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[CLASSICAL MUSIC]
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There's something
called completion fear.
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Completion fear is, I'm afraid
to finish it because what
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if it's not any good?
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And you can get stuck
in that for some time.
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And here I just say, barrel
on through, get it done,
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and then you can see whether
it's-- what else it might need.
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And remember, you
can always revise.
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And remember, you
can always revise.
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If you need a
different sofa, you
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can have a different
sofa, because nobody's
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going to see that until
you allow them to.
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So overcome your completion
fear and just finish.
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What do you do next?
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Pretend you're a reader.
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Start on the first page--
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is it a good enough first
page to hold your attention?
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Are you going to
turn the page or not?
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If the answer is not, you
need a different beginning.
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So revision means re-vision--
you're seeing it anew,
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So revision means re-vision--
you're seeing it anew,
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and quite frequently
when you're doing
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that, you see possibilities
that you didn't
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see before and that light
up parts of the book
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in a way that
wouldn't have happened
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if you hadn't done that.
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So seeing the book anew,
seeing into the book.
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More questioning yourself--
why did this person do that?
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So why else did they do that?
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So why else did they do that?
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And why else, in addition
to that, did they do that?
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[CLASSICAL MUSIC]
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Once you feel there's
nothing else that can--
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that you can do to your
manuscript to improve it,
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that's when you need to hand
it to an outside observer.
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What I like to have is people
who are dedicated readers,
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but who are not in the
publishing business.
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You want somebody who can-- who
can give you a true opinion,
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You want somebody who can-- who
can give you a true opinion,
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and it's better if
it isn't your spouse.
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You don't want to have any
of those frosty silences
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over the breakfast
table, and you also
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don't want to have put themsel--
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them into that position.
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So it should be somebody
outside, not somebody
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who's in an agent or a
publisher position towards you,
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but who is a dedicated reader.
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That's the best, and that
allows you to step back,
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That's the best, and that
allows you to step back,
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it allows you to see it through
the eyes of another person.
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If there's something that
you thought was quite clear
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but they find unintelligible,
they will tell you that.
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If there is a piece
of information missing
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that they felt they
really needed to know,
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they will tell you that.
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They will also tell you,
this chapter is too long.
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Or, you already said that,
or, I got it the first time.
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There's only one real question--
is it alive or is it dead?
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There's only one real question--
is it alive or is it dead?
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And anything else can be fixed.
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The best thing is, how
quickly did you read it?
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If the answer is, I
couldn't put it down,
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then you're in really
pretty good shape.
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If the answer is two years,
something needs to be done.
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It's always a good idea to
have more than one person.
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So Person A may say this,
Person B may say that,
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So Person A may say this,
Person B may say that,
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and you consider.
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But-- but if they're
wrong, you will probably
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know it, depending, of
course, on how pig-headed
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and set in your ways you are.
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But just remember, when
push comes to shove,
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the buck stops with
you, so whoever's advice
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you may have taken, wherever
alterations may have been made,
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what is on that page is going
to be considered your work.
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what is on that page is going
to be considered your work.
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[HARP MUSIC]
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The final stages of revision
are about texture and--
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and the-- the little things, the
punctuation marks, the grammar.
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Much arm wrestling goes on
between me and the line editor
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about semi-colons.
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We horse trade-- she'll
give me that semi-colon
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if I will change this
other thing to an en dash.
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if I will change this
other thing to an en dash.
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Too many semi-colons,
it gets repetitious.
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I-- I-- I understand that, I'm
just a bit addicted to them.
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Read your text out loud.
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You will find things,
you will see things,
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you will catch things that
you wouldn't if you're just
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sticking to the--
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the eye.
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What you're aiming
for is the text
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that you can then
print out and revise
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and edit on the page, which
is the best way of doing it.
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And the really best way
of doing your line editing
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And the really best way
of doing your line editing
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is with a ruler.
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So you have the page and
you move down line by line,
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and that way you
can spot mistakes,
100
00:05:11,250 --> 00:05:14,110
doubled words,
that sort of thing.
101
00:05:14,110 --> 00:05:16,930
But while you're doing
that on the page it's ha--
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it's useful to have a digital
copy that you can search.
103
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The thing about digital copies
is that they're can put in--
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you can put in find and
you can check that word
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you can put in find and
you can check that word
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to see how many times
it might have appeared
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in the manuscript, if at all.
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Not always so easy
to remember when
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you're dealing with 400 pages.
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[CLASSICAL MUSIC]
111
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This is "Oryx and Crake."
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It's in page
proofs, so these are
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the kinds of things that the
publisher will send you right
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before they go to
print and submit.
115
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It's your last chance
of fixing things.
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It's your last chance
of fixing things.
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And I do the manuscript editing
and the page proof editing
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with a line editor, and
we sit beside each other
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at a table like this and
we turn the pages in sync,
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and she makes
notations on her pages
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and I make the same
notations on mine,
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so we know we've
got the same thing.
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And she is a person
who counts things,
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and you really need
a person like that.
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and you really need
a person like that.
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So in "Oryx and
Crake," she said,
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you sent Jimmy
Snowman out on a quest
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and he's got five
Joltbars, five energy bars.
129
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And he eats one of them
here, one of them here,
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one of them here, one of
them here, one of them here,
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and one of them here.
132
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So you either have
to give him one more
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or he has to eat one fewer.
134
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And such a person is
very, very necessary,
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And such a person is
very, very necessary,
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because someone will
notice and they'll
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write you that letter
that begins "You idiot."
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So a person who counts--
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you really need that person.
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So those are the
kinds of things--
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which way does the traffic go
around the Queen's Park circle
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in Toronto?
143
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I had it going
around the wrong way.
144
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That's what a good
editor is for.
145
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And they will even say
things like, there isn't
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a phone booth on that corner.
147
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a phone booth on that corner.
148
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But I will be able
to say, because I've
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used a good researcher,
but there was in 1976.
150
00:07:44,200 --> 00:07:46,470
So these things will
happen, you just
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need to be prepared for them.
152
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There's a website now
devoted to anachronisms
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in novels about clothing.
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You can do this
research, and then you
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will avoid the "you
idiot" letters.
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will avoid the "you
idiot" letters.
12049
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