Critiques, Copyedits, Subscriptions, and More
June 26, 2024 by Harvey
In today’s Journal
* An Endorsement
*Critiques
*Copyediting
* Tomorrow
* A Note to Non-Subscribers
* An Expansion on the Use of Parens and Em Dashes
* No Writing Again
* The Numbers
An Endorsement
Now that the smoke has cleared from my mini-vacation, I thought I’d trot out a few reminders here.
Awhile back, Peter Armstrong, an excellent storyteller who needed a little help translating the story to the page, left the following excerpted comment on a TNDJ post regarding an opening critique and then a copyedit I did for him:
“Doubt Harvey’s words at your own risk. I sent him 300 words of my latest work’s first chapter. … I said in another comment it was the best 15 bucks I’ve ever spent.
“Having learned from the comments on those measly 300 words, I knew I needed more. I bit the bullet and sent him a completed work of fiction. Yet again, it was money well spent.
“I [also] picked up a copy of Writing Better Fiction to help cement what I don’t know.”
Thanks, Peter!
Critiques
Detailed Opening Critiques are still available. (See details.)
If you’re thinking about sending an opening for critique, be sure to read that short page. As I wrote there, this is a great deal and an investment in your writing (and in yourself).
Note that Current Donors or Paid Subscribers may send one opening for a critique without payment.
I limit each person to only three critiques. You should learn everything you need to know about openings during no more than three critiques.
Copyediting
I’m also still offering copyedits. (See details.)
Again, if you’re thinking about requesting a copyedit, please read the page first.
But note that for Current Donors or Paid Subscribers, my lowest fee is .008 per word rather than .01 per word.
If you qualify for my lowest rate (based solely on your manuscript, but many do), that’s only $8.00 for every 1000 words rather than $10 for every 1000 words.
And I add even more value by teaching as I go via imbedded comments to explain each edit unless it’s readily self-explanatory. Of course, you can also email me at any time regarding anything about my edits or writing fiction in general that confuses you.
Okay, that’s my spiel. Thanks for reading.
Tomorrow
Tomorrow I’ll begin a series of posts on “Storytelling at Depth.”
I wrote the series back in mid-2017 and intended to deliver it in a pair of live seminars. I believe the first seminar actually took place.
If it did, some of you who are reading this took part. I scheduled that one for Saint David, Arizona. As I recall, the seminar lasted all day and cost $100.
The second seminar probably was slated for Willcox, Arizona. That one was cancelled when several pre-registered would-be attendees emailed to say “something came up” so they wouldn’t be able to attend.
But “Storytelling at Depth” contains some really good information, so I decided to offer it in TNDJ all these years later.
Most of the information I’ll cover is also included in Writing Better Fiction, but hearing it in a slightly different way might help.
The posts in this series will be available only to my paying subscribers, so if you haven’t subscribed yet, now might be a good time to do so. BUT BEFORE YOU DO, see the note below.
A Note to Non- or Free Subscribers
There’s still time to get in under the wire and subscribe to TNDJ for only $3 per month or at least $36 per year.
But to get that rate DON’T click the Subscribe button at the bottom of this post.
To get the lower rate—which is available only through Sunday, June 30, 2024—Click Here.
Effective July 1, I’ll still accept outright donations through that link, but a subscription to TNDJ will be available only through the Subscribe button and the fee will jump to $5 per month or $60 per year (Stripe’s minimum).
If you find TNDJ of value to your writing, I urge you to take advantage of the lower rate while you can. Of course, if you don’t find TNDJ of value, you are welcome to continue as a free subscriber.
Again, thanks for reading.
An Expansion on the Use of Parens and Em Dashes
The sole use of parentheses is to enclose and “quiet” extraneous (parenthetical) information that adds to the text but is not essential to reader understanding. The parentheses render the information contained within it less important than the sentence in which it is contained.
When readers probably know the parenthetical information but you want to include it just in case they don’t, use parentheses:
The current president (Joe Biden) sometimes seems to be elsewhere in his mind.
All of that said, parentheses are seldom used in fiction, primarily because every word in a story should either describe the setting, convey dialogue, or otherwise advance the story.
Conversely, the em dash is used to cause the extra information to stand out. The em dashes render the information they contain more important or essential to the sentence in which that information is contained.
When you believe readers probably DON’T know the parenthetical information and it’s essential to greater understanding, set the information off with em dashes:
The fourth president of the United States—James Madison—is often called the “Father of the Constitution.”
The information is still extraneous and unnecessary to understanding the text, but reading it will give the reader an enhanced understanding.
The em dash is often also overused, especially by beginning writers. And as is true with any mark of punctuation, overuse will water-down the effect.
Most often it’s a good idea to see whether you can make the extraneous information a stand-alone sentence either before or after the sentence in which it was originally contained.
You may think of the parens and the em dash as opposites.
In another usage, the em dash is the opposite of the colon ( : ).
1. When you use a complete sentence to introduce a list, follow the sentence with a colon (long pause), like this:
These are my favorite things: whiskey, horses, and women.
2. When you put the list up front and follow it with an explanatory sentence, follow the list with an em dash (medium pause), like this:
Whiskey, horses, and women: these are my favorite things.
3. If you make the list parenthetical, set it off with em dashes, like this:
My favorite things—whiskey, horses, and women—aren’t always in that order.
These are certainly not the best examples in the world, but I guess they work. (grin)
No Writing Again
The novel’s still waiting for me to get back to it. Today I spent most of the day supervising the installation of a new air conditioning system. The two guys who actually did the work were impressive.
The air temperature was about 100 degrees with around 78% humidity. (Our humidity is usually in the single digits.)
It reminded me of watching my young Marines back in the day going about their tasks under the Yuma sun.
Talk with you again soon.
The Numbers
The Journal……………………………… 1140
Writing of Blackwell Ops 25: Rafe Andersen
Day 9…… 5366 words. To date…… 23402
Day 10…. 1270 words. To date…… 24672
Fiction for June…………………….….… 37836
Fiction for 2024…………………………. 378433
Fiction since October 1………………… 681490
Nonfiction for June……………………… 22290
Nonfiction for 2024…………………… 205920
2024 consumable words……………… 584353
2024 Novels to Date……………………… 9
2024 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2024 Short Stories to Date……………… 1
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)……………… 91
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 239
Short story collections…………………… 29
Disclaimer: Harvey Stanbrough is a prolific professional fiction writer. On this blog he teaches Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Unreasoning fear and the myths of writing are lies, and they will slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. Harvey will never teach the myths on this blog.
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I absolutely concur with Peter's comments regarding the value of opening critiques and full copy editing by Harvey. I've recently taken him up on the openings critique for my two currently in-progress novels and he has copy edited all three of my published novels.
My philosophy is that the story is the characters' and my job is to tell their story to the best of my ability. Hopefully my ability improves with each thing I write. Harvey's critiques and copy edits help me leapfrog my learning without touching the characters' stories. The 'why' in his comments on suggestions is critically important information on how to best present the characters' story to the readers.
I was probably one of the St. David workshop participants (I remember doing at least one there).
Before Harvey found and tried WITD, I just thought I was a lazy writer because I wouldn't follow all the outlining and other nonsense that's pushed as necessary.
Thanks Harvey, for all the continued learning opportunities!
Some really good offers in here that I'm going to take advantage of. (Yes, I ended my sentence in a preposition and I'm not changing it. lol )
I have a question about the use of unfamiliar words. Leave them in or take them out?
When I find an unfamiliar word, I just google it. I used to open a friggin' unabridged dictionary when I was younger. When I write, especially my historical stuff, I will use archaic words or words appropriate to the time and place, and I'll do it in such a way that the meaning can be gleaned from the context. But then advance readers will ask for a word's meaning. If more than one person asks, I'll remove the word, assuming it detracts from the story. But I really HATE it. Most recent case was the word massif when referring to a mountain.