18 November, 2013
More analogies on moving to a new home – a process which allowed no time to blog last week. The biggest one is the endless paring down. Asking over and over: “What serves the finished product?”
For a book, that question is a bit easier to grasp than when moving from one place to another. As with some writing projects, we start with one vision, but as we follow the thread – even with a semblance of an outline – something else takes shape which seems much more relevant, and which we could not have understood without taking the first steps of the journey.
It was not my intention when I began the process of moving to prepare for the next phase of my life. But as I looked at each object that had to be dealt with to clear out the old space – either take or jettison – I realized that a lot of my possessions belonged to an expanding life and vision. And I discovered that I am in a concentrating phase. Not contracting, but choosing simplicity and depth as the new adventure, rather than new territories to explore and furnish. Subtlety, rather than the sweeping vision and delight in potential which motivated the passing phase.
Some writing projects are clear from the outset, have an intention which drives the commitment. In fiction and memoir, however, it is valuable to remain flexible. Sometimes a character or situation takes on a life of its own and demands action and outcome that were not originally envisioned. A second book may be birthing which has more power for the writer than what she initiated. Or the original vision might turn into a short story, while the new thread gathers momentum and expands like a yeast dough on a warm day. (If you’ve never baked a yeast bread from scratch by hand, it is a process which every writer will benefit from. The magic of being in a dance with the living yeast which you have little control over requires the same flexibility I’m recommending for the writing process. And the smell while it’s baking … )
I’ve been challenged this week by a client who has written a coming of age memoir which he wants to be a “novel.” Unfortunately, he also wants it to conform to his experience. It has too many characters who aren’t distinctive enough; and it sets the family context of three generations, but doesn’t develop a backstory, leaving them all two-dimensional (which is often the adolescent perspective, but it doesn’t lead to enticing storyline). The plot is the coming with puberty of skill and power. But the young man merely wanders through his routines and winds up the acknowledged athlete of the year. All that is unexpected is his success, not of the steps toward it. It’s a mood piece, a vignette. Fine as it is, but it’s not a novel – and the writer is trying to pull a novel out of it. Unfortunately, I can’t imagine a life for him – that feels beyond the call of “editing.” And certainly not on the $500 budget he imagined an editing job would require.
On the other end of my work life was a conversation today among my author Dr. David Levenson, the book designer Jeff Brandenburg (whose work I oversaw because my client knows nothing about book production), and me. We have the first paper proof from CreateSpace – and we’re all very proud of how handsome the book is. It feels good in the hand, the cover works (that’s the one I asked readers for feedback on a couple of months back), the fonts are clear, the paragraphs are spaced to suggest to the reader that she slow down and digest the content before reading on. It’s a self-help book, after all, and she needs to participate in the process, not just have her brain acknowledge information. She needs to contemplate how the concepts apply to her life, and to do the exercise while she’s reading. Now. There are floral ornaments to soften the text – the market is predominantly women, specifically woman dealing with the challenges of weight and negative self-image, so we wanted it attractive, but grounded rather than powder-puffy. If you want to take a look at what I’m talking about, check the website www.drdavidlevenson.com. We’re working on getting the Table of Contents and several more endorsements posted to the website (there are so many things that need to be done simultaneously!), and as soon as it’s for sale (hopefully in the next ten days), Amazon will have a “Look Inside” link.
This gives you a sense of how complex the finishing process is, the endless details. At the end of our conversation – the author noting the tweaking his proofreading uncovered, the designer changing the pdf file from which CreateSpace will print the finished version, and I making changes in the Word file that will be the source of the eBook. (Putting the electronic version into production is the next and final phase before it’s all-out marketing and author blogging.)
After 2.5 hours we were done. The author expressed his deep pleasure in the team we had become. The ease of communication, the quality of the product, and the kindness and lightness of conversations, the flexibility of schedules. Our web designer Dyan Ferguson was not on the call, but she has also graciously translated every adjustment into a beautiful, informative, and enticing website.
May every author feel that way as they put their books “to bed.”
Until next time, delight in the process.