Many years ago (and like many SFF authors, perchance), I used to think I was J R R. I tried (rather badly) to invent my own language, pieces of which yet survive in the ECKO manuscripts and on its map. I kept endless glossaries, all meticulously cross-referenced, and could immerse myself for hours in tidging with italics, or with the syllables in names, or in clever Easter Eggs to scatter throughout a narrative.
Years later, working at Norwich Union and then at Allders of Croydon as a professional copywriter/editor, that level of OCD word-management stood me in good stead. And yes, it still does.
Manuscripts go through several stages, like building a wall. You have your foundations: your synopsis, your world- and character-building, your research. You have the wall itself: the brick-by-crick construction of your first draft. You have the plaster on that wall: the smoothing of the draft to bring it up to narrative status. And you have the paint: adding tone, imagery, atmosphere, simile, levels of emotion, all of the things that turn ‘words’ to ‘art’.
And then, you have the itty bitty shitty nitty gritty.
There are better ways to phrase it (though they’re not as much fun), but it’s the level past painting, the filigree on the décor. It’s that last pass, where the whole thing is essentially done, but you need to double-check its continuity. Is everything spelled how it should be? Are characters’ names consistent? What about capitalisation? If a character has something in their pocketses, what happens to it? If they pick up Chekov’s gun (knife, paperweight, pair of glasses, dice tray), do they use it? (Or if they use it, did they remember to pick up?) If they have a ballistic weapon, do they reload it? If they have a cigarette, where it is it at any given moment, and when does it go out? And is there an apostrophe in ‘let’s’ (which gets me every time)?
Light sources, particularly, are critical: time of day, levels and angles of sunlight. If it rains, does it stop? And if it’s dark, then where is the light coming from, what colour is it, and what/how far can the characters actually see? (Also really helpful in setting scenes and atmospheres).
Copy-editing requires a drill-down level of attention that can make you go cross-eyed, but likewise, can give you excellent insight into the detail of your MS, and your characters and their quirks. If your writing for a licence, you’ll probably have instructions for some of it (capitalisation, italics, etc), but if you’re not, it’s great fun, setting your own.
Just remember to keep copious notes (no really).
Reading: Re-reading Necropolis, London and its Dead by Catherine Arnold. This follows a recent visit to Highgate with a friend, and feeds into the next writing project. The book is ghoulishly fascinating, talking about the history of the city’s dead, about their layers and centuries and the damage that they caused, and about the various cultures that surrounded them, including the Victorian obsession that reached cult-like status. Highly recommended.
Watching: In similar vein, Mysteries of the Terracotta Warriors on Netflix.
Playing: Final pass at Baldur’s Gate, and on the mega-ass-kicking level. Been genuinely enjoying the combat tactics (duh), but Cazador was an absolute fucker, and I’ve still got to spank Raphael. Which, on this level of difficulty, might not be as much fun as it sounds.
Be really handy if you could ‘save file’ your life, y’know? Just before you take on a Big Nasty, be it a Cambion, a customer, or that dreaded Monday Morning Meeting? Think of the difference it could make.
Or maybe you’ve done it already, and you just don’t remember…
"If your writing for a..." should be "you're" and "pocketses"?