In Today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* A Slight but Significant Change in My Process
* The Numbers
A Slight but Significant Change in My Process
As I’ve mentioned before, I have a great first reader, Russ Jones of Lubbock, Texas. That said, although the characters are responsible for the content of a story, as the writer, I’m solely responsible for the story’s presentation.
Two days ago, just after I’d uploaded BO-51 to D2D and Amazon, I noticed a wrong word in the next to the last sentence of the novel: “unfolder” for “unfolded.”
Really that’s a spelling error, but Word’s spell checker didn’t catch it for some reason. But it should have. So much for so called artificial intelligence, eh? I mean c’mon, is “unfolder” even a word?
But whatever.
Due to that one minor oversight (well, minor except that it was right at the end of the story so it really stood out), instead of starting Blackwell Ops 52 as I’d planned, I decided to cycle back over Blackwell Ops 51. The whole thing.
My Blackwell Ops novels are short anyway, usually around 35,000 words, so no big deal. Besides, it’s fun to run through the story with the characters again.
When the smoke cleared a few hours later, I’d added 488 words to the novel (see Numbers below).
The stories are already authentic and interesting because I write into the dark vs. “making stuff up” with my conscious mind.
But I don’t like it when little mechanical errors slip through. As I cycled through BO-51, I found
- a missing period at the end of a sentence,
- an en dash where an em dash was required (email me if you don’t know the difference),
- “punch” instead of “punched” and a couple more finger errors like that (I often omit the ‘ed’ from the end of a past-tense word),
- a repeated word (in this case, “his his”),
- a wayward, orphaned quotation mark, and
- the previously mentioned wrong word (“unfolder” for “unfolded”).
It was a great exercise, because the POV character also used my fingers on the keyboard to rearrange a sentence or add a sentence for clarity here and there, etc.
So beginning retroactively with BO-51, I’ve decided to add one more layer of cycling to my novels before I publish them. Doing that only adds a half-day or so to the process.
From now on, no matter how early or late in the day I finish a novel, I’ll cycle over the whole thing that day or the next, then run my spell check and send it off to my first reader. I should at least give my buddy Russ a fighting chance, right? (grin)
Do I recommend you do the same?
Of course. That’s why I’m telling you about it.
Then yesterday, right after I posted “Everyone Falls,” I uploaded the new BO-51 to D2D and Amazon for release on December 6, and to my online discount store where it’s available right now.
Being able to upload a fresh, clean copy is one more benefit to having that every-two-week release thing. (grin)
One Caution
If you don’t have your conscious critical mind mostly under control, don’t try this at home. Instead, use a good copyeditor. I’m available, sometimes, for some manuscripts.
What I did with BO-51 was not an editing pass. Editing (like revising and rewriting) is accomplished with the conscious, critical mind.
Avoid EVER opening up your writing to ANY conscious, critical mind, including your own. Neither you nor anybody else knows your story better than your characters do.
Do you know better than your neighbors do about what happened during their vacation? Of course not. They live it, so let them tell it.
Also, if an opening flat isn’t working, you’re always better off to toss it out and recast it from scratch. Let your characters take the lead. Remember, they, not you, are living the story.
The same for cycling. Just read for pleasure as your fingers rest on the keyboard. Then allow your characters to add sentences or change phrases, etc. (allow them to ‘touch’ the story) as you read through it.
Any questions, email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com.
Talk with you again soon.
The Numbers
The Journal………………….. 690
Mentorship Words…………….. 0
Total Nonfiction…………………. 690
Writing of Blackwell Ops 51: Sam Granger |The Road Back (cycling over the whole thing)
Day 1…… 0488 words. To date………… 35249 (done)
Writing of Blackwell Ops 52: Sam Granger | Figuring Things Out
Day 1…… 4693 words. To date………… 4693
Fiction for November……………………… 57003
Fiction for 2025…………………………… 719044
Nonfiction for November.………………… 17050
Nonfiction for 2025………………..……… 256520
2025 consumable words………………… 967995
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 17
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 36
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 121
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 310
Short story collections……………………. 29