My blog posts would a lot more interesting and fun if I actually led an interesting and fun life. It's hard to have much fun when you're squirreled away for a very L-O-N-G, D-A-R-K winter in Western New York. There's a lot to do around here if you don't mind getting frostbite on some appendage (skiing, skating, sledding, etc.), but us writer types tend to hole up in our garrets and write. So instead of actually living an interesting and fun life, I'm writing about somebody else's interesting and (possibly) fun life (and/or lives).
Of course, I don't actually have a garret--one of the problems of living in a one-story home, but when I get up in the morning, it's usually 59 degrees in my office (and takes approximately 6 hours for my little heater to pull it up to 70 at eye level--I have no hope of warm feet until July), and I pretend I'm Sarah Crewe as I pull my shawl (or in this case, a sweater or two) a little tighter around me and make believe it's summer in New Hampshire, where my characters are running around in short sleeves and admiring the geraniums. (How's that for one helluva run-on sentence?)
The book was just starting to really MOVE, and then came to a screeching halt as I had to put it aside for the copy edit of the last book. I hate copy edits. I never get the same copy editor twice. I don't like to make waves, so I accept a lot of the crap they toss at me. This one wants a comma after "she said, and" -- the last one didn't. But this one is also tossing in all kinds of exclamation points where they aren't needed and look how she changed one particular sentence:
My version: "I must admit, I had the same idea," Tricia said.
Her version: "I must admit, I had the same Idea, Tricia
admitted.
ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!
(There's a reason authors need high-blood pressure medication during copy edits.)
Okay, end of rant for today. I'm off now ... to do something interesting and fun. Like laundry.
What are you doing today?
Hi Lorna! That 'admitted' thing is just plain WRONG!! No wonder you're tearing your hair out, must be SO irritating! Love the reference to Sarah Crewe - one of my all time favourite books, when she comes back to her garrett & it's filled with beauty & luxury after all she's been through...filling up at the thought!
ReplyDeleteToday I'm baking & writing up recipes for my cookbook...the weather is weird, sunshine alternating with heavy snow showers, so will probably stay in as much as possible. Lucky to live in a country town though - walking distance to the shops & movies & library, makes life easier! have a great day, Rachel xo
Hi, Rachel! Glad you stopped in again. How exciting that you're writing a cookbook. Tell us more about it!
ReplyDeleteI'm writing my 5th Booktown Mystery and my character Angelica is working on her second cookbook. (Her first will be published in book #4--which will be released in August.) My husband either hates or loves the "testing recipes" part of my series. He LOVED testing the mini quiches from the book that's currently out. He loathed testing all the (failed) batches of the savory muffins from the second, and vows he'll NEVER eat another muffin that doesn't contain sugar.
I like your version of the sentence much better than the copy editor. How can you use a variation of "admit" twice in a sentence, it just doesn't make sense.
ReplyDeleteRight now I'm in the office waiting for others to arrive while looking out the window watching the snow finally accumulate here.
Have a good Wednesday.
Oh, that's just awful and so wrong! I'm snowed in today (14")so I'm going to work on my second beekeeping mystery where I hit a wall yesterday. Wish me luck.
ReplyDeleteI've had my own share of "irritations," especially since most NY editors aren't familiar with the "Texas speak" in my Yellow Rose series (I got lots of "what does this mean?"). But my most irritating moment was when a copy editor suggested I was having the cake cutting at the reception in "A Wedding to Die For" at THE WRONG TIME. Um ... is this a copy edit? I think not. And was I supposed to rewrite the chapter to change the time of the cake cutting to make this person happy? And WHY DOES IT MATTER? Sheesh. Thank you for allowing me to vent. It was five years ago. I should be over it. Yes. I am over it.
ReplyDeleteMy horror story involves a character in one of my books who had a teeny lisp that came out only when she was nervous. The copy editor took her red pen and changed every single "s" in her lines of dialogue to "th" even twice in a word, so that I couldn't understand what she was saying -- and I wrote it! Unfortunately, my "STET" in big letters down the whole side of the page didn't do the trick, and the book went to press that way. I put an apology on my website. I was terribly embarrassed.
ReplyDeleteI can imagine how frustrating it must be dealing with editors. I used to be a Creative Writing major, then dropped it, because I couldn't handle my professor's lousy critiques anymore!
ReplyDeleteBut I guess it goes with the job- I just have to toughen up a little bit more :p