Yeah, I know—I got busy last week and before I knew it two
weeks had gone by without a blog post. So another double-up. Most of it will be
updates, followed by a brief tutorial in the correct usage of periods and
commas. Nothing else. That title is just to get your attention. I’m
experimenting with promotional techniques for when I’m ready to start marketing
books. And now, on to the updates.
Week 38 update – this was the better of the two weeks. I had
it all going on. I got a new paid assignment and worked on the detective
book and was able to balance my work day with time left over to do mundane
stuff like buy groceries and cook dinner. Okay, so the yard work took a serious
hit. I’m okay with that, though my neighbors are a little honked off. I kept the yard mowed. The summer yard season’s
almost over now anyway. There’s always next year.
The best part was how easily the words flowed in my fiction.
I’m supposed to be typing up the longhand, but I found myself rewriting most of
the scene, and the story’s much better because of it. The parts I’m typing now
were written two years ago. That’s really too long to let something sit, but
the break paid off: I know the story and the characters much better now, and
can add depth to the scene while cutting out the crappy bits. Also, plot holes
I wouldn’t have noticed before now leap out at me, but so do solutions for
fixing them. It’s a pity I went into post-writing depression and didn’t write
two or three other books while this one was sitting around. That’s the way a
writing career is supposed to work, if you’re really serious about it. I’ll be
addressing that in a future installment.
Week 39 update – Here’s where things almost got out of hand.
The first read-through on the paid assignment took longer than I planned for,
because the writer had issues with proper punctuation usage, causing me to fix
periods, commas and semicolons on practically every line of a 150-page file.
Making readable sense of run-on sentences also slowed me down, though not to
that extent. The biggest problem, though, was the unexpected quirks brought on
by Windows 11. Or maybe it’s a hardware problem in the new laptop. I still don’t
know for sure. All I know is, I went to move the cursor and it decided to move
on its own and click on something without permission, and all of a sudden my
paginated work file had no more page breaks or running heads, and I had no idea
how to restore it. Imagine turning in a work assignment with the note: “Edits
are done, but you’re going to have to reformat the whole thing. Sorry. My bad.”
Luckily I did some experimentation and found what went wrong. One click undid
the cursor’s damage and I had page breaks and headers again. However, the Table
of Contents got messed up in the restoration. I included a warning note when I
sent the finished assignment back. My next step will be to head up to the local
library, which has a free computer lab for us old geezers who didn’t grow up
with home computers, so I can figure out what the hell’s up with my cursor and
how I can get it back under control. At least it doesn’t zoom the pages in and
out any more.
I didn’t get as much of my own writing done this week, but
the assignment’s done and gone back to the publisher and currently there’s
nothing else on the docket. That means I get to write now. Unless the weather
clears up (it’s been rainy all week) and I decide to take one last shot at the
yard work. We’ll just have to see what happens.
$$$$
And now, a brief tutorial: Proper Use of Basic Punctuation.
This is the period (.). It means “stop.” It goes at the end
of a sentence. This is the comma (,). It means “pause, more is coming.” It’s
also used to separate dialogue from the rest of the sentence. Example: Marcus
turned to Laila and said, “If you don’t get dinner on the table right now, I’m
packing your bags and sending you home to your mama.” “Okay,” she replied, “but
I can pack my own bags. Hope you’ve got the number for DoorDash.”
Here's a (made-up) example of what I had to deal with last
week:
“I can’t take this any more.” He said and took out his
phone. Laila watched impassively he dialed. “Don’t forget you’re allergic to
soy sauce.” She reminded him walking out of the room her ass swaying
suggestively in her too-tight pants causing Marcus to misdial. “Acme Hardware.”
Some teenager’s voice cracked over the phone. “Hello?”
It was like that on almost every page. Sometimes almost
every line. I’ll leave the writers among you to figure out what the problems
are and how to fix them. Just like I had to; that’s what took me so long. I
understand this is category romance and a lot of these people are writing a
book a month so they can get more royalties. There isn’t time to let things sit
and do a better draft. But you can do your copy editor and proofreader a huge
favor and do a cleaner one. Our eyes appreciate the courtesy.
Interestingly, I’ve noticed that no matter how many typos
and punctuation errors there may be in the rest of the book, the sex scenes
almost always are typo-free and clean as a lewd whistle. This is true for every
author and every sub-genre. I think we know what the writers’ beta readers and
proofers are spending most of their time on. There must be somebody somewhere
out there reading these for the story. Maybe I don’t need to worry so much
about that part after all. I’ll keep it in mind when I start cranking out my
own book a month. See y’all next week.
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