Mark Gilroy

Bringing Books to Life!

Redundancy and Repetition: The Power of Doing the Same Thing Over and Over

Is it possible that redundancy is underrated?

Most of us value efficiency to a much greater degree. We want to drive redundancy out of our personal and corporate lives. Redundancy means wasted time and energy. Right?

But having spent more than 30 years in publishing, I’ve come to gain a begrudging respect for the sometimes necessary discipline called redundancy.

Just think about the book business. Everything is redundancy! (Is it any wonder I’m crazy after all these years?)

A writer writers a book. Then rewrites the same book. At least a couple more times. Then hands it to an editor who tells him or her how to rewrite it yet again to make it better. (The mean editors smile when they hand off their shopping list of improvements.)

When the writer is finished, the editor edits the same manuscript that has been worked over too many times to count. After that, a typesetter puts the very same manuscript into a professional and polished format, with a proof reader ready to make yet another round of marks.

What happens next? The editor and writer get to read the “blues” and then the “proofs” one more time – and invariably, find yet another error or way to improve the text. In the old days of publishing, when a writer wanted to rewrite at the “blues” stage, the contract outlined a series of fees since “cut and paste” really meant cut and paste back then.

After final corrections and changes are made, the book is printed, and a new person, the reader, pores over the same material – and sometimes finds yet another error.

Does anyone else circle printed errors they find in books?

But the end result of having numerous alert and adept people cover the same book is a work of power and beauty – or at least one that has its best chance of achieving that lofty status. (And yes, occasionally, too many cooks spoil the soup.)

The old cliche tells us that anything worth doing deserves our best effort. I couldn’t disagree more. There are a lot of activities in life that aren’t worth our best time and energy.

But some things are. Many things are.

And when we want to put our best foot forward, redundancy – another set of pushups, another read through and light edit, another prayer, another conversation – can be our best friend.

No surprise the carpenter’s motto is “measure twice, cut once.”

At the risk of being redundant, when something or someone matters to you, some extra attention and repetition – also known as redundancy – can go a long way to affirming that.

In Praise of the Napkin: A True Friend to All Creatives

For a writer, nothing beats a neat and orderly office; a clean and clutter-free desk surface; a carefully constructed outline; color-coded file folders with supporting materials that correspond with the outline; a cup of coffee that never gets cold; a sophisticated sound system that provides appropriate mood music that doesn’t put you to sleep but doesn’t get you engaged enough to hum or tap your toes; a family that understands you might be working even if you are at home; and as an extra hi-tech bonus, straight from Star Trek, the “cone of silence,” to shut out distractions. (The “cone of silence” might come from Get Smart.)

Did I mention a clutter-free desk surface and cup of coffee that is always hot?

I can dream can’t I? Like most writers I have a day job. Yours might be called mommy or insurance agent or teacher or preacher or barista or lawyer or salesperson. The day job and everything else life throws at us makes creating an ideal writing space next to impossible. And if we’re honest, even if we had nothing to do but write eight to ten hours a day, we would still probably have a cluttered desk and certainly have to warm up the cup of coffee regularly.

Trying to suppress the reality that writing under almost any circumstances is more than a little bit messy and chaotic—and living fully in the “paperless” digital world—I think one of the almost forgotten but greatest tools for the moonlight writer is the napkin. It actually doesn’t have to be a napkin; the back of a church bulletin or an out-of-date business card or an envelope works too. Even the ripped corner of a business report can work just fine—just make sure the boss isn’t watching when you tear it up.

The point is this: Great ideas for starting or fleshing out a short story or how-to or song lyrics don’t always come during dedicated writing time.  Ideas are often serendipitous—floating into our consciousness like a butterfly—there for a brief moment and just as quickly gone.

You need a way to preserve your brainstorms when they come, to be used when you do have time to write. A nice leather journal is great but too restrictive and probably a sign you are trying to perfect a process that is imperfect. I used to keep an electronic file called “Ideas” but it wasn’t always accessible when I needed it, even if I do use Google Drive now. I’ve texted and emailed myself from my Samsung Galaxy, but my thumbs aren’t quick enough to keep up with brain activity. Notecards are ideal but they don’t fit in a front pocket and I forget them anyway.

No. In the spirit of what writing is, herding ideas that run every direction like a thousand over-caffeinated rabbits, I think the napkin is appropriate. It serves as a symbol of multi-tasking—who says writers don’t get hungry?—and what is better for cleaning up messes?

Cherish your ideas when they come by writing them down on the back of a napkin. And if you forgot to bring a pen, ask the waiter if you can borrow hers or his!

Should You Consider Micropublishing Your Book? (What Really Goes Into Self-Publishing.)

My slideshow on micropublishing is a survey of the issues surrounding self-publishing. Don’t let the presentation format fool you – it covers all the bases.

Micropublishing from Mark Gilroy is on SlideShare.