Shakespeare And Urban Authors .
As an urban novelist, Shakespeare prompts me to ponder whether To Edit Or Not To Edit? That is the question!
Shakespeare couldn’t have asked a better question when he wrote the play containing Hamlet’s Soliloquy. I know many of you are asking “what the hell does Shakespeare have to do with Urban literature? Be patient, I’ll get to it. Most of you reading this have had to read at least some form of Shakespeare while attending an English class in high school– unless you were in remedial classes that had you reading Curious George, or you were just a lazy lump that didn’t bother to pay attention.
I didn’t particularly care for his writing during my school years. It wasn’t until later that I was reintroduced to him by way of his influence within contemporary films and other arenas of media. Suddenly I could relate to him.
Growing up in the inner city and, proud of my heritage, I thought he was just another icon of White America (and I’m not saying this to be prejudice, my recording manager was white and still is the last time I checked in with him just the other day). The angle that I am speaking of comes from the fact that Black (African) American history has been highly repressed during the time period in which I was growing up.
The vast amount of resources available today at the click of a button did not exist during my high school days. Nevertheless, when my English teacher Ms. Bryant introduced us to Shakespeare, I was overwhelmed when I found out that this dude — Celebrity, Poet and big Playwright of his day and ours — presented stories about us! The Tragedy of Othello, and the Moor of Venice, for example. And in the religion of Moorish Science it is well documented that people of African descent played a major role in their civilization.
Shakespeare And Urban Authors
I have also discovered recently that his influence has been injected into films such as Deliver Us from Eva (2003) where LL Cool J plays the bard in that film, which is based on Shakespeare’s play The Bard of Avon, or simply The Bard as it was called in England.
For those of you who are not familiar with the terminology, a bard simply put in modern terms was a man of high stature, who has a gift with words, a poet (slick-talker), and romantic was hired (pimped out) by others to woo a particular person or patrons on behalf of others, for whatever the underlying reasons would be.
Another movie is 2001’s ‘O’ short for Odin James a black all-star basketball player of a high school basketball team and his Snowbunny boo, played by Julia Stiles (Desdemona-Desi), who’s dating Mekhi Phifer’s Odin, a.k.a. Othello. The plot is based on supreme jealousy in which Josh Harnett’s jealous Hugo (a.k.a. Iago) convinces Odin into erroneously believing that Desi hasn’t been faithful, driving Odin into a rage killing both Desi and himself.
Moving forward, hence, now that we have made the not-so-odd connection of Shakespeare adjoining to urban fiction, we come to the point of our Nubian authors out there, and those of you who are not Nubian but can relate nevertheless.
The scene is set, and your work is done. You have just lifted up your busy fingers off the keys of your computer and your ass is tired from sitting all day like mine is now. You are smiling because what you have within your computer could be worth a million dollars one day. You go online later the next day or so wondering what the next step to come is in order to present your masterpiece to the world.
You come across several articles across the internet written by others telling you “Ma’am/Sir, you better get that manuscript edited before you shop it.” Within your mind you feel like saying, “Hey, no problem where do I send it?” But then you look at the price of many of the editing services offered to you, which sound cheap but are really trying to nickel and dime you to death. You check your pockets and your dreams become shattered like several kids throwing rocks at a glass house.
Although many companies offer services for as cheap as a few hundred dollars to as high as several thousand, which I think is utterly ridiculous — unless you’re foolish enough to write a book knowing that your grade average in English was a D minus . If so, then you’d pay dearly because you can’t get it done any other way; you would hiring for all intent purposes, a ghost writer.
Being frank as I usually am all, I can say is “If you cannot grasp Basic English then you should not attempt to write a book yourself with your own vernacular.”
First, let’s take a look at editorial services and what they offer to the author at hand. According to online services such as TOTALEDIT.com these services can be as simple as basic grammar and proofreading to more substantive edits which include structuring, readability, and publication assistance. Furthermore, it consists of vernacular skills that most average Americans don’t care to read about, such as prepositional phrases, first person plural pronouns, infinitive verbs, condensing, etc.
Knowing when, where and how to correct these items in an author’s body of work is very important indeed. But don’t get yourself too involved, because doing so will have you climbing the walls. For the average reader, they want to read a great story first and foremost. It should flow naturally. Grammatical errors should be proofed out. This is a dilemma for many urban fiction writers: they have the story, know how to tell, just can’t seem to get the grammar correct.
Questions arise such as should I use “Aint” Or “Am Not”? There are times when “correct” English doesn’t fit the scene; sometimes it just doesn’t sound right to the ears of the reader in a particular sentence; it doesn’t sound the way their environment sounds, making it unreal to him/her.
For example, here’s an original passage from my own urban novel Who Am I? The Chronicles of Cain, which is set in the underworld of the drug trade:
“Damn, cuz! I can’t believe that we did it! All this money!” said Rilla as he turned the ignition after inserting the key. Within seconds afterward, the rugged eight-cylinder engine roared to life as he pressed his foot heavily upon the gas pedal and drove away into the night. “Aye, fam,” said Edd, “don’t forget, that money we got back there ain’t really nuthin’ compared with the gwop we gonna make on Cain. Trust me on that… You ain’t seen nuthin’ until you’ve seen all the money that Cain makes.”
However, here is a make believe scenario where this same passage is put into the hands of a traditional editor who hasn’t a clue as to what urban vernacular consists of:
“Damn, cousin! I can’t believe that we did it! All of this money!” said Rilla as he turned the ignition after inserting the key. Within seconds afterward, the rugged eight-cylinder engine roared to life as he pressed his foot heavily upon the gas pedal and drove away into the night. “Aye, family,” said Edd, “don’t forget, the money we have back there isn’t anything compared with the money we are going to make with Cain. You can trust me about that… You have not seen anything until you’ve seen all the money Cain makes.”
Many traditional editors do not understand this, and that’s one of the main reasons you as an author are obligated to edit your own manuscript — at least two or more times before passing your body of words to someone else to review and complete. And, when you do pass it off to an editor, be very clear on the style of the writing and the urban context of the characters.
I believe in the philosophy that no one can know a story better than its creator. By staying on top of your game, and knowing what you are putting out there for your audience, you can be assured that at least 90% of your original work remains in tact: no one wants to spend countless hours upon hours correcting someone else’s work. Yes, believe it or not editors have a life too. So make their jobs easier by editing your own work before passing it along, and don’t overkill your story by using too much slang, or other verbiage which can lose potential readers in the process.
If you can’t pay for the services of an editor, do your best on your own, have a friend help, because even if you were to spend a million bucks on your manuscript and had it edited by the best in the world, any publishing company that accepts your work will make changes by their own staff to mold your work into what they believe will benefit the both of you.
Therefore, keep everything balanced and don’t over-think yourself. One sentence or minor mistake will not kill your story. For even the best known writers of today have typos within their work, so don’t be ashamed if your book has a mistake or two within. To my knowledge I have never heard anyone reading my story or any other say, “Man, Cheese I was really feeling your story but I couldn’t get into it because there was missing comma after…”
Yes, I said it. And trust me, I don’t follow crowds, crowds follow me. I also know that this article might have its own editorial problems. Did you get the meaning anyway? That’s the point; the story is the star, not the grammatical perfection.
The message is clear: if you’re a writer, then write; a storyteller, then tell stories through that writing. proof it yourself. Take a break. Come back and proof it again with fresh eyes. Then, and only then, let a 3rd party read it anew and make final corrections. The editing services want the most money that they can get out of you. Use them sparingly. Any extra money you can save by putting in the extra hours yourself, and employing the help of friends, is money you can more importantly use on marketing and promotion.
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