Words words words

[captainsblog]

* Eleanor's first sentence to me this morning was, and this is a direct quote, "Tazzer's toenail's in my butt." Around here, this makes perfect sense.

* I am writing a very touchy legal document today, in which, with God as my witness, I am going to invoke the term "goat rodeo." Mainly because "clusterfuck" would probably get me disbarred.

* But more to the point.  Over on Joss's blog, there is a war going on. A war of words, appropriately enough, but still. Between our Best Beloved Suthin Autha, now hard at work on her final edits for an upcoming novel; and her sassypants Noo Yawk publisher, which has provided a Style Sheet which demands the deletion of any number of "dialect and invented words" that she put in the actual mouths of her actual characters. These include, and again I quote here:

blamey
cackly
glazy
hitchhiky
long-shotty
probey-looking

(INTERRUPTION: I really like these next four, which, if you say them VERY FAST in a chain, sound like a great band name.)

Ragey, smitey, soothey, starvey

(The band’s fans would call them RS3.)

Then I have a WHOLE category I have never seen in a style sheet before, called

“Other unclassifiable slang, dialect, neologisms”

Worst of all, they have deigned to ban "craptastic."

Redonkulous, I say! (Actually, I don't anymore, but that's just from overusing it.)

See, that's the point. I don't have a problem editing out a word-in-progress if it isn't right, or has been overdone, or got put in the wrong paragraph or the wrong mouth. On the other hand, I do, and have, and will have, problems with persnickety (sp?) pronouncements that a writer's word is simply Just Not Done. Otherwise, I may as well switch over to editing Latin, because that's a language that's already dead.

I expect more than one of you will have something to say about that. Say it any way you want. Hell, use LOLCAT. Se hab chzbrgr.

Comments

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

1. I would go to a goat rodeo.

2. What the hell "fancy" publisher is this that they are trying to edit out, oh, THE STYLE??? Does her acquisitions editor know that the copy editor has gone power-mad?

--Owlet, copy editor mad with things other than power

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

It's the whatever-they're-called-now outfit that used to be Grand Central Publishing, where they also have Stephen Colbert in their stable. Somehow I doubt if his CE sent him a memo about not using the word "truthiness."

Not that it's wrong to point these things out; it's the insistence that gets me. I just finished a line-edit of a 300ish page ebook (in serial! first episode free! non-sparkly vampires! you should try it! (http://www.candlemarkandgleam.com/2011/03/15/now-available/), and had many opinions about things along these lines. Identified as such, and limited TO such. My name may be on the editor's list, but that's not the one people care about when they read it.

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly - point them out, and make the writer think about their use. I make up words like that in conversation all the time, but I limit that kind of thing in stories, because it's more obvious (and potentially grating) on the page.

But insisting? No way. The book "belongs" to the writer and kinda-sorta to the publisher. We editors HAVE to maintain at least a bare minimum of disengagement. Not that I have opinions on such matters.

(I will check it out. Clicking now.)

[firynze.livejournal.com]

And there's also a difference between what's appropriate at what stage of editing. Copyedit and proofreading is much less justified in making such demands; line-editing more so, and in developmental editing, it's mandatory that you at least point it out.

But you also have to balance being a descriptivist and a prescriptivist, and make sure that the author doesn't sound like a bleached-out automaton following an arbitrary style sheet....

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes - agreed on all points. I spent a lot of years as a copy editor and the past few as a developmental editor, and both of them are their own balancing act.

[firynze.livejournal.com]

I do both, and...man. Acquisitions and development is a lot more rewarding, but copy-edit can be fun in its own right. Assuming you don't try to scrub the writer clean, like this place is apparently doing.

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

Again, I agree. After wading around in the messy world of developmental editing, a copy edit or proofreading job can feel so relaxing.

[firynze.livejournal.com]

"Wait, you mean I don't have to keep track of whether the MC's favourite ice cream flavour was chocolate or vanilla when it was last mentioned 100 pages ago? I just have to make sure there are no homophone errors? AWESOME."

[firynze.livejournal.com]

I approve of the use of "goat rodeo" in professional documents.

Huh. Now, personally, I wouldn't want to see many of those words turn up in a story. BUT, that depends on the character. if the character actually has a personality and background that demands turning everything into an adverb, well...then you gotta look twice, and think about voice.

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

Ah, that's where this particular author shines. She can't spell for shit (and will gleefully admit that), and more than occasionally drives her plot off into a muddy dead end (usually in a very low-MPG vintage automobile that's a bear to tow back out), but her character voices are PERFECT.

(Do note the shameless plug in the previous comment thread, btw;)

[firynze.livejournal.com]

And voice is critical, as you know. So...yeah.

[bktheirregular]

Can you get away with a reference to Charlie dancing a foxtrot?

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

With this judge, probably. He's the one who once quoted "We don't need no stinkin' bankruptcy laws" on the record.

I'd be more worried about the record on appeal. When that last decision went up to the District Court, I did not use that quote, or the "easier to ask forgiveness than permission" reference, in the brief.

[bktheirregular]

Oh ... well, if it's going to higher courts, I guess my instincts would be to refer to it as an "unrecoverable chaotic mess", perhaps with a footnote referring to the "old military expression, FUBAR".

OH WHOOPS NO WAIT!

[(Anonymous)]

I added this to the top of the entry -- I see I shoudl have explained STYLE SHEET as it a thing exclusive to publishing -- I am NOT winning because this is NOT a war,

EDIT FOR CLARITY: A Style Sheet is NOT a sheet asking for or demanding changes to MY book. No one can or would or even wants to change my words. NO one can or would even want to shift so much as a THE or an AND without checking it against my intent.

The Style Sheet is my FRIEND -- it is there to make sure that the words I make up or the neologisms I peel from the current evolving Engl-o-verse (I made that up!) are spelled the same every time they are used in the book.

This is NOT a fuss I am having with Grand Central or copy editors or even English. This is my lovely, dear copy editor making me look smarter than I am, and me being amused with all these weird words she has to deal with!

That anonymous above is actually me. Hi

[joshilyn jackson (from livejournal.com)]

I did not log into facebook first, oops!

[joshilyn jackson (from livejournal.com)]

PS I am stealing the term :Goat Rodeo: to use all the time. I hope it isn;t dirty in some way I am too naive to get....

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

That is totally firynze's term, but I love it.

Sorry to have misconscrued what you meant, although I've enjoyed the discussion. And since you wanted kitty things in the meantime, hopefully this will forgive all:



(Dublin the cat care of my friend Mary; LOLCATTing by me)