Something next to normal, that's the thing I'd like to try

Any of my peeps who have done freelance editing work (or writers who have used one) want to give advice? A colleague of mine, whose writing I have edited as part of my real job, has asked me to work on a side project editing a book he's working on (non-fiction, spiritual/religious - he's also a minister), like, for real money and everything. Which I have never done before!

I've looked at EFA's website for rates and such, but if anyone has tips on things to consider in freelancer/client relationships, please let me know! He's worked with an editor before, someone he found off a job board, but felt like she was putting too much of her own voice and writing style into it. My previous work with him has mainly been short (1-4 pages) reports, so I think I'd probably suggest doing one chapter or part of a chapter to see how it goes before committing to a whole book. I don't know exactly how much he has finished, enough to start sending me chapters, but I also would need an estimate of how much longer he expects to be working on it, and how many chapters it would be, right? So I'm not committing to a George R.R. Martin-length saga that will take 10 years to finish a single installment.

1. Spending a year on "Ringer" - So, SMG's latest TV outing was... not the best. OTT, completely nonsensical, soapy, guilty pleasure, perhaps. But if you're curious what was going on in the writers' room, here's one account. Unfortunately, it does not explain what on earth they were thinking with some of those "plot twists."

2. The "Raiders" Story Conference - A 125-page transcript of the original brainstorming session for Raiders of the Lost Ark with George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Lawrence Kasdan is available for download. If you're an Indy fan (I, coincidentally, just rewatched Last Crusade this weekend) or if you want to see how the masters develop a story idea into a movie, check it out. And if reading a 125-page transcript seems daunting to you, you can just check out the linked post, which gives the highlights.

3. "Friends" Oral History - If you missed the print article in last month's Vanity Fair, it's now available online. (Er, I have also been watching a lot of Friends reruns on Nick at Nite.)

Paper is DONE. Semester is OVER. Time to finish my Christmas shopping wrap presents bake cookies PARTAY!

( Class, Chelsea, and cooking under the cut! )

For those of you who are writers, you may be interested in this fun link I found (via jongibbs): The Wasteline Test. It's a promotional thing for a book called The Writer's Diet, which I have not read, so I can't endorse it, but the test is pretty clever. It analyzes how lean your writing is by identifying problematic parts of speech and tells you if you're overdoing it in any areas, like too many adjectives or adverbs, "be" verbs, etc. You'll get an assessment in each word category and an overall assessment telling you whether or not you need to trim the fat from your writing.

I tried several different samples of my writing, and they all came out either lean or fit & trim, so clearly this test is brilliant. :) It kind of makes me want to test published authors and see how their stuff comes out.

Just a few blog posts I spotted this week that I thought were interesting and/or helpful.

Finding Tips on Self-Editing at The Blood-Red Pencil: This is a round-up of many posts from the blog with lots of good editing advice, some of which you've probably heard before (adjective/adverb use, dialogue tags, habit words). I particularly liked the one on identifying a dragging narrative. (via start_writing)

Finding Your Voice: Also from Blood-Red Pencil, I thought this was appropriate since angearia was talking about voice not too long ago. There always seems to be confusion about what "voice" actually means whenever the subject gets brought up, and this is one of the best definitions I've seen. (via jongibbs)

Presentation and readability for LJ and beyond: This is a handy reference guide for basic html and CSS coding for those of you who can never remember how to do that stuff. (via fanficrants, of all places)

Also, just a reminder that John Rogers is talking about Leverage episodes as they air again this season (he's one of the creators/writers of the show).

This is an excellent article on Writer's Voice, which serves as a timely follow up to Emmie's recent post on the subject.

What do we mean when we talk about "voice"?


The article also talks about the essential elements that make a voice effective and how to cultivate your own.

I was thinking some more about my post from the other day. Specifically, Hanson's point that you can't make a lot of money by writing television that aspires to be art, and how that creates a divide among writers - those who write for the mass audience and want to draw in as many viewers as they can, and those who write shows that will never appeal to more than a niche audience, but the result is a better quality TV show. And it reminded me of a song that I tend to think of as the unofficial Joss Whedon anthem, "Nine People's Favorite Thing," from the musical [title of show]:

5 Steps to Surviving an Edit is great blog post I saw linked at start_writing. It's directed toward professional authors who submit their manuscript to a freelance editor, but I think it works just as well if you go through the whole thing, change the word "editor" to "beta," and apply it to fanfic (except for the part where betas don't get paid, of course!).

Just to pull out some quotes I think are valuable:

But deep down inside... you are also kind of hoping that editor will deem your work “brilliant as is” and return it with only a few typos changed.

I think this is what a lot of authors expect when they send their work off to a beta - especially new authors - and it's a huge blow to them to see it come back covered in corrections and comments. But that's not what the editing process is all about. It's not about confirming your brilliance; it's about making your story the best that it can be.

Marks on the page ≠ “I am a bad writer.”
Marks on the page = your editor is doing what you paid her to do.

Dude. Words to live by. For both the author and the beta. Authors, obviously, don't be upset by lots of marks on the page. It's not a personal indictment of you as a writer. It just means there's room for improvement - and improvement is GOOD! Don't we all want our fics to be the best they possibly can be?

But betas, too, don't hesitate to mark things up! I've had betas who were actually afraid to make edits to my chapters, because they didn't want to overstep their boundaries or presume they knew better than me or some nonsense like that. Look, if you're not going to make the damn thing better, why are you betaing for me at all? I know not every author thinks that way, but if you're holding back on your corrections because you're worried the author won't take it well, then you need to find a less sensitive author (or direct her to this post, because she doesn't understand the purpose of a beta).

Rather than brace yourself against your editor's comments, open yourself to their possibilities. Allow a week or two to digest them so whatever truth is there can sink in.

I know that a lot of times, when you get criticism, your first instinct is to say, "But! But! You're missing the point! You're reading it wrong!" Especially when it's something that you think is really necessary or important, and your beta completely disagrees. I know that my tendency is often to explain why I did what I did. Which can be helpful - if your beta knows what you were trying to do, then perhaps she can help you rewrite it in a way that more accurately conveys what you meant to say (but clearly didn't, or she would've gotten it the first time, without the explanation). But resist the urge to get defensive - always keep it open-minded ("This is what I was trying to say. Does it work if I clarify it by changing X?") rather than simply trying to argue your side.

“If I were an agent I would have stopped reading here” is not an easy thing for you to read or your editor to write—but its very honesty is a gift.

Honestly, does anyone want to post something that no one will want to read? Probably not. You want to post the best story you can, you want people to read it, and (let's face it) you want people to like it. Who doesn't like getting good reviews on their fic? Your beta is like the canary in the mine, an early warning for when something goes wrong, so you can fix it before it's too late. If she reads your story and goes, "Meh," then chances are, a lot of your readers are gonna have the same reaction. If she thinks your dialogue is OOC, chances are, your readers will, too. If she can't follow your incomprehensible plot, chances are, your readers can't, either. See where I'm going with this?

When I was starting out in Buffy fandom, this was the most important thing to me. Even before I discovered the wonders of editing and collaboration and improvement, I knew I needed a beta, because I needed that test opinion. I wanted at least one stamp of approval other than my own before sending my fic out into the great big world. (That's not a rubber stamp, mind you - a beta who does nothing but tell you you're wonderful is utterly, utterly useless.)

Anyway, I recommend checking out the original post. And while you're over there, take a look at Things That Drive an Editor Crazy. All things that have been covered numerous times, but definitely bear repeating.

As an illustration of why you shouldn't ask professional writers to read your stuff, this is really only halfway relevant to fanfic, but there are just so many bits that I want to quote and say "Word!" Plus, it's just an interesting post: "I Will Not Read Your F**king Script." Relevant excerpts under the cut.

( Read more... )

Good post from Neil Gaiman for when you get those reviewers who leave comments demanding the next chapter of your fic, or who email/comment on unrelated posts to ask when you'll be posting an update. (Because nothing gets the muse going like someone tugging at your metaphorical sleeve asking, "Is it done yet? How about now? Well, what about now?")
Even more so since, with fanfic, you don't even pay to read it.