By David Cartwright
So, you like to read, do you? That’s how it starts. Then you get that itch, maybe it’s a new take on an old story, a continuation, or maybe it’s fanfic, but the urge to lay down a story of your own takes hold. Maybe you never do anything with it, maybe you jot down a few pages or maybe you hammer out an entire novel that never sees the light of day (the so-called ‘Trunk Novel’).
Now stop, wait right there. There are hundreds of programmes, services and groups offering services to improve your writing, refine your prose and etcetera ad nauseam and, if you want to go further, you will want to make sure that your manuscript is the best it can be but you still want it to be yours.
The first rule is, the work is yours and no grammar program, no writing circle, no editor has a right to change it. Copy edit is *so* important, if editors or readers are stumbling over errors in spelling and grammar they will stop reading, but how those words are picked and arranged is down to you. One of the big problems I have with the so-called writing programmes that ‘suggest’ improvements is that, if you listen to every suggestion, your story just reads like every other story that used the writing program to help.
For a similar reason I don’t join writing circles, I don’t write by committee (I know others for whom the support is invaluable and I laud that). I can and do take advice from people close to me, usually on topics of LGBTQ+ and disability representation, and cultural/ethnic sensitivity. Some themes are just too important to get wrong and, if it’s not your experience, you’re going to need some help.
The hardest one is, if you get that contract and go through the editorial process. It’s easy to look at adjusting a manuscript for public consumption as diluting it. Not every publisher wants a controversy provoking, punk, cynical satire that’s going to inflame any of the many ongoing social issues alight in our world today. If you think my first trilogy Camelot 2050, a chivalry-punk piece of futurism based on an extension of the Arthurian tradition, isn’t a poke at the porcine powers-that-be and their blatant disregard for the duty and authority with which they are charged, you’re very wrong. Likewise my zombie horror/isekai Litrpg Rendered Flesh is rooted in the socio-political commentary traditions of the best of the genre, and my latest piece, Riding the E-Rail is a gender-fluid, post evil-empire, cheerfully nihilistic space adventure. I do commentary, even if it’s not immediately apparent.
Now, originality isn’t always going to reach the audience via traditional publishing. The staid establishment is always looking for “The Next…” (Twilight, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones *le Sigh*) so the likelihood of them taking a risk on anything new is slim. Each of the properties above was pushed because it was built on a well established market.
The important thing to remember is that, if the editor presses to ‘tone down’ or ‘rework’ something that you feel is central to your message you can say “No.” Don’t let the thrill of relief of having a contract compromise the integrity of your work.
Now you’ve established the rules, you learn how to break them.
Let the program pick over your grammar, punctuation and spelling, but choosing between a succinct or verbose sentence, flowery prose or matter-of-fact is your choice. Also remember that Dialogue is a place to break the rules and the bot can’t always help you with that.
Take advice you trust, art isn’t formed in a vacuum and, being subjective, it’s always a good idea to seek a different perspective to make sure your point is coming across how you want it to.
When you get an Agent/Editor listen to their advice and then think about what you want. Do you want to sell books? Or do you want to sell them to the right audience? Both are valid but remember, most authors don’t make a living wage off their work, most have day jobs too. Also, the best advertising is word of mouth, two-hundred sales who like your book isn’t as good as twenty who *love* it.
David Cart-Writer 