The new power supply was supposed to be here today. It didn't even ship until today. Another disappointment from Amazon Prime. I can't complain too much. I got Prime for free this time. Today would have been a good delivery day, because the temperature was up enough to melt nearly all the snow. Tomorrow might be freezing rain with a high of 34o(1oC) and winds around 40mph(64.37kph). We're under a "state of emergency". I live on a dirt road. I don't know if UPS will deliver here in icy weather. I might not be up and running until Monday. The rough draft for the next book should have been finished by now.
Writing Stuff
Lately, I've used some of my French reading time for English. I've had multiple Kindle books I pre-ordered but haven't read. I read two of them. Last night I read a third, since I was offline. One of them is by a relatively unknown indie author. One is by a well-known indie author who has at least one bestseller but not for a fiction book, I don't think. One is by a bestselling, award-winning, traditionally-published author.
The book by the unknown indie author had a massive info dump(see paragraphs 3 and 4 if needed) at the beginning before taking off. Unfortunately, it had some errors, some "errors" and some missing words. It was a good book. It just needed a bit more editing.
The book by the well-known indie author didn't work. It just flat didn't work. It did NOT work. I found the book encouraging at first, because the writing wasn't better than mine. I was thinking that if this person can be so successful, there's no reason I can't be. What if I had real covers? :) The writing improved the farther along it went, and the style kind of changed and became more literary. That made me go, hmm, and have self doubts. I don't try to be literary or flowery. "That through this heart should such a winged whisper wend" is about as flowery as I get, and that was a character quoting a romantic play for one line. I hope I have that quote right. I can't check my computer. But I don't try for that continually.
Anyway, back to the book. It didn't work. Some of the things it depended on were physically impossible. Some of the decisions by the characters made no sense. At first it wasn't too bad, but the farther along it went the more the logical impossibilities piled up until it was no longer realistic even for a fantasy novel. At one point the hero committed a crime for money. Imagine a sheriff robbing a train to get money for reelection, because the guy he's running against is a murderer. The situation was different, but the morality was the same. Also, the ending was a Hollywood movie ending, not a book ending.
I've left some things in my books that I know for a fact an editor would cut in a heartbeat. The scene with Kadmos in the temple in Millican? It would have been immediately cut, or I would have been forced to rewrite it into something more serious. I've put in explanations for readers that may or may not have been necessary. Editors catch things like those and fix them.
The well-known indie author has test readers and supposedly professional editing. Why didn't somebody say something? I assume it's because people don't like to tell someone something the person doesn't want to hear. Even if the test readers were afraid to say something, why didn't the editor? Maybe for the same reason. I'm kind of thinking the editor must be a friend of the author. Somebody should have been honest, assuming no one was. The author may have simply ignored the advice just like I sometimes do. :)
The professional author had a solid book with lots of writing technique to learn from, but it had a lot of sloppy "errors" like the ones I mentioned above but didn't explain. An "error" is technically not a mistake.
(A)Shirley picked the gun up. She slid it into her pocket before easing behind the door. The sound of footsteps echoed in the hallway.
(B)Shirley picked the gun up and slid it into her pocket prior to easing behind the door, as footsteps echoed in the hallway.
Imagine that in a paragraph. To me the first one reads kind of choppy. The second one flows better, although these aren't the greatest sentences in the world. If I combine two or three sentences in this way, I can get away with putting another sentence in the paragraph that starts with she without being repetitive.
I try to put a lot of work into making paragraphs flow smoothly so readers glide along easily. If there's a lot of action, I try to use shorter, choppier sentences but not too many, because it doesn't read right or feel right. I saw a lot of passages like A in the professional author's book. The relatively unknown indie author had a number of them, too, but probably not as many.
In A, the second sentence has two b sounds very close together, before and behind. I try to avoid that kind of awkward-sounding thing unless I do a sentence like: The birch basket slid off the chair. I'm pretty bad about putting two words together that start with the same letter. But I try to avoid certain things. I don't use the same word twice on a page. I try not to group similar sounds. I try not to group words that start with the same syllable, etc.
The pro author's "errors" are kind of tough to judge. They're not exactly mistakes. They just make the text feel sloppy. Do readers even see them? Do I only see them because I work so hard to avoid them? Did the editor ignore them because a bestseller's books are going to sell no matter what?
I'm not talking about these books to be critical of the authors. I've read other books by all of them, and they've all done some really good work. Both the indie authors have done better books than I've seen from mainstream publishers in a bookstore. The books I'm talking about aren't bad. What I'm really talking about is the editing. The first author needed experienced editing advice. The middle author needed more editing honesty. The third author needed more attention to detail by the editor.
This YA spy book for which I'm almost done with the rough draft has had me thinking a lot about an editor. The closer I get to the end, the more I think about it. Reading the three books I mentioned, especially the second one, has me thinking about it even more. It was well-written and well-crafted, and it still doesn't work. That's scary. What if this spy book ends up being well-written and crafted but fails as a book for some reason(s) I can't see because I'm too close to it?
I have a dilemma. The driveway needs to be scraped, and the landlord won't have it done. It's washed out in places and needs to be evened up. It would cost me at least $100 to pay for it myself. I may or may not get paid back. This is the month I wanted to make a big inventory purchase to really get the business off the ground. The new power supply was almost $50. There are cheaper ones, but that's what I got the last time. The smart thing to do would be to get a UPS to protect the new one, but that would be even more money.
I like this new YA book a lot, but I'm not sure it works. I took a big risk at one point that really works for the character's story. I'm just not sure it works for the book's plot. It would be really nice if I had a paid editor to tell me whether I've done the right thing or not.
I really need the money that a small business could make. On the other hand, with professional editing and a strong cover, the YA book could go somewhere. It wouldn't have to sell a lot. What if I tried to get an agent for it? I think that's a realistic possibility.
However, I can't afford to do the business purchasing and hire an editor/do the driveway. It's either one or the other. At least for a while. A cheap editor would cost 50% of what the inventory for the business would cost. I would have to save up again and hope no more emergencies popped up. I'm praying about all this stuff. I'm just not seeing a clear direction forward. I have to do something. I can't sit around wondering what to do.
James 3:4 Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.
God can direct the ship, but the ship needs to be moving.
The forecast has changed since I started this. It looks like ice and snow will be here in the morning. I may not have power tomorrow. If it ices over, I don't see UPS delivering the power supply until Monday.
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