God please forgive me if I was too harsh. I still feel bad about what happened last week.
So there I was…all inspired and ready to write. I IM’ed Tamara to tell her that I was about to work non stop on my next mini eBook. As soon as I did that, my phone rang and it was a woman from one of my classes. She sounded all frantic and told me that her book was about to go to the printer and she found a lot of mistakes in it and asked if I could come read it and help her to upload the pictures for it.
I knew this meant a lot to her so I dropped my project and rushed over there to help her.
“Do you want me to just give it a quick read through for mistakes or do you want me to comb through it to fix any content issues?” I asked her.
“Umm..comb through it and if you see anything let me know.”
I started reading and I almost fell out of the chair. This chick’s book was….Lord, you know I don’t like to say anything unless it’s praise but, let’s just say the only thing I could praise was the fact that this woman’s story was AMAZING. An excellent story but…she’s not a good writer at all.
There’s a difference between being a writer and understanding the mechanics of writing. There are rules to follow like: when you’re introducing a character, on first reference you explain in detail who the character is and on second reference you can use their nickname but you can’t switch nicknames before you explain who you’re talking about.
When you’re writing you have to engage the reader by using language that is descriptive and has a flair. It’s good to begin a story by having your main character explain a story to a friend of hers, but you should do it in first person so that the READER feels as though they are the friend you are talking to.
Before I knew it I was re writing this chick’s book. Two hours later I was only on page 8 and I stopped myself in mid stroke. I called my sister to explain the situation.
“Um, this chick can’t really write and I want to help her but I can’t sit up here and edit this book for free,”
“Then don’t.”
“But what am I supposed to tell her? I feel so bad. She’s trying to send this to the printing press. There’s no way she’s gonna make money with this book. She can’t even write in complete sentences.” Even THINKING those critical thoughts made me feel like a bad person.
“Tell her you don’t have time,” my sister suggested.
“But then she’ll publish it and it won’t be good…” I whined.
“That’s her problem.”
I called the chick into the room and I explained that this book wasn’t ready to go to print.
“Why not?” she asked me.
I gulped. “Um…Honey…You don’t seem to know how to write in complete sentences.”
“Um..yeah I know that. I saw all of these books in Black Expressions and they write like that.”
“Yeah but that’s dialogue. That was a novel. This isn’t a novel. This is a self help book that is semi autobiographical. You seem to write how you speak and didn’t you tell me that you have problems on your job because of how you speak?”
“Yeah, I do,” she said and sat down on the bed.
“This isn’t going to work,” I told her softly. “Maybe it’s me because I went to school for writing and…This just isn’t going to work.”
“So you’re saying there’s no way I can publish this?” she asked.
“Not if you actually want to make money.”
“But writing is my passion. Writing is my life!”
I looked away. “Yeah but…”
“This is what I’ve been wanting to do forever!”
“Yeah but…if you print this and show it to people, it will be an embarrassment to you. You wouldn’t want to show your kids this book and have them think this is how they are supposed to speak or write. This isn’t a good example of proper English.”
“But I want to write the way I write,” she explained. “I want to have my own unique style.”
“Of course you do,” I explained. “But if you don’t know the rules, you can’t break the rules. You have to learn proper sentence structure first. Are you interested in anything else? Is there something else you can do to make money for your family? I don’t think you’re a writer.”
She grabbed a copy of her original manuscript and she read a paragraph and then she asked me to read my revision. She seemed dumbfounded by my writing and I shrugged and told her that I write for a living and I READ even more than I write. I know what it takes to be a best selling author because I study their lives, literary influences and their writing… and the basic writing style is just the beginning.
I left her house feeling like shit. I didn’t want to crush this girl’s dreams. I didn’t want to have to tell her that but if she puts her name on it and shows it to people, they will wonder how the hell she got through high school.
I feel so bad..even now.
I brainstormed with several of my friends about how I could help her. We tried to come up with different marketing techniques and so forth. I couldn’t wrap my mind around how to come up with an excuse for bad writing. My only option was to co write the book with her but I can’t do that unless she’s willing to give me some of the profit.
I called her a couple of days later to check on her and she said I really hurt her feelings. She said she was depressed after our conversation. I don’t want to make anyone depressed. I dropped my project to help her when she called because I like helping people to accomplish their dreams.
I still feel like shit. I wish she had never called me to help. But then again…that’s like my friend asking me how I think she looks in a particular dress and me lieing to her- I don’t do that. I want to be able to brag about my friends and be sincere.
I hope she takes my advice and gets someone to edit it. I feel so bad. So bad….