The experiment part 2

Well I have gotten my edited manuscript back from First Editing http://www.firstediting.com/ this week. Now I need to sit myself down and go through the changes that the editor has made to see if I agree with all of them. I have learned the hard way, in the past, just because someone is a professional editor that does not mean that they do not make mistakes. After I have gone through all the track changes and accepted those that I like and rejected those that I disagree with I will then send it out to some of my friends whose opinion I trust to get more feed back. I always want my stories to be the best that they can be.

I could send my story to fifteen different people/editors and I could get back fifteen different versions. But I ultimately need to stay true to my voice, my vision, and myself. Here is a great example of what I mean. This is part of a note that I received from my editor:

“What an absolutely delightful story! I'm so glad I was chosen as your editor.

I changed a few words to American English per your request. One that comes to mind is 'gob-smacked', which I know from watching BBC America, but is changed to 'flabbergasted' here in the U.S.

I hope to see more of Spencer's adventures soon!”

I really want it to say ‘gob-smacked’ so that is one change that I will be rejecting. It’s not wrong it’s just what I want. I need to get to work now.

Good luck, and keep writing!

Morgan

The experiment.

A year ago I finished a new short story called Spencer the Spider and the Witch in the Wood. Because of many other projects that I have been involved with I put Spencer on the back burner and have just recently revisited it. I have done some rewrites and a lot of editing and feel that it is now ready to go to the publishers.

I have decided to try an experiment. Spencer is a Halloween story and it is to late to try and get it published with a traditional publisher in time for the Halloween season so I am going to try and self publish this short story. I am also going to post a blog entry describing what I am doing for every step of this journey.

My first step has been to send my manuscript to an independent editor. I am using an editing firm that I have used in the past. The best way to find an editor that will meet your needs is to research them through Google or Bing. (I love Google and would be lost without it.) Editing services are not cheap so it is important to find one that is highly rated and will perform the services that you need. I will post again when I get my manuscript back in about a week.

Good luck, and keep writing!

Morgan

Inspiration.

I was thinking that you might like to see some of the creatures that I used as inspiration while creating my character of Cuddles (pictured below) in The Deep Black Pond.

First was the Angler fish. I started with the idea of its oversized mouth and translucent teeth, and its angler, or lure eventually became Cuddles one large glowing eye.

Next was the shape. Ever since I had one living under a dock on a cannel where I use to live, the Green More eel has fascinated me. So that seemed a natural choice.

stokes rx / Foter / CC BY-ND

Photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/stokesrx/5845117677/">stokes rx</a> / <a href="http://foter.com">Foter</a> / <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/">CC BY-ND</a>

Finally there was the color, and I wanted it to be as amazing as the design was turning out. This blue metallic Coy is truly one of the most unusual colors I have ever seen in nature and the perfect choice.

So there you have it. Just three of the several hundred thoughts that went into creating Cuddles the fish in The Deep Black Pond.

Good luck and keep writing.

Morgan

It's been a while.

I some times forget why I started this blog. Then the other week I saw this graphic on writers write.

I have been in the submission process for what seems like an eternity. Every time you make a submission to a publisher it can be up to six months until you hear anything if at all. Well I recently did another round of submissions, this time to Great Britain, and I did get a rejection letter from one of the publishers which made me fell really good. It made me believe that that publisher respected my work enough to take the time to send me a letter, and it was confirmation for myself that I had accomplished something. Now that may sound strange to some people but it is nice to know that even Sylvia Plath felt that way.

Good luck and keep writing.

Morgan

A simpler time.

This weekend I watched a film about the life and times of Charlie Chaplin, from his vaudeville days to his time as a director and producer and owner of his own studio, and it got me thinking about the time in my life that I spent as a filmmaker. As much as I hate to admit it the reason I wanted to be a filmmaker more than likely started after I saw my second Star Wars film and became fascinated with the art of special effects. I would like to say that I had had more lofty inspiration than that, such as some of the greatest films of all time, but the truth is I wanted to play with space ships for the rest of my life. When I made it into film school I started to understand, and fall in love with, the art of filmmaking and it was at this time that I became acquainted with the works of Charlie Chaplin, as well as all the other legends of film, in my film history courses. As a kid I knew about Chaplin from my parents but only thought of him as an actor and comedian it was not until college that I found out that he was so much more.

In discovering and watching many silent films and I really began to understand how pictures and images could tell a compelling story without the use of words. Something that I think today’s Hollywood should try to rediscover. In the film I watched this weekend I was reminded that Chaplin held out on making talking pictures even though the technology was around and available to him for many of the years when he was producing films. One of the reasons Chaplin did not want to start making talking films was because he did not want to alienate his audiences around the world that did not speak English.

In some ways I have a similar philosophy about my children’s books. The words in my books can be translated into any language, in fact both of my current books (The Deep Black Pond and The Gray Garden) are available all around the world, but it is the photo illustrations that I hope will inspire children of all ages and of any nationality to want to read those words. I still love films and filmmaking, and I use many the techniques that I have learned when producing my illustrations, but I have gotten more satisfaction out of creating my books than I ever felt even on the biggest film or stage productions that I have worked on in the past. I think that could be because of the way that I work now is similar to the way of the early days of filmmaking. It is simpler and less complicated and a little more pure. I use just a camera, a stage, and a few lights to make my magic and I hope that, like the films of Charlie Chaplin, will appeal to a wider audience.

Good luck and keep writing.

Morgan

A week of heroes.

After the events of this past week I am forced to recall a thought I have often had. That thought being that our civilization still works mainly because people are basically good at heart and on the whole, honest. Even though there are some people, such as the Boston marathon bombers, who would like to see harm done to others they are a very small minority when you take into account the total world population. I know that will be of little comfort to those people who were hurt or to the families and friends of those who were killed.

In my children’s books I use the themes of friendship, the cooperation with others, and the kindness to strangers as vehicles to tell my stories of fantasy and fiction. This week the people in Boston proved that friendship, cooperation, and the helping of strangers are not just concepts for stories of fantasy but real human qualities that are alive and well and existing in us all.

It is my profound hope that the kindnesses and heroism that occurred in Boston will continue and thrive in our everyday life and not just manifest itself in times of extreme crisis, and above all that going forward we do not give into the fear caused by two extremists.

My muse is cheating on me.

Some times I feel as though my muse is cheating on me. I have always been blessed with creativity and imaginative thinking and numerous times through out my life I have had, what I thought, were brilliant ideas or inspiration only to find someone else had the same inspiration and produced their version of the idea faster or better than I could afford to.

The latest example of this is that I spent part of last year, along with my partner, creating a new children’s book based on the classic tale of Jack and the Beanstalk. We finished our project several months before the end of the year and we began shopping the manuscript around. Now if you pay attention to current films you will know that in the beginning of March there was a new film released called Jack the Giant Killer. My hart sank a little.

We, however, are not giving up on our project because it is intended for a much different audience. If we had not finished our project we may have abandoned it when we saw the news, but it does go to show that a good idea will always find its way into the light no matter who had the idea first. So my lesson out of this is, as always, you have to believe in what you are doing because if you don’t no one else will and that you need to act on your inspirations because someone else may have had the same inspiration.

Good luck and keep writing.