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The Saga of the Adverb-Finder Thingy

by Harvey on May 20, 2013

Hey Folks,

A correspondent on a ListServ I used to attend regularly wrote that she was searching for the name of “a bit of editing software that would highlight all adverbs if you typed search adverbs or all verbs if you typed search verbs.” Hackles rose on my neck. Here we are, back to the topic that won’t die: the dumbing down of America.

This is a writer’s slippery slope. Searching for, finding, installing and using software that highlights all adverbs put the writer a tempting single click away from deleting all adverbs. And that’s just plain silly. I strongly advise against such software, even if you can find it. Here, if you believe perhaps you’re using too many adverbs, follow these two simple guidelines. The third point is a tidbit of important parenthetical information (and no, parenthetical information doesn’t have to be enclosed in parentheses):

  1. Never use an adverb in a tag line (the bit of he said, she said narrative that doesn’t make sense by itself and is most often attached to the dialogue with a comma). If the narrator has described the scene well enough, you won’t need adverbs in tag lines.
  2. Use only strong action verbs in your narrative sentences. This will cause all unnecessary adverbs and adjectives to fall away of their own accord. If you use only strong action verbs, you will consciously select only necessary adverbs and adjectives to modify the picture you’re placing in the reader’s mind. Again, this will occur naturally. It’s as easy as falling off a stack of platitudes.
  3. Despite what some folks say, not every word that ends in “ly” is an adverb. For example, the widely misused “likely” is an adjective that is synonymous with “probable,” not an adverb that’s synonymous with “probably.”

English just isn’t a one-rule-fits-all language, despite the wisdom of Mark Twain, who once wrote that when you find an adverb you should kill it, and despite the well-meaning intent of wannabe writing instructors who tell their charges to use no more than three (or five or some other arbitrary number) of exclamation points per page. I’ve heard similar advice concerning the use of em dashes (long dashes) and colons and semicolons. And of course we’ve all been taught that hunting season never closes on state-of-being verbs or “had” or gerunds, which many alleged writing instructors call “ing words,” because those three word-types cause passive voice. Of course, they’re wrong again. State-of-being verbs by themselves do not cause passive voice, and neither the word “had” nor those pesky “ing words” are within a thousand mles of having anything to do with passive voice.

Although it’s true that adverbs can clutter up your writing, some adverbs in some situations are necessary. And “necessary” is the key word. See item 3 above.

The secret to good writing is not to get rid of “all” adverbs, state-of-being verbs, instances of “had,” adjectives, or anything else, but to get rid of any unnecessary adverbs, state-of-being verbs, adjectives, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, narrative, and dialogue. It is the Human Mind (yours) that should determine which words and sentences and paragraphs remain and in what sequence.

Okay, here are a few guidelines (flexible, not “rules”) you can apply to your own writing:

  1. The state-of-being verbs are am, is, are, was, were, be, being and been. When one of these is used in conjunction with a “by phrase” (e.g., The pizza was delivered by Harvey) you’ve written a passive construction (or passive voice). Passive constructions, unless you’re writing a service manual for a vacuum cleaner, are bad.
  2. Some state-of-being verbs are necessary. To describe the size or relative size (the state of being) of a city, you have to use a state-of-being verb.  Don’t allow your narrator to describe the state of being of a character. (Don’t let him say “John was angry” or “John was livid” or “Joaquin was frightened” etc.)
  3. Use Your Mind. Despite what your  father said, it’s a wonderful thing. The human mind is the original spell checker, the original grammar checker, and the original verb and adverb finder thingy.
  4. As part of using your mind, Read Your Work Aloud. If it sounds good to you, it will sound good in the reader’s mind. If you hit a spot that sounds awkward or rough, that’s because it’s, you know, awkward or rough. Fix it.

Remember that you’re only in charge until the reader gets hold of your work. Only You can decide what to leave in or omit from your writing, but only the reader gets to determine whether it’s necessary or distracting.

‘Til next time, happy writing!

Harvey

{ 10 comments }

Creating Characters: Resources

by Harvey on May 12, 2013

Hi Folks,

Odd… I think I’ve never written a post on Creating Realistic Characters. I taught a seminar on the subject earlier this month in Bisbee, and I taught the same seminar in Tucson in February. Attendance was low on that one—meaning the market’s saturated—so I probably won’t teach it again for a couple years.

After the seminar in Bisbee was over, I realized it might be a good idea to bounce at least major characters—the protagonist and the antagonist—against Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Doing so will help the author not only understand the character better, but it might well help the author assign particular character traits, quirks and eccentricities. Certainly a character who still hasn’t mastered and moved beyond the Physiological level (his needs are only air, food, water, sex, sleep, homeostasis, and excretion) would have different personality traits than one who had achieved any of the higher levels. The former character also would express those traits through different personality quirks and eccentricities than would the latter. Not really heady stuff, but something to think about.

After I shared the above bit of information with the folks at Bisbee via email, I received a response from one of my friends there (Thanks Lucinda!) who suggested a visit to the Human Metrics website. At Human Metrics this particular link will open on the Jung Typology Test. Lucinda mentioned that her acting and communication students use it and find it interesting. I can add that it’s also a bit eye-opening, or it was for me. I recommend it. Of course, if you answer the questions as your protagonist or antagonist would answer them, it will help inform (and form) those characters. It will help assign or explain character traits, personality quirks and eccentricities, and even  help the author initiate or resolve character arcs. Why do I believe it will help? Because according to the site itself, having taken the test, you will

  • Obtain your 4-letter type formula according to Carl Jung’s and Isabel Briggs Myers’ typology, along with the strengths of preferences and the description of your personality type
  • Discover careers and occupations most suitable for your personality type along with examples of educational institutions where you can get a relevant degree or training
  • See which famous personalities share your type
  • Access free career development resources and learn about premium ones
  • Be able to use the results of this test as an input into the Jung Marriage Test™ … to assess your compatibility with your long-term romantic partner

Howcould that not be a good tool for creating a well-rounded protagonist or antagonist?

I don’t doubt that there are other online personality assessment tests out there. Have you discovered any that you found useful? If so, please share those in a comment in the form below. That way anyone who chooses to check back will see the information as well.

Soon I’ll be sharing nuts and bolts writing information again, from punctuation pointers that will enable you to throw out all those books you have on the topic to writing dialogue and dialect to narrative in fiction to creative nonfiction and on through the range of my experience as a writer and editor. And yes, that will include at least one post (probably two or three) on Creating Realistic Characters.

In the meantime, if there’s a topic you would like to see discussed here, email Harvey@HarveyStanbrough.com and let me know. If I know enough about the topic to discuss it, I’ll add it to the cycle.

Oh, if you haven’t found Brenda Novak’s Online Auction for Diabetes Research yet, please visit. I think it ends soon, and you can get some amazing bargains there, including a package of writing ebooks or a website from yours truly. And of course, it’s for a wonderful cause.

That’s it for this time. Until later, happy writing!

Harvey

{ 2 comments }

Why Editing is the Best Marketing Tool

by Harvey on May 10, 2013

Hi Folks,

This time around I’m running a guest post of sorts, a reminder that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. It’s actually an article, reprinted from “The Book Marketing Expert newsletter,” a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. The newsletter comes once a week or thereabouts, and I recommend it. You can find it at http://www.amarketingexpert.com. I’ve added a few notes when I thought it appropriate to combat the seemingly pervasive “all or nothing” attitude toward writing and editing. For example, not all manuscripts need to be edited. Here’s the article:

With all of the options out there to publish, it’s pretty tempting to just point and click your way to a completed book. When print-on-demand first came on the scene around 1999, we saw a glut of books being pushed through the system, unedited, unvetted. When someone said “garbage in, garbage out,” they were often referring to self-publishing. Hence the stigma. If you’re new to indie publishing and you think that the stigma is the “us against them” idea, you’re only partially right. The history, albeit a somewhat negative one, started many years ago when authors thought their book was “good enough” to publish.

Cycle forward to 2013: We now have some 300,000 books published a year, the competition is fierce and the stakes are high. That number, by the way, comes from Bowker, which produces these statistics and readily admits that this number doesn’t include eBooks or books that are published without an ISBN. You can imagine how high that number really is.

People ask me all the time, “How can I be successful?” Well, aside from the usual stuff, like show up and keep promoting, the one key to success is to publish a book so good, your reader can’t put it down. But to take it a step beyond that, I would say publish something that has been edited often, and by someone who knows how to edit a book and isn’t afraid to tell you the things you may not want to hear. It’s amazing how, over the years, I’ve heard time and time again that, “Well, my neighbor/mother/wife/husband edited my book.” You should never, ever have your book edited by someone who is a family member, friend, etc. Why? Because if the book is really horrible, they may not feel they can tell you. Also, are they really professionals? Do they have a business?

Let me say this, if you publish a book that’s subpar, no matter how much money you throw at it, it will never succeed. Some critics might say that the Celestine Prophecy succeeded despite a poor editing job. Well, that may be true, but can you think of another book that reached bestseller status where people said, “Good story, but it needed an editor?” I didn’t think so.

Let’s look at this from another perspective: book reviews.

Marlene, who is a blogger at Book Lover and Procrastinator, http://bookloverandprocrastinator.blogspot.com/, says: “I think the self-published author either doesn’t have the finances to get a good editor or is unaware of the need. It is very frustrating to read a book that could be great—if the bad editing didn’t take you out of the story. Not all self-published books are poorly edited. I’ve read some great self-published books. I get about 10-15 requests for review a month. I usually review 4 or 5 books a month. After I get a submission, I read the excerpt and a little of the book. If the book doesn’t strike my fancy, I don’t review it. Bad editing and author’s voice go into this decision.”

Your book is your resume. Ask yourself how many book reviews you might be losing because of poor editing. I asked Lauren Hidden of The Hidden Helpers, http://www.thehiddenhelpers.com, to weigh in with her views on editing.

Why is editing so important?

You had phenomenal ideas for your book; many of them, in fact. Maybe it was a section of super-helpful information in your business book or a fascinating, quirky character that popped up every few chapters in your novel—you certainly have a personal investment in what made the “final” cut from your head onto paper. You know your topic or your story inside and out, but sometimes what you’re thinking doesn’t successfully translate to paper. That’s where an editor steps in, clarifying a confusing scene, tightening up a repetitive or wordy section, correcting a word you consistently misspell, or fixing a problem with shifting tenses. Readers can tell if your book isn’t edited. The idea is for readers to love your book and tell all their friends about it. Don’t give them a reason to put your book down after the first five pages.

Who should get their book edited?

Everyone. Wise authors know that they have to put their best foot forward. Period. This applies equally if you are seeking a traditional publishing contract or if you are planning to self-publish your book. Why would you let a reader or agent/publisher read anything but your best work? Competition is fierce. A poorly edited book will score bad reviews from readers or end up in the circular file in an acquisitions editor’s office. Too many authors say they can’t “afford” to get their book edited, but you shouldn’t start writing a book without incorporating editing into your budget. Think of the hundreds of hours you put into your book writing and revising, and the money you earmarked for layout, cover design, and promotion. If your book isn’t polished, you’ve just thrown away all that time and money, not to mention future revenues you were eagerly anticipating from book sales. An investment in editing can pay off for years to come.

What mistakes do people make when choosing an editor?

The biggest mistake people make is not finding the best fit for them and their specific book. Ask for editor recommendations from other authors and industry professionals. You should choose an editor who is experienced in working in your genre. You should also be sure to ask how long the project will take them to complete, as well as how they charge for their services. Also, make sure you and the editor agree on the amount and type of the editing to be performed. Some editors may perform more of a proofread looking for blatant errors and some may try to rewrite your book. You likely don’t want either of these extremes. Another big mistake people make is looking for the cheapest possible editor. Do your homework and make sure the editor’s expertise, fee and experience are a good fit for you. The last thing your wallet or timeline needs is to have to hire a second editor because the first one didn’t do your book justice.

(from Harvey: I recommend asking for a free or even paid sample edit first from any editors you’re considering hiring so you can see up front what that editor can or can’t do for you.)

What’s the difference between copyediting and content editing and do people often need both?

Simplified, copy editing is polishing the words on the page. This can be correcting subject/verb agreement, eliminating repetition, fixing spelling errors, cleaning up awkward phrasing, correcting homonyms, and the like. Content editing is addressing the “bigger picture” of the book. In fiction, this most often means addressing inconsistencies with character and plot points, recommending the author eliminates or expands scenes, and ensuring the book flows well. In nonfiction, content editing most often addresses the clarity, completeness, consistency, and organization of the information being presented. And yes, every author should have content and copy editing performed. Sometimes authors don’t think they need content editing, but they’re also not an impartial party. Of course, everything makes sense to the author who wrote the manuscript, but will it make sense to the reader? Content editing answers this question.

How many times should a book be edited? Is there such a thing as over-editing?

A book should certainly be self-edited by the author before a professional editor ever lays eyes on it. When it reaches an editor’s hands, the editor and the author will discuss the number of rounds the editor typically performs. Then you may want an independent proofread for a second set of eyes. But after that, and after the author’s final review, the book should be finished. I’ve seen some authors run into problems when they’ve self-edited their book, then hired a trusted, high-quality editor, and finally asked for feedback from their friends who all suggested other changes to the book. At some point you have to let your book go. Don’t keep second guessing yourself. If you passed your book around to 10 different industry friends, you’d get 10 different opinions what to change. If you feel that you took all the necessary steps to produce a great book, had it professionally edited, and are happy with how it turned out, then it’s time to release it to the world.

(from Harvey: Most often, well-meaning non-professional critiquers—usually other writers—tend to try to “improve” your writing by turning it into their voice. Once you’ve had your book professionally edited, my advice is don’t dismiss what the pro told you in deference to friends, acquaintances, or other writers. If you’re going to do that, why pay the professional at all?)

Finally, here are a few more things you should know about editing:

Whether you’re just submitting a book proposal or the entire manuscript to agents and publishers, you should have the book fully edited. Why? Publishers and agents often don’t have the time to ferret through unedited or rough manuscripts. You’ll increase your chances of getting noticed if your book and package are polished.

If your editor loves everything you write, there’s something wrong. The truth is that while you should like your editor, they should push you. One reason I love working with my editor (Lauren) is that she pushes me very hard on my work and won’t let me slide or slack off on anything. While sometimes I really just want to be done with it, in the end it makes for a much better book.

(from Harvey: It isn’t exactly true that something’s wrong if your editor believes your manuscript doesn’t need a full edit. Occasionally, during a sample edit, I come across a manuscript that doesn’t require a full edit. When that happens I either explain to the writer what s/he needs to do to polish the manuscript or I offer to proof it at a lower per-word price.)

Don’t skimp on editing. Ever. I know Lauren addressed this above but really, it’s such an important part of your book and, as I mentioned early on, the single biggest marketing tool. Consider this: you have spent years writing this book, why would you pour marketing dollars and marketing effort into something that wasn’t your best work? The world won’t love your book simply because you wrote it, it must be the best work you could have produced and if you’re not ready to meet this criterion, then you may want to wait until you are. There’s a lot of time and money wasted on books that aren’t great. In fact, some years ago I worked with iUniverse.com, and the then CEO told me that only 1% of the books submitted to them are, in fact, readable. One percent. That’s a frightening number. Here’s another scary stat. There are approximately a billion eBook titles and three million print titles on Amazon.com. Staggering, no?

It’s hard enough to compete in publishing. Put in the effort and put forth your best book. Does your book deserve anything less?

* * * * *

From Harvey

Of course, I offer editing or proofreading after providing a free sample edit. See http://harveystanbrough.com/edits for details.

‘Til next time, happy writing!

Harvey

{ 6 comments }

What Comes After Once Upon a Time

by Harvey on April 30, 2013

Hi Folks,

This is a guest post by my longtime friend Robert J. Sadler, author of the Black Book Investigations of Michael Grant & Associates series. He had subtitled it “The Intrinsic Nature of Following Your Instinctive Writing Process.” Enjoy.

Boxman Cover w GldnStatue_200Walking the thin line of explaining a writing process without having to issue a spoiler alert for the book from whence the example comes, I wanted to illustrate a writer’s phenomenon that is not unique to me, but seems almost other worldly to some writers.

On the fly, I changed a plot line’s conclusion. I completely changed the who and how of the main bad guy’s death, how it was accomplished and then discovered.

Recently in the closing days of finishing Boxman, the seventh novel in the Black Book Investigations series, I inserted a scene that at the time I knew would fit and allow me to disclose a few bits of information and expand some character context. It also did something I was not expecting.

To get the main character, Michael Grant, to this location (his old homicide unit) I had him bring cheesecake to his old sergeant who had been a no-show at a buffet Grant had thrown days before. I had not previously described the evening or who was or was not there. So I hit on the idea of his old sergeant not having been in attendance. Grant goes downtown to the cop-shop to see how he’s doing and gives him a gift of food. The bit of information I wanted to share was Grant’s visit that previous weekend to death row inmate Stuart Marquis, a continuing antagonist in the series.

Almost as a throwaway I had Grant sit at his protege’s (Homicide Detective Jim Jamison’s) desk at the PD and write a note as a pretext to looking on the detective’s desk for any clues. (I, of course, intended for him to find the DNA lab result of a blood drop found in Grant’s stolen Jag after he had been brutally attacked and left to die. Grant finds this information along with a name of the blood donor and his attacker’s whereabouts.) I had Grant write a note, fold it, and leave it on his desk, and then I wrote that Jamison’s new partner Raef comes in and finds Grant at Jamison’s desk. I had Grant give the note to Raef, who later makes sure Jamison sees it.

At the moment I finished writing the scene, the note was literarily and literally blank! Grant ostensibly wrote something, but I didn’t. I didn’t imagine Grant writing anything other than something about his visit with Marquis; I thought it, but I didn’t write it, so neither I nor the reader knows what the note says.

I accomplished the main purpose of the scene with Grant finding a clue to his attacker, whom Grant does not know at this point is the key to a murder and his attack, and the connection to property stolen in another main plot line. As you can see, the note itself… had no significance!

Later I had Grant and Darrow confront Grant’s attacker and get him to confess more than he realizes. As I had not yet worked through th plot conclusion, I was wondering how to wrap it up… what does Grant do? He knows that Jamison would be looking at Grant’s attacker, but Jamison hasn’t yet acted and would have no clue about the attacker’s other crimes. Grant, after interviewing his attacker now has the information get his attacker arrested, but the way the information was obtained might be questionable.

So now my question was, How does Grant accomplish getting his attacker arrested? Take him down to the station or let him go, give Jamison all the info and let him work it out?

Then I suddenly remembered the note! So I went back to that page and added content to the note. Essentially I made it an invitation to Jamison and Raef to meet later in the day at Grant’s office. Thus, if all goes as planned, Grant will have his attacker with him and can lay the basis for Jamison and Raef to take his attacker into custody. Problem solved!

Was it just serendipity that I used a blind, dead-end ruse to get Grant to Jamison’s desk? Was it simply fortuitous that this impromptu ruse of a plot device would later turn out to be an essential plot detail to move characters into position and dramatically affect the outcome of a plot line? Or was it the subconscious writer’s meme in action, which I have often experienced. When I speak about it to writers I tell them a) it is not necessary to know the A to Z of your story’s arc, but b) with practice, if you know A and even have an inkling about Z, your writer’s brain will help you to fill in the other letters.

Once you’ve started writing, your fictive brain will or can, with practice, supply the next letter in the alphabet of your story arc whether it is the very next letter after A or M and will take you all the way to Zed. I find this process seamlessly organic to the story arc and emotionally fulfilling. Trust your writer’s instinct, intuition, imagination to remember what’s next; it was after all, once upon a time….

Robert J. Sadler

Thanks, Robert, for that informative post. Folks, until next time, happy writing!
Harvey

{ 4 comments }

Opportunity Knocking

by Harvey on April 23, 2013

Hi Folks,

This is a duplicate of a post I sent out on my StoneThread Publishing blog. I felt it was too important to risk any of my contacts missing it. Apologies if you’ve seen it more than once.

Once a year, my friend and NY Times Best Selling Author Brenda Novak holds an auction for a cure to diabetes. There are a LOT of items of interest to writers and others. In past years, I’ve been honored to donate books, edits, and other items. This year, I’m donating THREE free websites (new or upgrades) and THREE sets of my writing books. To see and bid on my items and hundreds more, please visit the link below. You’ll find some great values and of course it’s for an excellent cause.

http://www.brendanovakforthecure.org/join.html#.UW_6EZ1gRJU.facebook

If you’d like to see the books I’ve listed for the auction, go to HarveyStanbrough.com and scroll down to see my writing books. To see the details concerning the websites, please visit HarveyStanbrough.com/web/. I’m offering the $440 version, the features of which are worth about three times that much.

Finally, just to get back to StoneThread business for a moment, we’ve received more great reviews of our authors’ works. We’ve posted them all over the place, but the most convenient place to see them is at our StoneThread Publishing Reviews site.

Best,
Harvey

{ 1 comment }

Housekeeping

by Harvey on April 20, 2013

Hi Folks,

This time I’m varying a bit from my usual writing advice to take care of some housekeeping. Mostly I want to bring you up to speed on all the stuff going on at my main website, HarveyStanbrough.com. More than ever before, it’s now a one-stop resource for writers. Here’s what I offer now. As always, my work is guaranteed. My services are inexpensive, but never cheap.

Editing, Proofreading and Eformatting—I’m still offering a free sample edit. If I agree to edit your work, I will do so for between one and two cents per word. If you believe your work doesn’t need an edit (or if the sample edit shows that to be true), I also offer a proofreading service for considerably less. Finally, I’m still offerng eformatting as well for those who would rather have me eformat their manuscript for self-publication instead of trying to do it themselves. For specifics, please see HarveyStanbrough.com/edits.

Ebook Cover Design—Several months ago I participated in a hyper-intensive crash course on cover design to update my technique and refresh my memory from the design courses I took in college in the mid-’90s. You can see many of my cover designs at HarveyStanbrough.com/covers and at StoneThreadPublishing.com. My prices are below industry standard, and my covers are at or above industry standard.

Web Design—I’m proud to be offering web design services again. I can build a new site for you from scratch, rebuild your old site, or simply provide ala carte services. Consultation is free. I create new website on only two premium website frameworks—Thesis and Genesis—so you always know you’re getting only the best. I also include a year of free maintenance, free weekly backups and much more. If you’re interested in a new website, please visit HarveyStanbrough.com/web. If you’d like to upgrade your current website or for ala carte services, please see HarveyStanbrough.com/upgrade. In addition to having designed sites for several folks, I’m also now serving as the webmaster for Professional Writers of Prescott.

Writing Seminars—I’m still offering my writing seminars and have added several new topics, including Writing Creative Nonfiction, Conflict & Resolution, Writing Literary Fiction, Writing Magic Realism & Science Fantasy, and Emarketing & Social Media. To see the descriptions of those and many more, please visit HarveyStanbrough.com/topics. For a current schedule of seminars and other events, visit HarveyStanbrough.com/events.

StoneThread Publishing—When your manuscript is polished and ready for publication, please visit my no-fees, royalty paying publishing company. In addition to several relatively unknown authors (for now) I’ve also published nationally known authors Stefan Kanfer (Google him) and Harry Stein.  Of course, StoneThread is not a subsidy publisher. We are very selective, but that means if we accept your work it will be in very good company. Before you submit anything please be sure to read our About and FAQs pages at StoneThreadPublishing.com.

Finally, I’m pleased to announce the addition of a new page to my website. At the end of the navigation menu you’ll see a tab that reads Other Resources. There you will find links to dictionaries and translators, conversion resources and much, much more. I’ll be adding to that page as I uncover new resources. If you find a valuable resource for writers that you’d like to share, please email me at h_stanbrough@yahoo.com. Include the URL and I’ll check it out.

I encourage you to check out the links in this email—those that interest you—and to share this post with your friends and others whom you believe might find it useful.

‘Til next time, happy writing!

Harvey

 

{ 0 comments }

Writer vs. Author

by Harvey on April 10, 2013

Hi Folks,

First, a housekeeping note. You might be seeing this post for the second time. My site was hacked and trashed, and I’m rebuilding it from scratch. Naturally, this happened only days after I announced I was providing a web design service for others. Please be patient for only a day or two and we’ll be back to almost normal here. Thanks. Now here’s your post:

I think all of us can agree that being a writer is a wonderful, if sometimes exasperating, predicament.

For writers, especially if we must pursue a day job in order to enable our writing habit, there really is nothing like making the time to sit down to write. Following that, there’s nothing like conquering a blank page. And following that, there’s nothing like finding exactly the right words in precisely the right sequence to put across our intent.

I’ve heard often that writers don’t want to write; they want to have written. In my experience, nothing could be farther from the truth. All of the real writers I’ve known write as much for the process itself as for the eventual result of the process, whether poem, short story, essay, play or novel. After having labored through hours, days, weeks, months or years and having birthed their latest creation, many even suffer a very real kind of post-partum depression. Some take a long walk (one man I know was gone for nine days); some go for several laps in the pool; some enjoy an enthusiastic workout at the gym; and some grab the nearest bottle of Jameson & Sons Irish Whiskey and try to fend off the notion that the words might have abandoned them for good.

So what’s the difference between an author and a writer, other than the sense that an author is something better, somehow, than a mere writer?

My American Heritage College Dictionary (Fourth Edition) defines writer as “One who writes, esp. as an occupation.” Period. That’s it.

On the other hand, it defines author as “1a. The original writer of a literary work. b. One who writes professionally. 2. An originator or creator. 3. Author God.” Seriously, that’s what’s in the number three slot: Author God. Goodness! No wonder everyone wants to be known as an author instead of a writer!

But frankly I believe American Heritage missed the boat. Certainly writer and author aren’t exactly the same thing, but the difference is broader in some aspects than the American Heritage hints, yet I can promise you neither has anything to do with divinity.

Writers are folks who write and who are serious or passionate about writing, as outlined in the Thirteen Traits of a Great Writer. (You can read the original post for yourself.) They take great pride in the study and application of the craft, and very few things, if anything, is more important to them than their writing. But more important to this comparison, writers are those who have the freedom to write and who exercise that freedom at every opportunity.

Authors, first of all, are writers who have written. But the author is a writer and a publicist and a marketer and a salesperson. In some cases, the author is also a publisher. Now, if you happen to be Stephen King, you can be extremely successful and retain your just a writer status because other people are falling all over themselves to publicize, market, publish and sell your books. If you’re a highly successful author or are otherwise wealthy enough to hire publicists and marketing folks, you can also pretty much remain just a writer.

But if you’re anyone else, once you have written and have been published, whether or not you enjoy speaking in public, standing around at book fairs and glad-handing bookstore managers (if you use print books), talking about yourself and your book(s) to everyone you know, engaging in social media, et cetera et cetera ad nauseam, you no longer retain your just a writer status. You have to be an author. You have to be not only the creator but the manager, the marketer, the publicist, the guy who checks the coats and the guy who gets the coffee.

Now whether you bring a baggie full of Folgers and a coffee maker or just swing by Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks is up to you. Me? I’m a make my own kind of a guy.

‘Til next time, happy writing!

Harvey

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