Proofreading Marks

Since I am on a limited time schedule today, I'm going to do the old link-a-roo and pawn you off to someone else for Monday grammar.

The following website has an extremely helpful list of basic proofreading marks:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/mw/table/proofrea.htm

Taking a break before editing

I completed a rough draft on Monday, and I am currently in the arduous phrase of “taking a break” from the manuscript. I say arduous because the only thing I want to do is open it and start working, but I believe there is value in pausing after completion of a rough draft. Not only does it give me a more objective perspective when beginning to edit, but it also makes me stop and celebrate the fact that I finished a first draft.

Besides quelling the desire to work on the draft, the other thing I struggle with is how long of a break to take. I haven’t yet found the sweet spot—that place where I am more objective about the text and yet still passionate about the story. For my rough draft of The Last Crane, I have been on break for about five months. For me, five months is too long—I’ve moved on, invested myself in other stories and characters, and I don’t have much of a desire to return to the manuscript.

Some of my author friends have a set amount of time they wait—be it one week or six months. A few write the first draft for another novel before returning to the first. Some don’t wait at all. Regardless, the amount of time spent “on a break” seems to vary widely by not only the writer but also the project.

Do you pause between drafts? If so, how do you decide how long of a break to take?

Love and loss

I had a blog about voice prepared for today. I wrote it awhile ago and edited it again last night because I knew I wouldn't have much time today to devote to blogging.

However, I've decided to talk about something else. Something very real and very much the focus of my every waking thought today.

I knew I wouldn't have time today because I went to Fort Lupton--which is where I used to teach high school. I had a student named Megan. The first time Megan made an impression on me was my second day of teaching. We were talking about the value of appearances in class, and Megan raised her hand to comment. I was eager to hear her thoughts based on her own appearance--hot pink hair, deep black eye liner and thoughtfully torn clothing. Megan said that appearances are no longer as important to today's teens as they were in the past. I challenged her--noting that her look must have taken a considerable amount of time. She challenged me back--saying that her appearance is a direct reflection of her relationship with her parents and not her peers.

This got my attention.

I still don't agree with Megan's points she made that day, but I fell in love with her personality at that moment. She was fourteen years old. It was her second day of high school, and she politely and respectfully disagreed with the teacher in front of the entire class. You gotta love a girl with that kind of spunk.

Megan and I developed a great student-teacher relationship. She was in both English and Newspaper with me. Her work, although scatterbrained, was thoughtful and creative. She loves to sing. And while her attitude would sometimes get her in trouble, she still has that spunk that I so often admire in others. After I left Fort Lupton, we kept in contact and our student-teacher relationship developed into a friendship.

At fifteen, Megan got pregnant. She had her little boy in December when she was only five months along. Aaiden was in the hospital for a long time, but he pulled though, and she brought him by my class a few days after he came home. He was tiny little round face in a pile of blankets and a enormous stroller. And she was prouder than I've ever seen her before.

I went to Fort Lupton today for that little boy's funeral. He was three years old.

I've been to viewings before, but no experience I've ever had could prepared me for the viewing of a three year old. It is a sadness that transcends everything--that makes one question why, and it shakes one's beliefs and thoughts about life and love and loss.

Our thoughts are with Megan and her family tonight.

Discussing voice will happen another day. I'm going to go spend time with my little boy and husband.

In frustration of so...

So is a word that always gives me stressors. In editing my WIP, I came across a few that required a bit of research. Here is what I am struggling with:

So can act as either a coordinating conjunction (similar to and, but, or) OR it can act as a conjunctive adverb (similar to therefore, instead, however, then).

Why do we care?

When combining two independent clauses, a comma is used with a coordinating conjunction and a semicolon and comma is used with a conjunctive adverb.

Examples:

Coordinating Conjunction: The YA critique group meets on Sunday, and the memoir critique group meets on Monday.

Conjunctive Adverb: The YA critique group meets on Sunday; however, the memoir critique group meets on Monday.

So presents a difficult problem because, unlike the other coordinating conjunctions, it can function as either a coordinating conjunction or a conjunctive adverb depending on usage.

If so means during the time, it is a coordinating conjunction.

Example: The baby slept, so I ate.

If so means therefore, it functions as a conjunctive adverb.

Example: The baby slept; so, it made sense for me to eat.

Again, why do we care?

The idea is that using a coordinating conjunction creates a stronger link between the clauses than a conjunctive adverb. However, the conjunctive adverb still has to create a strong link or else it would be better to break the thoughts into two separate sentences.

Part of the reason I find this rule so confusing is because it seems to be disappearing, and so is often treated as a coordinating conjunction no matter what its meaning. I think this is a good change. Using a semicolon with a word as tiny as so often forces me to stop reading. And if our golden standard is reader comprehension, I don't think that using only a comma with so regardless of its meaning will interfere with comprehension.

Breaking all the grammar rules

When teaching Romeo and Juliet, I would always hand out a text from Shakespeare’s era that has not been updated to reflect current grammar and spelling standards. Things have changed a little in the past 400 years. For example, the letter f was used where we frequently use s today. I would challenge the students to write a short paragraph in un-updated Shakespearean. They quickly figure out that the word suck used to be spelled fuck. As you can imagine this is endlessly amusing to a group of fourteen-year-olds. And, yes, the word suck did exist in Shakespeare’s day.

The in the Elizabethan Era grammar rules were not rules at all—but guidelines. Grammar was thought of as a tool. If the reader understands what you have written, then it is written correctly. There were no discussions over dependent and independent clauses or whether the period goes inside the quotation marks. Instead the great leveler was: can the reader easily make sense of the writing?

Fast forward 400 years and now everyone gets all in a quandary over comma placement. And some of us (you know who you are—admit it) just love knowing the grammar rule and living by the grammar rule and getting annoyed with people who don’t use the grammar rule. Why have we become so rigid?

English is a living, breathing, changing language. Our grammar rules should be living and breathing too. So what if I punctuate a little differently than you do?

I enjoyed reading The Hunger Games, and I understood all the sentences—even though Collins “broke” a grammar rule over and over. That’s right, she would combine two independent clauses with a conjunction and….wait for it….not use a comma. The world did not come to a grinding halt. The English language did not topple over and writhe on the ground before going limp.

If you read this blog (all three of you), then you are welcome to give me a little flack because I discuss grammar rules weekly. Yes—I admit there is some hypocrisy there, but I’m not scared of change, and I don’t have the need to hold onto archaic traditions “just because”. If the rules change, so be it. I’ll change too. Texting and email are not destroying our language. Trust me, the English language will continue to live on long after you and I are gone. Younger generations will figure out different ways of punctuating—who is to say they are wrong?

The Reading Writer: A Side of Theme, Please

Novel: Robin Wasserman, Skinned series

Theme often gets lost in novels. The author can define the theme, but can the reader? Many times I don’t even think about theme when I am reading. If I enjoy the story and the characters are complex, then my brain has enough to contemplate.

But after reading Robin Wasserman’s Skinned series, theme is something I don’t want to live without.

In the Skinned novels, Lia Kahn is killed in an automobile accident and installed in a “mech”—a mechanical body created in the image of humans.

The theme that Wasserman tackles is identity, and she carries this theme though all three novels beautifully.

As a teacher, I always thought about theme as a sentence (answer in complete sentences please is an English teacher mantra). But these novels made me look at theme as more of an idea bubble. Identity is at the core—and then Wasserman continues to rotate Lia around that bubble in different sub-themes that all deal with identity. For example, Lia questions if she is the same person she was before the accident because she cannot physically feel like she did before. Later when Lia discovers that there are other copies of her brain in the database, she again questions her identity. What makes this successful is that Wasserman keeps throwing new things at Lia, but every time it comes back to the theme of identity—even if only for a few brief words.

The problem with my writing is that I often get so fragmented on theme because I want to tackle separate themes. It isn’t enough for me just to explore identity, I also want to explore loyalty, forgiveness, faith, etc, etc etc. Wasserman’s trilogy has many of these complex ideas, but the main focus on identity never wavered. If other themes were addressed, it still came back to identity as the main bubble.

An example is Riley’s fierce loyalty to Jude. I would be tempted to focus on that loyalty, but Wasserman looked at it though the lens of identity. Is Riley’s loyalty a result of his identity? If Riley defines himself as “a person loyal to Jude”, then is Riley the same person if he decides to go against Jude? Does Riley feel compelled to redefine his identity if this loyalty is no longer part of his character?

I wonder how Wasserman was able to create this. I think it would be almost impossible in a first draft—that it would be take a large amount of refining in later edits. Regardless, her achievement in this area really floored me and completely changed the way I look at theme. Don’t you love it when that happens?

MG: Multi Paragraph Quotes

Gram-maniac Monday-

This one came up in a novel I critiqued last week.

When quoting multiple consecutive paragraphs, begin each paragraph with a quotation so that you reader knows that the quotation is continuing. The only paragraph with both a beginning and ending quote is the last.

For example:

"Begin Quote....

"Paragraph 2....

"Paragraph 3....

"End Quote...."

The reason behind this is so that the reader is aware that the quotation is continuing into the next paragraph.

This isn't a very commonly used rule. Why? Because most people don't want to read block after block of one person speaking without interruption. In fact the only time I have seen it used is in work I've critiqued--I don't recall ever seeing it in a published novel. So the question I would ask before using this rule--is this huge chunk of dialogue really necessary?

2/15 Update: When I was reading last night, I came across this situation. In The Forest of Hands and Teeth, the author uses this grammar guideline when the MC is being lectured. The technique showed the dominance of the lecturer over the MC. I stand corrected!

One Edit at a Time

If I could, I would steal Oscar Wilde’s sense of humor. My writing would be beautifully sarcastic and witty—oh, and it would provide much needed social commentary too.

I would also steal Laurie Halse Anderson’s ability to craft an unexpected simile. Virginia Wolfe’s ability to create a sentence so well written it makes the reader stop and re-read it, just to enjoy the combination of words. M.T. Anderson’s ability to create a character’s voice so authentic that you forget that it is Anderson—and not the character—who wrote the novel.

But my writing isn’t sarcastic and witty. My similes are often chunky and predictable. My sentences are—at times—awkward messes, and occasionally all my characters sound the same.

This isn’t a pity party.

This is a rough draft.

Sometimes I have to step back and remember that all authors write first drafts. That Feed didn’t always exist—Anderson had to sit down and write it, and it started as a first draft.

I wish that I could read a first draft for Speak or Mrs. Dalloway. A real first draft—one that hasn’t been edited or altered in any way. Would an author ever be willing to share such a thing? I think most of us are too proud to be that vulnerable—to share our faults and let others see how much we struggle at times. But imagine how enlightening it would be to read some first drafts that developed into stellar novels.

I wonder if I could expose myself in that way. Even with my critique partners I rarely send out something that I haven’t edited at least two or three times. We grow by extending ourselves, so I’ll make a promise that I might later regret. When I publish a novel (think positively!), I’ll post a chapter or two of the rough draft for other writers to see—no editing, no covering—just raw I haven’t even bothered to spell check writing.

Oscar Wilde wrote first drafts too, and I’m betting that he wrote a few craptastic jokes along the way. Instead of feeling down about my rough draft, I need to remember that Wilde had to work at it too. That writing is a process for all authors, experienced and novice. And that ability is developed—one edit at a time.

Strong Female Characters

I like to pride myself on writing “strong” female MCs. Recently, it was brought to my attention that one of my MCs is “weak”. This was a surprise to me.

Quiet? Yes.

Insecure? Absolutely.

Strong? Definitely.

At what point have we decided that a girl who has insecurities is not a strong character? Sometimes I think it is the strongest characters who are insecure—characters who are willing to do whatever needs to be done knowing that they might fail—knowing that they might be hurt by what others think of them. Characters who aren’t entire sure about themselves, but are still willing to act.

A girl doesn’t need to kick butt to be strong. She doesn’t need to speak her mind or show no fear. Sometimes she just needs to survive.

The character in question has this kind of strength. As others fall around her, she will quietly live on. She will adapt. And she will keep breathing, keep living. She is a survivor. She may be the strongest character I have ever written.

GM: toward vs towards

Gram-maniac Monday--

Which is correct?

I walk toward my computer, preparing to edit.

I walk towards my computer, preparing to edit.

Answer: both.

Wait--both?

Americans tend to use "toward" while Brits use "towards". Both are acceptable--which makes it easy to be correct!

Getting Back Into It

I took a major hiatus from writing. A few things distracted me--my son's birth being one (a very welcome distraction!). I just didn't feel the words flowing though me...but now they are ricocheting around me--pinballs in my mind that keep me awake. It's good to be home.

So, I am going to work more diligently on this blog thing. Maybe I can keep it up this time?

The blog plan...3 posts per week - Mon, Wed and Fri. Mon is grammar with Wed and Fri being posts about writing, life, etc.

Here goes!