Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Those Fandango new Word Processors

You know those curley cues you use around text. when you want to show your words in italics?

Of course you do! Doesn't everybody? If this is true don't bother reading further.

If you don't, they are called "Curley Brackets."

Writing ML has them so you can show italics, which is how "Interior dialog (ID)" appears to the reader.

Only the Central Character (CC) is supposed to use ID by convention, with the rationale being that if other characters all start showing their thoughts, it will confuse the reader. I can see instances where this might be a problem but the restriction is as likely to limit a writer as it will to aid a reader. After all, reader's aren't stupid. An avid reader is usually a cut above average.

One way I tell my writers to get around the limitation, is to name a chapter after a supporting character and have at it. If a Chapter is named Matthew, then showing Matthew's thoughts is not going to confuse anyone. Often I see, at WDC, a reviewer loudly proclaiming "HEAD HOPPING! HEAD HOPPING! when a supporting character has the audacity to reveal their thoughts.

I've been told that if an editor sees Head Hopping taking place they will assume the writer is a rank amateur and reject a submission out of hand. Give me a break! An author breaking in is probably going to have to self publish so what those editors think counts for little. It's the "Bean Counters," making the decisions these days and the only thing that matters is a manuscript which promises to make money. Money, as evidenced by sales they did little to promote. An editor these days is little more than an overpaid proof reader, so don't be intimidated by the title.

The industry has changed so dramatically in the past ten years that publishing, which once took a staff of hundreds, can now be accomplished by a single person, a modem and one of those fandango new word processing machines. I'm surprised any of the traditional publishing houses are still in business. If a writer can show a market for their book these parasites will come knocking at your door... and they won't be wearing that holier than thou sneer they once strutted and fretted. The strangle hold they once exercised is gone, and only the residue still remains, a bad memory in the minds of the aspiring writers, they treated like crap.