: I need two blurbs, one for the cover and one for the Amazon page. I think I've got the one for Amazon done, but the cover blurb is proving to be pesky. I'm getting some editorial help from my husband, who keeps telling me to "punch it up," so I'll work on it some more and try to get that finished today or tomorrow. Once that's done, I can start working on the cover at CreateSpace.com.

The book is starting to come together! Don't forget, though, that I'll have to order a proof copy and proofread the whole thing again, so we're still looking at January for a release date. I feel I'm getting closer, though!

Thanks again for your support.

Interior Finished

That's right: the interior of In The Shadows is finished!

You may be wondering, "Diane, what does that mean: interior?" The best way for me to explain is to ask you to grab the nearest book. (If you don't have any books nearby, shame on you! Ha, ha.)

Okay, once you've got a book, flip through it and notice everything that isn't a cover. See all those pages at the beginning that tell you copyright information, legal mumbo-jumbo, possibly other works by the author, etc.? See the pages in the middle that contain the story? See the pages at the end that might have information about the author and other material? All of that is the interior of the book.

And my interior is done! Woo-hoo! I went through the whole thing and cleaned it up before I added the front and back pages. I crossed my fingers when I added those because I was afraid it would mess up the page numbers, but it didn't! Big relief there.

I'm hoping to finalize things with the artist this week. Then, with luck, I'll be ready to get an ISBN by next weekend!

We're on the way! Stay tuned!

Continuing to Format

I finally feel I'm making some progress on In The Shadows!

The artist and I have been meeting and emailing, and we're getting close to the finished product for the cover image. I think the black and white version is done, so now she'll add color to it and we'll see how that turns out.

Meanwhile, I've started to format the novel in earnest. I typed In The Shadows before I had the template that I used before, so there's a lot of work to be done. I already worked on the headers (which I talked about in a previous post), so now it's on to the rest.

First I worked on the margins. I use custom margins, which are set up in Page Layout in Word. Once I set it for mirror margins, I could set the margins for the top, bottom, inside and outside, using the guidelines from CreateSpace.com.

After that I justified everything except the chapter headings, so the text goes all the way to the edge both inside and outside. It looks a lot cleaner that way. I had to watch out for the last line of each paragraph, though: if I forgot to press Enter at the end of the line, it was all spread out and looked very odd!

Next I set the trim size, which is 5"x8". This is also set in Page Layout and is applied to the whole document.

I had to wait until after I set the trim size to set the Drop Caps. I learned the hard way that these might look great in one size, but then look absolutely wrong in another size, so I don't set them until late in the process. If you don't know what Drop Caps are, that's okay (I didn't at first either). If you look at the first line of each chapter in either of my novels, you'll see that the first letter is much larger than the others and extends down to the next line. I set this to "drop" down two lines rather than three, because I think it looks better that way. I have to manually set this for every chapter.

Now the slow part: I need to scroll through the entire thing, looking out for bad page breaks, bad scene breaks, bad line breaks, etc. This takes quite a bit of time, but I don't mind. It's kind of an excuse to run through the story again, although I'm not rereading the whole thing. It gives me little reminders of scenes that I particularly like.

And that's where we are for now. I need to keep checking the format and the artist needs to apply color to the cover. After that, I'll be ready to try submitting the whole thing to CreateSpace.com. I'll let you know more about that when the time comes.

Onward!

Artwork Update

I was finally able to meet with the artist this past week about the cover of the third novel. For various reasons, this was the first time we'd seen each other for a while. She had an image of the artwork she's creating and we talked about that for a while. I was kind of relieved to see it because somehow the physical drawing reminds me that I'm working on something tangible, not just a jumble of words that happen to reside in my three-ring binder and my head. The artwork isn't finished yet and we talked about a few tweaks, but at least progress is being made.

I've been working hard on the novel itself. I can't keep putting it off or telling myself I can read it "one more time." If I keep doing that, it will be 2016 before I think it's ready! If there's one thing I need to remember, it's that I can't keep tinkering forever if I want anyone else to read it.

And I want someone else to read it! I like knowing that my characters are in someone else's imagination, even if only for a while. It's like giving them life. I feel I have a responsibility to introduce them to as many people as I can. It's the least I can do to repay them for the years of entertainment they've given me.

For those of you who enjoy a pun, compliments of my husband:
We were driving near a local shopping area last evening when a male deer ran across the street in front of our car. I asked if the deer had been shopping at Wal-Mart and he replied, "No, it was shopping at Dollar General because you can get everything for a buck there."
(rimshot)

Thanks for reading!

Rewriting

If anyone ever tells you that writing is easy, you can answer, "Maybe, but what about rewriting?"

There might be writers out there who can bang out a bunch of words that are perfect as written, but I suspect there aren't very many of them. Most of us let our creativity go nuts and throw every word that comes to us at the page. Only later, when we regain our senses, do we bend to the difficult task of making those words actually work together to form something coherent. Writing is fast and frenzied, rewriting is slow and boring, but both are equally necessary.

I keep thinking I've got In The Shadows exactly where I want it, and then I find something else wrong ... and it's happened again. I thought I was making a final run-through when something reached up and slapped me in the face. It's a pretty big error, one that I can't ignore, and now I get to rewrite that part so that it works and yet still fits in with the story.

It happens, so I'm not upset. This is part of the process. It can be frustrating, though, especially when I think I'm a little farther along than I really am. But it's worth the effort to get it right, so I'll fix this and then go back to looking for other errors. I hope I won't find any, but I'll be prepared if I do.

Thanks for your support and patience!

To Print or Not to Print

I had a temporary setback in working on the third novel: our printer suddenly decided it didn't want to print anymore. We tried to get it repaired, but the manufacturer wouldn't sell our repair guys a part so they couldn't do anything. I then promised that I would never buy another printer from that particular company.

The reason this was a problem was that when I rewrite, I usually write notations in the margins of the paper copy that give me some idea of the changes I made to the digital copy, but there usually isn't enough room to show everything I rewrote. It usually looks like "really? NO" or "NOPE! this doesn't work" or "rewrite." As a result, when I'm looking through the paper copy again later, I have no idea what I did with that section. Normally I just print out a copy of the revision and I'm all set for proofreading ... but when I can't print it out and my memory doesn't retain every word I wrote, it makes for less-than-effective proofreading. (I'm terrible at proofreading on a monitor.)

So we got a new printer. I was amazed to realize that we got a printer/copier/scanner for less than a third of what we paid for a black & white printer about twenty-five years ago.

This is the first time we've owned a printer that is entirely wireless. The last one allowed us to connect wirelessly to some of our gadgets, but this one didn't even come with a USB cord. That means it took us a little longer to get it going, but it's nice to have one less cable on the desk.

So I'm using a very modern piece of equipment (the wireless printer) to let myself proofread the old-fashioned way (on paper). I never said my methods make sense!

Thanks for reading my blog. If you're on Facebook, don't forget to check out my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/DianeMcCallumAuthor . Thanks again!

Adjustments

As it turns out, my last blog post showed a little foresight: the artist asked me this week if she could make an adjustment to the image I requested. At first I was resistant, but then I remembered writing that I would be flexible and decided I'd better live up to those words, so I asked her to show me an example. She had a few photos she'd taken to give me an idea of what she was describing. As she explained her thinking behind the slight change, I began to see what she meant. Gradually, I realized that she might be onto something. We agreed that she would tone it down a little but try for that effect ... so I was able to be flexible after all.

The two of us also signed a contract, so it's official now. I think that's a relief for both of us because she can concentrate on the image she's creating and I can concentrate on the novel without worrying about the image. That part's in her hands now.

The words are still my responsibility, though, so I need to keep working on those. I've made a lot of adjustments and changes, but I'm not convinced it's quite ready yet so I'll keep working on it until I'm happy with it.

Stay tuned!

And happy Labor Day!

How Many?

I got a reminder this past week of how important it is to proofread a novel several times. I can read over the same thing three, four or five times before I catch an error. As it turns out, I can fix the error and still have a problem ...

I was reading over an action scene in the third novel. It's one of those scenes with a bunch of characters all moving at the same time, so I knew I had to keep careful track of who was doing what. I'd already mapped out the scene once before, but I apparently made some changes after that because when I read it this time, I realized something was wrong: I had someone appear out of thin air!

That's right. The scene takes place in a closed room and when I walked through the actions of the characters, I got one person too many. It was frustrating because I couldn't make it work the way it was written.

Time to rewrite.

I finally got out some colored paperclips and arranged them on a chair to visualize which character was where as I worked through the action. I think it works now, but I might put it aside and reread it in a few days to see if that's true.

And that's one of the reasons why I don't release a novel every few months! I can only imagine the stupid mistakes I'd find if I rushed through the process.

Speaking of stupid mistakes: the next time you have a few minutes, check out "Weird Al" Yankovic's video "Word Crimes." Even if you don't recognize the song it's based on (I didn't), it's a lot of fun. Grammar counts!  Here's a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv0H-vPoDc