For our special Friday edition of the Writing Career Coach we continue with our interview of Kathy Ide, learn what PUGS are and how they can help your writing.
You’ve written some great resources for writers. Tell us about those.
Over the years I’ve been editing, I noticed that writers all tend to struggle with the same mechanical issues. I didn’t want to rely on what seemed right to me, or what I remembered from high school English. And different books had different answers. So when I was working with the commercial publishers, I learned which style guides and dictionaries the publishers use, and I started making a list of the rules and spellings I was looking up on a regular basis. After a while, that list grew to book length!
So I wrote a book highlighting the most common mistakes writers make. Polishing the PUGS: Punctuation, Usage, Grammar, and Spelling Tips for Writers (UpWrite Books, 2007) contains definitive answers based on the publishing industry’s standard references, including punctuation from The Chicago Manual of Style (for books) and The Associated Press Stylebook (for articles), plus spelling and usage from the dictionaries recommended by both style guides. There are also rules from The
In this book, I point out ten reasons writers need to polish their “PUGS.” One is that simple mechanical errors can change the meaning of a sentence. For example, if you wrote, “My husband Derek and I went camping last week,” without commas around Derek, you’d be implying that the man you vacationed with was only one of your husbands! If you had in your contract “The royalties will be divided equally between Mary, Ruth and Geraldine,” you might figure that each of you would receive a third of the money. But the absence of a comma before and, along with the use of the word between, would indicate that Mary gets one half while Ruth and Geraldine each receive a quarter of the money.
Many of the writers who’ve bought this book have told me that 95% of the questions they have are covered in Polishing the PUGS. Because it’s a small paperback (as opposed to The Chicago Manual of Style, which is a thousand-page hardback), it’s a lot easier to find what you’re looking for. And since it’s written by an average person rather than by a team of university professors, it’s easier to understand the explanations and examples. And, as one person told me, it hurts a lot less when you drop it on your toe!
I’ve also written two other books for authors:
You teach and speak at writers’ conferences, too, right?
About eight a year. I’ve taught at the ACFW conference, Glorieta, Inspirational Writers Alive in Houston,
You sure sound like a busy woman!
I am. And I love it. I can hardly believe I get to make a living doing something I enjoy so much.
But a couple of years ago, I realized I was so busy helping other writers get published, I wasn’t spending much time working on the novel manuscript God had called me to write. When one of my clients saw me passing out business cards at
On the five-hour drive home from
About six months ago I started a second organization called the
So in addition to my own editing and speaking, I’ve become an “editor services coordinator.” And I love that too!
Where do you sense God leading you next?
A couple of years ago, my dear friend and prolifically published author Cecil Murphey mentored me, and he suggested I get into ghostwriting. Though I’d collaborated with clients on about a dozen books, I hadn’t thought of focusing on that. However, since then, I’ve had numerous requests for ghostwriting and coauthoring. So, between Cec and God, I’m getting the feeling that this is the next step for me. I have several collaboration projects in various stages right now, and I’m very excited about this venture.
I’ve also been getting numerous indications that the time has come for me to get serious about my novel manuscript, which has been sitting on a back burner, mostly, for the past several years while I’ve been establishing and maintaining my editorial services and networks. I’m nearly finished with the manuscript (although, being a rather perfectionistic editor, I’m not sure I will ever feel that it’s truly “done”), and I have serious interest from some of the top
What do you do when you’re not writing, editing, or speaking?
I love spending time with my wonderful husband, Richard, who is an avid reader and movie-goer (like me). We enjoy taking road trips together and going house-boating and Jet Ski riding on
I have two grown sons. The older one,
I worship at
Since I live in
How can people order your books or find out more about your services?
They can visit my Web site at www.KathyIde.com. Or e-mail me at Kathy@KathyIde.com.
1 comment:
Kathy, great meeting you in Dallas. You were right: I have learned something from PUGS. I can truthfully say it's one of the best investments I've made.
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