Proof-reading, an underestimated profession

 If you follow my blog, you will know that every now and again I do come up with some controversial posts. Their purpose is to make people think, consider different angles on one subject. Today, I'd like to write about proof-reading due to a recent appeal from a self-published author who received reviews saying his books are in dire need of it. Several people have kindly volunteered to help him out, but do they really know what their job will be? Do they actually have the knowledge needed to proof-read a book? Many will pipe up saying they are good at it, but only few really are. It's an underestimated profession which demands a keen eye on detail; it's exhausting because you have to concentrate. And: you're the last one going through a manuscript and therefore will be judged based on the cleaniness of the book.

Proof-reading is not only correcting a few typos, I think that almost everyone can do; proof-reading is correcting grammar, punctuation (including dialogue attributes), it's looking out for inconsistencies, meaning that the spelling of a character's name, for example, is always the same. Very important in fantasy, where you have made-up names and places. A good proof-reader will find every single stray comma, spaces, misplaced/wrong quotes, correct apostrophes and semi-colons, find missing indents and paragraphs. They will go through your ms with a fine tooth comb and erase all errors that might distract a future reader.

I would suggest to look at someone's e-mails, posts or websites, to see how their writing is, if you find errors, steer clear, if the person starts out newly, like the one above, test them. Let them proof-read the first few pages or even the first chapter of your novel. Then go through it slowly yourself or ask a friend to check if the services has found all of the errors. If yes, you can go ahead. If not, thank them and find someone else. Always remember, your author name is a brand and if you put out an error-riddled book, you'll have to do a lot of damage control and I speak from experience. Finding the right proof-reader is difficult and the work-relationship is based on trust. Your novel is your baby, take good care of it.

Another word of warning: proof-reading is the last step in the whole process. Please make sure your novel has been edited beforehand or you have to pay twice.

Tip of the week: How to do major rewrites

Major rewrites was something alien to me. I must admit having had the huge task before me for the first time, I had my struggles in the beginnings. I get easily confused if you give me three sheets of paper, let alone doing it on screen. Everyone has a different system and I received some advice which, frankly, didn't help me. I never edit on paper, for it doesn't have a better effect than on screen, at least not for me. I'm talking major edits: deleting huge chunks, moving/rewriting/adding scenes or characters. That's nothing you could do on paper, at least I can't.

Since I'm an editor myself, I often make my clients do the same, but they have an advantage: I tell them where or what to cut or add or even how. So they have guidance. Something I didn't have. Okay, that's not entirely true; I had a few wonderful people reading the book and giving feedback. They confirmed where I thought the book might need work. And I can officially say that, at some point, the book bored me stiff. And I couldn't even blame someone else for it, no, it was all my fault. Luckily, I followed my own advice and didn't touch the book for several months, which results in me reading with (almost) fresh eyes and that again resulted in my deleting an impressive 9k. 

Here's how I tackled the massive undertaking:
First, I copied the complete book into a new document and saved it
Then I read through it and made comments on what to add along the way (highlighted them in yellow) and deleted all the boring bit and bobs.
A few things I wanted to keep to use later, I copied into another document named miscellaneous
When I had finished reading the whole book, I started to rearrange scenes; I had one in the end that I wanted to place smack bang in the middle of the book and did exactly that.
That drastic move meant I needed to iron out the seams so it wouldn't confuse the reader later.
After that I went to find the yellow highlighted comments and added a scene, character or prose, depending on what the comment said. I wrote those in a new document to make corrections easier.

This concept seems to work for me and I will use it in future, if I ever need to do a heavy rewrite again. I'm not finished yet, but I refilled 2k of the 9k I lost. I might not make the 76k I had before, but it doesn't matter. 72k is a good size, too. As long as it's a tight and enjoyable read.

How do you go about it? The same? Completely different? What's your secret weapon?

Where there's a will, there's a way...

...to success. The reason I'm writing this is because today was a very positive day. You should have seen me smiling, it almost hurt. I've sent 1500 words of my current work in progress to the friend, who's helping me with No Wings Attached and its remaining awkward sentences, to see if my syntax, phrasing and other grammar has improved. The results were mind blowing. At least for me. It was an excerpt of the very first unedited draft and although he highlighted silly typos, too, there were actually only four things that needed addressing. In one case, I just couldn't remember the exact word, but that's a minor thing. It means my writing has improved significantly and I'm proud to shout it from the roof tops.

Thinking back to where it started: April 2009, when I decided I wanted to write a compelling novel that people can't put down, when I took on the challenge to write in second language and went through with it. Though it was hard because I had to use my dictionay a lot, it was fun and a massive achievement. Writing a complete book of 120k words is massive already, let alone in second language.
Then I uploaded it on authonomy. Most people were lovely and full of admiration for me. But a few made comments like: Why don't you write it in German and submit to German publishers? I'm sure they'd love a book like that. Translation: your English sucks, so give up! People told me the book read like a badly translated manual and I was fuming. Mainly because I was upfront with writing in second language and I knew it needed proper editing. I wanted comments on the story. Besides: foreigners read the book and could follow the story perfectly fine. So it's not that I wrote something like 'he stood metal on the bread' or something like that. Some sentences didn't make much sense, but the plot was understandable. I had a few English natives who read the whole thing (first uploaded draft) and understood it just fine and liked it a lot.
I was angry and disappointed, because those who said I should write in German and let it translate by a professional, didn't believe in me, in my abilities to learn and improve. How dare you! I thought. But it didn't put me off. Oh no...I was determined to learn.
And so I did. I'm still looking at the 1500 words I got back today and smile. The best thing, though: I'm now able to write to an almost English native standard and am able to translate my books to German, which is a huge plus if you ask me.

I still got a long way to go to get to a point where I'm eventually satisfied with my skills, but thinking how far I've got, I'm sure, I'll get there in the end.

Just to be clear here: my being German is not an excuse for sloppy editing/proofing. I chose to write in English, so I will provide a perfect ms. I wouldn't want to read an error-riddled book, neither in English, nor in German.

Are your scenes believable?

For most of us who write fiction it's plain fun; you can create a world, a story, characters and scenes, anything you would like to do or anyone you would like to be or meet. It's fantastic, isn't it?

So far, so good. But since we're not writing from memory, meaning something that happened to us, we rely on imagination. A lot. Especially in genres like Fantasy or Science Fiction we have to make sure that it's believable, realistic and logical. In a world that doesn't exist, the reader wants to be convinced that everything that's happening could be reality. Let's take my novel No Wings Attached as an example. My character Celia hears a voice, she turns around and looks at different people, anyone could have said something, as it always happens in public places, either in the supermarket, in the park or in the pub. If she would have been at home and hear voices, it would take the suspense away, make it unrealistic. Well, maybe not entirely, but then she'd be a case for the straight jacket.

Recently, I edited a friend's manuscript; he had a character in need to get out of a dangerous situation and the possibility to do so via a device, but my friend let his character hesitate for ten seconds, which would have been enough to be killed, so I recommended him to let him hesitate for only two seconds, which would be enough to shout a command and escape. Try counting slowly till ten, it's a long time.
Little things like that let readers stumble.

If you have a character that can jump (beam) from place to place and it's not wise to let him or her appear in a public place and walk around as if nothing happened. I bet you would be rather surprised, if not shocked if someone appears out of thin air in front of you. So check on how you would react and transfer it into your scene. Screaming, kids pointing at the person, fainting, running away in panic, people taking pictures, etc.
Think Superman, who always appears in an empty street. 

Same goes for books like romance or crime, thriller.
In case you  have a murder, what would happen in reality? How would the procedure be?
When an airplane drops out of the sky after one engine exploded and it's torn into half, what would the scenario be like? Would the air-hostess really make an announcement that they're about to die and everyone needs to remain calm? Try to imagine how naked  panic creeps up the passengers and crew, try to hear them screaming, crying, reaching for their safety kits.

The husband has a stroke in the shower, the wife comes in and finds him on the floor bleeding heavily because he's hit his head hard. Instead of calling an ambulance, she's trying to wake him up, cries and strokes his face.
Would you behave like that? Of course not, you would do it the other way round: first call the ambulance, then attend to the person.

If you try to feel and think like your character, then you should be able to make your scenes real, meaning fiction turns into reality for the reader, and that's what he or she asks for.

Make your dialogue sound natural

For many authors it's a nightmare: writing dialogue. Whilst describing a scene is reasonably simple for many, when it comes to dialogue they struggle. It often sounds stilted, not natural, just not like someone would speak.
We create characters with different looks and personalities, so they need to sound adequate to their description. A young and trendy person should have a vocabulary that suits his or her age, same goes for the elderly woman who loves to gossip, or the shy nerd, who's rather afraid to open his mouth and speak. There are loud, boisterous guys, shrieky girlies and witty women, strict teachers, etc. you get the picture. Each character should have their own set of vocabulary as well as quirks to speak.

How to create them, those individual stamps you can stick on your character?

Well, by observing, by listening. If you are in the supermarket, don't dream away at the till, don't concentrate too much on what you need to buy, listen. Real life is where you get your inspiration from.
On the bus or on the train, don't drown the chatter with your iPod. Listen to how people interact with each other, whether it's a funny topic or something serious, some will talk so loud on their phones, you get a lot of material.
Use contractions if it's a modern novel.
Very important is to stick to how your characters speak.

I've got Emily, for example, who always answers the phone with "Hey, hon, how's things?" when she knows Celia calls.

Of course the correct version would be: how are things, but I'm using the colloquial version. That's how people speak in real life.

Depending on the situation your character is in, you need to adapt the dialogue, a person would normally not talk to their company director the same as they would with their friends.

It also helps a lot if you open the dialogue with a visual. By that I mean your character laughs, cries, looks sad, makes a face, frowns, throws arms up, claps hands, etc. We all use our whole body when having a conversation, if not consciously, then certainly unconsciously. Body language is part of a dialogue, too.

He pops his head into her office. "Do you have a moment?"
She leans back and crosses her arms in front of her chest. "I thought I made myself clear?"
"It won't take long." 
She shrugs. "You've got one minute."
With a sigh he lowers himself into the seat opposite her.

We immediately have an image pop up in our head.

And here's a small section from my novel that concentrates on dialogue:
"No, I haven't lied to you. Not all the way through. It's –"
"So, you did lie to me then?"
"No, I kept something from you I'm not allowed to tell you." He breathes out loudly."Oh, why is this so damn difficult?"
"What is difficult, Tom?"
"Everything, I really don't know where to start."
"How about the beginning?" I say.
"I'm afraid."
"Of what?"
"That you might hate me," he whispers.
"I won't hate you, Tom. I just want to know the truth."
"I love you."
"You mentioned that."
"Do you love me, Celia?"
"I don't think it's relevant now."

Because it's two people speaking I don't use 'he said, she said' all the time. That way it's much snappier.

If you have difficulties with dialogue attributes see the following posts:

Dialogue attributes part 1
Dialogue attributes part 2
Dialogue attributes part 3