Ottevanger's Omphaloskeptic Outpost

[Karl Henning]

Well to be fair he did sort it out by himself, and the problem was at his end - but only after having asked me to do it. But now I'm worrying about how much he's going to want to tweak the content of the book, if the subtitle is causing disagreement! I've taken a very long time getting it exactly as I want, so I don't think I could cope with that!

Draw those deep breaths, and stand your creative ground!

[DavidW]

Do you mind if he changes the title to Check the Olive Oil: Collected Musings of Rob Newman, WAM and Luke Ottevanger?    

[Karl Henning]

Do you mind if he changes the title to Check the Olive Oil: Collected Musings of Rob Newman, WAM and Luke Ottevanger?    

ROTFLMAO

[Luke]

Been exchanging countless editing emails all night. Have got about 12 pages done of the book now, of about 300. I hope these dialogues don't all take place at this time of night! I don't get enough sleep as it is. But unfortunately I've learnt that the most productive time for my editor, the time you can really make progress if you catch him, is the middle of the night. He once sent me a sudden unexpected deadline at midnight, to be done by 6.00! Luckily I woke up and saw it at 2.00!

[Karl Henning]

Been exchanging countless editing emails all night. Have got about 12 pages done of the book now, of about 300. I hope these dialogues don't all take place at this time of night! I don't get enough sleep as it is. But unfortunately I've learnt that the most productive time for my editor, the time you can really make progress if you catch him, is the middle of the night. He once sent me a sudden unexpected deadline at midnight, to be done by 6.00! Luckily I woke up and saw it at 2.00!

Strength to you!

[Cato]

\]

Draw those deep breaths, and stand your creative ground!

Luke! 

I was afraid of this situation for you!

Editors - in my limited experience - are frustrated by their own lack of creativity, and often view authors as idiot savants, who need all kinds of guidance to make their manuscripts palatable and salable to the public. 

Yes, you might be quibbling about every sentence!

Editors should look for grammatical errors, typing errors, errors in consistency and logic, and let the content alone, unless they would like to suggest a way to expand something, about which the author would have the final word!

But you might have a micro-manager!  I once had an editor for a short story of mine, which she meticulously made dreadful and clumsy with every "suggestion" or "correction."  Nearly every sentence had an "improvement" of some sort: I vetoed almost all of them, but she refused to allow me that kind of power.

Eventually we compromised at about 50%, but I was not happy!   

She ended up making my story the lead one in her little magazine.

The other stories were drab and generally terrible, bleeding from the damage done by her red pens! 😇

[Luke]

Yes, it's a new thing for me, and yet one I had been expecting. Actually about 80% of his suggested changes are fine - in fact so fine that I can't always see quite what he's changed. It's just the odd thing, and when I raise them with him, again, about 80% of those he's happy to revert. It's just the stubborn remaining (quick, what's 20% of 20%?!) 4%(?) that is harder to clear up.

Separately, this morning, received this from Judith Weir, who is the other contemporary composer I have especially foregrounded in the book. I sent her the whole thing to look through, and these are her thoughts thus far. Lovely

Dear Luke

Thanks so much for sending this. Needless to say, I went straight to the pages referring to me/my music ! Thank you for foregrounding it (the music) so thoughtfully. You've somehow lifted those quotations from me out of their context of programme notes and interviews I was obliged to write at the time, and taken them back into the realm of imagination and sensitivity. I will soon start to read the whole book, and look forward to doing so.

That seeming clash of opinions I had with myself at the beginning and end of the book amused me! The realm of what we think we say, and what we remember being told, is surely a big and unexplored topic for writers. (I believe I've always thought that King's was a good place to study; whereas my thoughts about studying composition, and how anyway you can do that, must have often changed.)

Very best wishes for getting the final version "on the road".
Judith

[Luke]

Making slow but constructive progress. I think once we've ironed out the basic issues of how to adapt my ideas on layout, format etc to fit his own ways of working, we should start getting quicker. The pages that have been set so far look very nice indeed. It's going to be a good looking book.

[Karl Henning]

Making slow but constructive progress. I think once we've ironed out the basic issues of how to adapt my ideas on layout, format etc to fit his own ways of working, we should start getting quicker. The pages that have been set so far look very nice indeed. It's going to be a good looking book.

Excellent! As befits superb content!

[Guido]

Hello! Checking in again. Suddenly thought of you, and then remembered your book.hope you're well. On Amazon it now says February 2025 - is this correct? I seem to remember you saying April '24, and then June '24...

[(poco) Sforzando]

I'll be sure to buy it!

[Luke]

Hello! Checking in again. Suddenly thought of you, and then remembered your book.hope you're well. On Amazon it now says February 2025 - is this correct? I seem to remember you saying April '24, and then June '24...

Yes, the date keeps getting put back, because my editor works on it for a bit, then moves to other projects, then back to mine, and so on. The first part of the book is done and ready to go, but it's going to take some time to work through it all, and I think now he's begun it he realises it is quite a complex book and will take longer than he first imagined. The date you have seen - I hadn't seen it myself - sounds more realistic, but we'll see. It's coming, but don't hold your breath! Personally I'm not bothered, except that I'd like to move on and maybe begin another project, but it's hard to think about that when this one is still occupying my thoughts.

It's great to see you back - keep checking in!

[Luke]

I'll be sure to buy it!

Great, thank you!