Sometimes People Suck

Writing is hard. Very, very hard. Anyone who has ever written more than a school paper can attest to that. We spend hours toiling over plots--is it interesting, pertinent, or full of holes? Then there's character development--are the characters believable, can you relate, and are they interesting? Add sub-plots, pacing, content, and the rest, and you have a recipe for the yummiest literary cupcake in the world... or perhaps a toxic combination of disaster and failure that will sicken anyone who comes in contact with it. Either way, you've given birth, and like most book-parents, you love it even if it's ugly or not all there.

You finally work with your baby enough to get her where you think she might have potential. You take the harrowing step of sharing her with someone you trust and you know loves you in spite of your over-achieving ways. They glow with pride at the result of your countless hours chained to a desk that bears the imprint of your forehead. Their gushing incites a new wave of security for your little creation. In a moment of euphoric, endorphin-tainted excitement, you throw it out to a few beta readers. The betas, while very nice and understanding, see more problems with your baby than your loved one. Huh. Stings a little even though they're super nice and supportive. Go figure that. Your betas are awesome, but maybe the haven't honed the finer skills of punctuation and grammar. Someone suggests you hire a freelance editor to help you with the technical side of things. Oh! What a brilliant idea!

...or is it?

After wasting precious time you could've spent writing, you find a name amidst the posers. Scrolling the through their qualifications, a delighted smile crosses your face. Look how awesome they are! And YOU have an opportunity to enlist their services! Wow, aren't you fortunate? The smile wavers a bit as you eye the rates. Sheesh. They're getting to read your world-changing story. Shouldn't they pay you? After some deep breathing, you deduce that by hiring this "professional" you'll have a much stronger story. The end results justify the means.

A couple months go by--no, really--and you finally see the New Mail alert you've been waiting so long to receive. You suck in that breath of anticipation. "They're going to love me!" you tell yourself, and even sadder, really believe. You click the attachment, expectation strong and promising, and open the comments. There's a lot of red and things crossed out. Is that right? In a desperate attempt at warding off crushing depression, you think maybe those are all compliments...until you read the words beside your text. You see things like: unbelievable, omit, irrelevant...or worse. Now the joy of the past year you've spent on this incredible story--the hours you sacrificed with your friends and family, the lack of sleep, and the pure elation of finishing it--are all washed down the drain. This one person, whom you paid to top it off, has stolen your joy.

"Yes, but that's the price you pay for writing," some might state. "You have to develop thick skin to be in this business!"

To that I say, "This is true." Writers are under constant criticism. We are blessed to have a wonderful support team in each other. When I beta or critique someone's MS, I'm honest as I can possibly be. No one gets any better by another sugar-coating their crap. We all understand this, and it's something we struggle with daily.

"So why are you complaining?" that voice argues.

Why? Because the literary world has the most bloated and pretentious people I have ever seen. You hire someone to "help" you grow. You love writing and want to be successful by your own standards. Because you've paid this someone to help you, they suddenly feel entitled to turn into an utter d-bag. They label their noxious, self-importance as "honest criticism." Your work is not critiqued; it's run into the ground. Instead of hearing, "This doesn't fit with the story," you get, "This is utter BS. Do you even know what you're doing?"

Do you see the difference there? One says, "Hey, I'm a professional and I encourage you to do better." The other cries, "Hey moron, I have an overinflated sense of worth. Since you're stupid enough to pay me, I'm going to shoot down your dream."

I understand that some MSs need work. That's a given. None of us, despite out initial reactions, are writing wonders. It's a learning process. When I see ANYONE talking down to a writer, though, it makes me sick. People act like they're superior because they have a background in industry or are fortunate enough to be published. You are no better than anyone else. Stop raining on everyone's parade.

Say what you will about the writing industry, but there is never a reason to be malicious! Even the kindest of corrections is hard on someone who has poured their heart and soul into a project. Being a d-bag about it is never okay.

So that's MY rant. Don't let anyone tell you your work isn't worth it. Never feel less or like you've wasted your time. Writing is something we do because we love it. Never allow someone to steal your joy--especially when that someone doesn't have an opinion worth acknowledging.

PS--This hasn't happened to me personally, but I've seen it more times than I care to admit. You shouldn't call yourself a professional and use your paid services as a platform. If you can't be unbiased in your critique, maybe you're in the wrong line of work. Your uncouth attitude and lack of social etiquette should serve as further confirmation.

**I highly respect the individuals who know how to behave professionally. This post isn't directed at a group in the lit world. Writer, author, agent, editor...we all have a responsibility to be civil, even amidst correction.

How My Editor Became My Home Inspector

I mentioned in the last post that I was going to address the issue of hiring a freelance editor.

Now is that time.

I recently had the pleasure of working with the lovely, and rather brilliant, Cassandra Marshall. I met Cassandra by way of an agent's general recommendation. I now owe them both some sort of mutant fruit basket that encompasses many thank-you's! Working with Cassandra has been one of the most positive and enriching experiences in my writing adventure thus far. So having said that, let's go back to the beginning.

I first considered entreating the help of an editor after an agent requested my full. Said agent pointed out my tendency to overwrite and told me to work on that. While you can't take every person's advice on everything, this was spot on.

A few weeks later, this same agent blogged about Cassandra and her services as a freelance editor. I did my research (I'm very thorough with this stuff), checked out Cassandra and her blog and emailed her my information. (Cassandra does it ALL by the way. Right down to query help!) Her response was prompt and professional. She sent over a sample contract detailing her services, fees--which are VERY reasonable--and a non-disclosure agreement. I looked it over and decided she'd probably do a good job.

She more than exceeded my expectations.

Within ten days, Cassandra had my MS back to me--all slashed in red no less. My first instinct was to ball up in the fetal position and never so much as look a keyboard for the rest of my life. But I got over that and eventually read her notes. (Do this slowly, by the way. Rushing through them to see how it goes, never ends well. At one point, I thought she said, "Do you even know what you're doing?" She totally did not say that! She asked if I realized I was doing it. There's a HUGE difference there. I almost went into the fetal coma again.) But I thought about what she pointed out. I considered why she said what she did about the correction and what impact it had on the story overall.

*Side note-I ramble and repeat in my writing. This is very irritating to a reader, in case you were wondering. Don't say something that is better left unsaid. If it doesn't move the plot forward or contribute to the story, leave it alone.

So in my tendency to overwrite, the version of my MS she received was around 95K. This was for *half* of a story. Yikes, I know! Cassandra cut around 40% of that out. I was floored when she said this. Before I actually read the revised MS, I couldn't see how it was possible. *When I say revised, I mean she nixed a lot of stuff. She didn't rewrite it.

The following weeks have been spent in a harried state of revision. I've questioned every line cut or scene reconstructed. I was stuck at not knowing how to proceed with combining the story or trying the alternate route of splitting. (See previous post) Long story short, if that's possible, I combined them to form one, hideous story consisting of 176K words. Every agent's dream come true! This is sarcasm in case you missed it.

I'm still in the process of revising--in case you were wondering the point of all my seemingly senseless rambling when this is supposed to be a post about Cassandra's awesomeness. I said ALL of that, to say this. Reading through her notes and concentrating on the things she singled out, I learned some important things that I had never thought about before. I don't have an English degree or a master's in creative writing. Until last year, I had never considered writing as a serious life choice. I enjoyed reading but as a reader, you don't think about structure. You look at the outside with your questions. Is it interesting? Did it end well? How hot is the love interest in the story? ;) While those things matter, a fancy house isn't going to stand if it isn't structurally sound. My writing foundation was a bit crumbly. Cassandra swept through with her metaphorical mortar and patched things up for me. But not only did she patch them, she showed me what to look for and how to remedy them myself. What she did for me in one MS edit, she did for all my future writing endeavors.

So, my verdict on a freelance editor? Resounding yes! You can't count on an editor to build you novel but you can count on one to help you learn how to construct. They aren't carpenters--they're home inspectors.

In the best way I can, I want to send a thousand thank you's to Cassandra. You have been such a huge encouragement and inspiration to me during this process. No matter where I go in my writing career, you have made all the difference. You taught me how to build.

TMI for one post

So it's been WAY too long since I last posted anything. There are several reasons for this, the main ones being spotty internet service and lack of time. So now I'm going to attempt a partial catch-up post. This is basically a synopsis of posts to come.

Since April, I have enlisted the help of the wonderfully talented and much appreciated help of free-lance editor Cassandra Marshall. (The how's and why's of going the route of an editor will be another post. That's a really long story.) Cassandra spent a harrowing week and a half looking over my MS and came back with some much needed information. In essence, here are the issues you're going to have with "Plot A" or "Character B" type stuff, work on them. So work I have... A LOT. I have torn apart, reassembled, rearranged and rethought every possible aspect of my story. Why all trouble, you ask?

It is NEVER a good idea to split a story into two!

Again, why is this? Because then you end up with half of a story. Even if you wrap it up nicely, it still isn't finished. There's junk just hanging out there, left unfinished. In my case, there wasn't enough excitement because the big BANG! of the story would've ended up in the beginning pages of Book 2. Not much encouragement for finishing Book 1 there. Really, who wants to experience a day in the life of... ? No one. That's boring. So lesson learned from my POV. I hope, hope, hope none of you try this because it never works and is a huge pain in the rump!

What does all of this mean for me? Back to the drawing board to see what fits the best. Perhaps after cutting out the fluff of Book 1, I can combine them into one story again. More than likely however, I'm going to end up filling in some scenes with enough excitement that the BANG! of Book 2 will be it's own surprise and not related to Book 1 in any way. I guess we'll see :)