Apparently, I've Been Using an Oxford Comma My Whole Life

When I started writing for CBR, their style guide said, "no Oxford comma." I was like "Fine, I just use regular commas." On my first post, I got feedback that I had used the Oxford comma. I was like, "My bad. Must have been that stylized quotation mark that Word does." I took that out. On my second article, I got "no Oxford commas" again. I looked through my article and couldn't find the weird quotation mark, so I let it go. On my third article, I got the same feedback less politely, so I decided to look up the Oxford comma. Turns out I have been using it all along.

"The Hemingway App" Makes Writing Easier to Read

We all want to be better writers, am I right? But it's not easy. It's so hard to write anything at all that sometimes, once I've written something, I can't see ways to improve it. But there are ways to become better writers, one of which is to make our work easier to read.

That's where the Hemingway App comes in. It's a website I heard about designed to make your writing more clear. You can put in something you're writing, and it will judge it based on readability, adverbs, complex phrases, and passive voice. When the app finds any of it, it highlights them in colors for you to fix.

Weird Al Teaches Grammar in "Word Crimes"

Weird Al Yankovic is back to show us how it's done with his new album, Mandatory Fun. One of his singles released today is sorely needed in today's online grammar-deficient world, a parody of Robin Thicke's song "Blurred Lines" "Good Times" called "Word Crimes." Check out the most commonly used mispronunciations and grammatical errors, set to a funky beat.


BONUS
Related Post:
10 Words Everyone Needs to Stop Misspelling

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6 HTML Tags to Make Great Amazon Book Descriptions

If you've cruised through Amazon's book descriptions, you may have noticed some that are more complex than others. While some descriptions are very basic with black text, others have text in bold, italics, and even orange text. It turns out that you can use HTML code in book blurbs. In case you're not familiar with it, here's some HTML code authors can use to make their descriptions stand out.

 Bold: <b>Your Text Here</b>

Italics: <i>Your Text Here</i>

Centered: <center>Your Text Here</center>

Largest: <h1>Your Text Here</h1>

Large and Orange: <h2>Your Text Here</h2>

Underlined: <u>Your Text Here</u>

There are a few more, but I think those are the most useful. Of course, you don't want to overuse it, because that would make it look silly.

How Trad Authors Are House Slaves, Indie Authors Are Gladiators [Opinion]

In 2011, successful author Michael Stackpole wrote a blog post called "House Slaves vs. Spartacus." He basically compared traditionally-published authors who denigrate self-publishing to "house slaves," and self-published authors to gladiators.

10 Famous Quotes About Editing #IWSG

This is my entry for the Insecure Writer's Support Group...


These days, I'm doing more editing than writing. I hate editing. Looking at all the flaws in my work makes me insecure and frustrated. Maybe you feel this way, too. So here are some quotes from famous authors about editing to get you through it, courtesy of Goodreads.

1. "I'm writing a first draft and reminding myself that I'm simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles."  - Shannon Hale

2. "I edit my own stories to death. They eventually run and hide from me."  - Jeanne Voelker

3. "It’s easy to see what to do once it’s already been done. The difficult time is before it’s to be done, and while you’re doing it. This is the difference between writing and editing." - Jarod Kintz

4. "Editing fiction is like using your fingers to untangle the hair of someone you love." - Stephanie Roberts

5. "Apparently, my hopes, dreams and aspirations were no match against my poor spelling, punctuation and grammar." - Red Red Rover

6. "I have rewritten — often several times — every word I have ever published. My pencils outlast their erasers."  - Vladimir Nabokov, Speak, Memory

7. "Editing is like pruning the rose bush you thought was so perfect and beautiful until it overgrew the garden." - Larry Enright

8. "When you write a book, you spend day after day scanning and identifying the trees. When you’re done, you have to step back and look at the forest." ― Stephen King

9. "Writing without revising is the literary equivalent of waltzing gaily out of the house in your underwear." - Patricia Fuller

10. "Edit your manuscript until your fingers bleed and you have memorized every last word. Then, when you are certain you are on the verge of insanity...edit one more time!" - C.K. Webb

Did any of these help you with editing? What other quotes do you know about editing? How is the editing process for you?

And be sure to check out the other members of the Insecure Writers Group!This is a Blog Hop!

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1. Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh	2. Adventures In Writing: One Woman’s Journey
3. Liza at Middle Passages	4. Tyreans Writing Spot
5. Spunky L. Diane Wolfe	6. Susan Says
7. Arlee Birds Tossing It Out	8. C Lee McKenzie Books
9. Em-Musing	10. Jennifer Lane Books
11. Sandras Blog	12. Elizabeth Seckman
13. Carrie-Annes Magick Theatre	14. Shannon Lawrence
15. Diane Riggins	16. The Faux Fountain Pen
17. This Writers Growing	18. WordDreams
19. J. Q. Rose, Author	20. Constantine
21. Toi Thomas	22. Loni Townsend - Squirrel Talk
23. Writing Wings	24. Olga Godim writing
25. Balancing Act	26. Fundy Blue's Standing Into Danger
27. Shout with Emaginette	28. Jemima Pett
29. I Love Space (by J. S. Pailly)	30. Writing in Wonderland
31. Sandra Ulbrich Almazan: Spec. Fic. Author	32. Stories I Found in the Closet
33. Were All Mad Here!	34. Everything Must Change
35. Pensive Pens Post	36. Paving My Authors Road
37. Lynn La Vita	38. Rebecca M. Douglass - The Ninja Librarian
39. Ronel the Mythmaker	40. Literary Rambles
41. Michael Offutt	42. Write On - Rosemary Johnson
43. Sherry Ellis	44. Nancy Gideon - Romance by Any Other Name . . .
45. A Far Out Fantastic Site	46. Jean Davis
47. Fiction and Film	48. The Girdle of Melian
49. A Writers Revelations	50. J Lenni Dorner
51. Melissa Maygrove	52. Living the Dream
53. Janet Alcorn	54. Ecce Signum
55. Falling Forever	56. Yvonne Ventresca
57. MotherOwl's Musings	58. P. J. MacLayne
59. East of the Sun, West of the Moon. . .	60. Bish Denham: Random Thoughts
61. PJLs Write Life	62. Donna K. Weaver
63. Jessica Ferguson - Author, Speaker, Writing Coach	64. Glittering Black
65. Romance Under Fire	66. Beth Camp
67. Lisa Buie-Collard Author	68. Jamie of Uniquely Maladjusted but Fun
69. H. R. Sinclair	70. SquarePeg Books
71. Lissa @ Postcards from the Bookstore	72. SE White Romance
73. Kalpanawrites	74. Rosie's Reverie - Rosie J. Potter
75. Author Allie Bock	76. Fiction Writer
77. Jenni Enzor, Kidlit Writer	78. Nick Wilford, Speculative Author
79. The Road To Being A Published Writer	80. Damyanti @ Daily(w)rite
81. PJ Colando, Author	82. Readers Roost
83. Crystal Collier -- Author, Composer, Cheese Lover	84. tara tyler talks
85. Miffie Seideman, On We Merrily Stumble	86. Juneta Key Storyteller's Gambit
87. Orbiting Insanity by Jessica McKendry	88. Jan Morrison This Crazy Writing Life
89. Paperback Writer	90. Kim's Book Reviews and Writing Ahas
91. Renee Scattergood - Renee's Ruminations	92. Stephen Tremp
93. World of My Imagination	94. Imagine Today
95. Fiction Can Be Fun

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5 Things You Probably Didn't Know About 'Fahrenheit 451'

Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel by Ray Bradbury about a future America where books are banned, and firemen start fires to burn books and any house caught with books. It's been a bestseller since its release in 1956. While you may have read the novel before, you may not know all the facts behind the novel. Here are five bits of trivia about this classic work of sci-fi.

1. Ray Bradbury Got the Temperature Wrong - It's often been said that the title Fahrenheit 451 comes from the temperature at which paper spontaneously burst into flames. According to Bradbury, he got the temperature from a local fire chief. The only problem is that's not the right temperature. The real temperature at which paper combusts is based on a wide variety of factors, including the type of paper, thickness, humidity, density, composition, etc. The real temperature ranges from 842 Fahrenheit to 424–475 Fahrenheit

2. Fahrenheit 451 Has Been Censored - In a painfully ironic twist, Fahrenheit 451, the book that deals with censorship, has itself been censored numerous times. Parents and Christian groups have objected to the profanity and depiction of Christianity in the novel. In 1967, the publisher Ballantine Books removed some profanity, as well as the word "abortion." Bradbury didn't find out about the changes until 1979, when one of his friends showed him the copy. Bradbury called the changes "mutilation" and demanded that his publisher restore his original version in 1980.

3. Fahrenheit 451 Is About Television, Not Censorship - According to Ray Bradbury, the novel isn't about censorship by the government at all. It's about the dangers of television. This may be a retcon since in a 1956 radio interview, Bradbury said that he wrote the story because of his concerns about McCarthy-era censorship and book burning. However, in 2007, Bradbury argued that Fahrenheit is about how television has turned people away from the written word. He points out that in the novel, the government doesn't take away books, but the American public simply stopped reading on their own. Book burning became a form of entertainment to the general public. His concerns probably came from the explosive growth of TV in his time. In 1945, there were fewer than 10,000 sets in the US. By 1950, there were six million.

4. Bradbury Wrote the Original Story for Ten Cents a Half Hour - Bradbury found his wife and children too distracting, so he went to the basement of UCLA's Powell Library to write. He used a pay typewriter that cost him ten cents per thirty minutes. It took him nine days and $9.80 to write "Bright Phoenix," the short story that he later expanded into Fahrenheit 451.

5. The First Fahrenheit 451 Was Fire-Proof - In what may be one of the greatest marketing gimmicks of all time, the publisher released a special first edition that's lined with asbestos. Two hundred copies of the book were bound in Johns-Manville Quinterra, a chrysolite asbestos material, numbered, and signed. The copies are much sought after by collectors with one retailing at $20,000. Later, in an homage to this edition, Stephen King requested a copy of Firestarter bound with the same material.

BONUS: Fahrenheit Went Digital Against Bradbury's Wishes - Given Bradbury's concerns about the loss of great works of fiction, one would think he would welcome an electronic version of Fahrenheit that could be shared electronically and never burn. In fact, he was dead set against it. As late as 2010, Bradbury had  turned down three companies, including Yahoo, that wanted to produce ebooks of Fahrenheit. He argued that society has too many machines, and his love of the printed page is well-documented. However, when the rights for the novel came close to expiring, the publisher insisted on getting the digital rights as well or the contract would lapse. Bradbury gave in, and Fahrenheit is now appearing on digital e-readers.

What are your memories of Fahrenheit 451? Were you surprised by any of these details? Do you have any trivia to share? Let me know in the comments.

Related Posts:
7 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Bugs Bunny

[Image source: Wikipedia]

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Get a Preview of My Next Novel, "Operation: Masquerade"

Right now, I'm going through a final edit on my next novel for release, Operation: Masquerade. It's a sci-fi adventure about a secret agent who disguises himself as an alien to infiltrate an enemy warship and steal their technology. At the same time, the agent's wife races to stop a conspiracy working to kill him on his return. 

Recently, I discovered Wattpad, a combination publishing platform and social networking site. So I've decided to try something different: as I edit chapters of Operation: Masquerade, I'll be uploading them to Wattpad. If you have suggestions, corrections, or comments, feel free to leave them on Wattpad and I'll make needed changes in the process. I think it's win-win; you get to read my novel for free, and I get help beta-reading and editing the novel. Once the novel is complete, I'll be removing it from Wattpad and putting it for sale, so act now! Check it out at: http://www.wattpad.com/story/5148985-operation-masquerade

NOTE: Both the title and cover art are temporary and subject to change

How Long Should Your eBooks Be? [Writing]

There was a time before e-publishing when the length of a book was all about page count. It was generally accepted that 240 pages was the minimum length of a novel. If your novel wasn't 240 pages, authors and even publishers would enlarge the fonts and spacing to make the text bigger so the book would achieve 240 pages. With the arrival of e-readers, these rules went out the window. e-readers like Kindles allow the reader to adjust font size and spacing so pages don't matter. It's now all about word count.

I've seen other authors charge ridiculous amounts for very little work; $2.99 for 10,000 words or $4.99 for 12,000 words are some true examples. When I started writing new works for e-readers, I asked myself how long my books should be. How short was too short? How many words would be a short story and how many words would be a good size for a novel? Really, as a self-published author you can do whatever you want, but I felt I needed guidelines to provide a standardized experience for the reader. I didn't want to publish a short story and have my readers feel it was too short to sell on its own, and I didn't want to promote a novel that readers felt was too short to call a novel. To answer the question, I turned to the industry itself.

Let's start with short stories. Amazon sets the standard for e-publishing, in my opinion, and they have a program called Kindle Singles. Amazon describes these books as "writing that doesn't easily fall into the conventional space limitations of magazines or print books." Sounds like short stories and novellas to me. Amazon says, "Kindle Singles are typically between 5,000 and 30,000 words." That means my short stories should be at least 5,000 words long, and novellas around 30,000 words.

As for novels, I found a good guideline in BookBub's guidelines. Their listing guidelines read, "BookBub promotes full-length works, so we do not typically accept listings for books under 150 pages (" or roughly 50,000 words)." That tells me that a novel should be at least 50,000 words.

Now I should mention these are by no means a standard. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America specifies word lengths for each category of its Nebula award categories as:
Novel - over 40,000 words
Novella - 17,500 to 40,000 words
Novelette - 7,500 to 17,500 words
Short story - under 7,500 words

What do you think? Are these good guidelines for book length? Do you use different guidelines? Would you buy an ebook that was shorter than 5,000 words or a novel for less than 50,000 words? Let me know in the comments.

My Favorite Childhood Book: "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

I read a lot of books growing up, but I have to say my favorite childhood book was The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. When I was a kid, the world Douglas Adams created was so real that I actually believed it was what outer space was like. I used to stand in my backyard at night and look up at the stars, and dream of a spaceship picking up and taking me off to Magrathea or Milliways. I even made an electronic thumb with some wire and a D-battery...or what I thought was an electronic thumb, but just a wire that turned really hot. I packed a bag, just in case, and I always knew where my towel was. The very idea of creating worlds so rich and detailed, and writing books as funny as Douglas Adams was a large part of what led me to create my own novels.

Do you love Douglas Adams? What was your favorite book as a child?

Editing Makes Me Hate My Writing [Bloghop]

This is my entry for the Insecure Writer's Group...

I'm working on the final draft of a manuscript right now, and I'm at that point in editing where I've come to hate my book. I always get to this point while I'm editing. The typos make me angry. Like "Seriously? You couldn't figure out how to spell that?" I'm tired of the grammatical errors that make me want to send myself back to school. I'm at the point where all the focus on the problems and mistakes makes the book seem like the worst novel ever written and I want to throw it away and write something else. I have to remind myself that I always feel this way when I edit, and eventually I'll get through it, and come out the other side with a book I'm happy with.

24 Freelance Editors for Indie Authors to Hire [Resources]

One of the most common complaints about self-published books is that they aren't professionally edited. Typos, grammatical errors, poor plot structure - these are all things that can crop up in indie books. Of course, traditional publishers have professional editors who are supposed to review and edit their books before release. One way to avoid that problem for indie authors is to hire a freelance editor yourself. I don't use a professional editor myself, but I plan to hire one once I get the scratch together. I collected some of the freelance editors from Sophrosyne at Kboards and thought I'd share the list. This list will be updated and expanded over time. If you're a freelance editor who'd like to be added, let me know in the comments.

http://ashleycase.com/
http://bevharrosproofreading.weebly.com/
http://www.bookeditorcoach.com/index.htm
http://cedarsky.net/
http://ebookeditingpro.com/
http://hollowayhouse.me/
http://indie-editor.webs.com/
http://jenniferpooley.com/
http://www.kristenweber.com/
http://www.laurenbaratzlogsted.com/
http://www.moviesmackdown.com/smackrefs/editors/eric-estrin
http://myeditingservice.com/
http://onceuponabookcover.blogspot.com/
http://peggyireland.blogspot.ca/
http://redadeptpublishing.com/editing-services/
http://rewriterewordrework.wordpress.com/about/
http://size12bystpatricksday.blogspot.com/p/cherise-kelley-editor.html
http://theeyesforediting.com/
http://wordvagabond.wordpress.com/editing-services/
http://www.everything-indie.com/
http://www.lastdraftediting.com/index.html
http://www.rachelstarrthomson.com/
http://rhondaedits.com/
http://www.victoryediting.com/services.html

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The Importance of Big Ideas in Fiction [Writing]

I think I'm technically a good writer, but my problem now is my ideas, the overall concept for what my stories are about. I used to focus on my technique, but I've been told my writing is on a professional level. The problem is what I'm writing about. I realized that I could write the greatest novel ever, but if the topic isn't compelling enough, doesn't have a hook, then no one will bother to read it and find out. An agent or editor or reader looking at the back cover will first judge the book by the description, and that description has to grab them. That's why I'm now trying to build my fiction on strong ideas.

To me, the perfect high-concept idea is Jurassic Park. The whole book can be summed up in one sentence: dinosaurs brought back to life with genetic engineering. That idea is so compelling that it makes you want to read the book. Everything else, like the fact that it's exciting and well-written, is just gravy. There was a bidding war for the movie rights before author Michael Crichton had even finished the novel, showing the studios didn't even care how the book turned out. They knew the idea alone was so powerful that it would be a great movie.

I work hard now to try to come up with compelling ideas for my writing. I think my forthcoming novel Drug Run is the best idea I've come up with recently, and hope the finished novel lives up to it.

How much work do you put into ideas? Do you just write what you want and hope others buy the idea or do you wait for a great idea to strike you? Let me know in the comments.

The Pros and Cons of Indie Authors and Free eBooks

There's been an interesting debate on Alex J. Cavanaugh's blog about the pros and cons of free ebooks. Some authors love giving away free ebooks, because it's an easy and popular way to get publicity. It also gets their work read by a wide audience. Readers love free ebooks, because...well, they get free books. But some people in the publishing industry have been calling for an end to the practice. I once read (but can't find now) a traditional publisher sniffing that they value their books too much to give away for free.

Can Ebonics Be Used By Smart People? [Writing]

I once got an email from someone who criticized the African American heroine of Dead Links for her language. Specifically, the email said Amanda Katt was too smart to be using the kind of urban dialect she uses in the book.

I wrote back that that's the whole point. Amanda Katt speaks what has been called "Ebonics." I prefer the term "Black English." Amanda is from the streets, and talks like it. She uses a lot of contractions, phrases like "up in here" and "that ain't right." This was actually a calculated choice on my part. Amanda Katt is a college graduate, and a successful journalist whose articles have changed laws and taken down whole companies and organizations. She's not stupid. By having her talk the way she does, I wanted to force people to look at Black English differently, not just a way that poor or stupid minorities speak. Some people seem to think Black English is only used by people who are too dumb to know the difference between "ask" and "axe." 

The fact is that a lot of African Americans actually choose to speak the way they do. There are plenty of intelligent and successful African Americans who use Black English. Probably more than most outsiders think. Many famous African Americans admit that they talk differently to their black friends than they do with their white co-workers or the media. There's even a term for it, code-switching. Amanda Katt is the same way. If you read the book carefully, just like real African Americans, Amanda alters her speech patterns based on who she's with. When she's with her fiancee' Lesley or her best friend Blossom, Amanda relaxes and goes full-on Black English. When she's interviewing a subject or talking to authority figures, her speech is more straight. This is typical of a lot of black people, myself included.

What do you think? Is Black English a sign of poor education? Can Black English be used intelligently? Let me know in the comments.

How Self-Publishing Got My Groove Back [Writing]

L.G. Smith of Bards and Prophets posed an interesting question: "has self-publishing given you more confidence?" And the answer is a resounding "yes."

I have to confess that I had pretty much given up on my writing career before I got into self-publishing.  I had been told so many times that my work was too different, or my work wasn't quite there yet. More so, I had been flooded with so many plain old form rejection letters that didn't tell me anything. I became paralyzed. It got to the point where I couldn't really write fiction anymore, because I kept thinking in the back of my mind, "What if no one buys it? Am I just wasting my time?"

Self-publishing has revitalized my enthusiasm for writing. I now know that, no matter what, my writing will be seen. I can write what I want without constantly worrying about whether it's marketable or not. I'm finishing novels that I started writing decades ago. I'm dusting off manuscripts that I never even bothered to submit to publishers, because I figured no one would buy them. I still want to be published by a major publishing company, but it's comforting to know that if no one buys it, I can publish the book myself.

What about you? Has self-publishing changed your writing? If you haven't done it, would you ever consider it? Let me know in the comments.

The Importance of Flaws in Characters

I'm working on a second draft of my upcoming novel, Drug Run. I originally put the book aside, because I thought the main character John Avery didn't feel real. I thought he didn't have a personality or motivation. He just made his way through the story, things happened, and he responded, but it all felt shallow. I didn't really understand who he was. I couldn't see the story from his perspective. I knew the problem was that he's supposed to be an action hero, and action heroes don't really have an arc. I mean, Indiana Jones doesn't grow and change in Raiders of the Lost Ark, right? Besides, sometimes I love a character so much that I'm afraid to give them a flaw that will weaken them in the eyes of the reader.

But this time around, I took a hard look at the novel, and realized there has to be change. Avery goes through a physical journey, but not an emotional one. I bit the bullet. I did give John Avery a flaw; his lifelong hesitation to rock the boat. He avoids conflict all his life, because of a terrible accident that happened to him as a child. He's afraid of what will happen if he unleashes himself. He's an action hero who's been trying not to be an action hero. Now, faced with a threat to his family, Avery is forced to take action to defend his family. He needs to unleash the fury within him.

I'm only on the first chapter of the revised draft, but it's made all the difference. Suddenly, I can write internal dialogue, and include the motivation for the things Avery does. He's taking control, and changing parts of the story to suit his needs. I just want to say to all writers, be sure that your main characters have flaws, something they need to overcome. It makes the story so much richer.

At least, I hope so. We'll find out when I actually finish the novel.