I’m twelve hours into editing Technical Magic, the sci fi novel(s) by my cousin Robert M. Brantner.
I’m loving this millennia-spanning, edge-of-your-seat story. It’s even hard to take a respectable break because I want to know what happens NEXT.
Brantner is a helluva good storyteller!
I have not read this entire manuscript ahead of time. I never do. I don’t read manuscripts ahead of time, other than the first chapter to determine the editing help required so I can send a decent estimate of the time it will take and the total estimated cost.
Why?
Because I want to experience it the first time I go through it as a reader would. This way, when I see something that throws me out of the story or leaves me thinking, Huh?!” I catch it right away.Then I can either get clarification from the author, or I can fix it on the spot because I understand what’s communicated but it’s too verbose (or something else) to advance the story in a straightforward, more captivating way.
Doing it this way also keeps me interested and intrigued as an editor. That’s because if I already know how a story ends, I’m less inclined to want to give it my all as I edit because the magic and mystery of discovery are gone.
IN THE SAME VEIN…
I never outlined the fiction stories I wrote as a kid because I didn’t want to know how they ended until the characters told/showed me. I’d write them into perilous predicaments and then wait for them to figure out how to get out of it.
The Muse is very real, as anyone who is a fiction writer knows. We are vessels, channelers, not the “originators.” The origin comes from somewhere else.
It’s all very woo woo-sounding, isn’t it? But, to be sure, not all fiction writers tackle story writing the way I do — I suspect Bob doesn’t tackle his in this way — and it always amazes to me to see how someone else does it, especially as well as he does it.
VERY FEW HICCUPS/ HEAD SCRATCHERS IN BOB’S MANUSCRIPT SO FAR
In the 52 pages I’ve edited so far (ten hours’ work), I’ve only run across three head-scratchers. I’ve highlighted them in red font and placed a big red BOB beside them. This way, when Bob gets the manuscript back weekly, he can run a simple Find “Bob” search in Word and quickly find the spots that need clarification.
As mentioned in yesterday’s blog post, I’m finding the same anomalies found in most not-yet-edited manuscripts. In Bob’s case, he takes the scenic route with a great many sentences, which is okay when the extra verbiage is worth the trek. But in most cases, it isn’t. So, I end up shortening sentences to their essences, which makes them more digestible and engaging.
KILLING THE DARLINGS
I think at least 30,000 words will end up coming out of the finished version. The original version is 186,000 words long. That’s why I’ve convinced Bob to separate the manscript into Book I and Book II. Sci fi books rarely exceed 70,000 to 80,000 words, and splitting this mammoth masterpiece into two will also double his income to help compensate him for the massive effort and time he poured into writing it.
Bob thinks Book I will be the longer of the two, at 120,000 words. But since I’m truncating a great many sentences, if it comes in at 100K words afterward, it will be just under the wire for a single sci-fi tome. And it’s a good place for the separation, too, because Book I takes place a loooooonnnnnggg time ago (it’s a time travel story) and Book II happens during a future epoch entirely, but with the same crew, from what I surmise right now.
What I know for sure already is this is a good’un! I can seriously envision it being made into a motion picture if he can land a professional, well-regarded literary agent who can put the manuscript through its paces to find (in order) the right publisher/screenwriter/ producer/director and cast.
