Case in point, this friend of mine I was giving her short story a read-through this past weekend before she submitted it to her agent. A publisher was interested, but only if she lengthened it to novella. She had written it a few years back, before she won some pretty big contests and published three novels. She was pretty satisfied how the rewrite turned out, but she was still short in word count, so she asked me if I could suggest places where she might lengthen it. I said sure, offering to also give it a line-edit while I was at it. Since she’s a pretty experienced writer, I thought I’d have it done in a snap.

I was wrong.

By page four, each screen was so covered in edits and Track Changes suggestions I gave up. If I didn’t she’d either hate me or think I was trying to rewrite her book. Which I honestly wasn’t, as the plot was tight, and what was going on in the first scene piqued my interest. But it was so static, so removed, so telling and not showing it read like a laundry list and was, quite frankly, dull. The thing was it didn’t have to be, as this writer knew how to write it better, and has proved over and over that she could do it. The thing was, she was working on an old manuscript, and quite methodically, allowed the logic of her less seasoned way of writing stand in the first scene, logic from before she had the benefit of an editor to draw out the more descriptive writer inside her. But as any experienced novelist knows, if you don’t make the first scene pop, you’re never going to get the reader – or the editor – to the next. And hers just wasn’t happening. And to prove my point even further, I skipped ahead to a scene she had just added, which clipped along and sizzled with the passion I had long expected from her. But being so close to the work, she couldn’t see it. And understandably hit the roof when my wall-to-wall edits smacked her in the face.

Seeing that, it’s really easy to feel crushed, to declare yourself a terrible writer, to sink to the depths of suckidom. To swear up and down and four ways to Tuesday you’ll never write again. Period. But that’s such a copout, when really all you have to do is do the work. Writers think they write for their readers, but surprise! In the beginning, you’re really writing for your editor, as without that third eye, chances are, you’re never going to be good enough to get it out to your audience. We think we’re all fabulous because we have this scenario playing out in 3D in our heads and don’t realize what we leave out, because our brains are compensating for the omissions. But it take an experienced editor to visualize those nuances and draw them out from the writer, making our work more complete and in the end, what we all want–salable.

Now get to work,

Trudy

Here’s another. Feel free to steal for your wallpaper.

Trudy

As a liberal, I must say there are a few things that I’d like to hear in President Obama’s speech tonight, things that have been on the back burner for too long now. As an educator and a member of the fading middle class, I’d like to see an increase in Pell Grants and a new push for the Jobs program, some of the budget to go for infrastructure repair (aided by steel forged in the U.S. and not China) funded by more decreases in military spending, and a new push toward universal health care, maybe even using Romneycare as an example. Instead of the scientific de-evolution the GOP seems bent on, I’d like to see a reawakening in the study of climate change, new energy, medicine, information and all forms of research and development, so the U.S. once again leads the world in technology. And if we’re going to give tax breaks to anyone it should be the ones who are actually creating something, be it products or jobs, and not to the ones simply making money off of money.

Just a few simple requests. That’s not too much to ask, is it? Sure, the United States is the land of opportunity, and we should have the freedom to pursue it. But that should include every one of us, and not only the ones who can pay to play atop the field.

Trudy

Reblogged from Trudy Doyle – Romance Writer Deluxe:

Although they’ve been known to give the most seasoned of writers the yips, the fact remains if you want to be published, sooner or later, you’re going to have to write a Query Letter. Now don’t get your knickers in a twist–they really aren’t that horrid, as long as you follow these few easy steps. I had initially posted this info last summer but I think it bears repeating, and with a few updates to bring us up to speed… First, some preliminaries… First and foremost, a query is a business letter. …

Worth repeating…again.

Or maybe it’s just me. I have to consider the possibility. Perhaps it’s time I face up to the fact that no one wants to listen to what I say, that I’m either too pedestrian or too out of the mainstream. Then again, maybe out there beyond the gray and stillness, there’s this whole world of hidden activity going on, thriving with spontaneity and life, where all the über trendies circulate, saying smart things and thinking seminal thoughts. Which makes the joke on me because then it’s not dull or boring out there at all–it’s really just dull and boring in here, because everyone out there is living it up. Without me.

Hmm…sounds like a conspiracy. Either that or this continual lack of sunlight has finally done a number on my brain. Or maybe, just maybe, my invitation just didn’t get here yet. That maybe it’s in the mail. And when it finally gets here my life’s going to bust wide open. That when it does, I’ll be so busy I’ll be longing for these days of inactivity, when life was slow and easy and oh-so-dull.

Oh, yes. That’s got to be it. At least that’s what I’ll to tell myself: the invite’s in the mail. So I best rest up. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…..

…Trudy

1. Holidays–DONE! – So thrilled to be able to say that! Look, I’m no Grinch, but don’t they always end up being a tad anti-climatic? True, I love getting together with friends and family, and the Christmas tree always looks so fab in my living room. But this year I indulged in even more crapola than I usually do, and there’s STILL cookies and candy lurking in my larder waiting to attach to my hips. Doesn’t help I’m going away this weekend, to engage in no-doubt another food and potent potable frenzy. The rate I’m going I’ll need to be chained to my stationary bike for a month to get my girlish figure back on track.

2. It’s Primary Season! – Sure I’m a Democrat, but holy cats! how much fun can you have with your clothes on, watching the Republicans eat their own? Talk about budget cutting–the Pro-Newt PAC “Winning Our Future” just chopped the Dem’s war chest expenses in half by producing that smoochy paen to Mitt Romney, King of Bain. Who says bipartisanship is dead!

3. Bill Maher’s Back! – Sorry, but it’s not enough watching Hardball every Monday through Friday. I also need a serious infusion of funny every Friday night to make it through the week. Thank your lucky stars Bill’s there to take up the slack, or we just might end up taking this whole politico thing seriously.

4. Masterpiece Classic – Okay, indulge me with two television references in a row, but there’s just something to be said for the quality of it on Sunday night. For a good portion of the other three seasons, I’m hooked on whatever HBO’s showing, but come winter my heart goes back to my roots. And this season it’s especially smitten with the Brit import Downton Abbey, a sumptuous Edwardian soaper of the highest water. You’d have to pry the remote from my cold, dead fingers to get me to switch stations.

5. Oh, okay–my Students – Maybe it’s the crack-of-dawn rising I miss, or the scent of dry-erase markers squeaking across the whiteboard, but alas, I miss being at school. I did have the quick infusion of teaching a graduate workshop, but it’s not the same as seeing those eager freshmen faces all in neat little rows, pencils at the ready, staring deeply into…their phones. Still, once in a while I crack their own personal sound barrier and make a difference. Especially when I show a movie in class or let them out early. Oh, how they love me then!

It’s so great to be back!

Trudy

Why? Maybe because the man had a wit sharper than a bottle broken in a bar fight. “Christopher was a master of the stunning line and the biting quip, and he had few equals in the sphere of commentary, let alone social life,” a Vanity Fair statement said. Or as the magazine’s editor, Graydon Carter, put it, “Those who read him felt they knew him, and those who knew him were profoundly fortunate souls.” Though he died relatively young, he left a life well-lived and voraciously so. Such praise makes me think: how could I ever hope to surpass that, living in the shadow, and now the memory, of this genius?

At least now we know. The standard’s been set. R.I.P. Mr. Hitchens.

Trudy

According to GalleyCat: With hopes for a Google Books settlement dashed, the Authors Guild has filed for class certification the Google Books litigation, claiming that authors are “passive victims of Google’s digitization campaign.”

If certified, the class action lawsuit will seek statutory damages on behalf of the authors who wrote the millions of books scanned into Google’s digital library. According to Publishers Weekly, Google’s lawyers need to respond to the filing in January.

Here’s more from the Authors Guild’s filing (PDF): “Google’s stated goal has been to copy all of the world’s printed offline books, and Google has acted to accomplish that goal by copying all types of printed offline materials, including books, journals, and dissertations, without authorization from the copyright owners. Google has copied all types of books, whether in-copyright or out-of-copyright, fiction or non-fiction. copyright owners are merely the passive victims of Google’s digitization campaign. Google’s unilateral actions constitute copyright infringement, entitling Google’s victims to statutory damages … as well as declaratory and injunctive relief.”

Three of my titles are scanned into Google’s cache of books, and if you believe that no publicity is bad publicity, then perhaps I have nothing to complain about. But that’s not it. The thing is, what’s the point of having copyright protection when someone could arbitrarily take my material and display it without my or my publisher’s permission? With intellectual property increasingly undervalued, it’s an issue every writer, published or not, can get behind.

Trudy