Shut down the computer. It hadn’t been restarted in weeks. Every draft is precious enough that I keep the files open, the machine turned on, and any other tabs shunted off to other windows. The messy seventh draft is over. The computer deserves a rest. I do, too; but, it’s already mid-September and I’m running out of year. Let’s see if I can make any sense of what this draft meant.
As I lamented on Twitter;
“Oh, why, why did I decide that my non-human characters should have their own grammar and cultural conventions? Oh. Right. It is #Scifi. Gotta get the details right, or at least right enough.
Back to #Editing. Blink. Squint.”
This draft was all about the details, which included some details that were more mountain than hurdle.
I think I’ll copy and paste the list, and then edit it down for clarity. (Hey, I keep the list so I can access my notes. Anything anyone else can understand is a bonus.)
Names
I checked every instance of every name to make sure they were spelled correctly. But, the real work was checking the variations of the names that would be correct English, but the wrong name. It is easy to mistype Brody as Brady. I also mistyped Ari as Air. I even found one Aru. (Hey, i and u are beside each other on the keyboard. Finger slips happen.)
Ah, but this is science fiction so the other lifeforms don’t have names like Sally or George. Mine have some unique honorifics and coloquialisms. Yep. I did that to myself.
- names
- Ari/air – 1158 instances
- Brody/Brady
- …and dozens more
- Erle’ /Erle /Erle- 2 more
- …and a half dozen more
Place Names
Simple, but as I worked the story, one place had Home in its name, and sometimes I used House. Standardize!
- Home not House
Placeholders
I keep track of my progress by finishing each editing session with keyboard characters (which conjures an image) that aren’t in the text and that are easy to spot. Time to take them and the time stamps out.
- [], which is just [ ] slammed together
- mm/dd/yy
Pick a spelling, only one
- translater v translator -> translator
- lifeform v life form (And now I realize I should check for lifefrom)
- dead end
- dark-toned
Capitalization Matters
Capitalization matters, at least to the non-humans. We may mention ‘community’ but for them it is always ‘Community’. And so it goes for some of their other terms.
- Sphere – 45
- Flames, Sparks, Embers
- Flames – 175
- Sparks – 64
- Embers – 33
Sex
Once upon a time, there was a thread about humans having to describe how two genders are needed to create the next generation because the non-humans were genderless, but I balked. It could be a great addition, but also a distraction – and possibly an excuse for a ribald sequel.
Minor Threads
Similar to the topic (but not the real life actuality) of sex, there were several incidental threads that were edited out – and saved in a seperate file.
- a hole in a roof
- eyebrow
- bodice
- etc.
Double Names
Humans used one set of names. The non-humans used a different set. Each named each other in words that made sense to them. My main character is Ari, a human pilot; but, because he wandered around a lot the non-humans called him Wanderer. Natural. But when writing dialog, which name should get used? There must be a convention, but I haven’t found it, so I blundered on ahead by making up my own.
- within a lifeform – native language
- one about the other – native
- one to the other – both (first few times in conversation, but limit to four?)
Personal Pronouns
As if modern real-world personal pronouns weren’t new enough, the non-humans have no gender. I had to make sure they weren’t referred to as him or her.
Equivocations
I’m an ex-engineer. Nothing is definite. Everything is nuanced. Words like probably, maybe, might, could, etc. get over-used. Review about a thousand instances and clean up as appropriate.
- probably
- maybe
- at least
- might
- could
- etc.
Contractions
Humans use contractions, or at least English-speakers do. The non-humans don’t. Edit every one of their sections to make sure doesn’t becauses does not, isn’t is not, etc. It may be dull and no one else may notice but I wanted something to reinforce the notion that a non-human was in the conversation. Their inter-species communication has more then enough bandwidth that there is no need for shortening words.
Sections/Chapters
Now that the story is finished as of the previous draft, it is easier to define section or chapter breaks. Stay tuned. A work in progress.
Title
It is about time to do more than think about marketing. What am I going to call the book? Messenger makes sense, but it has been over-used. I’ve started a list, and am not convinced by any of them, yet.
More
And that’s not all, but these might help provide a notion of this messy step.
Yawn. That’s not a boredom yawn. That’s a take-a-midday-nap yawn. I just received a volunteer data analysis chore that is due in about a week. Life continues with its persistent demands. There’s always more to do.
And there’s Draft Eight. Draft Eight is a new step in my process. I know so many editors that, rather than show favoritism, I choose Grammarly to review my work. Alas, a human editor can accept the entire manuscript. The computer algorithm is constrained enough that I am encouraged to spead the work out over several weeks. I’ll break it up by some of the marks I set when working the previous drafts. A few thousand one day. Several thousand another day. That also means version control, copy and pasting big blocks of text – and hoping nothing gets truncated or lost or duplicated.
(Managing that word limit is why I am Not going to use Grammarly to check this post for typos and such. My apologies.)
Draft Nine is likely to be the formatting phase. Ideally, that would be fed to Kindle, but I’ve usually found the final file must be massaged to accommodate nuances of the submission guidelines. I probably spent one week on an earlier book trying to shift one margin a half a letter width. Do you think that’s unnecessary? I do too, but as smart as computer programs can be, we are required to treat them as simultaneously fickle and precious.
Thanks for staying tuned. We’re getting there.
tomthewriter.com 
Leave a comment