Editorial Notes = clarifying information, additional insight, annotations

Hiya Reader,

After much paperwork and many months of waiting, my proprietary Butterfly Blueprint® framework now officially carries the federally-registered trademark symbol! Clients who choose to work with me already choose me for a number of important reasons including the trust such a mark conveys, so in that sense, nothing has changed.

But crossing this hurdle is nevertheless a big milestone for me and I'm excited, so please be excited for me, too! 🎉🎉🎉

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Example of the Week

Sometimes this is a good example—or a great one. Sometimes this is a bad example—or just a funny blooper. Sometimes a combination. You never know.

I've always loved small things. Dioramas, dollhouses, all baby animals (including icky reptiles). Miniatures captivate me. This also includes very short writings, such as flash fiction and memoir. Hemingway's example is famous: "For sale: Baby shoes, never worn." Gutting. A cast of characters and a rainbow of emotion are conjured here in just six words.

Here's a micro memoir from Beth Ann Fennelly titled "I Come from a Long Line of Modest Achievers." It's more than six words of course, but it nevertheless conveys so much in so little:

I'm fond of recalling how my mother is fond of recalling how my great-grandfather was the very first person to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge on the second day.

Actionable Tip of the Week

A trick to add to your self-editing toolbox right now!

My registered trademark status is not the only hurdle I've crossed recently: I have — after eight years of blood, sweat, and actual tears — completed the manuscript for my second book. Hooray for me!

That means I will now concentrate my efforts on researching two things: literary agents and appropriate presses that do not require agent submissions. 🤯 Fortunately, I've navigated the world of publishing for enough time that I have at least identified my starting points, but the task is daunting all the same. Probably more on this to come.

In the meantime, I've shipped the manuscript off to two professional beta readers. Selecting them required significant research, but I'm pleased by my choices and excited to receive their feedback. While I've served as a professional beta reader for clients of my own, this is my first time in the hot seat. Hopefully, I have taken all my own advice and done a thorough job of self-editing, fixing the problem issues I identified in multiple rounds of revision. My beta readers will be able to tell me where I might still need to put in some work to fix any weak structure, incomplete character and plot arcs, or poor pacing, not to mention any other issue I'm as yet unaware of.

Engaging a beta reader (or multiple readers) is a strategy I fully believe in and wholeheartedly recommend. But how to find a quality professional for the purpose?

Ay, there's the rub.

Go on Upwork or Fiverr or another similar site and in less than 30 seconds you'll find a number of freelancers who've hung out such a shingle. Are they qualified? Trustworthy? Any good?

I guess anything is possible. But you usually get what you pay for, and the prices are insanely low, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say no.

Ah! There it is! I've mentioned (and repeated) that ugly word. Money. Yes, you should expect to pay (I'll repeat it again) money for a professional beta read. And yes, even if you know — or know of — people who are also writers or have friends willing to do so for free.

Your friends, even if they're knowledgeable, are unlikely to read your manuscript at the necessary remove. They know you, so even if you write crime fiction or fantasy or gardening how-tos, the perspective they bring is not the detached reader perspective (i.e. your intended audience) that a beta reader by definition brings to the table.

(And this brief argument doesn't even scratch the surface of the innumerable strata problems inherent with allowing an unqualified reader to give you input. There's just not enough space here to cover even the most cursory things that could go wrong in this scenario.)

I don't recommend hiring a professional beta reader too early in your writing process. Nor do I recommend hiring anyone until you're able to clearly articulate what questions you want answered in addition to whatever else the reader needs to bring to your attention — and what feedback you definitely don't want or need. That said, plan to build a professional beta read into your budget. It's money very well spent.

And while mine are reading away, I get to work on my dreaded query letter!

Reader Question of the Week

Sheila wrote: A recent USA Today headline: "Michelle Obama posts rare photo of youngest daughter Sasha for 24th birthday"

Unless the Obamas have a third child only USA Today knows about, please comment on the persistent misuse of youngest and oldest when referring to 2 children.

Sheila! How lovely to have one of my pet peeves brought up for discussion without any effort on my part!

First, the wording is incorrect because it uses a superlative adjective instead of a comparative adjective. When comparing just two things, we should use the comparative form (better, worse, more interesting), and when comparing three or more items, we should use the superlative form (best, worst, most interesting).

With the grammatical explanation out of the way, why the "persistent misuse?"

Superlatives can sound more emphatic, formal, or smarter — "best" feels stronger than "better." It's the same phenomenon that causes people to use five dollar words like utilize, procure, or implement instead of use, get, or do. I'm not arguing that a simpler word is always a better choice (see what I did there?), but we all know people with the kind of verbal tic that comes off as pompous rather than clear.

But most of the time, it's just habit — the source of all kinds of errors, not just in language use. We use superlatives all the time in casual conversation, and everyone knows what is meant. When we "put our best foot forward," no one wonders which of three (or more!) moves first. Or what about having "the best of both worlds" and so on. (Yes, I know these idioms are not as straightforward as all that, but again, I'm referring to how they are popularly used and why the superlative "sounds right.")

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Link of the Week

Hello to my sweet-toothed comrades! Steamed chocolate pudding, a recipe passed down to me from my great-grandmother to grandmother to mother, is a holiday staple in my family, served with a great heaping scoop of "hard sauce:" butter and powdered sugar and vanilla. Are your teeth tingling yet?

No Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner is complete without it. And though you can use cocoa powder, Baker's chocolate is superior. Did you know that Baker's chocolate was not made for bakers? It's true.

Guess we wouldn't have been misled if Mr. Hannon had made it back from the West Indies. Alas.

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I ❤️ Hearing from You!

Comments? Just reply to this email or click this link. I respond to every email—that's a promise.

Thanks for reading!

~Helene, your writing sherpa

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P.S.

You've done the hard work of self-editing (using the techniques I teach, I hope!) but now you need fresh, professional eyes to see what you can't. As someone who's guided countless writers through structural challenges, character development, and pacing issues, I bring that same discerning eye to your work. I read with the detached perspective your story needs — not as your friend who knows you, but as your ideal reader who doesn't. Ready to discover what's working brilliantly and what still needs attention? Just reply to the email or click here for my Contact page.

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