Kathleen Mix's Blog, page 8

The Value of a Good Editor

The edits for my latest book appeared in my inbox last Monday. And instantly, my nerves went taut. What had my editor found to criticize? Did she want revisions I’d be unable to make? Had she decided the book was hopeless? My insecurities ran wild as I opened her email.

I breathed slightly easier when I read ‘a well-written manuscript’ and ‘nothing major’. But still, I held my breath as I opened the file.

At The Wild Rose Press, manuscripts are submitted in Microsoft Word format and edited using Track Changes. An editor can line out phrases, sentences, or paragraphs they suggest be deleted, highlight portions they question, or insert suggested words. Punctuation or grammar errors are marked and corrected. The editor can write comments to explain her concerns or raise questions. If something in the story doesn’t seem to work, she can brainstorm ideas for how the author might fix the problem. The author goes through the corrections and suggestions and accepts or rejects the changes to the manuscript. In some cases, entire scenes may be added or deleted.

As I read through my editor’s corrections and comments, I was reminded how valuable a good editor or critique partner can be. Aside from punctuation and grammar mistakes that any reader other than the author is more likely to spot, every manuscript has weak areas that can be improved. My editor’s sharp eye usually finds those places where a little more conflict is needed or I’ve put in unnecessary explanations. Her suggestions and comments always make my books and characters stronger.

I dislike criticism of my ‘baby’, whether from my critique partners or my editor. But one of the most important lessons I’ve learned since I began writing is to listen and heed thier advice. My work will never be perfect. The most I can do is make it the best I’m capable of at any stage of my career. I hope that by listening to criticism each of my books is better than the last.

When I sent back my edits, I knew Deadly Memories will be released as a better book. And I knew a good editor deserves some of the credit.

Lessons from an Uncommon Cold

Every fall, I catch a common cold that consists of a few sniffles and a cough. Within a week, I’m fine. Within two weeks, the discomfort is forgotten.

This year has proven very different. An uncommon cold has completely upset my life. Unable to talk and in pain whenever I swallowed, I found myself losing interest in my favorite activities, including writing and reading. Never before have I been uninterested in reading a book!

Looking back as I recover and attack edits on my work-in-progress, I found a lesson in my illness: the uncommon is memorable. Something or someone unique sticks in my mind. In the books I’ve read and loved, the plot or characters have been memorable because they were uncommon.

Hoping to gain something from my weeks of malaise, I studied the characters in my manuscript, wondering if they were memorable or common. The result? The hero is memorable. The heroine is not. So it appears I have a lot of work in front of me before my book can be one readers love.

A good lesson is the silver lining in any illness. When I remembered the agony of my sore throat, hopefully I’ll remember to make my plots and characters unique.

Five Dialogue Mis-speaks

When I see bad dialogue in a book, I’m immediately thrown out of the story. Dialogue can make up a third or more of a book, so it must sparkle to impress an editor or a reader. If you’re an aspiring writer, here are five common mistakes to avoid.

Empty exchanges

When characters speak, their exchanges should be meaningful. Several lines of “Hi.” “Hi, how are you?” “Fine, how are you?” add nothing to a story and bore readers. Use a summary dialogue line such as they exchanged pleasantries, and then dive into the meat of the conversation.

Direct address in excess

Beginning writers often try to avoid using he said by having characters call each other by name. “But Mary, I’ve paid for the tickets.” “I know that, John.” “You have to go, Mary.” Don’t. Real people do not use names frequently in conversations. Neither should your characters or they will seem stilted.

Telling adverbs

Instead of telling a character’s emotions with adverbial phrases in tags such as he said angrily, show the emotion in the characters words. Try: “Never in a million years, slimball.” We’ll get the picture.

Talking heads

Dialogue without action or a sense of environment is sterile. Plus the author misses an opportunity to deepen characterization and add subtext. A woman sipping wine late at night while conversing on the phone or a man talking quickly while rushing to dress gives a reader a clearer picture of their lives and relationship with the other person.

Insufficient tags

When conversations involve more than two characters, tags are essential to avoid confusion. If a reader loses track of who is speaking or attributes a line to the wrong character, the mood or effect the author was striving to create will be rapidly ruined.

Avoid these five common mistakes and your dialogue skills will improve. Good luck and happy writing!

Writers’ Book Ideas

Three squirrels are busy gathering and burying acorns for the winter outside my office window. Watching them work, I’m reminded of how writers collect and store tidbits of life to dig out later and use in a book. I’m often asked where I get the ideas for my stories. The answer is simple. Like most writers, I’m a collector.

When writers see an expression of joy, a distinctive limp, a striking color, or an odd cloud formation, we store them in our memory. When we hear a snippet of dialogue or an emotional tune, or are overwhelmed by a distinctive smell, we file them away to retrieve later when we want to create a special character or mood. Whether a word, an image, or a tantalizing idea, we collect and store them all.

My brain is full of tidbits. My subconscious plays with them while I sleep. They bump against a vague story situation and sometimes one or more stick together. When enough tidbits and snippets have coalesced to form a story framework, my conscious mind digs them out, and I sit down and record them in a book.

A chance remark by an old friend was the seed for my latest romantic suspense, River of Fear. A woman running through an airport in a bright pink suit catalyzed my contemporary romance, Beyond Paradise. Neither idea emerged in exactly the same form as when I tucked it into my memory. My subconscious molded, and bent, and re-arranged experiences from my past, the traits of people I’ve met, and events I’ve imagined. The pieces became a plot and people to live the story. I wrote the story from inside the characters. The words found order and formed books.

Today, the squirrels foraging under my towering oak are providing entertainment and an excuse to procrastinate. Someday, they may inspire a metaphor or simile. As I look out my window, I’m tucking away images of falling leaves and absorbing the somber mood of autumn. I have no idea when I’ll use the tidbits stored away today to fill a need in a book. But I’m a writer, so I know, like the squirrels’ acorns, they’ll eventually reappear.

Ghosts Anyone?

Virginia’s Haunted Historic Triangle by Pamela K. Kinney reminded me of fun nights sitting around a campfire telling ghost stories. I read until the wee hours, the hairs on the back of my neck tingling. Then I lay awake for hours listening for unusual sounds and wondering whose spirit might be wandering my attic.

From hotels with unregistered guests to lonely battlefields where the spirits of fallen confederate soldiers still fight or search for their way home, Ms. Kinney takes the reader on a fascinating tour of one of Virginia’s most history-rich areas. As in the previous books of her Haunted series, she tells us where spirits roam, who they are presumed to be, and sometimes, why they can’t rest.

Virginia’s Historic Triangle was home to some of America’s first settlers. Life in Jamestown in 1607 was difficult, and the colonists had to fight both Indians and starvation. Either means of death would have been cruel, and may explain why spectral figures are seen there today. Many of the old plantations in Charles City County are haunted. Ms. Kinney relates the history and stories surrounding these fascinating homes and her own experiences when she visited each location. The College of William and Mary is the second oldest college in the U.S. Its long history is rich, and stories of sighting apparitions have been passed down from student to student.

Whether you’re a history buff or ghost chaser, Virginia’s Haunted Historic Triangle is an interesting read. If you’re planning a vacation, bring the book with you when you visit Virginia. Follow Ms. Kinney’s trail through Colonial Williamsburg, visit Revolutionary War and Civil War battle sites in Yorktown and hear the sounds of drums and fifes, meet the ghosts of Rosewell Plantation in Gloucester. Or if you can’t visit the haunted locations yourself, see them through the author’s eyes. You’ll enjoy your trip immensely.

The Virgin Islands on My Mind

My work-in-progress is a romantic suspense partially set in the Virgin Islands. St.

Thomas is my favorite island to visit by sailboat. The town of Charlotte Amalie has a

perfect natural harbor where visiting boats can anchor, and the atmosphere always

stimulates my imagination.

A few of the things I love about the Virgin Islands are:

The islands have wonderful Caribbean flora and fauna. Orange-flowered flamboyant trees, red-blossomed hibiscus, and crimson-studded bougainvillea decorate the sides of the narrow streets. Exotic plants like cactus, lignum vitae, and mango trees cling to the steep hillsides. Iguanas and frigate birds roam over and above the land, tropical fishes and corals create a mesmerizing undersea fantasyland.

The islands are foreign yet familiar. Cars drive on the left, tourists ride in open air taxis, rum is distilled and bottled, and the haunting beat of Caribbean music enlivens the nights. Yet the Virgin Islands are an American territory where the residents speak

English, the currency is the U.S. dollar, and visitors from the fifty states are welcomed without passports.

Every island offers a fantastic view of the sparkling ocean. Between the islands, the stunning blue waters of the Sr. Francis Drake Channel, where pirates once ruled, are today sprinkled with the white sails of pleasure craft. Standing atop a windswept peak, I can gaze at the horizon and let my imagination run wild or turn west in the late afternoon and view a stunning sunset.

The warm, clear waters provide an ideal medium for diving, snorkeling, or floating around relaxing. After a swim, I can wade ashore and pursue my hobby of beach combing.

St. Thomas is one of the most active cruise ship ports in the world. Watching four or five ships a day maneuver in and out of Long Bay is a great source of entertainment. I always look forward to the departure of the Disney ships. As they turn the bow toward

another exotic port-of-call at the end of the day, their melodious horns signal farewell with the inspiring tune of When You Wish Upon a Star.

A Rose by any Other Name

Seeing Red by Susan Crandall (Grand Central Publishing, 2009) is a fabulous book I heartily recommend. The story has a page-turner plot and believable characters. Near the end, readers are treated to a unique twist that I never saw coming. If you enjoy romantic suspense, read Seeing Red. That said, I must admit my enjoyment of the story was less than one hundred percent because of one small flaw: confusing character names.

Character names that are too similar, usually because they all start with the same letter, are one of my pet peeves. In Ms. Crandall’s book, the protagonist is named Ellis, and the villain is named Hollis. I read very fast when I’m engrossed in a great story, and the –llis ending shared by the names tripped me on several occasions. I would read the name and a few words past it, then stop and think: wait, was that Ellis or Hollis? I’d go back and check, then start reading again. Authors work hard to control pacing and move the story at break-neck speed when the suspense is building, but the confusing character names forced me to stop reading for a couple seconds and interrupted the story flow.

Of course, the tripping effect of Ms. Crandall’s name choices was minor and pales in comparison with the blunders of other authors. Years ago, I read a book that had almost a dozen characters. The author introduced Marta, Mary, Mark, Manuel, Bobbie, Barbara, Bonnie, and Ben before the end of chapter one. I was pulling my hair out, the names were too alike, and I couldn’t keep the characters straight. Was Mary the co-ed and Marta the heroine’s niece, or was it the other way around? I check that author’s books carefully, now. And I only buy if I see names I can differentiate.

Because I’ve been confused by other authors’ too-similar character names, I try to avoid making the same mistake. When I begin a new manuscript and choose character names, I’m careful that each name starts with a different letter. I list the names and say them aloud, striving to make each look and sound unique. Character names are important in many ways. Certain names fit a character. But I rarely have trouble finding alternatives. Keeping the names distinct reinforces my characters, and I hope it helps readers finish my book without tripping.

By the way, I will devour Ms. Crandall’s future books, because her stories are always wonderful. A writer must mentally juggle a million details while writing a book. I’m confident the similarity between Ellis and Hollis slipped into Seeing Red unnoticed by an author intent on providing a great plot. However, in her next book, I hope Ms. Crandall chooses to name her villain Howard or her protagonist Rose.