Editing

So where are we now? What's next?

Archer of the Lake's draft is finished.  I never 'officially' shared that here, but approximately ten minutes after one in the afternoon on June the 11th, I officially completed writing my first book. That was a rather large milestone for me.  I'm still in shock.

So then I asked for people to edit, all the while spending time since then sluggishly reading through the manuscript to make my own cursory edits.  Mostly typos and basic syntax.  Yesterday I finished doing that, and last night I sent the manuscript to several peers--fifteen exactly--for them to read.  They will be looking for typos, syntax, and content. I will, hopefully if everyone participates, have the opinion of fifteen people on my book. Nerve racking. I was rather paranoid before hitting "send" when Boyfriend and Best Friend insisted I should not trust everyone I've sent it to.  They think someone will have the propensity to steal my work, so I took extra measures in case someone decides to maliciously do this. I don't think anyone will.  I hope not at least.

So now, I'm stuck in a rather odd situation.  At the moment, there's nothing for me to do with Archer.  There's no writing to be done, currently, or editing on my behalf.  There's just waiting, and that's strange because I feel as though I should be doing something.

When I do begin getting the feedback of my editors, I'll start making my gruesome edits.  And I'm hoping I won't have to dismember my baby TOO much.

Then at work I had this frightening realization. That people were actually reading my book. MY book. People are going to be reading my book and they may hate it or they may like.  They will have an opinion of it and they will know the characters I've spent the last year and a half creating.  And that's scary.  It makes me feel so exposed.

But there are plenty of other things I can busy myself with.  I've just begun drafting Runewell, and I have to say I'm relieved that Myria is turning out to be a different person than Caelfel.  (Main character in Runewell and Archer, respectively).  This is a fear I've always had.  That I would get accused of the "Mary-Sue", lookalike characters.  But I believe there's quite a bit of distinction.  So far.  I've not yet reached my first 1k word mark yet.  But it's outlined.

Then I had a dream, three days after completing Archer, and it inspired me to write another book.  I won't say much, because I don't want to promise something I won't deliver.  But this prospective story is currently titled Mute and it has a post-apocalyptic, almost steampunk setting for the scenario.  I will share a Facebook status I composed the morning after said dream:

I had a dream last night and it inspired me to write a story involving a philosophical and applicable comparison between Christianity and eastern schools of thinking.

I've made a rather basic outline for this one too, already have the names of the three most important characters down.  I feel that this will probably be the most meaningful of all my projects.  It'll be dark, rife with physical abuse and depression.  But it's important.  I really want to write it.  I don't suspect (or at least hope) that Runewell will take long.  And then there's a project after Mute, but I won't say much on that.

And now.  While there's nothing to do and I wait for Boyfriend to get home, I've suddenly found myself approaching another Phantom of the Opera kick.  The last time this happened, I watched my copy of the movie four times a week for at least eight months.  Seriously.

SOMEONE BRING ME PHANTOM.

Why Foreign Language Majors Are Better Writers

Normally, when you have any writer, prospective or professional, they chose to earn their Bachelor's degree (if they do go to college) in either English, Literature, or Creative Writing.  I was no exception, of course. My intended major was English.  I had to change it, though, just before graduation in order to have enough credits to graduate. So I earned my Associate of Art with an emphasis in Foreign Language.  Perhaps this blog post is a continuing defense of this decision (which is silly to think I need to defend a decision to graduate junior college), but it was  agonizing to not be able to present myself as an English major.  There's a certain air about English majors that automatically allows people to determine what sort of person you are.

Shortly after this decision the Boyfriend, Donobob (okay, so that's not his real name), and I had dinner with his family.  I spoke to his mom about my change to a Foreign Language, and being her usual endearing self, she turned excitedly animated about all the possible decisions open for me as Foreign Language major.  I became excited in turn, and she made a comment about how I had a penchant for languages.

And I realized she was right.

I believe the biggest problem I had with being a Foreign Language was not being an English major anymore. But in all honesty, I am damn good with languages.  I excelled in my Latin, German, and French classes.  And I slowly came to realize something.  As a scholar of foreign languages, I could become a better writer.

English majors write papers, read ancient and contemporary literature, and write more papers.  At first glance, this could seem ideal for the writer, but, what about reading and writing?  You read well-established works continually processed by students year by year.  Yeah, there was probably something special about it to make it worthy for study in the first place, but as a writer, what do you take from it?  You only learn a certain style of writing, and honestly, the only thing special about that writing style above others is the preference of one professor.  You learn recycled styles, and while useful to writing, it does not build on your individual style. Paper writing doesn't either.  You just analyze something that's been analyzed countless times before while simultaneously draining the will to write.  In turn, you lose the motivation to write creatively.

On the other hand, Foreign Language majors who are writers will typically read anyway.  Writers read, and that's just a fact.  To read you need to write.  Only, since you're not required to dedicate hours to required reading in the English classes, you have more time to read the books you want to read, not just the dry stuffiness of Tess of the D'Urbervilles (I am sorry, but I did NOT like that book).

Meanwhile, your scholarly time is devoted to something useful--the building blocks of language.

“Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own.”  
--Johann Wolfgang con Goethe

And Goethe's quote above is a perfect example why.  Unless you've studied foreign languages, you probably wouldn't understand what Goethe means.  I've studied three.  I'm quite fluent in the world of grammar, but to fully realize its application, one would have to be familiar with the mechanics of a language other than English.  It's important.  Becoming familiar with the structure firsthand allows for an improvement in understanding the structure of one's own writing.  I can and do attest to this.

Foreign languages also help with vocabulary, understanding the roots of words, cognates from other languages.  It helps with deciding the appropriate word.  Not only that, but if you're writing something to be translated, while you're writing and thinking of basic structure, you can train yourself to write material that is more adaptable for other languages.  There is rarely perfect translations for anything, but, as a writer, if you make the job easier to translate, it helps with widening your market for potential international readers.

Overall, it's just a good idea.  And now, back to editing.