Monday, September 11, 2006
RT pics are upThe pictures from the Romantic Times Convention are up. Please go look and see if you can suggest some captions/names for underneath them. What is under some pics may be incorrect.
See how bad I looked? Aaaaaggggghhhh.
It's a good thing I can write better than I look, huh?
Again, I'll say that I'm planning on working on edits today. Werewolf edits on that book that should've been out by now. (Pack Taboo) Sometimes the editing part is all about a writer getting over herself.
I did some things I thought were clever--and the editor is telling me "that just isn't done." I tried arguing, "Then I'm the first. I'll be hailed as an innovative writer."
The response was not as I had hoped. I was informed that I would be hailed as a novice. (24 book contracts later and I'm still a novice. How's that for being put in my place?)
Sigh.
So, it's back to the drawing board. Rewriting a few piddly things.
On the same subject, I just finished edits on another book that will come out soon, I hope. I had an entendre in it...I think readers would get this, but the editor rubbed it out of the ms altogether. Let's see what you think:
This guy is not good with words. He's gruff, like a big lug that's good with a sword. He knocks heads together and men back up when he walks down the hall of the castle. He's intimidating in his big oaf, clear the battlefield with a swipe of his sword way.
The girl he likes is a foot stomping little shrew. She's under his skin. Every time they get near one another, she gives him a tongue lashing. And he keeps setting her away from him. He knows she's like poison. She muddies his thinking.
Because, you know, he's only thinking about getting his arms around her, kissing her, feeling her up, and maybe bedding her.
Anyhow, he tries to talk to her. But she just runs her tongue. The best way to shut her up is by kissing her. And that's all good between them. It's what she was begging for anyway.
So, all that in mind...there comes a scene where he's frustrated, can't get the words out to tell her how he feels, and he says something to the tune of, "I'm not a man of words."
She comes back with, "Ah, but you are good with your tongue, I swear it."
The editor thought that was too obscure for readers to get the jist of. I'm asking you, do YOU understand what she's saying to him?
(I'm betting that MY readers can get that sort of foreplay.)
She's telling him she likes the way he kisses, and basically to shut up and get to what he's really good at. Can she get any plainer in saying, "Stop worrying about that and kiss me, you idiot?" Besides saying that outright, of course?
6 Comments:
To me it sounds like the editor is a bit of a dunce and didn't get it herself until someone explained it. So since she didn't get it, she doesn't want it in there. Her loss, really. I think about 99% of the people would get it, your readers or other. But that's just me. *s*
The saddest thing is...she isn't the only editor out there that doesn't get stuff I do. (Sigh.)
I have a mystery anthology coming out--and I had to argue with the editor on that one--she won. It was over delayed headlights. If I took a poll, I think most people would say they've seen car headlights that stay on after you climb out, and turn off automatically.
That editor INSISTED I remove it from the manuscript because she had never seen a car that did that. And how long have they had cars with delayed headlights? YEARS.
But the bottom line in publishing is...the editor has the final say. You can argue some points, but usually, if they're set on getting rid of something, they get their way. They're like little demi-gods.
So, if you read something and all the sudden you come to a place where you blink and think, "Uh, that sounds weird," I'm guessing it's a spot where an editor rewrote a line.
I've had editors put words in--after I went through a final edit. So, it was a surprise to me when I read the book that was already on sale. They can be sneaky like that.
I fight. I stomp my feet. I say, THIS IS MY BOOK. And they say, "It's your manuscript until I pass it." Which, really, gives you the perspective.
It is only a manuscript until the editor/publisher put it on the market.
By 
CarysWeldonblog, at
10:17 AM
Sounds like the editor doesn't think much of her readers.
Where are the pics up for RT?
By Rinda Elliott, at
11:29 AM
Pics are up on my website: http://www.carysweldon.com/ Just look for the link that says RT 2006.
My camera stinks. Most of the pictures are dark. Of course, some of those were taken IN THE DARK at the pajama party.
By CarysWeldonblog, at
11:33 AM
Can it really be THAT hard to understand that line? I don't think it's so obscure.
See? That's what I'm saying!
My readers are quick witted. I love entendre. Give me stuff I have to think about, and can grin about later saying, "How cool, that worked both ways you could take it."
The editor thinks that doing that pulls the reader out of the story and she says that's bad. I say...hm...doesn't that make a story memorable if a reader thinks about it when they set it down?
I'll keep putting them in, and editors will keep trying to take them out. But maybe some of them will pass through.
Thanks for getting it!
By CarysWeldonblog, at
3:02 PM
