Have the guts to write, the smarts to edit

Posted on July 29, 2012 by moonbridgebooks

I finished editing a memoir this past week and celebrated. Celebrated my job being done, but also celebrated the writer, a woman whose native language is not English. Astonishing to me, her spelling was near perfect, better than Spellcheck, which, as you should know, doesn’t account for usage in its basic version. (Spellcheck thinks blue is fine when the word should be blew.)

I was very impressed by this woman who wanted to write about her life lessons, mainly for her children, but I know her friends will enjoy them, too. Even I did, and I am a stranger. She had the guts to set aside any fears of inadequacy and write. And she had the smarts to hire an editor. I told her not to worry about all the redlines, and that even the best writers need editors. Even editors need editors!

Before hiring an editor, it is wise and cost-effective to do as much editing as you can on your own. I advise you to turn on more options for Spellcheck. For the newer versions of Word, you can click on the File tab at the top left of your page, then click on Options, which might be under Help. Under the Proofing tab you can click on all sorts of options: check contextual spelling, mark grammar errors, check readability. You can also have it flag repeated words, which is a good idea, especially for people with habit words they like to use all the time.

You may also choose Auto Format options under the Proofing tab. Particularly useful are to replace straight quotes (“) with smart quotes (“) and replace double hyphens (hyphen hyphen) with what’s called an em dash, which is proper in books and looks like this:  He bolted—did he know it was me? (Note no blank spaces around the dash.) If you don’t like the looks of an em dash, you can type space-hyphen-space followed by a word to create a shorter dash (the n dash), which looks like this:  He bolted – did he know it was me? Keep in mind all the professionally done books use the em dash.

Whatever you do to make the editor’s job easier should reflect on the cost of the job, so it’s in your best interest to at least try to tidy things up before emailing to an editor. It is also advisable to get beta readers, which are test readers who enjoy reading your genre and who won’t be afraid to tell you what they think—nicely, of course! And if they can help you with spelling, grammar, and punctuation, all the better.

For tips on formatting your MS Word document for Amazon’s CreateSpace or subsidy publishers like Lulu.com, see my Resources page on this website to find the Design & Layout article. To format professionally, you’ll need to find someone who uses a publishing software program such as Adobe InDesign.

Posted in writing | Tagged | 8 Comments

Garage sale of memories

Posted on July 22, 2012 by moonbridgebooks

My church is having its annual “garage” sale next weekend and I’ve been very busy going through the house top to bottom, finding a lot of STUFF to get rid of. I put on my ruthless gloves and whatever they touched, out it went. Except it’s SO HARD! Yes, I know I’m yelling. And I know everyone reading this understands.

Why is it so hard to get rid of things you never use, have outgrown, don’t like, or are tired of looking at? The answer is memories. I still have the flowery cotton summer dress I’ll never fit into again that I wore in photos taken with my firstborn. I have my mother’s peach silk-chanteuse dress she was married in (I’ll never fit in that, either). There’s the Fitz and Floyd parrot luncheon plates I’m tired of using for twenty years (but my stepmom gave them to me!). The wooden painted cats from Hawaii (that’s how I remember my Hawaii trip twenty-two years ago!). Ugh.

My stepmom came to town for a visit and I told her I was weeding out my possessions for the big garage sale. She, who just rented out space for a sales booth to fill with her unwanteds, understood. She said, “Well, you’re welcome to throw out anything I gave you if you’re tired of it. I hope you don’t mind if I do the same for anything you gave me.” I threw the cloak of guilt off my shoulders as I thought of those parrot dishes.

I have a whole lot of garbage bags, paper bags, plastic bags, and cardboard boxes bursting with stuff, stacked in the basement ready to go. Today I took one carload to the church. I need to make a second trip, but the basement looks like nothing was taken and I see plenty of decorator items still on the shelf spaces. I feel ill.

I want to go all sparse Japanese-style like you see in fancy magazines. Sadly, my Japanese mom did not raise me right. Instead, I grew up with American clutter and have a huge collection of Japanese stuff to boot. It’s just too hard to part with the stuff of memories! And heritage, in my case. But, the cats are in a box for the church, and the parrot plates are packed away in the basement because my college girl wants them in her future. And next year I will have another carload of memory stuff to go to the church.

Posted in memories | 4 Comments

Slices of Life memoir writing with Cheryl Stahle

Posted on July 15, 2012 by moonbridgebooks

I invited freelance writer Cheryl Butler Stahle to guest post on my blog today about how she found her passion for memoir. I discovered Cheryl on memoir-writer Sonia Marsh’s Gutsy Indie Publishers Facebook group, an informative and supportive group for authors on the self-publishing journey. Cheryl is the founder of Your Best Writing Group, where she specializes in “finding the tiny gems of life and polishing them into vibrant stories.” She creates writing workshops for school kids and for adults, and insists, “YOU have a story to tell.”
* * * * *

Would’ve…Should’ve…DID!

You should write a book. How many times have I heard that over the past 20 years? Granted my life has certainly had twists and turns, but interesting? Not really. My day-to-day existence is quite simple:  teacher of at-risk high schoolers; adoptive parent; writer; midlife divorcee; recipient of not one but two economy-based layoffs; work-aholic. And, least I forget, that whole ugly incident in February when I shattered my foot rappelling in Costa Rica. OK, so maybe there is a story or two in there, but none quite ready to fall onto paper.

I have fulfilled my desire to write by publishing magazine articles, hosting a blog, and writing the hometown hero column in a monthly online magazine. Pieces of my life have appeared in articles and blogs. Apparently my adventures are pretty comical based upon what readers share.

Many of my published stories focus on my adopted son, Joshua, and our adventures as a mother/son pair. Finally becoming a mother was when I embraced my love of memoir writing. I traveled to Russia in 1996, landing right in the middle of the Soviet military machine to bring a sickly baby to the U.S. Our trip involved AK-47s, screaming Russian border agents (I still can’t understand Russian even when you yell at me), a Rottweiler, and “pimping out” a hunky U.S. police officer traveling with us to a female-staffed KGB office in exchange for expedited visas. We maneuvered through a rule-less system relying on sheer wit in order to adopt.

Most importantly, through this experience I learned to smile when scared to death and survive when completely out of my element. I also found resilience tucked away inside of me. These life lessons have appeared in my memoir vignettes time and time again. The resilience of people fascinates me, especially when they turn very simple moments into something life altering.

Over fifteen years ago I began working as an English teacher at an urban high school with at-risk teenagers. You know these kids, the ones you cross the street to avoid when paths pass at night. I certainly had an eye-opening experience those first few years in the classroom, but once my street cred grew, the kids started talking. I became the student as they taught this sheltered, middle-class, white yuppie a thing or two about real life and survival.

While I could get the kids to talk, transferring their stories into writing became a challenge, but once a tale landed on paper, it lasted forever. These stories were too precious to lose so capturing them became my mission. First, I created a series of activities to entice students’ words onto paper. I layered the prompts with different challenges and levels of difficulty. The activities touched upon all aspects of life from family, self-identity, childhood and dreams. I learned which activities worked and which ones didn’t, so after a decade or so of teaching, crafting student memoirs became a district-wide project for all students from the youngest to the oldest.

Seeing the excitement from my kiddos year after year nudged me back into the adult world where I started running memoir-writing groups and workshops. Adults have stories to tell too! So when asked again to write a book, the one that landed on paper is my newest release Slices of Life:  The Art and Craft of Memoir Writing, published by 10 Keys Publishers. This how-to guide leads readers down a path to tell their life stories.

With this book now off the launching pad, I am focusing on my next writing adventure:  one of my many slices of life.

* * * * *
Thanks, Cheryl, for this inspiring piece of life writing. Cheryl and I have something in common: our love of memoir-writing came from encouraging others to write their “everyday” amazing stories.

Slices of Life:  the Art and Craft of Memoir Writing is available at Cheryl Stahle’s website as well as on Amazon. Find Cheryl’s adventures on FaceBook at Your Best Writing Group or by following her on Twitter. She still teaches English, and she runs writing groups helping authors of all ages and abilities capture life stories.

Posted in lifewriting, memoir writing | Tagged | 2 Comments