Copy Edits and the Women Who Love Them

I know it doesn't sound like something to love, but copy edits on your manuscript are, in fact, a huge blessing. As an English teacher, I like to think I know a lot about grammar and punctuation. As a YA writer, however, I can see that I don't know diddly. Well, maybe not diddly. Maybe I just don't know squat.

Regardless, getting copy edits back is not something to fear or dread. They are the greatest gift. First of all, they are corrections MADE FOR YOU. You don't have to go through your MS for the thousandth time and find the things you missed the first 999 times. For example, you know what I spelled wrong about a dozen times in my MS -- interview. I left out the second "i." I never caught it. My editor never caught it. Can you imagine the embarassment we'd have felt if a copy editor hadn't seen it?

I've taken some pictures below so that you can see what copy edits look like. My pictures aren't too specific because I don't want to violate any agreement I have with my publisher. I took some close-up shots of different things so you can get an idea of what they look like.

1. The Edited Manuscript

This is what you can expect to receive when you get your MS back -- the MS, obviously, and a letter of some sort explaining the expectations for you, the author. In my case, I needed to go through all changes and either check them off (approve them) or write STET. STET is editor's speak for "keep as is." Authors should never write on the copy edited MS in pen -- this version will go back to the editor for the typesetting and final changes.

2. Editorial Marks

In my case, there were two different copy editors going over the MS -- they used red and green pens so I could tell them apart. My editor also went back through with a couple of comments/requests -- she wrote in pencil.

3. Copy Editor's marks/Author's Response

This is a pretty basic example of how the copy editor will "code" questions to the author -- with an "AU." In this case, it was a suggested word change, which I agreed with.

To be honest, I pretty much agreed with all the changes the copy editors and my editor made. When they asked for options, I put on large, lined sticky notes and listed some different alternatives. I never wrote STET. I didn't need to.

For the most part, I am comfortable knowing that my work is now better for having been edited. I know that isn't everyone's experience. What about you? 

Extreme Makeover: MS Edition

Write now/Right now is an interesting time. My Taste Test MS has been accepted by my editor and it's off to copy editing. I've talked to my agent a few times in the last few weeks about what our next move should be. First, we need to provide an option for my publisher to buy b/c, well, we have to contractually. But, I would want to even if we didn't. My editor was phenomenal and I'd love to continue working with her.

Looking for my next book has allowed me to come back to my first book, the book that got me writing YA in the first place. This book is many things to me -- a labor of love, sure. But it's also the land of opportunity. It's the book that garnered agent interest. The book that got me an agent. The book that defined this new writing life. It just didn't sell.

So, I broke it out and started reading it. And it was pretty bad. Not bad like unreadable. At it's core, it's still a good premise. But there were a lot of errors. It didn't capture the vernacular of a teenager. It just wasn't right. When I opened the document, I thought it would be to do some clean-up. Instead of Merry Maids, I became Ty Pennington.

But after I started to re-read, I realized that it really was fixable. It just needed a little buffing. Sometimes when we learn how to do something well, we look back at previous work and think it's not good enough to be revisited. But I want to encourage you -- if you have a MS that you love, but never sold or never read to another person, if you have a MS that didn't see the light of day...well, don't make it sit in a dark drawer forever. Consider bringing it back out, dusting it off and giving it a good polish. Just because a book didn't sell doesn't mean hope is lost. If you've got the motivation, why not give it another shot? If nothing else, it'll be better the next time you get it out again.

So where to begin?

Well, everyone is different in how they revise old work. But here is how I go about things --

1. Read the whole thing.

I'd love to tell you that I do a full read through before I make changes, but I don't. I jump right in there and start fixing things I find. If I had to read it without making those changes, I'd go batty -- and I'd forget all the things I want to fix. But you need to read the whole thing, even if you get to a part that you feel is unfixable.

2. Read it like a book.

If it's been long enough that if feels like you're reading something that isn't your own writing, that's pretty good. It's been about 18 months since I've looked at this old MS and, while I remember writing it, there are lots of surprises I've forgotten about. It's actually really exciting to do this. I can sort of pretend that it's a book-book (esp. since I put it on the iPad, which lets me read it the same way I read my iBooks.)

3. Cut yourself some slack.

Chances are, since writing experience is cumulative, you are a better writer now than you were when you wrote your old MS. When you read it, don't panic that it's destined for the recycle bin. Give yourself a chance to read it. Really read it. Change it, work on it, do what you will. Make it what you want it to be. And if you still can't manage to make it "right," then put it back in the drawer for another time.

4. Stay in it for the long haul.

Seriously. If you've been in the writing game for longer than a minute, you've learned that this is a slow business. Your book won't combust when you put it away - if you feel overwhelmed trying to fix it now, maybe it isn't the right time. Maybe it needs more work. My agent told me a story the other day about the painter, Rembrandt. Apparently, he used to sneak into galleries and work on his paintings while they were hung on display. And isn't that they way it goes? Michael Waters, a professor of mine, once told me that poems aren't finished, they're abandoned. I feel that way about all writing. But the good news is you can always come back as long as the work is still in your hands.

Do you have something you've put away that you'd like to come back to? Or any advice for me as I complete my MS makeover?

The Importance of Craft (and I'm not talkin' cheese food!)

I mentioned craft in yesterday's post and it looks like I'm not alone in my belief and expectations when craft is concerned. Not that I thought I would be. But I think there is a common misconception about YA and MG - a misconception that all books in those genres are formulaic or cookie-cutter. In fact, I can say with complete honesty that I have read far more YA books that are innovative than not. Just like the generation they are about, YA books are cutting edge in all the best ways.

Which brings me to craft. I'm one of those authors with an MFA. I had the good fortune to study with some of the best living American poets. My MFA is actually in poetry and I didn't write a lick of fiction until years after I got my degree.

Why does this matter? Well, we all have our own influences - our personal graduate programs, college-affiliated or not. Some people had an amazing creative writing teacher in high school who encouraged them to contribute to the literary magazine or to try NaNoWriMo. Some people came into writing through the amazing books they read. Maybe they tried writing fan fiction first as a tribute to these books. There are so many avenues that bring us to the place where we pick up the pen/open up MS Word.

But having an MFA in Poetry has influenced me to believe four things about crafting a good book.

1. Every word in every sentence matters.

This one is a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because, well, every word matters. I read and re-read what I write. I labor over sentences and word choice. I can not tell you the number of times I spent hours, if not days, thinking about one sentence. That's why it's a curse. Getting bogged down with something that small can prevent you from writing, from moving forward. However, don't confuse small with insignificant. Some of my favorite lines from books are perfect because of one or two specific words that make them so memorable and make them resonate.

"I on my part give up the uncertainty of eternal rest and go out into the dark where may be the blackest things that the world or the nether world holds!" Bram Stoker's Dracula

"Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilised by education: they grow there, firm as weeds among stones." Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre

"The world of adults feels like a universe that has reached the end of its expansion and is inexorably collapsing back in on itself.” R.A. Nelson, Teach Me

2. The way you use your words to write and communicate creatively are not necessarily the way you use them to write and communicate normally.

This one's interesting. I consider it a rule because, as a teacher, I am forever re-teaching students about what the rules are about writing. Yes, you can use "and" or "but" to begin a sentence. In fact, sometimes you can use a fragment or a run-on to prove your point. But how one communicates creatively is not always appropriate for professional or scholarly writing. I don't just mean this in a "text-speak" way, but also in a diction way.

The word "tongueing" is a really good example. Chuck Palahniuk used this as a verb in Fight Club - something along the lines of "a sore in your mouth that would heal, if only you would stop tongueing it." I butchered that, I'm sure, but I don't have the book with me. Anyway, tongueing is not a word I'd put in a grammar exercise for many reasons - but I'd LOVE to have a reason to write it.

The point -- sometimes you make words do what you want when you're using them creatively.

3. Novels don't have a form. They have a case, the cover, that holds the pages inside. Other than that, the format is fair game.
When I first started my MFA, I believed in the narrative poem and I tolerated the lyric. I was definitely a follower of Whitman, not Dickinson. However, fellow writers and an excellent poet, Mary Ann Samyn, opened my eyes to the use and exploration of white space. What the heck is it there for if not to write in? Some great examples of using the white-space or playing with genre and fictional expectations are:

- Amy Reed's Clean, where she switches in and out of various formats, including a confessional, stream-of-conciousness type of list that splays the whole page

- Ellen Hopkin's books, which use verse of course, but also use different types of verse, different rhyming techniques, and lovely sounds

- Bram Stoker's Dracula yet again, because he so deftly introduces multi-genre writing to the gothic prose era. There are journal entries, medical reports, articles, letters. It's a masterpiece.

- Justine Larbalestier's Liar, which slips in and out of the past and present in a way that makes everything seem relevant and full of momentum.

4. Your craft takes time and time doesn't really end.

It doesn't take thousands of dollars of student loans to figure this one out, but it did for me -- you are only as good as you are. Maya Angelou (and Oprah) say, "When you know better, you do better." I love what my forthcoming book has become -- the influence of my agent and editor have been instrumental in creating a lovely, fun, mysterious, romantic, spicy story. :) However, when I first wrote it -- the first draft and the subsequent drafts -- well, they weren't great. Since then, it's been a couple of years. I've read a lot. I've written more. And my writing is getting better. I hope that kind of improvement never stops.

It's been eight years since I graduated from my MFA program, but it's taken those eight years out of school to turn me into a YA writer. You develop craft over time and through influences. It's not self-made. It doesn't grow on trees. It doesn't strike you, like lightning. Those are inventions or ideas. But, it's those ideas that you flesh out, that you worry at, that you meddle with, that you continue tongueing (YES!) again and again until you've managed to spit them out and turn them into something that matters.

It's not the wheel we're creating here. It's the vehicle.

How about you? Anyone else have craft-related insight or something to add? Comment! :)