Sherri Cornelius

I've started the final edit of BVA. Thanks to everyone who helped out: Allie, Ian, Dane, Vanessa, and Tony. Working toward a deadline of Monday or Tuesday, and then off to the agent. I was hoping to send it out this week, before the famous screeching halt to which the publishing industry grinds after Memorial Day. (Good luck deciphering that sentence.) Obviously, that didn't happen.

It's a Herculean effort to stay in this chair, despite the deadline. The kids are home for the summer, for one. For another, the weather's beautiful. And lastly, right outside my tree is a mulberry tree loaded with fruit, which means birds, birds, birds. Woodpeckers, cardinals, blue jays, robins, and lots of others I don't know. And just now a tiny hummingbird hovered right in front of my window screen and chirped as if to say, "Whaddya doing in there, ya dumb human?" There's been more birds in my yard this year than ever before, but I'm afraid the neighborhood dog ran off all the bluebirds, because I haven't seen any since she killed all the fledglings.

So, yeah. It's difficult to sit in here when all of nature is inviting me outside.

It's like Narnia in my neighborhood. An (expected) inch of ice and 8 (surprise) inches of snow combined with a low, white cloud cover... I am warm and cozy with Mr. Tumnus and the Beavers (husband and kids) so I'm sure the White Witch will pass right by. Some were not so lucky, like my brother and his wife who have been without power (and therefore heat) for two days. They finally made the treacherous drive to a friend's house where there is heat, so I am glad for that. When I find the camera cable I'll post some pics.

About a week ago I mentioned I would start editing my work in progress, going through it the way I would someone else's. Well I finished that pass, making notes about what goes where, what needed clarification, missing motivation and leaps of logic.Then yesterday I accepted all the changes, unified the formatting, and moved all the in-doc notes to the margin.

I've found it's really helpful to look at this from an editor's perspective. It lessens the judgement of the work, clears away all that muddy self-doubt and makes decisions easier.

I have a little more to do in this step, but so far I'm on schedule. Barring mental fatigue I'll get this formatting/cleaning step done by Feb 1, and the next step is implementing all the changes I've noted. This could take a couple of weeks, but I'm pumped to be nearing the end.

It's starting to look like a real manuscript. Frickin' awesome.

Sarah commented on the previous post, "I think your editing plan sounds very sensible. I did a total of four passes through my novel, and with each one I felt able to work at a deeper level, as the easier bits were corrected or smoothed out."

I think I'll end up with about four passes, too. In this first pass, I'm treating my manuscript like someone else's, making notes and tracking changes, going through really quickly. World-building notes are going on a piece of paper, and scene-specific notes are going in the margin of the document.

This quick one, then another to implement notes I made in the first. I think that will be the hardest and take the longest.

On another pass I'll work on dialogue and tightening up, spell checking and all that good stuff, then I'll send it to betas. And of course there'll be a pass after that to implement those changes.

And I plan to do that in a month. I figure if I don't dally on the easier stages I can devote about 20 days to the second stage, the major re-writing. That's twice as long as authors for Eternal Press (my old editing job) were given to implement changes...but of course mine needs about 3 times the work, and that doesn't allow for getting burned out. Or for feeling like your uterus is going to explode, which I have found today can seriously curtail your butt-in-chair time.

On schedule so far. Cross your fingers for me.

Oh, and if anyone knows Spanish, I've got some questions for you.

I'll begin with a call to prayer. My regular readers are familiar with the Darcs, a husband and wife team who have been tireless supporters of me, my blog, and my writing for a couple of years now. Darcknyt and Darc'sFalcon have brought me many blessings, and I'll always be grateful for their friendship. I won't go into detail, but recession-related unemployment has made things hard on them. They still have a home for now. I wish there were something I could do, but of course I don't have any jobs to offer. All I can do is send a message to the universe that these people need help and trust that work will come in time. I'd appreciate your taking a moment to do the same.

~~~

After finishing the first draft of my WIP, I took a couple of days off to allow a migraine to run its course, as well as to fulfill a critique commitment. Ian's got a unique spin on the vampire novel and a good story to go along with it. His writing seems so effortless it makes me jealous, but I can't wait until he snags a publishing contract. This may be the right book at the right time to do just that.

~~~

So now that I'm feeling healthy and free, I'll start edits on my WIP. I have been using yWriter on this last push to the end, which is based on individual scenes--great for moving big chunks around during organization stages, and then for crafting the scenes themselves. I've had trouble with this program in the past because of this chunky quality, but for some reason it was just what I needed for this book.

However, now that I'm finished with the scenes I need to read the book as a whole, and for that I've imported it to MS Word, my standard and the industry standard, though that is relaxing. I'll make a single-shot pass, making notes and correcting typos, re-writing easy stuff as I go through and detailing the hard stuff for the next pass. My biggest trap is indecisiveness, so I've vowed to go with my gut on the hard decisions and not over-analyze. Another vow I've made is to look at the whole process through a fun lens, rather than fulfilling a duty. Duty crushes my creativity.

Hope you have a lovely weekend.

Okay. Yesterday saw a milestone, and some of you witnessed it on Facebook: I finished my work in progress. Now, this may not seem like a very big deal to some people, and it may not be a very big deal to me later, but right now, yeah. It's huge. Do you know what a struggle this book has been? Later on, when I'm talking about how I learned to be a writer, I'll cite the two years I worked on this book. I'll tell how I almost succumbed to the self-doubt; how I learned what real writer's block is; how I injured my hand and almost gave up the writing biz altogether. I knew it was going to be hard when I started because of the subject matter, but I didn't know how it would feel to be in the middle of it, and when other things started to pile on, well... You get the idea.

I'm not completely finished yet; I still have to edit the damn thing. I've had a few people ask me if I would now do the expected thing and let it sit for a few weeks before tackling the edit. I feel very strongly that this wisdom doesn't apply here. I have prospects waiting for this manuscript, for one. For another, I took long breaks during the process, and I haven't read the first half of the novel since I started this last push to the end. I'm motivated and excited; I know what it's like to not be those things and if they leave again I'll take a break, but I don't want to waste them while they're here.

So I have a long way to go. I still have to make some hard decisions, and I'm still not entirely confident in my abilities. However, the editing has always been easier for me than the actual writing. And I'll have it done by the end of February, this I vow.

I can't freakin' believe it.

The company I edit for does videos of their monthly releases, and this month's is out. My friend Jayden Chelsee/Tabitha Shay's western romance is the first book you see in the video, but I didn't work on that one.

No, both of the ones I worked on are erotica short stories, and I've just seen the covers for the first time. They are fantastic! Jezebel's Article is a vampire fantasy, and Ink Me is set in a tattoo shop. I edited these at the same time, switching off (hm, reminds me of Jezebel's Article...) and though the protagonists have similar voices, the stories are very different. If you're into such literature, go check 'em out!

I have a little fragrance hangover. Yesterday was my daughter's Thanksgiving lunch at school, and I actually did quite well. Felt fine (as fine as I ever do) while I was there and into the evening. The eyesight started to get a little iffy around nine, and I went to bed soon after. Woke up this morning with bad eyes, but let me tell you, I am grateful for these bad eyes. You know why? Because last year at this time I was just starting The Time of the Migraine, a good two months in which I had constant blurry vision and any whiff of fragrance brought forth the headache. And the year before that, I had bronchitis or pneumonia or something along with a bad back but was unable to go to the doctor, so both lasted for months. I can handle a little fragrance hangover.

This fragrance thing is actually getting more manageable. I think I'm healing, as the reactions for the past several months haven't been as strong. Trips to the store are less taxing. I can think while at a school function. It's tempting to start letting my guard down, but I know this is a slow process. I have to let my body heal.

Finally seeing the end of this editing project. It's the first novel I've edited, been editing shorts, so it seemed to go forever. I'm at the point now where I know what it's like to be an editor, and I need to balance it against my own writing. Do I like editing enough to put my book on hold for three weeks? Not sure about that. I'd planned to get BVA done by Christmas, something I could have done if my editing assignment had been another short. I had no idea how much time a novel would take.

Gotta get bananas for Maggie's class . Thanks for everybody's good wishes about her arm, it's not bothering her too much, with the brace.

So...that's me today. What's up with you?

So I have this editing job. I haven't decided yet if it's a good idea to associate my writer persona with my editing persona, so I won't be linking to or mentioning the company by name in this post. I've learned some things that would benefit my author friends, so I thought I'd share in a vague, generic way.

First of all, it's not like a critique. In a critique you can say things like, "I can't follow the action in this scene," and then leave it up to the author to figure out why. That's perfectly acceptable, because as the critic you're doing the author a favor, and they'll take what you have to offer. As an editor, I have to figure out exactly what confuses me about the action, and then say that. Saying it is the hard part. If I do my job right, the solution will be obvious to the author, even if I haven't suggested a solution. Which ties in with my next point.

Editing is a balance of telling the author what to do and letting her decide how to do it. Except in the case of punctuation, where there is a right way and a wrong way, but even then if she feels strongly about leaving out a specific comma, that's ultimately her decision. I have to be very careful about rewriting anything. If I can't move around phrases she's already used to fix it, I leave a suggested fix in a comment, then she can either take my advice as is, change it another way, or tell me to take a flying leap. Although the last one on that list might be counter-productive, since I'm an impartial observer (or at least as impartial as anyone can be), and I'm only here to make her look better. Which leads to...

The editor is there to correct mistakes, no doubt. But among some authors there's this attitude of, "So I don't know how to punctuate a sentence correctly, that's what editors are for." Let me take a moment to point out I've not yet edited an author with this attitude, but I've seen it around in the blogosphere. But let me tell you something, dear authors, this attitude is stupid. STUPID. If my harsh words pull one author away from this abyss, they will be worth it. Not only is it good to know your craft inside and out for your craft's sake, but there's a practical purpose for knowing the nuts and bolts, and then putting them into practice BEFORE sending it to your editor.

If I have your manuscript for 20 days, and I spend the full 20 helping you polish your words, you are going to have one tight, well-written book. A tight, well-written book will increase your reputation, generate better word-of-mouth, ergo selling more books and creating more fans. However, if I have to spend seven of those days correcting hundreds or even thousands of typos which could easily have been found before the ms came to me, then you are getting only 13 days of word polishing. We might only have time for plot and eliminating confusion, and very little time for word choices and flow.

So those are the observations I have so far. I'm sure I'll have more as I go along, and maybe even change my mind about some of those up there. (Except for the last one. Since I basically called everyone who doesn't agree with me an idiot I'll have to stick by it. It's true anyway.) I'm getting the education of a lifetime, being on this side of things.

This day has an adversarial feel. I don't mind arguing with people, but I'd rather not. Unfortunately, if my hunch is right, I won't have any choice about it. It might just be the lingering feeling of a dream I had. Can't remember exactly what it was about.

My dreams the past few days have included a lot of elements from this game I'm playing--Metroid Prime. Super Metroid was my favorite a long, long time ago, back before I had babies and still had time to play video games. I love how it has action, but it's not all action, you also have to figure out puzzles with clues from made-up lore in the ruins of a civilization. Right up my alley. In Super Metroid all those years ago, I remember playing the whole game with this character in a space suit, then after I won, Samus took off the helmet and...Samus was a girl. What? A girl? AWESOME! That's right, girls play games, too. Girls like to kick butt. But at the time it really shook things up. Now, of course, it's no secret Samus is a girl. The game is awesome, even if Samus were a boy, but it's even awesomer to have a girl character to identify with. It makes me think I could walk through lava if I only had Varia suit. I could blast strange creatures on another planet, if I just had an arm cannon.

I'm actually playing the game too much. My eyes can't take that 1st person, 3D view for very long. Especially since most of my work is done on computer, so there's another 8 hours a day of looking at a screen. When I first took this editing job, I wasn't sure how it would affect my own writing. I figured it would be a good distraction, as well as teaching me more about the business side of publishing. I worried that I might edit instead of writing my own stuff, but then I found it beneficial to have some other things to rotate through. But true to form, I've let the editing completely take over my own writing, and my good-eye time. I'm a serial obsesser, but I am learning how to calm the obsession. The editing job has been good for me.

Yesterday was the Little Bubba's birthday, so we had the family over for a party. It rained literally all weekend, in fact is still raining, but it didn't affect the party at all. One nice surprise was my step-son coming for the party. His birthday was on Saturday (20 years old, yikes!), but he rarely visits even for birthdays, so it was nice having him. I hope he starts visiting more often.

I hope everyone had a relaxing holiday weekend. The hubs is off one more day, but the kids have gone back to school, which means we have some time alone as a couple. It's such an unusual prospect I can't think of a single thing we could do together without kids that we can't do with them. Maybe we can go to the art museum. Spent a couple of days migrainey. The sinuses are still prickly, but I feel better now. DH discovered Facebook and we spent the weekend playing Farmville together. It's nice that he's finally taking an interest in my activities.

I didn't get much of my own writing done because of the migraine. I used the lucid times to get some editing done for the Eternal Press stories. I don't know if I'm very good at juggling two stories at once, but I can already tell it's going to be a good lesson. It's so rewarding to get the manuscript back from the author after the first round of edits, the hardest part. Seeing it so much cleaner than it was when we started is awesome.

Something else I've been thinking about is this uproar over the presidential address to the schools. I never get political on here, mostly because I'm on the fence about all the issues and I know my limitations. I affiliate with no party. But why is everyone being so unreasonable about this? I understand how a parent might worry a politician might try to indoctrinate the young'uns to his ideas, and how that parent might wish to look over the speech before it is delivered. The way some folks have reacted to the very idea of that speech, text unseen, is ... I'm just flabbergasted. He won't have hypnotic lasers beaming directly into our children's brains. It's, what--20 minutes out of their day? When the kids come home from school, I'll ask them if they saw the speech, and what they thought of it, and address any questions they have--if they're even showing it at our school, I haven't asked. What happened to calm reason? Waiting to find out the facts before freaking? Or has that always been a quality in the minority?

I invite your comments and discussion on this issue, 'cuz I know you will. All I ask, since I have readers on both sides of the fence, is to keep the snark to a minimum. Snark reflects worse on the snarker than the snarkee, and solves nothing. Calm reason, please.

Yesterday I went through the printed scenes of my WIP, assessed each one's viability, and inserted placeholder pages for scenes which were missing. I got about halfway through. By the time I'm finished I hope to have every major plot point mapped in, with plenty of room for fun extras like backstory and worldbuilding. The underworld where my story is set has mushy time, and to convey that uncertain, disjointed time I'm inserting random flashbacks. A lot of those have already been written, but there's lots of room to be creative there, still. I'm excited.

I mentioned earlier that my editing projects this time are both erotica stories. Now, I'm not a prude by any means, but I am demure. Sex and sexy things are mostly private for me, and while I don't care if others feel comfortable talking about them, I was interested to see how I would react. It's funny how un-erotic erotica can be when you're looking for punctuation errors. I knew I would be fine when I made this note without blushing: "You said where Guy #1's ____ is, but what about Guy #2's _____?"

What language to use in my notes is something I've wondered about. Do I mirror the language of the story in notes like the one above? It sounds too dirty for a professional. So do I use the correct terminology? Well, that sounds too stiff and uptight (puns intended). So I think it's cute to use nicknames, like you-know-what and hoo-ha, but that's not precise enough. I guess I'll go with correct terminology, since I am a professional, after all, and you can't go wrong with penis and vulva.

If I miss the morning blogging window, I never think of blogging in the afternoon. Duh. If I have something to say, but either I already posted or I didn't post that morning, do I jump on and make a new post? No. Because I put myself in boxes, and that is one of them: Blog every morning, and save any ideas for the next morning's post. I don't know why, and I know it's dumb, and that's why I'm blogging right now, because I have to shout to the world

I ROCK!

I printed out my book, right? Well I just got done separating the scenes, which was extremely satisfying. I have a buttload of stuff that needs writing, mostly toward the end, but at least now I can see what I have, right in front of my eyes. I have direction. Some of it can't be used, but not much. Also, I have some scenes written from other PsOV that really work, and I'm reconsidering my single POV approach. And another thing? It's good writing. You know how when you take a story out of the drawer in which you stuffed it with disgust some months ago and find that it isn't as bad as you remember? In fact, it's workable? Like, you wouldn't kick someone out of bed for writing something similar? That surge you get? That's me. I guess it's clear how big of a deal this is to me. I'm pretty proud of myself. Ready to go. Glad I climbed out of some boxes and did this.

To top it off, I'm doing some really good editing work, and getting some housework done. I love productive days. Can you tell?

So I printed out my whole novel yesterday. Ever since Maggie stuck some toys down in the printer several years ago, it hasn't wanted to feed the paper. The last time I printed a novel I had to feed each page by hand, and oh em gee, was that an exercise in tedium. So this time I was like, I'm gonna fix that bad boy before I even start. A few days ago, I took it apart (not easy, I don't recommend it) and cleaned it thoroughly, made sure all the parts were free, and narrowed down the problem to a smooth roller which wasn't gripping the paper.

I thought for a while about how I could enhance the gripping power of that roller. Double-stick tape would stick to the paper, too. I could wrap a rubber band around it, but finding one the right size would be tedious. How about if I roughed up the surface of the roller, by scraping it with a steak knife? But then it hit me: rubber cement. Rubber cement is rubbery (hence the name) and dries fast, and if you get it anywhere it shouldn't be it rubs right off once it's dry. I didn't have much faith it would work. It was too easy.

But it did work! Woo! I printed out all my files with only one bad page. I didn't run out of ink or anything.

I'm really glad I printed it out. I'm a total Scrooge when it comes to the printer. The cartridges are $20, and that's for crappy remanufactured ones. The kids don't print except on special occasions. I don't print my writing. Now I'm thinking I need to do it. I really don't think electronically. I've known for a long time that I work best with my hands, so why not get writing out here in the real world where I have some tactile input? Because I'm a total Scrooge, remember?

Well, no more. The words don't look the same on a computer screen. I think it may be because I read so many others' words on the same screen, it lessens the immediate response of my brain to my own words. But when I have my story on a bunch of pages in front of me, mine are the only words there. Also, I can rifle through to find the page I want, instead of having to remember which file it's in.

I don't know how much work I'll be able to do on it today. Today the focus was going to be this Eternal Press story I'm editing, and I was going to do the sorting of pages when I needed a computer break. My sinuses are acting up, though, so I don't know how much eye time I'll have. We'll see how it goes.

I've been feeling pretty crappy the past few days, and apprently it's that time of year, because my bud Fal has felt the same way, and she's way up there in Illinois. I'm on the upswing, though, and I hope she is, too.

I love September. The word is nice, the birthstone is sapphire, the weather is cooler, the kids are firmly in school, football starts...There's nothing to dislike about September. Well, we do have FOUR family birthdays in September--mine, my husband's, my son's, and my step-son's--on top of the back-to-school expense, auto insurance is due and Christmas is just around the corner...So yeah, financially it's usually pretty stressful in September. I haven't had a birthday present in years. If I had the money I'd probably have to buy my present myself, anyway.

But still...September is nice. Energizing. Full of possibility.

I think I'm going to try a technique with my novel that I used for the long synopsis. For the synopsis, I wrote and typed everything out, then I cut apart the scenes and rearranged them into the best order. It's one of those things I've tried before according to someone else's instructions with no success, but once I threw out my internal rule book and played it by ear, it worked out well. With the novel I've tried notecards, but writing a hundred notecards and deciding which information is important enough to go on each notecard was just too unwieldy, so I decided I wasn't an organizer after all. But again, I had fallen into the trap lots of writers fall into--the "should" trap, the "rules" trap, the "everybody knows better than I do" trap.

So I'm going to make up this technique as I go along. I'll print out the whole book--backstory, current scenes, deleted scenes--and staple together the pages of each scene, cutting the page with scissors if necessary to separate them. After that...I don't know. We'll see. I hesitate to tell you exactly what I do, because I don't want to perpetuate that "rules" mentality. Art doesn't follow rules.

My mind is sort of a blank this morning, but I feel like connecting with the world so I'm posting anyway. I apologize in advance for any inanity which may follow.

Over the weekend a couple of my first readers got back to me with comments on my long synopsis. Their advice was right on and exactly what I needed, pointing out things I am too close to see. Really invaluable. I'm sure the rest of my readers will have just as much insight. I'll do an in-depth report once it's a done deal, probably by the end of the week.

While I'm waiting to finish my synopsis, I have my editing job to do. Last week I received my next two assignments from Eternal Press. To my surprise, they are both classified as erotica. Now, I've never edited erotica before, although I did go through a time when I thought I might be able to write some. (Not.) By the way, the link goes to my old blog because the comments somehow didn't get imported over here on my older posts. The comments are funny.

So anyway, yeah, I'm editing erotica. So far it's been very--ahem--interesting. It's smashing my preconceived notions of erotic literature and bringing to light some personal attitudes which have always operated unseen. Eye-opening, in a number of ways.

On the health front, I found out toothpaste irritates my skin and is probably why my tongue always feels burny. On the other hand, the knuckle on my broken finger popped and I regained some range of motion. I hope this bodes well for having a full recovery.

I pulled all my WIP files to one location and started organizing them. Cuts, backstory, notes, different chunks of chapters, the working doc, 3 different synopses, etc. I'm a very sloppy saver, so my file names are not nearly descriptive enough to immediately know what they are, and also they are saved to two different computers and a backup hard drive. I have the same file name 10 times on 4 different documents. It's atrocious. If anybody has any thoughts on a better way to organize and evaluate what to save and what to delete, please let me know. If nobody has a better idea, I'll import all the files into Page Four, see how that works.

Have a great week.

Last night, organized full-time writer/editor that I am, I made a to-do list and set it right on top of my laptop, which in turn was sitting on the little makeshift work station tucked into the corner of my living room. (I do have an office, but for those of you just joining us, I built my office into the loft of my barn-like outbuilding. It has a/c, but no bathroom. I only use it when everyone's home.) My usual laptop spots are the dining room table and the couch. The problem with working at the dining room table is that is also where the laundry is done, and the other computer, and the kids' tv, and generally the busiest room in the house. The couch is uncomfortable for long periods of time, and the good tv + Wii is there. Other times I've tried to work in these two places, I feel...I don't know, just antsy. Distracted. It may be a Pavlovian response, where sitting in the places I usually play makes me want to play.

So anyway, I stole a tv-tray and got a spare--and, alas, uncomfortable--desk chair, stuck them beside an outlet in the living room, and it works beautifully. I'm sitting right against the couch, but since I'm not actually on the couch and facing a wall, my brain is quite happy working. I'm figuring out how to be a writer--that I need to have several projects open to switch between; that if I start feeling antsy, I'd better get up and do something else; that a pen and paper is my friend. So far as a full-time writer/editor, I've finished my long synopsis project and sent it to my first readers, finished a critique for my brother (the story can be found on my new page, The Sax Man), corresponded with the two authors whose works I will be editing next, and started editing the first of those works. The house is also cleaner, since I'm slowly getting caught up on the summer clutter.

My micro-chore merry-go-round method is working out so far. Reminding myself to take it slow and do a good job, don't freak out, it'll all work out in the end. Can you see the glow surrounding me? It's the glow of accomplishment. Come, bathe yourself in my glow, take a piece home. I can make more.

The in-laws drove up from Alabama for a visit this weekend. It's always fun catching up with my husband's family, but it is also exhausting, trying to get the little kids to interact with their grandparents after months apart. Everybody was great about the fragrance thing, of course--don't know why I always worry about offending someone. During the family gathering on Saturday my teenage step-daughter Z told me something wonderful: Her headaches went away after she stopped using body spray and smelly detergent. She's had unexplained headaches for years, so this is great. I can't recommend enough taking a look at the chemicals in your life if you have a chronic, unexplained condition. It can't hurt.

My book life just got a little busier. I've been working on my own writing stuff, then yesterday my brother sent me a new short story of his to critique, and this morning got my next editing assignment. Now, my former MO is to work on one thing frantically, to the exclusion of everything else. However, I've learned a couple of things about that method, and those are:

1. The piece I'm working on suffers because I get brain-fatigue but push through anyway.


2. My writing is always the last thing I work on. There's always something else to work on.


3. I'm more stressed.

Conventional wisdom says to complete one task before moving on to another. I have to modify that to fit this crazy artistic business, and say that I must complete one mini-task before moving on to the next. Think of it more like a rotating to-do list.

Hope your Monday is good.