Editing Tips

Tightening Up
You will probably find that the opening of your first draft has been more of a warming up exercise, a way of breaking yourself in gently to the often daunting task of filling that first blank page. Strangely, these initial efforts can persist through any number of drafts, and it’s only when you eliminate them and see that nothing’s been lost that you realise what has happened.

Similarly, the ending of the first draft – often persisting through version after version – merely reflects the fact that you are unwilling to let go of something to which you have become deeply attached. Sometimes you just have to be ruthless with yourself.

Sentences and Pace
Are your sentences long and complex, or short and pithy? If the length varies throughout the piece, are they randomly varied or does there seem to be some sort of correlation between sentence length and content? In general, there’s a tendency for long sentences to slow the action down, while short sentences speed it up. Many writers do this unconsciously, but knowing about it puts you in charge. You should aim for an equal balance of long and short sentences, but you can alter the balance to suit the pace of your work.

Passive and Active Voice
Compare ‘Arthur sharpened the axe’ and ‘The axe was sharpened by Arthur’. The first sentence is active – the subject of the sentence is doing the action and therefore more immediate and engaging. The second sentence is passive – the subject of the sentence is having something done to it and therefore more wordy and potentially more abstract. Always try to use active verbs – make the verb muscle the sentence. How else can you say ‘is’ and ‘was’?

Abstractions and vagueness
Although an image may be perfectly clear to you, to the reader, it may be abstract. ‘She washed the shrunken wrinkled green sheets, layered them into a bowl and decorated them with slices of iced cool eyes and pebble sized tomatoes.’ (cf. ‘She made a salad.’) Tell it as it is.

Article found http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/getwriting/module3p.

Procrastination

I should be studying for my finite automata exam. Really, I should. However, I find myself procrastinating. Which is funny, because usually I use my studying and classwork as a way to procrastinate from my writing. Now, I’m procrastinating from the very thing that allows me to procrastinate.

Why am I procrastinating from my writing? Well, because when I look at the page, I sigh and my shoulders slump, rather than smile and put my eager fingers to the keyboard. Like I said before, I know where I want to go next. What I don’t know, what the characters refuse to tell me, is what path to take in order to get there. And no, I am not schizophrenic, though sometimes my mother worries I might be when I start talking about my characters as if they were alive.

The interesting thing about this (to me, at least) is that I have to write. I need to write. Not writing causes actual changes in personality. Feel free to picture a Jekyll/Hyde situation, but only because it’s amusing, not because it’s true. I do become a little more cranky, but the main thing is, I feel a lot more stress when I don’t write. Being a person generally inclined towards stress (and here my friends laugh and shake their heads at me because they know that’s an understatement), having a writing outlet has become an integral part of my personality, especially if I want to maintain general content (the adjective, not the noun).

I’ve heard from multiple people that this…need rather than want to write is what makes me a “serious” writer. I heard it earlier today, actually. Does it make me a serious writer? Perhaps so. I can’t be sure, I only know my experience with writing. I do know that there is a direct correlation between how stressed I am, and how long ago I last wrote something “creative.” Or sometimes since the last time I wrote anything, period.

So, I suppose my main hope is that by writing this entry, I will have gotten the procrastination blues out of me. That I will turn from my monitor excited to study finite automata, context-free grammars, and regular languages.

Or…at least helped you all to procrastinate a little with me.

In French, Chat Chapeau

I forgot to mention that this past week, The Cat in the Hat turned 50. I have very fond memories of that book, and the little musical cartoon movie. Dr Seuss’s nonsensical words, among many other things from my childhood (Sesame Street, The Letter People, Reading Rainbow, and Wishbone), gave me my love of language.

So, happy birthday, Mr Cat.

Romance Writing Tips

A Fine Romance
It’s stating the obvious, but romance is vital to any romantic fiction and needs to be central to your story. You can mix in other themes and genres, such as a mystery to solve or a pointed commentary on modern living, but it’s the passion between two (or more!) people which takes precedence. Don’t short-change your readers by starting out with what appears to be a romance, but ends as a political thriller.

Market Research
If you want to submit your stories to magazines, do your research. Read your target publications to see what kind of material they print, and contact the magazine itself to ask for their guidelines. You will undoubtedly get some rejections at first, but take note of any advice they provide in the rejection letter – if they’ve taken the time to give you a personal response, the chances are you’re on the right lines!

Spicing Things Up
Clichés are a fact of life, but try to avoid them at all costs. Play with the words to make them fresh and even a creaky line like, ‘He kissed her tenderly on the lips,’ can be spiced up with some imagination. Alternatively, make something unique about the setting or whatever happens next so that your work stands out. Be careful with comedy though – it needs to be carefully administered and a misplaced gag can ruin the romantic effect you’re trying to create.

Writing tips found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/getwriting/module26p.

Shameful Admission

All right kiddos, it’s admission time: I have let life get in the way of my writing. I know, I know, one should always make time to write. That’s been my personal mantra the last couple months, anyway. However, there have been extenuating circumstances, such as my health, school…basically, the sources of big bummers in my writing life.

As such, in this semi-depressed mood that always seems to fall during the last final weeks of winter, I have lost the will to write. I want to write, but every time I open the file, I just stare at the last bit I wrote. I can’t get past the last paragraph, because I hate it so. I take it away, and I can’t write anything new because…I can’t? This is the oddest sort of writer’s block I’ve ever had. I know where I want to go next. I just can’t transition to that point. Usually, I don’t know where I want to go next, I panic, and the Block Against Writing pummels me to the point that my ego breaks, and, to add insult to injury, throws me in a pit to fend off Doubt, Anxiety, and Cliche-Turns-of-Phrase.

It’s a traumatic experience.

But this time, I feel different. I’m in the dark but I can see the light; I can almost reach its source, I just can’t seem to unsquint my eyes long enough to know exactly where to grab.

So, I’m waiting. I’m letting it come to me, rather than forcing it out like I did with NaNoWriMo. Each night, I think about my characters rather than worry about my health or school: I do this so I will dream about my characters–my dreams tend to be eerily vivid and dreaming about my characters brings me some of the most interesting ideas. (Not that it’s worked yet in this instance, but it doesn’t hurt to try?)

Anyway, I thought I would throw this out to the blogosphere*. Maybe letting some steam off will allow my ideas to cool and solidify into something I can actually write about.

* blogosphere: the social phenomenon of blogs linking to other blogs. Term respectfully taken from Questionable Content.

On Writing Romance

Here is an interesting essay about writing romance that I found at the BBC – Get Writing website.

Writing Romantic Fiction
by Katie Fforde

A Broad Genre
The Brontës, Sophie Kinsella, Phillippa Gregory, Helen Fielding and Jane Austen – they all write or wrote romantic fiction. It’s a large and generous genre but while many books have a romantic element, they can’t all be classed as romantic fiction. For example, The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk has a wonderful thread of romance running through it, but the romantic aspect isn’t what the book is about.

Romantic novels are mostly aimed at and written by women, but not exclusively so – some books are also written by men. Some men found it expedient to write under women’s names, but nowadays I don’t think it’s necessary. Alan Titchmarsh, Tony Parsons and Mike Gale, for example, all fit comfortably under the umbrella. Books with a male protagonist have all the same elements but from a different angle, because men and women share many of the same doubts and uncertainties.

But think very hard about writing from a woman’s point of view if you’re a man – your readers will notice instantly if you get it wrong. Women writing from a male perspective are more likely to get away with it simply because most of their readers are women themselves and so are less likely to notice mistakes.

The romance in a romantic novel doesn’t need to be traditional, but there has to be some element of sexual desire. The relationship between a mother and son, however touching, would not qualify. The protagonists certainly don’t have to be a man and a woman, the man being older, cleverer and richer than the woman. Same sex relationships, older women with younger men, people of different races and religions can all work very well if you really know your background.

Quote: Novels are Today’s Mythology

If it is written and read with serious attention, a novel, like a myth or any great work of art, can become an initiation that helps us to make a painful rite of passage from one phase of life, one state of mind, to another. A novel, like a myth, teaches us to see the world differently; it shows us how to look into our own hearts and to see our world from a perspective that goes beyond our own self-interest. If professional religious leaders cannot instruct us in mythical lore, our artists and creative writers can perhaps step into this priestly role and bring fresh insight into our lost and damaged world.
- A Short History of Myth by Karen Armstrong

From the Notebook: Victorian Courting Customs

First thing’s first: someone has randomly thanked me for posting in this journal, and encouraged me to keep up the good work. I don’t know who wrote the comment, but let me thank you for leaving it. Writing is a lonely adventure sometimes. Random, anonymous comments, while frustrating because the commenter remains mysterious, are greatly appreciated. Not to gush or anything, because the comment is a little sparse, but I’ve been having a semi-bad week thanks to school stresses and residual back/leg pain from an injury, and this random comment completely made my day.

All right. Now that I’ve managed to contain my pleasure, I thought I’d treat you all with a little bit of something something from my notes about courtships. I missed Valentine’s Day, but February is the month of love and hey, I am a romance writer, so here’s an excerpt from my research journal:

Courtship at most formal:

• Man wants to marry?
  1. Consider future prospects, financial position –> justify his trying to attract women?
  2. See if chosen women return his affection “with delicacy and caution to avoid compromising her” (can happen even before meeting the girl)
     -Might see her in church, at a ball, be family friend
  3. If haven’t met her before, arrange for mutual friend to introduce him to family
     -If no mutual friend, good sign the idea should be dropped cuz families don’t run in same social circle
• Girl and Guy meet in family circles with at least one married member present…allows girl to “assess his worth”
  -Does he diss women? Does he attend church? Are his hobbies “low and vulgar?”
  -He also can’t be lazy, eccentric, frivolous or foppish
  -He better have enough biz interest to ensure they’ll have future $$ 

  -Also allows him to see if she is attentive to her duties, respectful/affectionate to parents, kind to siblings, mellow…

• If she turns out to be a flirt or he a jerk, they can remove themselves from the courtship at this process and not feel guilty
• Now he can speak to her father. If dad’s agreeable, speak to daughter

Parent’s involvement along gender lines: dad takes care of financial concerns, mom looks at social compatability.

If all looks good, invitations set so couple can meet, give talking opportunities…

Information gleaned from Inside the Victorian Home: A Portrait of Domestic Life in Victorian England by Judith Flanders

In other words, courtship was a business back then. I’m not sure how many happy couples were created out of such a courtship system, but given the number of romantic fiction authors, I hope there were a lot. Or at least a few. But then, given the divorce rate these days, and, knowing that for many couples, the divisive topic was money, maybe we should consider marriage more of a business than we do?

Anyway, Happy belated Valentine’s Day! May your muse bless you with beautiful prose that befits the month of love.

Building Novel Templates

I found this article online to help you structure your projects. It seems simple enough, and isn’t a strict outline, which I have never been able to do. Instead, it helps you make a list of major plot points, which does make it seem suspiciously like an outline. Perhaps it’s just how Parnell talks about his method, but I just seemed to find this article helpful. Give it a try, it might help with your writer’s block (even if you are in the middle of a project).

Building Novel Templates
by Rob ParnellFirst, know your characters inside out, work through a rough story outline either in your head or on paper, making sure it’s your characters that define the story and not the other way round. Okay, so that’s the tough bit. Now for the easy bit:

1. Get a piece of paper and write 1 to 10 down the left hand side with plenty of space for writing in between.
2. Next to No 1, write Intro.
3. Next to No 10, write Finale
4. At No 1, write one sentence, no more, describing your opening scene.
5. At No 10, write one sentence describing the last scene in your book.
6. For instance, if you were writing a love story, next to No 1 you might write: ‘Jane finds herself alone after husband John dies’
7. At No 10, you might write ‘Dirk asks for Jane’s hand in marriage.’ It’s simplistic I know but that’s almost the point.
8. Now, against 2 to 9, write down the major plot points that will take your reader from the beginning of your novel to the end. These will act as cues for scenes in your writing.

Now read it through. Is there logic? Does it seem satisfying? Is there a moral, a point to the story? If so, good. If not, start again. Its no big deal.If you’re happy with what you’ve got, write a couple of words, lines etc. linking the plot points. These act as more cues for scenes in your novel. Next, transfer everything on to PC and begin to expand on your short sentences.

Start to describe how you’re going to open scenes, what you’re going to write about, what actions take place, what the various conversations will be about and how issues might be set up and resolved. At the end of this process you should have a draft template for your novel. Read over if a few times to see if it includes everything you want to mention in your novel.

This is a great exercise for many reasons, not least that it helps you visualize your novel in its entirety, probably one of the best tricks you’ll ever have to pull as a writer! Not only that, it can help you iron out problems before you start writing. Too many writers stumble during their novels because they run out of steam and cant remember where it was going, or discover its now different from how they imagined it.

I know planning novels is not everyone’s idea of creative bliss. Indeed many writers tell me they just cant do it, donut want to do it, and will fight to protect their right to make up the story as they go along. Fine. That works for some. But let me tell you something I’ve learnt, in my long career teaching writers to write novels. With a novel template you are at least twenty times more likely to finish your novel than without one! Sobering thought, eh? So before you dismiss the idea, at least give the template a fair go.

© Copyright Rob Parnell 2004 http://easywaytowrite.com

Article found at http://www.fictionfactor.com/guests/templates.html

Keep Your Writing Sharp…By Reading A Lot

The following wonderful writing advice was found at Carrie’s Procrastinatory Outlet. Her original post is about why we, as writers, should analyze why we, as readers, decide to put a book down. This analysis should improve our writing and help us with our editing, is her main point. I decided to share her writing tips with you, but click the link above if you want to read the original blog post or start reading Carrie on a normal basis.

• Once you’ve made a point, move on. Don’t belabor, don’t get mired down in dialoge that doesn’t move the story forward. Especially in the beginning.
• When you’ve got a hook and when you sell the book to the reader based on that hook, get to the hook early. Don’t make us sit around and wait; that can make the reader antsy.
• Corollary to above: if the reader knows the hook is coming don’t make like it’s some big surprise to the reader. And don’t make that the only thing we’re reading for either.If we know the book is about the woman getting dumped by her boyfriend and so she has to go out and figure out her life (or whatever) don’t drag out the first two chapters when she’s all nervous cause she thinks he’s going to propose to her at the special dinner he planned when we all know she’s about to be dumped cause that’s what the book is about. Sure, make it a cute scene, but don’t spend too long.

  We already know what happens (this is my personal back cover blurb rule: if the reader will know something by reading the back cover blurb, don’t drag it out in the book – or at least don’t make that be the only reason the reader is turning pages cause there will be no payoff).

• Be creative with the middle of the book (so much easier said than done, eh?) Don’t necessarily go with the first idea that strikes you. I can’t remember who said to brainstorm 20 options for each big plot point because you never know what kind of crazy, yet appropriate, stuff you’ll come up with.I guess I’m trying to say that sometimes the obvious is good, but sometimes it’s boring. I think this is more important for plot based books: I like less obvious for plot based books. If it’s character based I don’t mind so much if the plot is obvious because I care more about the characters and how the plot is a reflection of them.
• Make every scene count. Don’t give the reader the option of putting the book down. So much easier said than done, eh?

Carrie’s original post written February 3, 2007 at http://carrie-me.blogspot.com/2007/02/putting-books-down.html.