Sit, write

By David Heinzmann

Anybody who planned to mark the stages of their summer this year by the progress of the trial of former Illinois governor Rod R. Blagojevich may have been disappointed to see the back-to-school sales come way too early. Most people expected the Blagojevich trial to dip into the first few hot weeks of the football season. But here it is the first week of August and the jury has already begun deliberating whether the former governor conspired to illegally trade campaign donations for government action.

A verdict, which could result in the last two Illinois governors in federal prison at the same time, may come as early as this week.

For those not following this case closely, the big chunk of this courtroom thriller that’s missing is the defendant on the stand. Blagojevich cut the trial short by at least a week when he changed his mind about telling his side of the story and decided not to take the stand, robbing trial watchers of the big climax. His lawyers said they decided to save Rod the trouble because prosecutors hadn’t proved he had committed any crimes. Others said it was because they finally understood the enormity of the bloodbath awaiting the former governor on cross examination.

Either way, the centerpiece of Chicago’s crazy summer of news is coming to a close earlier than expected. If this was a novel, you might not write it this way. But regardless of what the jury says, there’s still plenty of room for high drama and explosive plot twists in the coming days when the jury renders their verdict. Whether he's convicted or acquitted: What Will Rod Do?

My own connection to this case as a reporter is tangential. I was in court the morning that Blagojevich was herded before the judge in one of his finest jogging suits, but only by chance. I had volunteered to help a small team of reporters stake out the governor’s house on the North Side after our ace federal court reporter Jeff Coen figured out in late 2008 that the FBI was moving in on him. It just happened to be one of my days watching the house. I had been sitting in my car with a photographer in the predawn darkness when they came for him—though the arrest was carried out so smoothly that it looked like nothing but the morning shift change for the governor’s state police security detail. Rod was already on his way to a holding cell by the time we figured out what had just happened.

Anyway, I haven’t had to cover the case since then, so I can’t blame the Blagojevich saga for my lack of progress on my third book. But I have indeed gotten stuck. I started strong a few months ago, firing off five quick chapters of a new story—with a new protagonist—before getting bogged down. Unpredictable sleeping schedules of children, trips to the Northwoods and the shores of Lake Michigan are my excuses. Oh, and a day job. But most writers have day jobs and have to steal the time, so that’s not really an excuse.

All the summer vacations are finished now, so it will be back to some semblance of a daily date with the chair and keyboard.

And I’m going to try to not let the editing of my second book, Throwaway Girl, contribute to the distractions while writing the third. That sort of happened with the first and second books. I was almost finished with the manuscript of Throwaway Girl when I signed a contract to publish A Word to the Wise. A first timer, I became so engrossed in the editing process with the publisher, not least because of errors and problems I found in the manuscript at that late stage, that I set aside completion of Throwaway Girl for more than a year.

I just signed the contract with Five Star to have them publish Throwaway Girl in November 2011. After I finished this manuscript and sent it off, I had sort of counted myself as a liberated man, ready to move on with the third book. But now that I have a contract and a publication date I’m obsessing a little bit about the editing process and things that may need to be fixed. I know, I know: it’s supposed to be perfect by the time it goes to the publisher so that I can wash my hands and move on. I just haven’t swallowed that idea yet. But I’m determined to not go too far down this path of distractions.

Anybody with any advice on how to keep the editing of one book from devouring all the energy it takes to draft a new book at the same time?

Shoe, Meet Other Foot

by Diane Peron-Gelman


A Chicago native and history buff, Diane Piron-Gelman is both a freelance writer and editor with nearly twenty years’ experience in the field. Her first novel, NO LESS IN BLOOD is forthcoming from Five Star in February, 2011. She has graciously volunteered to guest post on the conflict between writing and editing.

The note from Roz hit my email box on August 11th. The first part sent me into a delighted tizzy: “I will ask Five Star for approval to acquire your book!” The next sentence started out pretty well, too—until I got to the final word. “You received an enthusiastic recommendation from the reviewer—Deni—who will be your Editor.”

Editor. Oh. That.

I’ve been an editor for Five Star since 2003 or so. (I’m past forty, with two kids; Swiss-cheese brain can make me hazy on details.) For a decade-plus prior to that, I worked as an editor for publishers of role-playing games and comic books. I’ve also written my share of RPG source fiction, comic-book scripts and catalog copy, plus one short story—and in all that time, I’d never been edited by anybody. Except me.

So now I have an editor who isn’t me. Wonder what this’ll be like?

Never mind that I know Deni, had edited a marvelous novel of hers, and had every reason to a) respect her expertise, and b) trust her with my literary firstborn. Never mind that Five Star editors bend over backward to respect each author’s voice—a skill I had to learn when I started working for them, coming as I did out of the game industry where everything’s work-for-hire and not a lot of people know how to write well (which meant wholesale rewrites were normal to turn a rough manuscript into a saleable book). I was nervous. What if Deni thought I’d messed something up—some character’s pivotal action or insight, some vital turning point—and what if she was right? Impostor Syndrome stirred and muttered. What if my manuscript came back all marked up with red lines and changes and notes? How would I handle it? Would I ever have confidence in my writing again?

You’d think I’d know better. Whatever Deni found would be something that needed fixing. That’s what editors do. I may be one, and pretty whiz-bang at catching my own typos and errors, but that doesn’t mean another set of trained eyes doesn’t work. So after I stopped hyperventilating at the thought of Terrible Hidden Flaws in My Manuscript, I decided I would grow up and take what came.

Which, in the end, wasn’t as much as I’d feared. I did manage to completely mess up the in-house formatting, and was duly smacked for it (“btw, I know you must have a good reason for not formatting?????? Seriously, even your margins were wrong.”), but everything else turned out to be fairly small. I found myself enormously reassured—because I knew Deni would’ve found any bigger problems that were there. And worked with me to fix them. Bottom line, I had nothing to be afraid of, and a better book to gain.

So has this experience changed how I edit? Yes and no. I still pretty much do what I do, but I hope I'm more sensitive. After all, I do feel your pain.

What about you? Do you have a fear-factor response at the thought of being edited? How about making the transition between editor and writer? How do you do it?