Writing: Page Proofs

I recently got the page proofs for the new novel. For those unaware, there are many stages in the process of getting the book from my head to the bookshelf. There's writing it, revising it, sending it in so the editor can rip it apart, revising it again. Typically there's a copy edit stage here where the author gets to look at the changes the copy editor wants, but DAW doesn't do that unless the author requests it. (I requested this on the first book, The Skewed Throne, but determined that it wasn't worth it for the rest.) Then there's the page proofs, where you get to see what the actual pages of the book will look like and have a chance to make minor changes, such as fixing typos, changing words, perhaps some sentences, etc. But you can't change anything significant (unless it's some hideously wrong with the book that somehow made it through all of the previous stages intact). After page proofs, the author has nothing left to do but sit a fret about it coming out on the shelf and (hopefully) selling well. There's no chance to change anything after page proofs. It's out of the author's hands.

So, the book is 650 pages long and of course (this happens with every book) DAW wanted those corrections back at the office within a week. By this point, you've read and revised your book often you typically hate it and can't stand reading it any more and pretty much just want to be done with it. In this case, it's been long enough since I wrote it, revised it, and handed it back in that it was more like I was reading the book again for the first time. I actually found myself enjoying it. Except for a few things that are what the page proofs are all about.

One of the biggest things for me as a writer (and I'm certain it happens to a lot of us) is that while writing I somehow, unconsciously, get fixated on certain words. For the first book I ever wrote (unpublished) it was the word "chill." Everything was "chill"--the weather, the air, the water, the grass, skin, metal, marble, mist, light. Chill, chill, chill, chill, chill. I wrote it off as first novel syndrome and vowed it would never happen again.

HA!

In this book, it was dialogue tags. Or at least gestures surrounding dialogue tags in an attempt to give the flavor of the emotion without actually telling you what the emotion of the moment was. There was lots and lots of "snorting" usually in contempt, and "grunting" as the noncommittal or angry response. A lot of "snapping" in anger as well. My editor commented on this while she was doing her edits and had called me up for another reason (I needed to send in acknowledgments and dedication and address some issues the copy editor had brought up). She said she was changing some of them but I should look at it during page proofs. So I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to eliminate every "snort," "grunt," and "snap" in the book. I didn't eliminate them all of course, but I changed some, and changed some of the changes that I'm certain my editor made using words that didn't feel right to me in that context or whatnot. I was shocked at how many there were.

I understand how they show up of course. While you're writing, you get perhaps 3-5 pages done per day on average (for those of us with day jobs). So you make certain that nothing repeats like that in those 3-5 pages. But the next day you don't remember necessarily what you used the day before, so you make certain you don't repeat THAT day. So a week later, you may have used "snort" 7 times without realizing that it's happened within the space of 21 pages.

However, when you read the entire novel in the space of 4 days . . . things like that stick out. *grin*

And then other things pop up that you don't expect. As I mentioned earlier, I discovered that I must have been wavering on how many brothers one of my characters had because he started out with one, but a couple of chapters later he had two. He had two for a while, then it went back to one, and finally ended back with two by the end. Somehow the copy editor didn't catch this (which I totally understand because the character's brother/brothers were only mentioned maybe 8 times in the entier 650 pages). In any case, I made a final decision about how many he had and HOPEFULLY caught all of the mentions of brothers and corrected them. He only has one by the way. Children are rare in his culture/race, so it made since he'd only have one and that one would be of note and his death of even more significance.

Those were the major changes I made. There were a few others, such as typos (artchitecture instead of architecture; brathe instead of breathe; etc). There were a few missing quotes on dialogue. A few double double words, which everyone has a habit of reading over as just the one word. Things like that.

But the page proofs are now done, mailed back, and I hope all of my fixes make it into the final version of the book. I hate reading books where typos and such have not been found and removed. I've written long enough to know that NO ONE ever finds every typo and such. So having a few in a 650 book is expected. I have no delusions that I found them all. But I still hate it when they appear. Which is why I set everything aside--writing, grading, etc--in order to get the page proofs done and sent in on time in the first place.

What do I think of the book now? I can't tell. I hope everyone loves it, and loves the main character. It isn't like the Throne books. It's written in third person and has a much more epic feel to it. I'd say it's halfway between the intensely personal story of Varis from the Throne books and a grand epic fantasy series. The two sequels are supposed to push more and more into the epic field. There are parts of it really, really love. But is it good? I really just can't tell. I've read it so often and lived with it too long to be able to judge. I know I love the characters and the world and I absolutely LOVE the endings of the two parts and the magic I've introduced and how I used it, making it integral to the plot. I'm somewhat upset that the cover copy I've read of the book spoils one of the major surprises of the book (something that happens about halfway through). But I don't control the cover copy and hopefully it won't destroy the reader's enjoyment of that section.

In any case, I'm done. It's handed in and completely out of my hands. Now to get down to some serious fretting.

And the writing of the sequel of course. *grin*

Wordle!

So, when Wordle first hit the blogosphere, I attempted to do a few of my books and/or short stories with it and I couldn't get anything to work. But sartorias said she uses this to help her find "repeated" words in her work and so I decided I'd try it again with the new book. So here's the wordle of the new book:



Let's see . . . "Colin" is the main character and "Aeren" is another character, so that explains those. "Walter" and "Eraeth" are also characters. "Alvritshai" and "dwarren" are the names of races. I used the unedited manuscript for this, and I note that "snapped," "snorted," and "grunted" do not appear on the list. Interesting. However, I should probably be wary of "one," "back," and "toward."

Preorder Now!

A while ago you heard me all complaining about writing a short story. I don't normally do that, sticking to the novels because that's what most of my "short" stories turn into, but I was invited to this anthology called Close Encounters of the Urban Kind and so I wrote a short story for it. The main premise is to take an urban legend and twist it somehow so that it involves aliens. I worked with a local urban legend from the Binghamton, NY area about a man called Masti Huba. I ended up with the short story that I called "Mastihooba" and it was chosen as one of the stories for the anthology.





So, if you're interested in short stories about urban legends mixed with a little alien flair, preorder your copy at the discounted rate today!