Being an author is like being in charge of your own personal insane asylum.

- Graycie Harmon

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Clearly, That's What I Meant

Again, I'm going with titles that have little or nothing to do with the posts. I don't know why I do this. Perhaps it appeals to my odd sense of whimsy.

Well, The Dying God & Other Stories is in worse shape than I imagined. I handed it off to my flatmate to review, and in the first couple of pages, she spotted a number of errors.

WHAT?!

Seriously, my self-editing skills are far worse than I thought. I'm feeling very disappointed in myself right now.

Not disappointed enough to make me depressed, though. Which is a good thing, because when I'm really depressed, I can't write, and I'm coming up to a bit in Puppet Master that I'm quite excited about - the concluding battle (of the book, not the series). Something happens in this battle that I'm not terribly excited about, but I'm ignoring that for fear of bringing on the afore-mentioned depression.

Actually, I adore writing battle scenes. It's so much more straight forward than all the other stuff. You pick a side, and hope to hell they win. There's none of this wishy-washy sympathy for the enemy stuff, no. It's life and death. There's no room for bleeding hearts.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, makes writing battle scenes fun and easy. You know, until someone you love dearly dies.

No spoilers!

I say that like this will reach a massive audience who will then be terribly disappointed at my slip. If this book ever gets published and does managed to reach a wide audience, this blog post will long be buried in the annals of history. So it doesn't really matter.

I'm still not telling, though.

Mwah hah hah hah!

I may have had too much coffee.

Alrighty, with just 18 000 words to go until I hit my target book length, I should get cracking. You're all awesome. Thanks for sticking with me through all my crazy.

Miscasualty
An unlucky accident. And why is it not as good a word as mischance or misfortune?
- Rev. Robert Forby's Vocabulary of East Anglia, 1830

Is it just me or does this guy sound like he's making up words and trying to defend them? Also, I can see a reason why the word isn't as good, can you?

6 comments:

Pam Asberry said...

Wow, you are really closing in on it. Good for you! And I think it is the hardest thing in the world to edit one's own work. You think you know what's there so you are unable to see what is ACTUALLY there. It will all be worth it in the end. Keep up the good work!

S.M. Carrière said...

It actually is stupidly difficult to edit one own's stuff.

I'm also really conscious of the terrible reputation that self-publishers have, particularly in regards to the quality of the finished product. I really don't care how long it takes, or how many revisions I have to go through (though, honestly, I'm a little cross-eyed right now). I want the best possible book I can make.

Whether or not people like the stories is another matter entirely. Which reminds me, you have a version, don't you? If it's the Lebrary.com version, toss it. I'll get you a revised edition next week.

If it's the smashwords edition, you'll get all the updates any way.

Thanks, as always, for the encouragement. You're awesome!

Debbie Maxwell Allen said...

I can edit my own words, but I *know* I won't catch everything. I guess we all have a strange blind spot when reading our own words (or else we're so tired of them, we skip over the mistakes).

I do listen to my chapters read by my Kindle or my Mac (much better voice, and pauses for breath). I end up finding more errors this way.

~Debbie

S.M. Carrière said...

I hear that a lot. But this machine is an ancient hunk of junk. I don't think it has that feature.

Pam Asberry said...

Yes, I have the Lebrary edition...

S.M. Carrière said...

I will send you the fixed up version as soon as I get through these next edits.