The Bones of Editing

In the last few weeks, Advent hired an editor, Sandra Judd, for refining and polishing CWM. She will focus on stylistic editing and copyediting. I've seen a short sample from her already, and I know she'll improve the novel's quality significantly. I found her service here at Book Editing Associates. I recommend that you check out these listings if you ever need an editor.

If you're serious about publishing and selling a book, getting a good editor is vital. Sure, you can throw up a book on Amazon without any editing at all (more on that on a later post), but if you're wanting it to be good, you have no excuse not to have a good editor. It's not just about making sure you spelled all your words correctly (believe me, it's surprising how poorly proofread some self-publishde work is), but it's about removing obstacles in the reader's path for them to connect with your work and making your work shine so your story is worth reading in itself.

That last sentence needs help. Let's make it better.

Before we change anything, we need to understand what's broken. For a cracked femur, bandages may be an easy fix, but resetting the bone is necessary for healing.

The most obvious problem is the misspelling of "self-published." That's easy enough to see, but it's not really important right now. Dig deeper.

The sentence is awkward, long, and hard to follow. It's convoluted and has too much filler, which clouds its message. What is its message? Let's go deeper.

Parsing through the sentence, we can find the basic message: Editing polishes, clarifies, and enriches your content. That's the core, the bedrock of the sentence. At this foundational level, the sentence is good. The bone's not broken, just out of joint.

These three levels can be summed up as the basic cycle of editing. Special thanks to Sandra for breaking these down for me in an email she wrote.

Copyediting - Correcting grammar, spelling, and minor style issues. Polish.

Stylistic editing - Reforming sentence construction, improving diction, eliminating filler, specifying. Clarification.

Substantive editing - Big picture suggestions, reworking of characters and plots, improving conflict. Enrichment.

Generally, the editing process starts with substantive editing and ends with copyediting. No reason to make cosmetic changes to something if you haven't fixed it from falling apart first.

Let's edit that earlier sentence.

It's not just about making sure you spelled all your words correctly (believe me, it's surprising how poorly proofread some self-publishde work is), but it's about removing obstacles in the reader's path for them to connect with your work and making your work shine so your story is worth reading in itself.

To . . .

More than correcting spelling and grammar, editing removes obstacles, such as jargon, filler, and convoluted sentence structure, which come between your reader and your story. Editing also refines the core elements of the story--characters, plot, environment, and theme--sculpting them until they are worthy of being told.

This is a complete, thorough edit. Everything except the core meaning has changed. Sometimes it is necessary to drop something passable for something much better. I know the edited example could use even more work (I would like it to be shorter and more personal). And then, of course, a lot of this is subjective, and you can't spend forever editing without moving on to the next thing.

Can you make a better edit?

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Self-Publishing Prospects

I'm currently hours into researching the fundamental basics of self-publishing, from Print on Demand and eBooks, to the Kindle and iPad. Not to mention marketing and templates and getting documents ready for publication. As you probably guessed, self-publishing is something Advent's considering for CWM.

It's going to take a while to take all the information about self-publishing and POD into account and crunch it down into a course of action. I'm amazed how much the market has become more friendly to self-publishers. It's not just a last resort anymore--some writers are turning down lucrative publishing offers because they know they can make more money in the long run by self-publishing than by going with a traditional publisher.

Of course, this can mean that the self-publisher assumes a lot of risk. He has to market it, edit it, put the cover together himself, or else pay someone to do it for him. The marketing and advertising seem to be the biggest risk, but if he can strategically target specific groups, people, and social networks, it seems likely that he can get at least some return for his product, especially if he's getting the lion's share of the profits.

I'm trying to find the ultimate do-it-yourself, bare-bones, cost-effective self-publishing route. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please let me know!

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Come What May's (Nearly) Done!

Well, it looks like my break was a tad bit longer than a week and a half. Since this time I finished Hero pickups, worked on a period film for three months, and finished up a (nearly) final edit for Come What May!

It’s been a crazy road, but I feel like the book is in a good place now. Mr. Escobar and Mr. Snyder praised the book, and so have others, including my mom (which makes it well worth it!).

Rebekah Cook did a tremendous job helping me tweak the manuscript’s style, diction, and grammar. Without her help, the book’s quality would have suffered.

We’re currently exploring our publishing options. We want to get it out to you soon!

Please leave questions if you have any!

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Hero shooting

Looks like I'll be away from the keyboard for the next week and a half or so helping shoot pickups for Hero, the second Advent feature film coming out. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we try to get some great scenes and insert shots for the movie. It's looking like it'll be pretty jam-packed busy.

Be sure to check out the movie website here.

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Just An Update...

To tell you the truth, things are beginning to drag on my end. Having a rough draft is great(!), but I feel like the editing phase is just another long journey. Though I know better, I don’t feel like there’s really an end in sight. It’s almost like making a movie but doing it alone. Sometimes you want a hero to come save the project, and thankfully Come What May isn’t just about me. Yet, I’m not alone, because I’ve prayed a lot for it, and I know that the kind of dedication that it’s required has been because God’s given me the strength to get this far, and I know very few people who’ve had the opportunity to say they’ve written a novel.

Mr. Snyder and I had an excellent conversation with a very knowledgeable gentleman as a follow-up to one of our calls last week. He gave us some very pointed, valuable advice, and, speaking entirely from my own perspective, I wouldn’t be surprised if CWM ends up being self-published. There are a variety of reasons for this, but all in all, after reconsidering self-publishing CWM, I am pretty favorable to it. Of course, as an author, the usual goal is to get published by a major house to ensure better advances, marketing, and publicity for your work, so you can live off your writing and get more offers to write more things. It’s a big spiral that’s not really good or bad by itself, but it’s a great way to build a successful career if it’s what you want to do. We’ll see.

Really, the novel is about giving fans of the story a different way to enjoy it. I personally think that it will be a worthwhile book of its own right, but as I told one friend recently, I am so close to it, it’s pretty hard for me to be objective. But when you find yourself laughing or choking up on something you’ve written, especially if you’re hyper-critical of your own stuff, that’s usually a good sign.

If you like it, I’ll be happy. Still working on a third draft. Taking longer than I hoped, but what’s new?

And yes, I’m late posting this.

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Being "Don Hogan" - Kenny Jezek

One of my favorite things about working on Come What May was getting to know Kenny Jezek. Everything good about Don Hogan was really just Mr. Jezek being himself. He was always a source of stability, humor, and encouragement on set, in addition to being a great actor. When I hung out with him, he helped me forget the stress of the day and focus on what was really important, building relationships with people and God.

And if that's not enough, I also had the huge pleasure and opportunity to know his wife Karen Jezek (who plays Judith) and their two daughters, Savanna and Shiloh. They're an incredible family, and I miss them.

The Jezeks live in Arizona and have recently founded a theater company, Command Performers. If you can make it to Phoenix this summer, be sure to get a ticket for their production of "Stone Soup", performing August 6 & 7.

Mr. Jezek gave me this to share with you.

BEING "DON HOGAN" - By Kenny Jezek

JUNE 2010 - It has been nearly three years since I first received the call from George Escobar asking my wife and I to play the roles of Don and Judith Hogan in Advent Film Group’s first feature film “Come What May” which we filmed in the summer of 2007 and winter of 2008.  I must first go on record in saying that this experience (5 weeks in the summer and another 2 weeks in the winter) was one of the most enjoyable and enriching in our family’s life.

Probably the biggest challenge in developing and playing this role was giving “Don” some depth with a very limited amount of “screen time”.  In this, as in the other Christian film roles I’ve had the privilege to play, the first place I began, and where I suggest any Christian actor begins, was with the sovereignty of God.  Yes, that’s right.  Not a technique or method (which all have their place in character development and performance) but in the firm conviction that God is sovereign and reigns and rules over all of creation and that nothing happens outside of his gaze or foreknowledge.  Having this belief firmly in place, I can honestly say, is the key to being able to do what I do.  If God placed me in that role, which He obviously did, then God would provide the grace I needed to honestly and accurately portray that person.  This would be the absolute best encouragement I could give to any young Christian actor.  Having this belief informing your life will go a long way in keeping you humble as well.  A very important thing to be in an industry where egos and arrogance are prevalent and the temptation to be so is great.

God’s prepared me to play the roles I’ve played through my experience and life in the entertainment industry as both a professional dancer and actor, especially in the role of Lars Englund in NBC’s “Days of Our Lives”.  Acting in a soap opera gives an actor an enormous amount of experience in learning a large amount of lines in a very short period of time.  Also, because soap operas film an entire show in one day (whereas a nighttime series would take an entire week to two to film one episode), we learned how to hit our marks and deliver our performances in one or two takes.  Along with this ability gained through acting in a “soap” the usual technical aspects of character development came into play as well ie: back story (what do I know about Don and his life prior to this place in time?), motivation and personality.  A quick caveat - I am not advocating or suggesting that Christian actors pursue getting on a soap opera.

Another thing that was very important was talking often and in depth with our director (and can I say now, my very dear friend) Manny Edwards about “Don” and his motivations.  Many a late night were spent between Manny, Karen (my wife who so wonderfully played “Judith”), George and myself discussing scenes, flow, motivation, character arc, etc. Not only did this allow my wife and I to better develop our characters and make sure we were tracking with our director’s ideas for those characters as well but it allowed for our friendship to grow so that we continued our relationship well beyond the filming of the movie.

Something else that was very helpful (and I would say imperative) was spending time with the other actors in the movie, specifically Austin Kearney (Caleb) and Victoria Emmons (Rachel).  Getting comfortable with them off camera allowed for us to be comfortable with them on camera.  This was especially important for our relationship with Austin as he played our teenage son.  So it had to look like we had known and loved this young man his whole life.  I must say that both Austin and Tori made it very easy for us to love them both.  Our friendship with them has only grown and for that we are so grateful to God.

That really leads me to my final point regarding acting for the Christian.  For the Christian “actor” don’t allow yourself to believe that your role in a film is only, or even primarily about your acting in a movie, which would be a very narrow perspective, indeed.  You will be working with and developing relationships with people. If those people are Christians remember that they have had an encounter with God (let that sink in for a moment).  Treat them with respect, honor, dignity and professionalism.  Sometimes we forget this when tensions begin to run high on a film set.  Yes, even a Christian film set.  If they are not believers then you are an ambassador of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to them.

During my time in the entertainment industry when I was not a Christian, I worked with and met some of the most recognizable names around.  Many of them would remember me if my name were to come up in conversation, but none of them are on my list of what I would call those I have a relationship with.  God is about spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ here on earth and glorifying the name of His Son, our Savior.  Your part in a movie (or anything else you do here on earth for that matter) is less about that part and more about the relationships you will develop during that movie.  Don’t miss that opportunity by being overly obsessed with your performance.  Yes, be professional.  There are people you will never meet who will be impacted by watching your performance.  So do your job as if unto the Lord.  Work hard, think, concentrate, memorize your lines, communicate with your director, give it 100%, AND consider the people you are working with.  Like your part in the movie, they were brought there by the sovereign hand of God.

~Kenny Jezek

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Calling Publishers

So this week Mr. Snyder and I got on the phone and made several calls to publishers, agents, and other important people to get the ball rolling on publishing. I’m working on the third draft still, but I’m pretty confident that it’s at a place right now that we can send out the first few chapters to spark interest for it. Since it can take six months or more for a manuscript to go from my computer to the publisher and then to the bookshelves, it’s imperative not to get behind here. The way I see it, if we can work out an agreement with a publisher while I’m finalizing the book, we’ll have saved a good chunk of time and can use the extra space to begin marketing.

Voicemail tends to be the modus operandi for communication in the publishing world. We left a lot of messages and are waiting to hear back. Advent Film Group is always crazy busy in the office, and it’s just a little film company (so far), so I can only guess how packed out time is in a literary agency or editor’s office. Still would be nice to hear back soon.

I’m not too hot on the idea of self-publishing. It comes with its own set of worthwhile rewards, but it also entails a lot more work from the writer. I’m not lazy, but I wouldn’t mind someone else doing some of the work on the book so I can move on to other projects. Either way, it’s a great practical education, and I’m learning a lot about the whole process.

Visiting the beach at Wilmington, NC right now. The last time I saw the ocean was probably two years ago. I’ve missed it.

NEXT MONDAY: Very special guest post. Come back for it.

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Draft, draft, and more drafts

I’m sitting in a Greyhound station as a type this, because when it’s posted I’ll be in the middle of being a camp counselor for Generation Joshua at Patrick Henry College. It should be a great week, and I’ll be working with a lot of old friends, which will make it even better. To find out more about Generation Joshua, you should check out their website.

By the time you read this, I will have finished the second draft of CWM (!). This draft is mostly a smoothing of the first draft—most of the events will be the same, but a lot of the style and some of the content has been significantly modified. Rough sentence structure and typographical errors are some of the things I’ve corrected. The end of June is my deadline for the second draft, and since I’m camp counseling this week, I had to finish it a few days early.

I’ll probably have at least three more drafts after this.

The third draft will take the second draft and expand some of the moot court material and strengthen the ending. To be realistic, the moot court arguments in the novel require me to do additional research into actual Supreme Court rulings. This research will be used for the arguments Caleb, Rachel, and Judith present. The CWM novel ending is also unsatisfying right now, and a little too open-ended for my and Mr. Escobar’s taste, so this will also be corrected in the third draft.

This third draft will be sent out to a few trusted people for their opinions and suggestions. When I get these suggestions, I will decide which ones I like and will turn around and put them into a fourth draft.

Before CWM is published, there’s a big possibility that a professional editor, either someone independent or someone employed through an acquiring publisher, will have their own corrections to make. These corrections will finally culminate in the final draft, which will go off to the printing presses.

Makes you realize how involved things can be even after the first draft is written, huh?

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Judith

When I started writing CWM, Judith posed a problem for me because she’s a very complicated character. At first, she comes across as a somewhat sympathetic antagonist primarily concerned for Caleb and his (as she sees it) poor academic choice of Patrick Henry College. Even though we’re rooting for Caleb, we understand that as his mother she only wants the best for him.

At the same time, we learn that there is more to this than a personal preference against PHC. Judith is not against PHC because it doesn’t have the prestige, history, or tradition of an Ivy school. She’s not against it because she had a falling out with PHC’s president or a faculty member. She’s not even against it because she thinks Caleb can have a better shot at getting into a good law school somewhere else.

She’s against it because it is diametrically opposed to her values, especially her social and religious values. On the other hand, Don wholeheartedly supports the school because he agrees with its position on those same issues. Conflict ensues. CWM’s intended audience naturally sides with Don. Here’s a line in the sand that cannot be crossed without a change in your philosophy and beliefs, not just your personal taste.

Judith pushes this further by taking on a case that Don would condemn. Caleb is caught in the middle. More conflict. Judith’s position as an antagonist becomes more pronounced to the point she’s almost a villain.

Then, near the end of the movie, the tables are turned, and a complex, psychological revelation occurs, which opens a whole new window into Judith’s soul. This revelation suddenly makes us empathize with Judith, to the point that even though we disagree with her, we hope that she finds comfort and acceptance by the end of the film.

For those of you who haven’t seen the movie, I won’t spoil it by saying what secret lies in Judith’s past, but I’ve heard many viewers mention how much they wish that Judith’s story could be explicated even more. What made her the way she is? Why is she so adamant about arguing for an abortion clinic?

Trying to do justice to Judith's story has been interesting. In the end, she’s not the villain—she’s a deeply hurt character. Exploring her story as one of a human being, while respecting the fact that she’s an antagonist in the story, has been difficult but rewarding.

She’s had a hard road to walk. I’m looking forward to the moment she arrives at her destination.

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Prepare and Forget--Acting and Writing

I audited an acting class tonight. It was a great use of two hours, and it reminded me just how similar acting can be to writing.

A good actor spends hours preparing for a scene, exploring layers of character motives and background. What’s your connection with another character? What is it that you want? When you connect, what are you feeling and does that actually come out in the performance? All of these questions should be explored so that you are as prepared as possible when you start performing. This will help you be in the zone with your character—making the character someone inside of you and not someone you are trying to emulate outside of you. This kind of preparation not only improves an actor’s performance, but it gives his acting partners something to connect to and interact with. No actor likes a flat partner—it kills the energy.

That said, when you actually start performing, you have to forget everything you just prepared for. It sounds crazy, but that’s what you have to do. If you start thinking about what the character should be doing at a certain time, the scene stops, you lose focus, and you are no longer acting. If you’ve prepared well, the preparation becomes a subconscious part of you, and you draw on it automatically when you’re actually performing.

Think of it this way—you live your whole life being shaped by your family and friends, by learning new things, and by living according to your convictions. But when you’re actually talking to someone, you’re not thinking about how all of your prior experiences shaped you—you’re focused on the other person and reacting to him or her. This kind of reaction is guided by what has shaped you, but it is a subconscious element.

Acting is all about reacting. It’s emotional. Sometimes when you’re acting, you’ll find yourself going somewhere with your character you’ve never been before, but the foundation you built in preparation will support and guide that new direction.

My writing process for CWM had a very similar process. At first I tried to write without having any kind of treatment—without fully investigating a lot of the different questions about characters and plot points. I tried to go straight to performing—to writing a draft. It started to fall apart after a few chapters, because I hadn’t done enough research into where I was going. So, I studied and took notes and explored a lot to put a treatment together.

When I actually started writing, I referred to the treatment, but once I had a general idea of where I was going, I found that the best stuff came when I looked at the treatment and then tried to forget it, letting the little details fall in place organically and spontaneously. I still had a plot structure, but I didn’t think about it as I wrote the real thing. It’s like performing on paper. You need to be prepared, but don’t let it weigh you down when you are writing. If you do, you kill the flow, lose focus, and often have to start over again.

Some of my favorite moments between the characters in the CWM novel have come about without having had any prior thought given to how exactly their interaction would play out. Often new story elements would pop into my mind, but they flourished because they were supported by the underlying preparation I had done before.

If you’ve worked diligently to prepare, you have the luxury of forgetting about the preparation and going with the moment.

It’s as if you got a map of a river and started floating down it. You know where it starts, where it will end, and where all the turns are. You can forget about heading in the wrong direction because you know exactly where it goes. Just enjoy the journey without worrying, riding through eddies, down rapids, and over slow waters. Sometimes you’ll capsize or hit a sandbar, but with a little effort you’re right back in the flow.

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