Did you know –

– That To Love Mercy has a “Fog Index” of 5.0? What that means: It is
written at about a fourth-grade level, making it easier to read than 93
out of every 100 published books.

– That the average word in To Love Mercy contains 1.3 syllables? In
93 out of every 100 published books, the words are more complex. This

blog is more complex than To Love Mercy, for crying out loud.

But don’t dismiss To Love Mercy on that account. It contains more
total words than 53% of all published books and more sentences than 83%
of all published books.

And it’s a bargain. You get 6,687 words per dollar when you buy To Love
Mercy at Amazon.com.

You get 5,025 words per ounce, regardless of where you buy it.

Wow, huh?

I now know these facts (and more) courtesy of Amazon’s latest
innovation, “Text Stats.” Another new Amazon feature, called
“Concordance,” reports that the most frequently used word in To Love
Mercy is “got.”

You can see these mind-bogglers for yourself at
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/sitb-next/0974478539/ref=sbx_con/103-8242752-9223855?ie=UTF8#concordance.

Now, harken back with me to those halcyon days at City News Bureau of
Chicago, where I learned the craft of journalism and how to impersonate
a deputy coroner; and The Associated Press, where I gained polish and
got to write stories that newspapers actually would publish.

It was at The AP that I first heard of the Fog Index. The Fog (for
short) was held in high regard at The AP. We were actually encouraged to
write at fourth-grade level, or no more than fifth grade anyway. So I
learned early.

Now that I’m in my late-in-life literary career, has this knowledge
stood me in good stead? Well …

… the way I wrote it originally, To Love Mercy would not have scored
5.0 on the Fog. It sports a fifth narrator who spoke a much more literary
language, the Authorial Voice.

I loved this Authorial Voice. It permitted me to indulge in beautiful
descriptive language (well, I liked it, anyway). More importantly, the
Authorial Voice gave me critical distance from my characters, enabling
me to reveal things the characters could not know.

But my publisher and editor, Patrick Grace, said Author Voice had to go.
Four first-person narrators — plus a third-person narrator — is just
too complex a structure for a relatively short novel, he said. (Hey
fella! More sentences than 83% of published books! What the hell!!!)

Patrick wanted me to rewrite the entire book in third person. I refused
and we went to war. I showed the manuscript to my friends, who said my
way was best; Patrick showed it to his friends, who all said his way was
best. We lobbed authorities at one another for months, neither willing
to back down, until …

… Patrick showed it to one person he particularly respects, and that
person said: You’re right, the structure is too complex, Frank must
either rewrite the novel entirely in third person … OR FIRST PERSON.

Patrick suggested this new option rather diffidently. I listened,
considered, considered some more, and at last said … yeah, maybe I
could do that.

Getting rid of the Author Voice cost the novel some of those evocative
descriptions. And there are a few places where I have forced words into
the characters’ mouths to which they  simply are not entitled. But two
or three chapters work better as first-person narrations. So on balance
it was probably a good decision, or anyway a wash.

And it paid off in that hot 5.0 Fog rating. The AP would be proud.

Frank Joseph
www.tolovemercy.com

P.S. My interview Monday morning on WJR-AM NewsTalk 760 (Detroit) went
great. Hope some of you heard it. Next scheduled appearance is Saturday,
Aug, 19, 6 p.m., at Barnes & Noble in Bethesda MD.

And the publisher has just lined up a tour of Pittsburgh, Columbus,
Dayton and Cincinnati in October. Details will be posted shortly at
http://tolovemercy.com/frank_joseph_appearances.html, where you can
always view all my upcoming appearances.