 | 21 Sep 06 |
First, I want to thank Tess Gerritsen and Barbara Colley for being our guests this week at Murder She Writes. We really appreciate them taking the time!
There have been a few technical difficulties. Barbara responded to everyone’s comments, but unfortunately they seem to have disappeared. We’re looking into it. (Actually, we’re having our web guru at Stonecreek Media, look into it.) If you’ve posted something that has disappeared or never showed up this week, please email us.
I need to ship out my copyedits on SPEAK NO EVIL by the end of today. I have 100 more pages to go. I started them on Sunday (after taking Saturday off; now I’m regretting it!) I should be done, but I’m tweaking. I can’t help it. And when I tweak, I read slower.
Most authors probably tweak BEFORE they send the book into their editor. After revisions, I didn’t have time. I slammed through the revisions, got all the major points covered. I didn’t have time to go over each line, make sure I wasn’t too repetitive (a problem I have), fix word problems.
The book was 95% clean, and the line edits I’m looking at are really good. My guy who does it really tightens my writing in a way that I hope to be able to do to myself down the road. I think I get so close to the story that I can’t think of a better way to say something, but he’ll cut a word or two (or add a word or two) and suddenly my meaning is clearer. I haven’t STETted much (that’s when you write STET in the margin because you DON’T want a copyedit/line edit change made.) Some problems were that the copyeditor didn’t understand my meaning–which means I wasn’t clear enough. So I fixed the sentences to make them clearer.
I’m still tweaking things that haven’t even been touched by the red pencil. Because this is the last time I can make substantial changes. This is also the version (with all these changes) that will be printed for the ARC. So I want to get things as right as possible.
I found one major error no one else saw. I mentioned that The Butcher (from THE HUNT) had seventeen victims. Then later, sixteen. So I went back to THE HUNT and re-read the section that had this information. The Butcher had 22.
But I love this part of the process. I’ve read the book all the way through for the first time. I had read everything IN the book multiple times, but not in order. So I’m seeing the full picture for the first time. It’s both exciting and scary. I love this story; will anyone else?
Oh, yeah, have I mentioned that I’m totally neurotic?
© 2006 – 2009, Allison Brennan. All rights reserved.
Allison Brennan is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling and award winning author of seventeen romantic thrillers and several short stories. She lives near Sacramento, California with her husband and five children. Recently, RT Book Reviews called Allison "A master of suspense." And Lee Child said of her Kincaid series launch, "A world-class nail-biter ... Brennan is in the groove with this one." For fun Allison enjoys wine tasting, swimming, kids sports, playing video games, and "of course" reading. Her most recent release is IF I SHOULD DIE, book three in the Lucy Kincaid series. Watch for SILENCED coming on 4.24.12.
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You love copy-edits? Allison, I’m worried about you! I hate them. I live in fear of missing something vital. And it’s a constant fight to slow down my natural reading speed.
I was really interested in your comment that the copy edit stage is the first time you’ve read the book through. I do that at least a couple times before I send it. Different methods for different authors!
by Jen September 21st, 2006 at 7:07 amI just finished the copy edits for Bobbie Faye and loved them; my copy editor was pretty fantastic. He left my voice alone, left stylistic choices alone and when he did make a suggestion, it was almost always dead on. I tweaked a little bit, but I’d already had the time to go through a couple of times – I can’t imagine how much pressure it would be, Allison, to be doing three books at a time and to have to race through! No wonder you don’t have time to read all the way through until this stage. (But it doesn’t show — that’s the amazing, mind-boggling thing. It never looks rushed.)
by toni mcgee causey September 21st, 2006 at 9:42 amI’m going crazy today in other ways.
by Karin September 21st, 2006 at 12:24 pmAllison, you are not neurotic. You are a serious author concerned about your career. Hey, it sounded good when I said it outloud.
by Amanda September 21st, 2006 at 12:33 pmI like it when Amanda says that too. OTOH, a little neuroticism is good for an author. That’s what I keep telling myself.
by Edie Ramer September 21st, 2006 at 12:50 pmAllison as a reader – and a friggin’, nitpicky, rip it all to shreds, no fun person (just ask my husband) I a preciate your making sure it was 22, not 16 or 17. Mistakes like that drive me crazy, then I drive my hubby crazy (which is really a short putt.) Your readers appreciate your neurosis.
Cele is now backing away from the sugar
by Cele September 21st, 2006 at 4:45 pmCele, my best friend would have a fit if I messed up important details. I’m not a detail person in many ways, but I notice the oddest things in books. There was one book by a big author where in a major part of the story there were pages ripped from the bible, pages of the gospel of Luke and the gospel of Thomas all over . . . so I’m thinking, wow, this is a major story twist, because obviously the gospel of Thomas isn’t in a standard bible, so I keep expect this to lead to the killer . . . uh, no. Never mentioned again. Someone missed it. I’m not blaming the author (at this point) because sometimes the CE changes things thinking one thing and the author misses it . . . but that really threw me for a loop.
I hope I didn’t miss anything major . . . or major minor
by Allison September 23rd, 2006 at 8:38 pmThe other things it makes me think, as a person whose never heard of the gospel of Thomas is…
1) What “Bible” is this from?
2) Is Luke next to Thomas? I though Luke was next to John.
I would quit reading, and now I would be thankful because it was superfluous
by Cele September 24th, 2006 at 8:48 am