Editing your own work is difficult, because in our minds, each sentence was a gem when we wrote them, but stepping back and looking at your work with new eyes, often means doing some dissecting Sometimes we need to tighten a novel for the publisher’s word count,and always, we know the process improves our writing and gives us a better story. If you study articles and books on craft, you’ll pick up some key editing ideas and have some new ways to tighten and brighten your novels. Think about some of these concepts, and see what they can do for you.
• Motivation-reaction unit provides logic. Sol Stein, Techniques of the Selling Writer• Sentences and paragraphs need cause/effect arrangement. Strunk & White, The Elements of Style• “The road to hell is paved with adverbs.” Stephen King, On Writing• The most important/empathic word ends the sentence. Margie Lawson, Lawson Writer’s Academy http://www.margielawson.com/ and Strunk & White, The Elements opf Style
• Use beats instead of tags. Browne and King, Self-editing For Fiction Writers• Revise with a scissors - Strunk & White, The Elements of Style
Motivation-Reaction
Though I’ve mentioned this before, use it when dissecting your work in the final edits. MR unit refers to: Motivation (the stimulus that motivates action) and Reaction (how the person responds to the stimulus. Motivation always comes before reaction. That’s logical. You wouldn’t duck a bullet, if you didn’t see a gun or hear one. Stein indicates that reaction also has an order: an emotional response, followed by action, followed by speech. Example:
A spotlight ripped through the window. Russell’s panicked as he leaped back and closed his eyes to the glare. “Who’s there?” As you write, make sure that you place motivation/stimulus before the action and speech.
Cause/Effect Arrangement
In a similar vein, each sentence should follow the same motivation/stimulus idea. As you write a sentence makes sure that the cause comes before the effect. Example:
He noticed the cloud-filled sky when raindrops of rain struck his arm.
When raindrops struck his arm, he noticed the cloud-filled sky. Better.
As you edit your novel, look for proper cause/effect arrangement.
Her pulse skipped when she heard the telephone.
Which comes first? The call or the skipping pulse? That’s easy, but when you first look at that sentence, you may not have noticed that the cause and effect were out of order.
When she heard the phone, her pulse skipped. Now it makes sense.
What’s wrong with this sentence?
Hearing the phone, her pulse skipped.This is another common writing error. The verbal phrase has to match the subject it’s related to. In this sentence, ask yourself who is hearing the phone? Her pulse or the woman? Again, the answer is easy. Therefore the sentence structure is wrong. Phrases must match the subject.
The Plight Of Adverbs
Adverbs are defined as words that modify a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a preposition, a phrase, a clause, or a sentence. What is modify? You know the answer – to change or alter. Since this post is focused on verbs, the big question is why do you need to modify a verb when you have choices beyond imagination? Why not choose the verb that is perfect for your novel?
I’m sure most of you are doing just that. If you mean the person ambled, you won’t write walked slowly. Slowly doesn’t really give a vivid picture of walking with an ambling pace. You can use meander, tiptoe, creep, inch, moseyed or waddled. Each of these words present a distinct image of how the person is walking slowly.
He ambled into the room.
He meandered into the room.
He tiptoed into the room.
He crept into the room.
He inched into the room.
He moseyed into the room.
He waddled into the room.
In each case the person is walking slowly, but each of those words create a different image. Amble seems casual. Meandered gives a picture of wandering. Tiptoed is offers a more stealthy pace. Crept can be seen as sneaking for either good or bad purpose. Inched adds hesitation. Moseyed takes you out west and adds a bit of whimsey. Waddled either reflects a fat person or someone who is more elderly. The specific word creates a clear and vivid image. Don’t settle for spoke slowing, spoke loudly, looked deeply, walked slowly, walked fast, spoke fast, drove wildly, and on and on. Find the best word picture you can. You benefit in two ways. If you need to cut word count, this is a good way to do it, and next you give your readers a lively and accurate view of the character and how he is behaving.
Dissecting Your Novel will continue with part 2 when the last three elements will be covered.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Your Novel’s Going Nowhere
Most authors at one time or another look back over the pages of their newly inspired novel and realize something happened to their inspiration. The book seems to be going nowhere. The idea has lost its punch, and your writing seems to be mundane. Maybe you have hope. Some of the book is great, brilliant even, but you’ve found portions that are unquestionably lackluster. Instead of passing the story off as lost, take some steps to re-rev the motor and add some zip to the stalled novel.
Take A Break
If you’ve been imbedded in the story for the past weeks, even months, your mind is saturated with the plot and the characters. Step back. Set the manuscript aside. Take a week’s vacation, even two weeks. Or perhaps work on a new project. The important action is to stop thinking about the story and characters. Allow your mind to move in other directions. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, we’ve all heard, and sometimes stepping away from a project and returning a week or so later will give you a fresh perspective. The time lapse will help you identify where the novel is weak. Do you need more action? More hooks? Deeper characterization? Is the dialogue dull? Use a highlighter of varying colors or symbols in the margin to indicate where and what you need to add, change, or cut. Once you’ve made your way through the manuscript, you will have a better idea what’s needed and how you can get the novel back in the race.
Try Fresh Eyes
Taking a break from the novel gives you a better perspective, but finding an avid reader who loves the genre you’re writing is another alternative. You don’t have to look for another writer for a critique. Instead ask your friend, acquaintance or family member to read the story and make notes in the margin where the story drags, when they don’t care about the characters, when they feel no concern or emotion, when they want to turn pages to get to the good part. These notes from fresh eyes—especially a reader’s eyes—can be invaluable to give you clues as to where the story is sagging and can offer you ideas on how to make it sparkle.
Scrutinize The Story
Authors are inspired by a story idea. The plot begins to form around the main purpose for writing the book—to show how trust is a must in any relationship, to show that happiness is internal and not external, to demonstrate the strength of a mother or father’s love, to illustrate how opposites can form a strong, committed relationship. Novels come with a purpose, a message, a lesson, a truth. Review your novel by scenes and ask yourself if this scene moves the story forward toward its purpose and the character’s goal. Perhaps you took detour and need to get back on the road. Perhaps the detour is good, but it needs to tie more closely to the purpose of your story.
Search for Weaknesses
Most authors know what techniques or elements of fiction are their weakest. If dialogue is a problem, dissect the conversations between characters and begin to cut the go-nowhere verbiage that’s not needed. When readers are weighed down by unimportant dialogue that’s not moving the plot and purpose forward, they skip over it and may miss the one important piece of dialogue you want them to hear. If you aren’t great at descriptions, as you read the scenes ask if these characters are talking heads—people who aren’t relating to their surroundings. If so, add pieces of meaningful description through character action or introspection. She set the teacup on the saucer, kicking herself for agreeing to meet Milly in a stupid teashop. Now we know where the scene is set and her attitude toward teashops. Do you love descriptions? Maybe you’ve given too many details and have saturated the reader who is looking for action.
Everything Is Sunshine
Readers want tension and conflict. When everything turns out right, a plot can sag and a story becomes boring. Without tension and conflict, you have no novel. Review your scenes and add tension. Do things to the characters that are unexpected—her best friend lets her down, her husband forgets her birthday or their anniversary, the promotion he wanted isn’t what he expected, only a few show up to the well-planned party, instead of a raise he learns his job will be outsourced. As you read your scenes, ask yourself what you can include or take away that will add tension or conflict to the scene.
These are only a few of the techniques you can use to improve your novel. Sometimes the solution must be more dramatic. Scuttle it and start again, but hopefully some of these methods will rekindle the excitement you felt when the story idea first struck you, and your story will be on the right road again.
Take A Break
If you’ve been imbedded in the story for the past weeks, even months, your mind is saturated with the plot and the characters. Step back. Set the manuscript aside. Take a week’s vacation, even two weeks. Or perhaps work on a new project. The important action is to stop thinking about the story and characters. Allow your mind to move in other directions. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, we’ve all heard, and sometimes stepping away from a project and returning a week or so later will give you a fresh perspective. The time lapse will help you identify where the novel is weak. Do you need more action? More hooks? Deeper characterization? Is the dialogue dull? Use a highlighter of varying colors or symbols in the margin to indicate where and what you need to add, change, or cut. Once you’ve made your way through the manuscript, you will have a better idea what’s needed and how you can get the novel back in the race.
Try Fresh Eyes
Taking a break from the novel gives you a better perspective, but finding an avid reader who loves the genre you’re writing is another alternative. You don’t have to look for another writer for a critique. Instead ask your friend, acquaintance or family member to read the story and make notes in the margin where the story drags, when they don’t care about the characters, when they feel no concern or emotion, when they want to turn pages to get to the good part. These notes from fresh eyes—especially a reader’s eyes—can be invaluable to give you clues as to where the story is sagging and can offer you ideas on how to make it sparkle.
Scrutinize The Story
Authors are inspired by a story idea. The plot begins to form around the main purpose for writing the book—to show how trust is a must in any relationship, to show that happiness is internal and not external, to demonstrate the strength of a mother or father’s love, to illustrate how opposites can form a strong, committed relationship. Novels come with a purpose, a message, a lesson, a truth. Review your novel by scenes and ask yourself if this scene moves the story forward toward its purpose and the character’s goal. Perhaps you took detour and need to get back on the road. Perhaps the detour is good, but it needs to tie more closely to the purpose of your story.
Search for Weaknesses
Most authors know what techniques or elements of fiction are their weakest. If dialogue is a problem, dissect the conversations between characters and begin to cut the go-nowhere verbiage that’s not needed. When readers are weighed down by unimportant dialogue that’s not moving the plot and purpose forward, they skip over it and may miss the one important piece of dialogue you want them to hear. If you aren’t great at descriptions, as you read the scenes ask if these characters are talking heads—people who aren’t relating to their surroundings. If so, add pieces of meaningful description through character action or introspection. She set the teacup on the saucer, kicking herself for agreeing to meet Milly in a stupid teashop. Now we know where the scene is set and her attitude toward teashops. Do you love descriptions? Maybe you’ve given too many details and have saturated the reader who is looking for action.
Everything Is Sunshine
Readers want tension and conflict. When everything turns out right, a plot can sag and a story becomes boring. Without tension and conflict, you have no novel. Review your scenes and add tension. Do things to the characters that are unexpected—her best friend lets her down, her husband forgets her birthday or their anniversary, the promotion he wanted isn’t what he expected, only a few show up to the well-planned party, instead of a raise he learns his job will be outsourced. As you read your scenes, ask yourself what you can include or take away that will add tension or conflict to the scene.
These are only a few of the techniques you can use to improve your novel. Sometimes the solution must be more dramatic. Scuttle it and start again, but hopefully some of these methods will rekindle the excitement you felt when the story idea first struck you, and your story will be on the right road again.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
