I have a confession to make

And I hope you won't take this the wrong way. I'm only half listening to you. It's not that I don't care about you, in fact I probably care more than the next person. But the fact is that while you're talking to me about; the weather, your job or your toddler's propensity for sorting his toy cars according to color, in my head is a whole other world. There a broad cast of characters is falling in love, catching a serial killer, or searching for the Holy Grail. They have lives and loves and histories that rival any of ours. This goes far beyond mere daydreaming. So if I seem a bit distant or respond in an awkward way, it's only because I'm caught up in the epic struggles going on in my head.

It's been this way for as long as I can remember. My parents will tell you stories of the whole worlds that I would make up as a child before I ever learned to read and write. I could shut myself in my room for ages and live out sagas of my own making.  I was and still am perfectly happy being alone. In fact, sometimes I crave it.

My AP History teacher in high school, upon hearing another teacher complain about me not paying attention in class was heard to say, "Well, Meredith has her own agenda." Mr. Ridgeway got it. He knew that even though I was sitting in his class and part of my brain was listening another part was in another world. He could handle the fact that on my desk was one notebook for taking notes and another for writing. Fortunately, I have run into a few people in my life who do get it. I treasure those people and occasionally give them my full attention. The part that was in class, incidentally kicked ass on the AP exam and got college credit for American History. Likewise the part of me that was present in my college classes made the Dean's List. Still, there is always that part of me that is in a cabin in the mountains, on a ship crossing the ocean, in Scotland/Mexico/Peru.

So, it's not that I don't like you or that I'm not listening, it's just that the people in my head are talking too, and sometimes they drown you out.

Do you write for yourself, or for readers?

There are people who write for themselves. These people write what they want, the way they want it and if you don't like it than that's just your opinion. Their work is often riddled with incorrect diction, punctuation and bad grammar. When anyone points those things out to them, they meant it to be that way to serve the story.

You've probably seen the singing equivalent of these people on American Idol. They're the ones that come into their auditions full of confidence because their parents/friends/church family have all told them that their singing is nice (usually because they don't want to hurt their feelings with the truth).  When they are told the truth about their singing, they rationalize it by saying "That's YOUR opinion!" Naturally, we're talking about the opinions of experienced music industry professionals who have a pretty solid basis for comparison. Still, the contestant will walk away from the encounter confident in their belief that what they do is awesome even if the judges didn't like it. In my house we call these people, "Classically Trained Samurai" because there is now way in this century to become a "Classically Trained Samurai" (Look it up), yet there are people who insist that they are just that. Given that the samurai class in Japan was abolished in the late nineteenth century, these folks are Samurai in their own minds. They fight and/or practice for themselves just as some writers write for themselves. And often publish for themselves hoping that they will find other "Classically Trained Samurai" who are interested in the same kind of things that they are and will enjoy their work.

Then there are people who write for readers.

These are writers who very often make a ton of money, and write in whatever genre is popular at a given time. James Patterson is a perfect example of this. Wildly successful as a mystery writer, he then branched out into pretty much whatever genre/subgenre is trending; Wizards, Awkward Adolescent, Women's Fiction. Patterson at least credits his co-authors since no one person could possibly write this much fiction fast enough to take advantage of current trends. While I might initially be prone to sneer at this sort of genre chasing (not that crossing genres is bad, I write/read more than one genre too), Patterson is I'm sure making money hand over fist. There is also something to be said for pleasing the crowd, which he usually does.

I however, think that some of the best writing falls somewhere in between these two poles. We all choose what to write about based on our windows on the world. I for example and a history loving Southern girl who is also a Scotia-phile. So, I like to write about my roots in North Carolina and the history there and about Scots. The Once & Future Series that I'm working on is something that I'm writing for myself because these characters have been living in my head for years, and I would like for them to live on pages or screens for others to enjoy. But I'm also conscious of the fact that in order for others to enjoy the story, I have to be interested in their opinions. I need feedback from readers about the narrative and the style. Is it engaging? Is it easy to understand? Are the characters believable?

Every writer needs this kind of feedback and should seek it out, preferably prior to publishing. However, if you're true to your vision you'll take this feedback with a grain of salt.  We writers have to pick and choose what changes to make. Keeping that choice in the hands of the writer is one of the great things about indie publishing. I can incorporate feedback that says "this needs more action and less Celtic myth nerd-dom". I can also say no to morphing my characters into teenage malcontent vampires at wizard school because someone says that YA Paranormal Romance is super hot these days. It's a balancing act that is essential if you mean to publish and actually sell books even if not as successfully as James Patterson.

With that said, I'll soon be sending out my latest piece of historical fiction to my beta readers to get that feedback prior to publishing. Since it's based on a true story, hopefully no one will ask me to change the ending.

Please, indie authors...

Feel free to imagine me giving you the stink-eye over the top of my Miss Crabtree spectacles when I say this. We've got to do a better job of proofreading books. I know it's hard, and I'll admit that the first edition of The White House despite my best efforts was published with a handful of errors that have since been corrected. I just have to get this off my chest. Because I love indie books and what indie publishing is doing to the industry, I feel like this must be said.

If we want to be taken seriously as authors/publishers, our stuff has to be as close to perfect as we can make it. I hear on many reader discussions and boards that people don't like to read indie books because of grammatical and formatting errors. Naturally this is followed by a comment left my some well meaning indie author who says some thing like, "Well, traditional publishers miss typos and errors too." And that's sadly true. But is the lowest common denominator really the measuring stick that you want to use?

My 7 year old son with ADHD frequently follows tales of how he got called out by the teacher for some infraction by telling me of the troubles of another student in his class with worse behavior issues. My response to this is to point out the worst behaved kid in the class should not be setting the standard for good behavior. "Well, they're just as bad." or "They did it worse." are not the statements of people seeking excellence. If we as independents want our books to be considered on par with traditionally published books, we cannot stop at good enough.

With that said, I'd like to point out some common mistakes that I have seen in many of the indie books that I have read lately. None of these would be caught by a spelling or grammar check.

• Mixed Up Homophones - Anyone who has talked to anyone on the internet is familiar with people mixing your and you're or there, their and they're and I'll admit I have to hold onto my desk to keep from correcting people constantly. But more disturbing lately are mix ups like past and passed. For the record passed is a verb. Past is an adjective and sometimes a noun. Too often lately, I have seen sentences like this, "The people on the street walked right passed the victim bleeding onto the sidewalk." That would be the wrong usage for the verb, passed. Here is a correct example, "I burned my fingers on the hot dish when Aunt Martha passed me the peas." This is just one of the examples of surprisingly mixed up homophones that I have seen in indie books of late.

• The Extra Word - This is an error that seems to occur a lot when the word flow from brain to fingers gets muddled, or when a writer goes back to make a change to a sentence, but doesn't completely delete the original words. Here's an example. "He heard the shallow wheeze of her breath and some small part of him tried to believe how that she would make it back to port." It's easy to see how this can happen, but is very jarring to the reader's ear. This can take a reader right out of your story and destroy the flow of your prose.

• Spell-check Escapees - These are misspellings that are actually words and therefore not caught by spell-check. Naturally these words just come off as wrong and the story teller loses credibility. For example: "He’d never been so chose to death before." Chose is a word and would not be detected by a spell checker, but it doesn't make sense in the context of the sentence. The actual sentence should read. "He’d never been so close to death before." which makes for an evocative sentence. The meaning and emotional punch of the sentence is completely lost with the incorrect word there. Spell-check is clearly not a reliable proofreader.

Now, I'm sure you're probably cursing me for a self-righteous busybody at the moment, but have patience. I have some suggestions.

Indies that we are, most of us (me included) don't have big budgets with which to hire editors. I'm currently publishing short stories while working on a novel, so I'm not going to shell out the cash for an editor for projects that small. However, there are a few tricks we can use to make those little errors standout for correction before you publish.

• Read It Out Loud - I'm sure you've probably heard this suggestion regarding the flow of your prose. If you've tried it for that purpose, I'm betting that while you were reading you came across some errors. Reading your manuscript out loud is one of the greatest tools a writer has. It can call attention to awkward phrasing, clunky dialog (more on that in another post), typos, and grammatical errors. I really can't say enough good things about it.

• Print It Out- Often a change of scene helps to call attention to things that we might not have noticed. It is hard sometimes to see these errors on our computer/laptop/iPad screens when we're typing or rereading what we've written. Printing it out calls more attention to some of those errors. I try to be a pretty green-living girl and I know toner is expensive, but this really is a great way to review your manuscript for errors. They just seem to pop out more on paper than they do on the screen. If you print it out and then read out loud from the printed manuscript you can kill two birds with one stone.

• Other Eyes - No matter how many times you go back and read your manuscript the reality is, those words came from your head. Because of that you are predisposed to mentally fill in any gaps that might occur. You might not be the best person to proofread your manuscript. The reader can't read your mind, so the words on the page/screen have to be clear. Chances are if you're writing a book, you probably have some friends who like to read. Get one or two or five of them to take a look at your manuscript. They will most likely pick out some things that you missed.

In my previous life as a corporate trainer, I saw quite a few resumes. It may sound cruel especially in this job market, but when faced with a stack of resumes, I would first filter out the ones with grammatical errors. My thinking was that if someone is putting this document out there to speak for them and they didn't take the time to proofread it, then they don't have the attention to detail that's required for the job (or frankly any job). I don't see our books as any different. They may not create the reader's first impression of you, but they will create a lasting impression. So, indie writers, what is the impression that you want to make?

In closing, I would like to return to the issue of homophones. Rather than prattle on about how annoying I find this, I'll leave it to Brian McKnight and a puppet.