– Terms

Instead of presenting an alphabetical list of terms, we’re going to discuss the process of getting ink on paper and what’s involved, defining the words as we go. I’ll underline each new term and define it in parens right after. (If you really want a list, there are plenty of websites out there, but I find reading a dictionary rather disconnected from reality.)

After you’ve finished writing your ms (manuscript), you can start laying out (the process of making your text look like a book) your book. The first step is to decide what physical size book you want, how tall, how wide, how thick. There are a variety of trim sizes (physical size of book in reader’s hand) available, but most paperback books intended for entertainment come in three sizes: 6 x 9 trade (paperback version of previously released hardback book), 5 ½ x 8 ½ digest (magazine sized book), or 4 ¼ x 7 mass market (cheaper version, often sold in racks at airports and drugstores).

Pages

Once you’ve set the size of the page, you need to address the margins (white space surrounding your text on the page) and gutters (extra space on the spine side of the page to account for the binding). Set your word processor to Facing Pages or Book Fold, then adjust the margins and gutters to about ½ inch all around with an extra ½ to ¾ added into the gutter, even more if it’s a thick book.

Check your running headers and footers (text at the top and bottom of each page outside the content, often has author name and title of book, or chapter and section name). See that they are in the right places. Now is a good time to review the page numbers, too.

Verify that your justification (alignment of text lines on the right and left sides), indentation (alignment of first line of a pgph), and pgph spacing (extra space added between pgphs) is correct. Typically fiction uses left justification, small indents, and no spacing between pgphs, whereas non-fiction uses full justification, block indent (all lines even with each other), and a small space between pgphs. Make certain to not mix the two styles in the same ms.

Keep line spacing (aka leading, pronounced “ledd-ing” because it used to refer to adding strips of lead between the physical lines of type) between 1.15 and 1.25 for ease of readability. (For a ms to be edited, use 1.5 or 2, so there’s enough room for the editor to write comments.)

Zoom back

Now you can zoom back and take a long distance view of your page. Inspect every page for widows (last line of a pgph at the top of a page) and orphans (first line of a pgph at the bottom of a page or last few words of a pgph on a line by themselves). Clean those up by tweaking the line or character spacing in earlier pgphs.

That should take care of most issues found in poorly produced books…at least the appearance. We can address the actual content later.

How your reader sees your story depends on both the camera and who the main character (MC) is at any given time. Just as in a movie, the camera could be a character…only seeing what that character sees, First Person, using “I”. Usually the camera is close to the action, watching the MC as well as all the others, so we get to see what the MC is doing, Third Person, “he, she, they”—further broken down by how far the camera is from the action. Yes, there is a Second Person, but it’s rather rare, using “you” to tell the reader what to do.

POV Examples

• First Person
  • I woke up earlier than normal and watched the sun slowly creep over the edge of my window. I threw my legs out of the bed and strode over to the window. Squinting to see the city through the fog, I wondered what I was going to encounter this time.
• Second Person
  • You wake up and notice the sun hasn’t fully risen. Climbing out of bed, you step over to the window. The slowly rising sun glares in your eyes, so you raise a hand to block the light. Gazing at the city, trying to see through the fog, you nod your head slowly, realising that yet another day is upon you.
• Third Person
  • He woke up suddenly as the room slowly brightened from the rising sun. He stood up and stumbled over to the window, shading his eyes with a hand as he stared out at the foggy city. He scrunched up his forehead as he contemplated the day.

All of those show the same scene but from different POVs. You can see how getting closer or farther from the MC changes how you feel about him and his situation. Also, notice that the fact that he is a ‘him’ is only obvious in Third Person, so you could hide his gender until later in the story…startling your reader with a revelation!

Third Person Depth

In Third Person, the camera could be at the top of a building, watching the action of a whole city, knowing everyone’s thoughts, personalities, backstories, being Omniscient. Or the camera could zoom in to be a fly on the wall, Limited to reporting only what can be seen…no internal dialogue or thoughts. We have to assume how characters feel by what we see them do (as in the example above). The third option is to have the camera so Close that it’s as if we are sitting on the character’s shoulder, close enough to catch what he’s thinking and feeling. We hear conversations he has with himself, so we know why he’s doing what he’s doing.

The problem in Close Third Person, is that we can hear only his thoughts…no one else’s. We have to depend on his interpretation of other folks. (And he might be unreliable in that aspect.) Head Hopping is a problem in Close Third Person when the author wants us to know someone else’s thoughts. You’ll find that most of your readers have only lived in one head their entire lives, so try to avoid bouncing around through your characters’ heads. If you need to tell what someone else is thinking, then you need a break…either a small scene break, a larger chapter break, or a huge section break. Yes, you can tell your story from multiple POVs…as long as you stick to one in each part.

Welcome to the beginning of yet another new year. We here at Turner Editing will be posting helpful hints and tips on how to make your writing process smoother. There will be Grammar suggestions, Story line helps, Definitions of terms used in writing, Discussions of traditions in the printing industry, and even a few time-saving keyboard shortcuts! (I’ve always said that if I have to pull my hand off the keyboard, grab the mouse, wiggle it around, push it to where I want, click on something, then go back to the keyboard, I have wasted too much time that could be better spent on creating something wonderful.)

Posting levels:

As you read, you’ll notice that the post categories have a topic and level indicated. This one is “Terms, 1 Introductory”. That means it is a first level discussion on some terminology that’s important to the writing world. The other levels are “2 Basic”, “3 Advanced”, and “4 Excessive”. (If you get to that level, you’re really trying to understand the whole process!) After you get done reading, if you’re still confused, let us know. We hope to be able to answer all your questions.

“Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.”—Samuel Johnson, creator of A Dictionary of the English Language, published in 1755

Let’s start off with a few basic terms. There are at least four different types of Edits that need to take place for any written work to be ready to share with the world.

Types of Editing:

• The first level is Developmental Editing. It looks at the work as a whole, considering the flow or sequence of information from beginning to end, possibly reordering whole sections—a chapter level edit.
• The next level is Line Editing. It looks at the work deeper, considering how the information is presented to the reader, focusing on language usage, tone, transitions, pacing—a paragraph level edit.
• Following that is Copy Editing. At this step the idea is to follow accepted conventions. The Copy Editor will often have a style sheet, specifying the rules to be followed. Very few decisions need to be made. If the style sheet says it, then it must be so. Indexing can also be done now, but the attention is mostly on grammar and punctuation—a word level edit.
• Then, after the work is formatted and laid out, a final check is made to see that it looks right on the printed page. That’s the work of the Proofreader (reading the Galley Proof). By now the content is done, so the emphasis is how it looks to the reader. It’s a very high level view of the document—a page level edit.

Although we have editors who can do Developmental editing, here at Turner Editing we suggest that you use Beta Readers or a Critique Group for the Developmental Editing (saving you plenty of money) and allow us the opportunity to address your Line and Copy Editing needs. We will also do Proofreading if you need it.