Writing

An Inside Look at the Copy Editing Process

If you’re at all interested in the copy editing process that a novel goes through before it sees print, you might find this interesting. Here’s a conversation I just had this morning with my copy editor, Deanna Hoak, about a sentence in my upcoming book MultiReal. I’ve done a very minimal amount of editing to remove the “brb”s and such, but otherwise this is exactly how the conversation occurred.

MultiReal by David Louis Edelman The chapter in question is a flashback featuring a conversation between Marcus Surina and his daughter Margaret. In the original passage, Marcus says: “There’s a look people get when the Null Current is about to pull them under, Margaret. A look of inevitability. It’s the look of the stalk of wheat, watching the thresher approach and knowing that the time’s come for a newer, stronger crop to bask in the sun.”

Now Marcus Surina’s supposed to be a little — well, odd. But Deanna’s concern was that having him ascribe emotion to a stalk of wheat might be a little too odd. So we hashed it out this morning over IM as follows:

Deanna: With the wheat thing, maybe about a mouse that can’t get away fast enough?

Deanna: I’ll look at it more closely on second read, or you can let me know if you think of something.

DLE: Let me look at that sentence

Deanna: I just know it hit me as off when I read it the first time.

DLE: Hmm

DLE: You’re right… it does seem weird for a stalk of wheat to have a “look”

Deanna: Yeah, I was afraid the reader would perceive him as loonier than you intended.

DLE: He *is* supposed to be odd, and use really weird metaphors

DLE: But… you’re right. That might be pushing it.

DLE: What if I said something like “It’s the look that the stalk of wheat must get when it watches the thresher approach…”

DLE: Does the “must get” distance it at all?

Deanna: Hm. I think “look” is really the problem.

Deanna: “Look” with “wheat”

Deanna: From my way of thinking…

Deanna: It’s early in the book. The reader isn’t going to know yet if it’s just him who talks that way, or if you just write that way. I would fear someone picking it up in the bookstore and thumbing through the first few pages might think you continually use those.

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How Does the Story End?

On DeepGenre today: inspired by my thinking as I write the concluding volume of the Jump 225 trilogy, I’ve posted a meditation on how stories end, and why they end, and what the purpose of ending a story is in the first place. Using Batman as a metaphor, of course. If you were to stand back at the end of Bruce Wayne’s life and try to chronicle it from the beginning, chances are that his … Read more

“MultiReal”: It’s Done

'MultiReal' manuscriptThe photo you see here is the completed manuscript of my second novel, MultiReal, the sequel to Infoquake. It’s been somewhere around three years in the making, and now it’s done.

The book measures 477 pages, or about 148,000 words (including appendices). There are 6 sections, 45 chapters, and 8 appendices. The opening epigraph comes from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself.” The tagline? “Infinite possibility is only a state of mind.”

Now, when I say the book is done, of course that doesn’t mean it’s absolutely, completely done. That means it’s going off to my editor at Pyr, Lou Anders, for any last-minute comments. I’ll be printing out another copy of the book for myself and giving it a last read-through with red pen in hand. I’ll be incorporating those changes by the end of the month — and then the book goes off to the copy editor. But I expect the changes to be pretty minor from this point on.

(Want to know how finicky I am? The printouts after the jump below showing some of my line edits to MultiReal are from the fourth complete draft of the book.)

Here’s an example of the kind of changes I’m talking about. I discovered yesterday that, after who knows how many read-throughs and rewrites, in chapter 45 one of my characters was “threading her way through the throngs of Thasselians.” I’ll admit I’m not always above allocating an assortment of alliteration in my writing, but this one was totally unintentional. And it sounded ridiculous, so it needed to be fixed. (The even more ridiculous part is that I had misspelled “throngs” as “thongs.” Freudian slip?)

So having completed the book, I can definitely say this: you have never, ever read a book like MultiReal before.

MultiReal might be the most exciting book you’ve ever read that contains both a series of Congressional speeches and a three-way dartgun battle. It has both a granular discussion about the ethics of different software pricing models and a virtual sex scene with four-breasted mermaids.

To give you an idea of how complex this book is, chew on this: there are three main point-of-view characters, three minor point-of-view characters, one chapter in epistolary form, and one chapter from the global omniscient point of view. The prose slips from past to present tense a few times. You’re going to learn that one important piece of history mentioned in Infoquake didn’t quite happen the way you think it happened. Some of the characters speak in code. More than one have double allegiances. Oh, and have I mentioned the multiple, alternate, simultaneous, and asynchronous realities?

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On DeepGenre: The End of Science Fiction

I’ve just written a long essay on the DeepGenre blog about how long the genre of science fiction is destined to last and whether we might see the end of it anytime soon. Read “The End of Science Fiction” and post your comments there. Some excerpts: Here’s something I’ve noticed about futuristic science fiction stories: the characters in them never tell futuristic science fiction stories. Think about it. Can you think of a single example … Read more

KGB Reading Wrap-up

I arrived back late last night from my trip to New York for the Fantastic Fiction Reading Series at the KGB Bar. Co-organizer Ellen Datlow was kind enough to post photos of the event on her Flickr account. The reading, I felt, went fabulous. At 40 people, the reading audience was both the largest and most attentive I’ve ever been in front of. I read my story “Mathralon,” which, as I told the audience, is … Read more

Reading at the KGB Bar This Wednesday

As a reminder to those in the New York area, I will be reading this Wednesday night at the Fantastic Fiction Reading Series at the KGB Bar in Manhattan. I’m essentially the warm-up act for the legendary Carol Emshwiller, she who hath won the Philip K. Dick and World Fantasy Awards and received multiple Nebula and James Tiptree Jr. nominations as well. What will I be reading? I was told that organizers Ellen Datlow and … Read more

Five Things That Do Happen When You Become a Published Author

Following my somewhat pessimistic post on Five Things That Don’t Happen When You Become a Published Author, here are a few things I’ve noticed that do happen when you become a published author. 1. Strangers will be strangely deferential to you. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve met in the past year whose eyes lit up when they discovered I had written a novel published by a real, live, New York publisher. The … Read more

Five Things That Don’t Happen When You Become a Published Author

Just a few random observances of what my life as a published author has been like compared to what I had expected or hoped for. Keep in mind that I can only speak for my own experiences as a debut novelist with a large independent U.S. publisher. Your mileage may vary.

To summarize, I quote the great Bruce Springsteen: “There I was one night, just a normal guy. And then, there I was the next night. Goddamn, I was still just a normal guy.”

And now, Five Things That Don’t Happen When You Become a Published Author:

1. Money does not suddenly rain down from the sky. Well, it hasn’t for me, at least. I’m sure it has for Naomi Novik, whose debut novel was optioned by the great Peter Jackson. And I suspect Gordon Dahlquist, whose debut novel The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters earned a gajillion-dollar advance from Bantam, isn’t clipping coupons right now. But as my buddy Tobias Buckell revealed in his author first novel advance survey, first novel advances in SF/F are actually rather paltry — $5,000 on average.

Über-blogger and Campbell Award winner John Scalzi reveals that he made $67,000 off his SF writing in 2006. Now $67,000 is nothing to scoff at, and I suspect Mr. Scalzi’s take will only be going up in the next few years, but don’t forget that publishers don’t pay benefits.

Not only is it unlikely you’ll get richer writing novels, it’s likely you’ll get poorer. Why? Because chances are you passed up on much more lucrative opportunities to devote time to your writing. And you probably spent a wad of your own cash promoting your book.

2. Your career worries do not melt away. I made a conscious decision to quit my full-time job in November of 2000 and carve out time to write. Since then, I’ve been doing a series of contract and part-time jobs that take up between two and four days of my week.

But the problem for the Writer With a Day Job is that the folks at the Day Job wonder how committed you are to their work. It’s a fair question. I try very, very hard to segregate my working and writing lives, but I’d be lying if I claimed I’ve never opened Microsoft Word in the middle of a meeting to frantically dash out plot points that suddenly popped into my head.

So many writers find themselves in career limbo. You’re not likely to make a good living writing novels; but to give up the writing to concentrate on climbing the ladder in your day job is unthinkable. The result? A juggling act.

3. Your lifestyle and self-image do not dramatically shift. Before I was published, I had a lot of thoughts about how different things were going to be once I was published. I’m going to read more, I’m going to eat better, I’m finally going to paint over those ugly water stains on the ceiling in the basement, little blue Sport & Health Club Pixies are going to wake me up every morning and whisk me off to the gym on a magic cloud.

Needless to say, this hasn’t happened. I’m very happy that I get to devote time to doing something I love. But I felt the exact same way about writing before I made any money at it. The big shift in your self-perception comes when you actually make a commitment to your writing, not when someone finally writes you a check for it.

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A Preview of “MultiReal,” the Sequel to “Infoquake”

Today I’ve reached a milestone. I’ve finished what I’m labeling the fourth draft of MultiReal, the sequel to Infoquake. The book still has some rewriting to do before I let it out into the world for the public’s delectation. But if MultiReal were a piece of software, you’d call it “feature complete.” Meaning it has all the bells and whistles that will exist in the final version, even if some of them still have some rough edges.

Here are some things you can expect to see when MultiReal finally hits the shelves:

  • The death of at least one (and possibly two) major characters
  • The return of the group in black robes, and the answer to the question of who was behind the black code attack on Natch
  • A hands-on demonstration of how an enraged Islander delivers smackdown justice (hint: you need a big-ass Islander shock baton)
  • Many more details about the MultiReal program, including what happens when two users pit MultiReal programs against one another
  • A vicious power struggle between Natch and Jara for control over the Surina/Natch MultiReal Fiefcorp
  • The hidden truth behind the death of Marcus Surina and the onset of the Economic Plunge of the 310s
  • The introduction of several new pivotal characters, including:
    • Magan Kai Lee, Len Borda’s right-hand man
    • Papizon, Rey Gonerev and Ridgello, Magan’s loyal aides
    • Khann Frejohr, the newly elected speaker of the Congress of L-PRACGs
    • Pierre Loget, bio/logic programmer and rival to Natch
    • Geronimo, some anonymous dimwit who looks almost exactly like Natch
    • Berilla, the infamous queen bee of Horvil and Ben’s family
  • More slippery dealings by Frederic and Petrucio Patel
  • A look at what the Defense and Wellness Council is really up to, including several chapters from the POV of Len Borda and Magan Kai Lee
  • Scenes set on the virtual sex gratification network known as the Sigh, and a nice fat appendix about the workings of that network which will probably frighten my wife when she reads it
  • Chapters set in:
    • Old Chicago, a bombed-out city now inhabited mainly by the diss
    • Melbourne, the city of the central government
    • D-WeCC, the hidden headquarters of the Defense and Wellness Council
    • London, locale of Berilla’s cavernous West End estate
  • A look at the inner workings of the Prime Committee, including a section that does for governmental hearings what Infoquake did for product demos
  • An explanation from Brone about how MultiReal is pivotal to his impending “Revolution of Selfishness”
  • A climactic scene full of surprises, dartgun battles, double-crossings, quick escapes, and multiple realities
  • Another set of appendices exploring the world of the Jump 225 trilogy, and a thorough synopsis of the events of Infoquake

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“Infoquake”: The Bad Reviews

I’ve noticed a few other authors posting links to bad reviews of their novels on their websites. By bad reviews, I don’t mean poorly written or incomprehensible reviews — I mean reviews that tear your book a new asshole. I mean reviews that compare your book unfavorably to various types of animal dung. There’s one site I visited recently where the author had three columns displaying the “good,” the “bad,” and the “ugly” reviews of his work.

I always thought this behavior was kind of peculiar. We’re all aware that no single book will please everybody. I’ve eagerly pressed copies of Dune and Neuromancer into the hands of intelligent, well-read, open-minded people who later told me these were lousy books. So obviously, even if your novel emits white light and a heavenly choir chants every time you crack it open, there are going to be people who think it sucks big time. Why emphasize the negative?

Infoquake Book CoverI think I’ve discovered now why authors do that.

Imagine you’re sitting in the Coliseum in ancient Rome and two gladiators come out of the pen. One of them’s slick and unblemished with hardly a mark on him. The other guy’s got scars all over his arms and he’s missing a few teeth. Which one are you gonna bet on? I’m betting on the guy with the scars. Why? Because a scar is evidence of a tough fight that you came out of alive. It’s a mark of experience. And when we see the clean and unmarked gladiator, we just don’t believe that this guy has gone through fight after fight without making a single mistake. We figure that he’s just too young and green to have earned his scars yet.

It’s the same thing with being a novelist. If you haven’t had people dislike your novel, either a) you’ve accomplished something that nobody on this Earth has yet accomplished, or b) not enough people have read your book yet.

Lately I’ve been seeing some negative reviews of Infoquake cropping up on the web, and I’m in the mood to show them off like a gladiator shows off his scars. There was a rush of great reviews for the book when it first came out, and I’ve been wondering how much those reviews colored other people’s readings. I wonder how many people picked up Infoquake because they had heard good things about it, and were tremendously disappointed, but just didn’t feel like bucking the trend.

So I’m going to list here some of the bad reactions I’ve read over the web and some of the bad comments I’ve heard about the novel. (Of course, I encourage you to sample some of the reviews from the praise page to balance out the criticism.)

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