In the normal course of our lives, we talk about ‘blessings in disguise’, but until recently I haven’t really thought about what it has meant for me as a writer.

In 2007, I thought I had a salable manuscript, so onward I went with querying. I sent the novel to a publisher who asked to see it. To date, I have not had a response, despite at least two emails questioning what was happening with the manuscript. I took their silence as a hint and moved on.

Looking back, I admit the manuscript was not ready. It was over one hundred thousand words - way too much for a romantic suspense novel. Since then, I’ve pared it down and found another publisher. Considering the plot twists, I can live with the new word count, until, of course, the editor starts snipping.

As part of my research, I try to read novels printed by the publishers I query. I also like to read what other Jamaican writers produce, since my work is a lot different. I went ahead and bought a novel that was published by the company I had queried. Of course, I wanted to know if my work was so bad that it did not even merit an ‘I’m sorry, but this is not what we’re looking for at this time.”

I found the book interesting and read it within two days, however, I had a problem with the editing. Too many errors had passed into print. At that time, I consoled myself with the thought that I had had a lucky escape.

A few weeks ago, I saw a second novel from the same author and decided to buy it. I’m reading the book now and know for a fact that the publisher’s silence was indeed a blessing in disguise.

I don’t know how many other writers read the way I do. Firstly, I read for enjoyment. After that, I concentrate on craft - how the novel is plotted, the language the writer uses, the depth of the characters, and whether I’m satisfied at the end.

Few novels make it to print without an error or two in there somewhere, but I was very disturbed by the careless way in which the book was edited. I might have excused it if the book was self-published or they were doing a second print run and couldn’t bother with the expense of a new round of editing, but this was a new work. I’m not sure I understand what might have gone wrong.

I count a fair number of writers as my friends. I’ve never met them face-to-face, but via the writing networks where I’m a member. We are critique partners and read each others work for just about everything. My forte is that I have a good grasp of English. I don’t know many grammatical terms, but I can look at a sentence and know when it needs fixing and how to fix it.

When my manuscript came back to me for editing, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the major part of what I had to do was add commas in some places. I also had to provide deeper explanations for why this or that thing happened, and add a new scene, but I did not have to do any rewrites. Yippee!

I say that to say this. If I, as an ordinary person can present a piece of relatively error free writing, what excuse does a publisher have for sending a book into the world, that nit-pickers like me can savage with a highlighter? I imagine if the writer has read the book and picked up these errors, she would have been cringing through the entire novel.

I’m perfectly aware that there are writers who can’t spell and who don’t know the difference between lie/lay and their/there, among other things. Some of these people are my friends- published writers who hire others to do the job they can’t do, or they hand over their manuscript, knowing an editor will work out all the kinks. In the same way, when I turn my manuscript over to a publisher, I do so with the expectation that they will catch the things I missed.

Two weeks after I got my book, I took time to read it. I noticed a sentence added here and there that enhanced the text. I noted at one point where a sex scene had been removed, that the splicing was not very smooth. I saw mini slip-ups with the typesetting and oh, yes, a few errors we missed on both sides. However, for the most part, I am happy with how the book turned out. Apart from that lingering fear that I’ve written 260 pages of drivel, I can hold the book up proudly and say ‘I wrote this!’

I’m not so sure this fellow writer can unreservedly say the same. Every instance of ‘past’ in the book was left as ‘pass/passed’ - so people were going ‘pass’, looking ‘pass’ and walking ‘pass’. To be truthful, I began to wonder if I had got it wrong.

One character couldn’t ‘bare’ the thought of…There was a ‘sad tragedy’. In a couple of instances, people ‘edged’ when they were meant to ‘hedge’. Commas were scarce in the entire thing, including places where they are a must, eg. before and after names. I’m wondering if some of the rules changed and I’ve been tardy with catching up.

And then there were embellishments that needed to come out, like ‘Hostile rage’ and ‘smirked sarcastically’. I’m at the point where I’m reading with a highlighter in hand. In case you’re wondering why, it’s not that I’m spiteful. I also do some editing and this sort of exercise hones my skills.

To get back on point, don’t think for a moment that I blame the writer; a disservice has been done to her. The final product is the responsibility of the publisher. I’m wondering what I’d do if I found out that my editor was less skilled than me in the editing department. Food for thought, eh?

I have a blog where I’ve started posting my thoughts on books I’ve read. I’ll skip this novel because I might get into trouble. Still, I can’t help but say ‘Thank God!’ this publisher passed me over.

If this rejection wasn’t a blessing in disguise, then I don’t know what is.

I paused my Facebook experiment at 102 fans. For the most part, I think they’ve delivered what they promised and I’m good with that. I got from 33 - 102 fans within a few days, targetting people from Jamaica, the Bahamas and Trinidad & Tobago.  My initial target toward folks in the United States yielded nothing.  I will alter the settings on that one and try again.

Now I have the task of seeing how many persons will be interested in reading the book. I don’t have the Amazon links up yet for the novel, in case people want to buy, but the publisher does have PayPal links posted to their site. Still, I think it’s a tad too early to ask people to buy. It’s better to encourage participation first and give them some value for their ‘fan ship’.

I’m looking for ideas as to what type of competition to hold to give away a copy of the book. One of my writing pals suggested a best break-up or best revenge scenario. I think I’m going to run with one of these, unless a more brilliant idea comes my way. Feel free share any thoughts you may have.

When the publisher told me my manuscript was on the way back to me, I hoped that I wouldn’t have to make many changes.  Luckily, I didn’t.  But what I do have to work at is wrapping up some stuff I thought I was complete.

I hinted at some of the stuff in conversation, thinking those ends were nicely wrapped up; however my publisher thinks otherwise.  The hanging threads need to be sewn up tight, leaving no doubt as to the outcome of two critical situations in the novel.

The facilitator at the workshop  I used to attend always warned the group never to write down to the reader.  Always assume the reader is more intelligent than you are, he used to say.  I’m wondering if I took a good saying too far.  Nonetheless, I’ve learned some good things from this experience.

1.    Don’t gloss over solutions: Better to write in what I consider tiny details that could turn out to be important in terms of leaving the reader satisfied.

2.    Don’t be sloppy: In the story, one of my characters is abducted.  The men who did it got nabbed, but I never mentioned how the accusation was laid against the kidnappers and how the police tied that crime to the heroine’s uncle, except to say that he knew his cohorts would finger him to save themselves.   That’s one of the things I have to fix.

3.    Never stop learning: Like a lot of other writers, I’m learning on the job.  When I went through
the manuscript , I noted that the editor added a lot of comma’s I missed the first time around.

In the interim, I’d done some more editing and put most of the commas in, so that wasn’t a
hardship.  The point is that I’ve improved in my craft, so much so that I got most of the commas
in the right places.  I’m a firm believer in learning something new every day, and I figure as long
as I’m writing, I have tons more that I need to know.

4.    Beware improper document formatting: Somehow, I ended up with a nightmarish situation, wherein I had double spaces in my double spaced manuscript.  The extra spaces refused to go away, no matter what I did.

My writing pals gave wonderful advice, which should have worked, but all to no avail.  I started the document in Word 2003 and eventually transferred it over to Word 2007, so I’m not sure at what point my file might have got corrupted.  After half the day spent deleting spaces one paragraph at a time, I’m not willing to take on that kind of horror again.  I plan to be very, very careful with formatting my manuscripts.

5.    A manuscript is never, ever complete: no matter that at some point, usually after the 50th or so read, the body of work in question feels as if nothing can possibly be out of place.  The editor put in some simple questions, which made me realize that I hadn’t shown how the character felt about a particular situation, or a significant bit of news.

Needless to say, I’ll still feel there’s stuff to edit an I will want to edit the book when I have it in my hand.

6.   Spare some of your ‘had’s and ‘wases’: Unpublished writers tend to be hard on each other for the dreaded ‘was’ and the loose use of ‘had’, but hey, like other writers about to be published, I’ve come to realize that sometimes there’s no getting around them.  I’ve gone to the point where I avoided the use of these two words at the peril of having my sentences sound unnatural.  I’m not advocating going overboard, but if my story is compelling enough and I limit myself, then there’s nothing wrong with making use of ‘had’ and ‘was’.

7.    Relax and enjoy the ride: I’m now ready to admit, I’ll never cross every ‘t’ and dot every ‘i’, but I’ll come as close as I can to submitting the perfect best possible manuscript every time.

If I can remember this stuff for my next manuscript then I’ll be way ahead of this game.  Hope this will help you as you navigate through your work-in-progress.

I’ve been falling behind on the assignments I have to complete, so I’m writing this post as a reminder to myself that I need to get back on target.  Last week was a crazy one at work.  We had a major function on the property last night.

When I woke this morning, I was ecstatic that it was over.  Stressful is an understatement.  But I guess any major event carries its own set of headaches.  I enjoyed watching Sean Kingston perform and thought the show would have been wrapped up after his stint on stage.  Not so.  It was three o’ clock before the police shut off the sound.  Should I mention the word ecstatic in relation to how I felt when everything went quiet?  Naw.  I’ll restrain myself.

I got the edits from the publisher, which was another challenge.

Some government workers make transacting business downright unpleasant.  Anyway, it would help matters if responsible adults like myself  ensure they have current identification cards to assist with smooth transactions. The lady behind the counter told me my signature on the two ID cards and the one I signed didn’t look the same.

I behaved myself, politely told the post mistress she was withholding a box of paper with no value to anyone but myself, and was eventually rewarded with my manuscript - after my husband came back with identification and signed the postal notice which I had already put my signature on the previous night.  I wondered why I bothered to send him to collect the package in the first place.   To say they closed the door behind me with indecent haste is an understatement, and it wasn’t even closing time yet.

Only in Jamaica.

Thankfully, the edits won’t constitute any major rewrites.

I need to get moving on an article to submit to the paper, which will fulfill my target for January.  If I don’t get it written within a week, I suppose I could cheat and send them a short story that hasn’t yet been published.  That’s getting something out there once per month, right?  We’ll see.

Long story short, focus, focus, focus.

On the hair saga…you know how versatile hair styling has become these days.  Following on my accident with the box of Brown Sable permanent colour, I saw the stylist on Friday.   We had a laugh over my black-as-midnight hair and then she set me up with some tracks that are a nice shade of brown.  I’m breathing sighs of relief and looking lots better for the addition of the colour.

Note to self - Don’t mess about with permanent colour ever again, even if the box shows pretty pictures of brown hair.  The professionals know best!

Have a wonderful week!

With a book coming out in April of this year, I should be working on the stand-alone sequel.  Note I said should.  I’ve got six chapters done and put them up for critiques at the workshop where I’m a member. 

In the past, I would have completed twice the amount of chapters in the time I’ve been fiddling with this new story.  I admit that I’m not as focused as I used to be, which I find peculiar.  Before I got a book contract, I worked harder.  I was always on a story, trying to write chapters as quickly as possible to satisfy my readers. 

Thing is, I’m not as focused now.  Partly because I have so many things going on in my head.  I’m thinking about the various things I can do to get my name and book cover out there. I’m also working out how to generate demand, to ensure good sales. 

I can’t deny it, I also like to browse the net.   Not random sites, mind you, just a few places where I hang out daily.  But I’m finally admitting to myself how much time I waste doing that, and this is stuff I do several times per day - mostly when I’m bored or between tasks. 

I started a chapter last night, but then I decided to ‘check on things’ before I got down to writing this morning.  I did an-hour-and-a-half worth of surfing and interacting and I didn’t got a single word written. 
Now, the book in question is scheduled for release in October;  I told myself I’d get it done by the end of February, edited by the end of April and off to the publisher, so they’d have five months with it. Ideally, I wanted them to have it six months in advance.  That’s definitely not possible.

But I know what I need to do to stay on track.  Cram email, Facebook, Twitter, and what not, into two time slots for the day and limit myself to those periods.  I’ll consider rewarding myself with a third slot AFTER I’ve got another ten chapters or so written.  It’s the only way I’m gonna get anything done. 

How do you keep yourself from wandering the net all day long?

Too often, writers sacrifice their own judgment  in favour of other people’s opinion.  You’d think this happens only with individuals new to the craft; but no, it’s a common mistake.  Case in point is the project I’m now editing.  See my opening sentences below, which I quite liked.

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Quinn Mayhew was past impatient.  The negotiations had dragged on too long, hence this visit with his attorney.

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I sent it to a publisher, and the editor they assigned me liked the opening as is and wanted me to continue polishing the novel.  I also had chapters up on the writing site where I’m a member.  Some writers thought ‘was’ and ‘had’ made the first two sentences drag, and suggested a more engaging start.  Other pointed out it was all ‘tell’ and I should try some ‘show’.  I gave in and changed the opening to make it more active, and convey my character’s state of mind.  See new opening below, which I had sent off to another editor.

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Quinn Mayhew drummed a staccato beat on the chair arms.  His heels tapped a matching tempo on the floor.  He scanned the office, impatient for Roderick to get off the phone.

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The second editor didn’t like it.  The first two sentences gave her the impression that the character was an impatient schoolboy, rather than a grown businessman.  Needless to say, that helped get me a rejection, which brings me back on point.  Trust your own judgment.

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I tell those around me, ‘never second-guess yourself’.  I’ve had too many instances where my mind tells me what to do in a given situation, but I start procrastinating and inevitably make the wrong decision.

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What amazes me is that although I know I can trust myself to make the right choices, I sometimes don’t.  Through experience, I’ve learnt that unless someone can provide me with a compelling reason why I should change something I’ve written, then I should keep what I have.

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I had the same dilemma with one of my earlier novels – to keep or not to keep the opening scene.  Many opinions later, I wasn’t convinced I should let it go, however, one reviewer came along and gave me a simple, but convincing reason to delete that scene –  I was inadvertently repeating myself and that first scene killed the need-to-know factor  I was trying to maintain for the reader.  I saw the wisdom of letting the prologue die a natural death.

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Long story short, if you can’t or don’t see the wisdom of changing your words around,  if you’re not convinced you’re doing the right thing, if the suggested changes don’t sit well with you, keep what you have.  It may need tweaking and you probably won’t hit on a solution in one day of editing, but if your words feel right and you want to keep them, despite the rules – do.

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It’s your prerogative as a writer and nobody knows what works better for you than you.

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That said, I’ll be using my original sentences.

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More anon…

Now that the madness of NaNo is over, I can get back to life as I knew it before the start of November.  Thankfully, I was able to get to my word count of just over fifty thousand last night.  It felt good to finish ahead of schedule, which means I get some free time this weekend.

Not that I have the luxury of goofing off.  I’ve had a request from a publisher based on a partial I sent in October, so that’s my next project.  No sooner do I close the book on one project do I have to start moving on another. 

But that’s okay, it’s what we writers do in the quest for publication.  I’ve had some successes during this past month as well as a major disappointment, but more anon…

I’ve read a time or two that it suits us writers to make our work fit into a certain mould.  That is, we should have an idea of where our novel might find a home once it’s complete.  Too bad I’ve never followed this particular rule, which is one reason why I’ll have a hard time finding an agent/publisher.  Not to mention the fact that I live on an island.   If you have any encouraging success stories along this line, I’d like to hear ’em.

Have a look at the submission guidelines for various types of romance novels and you’ll notice the word count is somewhere between 80,000 – 90,000.  A few publishers will stretch this to 100,000 words and even fewer will allow 120,000.  Too bad I wasn’t paying attention to the smaller numbers when I wrote my romantic suspense novel.   

I have an overactive imagination, therefore the plot twists are many.  Naturally, the word count slipped over 100k.  Too late, I realized I had a problem on my hands.  No overworked editor/agent is going to be happy at the prospect of reading a novel that big, even if I do think it’s a clever story.

While it’s nigh on impossible to squeeze an irregular-shaped peg into an itty-bitty round hole, I’m going to have a crack at it.  After I make my way through querying publishers who don’t mind the high word count, I’ll take on the daunting task that lies ahead.    

I’ve rehearsed the pep talks I’ll need to start the job of paring down my baby.  What am I going to be strong enough to chip away?  Think I’ll get started from the logical place, slough off the parts I thought were ever so nifty and work my way forward. 

More than anything else, I think I’ll need to stick post-it notes in places I won’t miss to remind me to cut out the ten dollar words and run with the five dollar ones.   And did I mention abandoning circuitous routes and sticking with the main road?

Big sigh…

Next time I’ll work on the basis that it’s better to have space that can stand filling in.  Shearing away at my darling is going to be a painful, but necessary process.

Onward I go.

At times, I understand why writers get discouraged and give up. 

I got a wake-up call this past week that pulled me out of Limbo.  I’d mentioned before that a local publisher has had my manuscript now for nearly a year.  Several nudges have yielded nothing but silence.   I’ve given up hearing from them and have started doing the query rounds again.  I think I’m going to have a word count problem with this particular novel, but that’s for another post. 

And let me not be ungrateful, because some good things have happened this past week.  Another of my stories appeared in the literary pages of The Jamaica Observer and if I continue to write some good stuff, I’m sure they’ll get printed.  I’ve also sent off the manuscript to Macmillan Caribbean that I thought I’d never finish editing.  All I have to do now is wait.    

Meantime, I’m doing all the other jobs I’ve been neglecting, plus I’m back on a publisher/agent hunt.

Wish me luck!