So today, the nitpicking round it is ongoing, and it’s…always interesting.\u00a0\u00a0 Nitpicking has various uses.\u00a0 One of them can be shortening a book that’s too long (too long defined by publishing economics.)\u00a0\u00a0 I think I’ve posted before about some of the shortening strategies.\u00a0\u00a0 But this book isn’t too long, so nitpicking is aimed at other goals.\u00a0\u00a0 Tyops of course, like that one right there.\u00a0\u00a0 Not just letter reversals and misspelled words, but words mistakenly typed in place of others.\u00a0 “Heard” for “herd.”\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Policed” for “pleased.”\u00a0 (Don’t ask how I did that one…I don’t know.\u00a0\u00a0 Brain burp.\u00a0 It wasn’t in this book.)\u00a0\u00a0 Anything that sticks out as awkward, bothersome, annoying, confusing.\u00a0\u00a0 For instance:<\/p>\n
Why did I\u00a0 mention when sheep would be moved to higher pastures in Chapter Two?\u00a0\u00a0 Was I thinking\u00a0 there might be an encounter with a shepherd?\u00a0\u00a0 Sheep thieves?\u00a0 Wolves?\u00a0 Or sight of a flock?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Is that really what the POV person is thinking about right then,\u00a0 “Hmmm…how long before there are sheep around?”\u00a0\u00a0 No.\u00a0 It’s not.\u00a0 And no sheep, shepherds, sheep-stealers, sheepdogs,\u00a0 or sheep predators are involved in that entire chapter.\u00a0\u00a0 Nor is it a prompt to the reader to be alert for these in the same place another time.\u00a0\u00a0 In fact, it’s the kind of thing that I put in when I am considering setting the scene (“This is a summer sheep pasture area…where are the sheep?\u00a0 Oh…sure…they’re in the winter pastures, won’t move here until later…”)\u00a0 And there is it, in the book itself, as if it mattered.\u00a0 ZIP.\u00a0 Not there now.<\/p>\n
An earlier run-through noticed that the first paragraph of Chapter One–the very paragraph you don’t want to be too leisurely–was rather languid in a discussion of winter weather, the effect of winter weather on where troops were stationed, and so on, then stuck in a non-POV version–an omnipotent viewpoint section–about what was going to happen.\u00a0\u00a0 Again, the writer gets to see (often) the action that will be shown (later) in a different way, and the draft may have it as the writer watches it, not as the characters experience it.\u00a0 Did that add to the shock of a dramatic event in the first chapter?\u00a0 No.\u00a0\u00a0 Now it’s first sentence weather (because it is plot-worthy) and second sentence you’re in the POV.<\/p>\n
Another class of nits: tightening the writing.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Another class of nits: inconsistencies in sequence, in names, in places.\u00a0 (URGH!)<\/p>\n
But now….lunch.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So today, the nitpicking round it is ongoing, and it’s…always interesting.\u00a0\u00a0 Nitpicking has various uses.\u00a0 One of them can be shortening a book that’s too long (too long defined by publishing economics.)\u00a0\u00a0 I think I’ve posted before about some of the shortening strategies.\u00a0\u00a0 But this book isn’t too long, so nitpicking is aimed at other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,45,5],"tags":[51,107],"class_list":["post-1854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crown-of-renewal","category-revisions","category-the-writing-life","tag-revision","tag-the-writing-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1854"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1854"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1855,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1854\/revisions\/1855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}