Reader Mail, plus More Hilarious Wingnuttery

By JD Rhoades
So this letter ran today in the Pilot:


Dusty Rhoades’ column in the Dec 7 Pilot disturbed me. To say that the prosecutor in the Ferguson case “threw” the case or deliberately lost it for the state involves a level of cynicism that is difficult to take.
Certainly, the prosecutor could have gotten an indictment if he “wanted” to. And just as certainly, there were political pressures for him to do just that. But Mr. Wilson is not a ham sandwich, of popular grand jury lore.
No he was not. But the rest of us would have been treated like one, which was part of the point.
Imagine for just a minute, even if you are as arrogant as Mr. Rhoades and are able to reach conclusions based on a superficial view of the evidence from newspapers and TV reports, that the prosecutor who did see all the evidence had a good-faith belief that the actions of Darren Wilson may have been justified.
Wrong. I actually read the transcripts. And I’m betting I read more of them than Mr. Muller. if actually doing your research is your idea of “arrogance,” then guilty as charged.
A prosecutor represents the state in an adversarial system, but he is not a pure advocate and must believe that the evidence on review supports a criminal conviction. Can you imagine a prosecutor asking a jury to find beyond a reasonable doubt that someone is guilty of a criminal offense when the prosecutor himself has significant doubts?
Yeah, actually, I can, because I live in the real world.
But, understanding correctly the highly charged nature of this case, rather than deciding himself to not proceed further against Wilson, which prosecutors do all the time, he presented the case to a grand jury as a check on the use of his discretion.
Again, a break which no one but someone like Wilson would get.
Yes, doing so and presenting evidence on both sides was highly unusual.
And thus, not “equal justice.”
But viewed in this way, the prosecutor was hardly giving Wilson a “break,” and just maybe was trying to do justice in the best way he could.
Justice which the average Joe (or Michael) would not have access to.
I acknowledge that I don’t know where the truth lies, but I respect the process and don’t share the view that “justice” requires a particular result here.


William Muller, Pinehurst
“Justice” does not require a particular result. It does, however, require a fair trial, not a sham.
At least Mr, Muller was (mostly) polite. But then of course, our old friend “Francis” needed to weigh in in the comments with his usual brand of wingnut fuckwittery:
More surprising than the article you have commented on is the fact you succeeded in having the Pilot post it, you have openly criticized, and even called arrogant one of those who John protects from any unflattering remarks, not often will you read honest appraisals on the individual you mentioned, even this comment may have gone too far, a very thin skinned critic who lashes out at others with no restrictions.
Get that? The guy with over 1100 posts on The Pilot website, the vast majority of them vicious personal attacks on me (including one that said I should die a slow and painful death from Ebola) is whining that The Pilot is “protecting me” from “unflattering remarks.” Not only that, he’s doing so in response to a letter disputing one of my columns that’s on there as a “Top Letter to the Editor.” And as for no restrictions, let’s not forger that he’s still allowed to post and I’m not.

Classic wingnuttery: using a public forum to complain endlessly about how that forum is violating their right to free speech.

Via: J.D. Rhoades

    

Announcement Time – A New Taylor Jackson Novel is Coming!

By JT Ellison

It’s time to publicly share the big news from my December newsletter. Here we go!

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I will be contributing a story to SWEET DREAMS, Brenda Novak’s thriller box set. The box set will be available for $9.99 for a limited time, starting May 1, 2015. And here’s what I will be bringing to the party:

From New York Times bestselling author J.T. Ellison comes the long awaited prequel to her Taylor Jackson series. CROSSED, the story of a madman trying to create his own end-of-days apocalypse, introduces Lieutenant Taylor Jackson to the young, troubled FBI profiler Dr. John Baldwin.

A brand new, never before published TAYLOR NOVEL, y’all! Just like you’ve been begging for! And they say I don’t listen…

A little background on CROSSED. This is the very first book I ever wrote. It’s the book that landed me my agent back in 2005. I will rewrite a bit (she says, hopeful it’s not utter crapola), to improve the craft aspects and some story updating, but it’s high time y’all get to see how Taylor and Baldwin met and fell in love.

I can’t wait to share CROSSED with you. And just look at the lineup of authors! This is going to be the box set to end all box sets.

Now, this book is not going to be in bookstores in this iteration. It will be available in the digital box set only from May 1- July 1, and then I have plans for it, which we’ll discuss in 2015. And don’t worry, if you don’t have an ereader, all the platforms have a version that allows you to read on your computer.

So … surprise! I will give you pre-order links when we’re closer to release. I’m honored to be included with all these incredible writers, and really excited to share Taylor’s first adventure with you at last.

And if you’re interested to see the places behind the books, check out Placing Literature, where all month long I’ll be geolocating scenes from my books!

So what do you think? Does this sound like something you might be interested in????

Via: JT Ellison

    

Live chat tonight: 9 pm EST

By noreply@blogger.com (Alexandra Sokoloff) I forgot to say that I’m going to be chatting in the Writerspace chat room tonight (Sunday, 12/7) at
9 pm EST.

That’s 2 am Scottish time, so I can’t promise complete clarity (!) – but I will be up and talking about whatever anyone wants to talk about: the Huntress series, indie publishing, Scotland, story structure, movies, Deadwood, Amazon, the space-time continuum…

I’ll be giving away a couple of books, and anyone who stops in will automatically be registered for my monthly contest – to celebrate the rerelease of the Huntress series I’m giving away a Kindle in January. (If you can’t make it to the chat you can still enter by signing up for my mailing list.)

Come on by! Link to chat room

Via: Alexandra Sokoloff

    

Nanowrimo Now What? – Rewriting

By noreply@blogger.com (Alexandra Sokoloff)

by Alexandra Sokoloff

All right everyone, break’s over! Back to work!

Now that we’ve had some time off from the frenzy of writing that was November, we need to get back to those drafts and – yike – see what we’ve got.

This is assuming two crucial things:

1. You have FINISHED your draft. If not, keep writing to the end.

2. You have taken enough time off from that draft to clear your head.

But now that you have taken the time off… how the hell do you proceed with the second draft?

Well, first you have to read the first draft. All the way through. Not necessarily in one sitting (if that’s even possible to begin with!). I usually do this in chunks of 50 pages or 100 pages a day – anything else makes my brain sore.
(And yes, if you’ve been paying attention (The Three Act Structure and The Eight Sequence Structure), that would mean I’m either reading one sequence or two sequences a day).
I picked up a tip from some book or article a long time ago about reading for revisions, and I wish I could remember who said it to credit them, because it’s great advice. Grab yourself a colored pen or pencil (or all kinds of colors, glitter pens – go wild) and sit down with a stack of freshly printed pages (sorry, it’s ungreen, but I can’t do a first revision on a screen. I need a hard copy). Then read through and make brief notes where necessary, but DO NOT start rewriting, and PUT THE PEN DOWN as soon as you’ve made a note. You want to read the first time through for story, not for stupid details that will interrupt your experience of the story as a whole. You want to get the big picture – especially – you want to see if you actually have a book (or film, if that’s what you’re writing).
If your drafts are anything like mine, there will be large chunks of absolute shit. That’s pretty much my definition of what a first draft is. X them out on the spot if you have to, but resist the temptation to stop and rewrite. Well, if you REALLY are hot to write a scene, I guess, okay, but really, unless you are totally, fanatically inspired, it’s better just to make brief notes.
When you’ve finished reading there should – hopefully! – be the feeling that even though you probably still have massive amounts of work yet to do, there is a book there. (I love that feeling…)
Once I’ve read through the entire thing, I make notes about my impressions, and then usually I will do a re-card (see The Index Card Method). I will have made many scribbled notes on the draft to the effect of “This scene doesn’t work here!” In some of my first drafts, whole sections don’t work at all. This is my chance to find the right places for things. And, of course, throw stuff out.
I will go through the entire book again – going back and forth between my pages and the cards on my story grid – and see where the story elements fall. There is no script or book I’ve ever written that didn’t benefit from a careful overview once again identifying act breaks, sequence climaxes, and key story elements like: The Call to Adventure; Stating the Theme; identifying the Central Question; Central Action and Plan; Crossing the Threshold; Meeting the Mentor; the Dark Night of the Soul – once the first draft is actually finished. A lot of your outline may have changed, and you will be able to pull your story into line much more effectively if you check your structural elements again and continually be thinking of how you can make those key scenes more significant, more magical.
(For a quick refresher on Story Elements, skip down to #10 at the bottom of this post, and the links at the end for more in-depth discussion.)
Also, be very aware of what your sequences are. If a scene isn’t working, but you know you need to have it, it’s probably in the wrong sequence, and if you look at your story overall and at what each sequence is doing, you’ll probably be able to see immediately where stray scenes need to go. That’s why re-carding and re-sequencing is such a great thing to do when you start a revision.
Now, the next steps can be taken in whatever order is useful to you, but here again are the

Top Ten Things I Know About Editing
1. Cut, cut, cut.
When you first start writing, you are reluctant to cut anything. Believe me, I remember. But the truth is, beginning writers very, very, VERY often duplicate scenes, and characters, too. And dialogue, oh man, do inexperienced writers duplicate dialogue! The same things happen over and over again, are said over and over again. It will be less painful for you to cut if you learn to look for and start to recognize when you’re duplicating scenes, actions, characters and dialogue. Those are the obvious places to cut and combine.
Some very wise writer (unfortunately I have no idea who) said, “If it occurs to you to cut, do so.” This seems harsh and scary, I know. Often I’ll flag something in a manuscript as “Could cut”, and leave it in my draft for several passes until I finally bite the bullet and get rid of it. So, you know, that’s fine. Allow yourself to CONSIDER cutting something, first. No commitment! Then if you do, fine. But once you’ve considered cutting, you almost always will. It’s okay if you bitch about it all the way to the trash file, too – I always do.
2. Find a great critique group.
This is easier said than done, but you NEED a group, or a series of readers, who will commit themselves to making your work the best it can be, just as you commit the same to their work. Editors don’t edit the way they used to and publishing houses expect their authors to find friends to do that kind of intensive editing. Really.
3. Do several passes.
Finish your first draft, no matter how rough it is. Then give yourself a break — a week is good, two weeks is better, three weeks is better than that — as time permits. Then read, cut, polish, put in notes. Repeat. And repeat again. Always give yourself time off between reads if you can. The closer your book is to done, the more uncomfortable the unwieldy sections will seem to you, and you will be more and more okay with getting rid of them. Read on for the specific kinds of passes I recommend doing.
4. Whatever your genre is, do a dedicated pass focusing on that crucial genre element.
For a thriller: thrills and suspense. For a mystery: clues and misdirection and suspense. For a comedy: a comedic pass. For a romance: a sex pass. Or “emotional” pass, if you must call it that. For horror… well, you get it.
I write suspense. So after I’ve written that first agonizing bash-through draft of a book or script, and probably a second or third draft just to make it readable, I will at some point do a dedicated pass just to amp up the suspense, and I highly recommend trying it, because it’s amazing how many great ideas you will come up with for suspense scenes (or comic scenes, or romantic scenes) if you are going through your story JUST focused on how to inject and layer in suspense, or horror, or comedy, or romance. It’s your JOB to deliver the genre you’re writing in. It’s worth a dedicated pass to make sure you’re giving your readers what they’re buying the book for.
5. Know your Three Act Structure.
If something in your story is sagging, it is amazing how quickly you can pull your narrative into line by looking at the scene or sequence you have around page 100 (or whatever page is ¼ way through the book), page 200, (or whatever page is ½ way through the book), page 300 (or whatever page is ¾ through the book) and your climax. Each of those scenes should be huge, pivotal, devastating, game-changing scenes or sequences (even if it’s just emotional devastation). Those four points are the tentpoles of your story.
6. Do a dedicated DESIRE LINE pass in which you ask yourself for every scene: “What does this character WANT? Who is opposing her/him in this scene? Who WINS in the scene? What will they do now?”
7. Do a dedicated EMOTIONAL pass, in which you ask yourself in every chapter, every scene, what do I want my readers to FEEL in this moment?
8. Do a dedicated SENSORY pass, in which you make sure you’re covering what you want the reader to see, hear, feel, taste, smell, and sense.
9. Read your book aloud. All of it. Cover to cover.
I wouldn’t recommend doing this with a first draft unless you feel it’s very close to the final product, but when you’re further along, the best thing I know to do to edit a book — or script — is read it aloud. The whole thing. I know, this takes several days, and you will lose your voice. Get some good cough drops. But there is no better way to find errors — spelling, grammar, continuity, and rhythmic errors. Try it, you’ll be amazed.
10. Finally, and this is a big one: steal from film structure to pull your story into dramatic line.
Some of you are already well aware that I’ve compiled a checklist of story elements that I use both when I’m brainstorming a story on index cards, and again when I’m starting to revise. I find it invaluable to go through my first draft and make sure I’m hitting all of these points, so here it is again, for those just finding this post.
STORY ELEMENTS CHECKLIST
ACT ONE
* Opening image
* Meet the hero or heroine
* Hero/ine’s inner and outer desire.
* Hero/ine’s problem
* Hero/ine’s ghost or wound
* Hero/ine’s arc
* Inciting Incident/Call to Adventure
* Meet the antagonist (and/or introduce a mystery, which is what you do when you’re going to keep your antagonist hidden to reveal at the end)
* State the theme/what’s the story about?
* Allies
* Mentor (possibly. May not have one or may be revealed later in the story).
* Love interest
* Plant/Reveal (or: Setups and Payoffs)
* Hope/Fear (and Stakes)
* Time Clock (possibly. May not have one or may be revealed later in the story)
* Sequence One climax
* Central Question
* Central Story Action
* Plan (Hero/ine’s)
* Villain’s Plan
* Act One climax
___________________________
ACT TWO
* Crossing the Threshold/ Into the Special World (may occur in Act One)
* Threshold Guardian (maybe)
* Hero/ine’s Plan
* Antagonist’s Plan
* Training Sequence
* Series of Tests
* Picking up new Allies
* Assembling the Team
* Attacks by the Antagonist (whether or not the Hero/ine recognizes these as being from the antagonist)
* In a detective story, questioning witnesses, lining up and eliminating suspects, following clues.
THE MIDPOINT
* Completely changes the game
* Locks the hero/ine into a situation or action
* Can be a huge revelation
* Can be a huge defeat
* Can be a “now it’s personal” loss
* Can be sex at 60 — the lovers finally get together, only to open up a whole new world of problems
______________________________
ACT TWO, PART TWO
* Recalibrating — after the shock or defeat of the game-changer in the Midpoint, the hero/ine must Revamp The Plan and try a New Mode of Attack.
* Escalating Actions/ Obsessive Drive
* Hard Choices and Crossing The Line (immoral actions by the main character to get what s/he wants)
* Loss of Key Allies (possibly because of the hero/ine’s obsessive actions, possibly through death or injury by the antagonist).
* A Ticking Clock (can happen anywhere in the story)
* Reversals and Revelations/Twists. (Hmm, that clearly should have its own post, now, shouldn’t it?)
* The Long Dark Night of the Soul and/or Visit to Death (aka All Is Lost)
THE SECOND ACT CLIMAX
* Often can be a final revelation before the end game: the knowledge of who the opponent really is
* Answers the Central Question
_______________________________
ACT THREE
The third act is basically the Final Battle and Resolution. It can often be one continuous sequence — the chase and confrontation, or confrontation and chase. There may be a final preparation for battle, or it might be done on the fly. Either here or in the last part of the second act the hero will make a new, FINAL PLAN, based on the new information and revelations of the second act.
The essence of a third act is the final showdown between protagonist and antagonist. It is often divided into two sequences:
1. Getting there (storming the castle)
2. The final battle itself
* Thematic Location — often a visual and literal representation of the Hero/ine’s Greatest Nightmare
* The protagonist’s character change
* The antagonist’s character change (if any)
* Possibly allies’ character changes and/or gaining of desire
* Could be one last huge reveal or twist, or series of reveals and twists, or series of final payoffs you’ve been saving (as in BACK TO THE FUTURE and IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE).
* RESOLUTION: A glimpse into the New Way of Life that the hero/ine will be living after this whole ordeal and all s/he’s learned from it.
And I’ll be posting more about how to do different kinds of passes for particular effect. But for now, I think all of the above should keep you busy for a few days…
– Alex

PS: You may have noticed I’ve added several tabs at the top of the blog. It’s a work in progress, but you can now more easily access posts on Indie Publishing, Nanowrimo, Story Structure, my book/film/life essays, my monthly giveaways, etc. Any comments/suggestions gladly accepted!


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The writing workbooks based on this blog, Screenwriting Tricks for Authors and Writing Love, Screenwriting Tricks for Authors, II, are available for just $3.99 and $2.99.


– Amazon US

– Amazon UK

– Amaxon DE

– Amazon FR

– Amazon ES

– Amazon IT

If you’re a romance writer, or have a strong love plot or subplot in your novel or script, then Writing Love: Screenwriting Tricks II is an expanded version of the first workbook with a special emphasis on love stories, and more full story breakdowns.

– Smashwords (includes online viewing and pdf file)

– Amazon US

– Barnes & Noble/Nook

– Amazon UK

– Amazon DE

Via: Alexandra Sokoloff

    

A D.A. Takes A Dive In Ferguson

By JD Rhoades
The Pilot Newspaper: Opinion

The one thing that kept going through my mind as the world waited and waited and waited for the grand jury decision in the case of State of Missouri vs. Darren Wilson was, “Man, I wish every defendant got the level of due process that guy’s getting.”
Because let me tell you, folks, if it had been Michael Brown’s case — or yours or mine, for that matter — in front of that grand jury, there wouldn’t have been weeks of waiting for a decision. The grand jury would have indicted and been home before lunch.
I’ve been in Superior Court when a grand jury is meeting more times than I can count. I’ve seen a couple of hundred cases at a time handed to them. And I’ve seen those cases come back within hours with every single blessed one of them marked “a true bill.” Many of those defendants that go to trial are either exonerated or found guilty of lesser charges by the full or “petit” jury.
No less a conservative jurist than Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has explained the purpose of the grand jury as “not to determine guilt or innocence, but to assess whether there is adequate basis for bringing a criminal charge. … That has always been so; and to make the assessment, it has always been thought sufficient to hear only the prosecutor’s side.”
A typical grand jury hears only what the prosecutor wants it to hear and routinely rubber-stamps whatever the DA asks for.
The way prosecutor Robert McCulloch presented the Wilson case to the grand jury, however, was, to say the least, extraordinary. Rather than present the evidence most favorable to the state and ask for a specific charge, as it’s usually done, McCulloch decided he’d present all the evidence, good and bad, to the grand jury, and let it decide.
Sounds great, huh? I agree. I’d love it if all grand juries were like that. But they’re not. Not for the likes of you and me. Instead of the usual procedure, McCulloch transformed the grand jury into a mini-trial of the matter — which his office then proceeded to deliberately lose for the state.
If you look at the transcripts, you see DAs vigorously cross-examining the witnesses who support what would have normally been the state’s case, while treating the supposed defendant with kid gloves and accepting his story at face value. (“If he had not grabbed the gun while he was hitting you in the face, would you still have used deadly force”?)
St. Louis County Assistant District Attorneys Kathy Alizadeh and Sheila Whirley, who examined Wilson, didn’t even bother to cross-examine him on the unlikely things in his testimony. Things like Wilson’s claim that Michael Brown hit him in the face — hard enough to make Wilson fear for his life — with his right hand, a hand Wilson claimed was still holding stolen cigarillos from a convenience store robbery, and yet didn’t break or damage any of those cigarillos. (Q: “Were there any broken cigarillos or anything in your car later?” A: “No.”)
Or the claim that Michael Brown was “reaching into his waistband” as he supposedly charged Wilson, even though, since he was unarmed, there was absolutely nothing to reach for. Or Wilson’s assertion that Brown ran 20-30 feet away from the police car before turning back and charging another 10 feet back toward Wilson, when Brown (as even McCulloch later admitted in his own press conference) died about 150 feet away from the car.
Any DA would have asked these questions — if he or she was trying even halfheartedly for an indictment.
Perhaps the most stunning thing the DA’s office did in throwing this case occurred on Sept. 16, shortly before Wilson testified. At that time, Alizadeh handed the jury a 1979 Missouri statute that says that an officer has the right to use deadly force if “immediately necessary to effect the arrest or prevent the escape from custody.” Alizadeh did not, however, mention that statutes like that had been found unconstitutional six years later by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The St. Louis County DA’s office threw that hearing. And it did so as clumsily as a novice WWE wrestler taking his first dive pursuant to that night’s script.
Darren Wilson may or may not be guilty of murdering Michael Brown. One thing is undeniable, however: He did not receive something that is supposed to be so fundamental a principle of our system that it’s carved into the front of the U.S. Supreme Court Building: “equal justice under law.”

Darren Wilson got breaks from the prosecution that no one else would have. And that is why people are in the streets.
THE GOBSHITES SPEAK:
I knew this one would produce a storm of nasty personal attacks and utterly uninformed balderdash from laypeople claiming expertise in the law while managing to get everything wrong, As usual, I’m right.
Anonymous coward “pearlharbor” writes:
…are you unclear why Wilson shot Brown? Or are you unclear why this was even a story?Let me help you. Brown messed with the wrong cop. If it were me, and I was a cop and some thug reached into my car I would have shot him right then and there.
Inevitably in a story like this, some troll beats their chest and announces how they would have been big and tough and brave in this situation and busted a cap in some thug’s ass. The claim of being a tough guy might be a little more credible if the person making it wasn’t afraid to use their own name.
Pearl goes on: To your confusion about the grand jury. Seems like your experience as an attorney is getting in the way of your judgement. [sic] They look at the evidence and decide whether there is enough to convict.
No, they are supposed to look at the evidence and see if, weighing that evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, there is enough to go to trial.
Maybe in your little legal world defending Michael Brown types it’s crystal clear. But out here in the real world average people tend to look at the facts and decide not twist them to mold the outcome they want. It’s sad when an attorney loses faith in the system he’s been manipulating over the years.
Thanks for the vote of confidence in my ability to manipulate the system. I’m in the phone book.
The aptly named Walter B, Bull Jr. has this to offer:
You are an Officer of the Court Dusty and when you have nothing important to say you should just “sit down and shut up.”
Mr. Bull, as it turns out, “wrote and published a newspaper, “The Sandhills Pulse” that was distributed in the local community” and now stylesl himself “The Voice of NC” on a blog. Until today, neither I nor anyone I know has ever heard of either the failed “newspaper” or the blog.

Those who can, do; those who can’t, tell those who can to sit down and shut up.
Of course, no visit to the comments section would be complete without a visit from inveterate gobshite “Francis”, he of over 1180 posts, almost all of them personal attacks on me:
I would comment but it will be deleted, so I agree ” just sit down and shut up “, you have no more information on this than anyone else, always trying to be more than you are.
‘Nuff said.

Via: J.D. Rhoades

    

12.3.14 – On Planners

By JT Ellison

Back in the saddle. 2037 today on Nick #3. Also cleaned up email, updated addresses, made a few adjustments to my 2015 planner. I’m at that weird time of the year when I can’t wait to switch over, to start my annual review process and dig into next year’s goals. I already know what my overarching theme is, and it’s beginning to leak into my last few weeks of 2014.

Speaking of planners, the December contest is live. The prize is a Moleskine 2015 planner! See, I’m even starting to tidy up YOUR lives, too!

Personally, I am switching to a Quo Vadis Journal 21. It is a daily planner instead of weekly, the format I’ve been using for YEARS. I started keeping a daily logbook of sorts back in October, and realized I loved having all that space to write, record, and otherwise plan things out. So the Journal 21 it is. And… it fits into my (very old) Coach leather day planner cover. WIN!

So my combination of Day One for journaling and blogging, and the handwritten day-to-day stuff – this is where I’m heading in 2015.

What sort of planner do you use?

Via: JT Ellison

    

12.2.14 – A Book’s Many Steps

By JT Ellison

So the DH and I have contracted some sort of viral… thing… that is not officially the “Influenza Virus” but is some other sort of flu. I’ve been fighting it since Saturday; he’s almost a week in. Which means there’s been quite a bit of lying about moaning on couches, tea consumption and lack of general focus.

Bad timing. My last pass edits for WHAT LIES BEHIND came in on Friday, and were sent off last night with a kiss and a prayer. I spent the whole weekend (minus my shift at Parnassus – that was FUN!) working on them. It’s always nerve-wracking to me, this final step in the process before the book goes into production.

There are multiple steps in a book’s editorial life. I turn in a manuscript, my editor does a general, or developmental, edit. She gives me notes, and I go through and make changes accordingly. This part of the process can go smoothly (as this did) or it can generate reams of paper. It just depends. Every book is different.

The next step is the line edit. This is where the editor goes through line by line, making sure things make sense, typos are caught, and things are consistent. She send me the marked up manuscript, and I too go through line by line, addressing any issues that have cropped up.

And then it’s on to the copyedit. The book is generally typeset at this stage — though with the advent of technology, that seems to happen much earlier in the process. I plow through the copyedits — cringing at my apparent lack of knowledge when it comes to grammar and punctuation — fix discrepancies caused by cross-cultural language barriers, and otherwise polish, polish, polish.

Then we go to AAs, author alterations, which is the final step in the process. The manuscript is as clean as we can make it. This is my last chance to make changes, substantial or otherwise.

This is the step that takes the longest for me, because I read every single word. I don’t gloss over lines, I don’t allow my brain to trick me into seeing things as I know it should be rather than what it is. Some authors read theirs aloud, some read backward. I just take a long, leisurely stroll through the book, paying special attention to the story, the dialog, looking for repetitions, all that stuff.

I found several errors, and one whopping inconsistency we all missed. Errors tend to creep in during the previous three stages; this is why I take my time and read thoroughly. Hopefully I’ve caught them all.

Now the book goes to proofreaders for one last look, and then it’s off to the printers.

There will be errors. There always are. Even with all these steps, all these reads (the post-finished count is five – that doesn’t count the hundreds of reads it got while I was writing) typos silently set-up warrens, and breed. Like rabbits. Drives us all mad.

But I’ll tell you, I like this book. Probably the kiss of death review wise, but I think it’s solid and exciting, and Sam really shines. It’s a fun one.

And, I got my final cover today. I can’t share it yet, but I’ll give you a hint… it’s one of my all-time favorites. I had that ZING of delight when I saw the concept, and the final version is simply gorgeous.

So that’s what I’ve been up to. Tomorrow, the brain turns at last to uninterrupted writing time on Nicholas #3. We have a title for it, at last. I’ll wait for Catherine to announce it, then I’ll share : )

Do make sure you’re signed up for the newsletter. (http://jtellison.com/subscribe/) Big news coming Friday!!!

Via: JT Ellison

    

Nanowrimo Now What?

By noreply@blogger.com (Alexandra Sokoloff)

by Alexandra Sokoloff

YAY!!! You survived! Or maybe I shouldn’t make any assumptions, there.
But for the sake of argument, let’s say you survived and now have a rough draft (maybe very, very, very rough draft) of about 50,000 words.
What next?
Well, first of all, did you write to “The End”? Because if not, then you may have survived, but you’re not done. You must get through to The End, no matter how rough it is (rough meaning the process AND the pages…). If you did not get to The End, I would strongly urge that you NOT take a break, no matter how tired you are (well, maybe a day). You can slow down your schedule, set a lower per-day word or page count, but do not stop. Write every day, or every other day if that’s your schedule, but get the sucker done.
You may end up throwing away most of what you write, but it is a really, really, really bad idea not to get all the way through a story. That is how most books, scripts and probably most all other things in life worth doing are abandoned.
Conversely, if you DID get all the way to “The End”, then definitely, take a break. As long a break as possible. You should keep to a writing schedule, start brainstorming the next project, maybe do some random collaging to see what images come up that might lead to something fantastic – but if you have a completed draft, then what you need right now is SPACE from it. You are going to need fresh eyes to do the read-through that is going to take you to the next level, and the only way for you to get those fresh eyes is to leave the story alone for a while.

In the next month I’ll be posting about rewriting. But not now.

Today, no matter where you are in the process, celebrate! You showed up and have the pages to show for it.

Then –


1. Keep going if you’re not done

OR

2. Take a good long break if you have a whole first draft, and if you MUST think about writing, maybe start thinking about another project.

And in the meantime, I’d love to hear how you all who were Nanoing did.
– Alex

=====================================================
All the information on this blog and more is in the writing workbooks. Screenwriting Tricks for Authors and Writing Love, Screenwriting Tricks for Authors, II, are available for just $3.99 and $2.99.


If you’re a romance writer, or have a strong love plot or subplot in your novel or script, then Writing Love: Screenwriting Tricks II is an expanded version of the first workbook with a special emphasis on love stories, and more full story breakdowns.
– Smashwords (includes online viewing and pdf file)

– Amazon US

– Barnes & Noble/Nook

– Amazon UK

– Amazon DE

Via: Alexandra Sokoloff

    

Pass a Bill, Congress

By JD Rhoades
The Pilot Newspaper: Opinion

A U.S. president, without action by Congress, takes unilateral executive action to delay deportation and grant work permits to children of undocumented immigrants who would not otherwise be eligible for citizenship.
The president: Ronald Reagan, patron saint of the right wing. The year: 1987. Cries of “tyranny!”, threats of lawsuits, and calls for impeachment: zero.
Another U.S. president expands the program to defer deportation for even more immigrants, again via executive action. The president: George H.W. Bush. The year: 1990. Cries of “tyranny!”, threats of lawsuits, and calls for impeachment: zero.
In 2014, a U.S. president takes executive action after numerous requests for Congress to do something about the broken immigration system. The president: Barack Obama. Cries of “tyranny!”, threats of lawsuits, and calls for impeachment: too many to count.
Actually, I’m sure that the “Republican leadership” (two words I can hardly put in the same sentence without laughing) breathed a huge sigh of relief after the president gave his speech announcing what he planned to do. This is exactly what they wanted. I knew this the minute the Republicans started talking about how any executive action would “poison the well,” meaning that they wouldn’t even try to take action on immigration if Obama did.
The thing is, the GOP really doesn’t want to talk about reforming immigration. John Boehner and Mitch McConnell are terrified of even bringing it up. They know that any realistic immigration reform will have to include some kind of path to legal citizenship for at least some currently illegal immigrants. But they also know that that will send the Teahadist wing of the GOP into a frothing rage.
No matter how many conditions, background checks, payment of back taxes or other conditions that proposed path may require, Boehner and McConnell are very aware that the Raging Right will call anything short of mass imprisonment and automatic deportation “amnesty.” They know that they won’t be able to prevent crackpots like Louie Gohmert or Tom Coburn from saying something racist, xenophobic or condescending that will alienate Latinos even further than their party already has.
Any actual debate on immigration reform, even among the majority, would split the Republican Party and drive America’s fastest growing constituency even further away than they already have.
Immediately after the president’s speech, Boehner told the press: “With this action, the president has chosen to deliberately sabotage any chance of enacting bipartisan reforms that he claims to seek.”
This position is patently absurd. There is absolutely nothing about President Obama’s executive action that keeps Congress from passing its own bill on immigration reform. There is no provision in the Constitution or any federal law that says “should the president do something that hurts the feelings of the majority party, said party shall thenceforth be without power to pass legislation, so there.”
The only thing that’s stopping the Republicans from doing their job of passing legislation is the inability of their “leadership” (chuckle) to actually get their motley collection of nutcases, prima donnas, grifters and future Fox News hosts to fall in line, stop playing to the cameras, and, as the president challenged them in his speech, “pass a bill.”
The Obama administration’s response to every question or complaint needs to be those three words: “Pass a bill.”
“This is dictatorship!” … “Pass a bill.”
“You’re acting lawlessly!” … “Pass a bill.”
“You’re not the boss of us!” … “Pass a bill.”
“You should go to jail for this!” … “Pass. A. Bill.”
In fact, a comprehensive bipartisan immigration bill has already passed the Senate — 68-32, with 14 Republicans crossing the aisle to vote for it. It provides for increased border security, requires mandatory verification systems by employers, and yes, contains an arduous 13-year path to citizenship that could only be called “amnesty” by people completely unaware of what that word actually means. That bill was strangled in its crib by the House.
The House could take up the Senate bill or provide its own version. But that’s not going to happen. The Republicans will stomp their feet and yell and send out fundraising letters and emails. They’ll threaten and maybe even file lawsuits. They’ll threaten to shut down the government and maybe even do it. They’ll threaten to impeach, and maybe even do it. Will they do the one thing that would make this unnecessary, which is pass a bill?
Nope.
We can expect more useless political theater from the party that can win a midterm where only 36.4 percent of the voters show up (a 72-year low), but which is utterly incapable of actually governing afterward.

Via: J.D. Rhoades