Straight from the Mouth of Historical Novelist Joan Schweighardt

Open Letter to a Grammar Blunder Hunter (or, Speak for Yourself)

Dear “Book Blogger” Who Once Said Poor Grammar Hurt My Writing:

Most of the novels reviewers and bloggers are likely to be asked to critique will be written in third person. This means that someone outside the parameters of the story—presumably the author—is telling the story. A third-person narration in a novel might go something like this:

Frank came out of the hardware store and realized his car was gone. He’d seen some boys on his way in, but his only thought at the time was that it was Monday morning and those kids should have been in school. Now he wondered if they were the ones who stole his car. “Crap!” he cried. “Them kids musta done it! They musta!”

The reader knows two things right off the bat. One, Frank believes his car was stolen by some boys. And two, Frank’s grammar leaves something to be desired. Very few book reviewers or bloggers would make the mistake of attributing Frank’s bad grammar to the author because that grammar is in quotations. It is dialogue. The author is building character by showing us how Frank talks. 

The confusion for some book reviewers and bloggers begins when the novel is narrated not by the author but by someone who is actually in the story, which is to say, one of the characters. This is called first-person narration. What if Frank was telling his own story? Frank’s first-person narration might go something like this:

I went into the hardware store that morning to buy a new showerhead, because the wife was bellyaching the old one didn’t put out enough water. And I come out and find my car’s gone! I seen those darn kids off to the right just before I went into the store. Had to be them. Had to be.

You can see the attraction for the author to have Frank tell the story in his own words. The fact that he refers to his spouse as “the wife” speaks volumes in itself. And if we need further proof that Frank is imperfect, we have his “I seen them.” And there is a switch from past tense (I went) to present (I come) right in the middle of the paragraph too. This writing reeks of bad grammar, right?

Actually, no; Frank has poor grammar, true, and on top of that, he is flippant in the way he talks about his wife. But it would be a mistake for someone reviewing the book in which this paragraph appears to attribute the sin of bad grammar to the author as well. The author has simply given Frank permission to speak for himself. 

Here’s one more example of first-person narration to consider:

Well, when Tom and me got to the edge of the hilltop we looked away down into the village and could see three or four lights twinkling, where there was sick folks, maybe; and the stars over us was sparkling ever so fine.

Yes, there are grammatical errors here too, but that is only because Mark Twain is allowing his character Huck Finn to tell his own story. Huck lacks an education. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is necessarily full of grammatical blunders. The tradeoff is that by having Huck speak for himself, the author gets to “show” us exactly who Huck is, rather than describing Huck’s quirks for us. We’re right there with Huck, as close as a reader can get. 

Overzealous blunder hunters need only ask themselves who is narrating the book they plan to review or comment on. If it’s one of the characters, they can put down their red pens and relax and go with the flow—or read something else.  

Sincerely,

An author who frequently lets her characters speak for themselves

Joan Schweighardt is the author of River Aria (which is both a standalone novel and the third book in a trilogy), as well as other novels, nonfiction titles, and children’s books. She is also a freelance writer and ghostwriter. Visit her at her website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Straight from the Mouth of Joan Schweighardt, author of 'The Last Wife of Attila the Hun'

Book Title: The Last Wife of Attila the Hun

Joan Schweighardt makes her living writing, ghostwriting and editing for private and corporate clients. The Last Wife of Attila the Hun in her sixth book to date.

Find out more about The Last Wife of Attila the Hun on Amazon.

Questionnaire:

Thanks for letting us interrogate you!  Can you give us a go-for-the-gut answer as to why you wanted to be an author?

I always liked the Susan Sontag answer to that that question: I write to find out what I am thinking.

Tell us (we won’t tell promise!) is it all it’s cracked up to be?  I mean what are the perks and what are the demands?

Writing in these times is different than it was even a decade ago. Because the market is inundated—with books from the big presses, books from all the hybrid presses, and books from self-published authors—it’s extremely hard for a particular title to break out. NPR recently did an interview with a journalist discussing the candidates for the Booker prize. These are highly regarded writers, many of whom have won awards for years, but most have not been able to sell more than three- to five-thousand copies of any one book. That’s startling. You have the be a blockbuster name like Stephen King (he’s the example the journalist gave) to really sell a lot of books in these times.

Those of us who are not blockbuster names—or even Booker candidates—but continue to write anyway do it because we love it. That’s a very good reason to do something, don’t you think?

Which route did you take – traditional or self-published – and can you give us the nitty gritty low down on what’s that like?

TheLast Wife of Attila the Hun has enjoyed a long and strange journey to this point in time. It came out in hardcover, under the title Gudrun’s Tapestry, in 2003 with Beagle Bay Books, a small traditional publishing company. It had a lovely run with Beagle Bay, garnering lots of good reviews and winning ForeWord and Independent Publisher magazine awards and even being translated into Italian and Russian. But when Beagle Bay decided to stop publishing and become a book packaging company about three years ago, the rights to the book reverted back to me.

I had no plan to try to get the book published again. I’d had three books published before the book that is now called The Last Wife of Attila the Hun and two afterwards, and I was working on two more. But I’d always had a special place in my heart for Last Wife, and when I happened to read a blog by a woman who had published with a company called Booktrope, and then learned not only that Booktrope published some reprints but also that they’d won prizes and venture capitalist money for their unique business model, I decided to contact them. They liked Last Wife and offered to publish it.

Booktrope could be called a “hybrid” press, but unlike most hybrids, they did not ask authors for production money. Their model was based on a team system wherein the authors they accepted reviewed the bios of the editors, proofreaders, cover designers and book managers who had signed up to work with them. Then each author would invite the people she wanted to join her team for the publishing journey. Booktrope staff members did layout, final approvals, admin and production. As books sold, profits were divided between the author, team members and Booktrope, with the author getting the lion’s share.

This is a publishing model for our times; you can see why the venture capitalists liked it. But the model failed, in my opinion because the principles at Booktrope tried to grow it too fast and didn’t do enough to support their front-liners. I was traveling through Ireland in mid May when I got the fateful email saying that the company would be closing its doors by the end of the month.

One thousands authors were orphaned in one fell swoop that day, and many were very upset. Some had only had their books come out days before the announcement. Many had spent their own money advertising, all for naught. Since this was the second journey for my book, I was probably less upset than some of the others. The Last Wife of Attila the Hun had had two lives, one long, the other shorter. In these times a book is lucky to have one life. I didn’t intend to push for a third.

As it happens, however, I received an invitation that made me think the third time, as they say, might be charmed. About a month before Booktrope closed its doors, I did an hour-long podcast interview with C.P. Lesley, an author and one of the founders of a book co-op called Five Directions Press. C.P. had really liked The Last Wife of Attila the Hun, and as she writes historical fiction herself, after our interview we stayed on the phone and had a long chat about writing and publishing generally. Later, when C.P. heard about Booktrope closing down, she emailed me and invited me to reprint with Five Directions.

I accepted this invitation enthusiastically. The Five Directions model is even more enticing than the Booktrope model that won so many awards. Basically, in order to be invited to publish with Five Directions, you must have written a book all the members really like, and you must have additional talents that you can share. For instance, in addition to being a fabulous writer, C.P. does great book layouts. Another writer there does great cover art. Everyone does editing and proofing. A few of us are doing PR, and so on. And, best of all, when the book sells, the author keeps one hundred percent of the profits. So bottom line, you get the benefit of working with professionals, and you get to keep what you make. As I said above, Booktrope got too big too fast. The Five Directions model works because the members are determined to keep it really small and highly selective. 

Tell us for real what your family feels about you spending so much time getting your book written, polished, edited, formatted, published, what have you?

No one cares. My husband is a photographer; my older son is a musician and a sky diver; my younger son works in the business world but also writes novels and screenplays. I’m surrounded by people who “get it.”

This is for pet lovers. If you don’t own a pet, skip this question, but do your pets actually get their food on time or do they have to wait until you type just one more word?

My dog is extremely bossy. When he wants something to eat or needs water in his bowl or wants to go out or just decides he needs my attention, he squeezes under my desk and uses his head to butt my arm up away from my keyboard. I have no choice but to get up and give him what he wants.

This is for plant lovers.  If you don’t own a plant, skip this question, but if you do, are they actually still alive?

Luckily my husband, who has a green thumb, waters our plants.

In writing your book, how did you deal with the phone ringing, your family needing dinner or your boss calling you saying you’re late?

I have countless personality flaws, but lack of discipline is not one of them. I am at my desk each day by 8:00, I do as much client work as is necessary to make deadlines for my clients, and only then do I work on my own projects.

What was the craziest or insane thing that happened to you in the book publishing process?

As noted above, my book has had three lives. That’s pretty wild and crazy in today’s book world.

How about the social networks?  Which ones do you believe help and which ones do you wish you could avoid?

I’m not much for social media, but I do what I have to.

Book sales.  Don’t you just love them (or lack of?)?  How are you making the sales happen for you?

Five Directions Press has a PR team. I’m actually part of it.

What is one thing you’d like to jump on the rooftop and scream about?

I think I’d like to scream this: “Attention super smart movie executives, producers, directors, screenwriters and actors: The Last Wife of Attila the Hun would make a great movie. We’ve had the Hobbit, Gladiator, Alexander, and so many other male hero movies over the years. This story has a female hero (you would be perfect, Mia Wasikowska), and a fabulously gory setting! Be the first to offer an option!” 

Okay, too much sugar for you today!  Here’s a nice cup of Chamomile tea and come on over and sit under the cabana and watch the waves roll in.  Now…can you tell us what you love about being a published author and how all those things above doesn’t matter because it’s all part of the whole scheme of things and you wouldn’t have it any other way?

I love to write. I love to write for my clients and I love to write for myself. Discounting the time I spend with family and friends, there is nothing that makes me as happy as working on a project I feel passionate about.

Straight from the Mouth of Historical Novelist Joan Schweighardt

Joan Schweighardt makes her living writing, ghostwriting and editing for private and corporate clients. The Last Wife of Attila the Hun in her sixth book to date.

Purchase on Amazon

Questionnaire:

Thanks for letting us interrogate you!  Can you give us a go-for-the-gut answer as to why you wanted to be an author?

I always liked the Susan Sontag answer to that that question: I write to know what I am thinking. But in my case I think part of it has to do with my having been extremely shy as a kid and even as a young adult. Many times my shyness kept me from speaking up when I did actually have something to say. Writing enabled me to express myself, in spite of the shyness. It’s the way I choose to interact with the world.

Tell us (we won’t tell promise!) is it all it’s cracked up to be?  I mean what are the perks and what are the demands?

Writing in these times is different than it was even a decade ago. Because the market is inundated—with books from the big presses, books from all the hybrid presses, and books from self published authors—it’s extremely hard for a particular title to break out. NPR just did an interview with a journalist discussing the candidates for the Booker prize. These are highly regarded writers, many of whom have won awards for years, but most have not been able to sell more than three- to five-thousand copies of any one book. That’s startling. You have the be a blockbuster name like Stephen King (he’s the example the journalist gave) to really sell a lot of books in these times.

Those of us who are not blockbuster names—or even Booker candidates—but continue to write anyway do it because we love it. That’s a very good reason to do something, don’t you think?

Which route did you take – traditional or self-published – and can you give us the nitty gritty low down on what’s that like?

I have always chosen to work with a publisher. This time around I am working with Booktrope, which has a very unique publishing model. Unlike many hybrid publishers, they do not ask you to pay for any part of production costs and they do not expect you to buy a set number of books to turn around and sell to your friends out of your car trunk. Once they accept your book, you view their lists of editors, proofreaders, book managers, project managers, and cover designers. Then you invite one person from each category to join your team. Sometimes the person you want will be too busy and you will have to scout around for a bit to put a team together. As the book sells, you get the lion’s share of the profit, Booktrope gets an amount slightly less than that, and the rest gets divided among your team members at percentages you have set from the start.

I don’t know how this will work out since my book is just coming out, but I can tell you that I love the concept. I was lucky to get fabulous people to work with me. It’s been a great experience to date.

Tell us for real what your family feels about you spending so much time getting your book written, polished, edited, formatted, published, what have you?

My husband works as an environmental inspector for our local school system, but his heart is in photography. He studied photography years ago, and he worked on film crews for years doing photography-related tasks. He spends a lot of his free time either taking photos or making adjustments to them on his computer. So he totally gets the time I put into working on my personal projects. In fact, we’ve worked on several travel stories together—my text and his photos. And we’ve had several pieces published. Parabola magazine published a 3000-word story of mine set within a ten-page spread of my husband’s photos. How much fun is that!

Do your pets actually get their food on time or do they have to wait until you type just one more word?

My dog is extremely bossy. When he wants something to eat or needs water in his bowl or wants to go out or just decides he needs my attention, he squeezes under my desk and uses his head to butt my arm up away from my keyboard. I have no choice but to get up and give him what he wants.

Are they actually still alive?

Luckily my husband, who has a green thumb, waters our plants.

In writing your book, how did you deal with the phone ringing, your family needing dinner or your boss calling you saying you’re late?

I have countless personality flaws, but lack of discipline is not one of them. I am at my desk each day by 8:00, I do as much client work as is necessary to make deadlines for my clients, and only then do I work on my own projects.

What was the craziest or insane thing that happened to you in the book publishing process?

It seems insane to me that I’ve put two kids through college with my writing, and I’ve paid my share of the household bills for some years without ever having to leave the house. I never had a lot of extra, and I don’t have a pension waiting for me as do my friends who worked “at real jobs” over the years, but I’ve gotten by on my own terms.

How about the social networks?  Which ones do you believe help and which ones do you wish you could avoid?

I’m not much for social media. To me it feels like entering a room where everyone is screaming and then screaming yourself. We are all screaming, Look at me! Look at me! I have been writing for quite a few years, so I had the joy of having my first four books published before the advent of social media, back in the days when a writer was only expected to write and her publisher took care of getting the word out. Of course those were the days when each newspaper had its own book reviewer, and you could count on your local papers at least reviewing your book. Those were the days when Kirkus would review your book for FREE, and you could count on getting a review in Publisher’s Weekly if you had a reputable publisher. Now you have to be a marketer as well as a writer, or you have to be published by one of the big five. Those are the choices, and unfortunately, they are not ours to make.

Book sales.  Don’t you just love them (or lack of?)?  How are you making the sales happen for you?

As I mentioned above, the Booktrope method requires that you work with a book manager. My book manager is reaching out to book bloggers and reviewers and others on my behalf. Additionally, I have a book publicist who I have worked with for my last three books, and she will be creating a virtual book tour for me. So I’m hopeful that the book will get some attention.

What is one thing you’d like to jump on the rooftop and scream about?

I think I’d like to scream this: “Attention super smart movie executives, producers, directors, screenwriters and actors: The Last Wife of Attila the Hun is so perfect to be made into a movie. We’ve had the Hobbit, Gladiator, Alexander, and so many other male hero movies over the years. This story has a female hero (you would be perfect to play her, Mia Wasikowska), and a fabulously gory setting! Be the first to offer an option!” 

Okay, too much sugar for you today!  Here’s a nice cup of Chamomile tea and come on over and sit under the cabana and watch the waves roll in.  Now…can you tell us what you love about being a published author and how all those things above doesn’t matter because it’s all part of the whole scheme of things and you wouldn’t have it any other way?

I love to write. I love to write for my clients and I love to write for myself. Discounting the time I spend with my wonderful family and my dearest friends, there is nothing that makes me as happy as working on a project I feel passionate about.