I’m pleased to welcome author/editor Alicia Rasley back to the blog, continuing her article about preparing her backlist titles for e-pub. Take it away Alicia…

Editing With Myself Part OneTwo

 Last week I blogged about the initial tasks involved in preparing old backlist books for republication. I have to keep reminding myself this isn’t as hard as writing the books in the first place! But no doubt about it, the next two tasks were the most mindbending: Choosing a cover, and editing the content.

Covers

Hey, turns out covers are copyrighted! And to the artist! Who knew! So I couldn’t use the original covers from the print books, however convenient those little thumbnails adorning the websites for all those used bookstores selling for ridiculous amounts all the old copies. (Trust me. I love my own work, but even I wouldn’t pay $87 for a paperback.) So I had to commission new covers. I am relentlessly un-visual, so this was difficult, especially when I couldn’t afford actual new paintings and had to go with un-copyrighted art available on the web. (There is much, fortunately, and relatively inexpensive.)

While I found this quite difficult, I meant my covers as a big “take that” to all those art directors who decided that my heroine was blond instead of brunet, and who put my 52^nd Light hero into a 16^th Dragoons uniform. Choosing my own cover designer meant I got to choose my own background pictures, and I could finally see what my characters looked like.

Choosing the art was only the beginning. I also had to select a font for the author name and title, and decide the all-important existential question: Which should be more prominent, the title or the name?  My name isn’t exactly a household word, but then again, my titles aren’t likely to make someone pull out the credit card either. After massive amounts of research (looking at the covers on my bookshelves), I decided to go with title on top, name at the bottom. I learned from my indie-pubbing list that the title and the name should be different, either in font (italic and Roman) or in size, so that the eye is caught (what a grotesque term!) and moves back and forth between them. Okay. Whatever. Title italics, name Roman.

Editing

This was, for an editor, the most interesting task. Of course, the books had all been edited by the editors at the first publisher. But there was still editing to do. For one thing, I had to fix all the mistakes I’d gotten mail about when they were first published. (Yes, there were actually readers who took the time to write to me to point out that my characters walked out into the “gathering ducks” (I’d meant “the gathering dusk”) and that I’d referred to the painter “Renoir” (I’d meant, I hope, Rembrandt) who was not yet born when the book took place. No, I didn’t keep the mail. Yes, I still remembered every complaint.

But this was also the chance to fix story problems that have always bugged me in retrospect. For example, in A Royal Escapade (I changed the title, btw; one of the benefits of re-publishing is I don’t have to use the titles imposed by publishers unless I want to—there was one publisher, I recall, who insisted that my titles all be three words and six syllables), I’d always regretted having the heroine in Chapter One tell the whole backstory, complete with a flashback to her childhood. (This might not have been so bad, but in Chapter Four, she tells all this again to the hero, using much the same terminology. Boring!) So I trimmed the opening considerably to streamline the beginning of the plot. No more long introductory introspection for my heroine!

Another issue was the change in narrative approach in the last couple decades. When I’d written the earliest of these books, romances and especially Regency romances were often presented in a rather distanced omniscient viewpoint. The more modern approach is a tight focus on one character at a time. That is, the reader is put “in” one character rather than in an omniscient persona “above” the characters. Neither is particularly good or bad, but readers are supposedly expecting a more intimate experience now. Well, this was actually the kind of dilemma that art restorers face when they are presented with, say, the Sistine Chapel ceiling and told to “update it.” Some might say that the patina of the ages (the grime, the fading) is part of the artistic experience, and that it’s inauthentic to brighten up an old painting. Similarly, the omniscient viewpoint is an artifact of the ages, a sign of the antiquity of the creation. I decided there was validity in that, in maintaining the integrity of a book written in 1982 in honest imitation of Austen and Heyer. So while I did “fix” a few egregious aspects of that period of romances (the hero, bless his heart, was sort of a slut, and I did diminish his priapism a bit), I kept the narrative pretty much as written, omniscient and all. (I was glad, though surprised, to find that even at the age of 24, I wrote pretty good sentences. Or maybe I should be sorry that apparently my style hasn’t improved much in three decades!)

So was I as ruthless editing myself as I am rumored to be editing others?  Probably not. (Then again, these books had already been edited, and I remember some pretty ruthless editors got their bloody marks all over the pages—yes, they edited in hard copy then, with red pencils.) But I was tough on myself about dashes. It’s dispiriting to learn that my terrible dashaholism is a longstanding vice. I swear, my characters never finished a thought or a line of dialogue without—. I take it that the earlier I didn’t think commas and periods were quite good enough to punctuate my prose. So I took out about 90% of the dashes.

But then, there were all those semicolons, currently verboten in fiction, or so some of my fellow editors tell me. You know what? I still love semicolons. And every single one of them was used correctly. So there. I didn’t change any of them, so yes, sometimes I still have three semicolons per page (just as in Jane Austen’s work).  If you love semicolons as I do, well, below are a few books just for you.

So did I do a good job editing myself? I don’t know. I don’t think I (the writer) needed much editing from me (the editor). Hmm. That’s what all writers say to editors, isn’t it?

Anyway, every writer is an editor, right? We all, before we send our work out to the world, edit it and copy edit it and proofread it, with varying levels of success. What’s always been difficult for me is finding the distance from my own work that would allow me to see problems and mistakes. In this way, it’s much easier to achieve distance editing old books I don’t even remember writing (it wasn’t drugs that fogged my memory, but the toddlers I was trying to write around).

So would I do it all over again? Yes. (In fact, I’ve got a few more backlist books to go.) I’m enough of a control freak that handing my book over to be published by those old publishers was painful (the advances, of course, helped ease the sting a bit). At least now I know that every mistake, every typo, every semicolon is mine, all mine. There is an enormous liberation in knowing there’s no one to blame but myself!

Let’s hear it for semicolons! Give me an S! Give me an E! (Come on, some of you must share my semicolon lust!)

Alicia Rasley is a Rita-award winning author and nationally known teacher of writing workshops. She teaches composition and tutors students in two state universities. She grew up in the mountains of Southwest Virginia but now lives in the midwestern flat land. Her book The Year She Fell has been a Kindle fiction bestseller.

Her blog is at: www.edittorrent.blogspot.com, and her website is www.rasley.com. Her writing book, The Power of Point of View, is still available from Writer’s Digest Books. All her books can be found on her Kindle page. Stop by and click the “like” button or add a comment about one of the books—this really helps authors spread the word!

The Wilder Heart, a Regency novella

The Year She Fell

The Reluctant Lady, a Regency novel

Royal Renegade, a Regency novel

Poetic Justice, a Regency novel

The Story Within Plotting Guide

The Power of Point of View

So the scene is this: mid-morning at the breakfast table. I’m facing the windows that look out on the snow-covered back yard where a crimson cardinal is perched on the arbor in the herb garden. The sun is finally shining after days of dreary gray skies and rain, but since the temperature is only 32 degrees I’m resisting the urge to go outside and bask in its warmth. Besides, that means I’d actually have to rise from my chair and I’m disinclined.

I’ve been a weird state of mind since Christmas, and I’m not sure why. I think it’s partly because of worrying about my health, although since the cardiologist’s okay, I’m trying hard not to do that. Partly because I’m still wrapping my brain around becoming a grandmother and partly because I’m anxiously awaiting the release of my book in March.

My life suddenly has an other-wordly aura about it and that seems to be making working and going about my normal activities difficult. I have a full schedule of editing work ahead of me, a nearly completed novel poking at my consciousness, begging to be finished, and chapters and books to read for my crit partners. I love editing and critiquing, yet I find my focus sorely lacking. I seriously need to get back into a pool schedule instead of relying only on my treadmill and weights here at home, but I’m reluctant to leave the house.

On the other hand, that wicked restlessness is rearing its little head, and I’ve been looking at travel sites on my lunch hour and wondering how lovely it would be to see the snowy Northeast or warm sunny Aruba or Paris again…in any kind of weather at all. A fellow romance author recently blogged about going  to see Alan Rickman in Seminar on Broadway and I’m green with envy and checking out flights to New York and hotel rates near Times Square.

So what does any of this have to do with the cardinal chirping outside my french doors or the snow or the sunshine or the fact that it’s Saturday morning and I’m still sitting amidst the breakfast detritus instead of  going up to my office and getting busy on the editing gig that needs to be finished this weekend?

Absolutely nothing…and I think that’s my point…

We’re talking about cravings at the Bettyverse today–what do you crave for your life in 2012? Come on by and talk to us.

…as guest blogger today.  Alicia Rasley is a Rita-award winning author and nationally known teacher of writing workshops. She teaches composition and tutors students in two state universities. She grew up in the mountains of Southwest Virginia but now lives in the Midwestern flat land. Her book The Year She Fell has been a Kindle fiction bestseller.

Her blog is at: www.edittorrent.blogspot.com, and her website is www.rasley.com. Her writing book, The Power of Point of View, is still available from Writer’s Digest Books. All her books can be found on her Kindle page and are listed at the end this post. Stop by and click the “like” button or add a comment about one of the books—this really helps authors spread the word!

Thanks for stopping by, Alicia, take it away…

Editing With Myself, Part One

Hi, all! Thanks to Nancy, who invited me to guest-blog today. She and I are both editors, so I thought I’d blog about editing myself. That is, I’m currently editing my old books (my “backlist”) to upload for sale as e-books. Well, you know, I’ve found it’s a lot easier emotionally to edit another person’s book!

Let me explain first what I’m doing.  The publishing rights to these books (mostly Regency romances published in the ’90s) reverted to me in the last couple years, just in time to catch the wave of indie publishing. So first I had to scan the old books, then format the manuscripts for the publication platforms (each of which, of course, require different formats), commission covers, then edit the stories.

Just in case you are considering something like this yourself, or are wondering whether it’s actually possible for an editor to edit her own work, well, I’ll take those tasks one by one. I’ll blog about the mechanical aspects of re-doing the backlist, scanning and formatting, this week, and next week talk about the more sensitive aspects (cover and editing).

Scanning

This ought to be the easiest of all, right? I mean, I went out and bought a high-speed scanner that can do duplex (two-pages per sheet) scanning. But… these are old books, and they weren’t printed on expensive paper in the first place. So I had to denude the books, or whatever you call it. Disassemble them?  Anyway, I had to pull off the cover, then separate each page from the binding. Most of the pages are in fours—two pages on one side of the sheet and two pages on the other side of the sheet. So I had to cut the pages apart. Of course, with such old cheap paper, I managed to tear a lot of them, and had to tape them back up. No fun. I also had to pull off old glue from every sheet. Then I had to scan them. Some pages would jam and wouldn’t print, so I had to re-do them separately. Also, the optical character recognition program, though pretty good, wasn’t able to correctly read anything in italics (like all the chapter headings). What I thought would take a few minutes took hours for each book.

Formatting

This was no fun. It was just tedious work, to tell you the truth. First I had to make this a Word manuscript rather than a bunch of scanned pages from a book. That first meant deleting all the headers and page numbers, necessary in a print book but not in an e-book. Of course, there were headers on every single page. It was easy enough to get rid of my name and the book title with global find, but page numbers? I decided to delete (through global find/replace) each digit from 0-9. Surely then I’d get every page number! Yep, and I’d also deleted every date, every mention of time and amount, and every incidence of my hero’s regiment (the 52^nd Light became the nd Light. And he was very proud of his regiment, so it was mentioned often).

Then there were all the tabs that started paragraphs. And the spaces between scenes and chapters—what might look like two lines in the print book turned into eight in the e-book version. And hyphens! I guess I didn’t notice at the time, but my old publishers, to save ink or something, frequently broke multisyllabic words at the end of a line. No big deal, except that in the OCR process, Word “hid” the hyphens. They wouldn’t show up in the manuscript, but they showed up in the versions my readers bought. Very ugly. I fixed. (Email me if you want the long boring instruction on how to do this.)

What else? Well, you know, back then in the typewriter and typesetter days, we used to put two spaces after a period. (I still do that, actually. Muscle memory. You’d think if my body has forgotten how to do a cartwheel, it would forget to put two spaces after a period.) That was pretty easily fixable with global search and replace.

But as long as I was going through to find all the extra spaces and hyphens, I started looking for repeated incidences where the OCR had interpreted the words wrongly. A particular issue was “cl,” which was usually read as “d”.  And “in” was often rendered  as “hi”. “Burn” was always rendered as “bum.”  Interestingly, the biggest re-interpretation was in names, where the poor beleaguered OCR tried to find more common words that fit those shapes. So “Dorie” became “Doric” (as in “column”) and sometimes “Done,” and “Gwen” had a sex change and became “Owen.”

As I said, this was mostly just tedious work, but necessary, especially for poor gender-confused Gwen.

Is anyone else preparing older books for e-publication? What’s been your experience?

Next week: Changing the cover, and editing the copy. (Am I the only one who thinks “copy” is sort of an insulting term for Golden Prose? It’s like calling actors “the talent.”)

Alicia Rasley’s books:

The Wilder Heart, a Regency novella

The Year She Fell

The Reluctant Lady, a Regency novel

Royal Renegade, a Regency novel

Poetic Justice, a Regency novel

The Story Within Plotting Guide

The Power of Point of View

I’ve been hungry for ice cream and not low-fat frozen yogurt or that fat-free nasty stuff from the grocery store. (You do what makes ice cream taste good, right? It’s the fat!) I’ve been wanting some Ben & Jerry’s Everything But the… Best ice cream ever! “A Collision of Chocolate & Vanilla Ice Creams with HEATH® Bar Chunks, White Chocolatey Chunks, Peanut Butter Cups & Chocolatey-Covered Almonds.”

Ordinarily when I get ice cream, I go out to Ritter’s or someplace like that and gobble up a dish of whatever deliciousness is on the menu that day, or I buy a pint of B&J’s and eat the whole damn thing right out of the container all in one afternoon. When it’s over, the experience is usually a letdown—an anticlimax because I’ve downed it so fast I didn’t even have time to enjoy it. And the memory of it is nothing more than a smear of  sticky on my fingers and buttload of guilt.

But tonight, I decided to try something different. I scooped one helping out of  the pint and put it in a bowl. Did you know that a pint of B&J’s has four servings in it? Seriously! I read it on the back of the carton before I opened it. A serving is half a cup.  I’m guessing that probably means that a sleeve of Thin Mints is also more than one serving, huh? Damn…

Anyway, I sat down, lit a candle, and took a full half an hour to eat my half a cup of Everything But the…. It was fantastic! I didn’t read a book or a magazine, I didn’t talk on the phone, I didn’t write or make a list–I simply enjoyed the ice cream. By the time I was done, some of it had melted a little in the bowl, but I finished it anyway.  And amazingly, when I swallowed that last melty chocolately spoonful, I was quite content, and really didn’t want anymore. Even more amazing—I didn’t feel a moment of guilt.

This may not seem like a revelation to anyone but me, but savoring that frozen treat made it so much tastier, so much…better than any ice cream I’ve scarfed down before. I don’t even mind the 230 calories that I’m going to have to swim off tomorrow—totally worth because I enjoyed every bite!  And therein lies the life lesson for today, Mes Amies. Savor life, enjoy each moment, and don’t deny yourself small pleasures.  Go ahead and eat the ice cream…just not the whole carton at once…

No blog today in protest of SOPA. Go here to learn more:

Stop Online Piracy Act

End Piracy, Not Liberty

How SOPA Would Affect You: FAQ

I’ve been watching TV this winter. Not a lot, just occasionally. But since I don’t usually watch television, it feels like I”m spending too much time in front of it lately. We started watching PBS’s Downton Abbey on Sunday and it is great! Sort of like the old Upstairs, Downstairs, which I used to love. That was back when I was a television addict.

Seriously…I was! Here’s a confession that I’ve never made publicly before: At the height of my TV addiction, I was also at the highest weight I’ve ever been. Son was in kindergarten then, and I used to drive him to school. Every day, on the way home, I’d stop at Pizza Hut for a double order of garlic bread supreme (that’s 8 slices, FYI) and then hit the convenience store for a 2 liter of Coke and 4 Hostess cupcakes or DingDongs–either worked just fine. Then I’d turn on the TV and spend the next three and half  hours watching daytime dramas and stuffing my face. It wasn’t pretty.

When I finally got disgusted enough with myself, I went cold turkey on everything—the garlic bread, the cupcakes, the Coke, and the TV. I lost 90 pounds, bought a horse, and found a new addiction. That was 25 years ago. My life has changed dramatically since then.  I started a new career as a freelance editor/proofreader, rode trail with my critters, and started swimming with the nuns every week along with my friend and neighbor. But I still never watched television except for the weather and news. I thought life had settled in nicely, but then Son grew up, got married, and moved very far away.

The horse thing lost its appeal when I realized that 1. My hip and knee arthritis hurt for days after riding for a few hours, and 2. their board and care expenses were eating up the money I needed for plane fare to get to my kid. So, more changes—we sold the horses and all their equipment and started flying to see Son a few times a year. My business grew, I added new skills and learned how to market them, and we began a fight with the state over widening our road. But I maintained my swimming schedule and still never touched garlic bread, Coke, or cupcakes…or the television.

But I needed more—there was an empty place in me that needed filling. So I started writing again, not just in my journal, but stories that turned into novels. When I put on Mom’s dragonfly necklace, somehow I also put on some bold, and now, here I am…a little more well-traveled, about to be published, working on novel #4, going great guns as a freelance editor, and yet still worrying about being a TV addict. WTF??!

Yes, Nan, you may watch a little TV without fear of backsliding into a vicious cycle of daytime dramas and garlic bread with a cupcake chaser. Enjoy reruns of The Big Bang Theory. It’s well-written and clever. As a writer, you need to learn about structure and writing that works, so it’s okay to spend two hours on Sunday with Downton Abbey.  Explore a little—find some smart, funny shows like Parks and Recreation or some of the others that Lani and Alastair talk about on StoryWonk  that will expand your horizons. Stop worrying that your brain will fall out if you watch something other than the news and weather.

Okay…thanks for that little pep talk. I believe I’ll go watch The Gilmore Girls in syndication while I walk on the treadmill. Yeah it’s TV, but it’s also exercise…right? <sigh>

I’m so happy to welcome editor, writer, and consultant Ally E. Peltier to the blog today. Ally  has worked with small and large book publishers, including Simon & Schuster, where she acquired and edited books. Ally loves using her insider knowledge of the publishing industry and more than a decade of writing experience to help others reach their publishing goals. She offers tips, advice, and news at www.allypeltier.com and provides editorial services through www.ambitiousenterprises.com. She’s also the co-sponsor of the Self-Publishing Success Intensive, a new event for indie authors coming in March 2012. Visit www.selfpublishingsuccessintensive.com for details. Take it away, Ally.

Why Fiction Writers Need Editors

You’ve slaved over your manuscript, and now it’s time to edit. You could do it yourself, but with rare exceptions, this would be a mistake. Here are four reasons why fiction writers need editors:

• Your brain is working against you. It’s impossible for the brain to be 100% objective about its own creations. Have you ever thought you said something, only to have your listener tell you the words coming out of your mouth were different? Likewise, when we read, our brains often fool us by filling in missing words and processing misspellings or incorrect punctuation, reading what it knows should be on the page rather than what’s actually there.
• You know too much. Technical errors aside, there are other aspects of your manuscript that may not be as obvious to readers as they are to you. As the author, you know what you meant and how you want readers to feel about it. Your perspective is more informed than your audience’s; that knowledge further hinders your objectivity.
• Your friends and family are lying. Though you’ll get better results if you choose test or “beta” readers representing your target audience, it’s human nature to be kind when doing a favor for someone; readers (especially loved ones) may not be 100% honest or they may emphasize what they liked, downplaying or omitting what they didn’t. They may also not be capable of fully articulating weaknesses. An experienced editor will be much more analytical, identifying problems and offering suggestions on how to fix them.
• Editing requires more than good grammar. Each kind of editing requires different, though sometimes overlapping, skill sets. Good grammar and a sharp eye for punctuation are strong advantages, but not equal to working with an editor, who should also aid with “big picture” issues. The reverse is likewise true. [Download my article explaining different types of editors for The Writer magazine here.

If you can’t hire someone, get at least one critical person not obligated to be nice to you to edit your book: no spouses, siblings, parents, or best friends. Fellow writers make excellent critiquers: one great partner can work, but I recommend critique groups because you get a wealth of feedback at once.

Of course, other writers will be harder on you than the average reader—but that’s the point! A reader may not be engaged by your characters or excited by the romantic tension, but won’t know why. They just won’t love the book. However, like a pro editor, a fellow writer will show you why something isn’t working, and will have suggestions on how to give your characters authenticity or how to better cultivate tension. And if you’re submitting, remember: industry gatekeepers are tougher than average readers, too.

It may take a while for a crit group to make its way through your manuscript, but if you have the time (and don’t have the money), this is an excellent alternative to hiring a professional. I encourage you to try a critique group even if you do intend to hire someone!

You want to give your book its best chance at success in a world where millions of new books are published each year, and millions more are rejected. A good editor, whether a pro or a skilled writing partner, can make all the difference.

I come from a family of voracious readers. I started reading at age four, thanks to my sisters who were both in school. They played “school” after school each day and I was their student, so learning to read early was the natural result of that. Also, Mom read aloud to us constantly and was a big reader herself. Honestly, only my sister PJ rivals Mom’s ability to be so completely absorbed in a book that she can read anywhere, anytime, while anything at all is going on around her. I once saw PJ read a book in the middle of a chaotic, crowded airport with Kate and I on either side of her having a conversation over the top of her head. So enraptured was she by the novel she held in her hands that she may as well have been all alone on an island somewhere. That’s concentration, my friends.

I can get caught up like that, too, but between editing for a living and writing, it happens less frequently now. But, it happened this weekend. Yesterday morning , I started reading Liz Flaherty’s ONE MORE SUMMER on my Kindle and I read pretty much all day. I just finished it this morning and it was a rapturous read! Not simply a romance novel, it was also the story of friendship, family connection, and moving beyond the past to embrace the present.

Grace Elliot’s father has finally died and at 33, she’s left with a big house, not much money, and the memory of her father’s constant reminders of how she’d never be good enough. She opens a rooming house and ends up sharing her home with a fascinating array of characters, including an aging former soap opera star, a sweet old man who’s heart is as big as the moon, her best friend from childhood who’s struggling with cancer, and her brother’s best friend, Dillon. A writer, who is haunted by his own memories, Dillon moves into Grace’s guest house and Grace discovers that her high-school crush on him hasn’t abated in all the years they’ve been apart. He’s ready to make amends for standing her up at her prom, but first he has to get past all Liz’s baggage, as well as some of his own.

Flaherty’s story carries you right to the small town of Peacock Tennessee and into the hearts and lives of these rich and absorbing characters. You laugh with them, cry with them, and cheer for them to overcome their obstacles. Honestly, I haven’t cried out loud at a book in ages, but ONE MORE SUMMER is a moving and emotional read. I dare anyone to read it without tearing up at Grace’s pain and struggles, as well as her joys.

Liz Flaherty is a great writer–she challenges me to be a better writer myself. I want my books to affect readers as hers has affected me. One day, maybe…

Today, I’m excited to welcome Lani Diane Rich and Alastair Stephens to the blog. They are the creators of StoryWonk– a daily podcast for people who are passionate about writing and storytelling. Introductions are their own words:

Lani is an award-winning, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of nine novels. Currently, she’s writing romantic fantasy for St. Martin’s Press as Lucy March; her first novel, A Little Night Magic, will be released in February 2012. She has been teaching writing workshops across the country since 2004, and has been an adjunct professor at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School for Public Communications, teaching introductory television writing and production.

Alastair is a writer and web designer who recently left behind the untamed wilds of Scotland to embrace the pleasures of southern Ohio and married life. Passionate about the craft and philosophy of story-telling, he’s most likely to be found using the word “metatextual,” referencing Aristotle, or trying to persuade anyone who will listen that superhero comics are an art-form worth taking seriously. In the past, he has won contests with his one-act plays, completed NaNoWriMo, and thrown away four-fifths of a perfectly mediocre manuscript. Since November 2010, he has co-hosted the StoryWonk Daily with Lani, and has learned more about etymology than he ever thought possible.

Together, they also began the Bettyverse, an online community formed from the followers of Lucy March’s blog.

Nan: Lani and Alastair, welcome to nanreinhardt.com—I’m so pleased to have you here. As most people who follow my blog know, I’m a devoted Betty—I’m DragonflyBetty. I found your blog about a year before you moved from Lucy March.com to create the Bettyverse and felt an immediate affinity to you and the other Betties. From there, I discovered StoryWonk, which has been invaluable to me as a writer, plus you two together always make me smile. Your chemistry is a joy.

Lani: Thanks so much, Nan! It’s great to be here; thanks for having us.

Alastair: It’s a pleasure to be here. With two kids, we don’t get to go out together very often!

Nan: First, NANOWRIMO 2011 is more than a month over. You both participated in it this year, which impresses the hell out of me because I didn’t. So how’d it work doing NaNo together? I know that you, Lani, stopped counting, but you were still writing while Alastair was counting. Is it easier or harder when you’re both writing like crazy at the same time?

Lani: Nano is one of the few community experiences a writer gets. Usually, you’re born alone, you die alone, and you write alone, but Nano is an exception to that. Community is a huge part of the Nano experience. So, having written with friends during Nano before, it was natural to do Nano with Alastair. We were very supportive of each other, which was fun. It’s one of the great benefits of being married to someone who writes; they get the crazy. You don’t have to explain it.

Alastair: On the other hand, doubling-down on Nano means that there’s no one to take care of the laundry, or feed the cats. Writing together is a lot of fun, particularly when we set up camp in Starbucks or Panera on a cold Ohio morning, but it doesn’t make the domestic side of things any easier. We’ve talked about staggering our writing, so that only one of us is working on a book at a time, but the best laid plans of mice and writers…

Nan: Lani, you wrote your first book, Time Off for Good Behavior during NaNoWriMo 2003, and you have the distinction of being the first previously unpublished author to publish a NaNoWriMo manuscript. How many of your other published books have been born during this event?

Lani: Both Maybe Baby and Wish You Were Here were written during Nano. The one I wrote this year, The Island of Misfit Magic (working title) will be my fourth Nano novel to get published. I’ve seen where Chris Baty has claimed that I have the most published Nano novels; I don’t know if that’s still true, because there have been a lot of success stories coming from Nano, but for now, I’ll take the title!

Nan: Let’s talk about StoryWonk. You recently celebrated the one-year anniversary of the StoryWonk Daily podcasts, so congratulations on that. That’s terrific! You actually began the podcasts before Alastair moved to the U.S. How did you come up with the idea to do this together?

Lani: It was all Alastair’s idea. He was still living in Scotland, and he knew I was trying to get more promotion out for my classes. He first found me through Will Write for Wine, a podcast I did some years ago with CJ Barry/Samantha Graves, and we were both big fans of podcasts. We were on Skype one day and he said, “Hey, I have this idea,” and I said, “Absolutely!” and we did it. It still seems crazy that that was more than a year ago. At the same time, it feels like we’ve been doing SWD forever. I mean that in a good way, of course.

Alastair: Mostly in a good way, at least. I’ve loved podcasts for years, and it seemed like the perfect way of indulging our shared passion for storytelling and opening up the discussion to the community. It’s fun to pour some coffee, fire up the microphones, and share the things that excite us about the craft—and as the community has grown, the new perspectives have challenged us to develop our ideas. We receive tweets and emails all the time from people who tell us that the show has improved their writing, but I don’t think anyone has benefited more than we have. We’re better writers because of the show—and we’re happier, too!

Nan: I’m a devoted listener, and you’ve added a lot of elements since I first discovered you. So tell us what’s new at StoryWonk—it seems as if you’re adding new classes, seminars, and services almost every day.

Lani: Well, when Alastair came for a visit last February, we didn’t exactly intend to get married. We knew that someday we’d get married, but it wasn’t really planned out. So once we did, we started thinking seriously about what our life together would look like, and we both realized that it was the work at StoryWonk that inspired us, so we decided to put all our efforts into building that as a real business. Plus, the economy’s in the toilet. I’ve been applying for jobs here for the last three years, and nothing has really panned out. So, it’s sink or swim—build your own business, or starve. Given those choices, I looked at StoryWonk and thought, “What do I really want to do?” I love teaching, I love helping people with their stories, and I love podcasting, so that’s what we do!

Alastair: The space in which StoryWonk exists is still the Wild West, in a lot of ways. Technology is changing everything on a week-by-week basis: how the classes work, how we offer supporting material, how we put out the podcasts and attract new listeners, how we approach publishing and marketing in the digital age. We’re experimenting, and discovering what works, and we get to be honest and passionate about it. I don’t think that you can fake that, and I think that it matters a great deal.

Nan: Lani, you’ve taught writing in other forums such as in a university setting, how do like teaching online classes? How is it different? In what ways, better or worse?

Lani: The online teaching took a little getting used to. In an in-person setting, like at Syracuse University or in the workshops I’ve given around the country, I can see the response. I can hear the laughter when I make a joke. With online teaching, I’m talking to a computer screen and a webcam, which doesn’t give much feedback. I’ve learned to just go with it; be myself, share what I know, and if the jokes are falling flat, I don’t need to know about it. It took one or two classes before I really got comfortable with it, but now, I love it. I love teaching, it’s one of my favorite things to do, and sharing what I’ve learned about writing is so much fun. It’s incredibly rewarding work.

Nan: Alastair, tell us about the WordWonk part of the podcasts. You guys know I’m a total vocabulary addict, so the new word each day is a ton of fun for me. How do you pick your words?

Alastair: I’m glad you enjoy them! The WordWonks are really an excuse to indulge my lexophilia and passion for etymology. When we began the podcast, it was easy to find interesting new words; now, I have to look a little harder for new discoveries. Sometimes, I’ll leaf through a book of obscure words, or search online repositories, but the best WordWonks arise organically in conversation. Someone will use an odd word or phrase, and I’ll begin thinking about its origins; before you know it, I’ll be neck-deep in etymological dictionaries, and I’ll have a week’s worth of quirky WordWonks ready to go.

Nan: I loved the two seminars that I’ve done so far. Lani, I bought, your “Fully Fueled Romance” and Alastair, your “Narrative Espresso.” How are folks responding to the 90-minute seminars?

Lani: The response has been fantastic! The big classes, Revision and Discovery, are big commitments, time-wise and money-wise. The seminars are packed with great information, and they take an afternoon. Plus, for the recorded seminars, it’s only $10, which is really affordable. We expect to add some new ones this year, which will give people a nice variety of topics to choose from, without having to commit six weeks of their life to one specific class.

Nan: The Editorial Services are also something new since StoryWonk began, and what a great idea. A writer I know had you critique a chapter for her and she really appreciated what you had to say. How’s that service working out?

Lani: It’s working out really well! I was putting together my covers and back cover copy and whatnot for A Little Ray of Sunshine and The Fortune Quilt, two of my past novels that I had the rights back for. I had such a great time doing those, that I thought, “Why not add this to StoryWonk?” See above re: sink or swim. So we added the services, everything from cover design to copyediting, but what I find I’m doing most is critiquing for writers. I enjoy that work, the story doctoring, because story is really what I’m excited about.

Nan: Finally, tell me about the Revision class coming up in January. What happens and how can we get in on it? And when will you be offering the Discovery class again?

Lani: Revision is probably my most popular class. I teach it every January, and it’s a great time. It’s a grueling six weeks, in which I teach students about the value of structure in their storytelling. I work with them on the big picture, on making sure that their story is accessible to potential readers. Discovery (which I teach every fall, right before Nano) is all about finding the magic, fueling the writing; Revision is about applying craft and making that magic accessible to other writers. It’s a great class, and I love teaching it.

Alastair: We talk a lot on the show about passion, magic, inspiration, and all those strange, elusive things. Revision is where the rubber hits the road, and there’s something enormously rewarding about that. Besides, writers are generally a mercurial bunch; when we’re in the midst of revision, we long for the free-wheeling days of discovery and the first draft — so after spending the last part of 2011 deep in discovery and NaNoWriMo, it’s good to get back to some crunchy craft. Or perhaps that’s just me!

Nan:  Lani and Alastair, thanks so much for talking to us today. I’m looking forward to a whole new year of StoryWonk podcasts and seminars.