Peter Prasad's Blog: Expletives Deleted - Posts Tagged "editing"
GOAT-RIPPER: What 2-cents/wd. buys
WHAT? I was reading some nut-job in a forum who says "he don't need no editor or proofer". In the nicest way, I blew my stack. Here's what I said.
Write the best book you can. Leave it rest then come back at it with rested eyes. Cut. Cut. Cut. Then give it to an editor. If you have plot problems or character conflicts, hire a developmental editor. Hollywood is filled with script doctors that punch up action and cut off soliloquies.
If your manuscript needs LIPOSUCTION (we all do), the rock-bottom rate is 2-cents a word. It's worth tons more. Then give it to Beta readers. Then to a Line Editor who reads every sentence backwards and all dialog out loud. In the end, the author owns every word.
Here are changes in GOAT-RIPPER that my priceless editor Temma made:
a) Give a 20-something character a redemption scene; she’s not THAT stupid.
b) Punch up the hooks and get the plot moving from page one. Note: I dislike reading thrillers paced for cardiac-arrest; however I like to watch Bourne-again races.
When I read, I want to feel the setting (it’s a hidden character) and enjoy discovering what makes the characters do their do.
c) Update the local tavern to a place where more hipsters hang out, but don’t touch the music in the juke box. It’s golden.
d) Threaten rape & mayhem more often. Men stop thinking when that happens.
e) Add more face-offs between evil Wild Bill and Bronze Star Jake Knight.
f) Cut half the background context about making cheese. This was hard. I made cheese every weekend for a year to get to know my subject.
g) Cut the smarty-arty and crank the pulse-pounding. This was easy. I forego sleep until I can’t think straight. After ten words in a sentence, my brain pools to oatmeal. Period.
It took me days to digest Temma's suggestions, but now I'd paint her toe nails. I did rescue three things and say: Sorry that how the story goes.
After all this, the last Beta reader found 10 typos, subject-verb conflicts, weird author awkward-isms, a minor plot stumble and other indulgences. Frick, the Kindle-cognoscenti woulda ate me.
In short, YOU ARE YOUR BOOK, so be a great one. or do it solo and read like another term paper.
At Out-of-Doors School on Siesta Key, I’m confident GOAT-RIPPER gets an A-. The minus is for three potty-mouth words, but then bad guys talk that way in crime thrillers, huh.
On’ya, dear readers!
Write the best book you can. Leave it rest then come back at it with rested eyes. Cut. Cut. Cut. Then give it to an editor. If you have plot problems or character conflicts, hire a developmental editor. Hollywood is filled with script doctors that punch up action and cut off soliloquies.
If your manuscript needs LIPOSUCTION (we all do), the rock-bottom rate is 2-cents a word. It's worth tons more. Then give it to Beta readers. Then to a Line Editor who reads every sentence backwards and all dialog out loud. In the end, the author owns every word.
Here are changes in GOAT-RIPPER that my priceless editor Temma made:
a) Give a 20-something character a redemption scene; she’s not THAT stupid.
b) Punch up the hooks and get the plot moving from page one. Note: I dislike reading thrillers paced for cardiac-arrest; however I like to watch Bourne-again races.
When I read, I want to feel the setting (it’s a hidden character) and enjoy discovering what makes the characters do their do.
c) Update the local tavern to a place where more hipsters hang out, but don’t touch the music in the juke box. It’s golden.
d) Threaten rape & mayhem more often. Men stop thinking when that happens.
e) Add more face-offs between evil Wild Bill and Bronze Star Jake Knight.
f) Cut half the background context about making cheese. This was hard. I made cheese every weekend for a year to get to know my subject.
g) Cut the smarty-arty and crank the pulse-pounding. This was easy. I forego sleep until I can’t think straight. After ten words in a sentence, my brain pools to oatmeal. Period.
It took me days to digest Temma's suggestions, but now I'd paint her toe nails. I did rescue three things and say: Sorry that how the story goes.
After all this, the last Beta reader found 10 typos, subject-verb conflicts, weird author awkward-isms, a minor plot stumble and other indulgences. Frick, the Kindle-cognoscenti woulda ate me.
In short, YOU ARE YOUR BOOK, so be a great one. or do it solo and read like another term paper.
At Out-of-Doors School on Siesta Key, I’m confident GOAT-RIPPER gets an A-. The minus is for three potty-mouth words, but then bad guys talk that way in crime thrillers, huh.
On’ya, dear readers!
Expletives Deleted
We like to write and read and muse awhile and smile. My pal Prasad comes to mutter too. Together we turn words into the arc of a rainbow. Insight Lite, you see?
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