Sleep? What Is "Sleep"? (With Apologies to Ruumahum)

I've had a hell of a past few days that all came with way too little sleep.

I'm practically sleeping while I'm writing today, trying to get work done when all I want to do is curl up and sleep for at least a few hours. As always, my days start early and end late. Not sure when that situation will end, either.

When you're in public, there is little chance to do something like that. I try to be a bit more polite than that in my daily activities Out In the Real World.

I vaguely remember a time, when I was a whole hell of  lot younger, when I could do the whole "barely get any sleep at all" thing, and not be the worse for wear for doing it. I think that age range went from seventeen to about twenty-one.

Oh so very long ago now.

These days, that's not a part of the equation. Sleep is necessary for me to get anything at all done, unless I really want to present half-assed work, which I refuse to do. I have something resembling a conscience when it comes to such things.

That said, I do miss those days and nights when I could burn the mythical candle at both ends without having to pay the consequences. Spend a day at work, and then go to the Friday night midnight movie, then get together with friends at the local coffee shop (my go-to was Denny's) to talk about the movie we'd just seen for the umpteenth time, talk about whatever had gone on that day/week, and suck down enough caffeine that we'd be ready for whatever we had planned for Saturday, once the sun rose again.

When I've had to pull hours similar to that, these days, I end up having to catch up on a lot of sleep, which, I have read, isn't the most healthy thing to do anyway. At this point, caffeine isn't a treat, it's a necessary food group. Fortunately, it's not actually bad for you, if you're an otherwise healthy person.

I know that eventually, everyone is required to pay the piper, but I really do wish he wasn't so damned loud when he came into the room. I'm trying to sleep.

So I Just Finished Writing My Book, Time to Publish It, Right?

Uh, no.

Not only "No", but "Hell, no".

You've finished your First Draft, which is probably rough as hell and contains missing words, spelling and grammar errors, continuity errors and all manner of other issues.

Yes, this means you're going to start on your Second Draft, so it's time to put on your thick skin and send the First Draft off to your most patient and willing Beta Reader, with instructions to go over it with a fine tooth comb and to be merciless about it.

A good Beta Reader will be harsh. A kind one isn't doing you any favors. You don't want kind. You want honesty and brutality, where necessary.

Once you receive the First Draft (with edits) back, go over it and see if you agree with what your Beta Reader has said. Don't brush off suggestions, and be sure to take what is said to heart. Your Beta Reader isn't trying to hurt your feeling, s/he is trying to be sure you present the most polished work possible to your readers on publications.

Now, once you've incorporated or discarded the suggested edits (do this edit by edit, don't do it in one fell swoop), take the time to read the Second Draft aloud. It's one of the best ways to catch spelling errors, word omissions, and the like. We are much more prone to breeze right over errors when we read them silently. I'm not sure why what that is, but that's really a thing.

Fix the errors and send the Second Draft off to another Beta Reader. Fresh eyes are best for something like this. Once it comes back, go over it all over again with the suggested edits. Then read it aloud all over again. Yes, I know this can be monotonous, but that's writing. It's not as easy as it may seem.

Lather.

Rinse.

Repeat.

Once you feel you have your final version in place, send it off to more than one Beta Reader, once again requesting complete honesty in their response. Take those responses to heart and make changes when and where necessary.

No, you're not completely done yet. Not by a long shot.

You need to make sure you have good cover art for your writing, but I'll leave that to someone who knows more than I do on that subject. If someone wishes to write a guest post about making/designing a cover, please let me know!

Creative Spaces -- Thoughts

Out again in the world, writing from a Panera in downtown Burbank, CA. This one, at least, has a reliable internet connection, which doesn't suck for a change. Being a reasonably thoughtful and polite person, I'm sitting at a tiny one-person table, instead of using a larger table that could be used by multiple people.

When I do something like this, I bring along a larger power strip (IKEA sells a pair of 3-prong 3-outlet power strips called KOPPLA for an inexpensive $3.99 -- thanks for the recommendation, John!) so that others can have access to power if the wall outlet is already taken up. It's the polite thing to do, wouldn't you agree?

It's interesting, sitting here and watching people go about their lives. Some are here solo for a quick bite, others have mini-meetings, and still others are like me and have set up their workspace for the day.

I don't focus on their conversations, so the sounds they make are more of a babbling jumble, mixed with the noise of dishes and pans being moved about in the front and rear parts of the place. Sometimes, a word or phrase will push itself out of the melting pot of sound, but never in a way that offers context.

I haven't decided if these out of the office locations are a boon or a bane to my writing. It's not as though I am writing "real life", so I can't use any of these things for "slice of life" bits in my novels and stories. I just don't think Siofra or Nathaniel is going to be stopping by Panera for a soup and sandwich combo, and Aya doesn't live in a world where coffee shops exist at all.

Do you work away from wherever your dedicated "office" is, and if so, how well do those alternative office locations work for you?

On Writing...

People out there say that anyone can write, and that's true, but it's not true that anyone can write well.

That's not a criticism. It's a fact.

Authors don't just sit down and figuratively spew forth words onto the page or screen. They agonize over every word that is chosen, and agonize when those words don't want to come, even though they know they have a story to tell.

You can usually tell when an author has pretty much phoned it in. When you read what they've published, you find multitudes of spelling/grammar/punctuation errors, and it's clear that they edited their own work.

I've found that to be a mistake. You must have an outside editor. You can't just rely on yourself to get it right the first or even the second or third time around.

But multiple drafts of your work are a subject for another time.

Most writers can find beta readers who will read over what has been written and then give feedback. I recommend asking those beta readers to be hard in their response, and to give an honest opinion and feedback. You don't want kudos, you want brutal honesty, so having a thick skin for criticism is a necessity.

I also recommend reading your work aloud. It's much easier to find those inadvertent mistakes that way. Wouldn't you much rather be embarrassed discovering those errors yourself and then fixing them, rather than having screenshots posted by readers who want to poke public fun at your efforts?

When you write something, you aren't necessarily going to notice the mistakes you make, and you can't rely on Spellcheck, either, as if you've used a homonym for a word and spelled it correctly, it's not going to alert you to the issue. There, their, and they're are prime examples of that. I'm sure you've seen your and you're used incorrectly all the time.

I know someone who writes too instead of to all the time. The day he tried to convince me he was a mutual friend, I knew it was him from the moment he made that error. (I've never confronted him about the attempted deception, as I don't know what that would accomplish.)

In regard to beta readers, if you'd like to be considered as a beta reader for my works in progress, please let me know!

Writing in "Out of the Office" Locations...Frustrating.

I've been doing some writing in places like Starbucks and Panera over the past several months, and I've discovered that both are becoming more and more Creative Unfriendly.

Removal of power outlets to keep people from plugging in to keep their laptops and tablets charged while working, and either crippling or completely turning off internet connectivity, which affects the ability to do online research while working doesn't make me feel particularly friendly about those places, which until recent times, were self-proclaimed havens for those of us who wanted to write somewhere other than within the confines of an office.

One particular Starbucks I frequent near Koreatown in downtown Los Angeles has a manager who turns off the internet every so often during the day, and then, when approached about the issue, claims he has no control over the connection, which those of us who know even a little bit about how such things work know is bullshit of the most extreme kind. It's not rocket science to turn a modem off and on again to regain an internet connection. He's managed the place for at least the past five years, so I know corporate isn't going to do a damned thing about getting him to pull his head out of his ass on this issue.

This location has also removed the power bar from beneath the long bar at the far end of the shop, to keep people from plugging in there at all.

Trying to find alternate locations in which to work when I'm out this way (I live 33 miles from downtown Los Angeles, and am generally "stuck" out there for an entire day at those times) is quite difficult, and not a little frustrating.

Yes, I'm angry about this. Starbucks and Panera can't have it both ways. They can't claim to be a haven for folks like me, while throttling those resources that help us to do our work.

What do you think? I'd like to see you weigh in on this subject.