old muskoka road

I submitted the manuscript about a week ago (did you hear the cosmic boom?) Yes, it felt great! Yes, I feel lighter, more relaxed, able to lift my head above my computer screen and remember what else is happening in my life.

Geoff and I promptly went on a little getaway, then came back and did some fun home improvement projects. Nothing like new paint and light fixtures to generate fresh energy!

Gary (my master map-maker and book designer) kept busy in the meantime, as did my publisher. We now have a production schedule that will put the book in the hands of readers by about the end of May. That means:

• By March 20, the final manuscript, all illustrations and cover material need to be in the book designer’s hands.
• By April 30, the book goes to the printer.

Between now and March 20, lots happens:

1. Substantive Edit. In this process the editor reviews the structure and content of the manuscript and suggests reorganization or changes to clarify the text.
2. Introduction and cover ‘blurbs’. These are endorsements of the book by people who have knowledge of the area, topic, or are writers of similar kinds of books.
3. About the Writer, About This Book. These are short blurbs for the cover, and used in press releases.
4. Author Photos. (Two of them.)
5. Final decisions on illustrations. I’ve submitted over 90 photos and maps (not counting the custom maps). Both my book designer and my publisher have ideas for others that should be included.
6. Copy Edit. This is a detailed, line by line review for grammar, spelling, punctuation and other mechanics of style, plus consistency of language usage and of facts.

All of these are collaborative efforts between me, the publisher and book designer. Some of this work has already started, like changes to photos and maps, and preliminary book design. 

When all is final, I will see a “proof” of the book before it goes to print.

Meanwhile, we also start marketing. And did I mention the interactive website? Stay tuned – there’s more than new paint and light fixtures going on around here!

Subtitles for non-fiction books generally follow a formula: Title (usually in the form of a clever phrase or ‘hook’), then a colon, then the Subtitle (which usually explains what the book is about.) Here are two examples:

• Retail Nation: Department Stores and the Making of Modern Canada by Donica Belisle, and
• Boys and Girls in No Man’s Land: English Canadian Children and the First World War by Susan R. Fisher

It takes some time and effort to find a title that really nails the essence of a book and also helps it appeal to as wide a readership as possible. My very first draft of this was Muskoka’s Main Street: The Muskoka Colonization Road. Although we were both happy  with the title, my publisher and I wanted to expand the subtitle to include several key elements about the road, and also to draw in readers beyond the boundaries of Muskoka. So the subtitle evolved to “150 Years of Life Along an Ontario Colonization Road.”

I still wasn’t sure it captured enough essential elements of the book. So I turned to my trusted writers, Lynn and Jen, and we conducted a brainstorm session via email. (My facilitator friends will be interested to know this process worked fine, although without the same energy level as a live brainstorming session.)

The measure of a successful brainstorm is not the quality but the quantity of the ideas. No idea is “bad”‘; they all contribute to getting to a solution. Every suggestion sparks something else.

I started the ball rolling with several options, they responded with new suggestions, with combining some options, and suggesting elements they felt were essential, like including the phrase “Muskoka Colonization Road.” Over the course of two days, we played with about 20 different options, variations and permutations, until one emerged that met the criteria and satisfied all of us.

You may or may not agree with the final choice – and it may change again before final printing – but here is a peek at some of the ideas we went through to decide on a subtitle.

• Courage and Adventure on the Muskoka Colonization Road
• Free Land and  Heartache on the Muskoka Colonization Road
• Personalities and Perils on the Muskoka Colonization Road
• The Story of the Muskoka Colonization Road
• Stories of Courage and Adventure on the Muskoka Colonization Road
• An Ontario Colonization Roads Success Story
• How a Pioneer Road Carved the Canadian Shield and Opened Up Ontario’s Cottage Country
• 150 Years of History and Adventure on the Muskoka Colonization Road
• The Surveyors, Settlers and Entrepreneurs Who Built the Muskoka Colonization Road
• The Surveyors, Settlers and Entrepreneurs Who Carved a Road Through the Canadian Shield
• The Surveyors, Settlers and Entrepreneurs Who Carved a Community in the Canadian Shield
• The Surveyors, Settlers and Entrepreneurs Who Opened Up  Ontario’s Cottage Country
• The Adventure Story of One Ontario Colonization Road
• What it Took To Open up Ontario One Colonization Road at a Time

See how the process works? And how we built on ideas? And all the elements we were trying to include?

The final choice is this: Muskoka’s Main Street: 150 Years of Courage and Adventure Along the Muskoka Colonization Road. It captures the history, the name of the road and two key human elements – courage and adventure – at the heart of the book.

 What do you think?

“Kill all your darlings” is a piece of writing advice that is attributed to a couple of sources. American writer William Faulkner is most often credited, but he apparently paraphrased British writer Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch’s recommendation to “murder your darlings”. In any case, the advice is to delete anything you write that you particularly like, the logic being that if you like is so much you obviously are not being objective and therefore it must not be as good as you think. So cut it.

I’ve never liked this idea. I prefer the following formula: Draft 2 = Draft 1 – 10%. I believe any piece of writing can be culled by 10% and will be better for it. To me, using the formula allows for a more judicious pruning, not just a brute chopping of anything I think is particularly well written.

Before I finished my research for Muskoka’s Main Street, I still believed what many sources told me: that the road ended up in North Bay. During the time I was hunting down the truth about that, I did quite a bit of research on North Bay and learned some really interesting things about it. None of which is particularly relevant to my story, now that I know the road went nowhere near North Bay. But I like what I wrote, so I’ve kept it in. Until today, when I took out my literary surgical instruments.

So here are 344 words about the origins of NorthBay, which you will not be reading in Muskoka’s Main Street.

Sorry, darlings.