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Thursday, April 23, 2015

Editing Manuscripts: The Vital Role of Professional Editors in Producing Flawless Manuscripts

Writing is not just about telling a tale, putting thoughts into words, and getting published. Many writers spend hours, days, weeks, or months to create their story. They have to put their thoughts and emotions to work from the start of the writing journey until it is finished. In their passion while writing and in the outpouring of their thoughts, some errors could occur. Mistakes can happen, whether it is wrong verb tenses, incorrect placement of punctuation, or typos in spelling. Completing a story does not automatically mean that it is ready for publication; it means that the editing process is about to start.

Why Is Professional Editing Vital to Your Manuscripts?

Editing is an essential component in the success of every manuscript that will be published. Potential publishers expect to receive a clean, polished copy to avoid bad press reviews against it. A fully edited and flawless document leaves a lasting impression on publishers and readers, thus creating a desire for them to purchase and publish your work in the future.
Manuscripts or documents undergo in-depth review as editors ensure that it is free from spelling and grammar errors. Editors will be able to identify inconsistencies in the story line, revise weak sentences, and suggest to the author ways to improve the manuscript. Professional editing may actually make the difference between winning a publishing deal and getting back to review your draft.
Writers who make it through the first phase of the selection process will have to submit the full manuscript. Editors from publishing companies are not likely to continue reading if there are pages which are not properly formatted or spelling errors on a certain page, no matter how great the story line goes. It is a lazy mistake for writers to bypass this process. Not calling upon professional editors to check and double check their manuscript runs the risk of providing substandard copies to potential publishers.

Why Can’t Writers Just Edit Their Work?

Writers take time to finish a story, and when they finish, they have an attachment to their work and a tendency to indulge. Many writers doubt the practicality of having their manuscript edited and try to edit their own work. But writers who have spent weeks or month soaked up in their own stories may not be as effective in finding inconsistencies and errors in their manuscripts. They need a fresh pair of eyes to thoroughly check their work.
As the author, you become too close to your work that you hardly see your own mistakes. What may seem clear to you may be unclear to the general audience. Editors will be the second set of eyes which will discover poorly worded sections and small mistakes in grammar that authors might have overlooked. Editors have certain skills to speed up the improvement of your manuscript. They have an eye for detail and are better placed to view the manuscript with a critical eye before submitting them to the publishers.
Editing provides a learning curve for an author’s career. While most authors do not like their work to be edited or criticized, it is the professional editors that improve the writer’s craft. Authors have long relied on editors to represent the eyes and ears of the general reader. Editors bring viewpoints that may never rise spontaneously in the author’s reverie.

Authors and Editors Are a Team

Authors and editors are a team working to produce the best product for your target audience. The moment that you start engaging your editor is the moment that you become more than just an author—you become your own product’s developer. Keep in mind that readers expect to have professional stories at hand, and missing out on simple errors can leave them disillusioned on the author’s skills based solely on those unedited parts.
Most authors have no way of judging whether their work is really good or bad. They are not objective in their creation because they personally lent on the paper. An editor should be someone that you can trust, someone who is not afraid to tell the truth and will help you better your work.
Not all readers will like the story line for each one have their own thoughts and opinions. However, a highly polished and professionally edited manuscript will help develop recognition for the author’s writing skills and talents. Without editors, some authors will remain positive that they have created a work of a genius though it was only mediocre at best, and others will wallow in self-doubt when they have actually created something great.

Sunday, April 19, 2015

An Interview with E. Lockhart

“Just do it. Just write it.” This is what E. Lockhard said to encourage aspiring young writers. The New York Times best selling author was in the Philippines recently to promoter her latest book, “We Were Liars.” Organized by National Book Store, the book signing took the author to Cebu City and to Glorietta 1 in Makati City.

E. Lockhart, whose real name is Emily Jenkins, further explained that she writes on a regular schedule, and pointed out that one of her novels consists of 60,000 words. She continued that, “If you write an email to a friend and tell the story of your day, you can write a 500 word message. If you do that every day for 5 days and take the weekend off, you’ve got 2500 words. In a month, you have 10,000 words. In six months, you have a novel. Just write those 500 words every day. Just write them. And you’ll have a novel.”

E. Lockhart flew in all the way from the US to promote “We Were Liars,” which she said was the answer to all her childhood curiosity about the private islands that she sees when she takes the ferry ride to Martha's Vineyard. She takes the ferry ride whenever she visits her maternal grandmother in their little house built on Martha’s Vineyard. During the trip, she would see one beautiful house on a small island and wondered what were the people doing on that island. This later inspired her to answer all the questions which filled her mind when she was still very small.

During the book signing, she also discussed the novel as a universal experience of the childhood realization that families fight. Some families fight every day; or maybe once a year during Christmas. Some may be violent while others fight very quietly with angry tones and side glances. However, she thinks that all kids have grown ups in their lives arguing with each other in one way or another, and as the kids grow up, they begin to question why grown-ups fight, how they fight, what they say, what they refuse to say and what their values are. That’s the moment she wants to remember in this book: growing up, where you begin to think that the adults in your life are mascots; and you begin to think that you no longer believe them.

When asked why she named the four main characters as Liars, she reiterated that everyone is a liar. The novel is about a family of liars, called the Sinclairs, who lie with themselves and as well as with others. They lie for good reasons as well as for bad. She says that people lie a lot of times about love. People lie to protect someone’s feelings. They lie because someone might not be ready to hear what they have to say because they are protecting themselves. It doesn’t mean that they are mysterious. It means that they are emotionally complicated.

Jenkins caters to the young adult market in her novels. Her books include “The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks,” which was a Printz Award honor book, a finalist for the National Book Award, and recipient of the Cybils Award for best young adult novel; and the Ruby Oliver quartet: “The Boyfriend List,” “The Boy Book, The Treasure Map of Boys,” and “Real Live Boyfriends.” All of these are comedies but she tried a suspense genre for “We Were Liars” to challenge herself by getting out of her comfort zone. She confided that she likes reading suspense novels, which inspired her to write one. She then said, “Actors do it, so I can do it, too.”

“I want to write a novel where the characters had a lot of objects, a lot of baggage, meaning symbolism,” E. Lockhart explained about the depth of her books. In “We Were Liar,” she detailed that the whole island is the endowed object of the book. All of these are weighted with this extra meaning of the grandmother’s love and the grandfather’s evil nature.

Regarding her books' pre-production process, she narrated that her publishing house, Random House Dell Delacorte Press, copyedits her manuscript and she reviews the two passes as well as check the copyedit as well. It is a series of sending manuscripts, copyediting and lots of reviews.

With regards her pen name, she says that Lockhart came from her maternal grandmother’s maiden name. She decided to use it when she started to publish for young adults after producing 35 picture books. It served as a fresh start for her in the market place.

Before the book signing started, E. Lockhart extended her warmest gratitude and appreciation to all her fans who came out to her tour in Makati and in SM City Cebu last March 21. She then ended by saying, “I hope that this is not a message so much as the invitation to think things. That is what I hope people get out of my books. I hope they want to reread them to connect with other readers to shake it up a little bit.”

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

5 Important Writing Habits

Writing is an art that you develop over time. Some people might say that writing is a natural born talent; however, regardless of what some people might say, writing can be exercised. What you need are not the golden tools—that is, perfect grammar—but discipline and creativity, which can both be achieved and developed with pure dedication. Here are five important writing habits that can help you on your way to becoming a professional writer.

Setting a schedule

Set a strict schedule and adhere to it daily.

Most well-known writers, from the old age to the modern, follow a strict schedule to ensure they get things done on paper. These writers range from Jane Austen and Charles Dickens to Mark Twain and Stephen King. Simply put, a strict daily routine is conducive to great success. As E. B. White said:

“A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.”

For instance, Jane Austen used to wake up early before anyone else to play the piano and prepare breakfast by 9:00 a.m., her main household chore. She would then write in the sitting room.

So set a strict schedule to adhere to and write daily, preferably a page a day, and you’ll find your stories finished in no time.

Understanding that it can be practiced

Writing can be practiced. The sooner you realize that, the sooner you can start writing.

As mentioned earlier, writing can be exercised or practiced. It’s not a case of “either you got it or you don’t.” You shouldn’t believe things like that because they can greatly hinder your writing. You have to understand that you can practice writing, and all you have to do is just sit down and write. Do not believe fallacies such as the dreaded writer’s block because they’re just going to set you back from finishing your writings.

Reading

Read and keep on reading in order to be able to write.

Read, read, and read. This advice comes from Stephen King. Think of it this way: a writer who reads often will have the right tools and sufficient fuel to string up words and sentences, whereas a writer who doesn’t read won’t have enough “fodder” to use for writing.

Reading is essential in writing because you get to familiarize yourself with how others write and you get more ideas about how to write well and increase your vocabulary.

Turning off distractions

Turning off all distractions can help a lot when writing.

In our modern society with all those technological advancements, distractions come easily, including your cellphone, your social media profile, social messengers, the internet, your TV set, etc. When you write, turn them all off. This is crucial to get things done. You have to focus on writing first before anything else; otherwise, you’d get too tired or feel too sluggish to write toward the end of the day.

Simply turn them off and write, and you’ll find yourself finishing your stories with ease.

Remembering that you can always revise

If you don't know what the best word to use, right the next best and continue. You can resolve the word choice later when editing.

This is usually forgotten by most writers. They take so much time in one part of their story, article, or novel that they don’t make any good progress. Stuck in a sentence? Forgot the “perfect” word? Then go ahead and write what you think is right at the moment and go forward with your writing. You can always come back and revise it. Just remember to mark the parts where you think you need to rewrite.

If that doesn’t convince you, remember what Ernest Hemingway said:

“All bad writers are in love with the epic.”

Because most of them end up not writing anything at all.

Most writers have this tendency because they want to make it “right” or “perfect” at the first go, making something “genius” and “magical” and praiseworthy. This might be caused by fear of rejection or the obsessive want of being well-received.

Conclusion

In the end, what matters most is how much you write and what you write. It doesn’t have to be written with perfect grammar (but make sure it’s acceptable), it doesn’t have to be a literary masterpiece, and it doesn’t even have to be right the very first time. Just make sure you write, write, and . . . write!