Online Playgrounds for Copy Editing
I don’t want y’all to worry too much. I still believe what I’ve said previously about punctuation: It serves clarity, voice and story, not rules!
I’m still me. :-)
Several of you (in emails) have mentioned an interest in playing with the quizzes, or doing a quick, interactive review. The first list is a bunch of basics, but useful review.
I find the second list more fun and helpful, but please see the disclaimer.
Here are a few which don’t indicate the stylebook they use (MLA? High-School?):
- Grammar Bytes Exercises: I haven’t had a chance to play here, but it doesn’t say which style it’s using. I’d guess whatever they teach in school. (Isn’t that MLA style?)
- A BBC Comma Tutorial, Game and Quiz
- Power Proofreading: Okay, it’s for kids. But it’s fun. It’s a little useful!
- Guild to Grammar & Writing: LOTS of quizzes! Fun!
- Quizzes: More quizzes, but not much on punctuation. Still, not a bad review.
- English Grammar Online 4U: You have to click on each subsection, and then go to the bottom of the “lesson” to get the quiz.
- Comma Quiz: By a college English teacher.
- Another Comma Quiz
This second list is based on the Associated Press Stylebook. I couldn’t find any based on the Chicago Manual of Style, which is often used more in fiction.
In my own fiction, I tend to use the Chicago Manual of Style, except for the comma. Several e-publishers tend to not use the serial comma and leave a comma out when possible, which is more in alignment with the Associated Press Stylebook. Almost all publishers have different style variations and quirks.
The main difference for fiction writers is quotations. Associated Press would have you put a colon before a quote with more than one sentence. This does not work in fiction, obviously.
The other difference is numbers. Associated Press spells out numbers 1-9, while Chicago spells out numbers 1-100. They both have their special cases, too.
I’m sure there are many other important differences to us, but as long as you keep those things in mind, playing the following exercises should be “safe,” LOL. Personally, I find knowing two different styles helps me know each one better, because knowing how something is different from something else is more than knowing how one thing is.
(Creates more pathways in the brain, you know. That’s a teaching thing.)
Here are some cool places I’ve found:
- NewsU: The “Cleaning Your Copy” course is a fun way to review. It has a pretty format, too. You have to register (for free).
- Newsroom101: This has 2,000 exercises based on the Associated Press Style. They’re funny, because every time you get one right, a little window congratulates you with a different message. It might ask for your username or email address. Either way, you don’t have to register, and they don’t send you email.
- Ten Tips with Exercises: Associated Press Style, again!
Do you remember when I had that awkward moment with one of my pubs over comma usage? Do you remember me pontificating on the merits of “spare” comma usage? Do you remember me calling myself a “spare” comma user? 
(I should mention I ADORE the person who edits. As a person, I think the world of him.) 
And I’ve run out of online quizzes and tests. I WANT TO PLAY! But I must get myself to sleep. 
I love when readers write stories. You find it a lot in erotica, romantica, and fan fiction. These are not professional stories, and I think the majority of them do it for fun, to explore themselves, or to explore a treasured world, and not with any hope of writing professionally. They are often no longer than an email, and usually written in serial, posted to forums, email lists, or fan fiction sites. 
In these amateur stories, you can find your reader’s hopes and dreams. They are usually emotionally transparent, and often, the writer’s heart’s longings are laid bare. 
My point, I guess, is what I always say: treasure the amateur. Respect all fans of writing. Bless, don’t judge. And there’s more than one reason to be grateful for all who write. 
No, this is not a post about how to budget for the self-employed. This is a post asking how to budget for the self-employed. 
Writing seems to be the most steady at the moment. I’m grateful. I just need to write faster and expand into new markets. It’s difficult, because a large part of them have more potential in the long run, but often involve a paycut, or money spread over a long, long time. I generally need the money, so this is a difficult transition for me. 
I went through the Taco Bell drive-through, and when I dug out a handful of change to pay my bill, the teen offered to count it for me. 
About ten minutes later, he came back and told me that no one knew where it could be. 
Ten minutes later, he reports that the manager told him that sometimes the website doesn’t reflect the actual stock of the store. 
We can have shadow goals, too. A goal to get published can be crippled by “I don’t want this sentence to suck.” “I don’t want people to think I’m a terrible writer.” “I don’t want to write a query an agent will make fun of.” 
My first thought was “that’s beautiful!” But when I closed my eyes, I saw my internal editor put a big red line through it. 
What does all this mean? Are we dumbing down our language too much? Are we losing something beautiful in our pursuit of clarity? Is this the beginning of a new trend, of a turning towards more poetic language? Just a coincidence? Is poetic language making a comeback, or is it only reserved for historic events? 
So I was tearing up while I was searching for health insurance, (everything to do with the baby who I haven’t even conceived yet is making me thrilled and emotional) and OH MY GOD where can you get health insurance that includes maternity care? 
I think I’m going to look into the medical savings account thing. This just doesn’t make financial sense to me. It doesn’t compute for me. 
Today we have 
I landed that first agent. Didn't make a sale. Got caught up in the life of a new mother, and kept writing. My characters of Trevor Wolff and Mitchell Voss -- and the various and sundry people who now accompany them across the pages of my blog -- were born months after that first agent and I parted ways. While I'd been creating them, I'd no idea that things had changed. To me, writing a novel meant writing something aimed at mainstream America. The major New York publishing houses. I didn't favor one above the other; frankly, they are all the same in many ways. They put out your book (I've always hoped for trade paperback format. It's my favorite.) and get it into bookstores. If you're lucky, they do publicity and get behind you. You're an author. Done deal. 
I'm usually one to investigate new things. And I did. I checked out the various e-presses and the independent publishing houses, but none of them fit my style. They were too erotic, too mysterious, too edgy and alternative for this metal-head. Even some of my published friends have told me to aim for the biggies. I had an agent agree and offer representation based on the idea that we'd head right to New York. It's where I belonged, she said -- and then she vanished, leaving me alone and not a little bit confused. 
... the last post to emit a large SQUUEEEE! 
First the good news! 
Oh! I almost forgot: I'm in my 4th year of blogging here. This is my 810th post. (Good grief.) 
Sometimes they're just mantras to keep me going when the going gets tough. Y'all know I've got baby fever like I've never had a fever in my life. It's terrible! Somedays I feel like I'm going to burst! 
It's a little odd, though: I have to keep reminding myself to cherish and enjoy those things that I want to do. 
I have become a madwoman. This is really crazy. Okay, several of you are older than me. No one has sat down with me: I need someone to carefully talk me through what is going to happen in the next five or so years. Hormonally. Woman-wise. Insane-wise. Whatever. 
Today, Thursday, I am SO restless, if I had the money, I would start packing RIGHT now and move. Just leave. In fact, we are lucky it's so cold, because otherwise, I'd pack up the tent, put the cats in the Jeep, and live like a hippie for a year. 
Sometimes (rarely), I get irked, like on a professional piano teaching list I'm on, they are SO Christian as to sort of assume everyone else must be Christian and it's the only way to be unless something is wrong with you, in which case you must be converted. I'm cool with offering prayers, but praising God and Jesus and attaching bible verses and such on a professional list, gets on my nerves every now and then. 
It made me think of this man I discussed gay marriage with, and he had the same attitude about gay sex. He didn't see the love; he just saw something sick. I don't know how the LGBT community deals with that everyday. 
So about this idea a day thing, it's odd. On the days when I'm struck by an inspiring idea, my ideas are nothing as great as the days when I must manually craft one. I'm also doing a pitch paragraph a week, and so far, I love both of my storylines, so it's going to be hard to choose which one to explore this month for three chapters. Even harder to decide which novel I'm going to write in March. 
But then I sort of forgot what I want my current WIP to say. I guess not, but kind of. Once I decide, I let it sit in my subconscious, I guess. 
I'm of the kitchen sink religion, but mostly it's a conglomerate of Wiccan, pagan, and Catholic spirituality, with whatever else inspires me thrown in. When I was sick, I needed something a little more proactive than the beatitudes to get me through. Spells do the trick for me. 
We discuss twins. I know they're not passed through the father's side, but I figure: he had twins (they died in a car crash years and years ago), and his father had multiple sets of twins and triplets. So maybe they have really strong, ambitious fishies? I want three, at least. Given the lifestyle we're planning on leading, I want them to have each other. 
And then I tell it all the things I'm doing this year to save up for them, financially. I tell it of my goals, and how I'm eating right and doing yoga. I tell it I will treat my body like a temple. 
I was thinking how nice it would be to just curl up on the couch with hot chocolate and soup and watch movies all day. But I've got work to do. 
I have one all-time favorite reader. Of course, she doesn't know it, and you know, I figure that'd be a weird thing to tell someone, right? 
Man, I used to get SO mad at myself after I received her emails. I swear, I'd sit down with my next WIP and work so hard to get it right, to not let my readers down. To this day, I still think of her every time I edit. 
I don't like to let my readers down. I can be annoying and cocky as any other writer, I'm sure, but I can't think of anything I feel more deeply as I feel the dismay at letting down someone who bothers to read my stuff. 
I guess I'm a-ramblin' today. I guess y'all know I've just hit about the 3/4 mark in the WIP, which is typically when I completely unravel and freak out and become convinced I'm' actually getting worse. 
When I was young, I had a little purplish book, smaller than a normal paperback--but thicker--called The Pilgrim's Progress. I'm fairly certain this was not the real Pilgrim's Progress, because the protagonist, Christian, was a child in my memory, and I remember every chapter had an accompanying sketch. 
I'm super good at Phase 2 and 3. Expert. :-) 
I'm with 
Then with this follow feature, it's terrible, because I figure the people following the fascinating blog I've just discovered will be just as interesting! And off I go! And in a matter of a half hour, I have fifteen new blogs in my reader and blogroll. 
