(no subject)

[lagilman]

I am currently freelance-editing a novel.

In that novel (yes, it's romance), the author uses "his cock thickened" far more often than can be read with a straight face.

Let this be a wake up call for some, and a reminder for others (myself included). Once we use a phrase, it tends to stick with us the entire project. This is not always a good thing.

Re-read your work. Out loud, if possible. Keep a highlighter in hand, if you're working on hardcopy, and one finger on the 'text color' command if you're working in phosphors. Mark the repeating phrase every time you see it, once you become aware of it. Then go through and change at least half of them to something else.

The project will thank you for it, later.

So will the editor.

Comments

[boomuse.livejournal.com]

Did you want the vat sized eye-bleach with the Industrial wire brush? or just the individual packs that you can use as you go?

OY!
::makes note to go through current project with highlighter.::

[tru2myart.livejournal.com]

Is it wrong that I can't read "his cock thickened" without giggling like a 13 year old girl? :snorts:

[neadods.livejournal.com]

"Thickened"? Is he using a roux, or just cornstarch and boiling it?

[difrancis.livejournal.com]

Why am I reminded of that scene from 10 Things I Hate About you where the guidance counselor? Principal? Someone, is trying out words and I believe ends up with tumescent, though considers turgid. Am I remembering right? Anyhow, I always thought it was funny. Which brings me to this link about what breasts can do: http://home.epix.net/~jlferri/breasts.html Always makes me laugh. Hard. So to speak.

Di

[kalligraphy.livejournal.com]

Someone should teach this to Stephen R. Donaldson. If I read impotent one more time, I was going to kill someone.

[tru2myart.livejournal.com]

LMAO!!! That was pretty good.

You know I use flour when I'm thickening my stew...perhaps...and if he used yeast it might rise instead of thicken...

I could do this all day.

[lagilman]

if he used yeast it might rise instead of thicken...

But then she might get an infection...

[lagilman]

if that was the only thing about Donaldson that drove you to homicide, count yourself fortunate....

[yourbob.livejournal.com]

I prefer my rooster nice and lean.

[music-lover3.livejournal.com]

when i read the first part i laughed. i'm actually glad i don't read romance novels (no offense or anything). great idea about the highlighters, though. i'll keep that in mind when i finish some of my projects (though i'm far from finishing yet).

[tru2myart.livejournal.com]

True. Then you'd be regaled by several passages of "...we then used the Vagisil..." on top of the cock rising and thickening....

:shudders:

[fakefrenchie.livejournal.com]

That is hysterical. Though the verb of choice now seems to be "laved" and in "he laved her taut peaks". I would have thought that was a Frenchism, but apparently I would have been wrong.

[fakefrenchie.livejournal.com]

Well, it is the technical term. It's better than "he couldn't get it up", non?

[fakefrenchie.livejournal.com]

Enough of all that silly stuff. On to serious questions. When you give an estimate for freelance editing of a novel, do you give a per hour rate and estimate the time it will take you to do the job? If so, what happens if you have to take more time because the novel needs a lot of work. If not, do you give a bulk rate for doing the edits for the whole book and hope that it will take you less time than you thought?

I'm quite curious as to how other people do the estimate deal, so any of you out there who do this for a living, feel free to chime in.

[eeknight.livejournal.com]

I like it when a cock swells. Thickening sounds like it's a recipe and someone is adding cornstarch.

[kalligraphy.livejournal.com]

It wasn't just about sexual impotence (which he did have problems with), it was about feeling powerless. Everytime the protagonist went into internal dialogue mode (which happened about 50% of every page) he kept whining about feeling impotent. By the end of the third book, the dead horse was beaten so badly it was just a small puddle of goo. I found the rest of the story interesting from a plot perspective and the background world was great and made up for the other trouble. IMHO. When the second chronicles came out, he dropped impotent and went with venom. Every other word was venom. To make matters worse, he destroyed everything that made the first set of books palatable. On top of that, the second book in the second trilogy could be skipped without even damaging the overall story arc. Laura Anne is correct, there were lots of reasons to want to kill after reading some of his stuff.

[elaine-brennan.livejournal.com]

my current pet in that category is "evocative" -- and "evocatively". Both used repeatedly in multiple books.

"He touched her evocatively."

yuck.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Brain bleach, aisle 4!

[tru2myart.livejournal.com]

*chuckles and hands you a scrub brush*

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

Evocative of what? Cthulhu rising from the depths of the sea to spread disease amidst the rotting flesh of the world? I can see how that touch would be disturbing...

Oh. My. God.

[lmharmon.livejournal.com]

You are so brave.

Re: Oh. My. God.

[lagilman]

well, not so much brave as getting paid... *wry g*

Welcome!