Westley

Keyboard Shortcuts Used in Editing

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In a few previous posts (Essential, More Essential, and Extended), we covered a variety of keyboard shortcuts that could be useful when you are creating your masterpiece, but this time we’re going to hit on a few that work best when editing—your own work or someone else’s. (You can learn a lot from reading, critiquing, and editing others’ work…you don’t have time to make all the mistakes yourself, so try to learn from others!) Some Critique Groups read and mark up printed copies of mss, but there are a few that never meet physically, doing all their discussions online or via email. Whatever type of group you decide to join, these shortcuts will come in handy.

Seeing what’s there

Just as a matter of habit, I always have non-printing characters showing, but it’s especially useful if I’m trying to format a document for printing. There are often times when it looks right, even in print preview, but if you have an author who indents pgphs with multiple spaces, or starts a new page by multiple enters, or has extra tabs and spaces at the end of lines, you’ll never know unless you look.

  • View or hide non-printing characters – Ctrl-Shift-* (asterisk on numeric pad does not work)

Whenever I start editing someone’s ms, I also make certain that I can see what changes I’ve suggested.

  • Turn Track Changes on or off – Ctrl-Shift-E

Getting the Whole Picture

Being able to look at the document in different ways is always useful, too.

  • Split or unsplit edit window – Ctrl-Alt-S (so you can see two parts at the same time)
  • Switch to Draft view – Ctrl-Alt-N (focus on content, ignoring page layout)
  • Switch to Outline view – Ctrl-Alt-O (focus on organization of topics)
  • Switch to Print Layout view – Ctrl-Alt-P (see what each page with print will look like)
  • Print Preview view – Ctrl-P or Ctrl-F2 or Ctrl-Alt-I (overall view, showing blank pages)

We’ll go over how to Edit in Print Preview mode in a later post, as it requires modifying some basic settings in Word.

Font Adjustments

Sometimes it’s helpful to add comments to the author that aren’t meant for the reader. Setting the Font to Hidden will do that. The text will only show up if non-printing characters are visible, but be careful as these characters will affect the format and layout when visible, so remember to turn them off before that step.

  • Hidden – Ctrl-Shift-H

Changing selected text to the Symbol font is quick and easy, too.

  • Change to Symbol font – Ctrl-Shift-Q

Sometimes you need to adjust the font for other reasons, so the Font Dialogue Box is just what you need.

  • Open Font dialog box – Ctrl-Shift-F or Ctrl-D

Styles

Using styles is important to maintain consistency throughout a document, so besides the Style Gallery on the Home Tab, there are also two other task panes that will help.

  • Open Styles task pane – Ctrl-Alt-Shift-S
  • Open Apply Styles task pane – Ctrl-Shift-S

And finally, if all else fails, you may need to remove any local formatting changes.

  • Remove manual character formatting – Ctrl-Space
  • Remove manual paragraph formatting – Ctrl-Q

That should pretty much cover all the shortcuts you’ll need when editing, so have at it!

Story Elements (Action & Solution)

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This week we’re going to examine two more of the Story Elements: Action and Solution. We’ll also touch on a bit of non-fiction: Memoir.

Most of the action in a story will be as a result of the conflicts the Hero has to deal with, whether they are Physical, Mental, Emotional, or Spiritual. In any case the action is there to drive the Hero towards the end of the story and his eventual Transformation.

The best kind of action is one that your reader will find not only logical, but also familiar, something the reader himself might do (or might have done) in the same situation. The easiest way to force those actions is to find conflicts that you’ve personally endured. Many such experiences are common to all, so that way the reader can connect with the Hero (and you, as well). All the action should be there to move the story forward towards the satisfying conclusion.

And as to that conclusion, the main object there is to answer the Story Question (posed by the Inciting Incident in Act I). The only good ending is the one the reader accepts as plausible—yet didn’t expect. That type of ending will be supremely satisfying to the reader, but you need to remember to avoid giving away the end when you’re sprinkling all those red herrings throughout the story. Lead the reader, but don’t reveal all, until the very end, showing how the Hero has changed. We want an ending that will get the reader running all around, telling friends, family, and even strangers how wonderful your book is.

I had mentioned Memoir in the intro…so how is memoir different from any other story? Not much, really. It has all the same fundamental parts: Heroes and Villains, Conflict and Conquest, Failure and Triumph. The only thing is that it is easier to write! The plot is your life, the characters are you and your friends (or kin), the action is what you did when you encountered conflicts, and the solution is where you are now, after surviving all the struggles of life.

So, go ahead and tell us a story, whether based in fact or only loosely connected to reality. Either way, the reader will be entertained and might even learn some important concepts along the way.

Adjective Order

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This is a basic level post because there isn’t much we can teach you about it…you already know how to do it, whether you realise it or not. Adjective order is one of those things that we all absorb as we are learning and using language. In fact, the only time linguists discuss it is in upper level classes as they analyse grammar. They study it, but mostly out of curiosity. There are no firm rules, so there’s nothing to get wrong…but if you do it incorrectly, everyone will know.

In English, we have ‘little old ladies’ but not ‘old little ladies’. We also have ‘old white hankies’ not ‘white old hankies’. Also consider ‘the big new square blue wooden house’ as opposed to ‘the wooden blue square new big house’. The jumbled ones aren’t necessarily wrong, they just sound strange. So, what is the correct order? Most linguists agree that it is opinion, size, condition, age, shape, colour, pattern, origin, material, and purpose.

Adjectives in order with examples

  • Opinion
    • Limiting
      • a real hero, a perfect idiot
    • Subjective measure
      • beautiful, ugly, interesting, silly, horrible, difficult, nice
    • Value
      • good, bad, costly
  • Size
    • tiny, big, extensive, large, enormous, little
  • Condition
    • broken, cold, hot, wet, hungry, rich, easy, difficult, dirty, tattered, rusted
  • Age
    • young, old, new, ancient, six-year-old
  • Shape
    • square, round, sharp, swollen, flat, rectangular, long
  • Colour
    • white, black, pale, blue, pink, reddish, grey
  • Pattern
    • striped, spotted, checked, flowery
  • Origin
    • American, French, Greek, eastern, volcanic, extraterrestrial, lunar
  • Material
    • woollen, cotton, metallic, brick, linen, wooden, paper, cloth, silk
  • Purpose (sometimes forms part of a compound noun, often -ing)
    • rocking chair, hunting cabin, sleeping bag, frying pan, curling iron, book cover, passenger car

So you could put a bunch together and sound like this:

  • A nice, little, old, round, white, brick house
  • The beautiful, big, wet, new, flat, blue, checked, French, linen, writing papers
  • The ugly, small, rusted, ancient, long, grey, spotted, eastern, metal, curling iron

Keep in mind though, if you do use such a long string of adjectives in front of any noun, you’re likely to be accused of Purple Prose, so don’t do it. Just remember that when you have two or three adjectives, they need to be in the right order…UNLESS you intend to put them out of order.

Fronting adjectives

One of the nice things about knowing the rules is that when you break them, you do so with purpose. It won’t be an accidental mistake, rather an intentional contravention. For example, if you need to add emphasis, you could use a different order. Let’s say that there are several dogs running around the yard, some large and some small, and you wanted to point out a specific one, so instead of saying, “the large, brown dog”, you could say, “the brown, large dog”, as opposed to the black one or the white one.

You may also have a situation where your character isn’t a native English speaker, so he might not have noticed the subtleties of English adjective order—when he uses a slightly different order, what he says might sound awkward, but it will just serve to reinforce his individuality.

Book Sizes (Trim)

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Recently we covered a bunch of info about Paper Sizes—now we’re going to tackle books themselves. As with paper, the origin of the standards in the US seem to be lost in history, but book manufacturers have established some traditional sizes. If you want your book to fit into bookshelves, either in the store or at someone’s home, you really need to stick to the norms. Of course, if your book hits the international market, you’ll find that a completely different set of book sizes is customary.

Genre Specific

Before you can pick a size for your book, you need consider what’s inside. Children’s books are often a 7×10 format. YA is 5×7. Mass market fiction is a little over 4 by a little under 7 (it has to fit into a pocket). Comic books are 6 5/8 x 10 1/4 (to fit into those plastic sleeves).

Text books or technical manuals (cook books included) use a full 8.5×11 with spiral binding to make room for double columns and lots of illustrations…and it will stay flat when in use (on either the workbench or kitchen counter).

Novels, of multiple sorts, come in a range of sizes, with the width running from 5.5 to 6 and the height going from 8.5 to 9. At the small end, 5.5×8.5 (Digest size), you’re printing two pages per normal Letter size paper. (You could actually print those at home—of course, binding them would be a whole different ball of wax.) The larger end, 6×9 (also known as US Trade), is a rather popular size, so unless you have some specific reason to go with a different size, you may as well stick with this one.

If your book is short, rather than having a thin, floppy book (with not enough space on the spine for your title), try for a trimmed version of Digest: 5.25×8. It’s just a bit smaller, but with less space on the pages, you’ll have more pages, so your book will be thicker—an advantage that gives the reader a sense of worth.

International Market

When you hit the big time, and are being distributed internationally, you might consider other sizes. There aren’t as many choices here, but that’s good news. A bit smaller than Digest is the British Paperback size B (129x198mm or approx. 5 1/8 x 7 3/4). A taller, skinnier book, with larger pages, is the British Paperback Trade size C (135x216mm or 5 3/8 x 8 1/2).

On the other hand, for a longer book, you’ll want much larger pages, so you’d use paper size B5 (176x250mm or almost 7 x 9 1/2). If your book is really short, then use paper size A6 (105×148 or 4 1/8 x 5 5/6) to make it thicker. The other A size book you might look at is A5. It sits between US Trade and Digest, so it’ll feel right in your reader’s hands.

We hope to see you hit the big time soon. Keep at it!

Extended Keyboard Shortcuts

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In earlier posts, we covered some Essential Keyboard Shortcuts (and I hope none of you fell asleep when reading that one) as well as More Essential Keyboard Shortcuts, but now we’re going to continue with some more involved ones. As before we’ll start off with how to move around in Word.

  • Down one screen (scrolling) – Page Down
  • Up one screen (scrolling) – Page Up
  • Top of current window – Ctrl+Alt+Page Up
  • Bottom of current window – Ctrl+Alt+Page Down
  • Go to last edit location after opening – Shift+F5
  • Repeat Find or Go To action – Shift+F4
  • Top of next page (scrolling—not after find) – Ctrl+Page Down
  • Top of previous page (scrolling—not after find) – Ctrl+Page Up

As previously, you can hold Shift as you do the above moves to select the text, but here are a few more ways to select:

  • Select all text – Ctrl+A
  • Enter regular Selection mode – F8
  • Extend Selection mode – F8 (1 additional time word, 2 sentence, 3 paragraph, 4 document)
  • Reduce Selection mode – Shift+F8
  • Exit Selection mode – Esc
  • Enter Column Selection mode – Ctrl+Shift+F8

The F8 Selection mode may need a bit of discussion here. As it seems to be the only real way to select a sentence in the middle of a pgph, it can be handy for that, but the Column Selection mode is rather strange. You may find that you will never have a need to select text vertically when your lines of text run horizontally, but it could be fun to play with. If you find a good use for it, please let us know. Thanks!

Here’s a few more ways to cut and move text around…this time we will explain how the Spike works, too, so read carefully.

  • Copy format only – Ctrl+Shift+C
  • Paste copied format only – Ctrl+Shift+V
  • Copy text – Shift+F2 (use Enter to paste in new location)
  • Cut text – F2 (use Enter to paste in new location)

The Spike

  • Cut additional text onto Spike – Ctrl+F3
  • Copy additional text onto Spike – Ctrl+F3, Ctrl-Z
  • Paste all copied text from Spike (and clear Spike) – Ctrl+Shift+F3
  • Paste all copied text from Spike (and keep in Spike) – “spike” Enter

Copying just the format of one section to paste on another could be helpful, and the F2 cut-n-paste takes fewer keystrokes, but the Spike…ah, the Spike…that is a different beast. What it allows you to do is consolidate a bunch of different parts together in one place. (Probably more useful for non-fiction, but who knows?)

When you select text and hit Ctrl+F3, it gets added to the Spike. You can do that multiple times, collecting together info from various locations throughout your document. When you’ve collected them all up, you then paste all of them in at one time! That could allow you to take the first (intro) pgph from each section, and put them all together into a summary…even into a new document.

Story Elements (Plot)

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Today we are going to examine the shape of your story…how the plot guides the structure. If you are looking for a discussion of the different types of plots, we will cover that in a later posting on Theme that covers much of that topic.

As you may know, some writers prefer to have the entire story outlined before beginning to create the content—then there are the pantsers who write by the seat of their pants…not knowing what’s going to come next until it happens (my style), but even those of us who don’t outline before writing at least have a clue of how the story is going to go. That basic idea is shaped like a skewed bell curve (remember statistics class??). It starts out low, slowly builds up, then reaches a peak before heading back down for the end. There are five points that determine the shape of the story and divide it into the classic three act structure.

Graph showing Standard Bell Curve and Plot Curve

Act I is the beginning, consisting of the Introduction (first point). In this part we get to know who our characters are, where they are, and something about their boring lives. It ends (hopefully quickly) with the Inciting Event (second point), kicking the story into full gear and creating the Story Question. This is the question in the back of your reader’s mind which he looks forward to solving by the end of the story. You don’t want to spend too much time in this act, rather try to hook the reader with the big change right up front, then move directly into the next act.

Act II is the main part of the story, where all the Rising Action takes place. This act should take up at least half your story, with the Hero trying and failing, again and again, each time with greater and greater peril to his life (or the lives of his friends). The threats can be physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual, but our Hero can only seem to succeed as the tension increases with each attempt. This act ends with the Darkest Point (third point), where the Hero has obviously been defeated, all is lost, no way out. You can also include a suggestion of the climax, a bit of a cliff hanger to get the reader back after the commercial break. (Oh, wait, this isn’t on the tele yet…or is it?)

Act III starts off with the Climax (fourth point), quickly followed by a bit of Falling Action. The Climax is where the Hero decisively overcomes the ultimate crisis. Make certain that what he does seems valid from all the work he’s done—nothing magic here to rescue him. The Falling Action allows time to clean up a few loose ends, tie up subplots, and understand the results of our Hero’s actions.

The story finishes up with the Resolution, or Dénouement if you prefer (fifth point), where life gets back to the new normal, but nothing can be as it was before—the Hero has a new life to live.

What is a story?

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Time once again for an Extra topic, and as with the previous Extra: Story Essence, we’ll be focusing on the content of your work, rather than the production. In fiction, we try to tell a story…and in non-fiction, we have some knowledge to share. Both can use similar concepts to get the message across, though in fiction we are appealing to the reader’s emotion, in non-fiction, intellect.

So…what really is a story? We’ve heard it described as a narrative of events…with a beginning, middle, and end. It that it?

Consider this:

  • Bill woke up. He ate breakfast. He left for work.

Is that a story? It has the requisite three acts, a protagonist, some form of choices, and it’s a natural progression, but something is missing. It’s a news article, not a story—there is no passion, no crisis, no struggle, and most importantly, no change. The main character ends the same as he started.

Let’s step through the process of creating a story. Right up front, we have to get the reader’s attention, create a connection, and set the scene (build the world). In other words, we need to entice the reader to continue reading—we need to set the hook.

Starting the story:

Question: But when do we start the story? Answer: When something extraordinary happens. We don’t care about boring lives—we want to break that routine. Ask yourself: Why is this day different from all others? That’s where you start the story, and it sets up the Story Question asked in Act I: Will things get back to normal? We’ll have to wait for the resolution to get that answer.

Once started, we need to introduce the rest of the characters. There are two kinds: Pebble and Putty. Pebble people don’t change over the life of the story, bouncing back from whatever acts on them, set pieces, not interesting. Putty people are the central ones. We’re interested in watching them to see if they’ll ever get back to the shape they were in the beginning…but they won’t.

Middle of the story:

The middle part of the story is where all the action takes place, but anything that happens has to be the result of our hero doing something…no happenstance allowed. Don’t forget to throw in a few clues and red herrings for the end of the story.

“If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it’s not going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there.”—Anton Chekhov

The bulk of the actions should be the hero trying to solve the problem created at the beginning, and though all attempts need to make sense (something logical, something you might try in that situation), none of them work—things just get worse.

Tension is created by unfilled desire, so give the hero something to crave, then prevent success. What is wanted? What is to be avoided? Focus on external struggles that need to be overcome or internal ones that need to be understood—the more intimate, the more personal, the more devastating they will be.

End of the story:

When the end finally arrives, it needs to follow from what happened earlier, almost unavoidable, but not obvious until it happens. Tie up loose ends, show us how the hero has changed, and answer the Story Question. Remember, the entire story is one of transformation—no change, no story. Don’t worry…we’ll cover details of Transformation later.

Comparatives and Superlatives

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Some things are good and some are bad. But some things are even better than that…and others worse. Then there are the ones that are the best…or the worst. How do we know the difference? We use Comparatives and Superlatives. English has two ways to relate objects, ranking them according to some (often unspecified) scale in quality, quantity, or degree. The Comparative balances one item against only one other. The Superlative evaluates one item against a bunch of others. Remember to use the Comparative if you have only two things to compare.

Two Ways to Form Comparisons

There are two constructions for comparing: Morphological and Syntactic. In the morphological system, we morph (or change) a word. In the Syntactic, we use syntax (the rules of sentence construction) to show the level of comparison. The morphological comparison is usually used with short words of Anglo-Saxon derivation by adding ‘er’ for the comparative and ‘est’ for the superlative, but there are some irregular forms to consider as well. The positive word ‘good’ becomes ‘better’ or ‘best’ and the negative word ‘bad’ becomes ‘worse’ and ‘worst’, so it still seems to follow a pattern.

Using the syntactical technique, we would add words instead of changing them to make the comparison, and the words we usually add are ‘more’ and ‘most’ for an increasing attribute (or ‘less’ and ‘least’ for a decreasing one). This method is often used for longer words, or words of French or Latin origin. For example, when ‘beautiful’ grows, it becomes ‘more beautiful’ and ‘most beautiful’. On the other side, when ‘wide-awake’ is reduced, it becomes ‘less wide-awake’ and ‘least wide-awake’.

Null Comparatives

You’ll sometimes see a Comparative used with only ONE item…often in adverts or political comments. What is being compared isn’t always clear…and that seems to be the intention. Consider these statements:

  • Our bread is softer.
  • The display is sharper.
  • We give you more.
  • More doctors recommend it.

The bread is softer than what? A rock? Of course it is, and the display is sharper than what? Last year’s model? Probably. They give you more than…the other guys? Maybe so. It is recommended by more doctors than sewer workers? I would hope so, whatever it is!

These Null Comparatives are intentionally used to convince us that something is better, trying to get us to buy (or buy into) whatever it is that they are selling. Be careful to avoid such empty comparisons in your writing…even if you are writing advert copy.

Comparing Absolutes

Another thing to watch out for is trying to compare absolutes—something that is either all the way on or all the way off. If one of the buckets is full, it can’t be fuller. If another one is empty, it can’t be the emptiest. There is only one unique gem, so there can’t be a more unique gem. And a funny one is trying to consider one lady to be less pregnant than another—it just doesn’t work.

Basic Layout of a Book (cover)

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Most readers are familiar with what a book looks like, but from an author’s point of view, there is much more involved in putting one together. Let’s go over the basic parts:

  • Obviously there is the cover first, made up of the front, back, and spine.
  • Then there’s the inside, but that’s just a bunch of pages, right?

Not quite, but we’ll get to that part in a post about the layout of the inside—we’ll examine just the cover in this post.

Front:

Focusing on the front of the cover, the reader will expect to find a title and possibly a subtitle (especially for non-fiction). Then there’s the author’s name, and of course some wonderful image that will catch the reader’s eye—but when the cover artist lays out the words and pictures, make certain enough room is left somewhere for that wonderful sticker you get when you win the book contest!

Back:

The back cover also has a few items that are expected. The genre is specified, typically in the upper left corner, along with the appropriate BISAC code. The middle has a paragraph or two with enough information for the reader to make the decision to buy the book—here is where you put your hook. You may also have a few blurbs from advance readers or reviewers. The lower left area is where you put your own picture, along with a bit of info about you. (Some readers will buy the book based solely on the author’s credentials.) Publisher info goes just below that. The lower right corner (near the spine) is where the ISBN goes with its bar code.

Spine:

There isn’t much room on the spine, so the only things expected are the title (possibly shortened), the author’s name (usually just the last name), and the publisher’s logo.

Although it’s usually the spine that the reader sees first, it’s the cover that gets the book get picked up, and the back gets the book opened—that’s where you have to convince the reader to buy it.

That pretty much covers the cover. The inside is a whole ’nother matter.

Menu key

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As you may know, I’m a bit of a keyboard kinda guy. If I can find a way to type a command, instead of mousing it, I’ll do it. Well, with the advent of the 104 key keyboard back in Sept of 1994, when Microsoft upgraded the standard 101 key keyboard, a few new keys were added…but no one pointed them out: two Windows keys and a single Menu key. We’re going to cover the Menu key in this post, but don’t worry, we’ll cover the Windows key in a later one.

Usually found a bit to the right of the space bar, there is a new key that is rather useful—the Context Menu key. It’s supposed to look like a little drop-down menu, a box with horizontal lines on it. Sometimes it has an arrow on it (like the picture), but some keyboards have a different version with no arrow.

When you type that key, you get the same thing as if you right-click* the mouse—a menu that changes every time depending on where the focus is. I haven’t found much use for it when I’m writing (in Word), because mostly I’m just typing copy, but when I’m analysing data (in Excel), it gets used quite a bit. Just a quick ‘shift-space menu-i’ will insert a whole row, and ‘ctrl-space menu-d’ will delete a column. Quick and easy.

It may be a bit awkward at first…having to reach down past the “?” key…but you’ll probably find that the more you use it, the more you’ll find other ways to make it work better for you. If you’re curious, just tap it whenever you might be reaching for the mouse. The command you want might be right there waiting for you.

*When I say “right-click” I’m showing a prejudice. I’ve had to support many engineers who were left handed, so for them a “right-click” involves clicking on the left button of the mouse. Unfortunately, they’ve gotten used to everything being backwards, but I just want to acknowledge the difference. Thanks!