REVISION AND SUBMISSION
by
H. E. SMITH
After spending an enormous amount of time slaving away at the computer,
risking ergonomic injury in order to get the work in progress (WIP)
finished (at last), the first thing most writers want to do is print
out their spoiled eighteen-year-old with an attitude the size of Texas
and ship it off to the nearest editor. Sure, after investing hours of
work, listening to the WIP's cries and demands, who wouldn't want the brat out
of the house?
Hey. Not so fast. It's not that simple. The first thing you should do
is wait. Yes, I said wait.
That means print out the manuscript (or leave it on the computer, if
that's easier) and stash it away in a drawer somewhere for a couple of
weeks (this varies by person; some need only a couple of days and
others need months). During this time period, do whatever you want --
take a vacation, hold a party during your normal writing hours, or get
to work on the next story/novel.
At the end of these two weeks, get your manuscript out of the drawer
and read it front to back. Be prepared: it will not look anywhere near as
"perfect" as it did when you finished it. In fact, you might even
wonder, How the hell did I
ever think this was any good?
This is the time for revision. Read through your manuscript and mark
plot holes, clichés, character stupidities (i.e., where the only
thing keeping the story going is the characters acting like idiots),
inconsistencies, and so on, and fix them. For this article, let's
assume that your manuscript has a minimal number of those problems.
Once you've fixed them, read the manuscript again -- aloud. This time,
you're reading for basic style, word choice, and spelling/grammar
errors. Even if you are completely positive that there are no
spelling/grammar errors, do it. I guarantee it; you will be amazed at
how many things you've caught -- especially spelling
miss-steaks. There are a lot of things spell-checkers won't catch,
especially if you type fast. When I type fast, I have a tendency to
transpose letters--usually the checker will catch them, but not all the
time. For example, I often mistype "bear" as "bare," and vice-versa.
Now, an editor will assume that you don't know how to use the word
properly, and this will not act in your favor.
Also, sometimes the keyboard won't register a keystroke; I've had many
inadvertent gender-changes ("she" to "he") that way. But the worst
result of a lost keystroke was when I meant to type "Her heart jumped
into her throat"; instead, it came out as "Her hart jumped into her
throat." The two are not quite synonymous...
Okay, so the spell-checker sucks -- what about the grammar checker?
I hate to break it to you, but the grammar checker is even more
unreliable than the spell-checker. If you have a good grasp of English
grammar, it's a good supplement for the things you don't catch, but if
not, you're better off without it. (If you don't know English grammar,
buy a copy of Strunk and
White's Elements of Style, or find it on the Internet -- now.)
Seriously, the grammar checkers are no good if you don't know grammar
well enough to recognize when it's
wrong. Here are some examples of "incorrect" grammar, according to Word
2000, and the recommended fixes:
"Yes, Father," Julienne replied
obediently, while inwardly snarling. (Word 2000: Should have a
comma after "Julienne.")
She stopped
for a moment as the Duke's voice rose an octave. (Word 2000:
"Rose" should be "raised.")
If it
wouldn't have caused such a huge scandal, she would've worn one of her
mother's gowns. (Word 2000: "Have" should be "had.")
"Shouldn't--argue--with--my--betters?"
Sirola repeated, ... getting angrier and angrier as she accentuated
each and every word with painful accuracy. (Word 2000: "With"
should be "at.")
(Now for the best...)
With that,
she stepped around the bench and was about to dart for the door when
Aarmin caught her arm and swirled her around so their bodies touched.
(Word 2000: "Their" should be "there.")
All of these supposed "corrections," had I used them, would've made my
manuscript so grammatically incorrect that it probably would've been
rejected out of hand. This was by no means a comprehensive list...these
all were the best from two chapters in a single manuscript.
In an ideal world, editors would be kind and forgiving towards human
and computer error. Most are, to a certain extent, but they are also
quite swamped. They don't have the time to wade through a typo-ridden,
grammatically incorrect manuscript. Check your manuscript thoroughly
before submission. Reading it aloud is the best way to ensure that
you've eliminated most errors. Maybe you won't catch every single one
of them, but at least you'll have cut them down tremendously.
Okay -- you've checked your manuscript and have fixed plot problems,
inconsistencies, and spelling and grammar errors. Now what? Well, you
can do one of two things. You can wait another two weeks and check the
manuscript again (do I hear a groan?), or you can prepare it for
submission.
First of all, choose the publisher you want to submit it to and find
their guidelines (which will usually be on their website; if not, try
places like Writer's Digest
or Ralan's Webstravaganza for
speculative fiction). Pay attention to them! If they say "No
Talking Computer Stories," and yours is about a talking computer, this
is not the place to send it. Some of the guidelines will note their
preferred manuscript format; follow it. If they want you to send the
story on pink and purple striped paper written in 8-pt. script with a
dot-matrix printer, do it. Most publishers, however, will take one look
at the above-mentioned formatting and reject it. If there is no mention
in the guidelines about a preferred format, use standard manuscript
format.
What
is standard manuscript format, anyway?
Generally, your manuscript should be double-spaced in 12 point Courier
or Courier New font. Some publishers don't mind fonts like Arial or
Times New Roman, but Courier New is the standard and, to the best of my
knowledge, will be accepted by everyone. Print on only one side of the
page (and use white paper; bright colors are hard on the editor's
eyes).
DON'T:
- ...Submit a handwritten story, no matter how
legible; it may have been acceptable once, but with the advent of the
personal computer, editors are no longer willing to strain their eyes
in attempt to read someone's handwritten manuscript. If you don't have
a computer, ask a friend who does if you could type it up on hers and
print it. Or check around town -- most libraries have computers
now, and so do many community colleges.
- ...Use "script" or "novelty" fonts -- these may
look good on the screen, but they're as bad as handwriting for the
editor.
- ...Double-space the manuscript by adding an
extra space after word. Double-spacing is when you have an empty space
between each line of prose. It's a feature usually found under
"paragraph" and "line spacing" in MS Word.
- ...Staple your story together; use paperclips.
- ...Send your manuscript in a Pampers box
liberally dusted with baby powder; it's been done (and it wasn't that
original to begin with).
- ...Send money. The editor, if honest, will just
send it back; if he's not honest, he'll just write and ask you for more
(can you spell "s-c-a-m"?).
- ...Send pictures of yourself. The editor
doesn't need to know how drop-dead gorgeous, or vice versa, you are;
the only thing that matters is the story.
- ...Say that your story is the greatest ever,
that it'll make the editor rich, that you're the next Hemingway, etc.,
in the cover letter. It just makes you sound like a babbling buffoon.
A lot of writers confuse novel cover letters with short story cover
letters, and will send a synopsis for a short story. Do not do this!
There are many great articles on cover letters on the Internet, and
they're not hard to find. Speculations
and SFWA are good places to start,
although they're mostly geared towards speculative fiction writers.
They also have some more extensive articles on standard manuscript
format, if you need more information.
Well, now that you've proofread your manuscript and formatted it
properly, you're ready to go. Paperclip the hummer together, slap it in
the manila envelope with a cover letter and an SASE, toss some stamps
on, and head for the mailbox.
Originally published in Holly Lisle's VISION, issue #9.
Copyright © H. E. Smith, 2002.
All rights reserved.
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