Whew! It’s been a busy time, and I’m sorry I haven’t been around much lately. Here’s what has been going on:
- Homework, homework, homework. A cliff on which I am hanging by the tips of my fingers. Perhaps it wasn’t a good idea to take these two classes together (healthcare writing—blargh!—and advanced tech writing, which mostly consists of document design).
- Fitting in those workouts I promised myself I would do. They take time. Why can’t humans have super speed so we can do an hour’s worth of exercise in ten minutes and call it good?
- Revising Tunerville. So far, I have done the things my reader suggested, and now I’m beginning the tedious line editing process.
Line editing is going through the book looking for stupid things like spelling and grammar errors, consistency in language, and stuff that plain doesn’t make sense.
A little bird told me this was a lot like homework.
Let me give you an example. In this post, I talked about the plot and mentioned Callahan, the Explorer from the Realm who visits Chris with a warning to set things right. This character is several hundred years old and very reserved.
His dialogue contains no contractions whatsoever. He says “do not” instead of “doesn’t,” and his speech is somewhat lofty. He would not say someone made something; he would say they constructed it.
Same with Chris. His dialogue is much simpler, as are his thought patterns. Since he is the protagonist, a lot of the book is from his point of view. When inside his head, I try not to use the same kind of language I use for Callahan. Look at the difference between this introductory text from Chris’s POV:
In the dark basement, he sat on the bottom step and picked at the splinter. Emo crawled into his lap and purred, pushing his ears against Chris’s chin. He rubbed the cat absently and wondered for the thousandth time if the house, built in 1907, could possibly be haunted. Never quite had the nerve to bring the group here; he would be too disappointed if it wasn’t. Still, what about those funny noises he used to hear at night when he stayed here as a kid, the ones his grandmother told him were mice? Wouldn’t it be awesome if I could tune ghosts in like a TV channel and see one whenever I wanted?
And this, from Callahan’s:
His pace slowed as he drew nearer. The Directorate meetings weighed on him lately. He disliked the formality, the pomp. He would much rather be in the Gardens, tending the lilies and wildflowers that were his favorites, or in the Library reading Poe or perhaps conversing with him. News of the tuner had naturally reached the Realm. No one but the Directorate seemed the slightest bit concerned. The readers read, artists painted, fishers fished, writers wrote, children played, and on the vast azure surface of the Realm’s ocean, sailboats bobbed.
The language is slightly more formal, and you won’t see any sentence fragments (yes, they have their place in fiction) in Callahan’s scenes.
Thanks to advice from Write Tight: Say Exactly What You Mean with Precision and Power by William Brohaugh, I’m also searching for words like up, down, off, over, together, behind, and anything ending with –ly. With each pass through the book, I find rewriting with stronger verbs and ditching these adverbs and modifiers reduces the word count. I’ve gone from 89,300 to below 88,100.
Heh.
- Another thing I’m doing is preparing for the Blogging from A-Z Challenge in April. Once again, I’ll be blogging every day except Sunday (unless I get behind, which may happen). I am NOT quitting this time!
I will discuss characterization, using the alphabet structure to illustrate different aspects of a person I think about when I build them out of nothing. I’ve already begun making notes for each post. This challenge goes easier if you have a game plan right from the beginning.
- In addition, I’m preparing to take the summer off and write a sequel to Rose’s Hostage. Enough research is in place for me to start the first draft. I might do a mini NaNoWriMo for it, so you can follow along.
- And I’m planning a trip in the autumn to England and Wales to visit family and see some Doctor Who locations (and castles) in Cardiff. Woot! I’ve been to England, long ago, but never Wales. It’s so exciting, it’s all I can think about.
Wales has the most badass flag in the world.
Of course I’ll blog from there, never fear. I hope to snap lots of pictures to post as well, so stay tuned. It would be nice if I could spend a whole month and write, but a sabbatical is not practical for me right now, darn it.
Expect another vocabulary post soon; those are way too much fun. Once they’re finished, I’ll have to come up with another series for you. If you have any suggestions, I’m open to them; just post in comments.
Graphomaniac - A. Elizabeth West 
Here’s what it is, Elizabeth. You know it, and I know it. There is never enough time. Nor will there ever be. That’s simply the way it goes. We don’t really–if we give a rat’s ass–have much of a choice in the matter. We do what we do. Even when that hurts. That’s why I keep coming back here, because I get that about you. I see the passion, the intelligence, the beauty. I’m not alone in this and I know it. For what it’s worth from a stranger, just put yourself into the harsh realm of current “reality.” Anyone visiting your site knows you’re capable, if wary, of this. I’m on your side. Nothing good ever came from something “easy.” For some reason, we’re not allowed.
Heh, thanks. I think I’ve already made my decision. The summer break is for clarity.
Nobody ever said on their deathbed, “Gee, I wish I’d spent more time and money doing something I hated instead of taking a huge risk doing something I love.”