Research Makes a Story Richer

Ah, research. I know it doesn’t necessarily sound fun (unless you’re one of those people, like me, who goes, “Oh, I don’t really know anything about evil spirits. Time to go to the library! Glee!”) but a little realism can go a long way.

Even if it’s something as simple as looking at a map to see where things are in relation to each other, research can be the difference between taking your reader on a fantastic read and distracting them to the point where they’re pulled out of the story.

To continue on with the post from a few weeks ago, I have a book I’m editing that partially takes place in Greece. I wrote that section based off random tidbits I’ve picked up from pop culture over the years. However, one of my beta readers had been to Greece, and the whole section distracted her because she could tell how wrong I was.

But it’s not just places that can benefit from research. Mythology, science, history, societal customs, languages–all of these can bring richness and fullness to your story. It’s one thing to have a Hispanic character, but another to look into common customs in Hispanic households. Looking into mythology can teach you little known facts about legends that provide the direction you need to bring your story together. And it’s one thing to write about a Victorian-esque society, but actually knowing something about the Victorians will help you sell it.

So, how do you go about researching? Well, I recommend choosing the media that appeals to you the most. I always hit the books first because that’s my preference. (Assuming the library has books on the particular subject.) Then I head to the internet. I try to stick to somewhat legitimate sources, such as Wikipedia. But if you find it hard to pick up facts from the written word, you can listen to podcasts or watch movies.

Take notes as you go, or you’ll never remember everything you want to.

Any researching tips you’d like to pass on, Squiders? Any books you’ve read recently where someone obviously didn’t bother?

How to Finish a Novel

As you may or may not know, March is traditionally National Novel Editing Month (NaNoEdMo). If you participate officially, you need 50 hours of editing throughout the month to win. I find it’s easier for me to participate unofficially (and it just so happens that this year it actually lines up that I am editing in March, huzzah).

But no matter what, in order to edit a novel, you have to have finished a novel.

Do not edit if you do not have a complete draft! Hey you! Yes, you. Put down the red pen. I’m watching you.

If you edit in the middle of a draft, you tend to fix superficial things, like grammar, dialogue, typos, maybe the flow and direction of individual scenes. But you can’t edit for big picture problems successfully without the complete picture. So finish the draft first.

I know it’s hard. I know you get bogged down in places that feel like crap. I know that sometimes you get halfway through and realize you could have done something differently or better. Stop. Write down your thoughts. Then keep going.

All a first draft has to do is exist. It does not need to be perfect. It does not need to be polished. It just needs to be complete.

If you find you can’t finish a draft because you keep going back and tweaking things, repeat after me. I can only move forward. That means you do not go back. You do not re-read earlier parts of the story (unless you are like me and can’t remember what was happening). You most certainly do not change things. If you write a scene and you immediately realize it will not work, you may cross it out and write something different. But otherwise you LEAVE IT ALONE.

It’s hard, I know. But when you do have a complete draft, you can go back and read back over it, and you will find that some of that stuff that felt like junk coming out is actually great. You may find that you need less tweaking than you thought, that that weird throwaway in Chapter 2 actually strengthens the plot in a way you didn’t realize, in a way that never would have happened if you hadn’t left it alone.

And then you can change what needs to be changed, knowing the entire plot, the themes, the overall arcing premises of the novel. If you know where your characters end up, it’s easier to know where to start them.

Any other tips you’d add in, Squiders?

Take Charge of Your Writing

You know why most of us write, right? (ahahaha) Because we have a story we want to tell. We may or may not care if anyone else reads it, but we want to see what happens, how the characters change, and we want to experience new things.

So we write the story, and then we may or may not enter the editing phase. And here’s where things get a bit weird. Some people, when they get to this stage just…give up. They figure they did their best the first time around, and now they need someone more experienced to help them.

This isn’t necessarily bad. Getting feedback is a good thing. It helps you tighten the story, fix plot holes, expand character arcs, up the stakes, and, on a more nitpicky note, points out everywhere you need commas where they have mysteriously wandered off. Feedback is good.

What is bad is what I occasionally see in my editing career. I will occasionally get authors that give me their novel and say, “Kit, you are better at this than I am, so I want you to rewrite my story for me.”

No. This is bad. If you want to be an author, if you want a career writing books, then you need to learn. And the best way to learn is by figuring out where you went wrong. If I am better than you at it, it’s because I have a ridiculous amount of practice.

But I also have my own way that I like to write stories, my own voice, and the last thing I want to do is write your story for you. I have my own stories. I will help you whatever way you want to help you get your story done, but it is your story. (And, and I mean this in the nicest way possible, the random editor you hire? Probably doesn’t particularly care about your story. I work in my non-favorite genres all the time for clients. They’re not going to do your story justice because it doesn’t mean the same thing to them as it does to you.)

There is no easy way to do this. You’re only cheating yourself if you give your story away. You may get an end product you’re happy with, something that may or may not be better than what you could have done on your own, but you’re cheating yourself, denying yourself the opportunity to grow. And there is the very real possibility that you will get your story back and find that you hate it, that the editor has managed to kill everything that made your story special to you, or you hate their writing style, or whatever.

It’s your story. See it through to the end.

Grammar Week Redux: Me vs. I in Lists

We’re not going to go a full grammar week this week, but I’ve had a couple of people ask me questions and I thought I would answer them periodically.

We’ve all seen it (or had it done to us) a million times:

“Me and Stacy are going to the movies.”
“You mean ‘Stacy and I.’”

In fact, so many of us have the “and I” beaten into us so hard that we do it all the time. But, my friends, it turns out that there are times when you are supposed to use me, not I.

You use “I” when the list is the subject of the sentence. “Lisa, Jane, and I have decided to move in together.” You use “me” when the list is the object of the sentence. “Dave was so mean to Robert, Jordan, and me.”

Have I lost you? Don’t be lost. There’s an easy way to remember which to us.

If you would use “I” in a non-list situation, use I in the list. And vice versa for “me.” Like so:

I had chicken paprikash for dinner.
George and I had chicken paprikash for dinner.
George, Paul, John, Ringo, and I had paprikash for dinner.

What did you say to me?
What did you say to Kylie and me?
What did you say to Kylie, Reona, and me?

So, if you’re confused, take the list out and decide whether “me” or “I” is more appropriate in the sentence. And then, perhaps, we shall be able to avoid mistakes like “That’s so relieving for Fred and I.”

Feel free to drop me a line about any other grammatical questions you have, Squiders!

Grammar Week: Whose vs. Who’s and Other Confusing Possessives

I feel your pain. Even I have to think about these, most of the time, and I think grammar all the time. (“Hey, I just got an email from my grandmother, and she really should have used a comma there. And this forum post has the wrong ‘there.’”)

Whose, who’s. It’s, its. Your/you’re. And, for good measure, we’ll throw in let’s/lets and they’re/there/their even though the first is not a possessive but a contraction.

Here’s a general rule of thumb. If it has an apostrophe, it’s a contraction, not a possessive. This is where the majority of people get confused, because we’re all taught in elementary school that if something ends in ‘s, it is a possessive. This is true for just about every noun you can think of, but it is not true of pronouns. Not a single pronoun follows the ‘s possessive rule.

(For those of you who just went “Holy Batman, I don’t remember what a pronoun is,” it’s a word that replaces a noun. I, you, we, he, she, they, it, etc.)

Every pronoun has a unique possessive form. My. Hers. His. Ours. Your. Their. Its. And, yes, whose. Whose is the possessive.

Who’s is a contraction. Who is. As in, “Who’s that staring in my window?” Whose, possessive. “Whose window is this that I am staring in?”

PRONOUN POSSESSIVES DO NOT HAVE APOSTROPHES. EVER.

It’s. Contraction for it is. “It’s a balmy 75 degrees out.” Its is the possessive. “The dog wags its tail (and then goes upstairs and eats the cat’s food just to spite me).”

You’re is a contraction for you are. “You’re getting jello on the couch.” Your is the possessive. “Come get your damn jello before it stains.”

Let’s is a contraction for let us. “Let’s go to the zoo and throw Dave in the tiger cage.” Lets is the present tense he/she/it conjugation of the word ‘let.’ “He lets the cat into the room.”

They’re is short for they are. “They’re coming over after dinner.” Their is the possessive. “Oh, they forgot their mittens.” There is a vague location-based term. “Well, just set them over there.”

So, if it is a pronoun possessive, remember, no apostrophe. And if you don’t think you can remember that, just look at it and see if there’s a contraction that easily comes to mind instead. If so, no apostrophe.

Questions?

 

Grammar Week: Run-on Sentences and Comma Splices

The period is your friend, fellow writers. I know a comma is supposed to signify a pause, but let’s face it, a lot of times people just blow right through those babies, resulting in an on-going running commentary in one’s head that sounds a little like “Shewenttothestorewheretheyhadjustrestockedthesodaanddecidedthat
shewouldhavetherootbeerasthatwasherfavorite.”

Onwards.

So, a comma splice is a run-on sentence, but a run-on sentence is not necessarily a comma splice.

A run-on sentence is any sentence with more than one complete thought that lacks the proper conjunctions or punctuation.

Run-on sentences can be used for emphasis, but, in general, if you use them a lot, you look like ceiling turtles have come in the night and stolen all your punctuation. Comma splices are generally more accepted than general run-ons, but same thing.

Run-on sentence example: “We need to go to the store we need to eat cheese.”

See the problem?

Comma splice: “We need to go to the store, we need to eat cheese.”

Comma splices can multiply a bit ridiculously. “We need to go to the store, we need to eat cheese, I really like cheese, don’t you like cheese?”

Don’t be that person. Editors dislike you greatly.

It’s not that hard to fix a run-on. You have three options.

Option 1) Add a period. “We need to go to the store. We need to eat cheese.”

Option 2) Add a semi-colon. “We need to go to the store; we need to eat cheese.”

Option 3) Add a conjunction. “We need to go to the store, and we need to eat cheese.”

I know it’s tempting to drop the punctuation when you’re typing, but someone will eventually need to put it in, and if you want people to read your stories and give you feedback, you’ll get much more use out of a review from someone who’s not distracted by your inability to complete a thought.

Any questions on run-ons?

Grammar Week: Speech Tags

Ah, speech tags. The lovely bit of any story that tells you who’s talking at any point in time. Easy peasy, right?

No. Apparently not.

Here’s the thing about speech tags. They’re supposed to blend into the background. If you use them right, a reader hardly notices them, aside from gaining the necessary information as to who’s talking.

Let’s talk punctuation. He said, “There’s always a comma between the speech tag and the actual quotation.” This is true in past or present tense. You see, the speech tag is the action, and the quote is an extension. They are not a single thought and should not be presented as such.

Periods and commas always go in the quotation marks. Quotes within quotes use single quotation marks as opposed to double. She says, “Have you ever heard of the expression, ‘never go up against a landsquid when death is on the line’?”

(Landsquid make liberal use of ceiling turtles in conflicts.)

Now, appropriate speech tags. Many people will tell you not to stray much beyond said, asked, or replied. These blend into the action, allowing you to identify the speaker, but don’t distract the reader from what’s happening.

This can be hard for beginning writers to stomach. You’re a writer, after all! You must be creative.

But look at this example: He swallows, “Are you sure?”

Now try to swallow and talk at the same time. I dare you.

Some people get truly ridiculous with the actions they allow to be speech tags, but you will distract your reader if your speech tag is not physically possible. And you never, ever want your reader distracted by your prose.

With the above, you can swallow and then speak, and that’s okay. Same with laughing, smiling, crying, etc. Here is where punctuation is key. He swallows. “Are you sure?” Two separate actions.

The second thing people like to do is add adverbs onto their speech tags. He said loudly. She asked slowly. These are okay in moderation, but your writing will be stronger if you can move that adverb from a telling into a showing role in either your dialogue or action.

For example: “I’ll always be alone,” she said, staring at her hands. See how the dialogue and action takes away the need for a ‘sadly’?

Any questions on how speech tags work? Anything to note?

Weird Editing Requests

First of all, I would like to thank everyone for not pointing out the fact that April Fool’s Day is on Sunday, not Monday, and invalidating the entire first paragraph of Wednesday’s post. I appreciate it. This way I don’t feel like an idiot and can still pretend that I’m funny.

Onwards.

So, I think y’all know that I am an editor by profession. I work freelance, for the most part, with the exception of a couple of different contracts that I work on periodically. Most of the people I deal with are people who have a single project they need help with, which is lovely; it lets me fill up the time in between my contract work and gives me a wide-variety of things to do, which is always good for keeping the ol’ brain in shape. I love trying something new.

Most of my advertising is done on the internet. If you ask, I will tell you it is because it allows me to serve a greater number of clients, but the truth is that the less I have to talk to people, the better. (My husband often, exasperatedly, asks if I could get any more introverted.) All the places I advertise, I make sure it’s clear that I deal in documents. I talk about proofreading and grammar. I give examples of what I’ve done before – resumes, essays, scientific papers, novels, short stories, newsletters, etc. I talk about word counts.

Most people are literate enough to read these and figure out what services I offer. Some people see “Editor” and don’t bother to look any further. And I swear some people don’t actually get that far.

Weird requests I’ve gotten:

• There was the guy who wanted me to reformat his phone. The hardware.
• I get a lot of requests for video editing. Also image editing.
• Someone wanted me to fill out online job applications for him while he dictated what he wanted to put in over the phone to me.
• I received a request for me to type up a 75,000 word document from the original hand-written pages.
• Within the last few days, I had a request from someone to edit their music composition. Not the lyrics – the notes. What does that even entail? I’m still pondering this one because I can’t figure out what they expected at all.

Also, people, if you are self-publishing, I do not need your Createspace/Lulu/Smashwords, etc. password to format your book. You send me your files. I make them pretty. Then you upload them yourself and have full control of your financial and creative material. If someone wants that information – don’t give it to them. I bring this up because I have to tell almost every formatting client of mine this.

It’s been busy this week. Remember: Grammar Week next week! Monday we shall explore the proper usage of speech tags.

Why is Tag Called Tag?

I’m not going to answer that question, I’m just wondering. Does it have something to do with tagging animals? Except it seems like the game is a lot older than tracking animals, so who knows.

Anyway, KD Sarge has tagged me on a writing meme, and so here we are. Rules of the game:  answer the questions, come up with eleven of my own, and tag more people to keep the game going.

1.) Of your characters, who would you most like to have as a real-life friend?

Hm. I think I’ll go with Sara from Bleachers. I tend to twist friendship themes into just about all my stories, but Sara can be depended on to make sacrifices for her friends, and to work tirelessly to make sure things are set right. She’s also able to be fairly open-minded to trying new solutions when her normal standbys fail.

2.) Which would you not want to be around anywhere but in the pages of a book?

Oh man, that’s easy. Paran, the Queen’s advisor, from the Trilogy. I’ve got some nasty characters, but Paran is the king. Here’s someone whose ideas and morals are so twisted that even when you see where he’s coming from, you still can’t remotely justify his actions. Plus he’s not above some truly terrible manipulations, and there is pretty much no limit to what he will do to get to the ends he desires.

3.) When a song bowls you over and you have to hear it again and again, what is probably the reason? (Great voice, real emotion, clever lyrics, et cetera)

It depends. It can be lyrics, or it can be beat, or it can be both. Sometimes a verse will hit just right, and all of a sudden entire scenes can appear. Beat’s probably stronger than lyrics, though, honestly. I like songs based off their beat, but when you get a perfect blending of meaning and musicality, it’s the best.

4.) Of everywhere you’ve been, where was your favorite place to be? (Home is a perfectly acceptable answer!)

I adored York. I’ve been a lot of places, but York has a tangible feel of ancientness. I know that’s not a word. But when you step inside the walled part of the city, something resonates.

I also really liked northern Austria, with the Alps towering overhead, and the deep, dark lakes and occasional forests. Completely different feel from an ancient city, like York, but powerful all the same.

5.) Where do you want most to go?

I want to see the Great Wall of China. Absolute top of my list.

6.) What is the meaning of life? (okay, okay–YOUR life.) What do you think your life is about?

42. Life is hard. I am not a terribly introspective person. But I think that life needs to be enjoyed and shared.

7.) What’s the best thing about what you do for a living?

Since I work from home, I get to set my own hours. And if it’s a slow day, it’s totally okay for me to go watch an episode of Merlin with lunch.

8.) What do you do when you need inspiration?

I listen to music, and I look at nature pictures on the internet. Nothing gets the ol’ juices flowing better.

9.) When you need some time for you, where do you go?

I go to my local coffee shop, grab a table by the window, drink some tea, and do whatever needs to be done.

10.) Plotter or pantser?

Combination. I tend to pants the beginning of a novel, and then, somewhere around halfway, I plot out the rest to make sure that all my subplots and strings are concluded successfully and logically. Short stories are outlined completely before I start, otherwise I can’t get going.

11.) To close with a (fairly) easy one–talk about a book. Any book.

I just finished The Island by Tim Lebbon. I’m not typically a fan of his – he’s too dark for my tastes most of the time – but he’s my husband’s favorite author and so, occasionally, I am talked into reading one of his novels so we can have an intelligent conversation about the book. However, I actually really enjoyed this one. Good characters, just the right amount of stuff going on, lovely description. I admit I called the ending from 50 pages out (I said to myself “There is only one logical way this can end”) but I can do that with most books, so.

Let’s see, I shall tag my lovely writing partner Sarah, my sister so she’s forced to update her blog, and the infamous and extremely devious Ian Dudley. You’re welcome to tag yourself as well, if you’d like. Just let me know you’ve done it!

Questions for you to answer:

1.) What was the first story you ever wrote? Spare no embarrassing details.

2.) What’s your favorite nonfiction topic to read about?

3.) How much research do you feel like you need to do before you start a new story?

4.) Writing challenges (ala Nanowrimo) – useful, or merely stress-inducing?

5.) Why do you write your main genre?

6.) What genre/author/book do you secretly love but would never admit to in polite conversation?

7.) What’s your favorite movie-adaptation of a book?

8.) What is your favorite type of cephalopod?

9.) What is your writing tool of choice?

10.) What are your feelings about the proper usage of whom?

11.) What are you doing to bring yourself closer to your writing goals?

Landsquid Friday: Limerick

To put the landsquid back in Where Landsquid Fear to Tread, the Landsquid shall be more active from here on out. I’m not sure if it will be every Friday or a less regular thing quite yet. I am not the best planner in the world.

(Also, thank you to everyone who told me they couldn’t see a learning curve with the last landsquid from the wacom tablet, even though you lie horribly. It took me approximately fifteen tries to get this one to look like a landsquid and not some strange Angry Birds reject.)

Today, I have a landsquid and a limerick for you. Enjoy.

There was a landsquid named Joe
Whose editing simply won’t go
He sweeps every room
With a dusty old broom
But alas, procrastination just grows