March 2010 Archives

The editor has given the green light to my final revisions, so The Mystery of the Cyber Bully is on the way to the publisher for copy editing. Next time I'll see the manuscript is when the galleys are ready for proofing.

As I reflect on the process, I can't help but think of editing as a summer camp experience. At first, you're nervous and unsure of what others will think of you and you just want to call home and go back to a safe place. But once you get used to the idea, things start to get fun and before you know it's over.

Other writers might have a different view of the editing process, but I like revising. Maybe I'm a sucker for punishment, but I like taking the base of a good story and making it better, and I love it when I find an opportunity to flesh out a character moment. In the climax of this manuscript, my editor suggested a very funny passage of dialogue between my two protagonists. I took his suggestion and ran with it. As a result, the climax is really tight and tense, and it even has comic relief at the right moment.

What's next? Well, the publisher than assigns a copy editor to go through the manuscript to catch continuity errors, repetition and grammatical errors. I'll have a chance to adjust or clarify muddy moments. I'll also have a chance to proof the galleys before they go to the printers. The proofreading is my least favourite part of the process. Thankfully, I have a friend who loves to proofread. He catches all the mistakes that I miss.

Now I get to celebrate for just a few minutes and then it's on to Code Breakers Club. Yay!

I spent all weekend brainstorming the events of the first chapter and ripping apart stray plot threads until I figured out a general shape for the kick off to Code Breakers Club. Today, I'm going to see how it looks on page. My plan is to write until I'm done, but I'm also suffering from a stomach flu, so plans may change. The great thing about being sick is that I can't leave the house. As long as I can stay upright, I can write. If I can'd do any more computer work, I'll switch to my notebook, which has really become the story bible for this novel.

Most of my morning was a wipe out as I was having fun coming up with Twitter jokes about the escaped peahen in an Edmonton neighbourhood. My original plan was just to come down to my office and check email and then go upstairs and jot notes about the three protagonists in Code Breakers Club. My fault for being so easily distracted.

However, now that I am thinking about the characters, I realize I have to purge the innocence that pervaded the characters in my mystery series. I'm writing about teenagers in the new book, and their sensibilities can't be the same as the elementary students in my previous books. Hmm. Maybe I'll go back to making peahen jokes.

The journey has begun with a 1,900-word prologue. I wouldn't say it was easy writing this one, but it certainly was a lot less painful than any of my other first kicks at a manuscript. What was different about this process? I did a lot of notes and I even storyboarded the prologue (with some very bad drawings) so that I knew the broad strokes of what needed to happen. When I got into the draft, I still could be creative with the little moments, but I knew generally where the story had to go. There's one glitch in the last section, but I've flagged it as something I can deal with in revisions.

I'm pretty happy with the way I started Code Breakers Club, and I think I'll keep doing more of the same. Tomorrow, I'll stay away from the computer and develop my three protagonists and if I have time, I'll storyboard the first chapter. I'm actually quite impressed that I wasn't staring at a blank screen for three days. It was a welcome change of pace.

It's done. I can't think of anything else to do to the manuscript. I've punched up the humour. I've smoothed out the transitions. I've eliminated the repetition. I've found typos. I believe that I've taken the manuscript as far as I can and now it's time to say see you later. I'm sending it to my editor today for his final (hopefully) notes on it. With a short article, I'm pretty sure I can catch all my mistakes but with a novel, I'm certain something was missed, which is why I'm grateful for extra eyes.

My thinking is that if I do as much as I can to fix up the draft, it means the less clutter my editor has to clean up, which means he'll be better able to catch the mistakes that I couldn't see. In the end, the draft gets stronger and that's all that matters. Off it goes.

I asked my editor if there was enough humour in the book. He said that it wasn't laugh a minute, but it also wasn't dull or droll, and the tension made up for the lack of humour. Considering that this is the final book in the series and the theme of cyber bullying and break up of Marty and Remi's friendship, I can't really make this a yuk-fest. However, I also want to make sure there's enough fun in the interaction between Marty and Remi before they break up so that we feel bad for the two guys.

I'm going to cycle through the manuscript and find places where I might be able to explore character in a funny way. Very important to make this distinction. Jokes don't make a story funny. Characters do. If the humour comes from character, the novel becomes a richer reading experience. Jokes that don't stem from character take away from the story.

Now is the time to use a scalpel and not a band saw. I have to be very careful with how I approach the humour pass. Less is more. I suspect I'll be coming back to his blog entry a few times to remind myself of that.

My editor just emailed me the notes on the revisions of The Mystery of the Cyber Bully. The email started with one sentence: "Excellent, Marty."

I was jumping for joy at first, but then I started to doubt if the editor was sincere. He was on vacation when he received the manuscript. Maybe he was still in vacation mode and didn't feel like ripping me apart. Maybe he missed something big in the manuscript. Why did he like the book so much? What's really wrong with the manuscript? Oh man, I totally need to see a therapist about my inferiority complex.

Anyway, I have about a half day of work ahead of me. Might be two days if I decide to do a humour punch up. Otherwise, the book is in good shape and I can turn my attention to the new manuscript next week. Yay!

I thought I was barren of ideas because I was avoiding my notebook like a teenager avoids his math homework. Then I decided to get a change of scenery, namely a new notebook. What a difference it's made. I've filled up about 12 pages of the notebook in three days with notes on The Code Breakers Club. I've been brainstorming things that I normally wouldn't even think of before. I hope this serves the manuscript well when I get down to working on it. The danger is that I will run out of creative steam jotting all my notes in the new book. I don't think I will, but even if I do, I'll have the notes to guide me through until I get the spark back.

So, why did I fall out of love with my previous notebook. I suspect that there were two reasons. One, the book was a gift that I started using when my old one ran out of space. Because I didn't chose the book, I think I didn't feel right about jotting ideas in it. Sounds weird I know, but some writers refuse to write with anything other than their special pen. Give me some room to be eccentric, please.

The other reason why I didn't like working in the previous book is a bad memory. I used the book to brainstorm a project that really took a lot out of me. The end result left me empty and I suspect that the stench of the failure lingered in the book; hence, the reason why I avoided it.

The lesson learned. Writers need to find the write idea book to spark their creativity... and writers are crazy.

Very strange night last night at the Literary Saloon. Marina Endicott was an excellent host for an evening of readings by Thomas Wharton, Jocelyn Brown and me, but that didn't stop me from feeling creeped out. We were asked to read from our current work and from something new. Everyone was fine when they read or talked about their old work, but we all seemed quite vulnerable when it came time for the sneak previews.

I found myself in a strange place, barely glancing up and kicking myself for writing awkward phrases and breaking out in a sweat as the crowd grew quiet. I noticed the other authors were also shy about connecting with the audience when they read from their works in progress. I don't know if they felt the same way as I did, but it felt like a room full of literary voyeurs were peeping in on our intimate moments with our virgin manuscripts.

Not saying this was a bad experience, but I would definitely file it away as a weird one.

My editor promised to get back to me shortly after he got back from vacation. It's now been six days since he's been back. When you're a writer waiting for feedback, that's enough time to fashion the worst-case scenario. I'm thinking there's something wrong with the manuscript. My paranoia is actually based on previous experience. Whenever producers took a long time to get back to me, it usually wasn't good news. I'm better clear my schedule, because I suspect I've got a lot of work to do over the next month. Sigh.

Just received a rejection letter from the Canada Council for my grant proposal to work on The Code Breakers Club. I used the same proposal for 3 different grant agencies with varying results. Canada Council said no. ACDI (Canada Council/Alberta Foundation for the Arts) said it conflicted with my AFA grant application, which turned out to be a yes! Proof again that the same project can trigger varying opinions. Now I just have to figure out how to get to the Aran Islands and the Great Wall of China for cheap. Air Miles?

Waiting is the hardest part. I'm still waiting for feedback from my editor on The Mystery of the Cyber Bully revisions. I'm sure they're coming in this week, but I check my inbox every day hoping for something from him. It's like watching a kettle that never boils. Worse, I've added to my waiting woes by sending the Tradewind pitches last week. Another waiting game.

I could start on The Code Breakers Club this week, but it's a pretty big undertaking and I don't want to kill any momentum for the first draft. So, until I get notes from my editor, I'm doing little projects like prepping speaking gigs and researching codes. It's days like this that make me miss writing for the Edmonton Journal. It was nice to be able to knock off a Life article and feel productive.

I decided today that I was sick of my dank and chilly dungeon office, so I moved operations to the local library branch. The change of scenery did some good. I was able to pick up a few books to help me with Code Breakers Club. Plus, I also had the energy to brainstorm 10 story ideas for Tradewind. I have to spend tomorrow shaping the ideas into one-sentence loglines that I'll pitch to the publisher. From the ten, he'll pick one idea for me to flesh out... or he'll reject them all and send me on my way. Either way, I'm excited; more for the former result than the latter.

Research and brainstorming make for weird days. Because I've been hacking away at the keyboard for so long with the revisions, I feel like I'm on vacation when I read material about spies and codes, and jot notes about potential new novels. Naturally, all this relax time has made me drowsy. Writers work best when they're horizontal. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Now that I'm waiting for my editor to get back from Mexico and read my manuscript, I have a couple of weeks to get started on my Code Breakers novel. Yay! I'm starting this one off with some research. I have to develop some background for the spy agency along with some cool codes. Also, down the line, I'll have to drag out my old photos from Ireland, China and Drumheller to flesh out the settings for the novel.

Thanks to the Edmonton Public Library's summer reading program of 2009, I have lined up the names of my two main characters, but I need a name for the third character. I'll be setting up a similar contest to the one that ran at EPL, but this one will be at the St. Albert Children's Festival in June.

To get the novel off on the right foot, I've bought a new idea book to fill up with ideas gleaned from my research. I can't wait to get started. Glad to feel movitated for a change.