Crystal Velasquez is a very busy managing editor at Ballantine Books and author of Your Life, but Cooler, a choose-your-adventure fantasy for young adults. Crystal is an accomplished production editor, copy editor, and proofreader as well as the author of Your Life, But Better, the forthcoming Your Life, But Sweeter, and several Maya and Miguel books based on the children's PBS series. Crystal graciously agreed to be interviewed about grammar, punctuation, and more here at Max Syntax.
Crystal will be appearing at the Barnes & Noble in Princeton, NJ, on May 15, but we have her here first!
Ellen Scordato: You're a professional copy editor and proofreader. How do you balance those roles with that of being a writer? Do you find yourself concentrating too much on your own grammar and punctuation instead of on your prose?
Crystal Velasquez: I find that when I'm in the middle of writing a book, I definitely have to take a hiatus from copyediting and proofreading. It's just too distracting to work on someone else's book while trying to write my own. If I'm proofreading something really great, it becomes intimidating. I end up thinking, "Oh, I should write something more like this." So if I just focus on my own writing, I feel a little freer and I don't worry so much about comparing myself to someone else. And yes, I do end up concentrating on my grammar and punctuation, especially if I'm copyediting something at the same time. I'll catch a mistake in a manuscript I'm working on and suddenly think, "Wait, did I do that in my own work? Yikes." And there have been times that I've written something that sounded good but was grammatically incorrect somehow, so I deleted it.
How did it feel when you got the copyedited manuscript back from the editor, marked with queries, changes, and errors of the type that you find in other writers' manuscripts?
I have to admit, I was embarrassed. I had this fantasy that my manuscript would be sent to a copy editor and they'd send it back with no marks on it at all because what I submitted was perfect. I mean, I value my reputation as a copy editor, a proofreader, and a production editor, so I should have caught all of my own mistakes, right? Wrong! My first drafts came back with red pencil marks all over the place. They contained all the same errors I find in manuscripts I edit for other people. I cringed every time I saw that I had omitted a period at the end of a sentence, or that I used the possessive "s" in some cases but not in others. I make it a habit to read everything I write out loud so that I can hear if anything is repetitious. And yet repetitive sections snuck in anyway. The copy editors found plot and timeline mistakes that I'm not sure I ever would have because I was almost too familiar with the material. In a choose-your-adventure book, all the various timelines need to be kept straight. Imagine my horror when I got queries like, "In this timeline, the character never bumped into that character, so this paragraph doesn't make sense," etc. And I am definitely guilty of making grammar and syntax errors. When I'm under deadline pressure, I find it's more important to get something written than to make sure every sentence is perfect. I knew the manuscript would then go to a great copy editor and thorough proofreaders who would make me look good. (Although I know I do avoid the most common errors that I see in manuscripts all the time. I remember feeling very proud of myself when I used the word "nauseated" instead of the often incorrectly used "nauseous" and the copy editor wrote in the margin "YES!" with a smiley face.) For that reason, I really don't get it when authors are so resistant to the copyediting process and end up stetting every query. My feeling is, if a certain line seemed awkward or if something I wrote confused the copy editor, odds are a reader would have the same reaction, so I'd better address it.
As a production editor of adult books, did you find any particular differences in syntax, grammar, and punctuation in writing for a young adult audience?
In some ways, writing for a young adult audience freed me to be a little looser with grammar, syntax, and punctuation. I am certainly more liberal with the use of exclamation marks, for example. And while I would definitely avoid sentence fragments, for example, in an adult novel, I'm not as opposed to them when writing a YA novel, mostly because the writing style is more conversational and colloquial. That's especially true of the Your Life, but... series since they are written entirely in second person, present tense. So it's as if the reader is being addressed by a slightly older, more knowledgeable friend who uses all the same slang as any other kid. However, at the same time, I don't want to reinforce any bad habits among young readers. Reading books when you're young is part of how you get a feel for proper grammar and punctuation. So even though a ten- or twelve-year-old might not know the difference between "farther" and "further," or "each other" and "one another," or when you should use a colon instead of an em-dash, I just can't bring myself to have one of my characters use the wrong thing, even if they would in real life. I feel like writers have more of a responsibility to young readers, who are learning from you, whether you like it or not.
Gentle readers, what grammar mistake would YOU be mortified to make? I'd hate to misuse a reflexive pronoun, myself.
Ellen Scordato has 25 years' book publishing experience as an editor, copy editor, proofreader, and managing editor. She's now a partner in The Stonesong Press, a nonfiction book producer and agency. In addition to her work at Stonesong, Ellen has taught grammar, punctuation, and style at the New School for more than 12 years in the English Language Studies department and is currently teaching English as a Second Language at Cabrini Immigrant Services.
