So here I am, dragging through the index for 420 pages of the new book, The Complete Writer.
On the side, I index books for a living. I’ve gotten pretty good at it over the past several years. But must admit: indexing makes my eyes glaze over.
After I’d compiled this index, a previously unnoticed pagination error surfaced in the content. This dork-up required me to rewrite the whole damn index — that would be SEVEN single-spaced pages in 10-point type and double columns.
Then as I was contemplating the result, it occurred to me that the example I’d used for the chapter on how to write sex scenes was so tame that…well..it wasn’t really a sex scene. I’d tried to be nicey-nice, not wanting to offend anyone’s dainty sensibilities. Bad idea: offend no one, accomplish nothing. So I lifted a livelier scene from one of the Roberta Stuart books, a romp concocted by one of Camptown Races’ best writers. That changed the pagination again, from page 235 forward.
{sigh}
So now I had to rewrite the effing index again. It’s finally done, all the way from A for abstraction ladder to Z for Zinsser.
W… “How to Beat Writer’s Block”
As I got about into the R’s, it occurred to me an index to a book would serve nicely as an index to public speaking topics.
Yeah…
One of the plans for marketing this book entails doing presentations for groups of writers, students, and the like, at which I will offer folks a marvelous opportunity to buy the thing.
R…
….Revision
……..six-step strategy, 57-66
Et voilà! There’s a dog-&-pony show: “Six Steps to Revising Your Book”!
S…
….Scams, 343-49
S…”Six Scams to Avoid”
Yeah! “Avoid these Five Scams for Writers”!
Too, too good, isn’t it? Nowhere near as good as
S…
….Sex scenes, writing, 343-49
Woo hoo! “How to Write Sizzling Sex Scenes!”
It gets better and better.
Well, come Thursday I have to give a presentation to a business group I belong to. Now’s my chance to start practicing these things! 😀 I think probably “Scams for Writers” would be better for this august bunch than, say, “Sizzling Sex Scenes.” Not that they wouldn’t enjoy contemplating that particular aspect of the writer’s art. Just that…well…I’d never hear the end of it from that bunch. 😀
So there you go, fellow scribblers. If you have a nonfiction book that’s substantial enough for an index, use the index as a source for public speaking topics. The index entries work a lot better for the purpose than does the table of contents, because they’re much more specific: better focused. And if your index is complete, it’ll point you right to the material you need to create a presentation.
S…”How to Write Sizzling Sex Scenes”