Mystery Novels

British Dictionary and American Style Guide Used by a Canadian

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 14 Comments

The Chicago Manual of Style says, “The more we learn, the less we seem to know.” Anyone else feel this way about spelling, punctuation and grammar?

So here is a question.

I follow the Oxford English Dictionary for spelling but the Chicago Manual of Style for grammar and punctuation.

The first is British and the second American.

Should I be following the Oxford Guide to Style if I use the Oxford English Dictionary? Or is it okay to follow one British and one American as long as I am consistently British in my spelling and consistently American in my punctuation and grammar? Now let me add that I am Canadian, and I get really confused. The borders seem to be disappearing on me.

And this gets me back to the first line, “The more we learn, the less we seem to know.”

Thoughts?

Thanks for reading . . .

Comma Splice: Acceptable or Not?

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 22 Comments

Like anything else in life, grammar rules adapt and change.

Some say it’s okay to spilt an infinitive, start a sentence with ‘but,’ and end a sentence with a preposition.

My question: Are comma splices becoming acceptable?

I’m finding more of them in novels than I used to, and I’m not sure if this is due to the way publishing a novel has changed or due to a change in acceptable style.

I’d love to hear your opinion.

Written by a person (me 🙂  )who edits out every comma splice she sees.

Thanks for reading . . . and hopefully commenting.

Scrivener Writing Software: Pros and Cons

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 7 Comments

Based on recommendations from other writers, I decided to try Scrivener. I’ve been using Microsoft Word and Pages (on my Mac) and like both but am always game for something new.

I’ve finished my month free trial and bought the software.  Overall, it’s useful for writing a novel. It has some features I liked and others that I didn’t.  These are listed below.

I’d love to hear what your favourite features of Scrivener are. It’s time-consuming learning new software and if you would like to share how you use it, I’d appreciate it.

My Likes:

  • Try before you buy: Only the days you open the software count toward the trial period. I had a month of days to play with and learn the software.
  • Split screen: Allows you to read 2 versions of a scene at the same time. This is useful when you are trying out changes but don’t want to commit.
  • Meta Data customization: I’ve used this to replace my Excel spreadsheet.
  • Meta Data located at the side: You can fill in as you write the scene.
  • Automatic Chapters: This avoids typing the wrong chapter number.
  • Customization to compile into word: You can format the way you, your publisher or agent prefers.
  • Notes: Handy to have right in the scene you are writing or for the overall document.
  • Synopsis: Reminds me what I wrote in the scene.
  • Comments: When I imported my manuscript from MS Word, my comments imported too.
  • Cork Board: I don’t like index cards, so this works for me.
  • Page Breaks: You can indicate which sections you want a page break before when having the manuscript scenes compile into a novel.
  • Text to speech: Is easy to use. I always have to dig through Microsoft’s menus to find this.
  • Storage of documents: Everything related to my manuscript is now in one place. I don’t have to use Excel and multiple word documents. This makes referencing the different information quick and easy.
  • Importing research files (right into folder) – Keeps me organized. I don’t have to worry about where I’m going to store documents.
  • Saving to ZIP file at end of session – good for obvious reasons.
  • Highlights dialogue if quotes don’t match.

My Dislikes:

  • Meta Data sorting – I re-sorted the title column, and I couldn’t can’t get it back to original sort, so I had to number the titles
  • Converting section to folder: If found this awkward. I think there should be a new chapter command. If you know of one, I’d like to hear about it.
  • You can use command and click to get a new folder but it took me a while to find this.
  • Couldn’t figure out how to import so chapter and section breaks were there. I had to manually put them in.
  • For Meta Data, the software doesn’t pick up that a word has been types earlier in a column like Excel does. Have to type each word.
  • Software defaults to courier:  This is fine, but I like Times New Roman. I had a hard time figuring out  how to get all text to change. The chapter heading kept going to Courier.
  • Folder outline: If a chapter only has one section then you can’t just have the top folder. You have to have a folder and a section.
  • Folder Numbering: I thought folders should number automatically.
  • Snapshot: Is hard to use. I wanted to snapshot the manuscript, but could only get it to do each scene at time. Too time consuming.
  • Switched to straight quotes in the middle of a scene and I have no idea why.
  • Spell checker seems slow to catch errors. Not sure how to activate it properly.

I’m going to keep using Scrivener until I get better at it, but I think it’s going to work for me.

Again, if you have any tips, please share J

Thanks for reading . . .

 

For another review  see M.Q.Allen.

Copyediting – Proofreading Comments Summary (Part Two)

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 6 Comments

 So we continue with copyediting and proofreading comments . . .

After my five-part blog on copyediting and proofreading, I collected the comments from this blog and from the LinkedIn writing group called Crime Fiction managed by Theresa de Valence.

Today I’ll focus on Having Others Proofread Your Work:

I received some interesting ideas about having others proofread your work and have grouped the comments below. Some comments gave a similar message so I picked one of them to post. I hope you find these helpful.

  • I threw a party…after my manuscript had been proofread by a pro (and she was good). I invited five well-read, literate friends and gave them each five page stacks of non-chronological parts of the manuscript. They were to read them over, mark what was wrong, tag those pages with coloured stickers and then trade with someone across the table. I reassembled the manuscript and made the CX where needed. It’s a constant process as you know. Not perfect, but darn close . . . I was in the room because . . . when my readers had questions about dialect or some military or nautical term I could answer them immediately. They read silently for the most part . . . unless they had questions. Having the pages out of context made for closer scrutiny . . . helping eliminate the usual tendency to mentally fill in words automatically . . . which the writer may do when reading one’s own book. . BTW, the manuscript was 102,000 words and having five readers meant it was accomplished in about four hours. I had a thank you card and gift for each reader when we were done. They liked the chore so much they volunteered to do it with future books . . . and I’m going to take them up on it.

 

  • If you can, have two of your most obsessive compulsive friends or relatives read the galley. They’ll work hard to find the little mistakes, the kinds that editors miss. However, in the end, don’t beat yourself up over every error; we are human. 


 

  • As a newspaper reporter, I knew many editors, but only a handful as meticulous as needed for a book manuscript. When I receive galleys, I ask two really good editors to read copies. Each of the three of us has her own copy. It is amazing to see how many errors each of us find, mistakes not duplicated by the other readers. And this is after the books have been through editors at the publishing house. Wow! For the first several books I used editor friends whose work I knew. I took them to dinner or some other entertainment as compensation. In all, five different editor friends have read for me. Now, I write them checks, which are never enough for what they contribute. They fuss, but will cash the checks. They get a kick out of reading the first print-outs, even boast about doing it. Others have volunteered, but I need pros. It works for me.

 

  • Genre is extremely important. You have to know the
genre to be able to tell the timing, rhythm, wording and nuances of the
story. Each one has its own blood pressure and heartbeat. Editors are
inclined to pick out things that they say are wrong, and may actually take 
more
away from the story than they put in. They tend to be superior in demeanour. 
For
example, an editor might tell me that the language in EINAR is too formal, 
but
they do not know Scandinavian speech patterns. I speak Norwegian, Danish,
Swedish , as well as English, German and Dutch to varying degrees and know the
rhythm of all the languages. It also helps in research. It is their opinion
unless they are on the payroll of one of the major publishers. In that case you
kind of have to do what they say for the most part if you can’t prove your
point.

 

  • Be careful who you go with as an editor. Be absolutely sure that they are well versed in your specific genre. If you write horror, do not settle for a fantasy editor, it is not the same thing. Always look for personal compatibility. It is your baby that you are entrusting them with, not some mangy red boned mutt from the pound.

 

  • Trade with someone – you proof theirs & they proof yours. Errors tend to get less detectable with repeated readings, until they look more “normal” than more “correct” usages. And that script reading by your characters is probably a good idea for reasons way beyond proofing – might want to do it while you’re doing drafts as well, to try out alternative sequences. An audience helps, although they’ll get testy after a while, no matter how good the writing is.

Thanks for reading and thanks for the comments . . .

Related articles

Copyediting – Proofreading: Summary of Comments (Part One)

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 2 Comments

Now that I have completed  my five-part blog on copyediting and proofreading, I’ve grouped the comments into topics and ended up with too much information for one blog, so . . . I’ll split it into several. I’ll add information that I didn’t include in my original blogs and that was kindly contributed by readers of my blog.

I collected the comments from the blog series and from the LinkedIn writing group called Crime Fiction managed by Theresa de Valence.

The topics from the comments are:

  • DON’T TRUST YOUR SPELL CHECKER
  • Having Others Proofread Your Work
  • The Eye Sees What it Wants to See
  • Read it Backward
  • Read it Out Loud
  • Read it Big
  • Adjectives and Adverbs
  • Split Infinitives
  • E-Readers
  • Computer versus Paper
  • Templates
  • Taking Breaks
  • Proofreading versus Copyediting

And yup, you guessed it. I’m going to cover the bolded topic today.

DON’T TRUST YOUR SPELL CHECKER

One theme among the comments was the quest for a list of the most common words authors have issues with. You can find that list a little farther down in the blog.

The following is a humorous excerpt (paraphrased a little) from one comment I thought summed up why we have difficulty seeing the typos, and I’ll call them typos, because most of us know how to spell and we know the correct word choice, but our fingers seem to have a will of their own and type what they want.

Never met a spelling you didn’t like, eh? Well they’re (their?) hard to (too?) spot, even for those of us who can spell some and know lots of words. They hide or just sit there defiantly, while your integrative, Gestalt brain fills in the gaps and skips over extra letters on its own, without telling you. That’s why proofing is so difficult, aside from the tediousness. And you’re (your?) usually doing it at the 11th hour, under time constraints, and all your (thy?) helpful friends have abandoned you to your dire fate.
What happens to me kicking out the stops on the mighty netbook, is letters get omitted due to detritus among the keys, and the spell checker thinks “ad” instead of “and” is good to go. Etc., or is it Ect.?

There was consensus that homophones and typos that create a correct word, but not the word you want,  are a problem in manuscripts. The following are the words I received in the comments to the blog. This list contains words that other authors have stated they have issues with. I’ve bolded the ones that I didn’t include in my original blog.

  • Ad/And
  • Aisle/Isle/I’ll
  • Barely/Barley
  • Calf’s/Calves
  • Ect./Etc.
  • Here/hear
  • Heard/herd
  • He’ll/Hell
  • It’s/Its
  • Flee/Flea
  • For/Fro
  • Form/From
  • Grown/Groan
  • Manor/Manner
  • No/Not/Now
  • Own/Now
  • Series/Serious
  • So/Sew (use needle and thread)

  • Sit/Sight
  • Then/Than
  • Then/The
  • There/Their
  • There’s/Theirs
  • Throne/Thrown
  • Thin/Thine/Thing
  • Thy/Thigh
  • To/Too
  • Were/We’re
  • Whelps/Welts
  • Where/Were
  • Who’s/Whose
  • Wringing, Ringing
  • Your/You’re

For those of you who dictate your copy, you may find the dictation software created homophones throughout your manuscript. So guess what? You get to be especially careful when checking for them.

To help find this type of error, one reader suggested: the smaller your device or viewing window is, the better it will be for proofreading. Also, since such narrow focus is both tense and tedious (contradictory, but true), take frequent breaks – maybe alternate with another task that has nothing to do with this or any other book.

Another reader said: this isn’t 100% on topic, but I use the “Add to Dictionary” and “Ignore” feature in MS Word to stop the software from picking up odd character and place names as mistakes in my manuscript. If I don’t do that, then those words get flagged so frequently that I start ignoring Spellcheck completely…and then miss things like “teh” and “tihng.”

Thanks to everyone who shared how they create an error-free (okay – so as close to error-free as possible) manuscript. It’s helpful to learn how others work.

If you have other words that are often a problem, don’t be shy. Please share them with me.

Thanks for reading . . .

Copyediting – Proofreading Process articles and comments can be found at:

Copyediting – Proofreading Process (Part Five)

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 12 Comments

What a week! I can’t thank everyone enough for their contributions. I’m going to have to work hard at getting the comments and ideas summarized.

So you’ve finished copyediting – proofreading the manuscript, and it’s time to send it back to the author. This is usually when I think about the work I’ve done and have I done what the author asked of me. It’s a good time to pause and re-read ALL the comments. I ask myself:

  • Are the comments clear?
  • Are the comments consistent?
  • Have I introduced any errors?

If I am working on a computer copy of the document, I’ve asked the author not to touch their version until I’m done (I probably should have mentioned this in part one). With only one version active, the author can accept or reject changes without introducing new errors. Also, I figure if I’m going to spend the time editing, the author should wait for me and not create another version of the manuscript. It’s frustrating to have to repeat the editing process.

I usually summarize my detailed comments in an overview. I remember to tell the author what I liked about the story. This is important. Every writer needs to hear what he/she does well. It’s easy to focus on criticism, and my goal is to motivate the author to continue to write. I don’t want to de-motivate them because I made too many comments.

In the summary, I remind the author to do the following before shipping the manuscript to an agent, publisher or uploading it to an e-book site (if they are self-publishing):

  • accept or reject suggested changes
  • delete any remaining comments
  • turn off mark-up or track changes
  • remove bookmarks
  • check under properties that the title is correct

When you’re ready, ship the manuscript back to the author and see what he/she thinks. I’m usually nervous at this point. It’s an honour to read and work on another author’s manuscript, and I hope I’ve found a balance between being helpful and not being overly critical.

One final caution: I find it difficult to edit my own work. My eye reads what I think I wrote and not what I actually wrote. I do my best to correct my manuscript before I give it to someone else to edit, but I try to have a sense of humour and laugh at myself when errors are found. Nobody’s perfect ☺

Thanks again for reading . . .

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Copyediting – Proofreading Process (Part Two)

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 20 Comments

Today’s blog focuses on a list you can create to help you copyedit.

Creating a list is part of my process when reading another author’s manuscript. I use the list for my work too, but if you’ve edited your own writing, you’ll know how hard it is to find your mistakes.

Before I start – thank you to the people who pointed out the difference between proofreading and copyediting. Their definitions are in the comments of Proofreading (Part One). Also, thanks to everyone else for their comments. I had fun reading them all.

Monday’s blog took us part way through the second reading of a manuscript, but there’s still work to do on this pass.

While reading the manuscript for the second time, I create a list that includes:

  • Words with hyphens or words I think should have a hyphen.

While writing a novel, it’s easy for an author to forget which format they used for a word. It’s better to keep word formats consistent, which can be difficult, especially when the dictionary offers a choice or two dictionaries disagree with each other.

  • Words that are easy to type incorrectly, but the spell checker won’t find the error. There are many, so here are a few examples:

It’s/its

Their/there

Hear/here

Heard/herd

Where/were

Then/than

Then/the

This list grows with each new manuscript I read. Heard/herd came from the manuscript I’m currently editing.

  • Words that are spelt differently in Canadian or American spelling. This is hard to catch because some spell checkers allow both forms.  A difficult situation occurs if the author uses a Canadian spelling for one word and American for another.  For example:

My pyjamas are the color of green olives. Pyjamas is in Canadian spelling. Color is in American.

Search for words that can be spelt with ‘ou’ or ‘o’ and words where a consonant may or may not be doubled, such as:

Favourite/favorite

Travelling/Traveling

  • Words that can be spelt (spelled in the USA) two ways.

Toward/Towards

Backward/Backwards

Both are correct, but again consistency is important.

But what do you do with this list?

Even if you have read the manuscript in printed form, this is the point where a computer can help you eliminate errors.

In whatever word processing program you use, turn tracking on. Search the manuscript for each word in the list you’ve created during your second reading and make the appropriate changes. The author can decide to accept or reject the changes when he/she reads the suggested corrections.

Call me crazy, but I thought I was going to finish this subject in two blogs. We’re still not on to the third reading, but we’re getting there.  My next post on copyediting will be on Monday.

If you have any tips to share, I’d love to add them to my process.

Thanks for reading . . .

Related articles about proofreading versus copyediting:

Novel Titles – What’s in a name?

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 6 Comments

It’s always exciting receiving feedback from my agent. This time it was about the title of my  2nd novel.

The working title for my second Kalin Thompson Mystery novel was The Final Gate. I loved it. My agent’s editor had a different view.

I thought I’d share the very politely worded comment regarding the title. Here it is . . .

It might, however, need a new title because the present one could be confused with “The Western Gate,” or the aboriginal term for the entrance to the afterlife…

I’d put a lot of thought into the title, ran it by my readers, friends and family, and still there is more to learn.  But . . . I’d rather know now that the title might be the wrong one.

Where am I going with this? You may have noticed I updated my site with a new title for The Final Gate. The new title is:

Descent

I’m excited about the new title and also excited to get feedback to make my novel better before it gets sent to a publisher.

Isn’t the saying something like, SO much to learn . . . SO little time.

Thanks to my agent, Margaret Hart, and her team for helping me through this process.

Related articles

Correct Word Choice

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 6 Comments

 

So I’m a woman and you’d think I’d know the difference between woman and women.

I took a month off this summer from writing. I spent the time at the cottage with family and dogs having a wonderful time. Before I left for the cottage, I’d written about 40,000 words of my fourth novel, Look the Other Way.

After my return and before getting back to writing, I decided I’d better read what I’d written.

If you haven’t taken time away from a novel you’re writing, it’s an amazing experience. I was surprised and pleased by what I’d written. Well, with most of it anyway.

This brings me back to woman/women. I know how to use this word correctly, and yet, I found 2 places where I’d used it incorrectly.

Stepping away from the novel for a while and then reading it again, made these errors jump out at me. I’d be embarrassed if I, as a woman, sent this to anyone to read, and hadn’t caught the error.

Do you have a word your hands seem to want to type the wrong way?

 

Ending a Scene

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 9 Comments

So here I am again, adding a new column to my spreadsheet. Honestly, I don’t know how anyone can write a novel without an ever-evolving spreadsheet.

Previously, I blogged about Starting a Novel Scene and Before the Story Begins, and I don’t know why I didn’t notice at the time, but perhaps I should be checking how I end each scene.

I believe variety will help make a novel more interesting to read, so I added a new spreadsheet column called The Ending.

It contains one of four entries

  • Action
  • Dialogue
  • Thought
  • Narrative

The first draft is written without thinking about this. I want to write what comes naturally, and I want the story to flow.

But once the first draft is complete, it’s time to use various techniques to ensure the novel is as good as possible. This is when I check whether the scenes end in different ways. If all the scenes end with narrative for example, the novel might be tedious to read.  This is a less artistic part of the process, but no less important to the end product.

Anyone else have spreadsheet tips they want to share?