Editing updates

 As part of this editing process, I opened a spreadsheet and designed it to keep track of the chapters, the length, and the characters who are in that chapter.

I discovered some very long chapters, so I broke them down, recalling an agent had once commented that short chapters were more reader friendly than long ones.

I also discovered that by listing the characters as active, small active, passive [there but not speaking], I can see if one of them needs a bigger role, a smaller role, or was not necessary at all in that chapter.

More discoveries to come, I'm sure.

– Cat

 

 Progress –

Today I reduced my word count by 125 words.

I came across an unnecessary word. I then decided the sentence that contained it was unnecessary. As I read further, I asked myself if the paragraph that contained the unnecessary sentence that contained the unnecessary word, was necessary. [Oof – sounds like a song!]

And I laughed. Of course the paragraph, and the two that came after it were not necessary to the story. They may have added a bit of fluffy background for a character who isn't the main one, but their presence or lack thereof made no difference to the plot.

I'll have another update in a few days.

– Cat    first posted in 2015    

Editing my Saga

[this was originally posted in February 2015]



I'm working on the final edit of book 1 of the FORTUNE saga.

I had originally conceived a trilogy, had my titles picked out, rough synopses and timelines. I knew how this story that started in book 1 would end.  The drama, the tears, the adventure, the danger, the steamy sex comprise the meat between the beginning and the end.

And then I had second thoughts. Book 2, while it continued the story, consisted of a lot of padding and filler, and unnecessary subplots to bring the word count equal to book 1.

I decided to streamline and combine books 2 and 3. This will, I believe, make for a much stronger story. And the end, that longed for desirable ending will come that much sooner.

The story has undergone many revisions since I first  began working on it. Presently, it bears no resemblance to the first draft written years ago. I've also done numerous edits, and feel this is my final go round at it.  The next will be done by a professional editor.

I've been able to take out words, sentences, entire paragraphs that do not drive the story forward. And it's easier than I thought to take out my "darlings," those delightful turns of phrase that showed I could be eloquent, yet say nothing at the same time.

And though I knew during previous edits that –ly adverbs were a writer's bane, my search turned up a large number of them. Solution: search, destroy, and find a powerful verb that does not require description.

Adjective overuse is another weakness of mine. I found strings of two, often three adjectives to describe people, places, events. I needed at most one pertinent adjective, maybe none at all. This is where a strong noun comes into play.

I have read scenes out loud, but was still too close to the writing to pick out flaws. Then, I found that hearing my words spoken by someone else helped point out overused and wrongly used words, and structural deficiencies.

I have a program that lets me highlight a section and click "read that." A computer voice does the reading and the words flow. It's a female voice with a British accent, and it works well for me.  After all, the story takes place during the Victorian era.

In one paragraph there were four occurrences of the word "had" and one "had not." And I read this myself many times and didn't notice until "someone else" mentioned them.

Another thing I'm doing is keeping track of the pages per chapter. I can see how each chapter works, almost like a three or five act play, with a beginning scene, heightening of tension, a climax, a brief relaxation, with a final return to tension to lead into the next chapter.

Not every chapter follows this pattern, but it seems to be working so far. And I have noticed in the last two chapters that I've edited that I have several long scenes that are basically explanations to inform the reader.  These explanations, however, are more for my benefit than for the reader's, and can be reduced or written out. Let the reader learn these things when the character learns them. No point in over explaining.

– Cat

Marking time

It's April.

My, oh my.

All research done, I added some 1200 words to my book, throwing in almost everything I learned, food, drink, music, clothing, ornaments, architecture... you get the drift.

This is the "I researched this so you have to read every word" syndrome.

I've read books where a writer does this to excess, and to me it slows the pace of the story. *Unless the information is exceptionally fascinating, in which case it slaps me out of the story as my focus shifts gear. Too often I have chased after more information on these fascinating subjects, and the book I was reading gets left behind on a figurative bus stop bench somewhere.

Well, I went through and (judiciously, I hope) deleted 700 of those new words. I wanted exotic background color, not a discourse on the life and times.

And I did not want a small new subplot which magically evolved along with the exotica, starring a new and definitely extraneous character, who must now vanish, no matter how delightful, alluring, and charming she acts, hoping for a bit part in the opus.

Out the new character must go, with some small regret, to join a dozen or so others I'd written in, then out, all now standing on the sidelines, waiting patiently for that big break when they may be called back for a role in another story.

In book biz, like show biz, some of the best scenes are left on the cutting room floor.

On an unrelated note, I was typing away and a dropped letter from a word gave me a sudden creative idea. Only time will tell if the idea becomes more than a light bulb flash.

--Cat

***A great post on "killing your darlings"  my author Kristen Lamb
 















































 

More Editing

I've reached the three-quarter mark in my final editing phase. The end is in sight!

I've been able to eliminate a lot of words [more than 1000 so far] – many of which were due to my tendency to overexplain. It's called, variously, TMI – too much information, an info dump, tell not show,

Now I've discovered another tendency, much like over-explaining. It's like telegraphing what the character feels or thinks, and then showing just that.

For example: "questions surged/rushed/flooded her mind. Why did...? What would? Who...?"

In deep POV, the sentence about questions isn't necessary. Readers know they are in her head, therefore they don't need that filter that explains, and move directly to the actual questions.


The strange thing is, at night before I fall asleep, I mull over the edits of the day and pounce on something that needs further work or deletion. I call it "night editing."

– Cat

Repeated words and phrases

Shakespeare's pithy phrases find their way into movie and television dialogue, often to great effect.

For example:
"All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. " Macbeth (Act V, Sc. I)

A while back, reruns of the original CSI TV series played each evening. I caught a bit of an episode in which Grissom, the head of the team, used the above quote in reference to a dead woman's hand. Okay, he's erudite, knows his snakes, scorpions, and Shakespeare. A few nights later I watched, also in reruns, an episode of CSI NY and heard the medical examiner use the same quote in reference to a dead woman's hand. It stuck out like a purple swollen big toe (I'm trying not to use a cliche).

The writers of these shows [I'm assuming different shows, different writers] probably didn't watch each others' episodes or read the scripts. Perhaps they receive lists of words, phrases, and quotations to choose from for the characters' dialogue. Most viewers wouldn't care. (Or even notice?) This writer, who satisfies her morbid interests by watching bullets bore through brains, knives slice though muscles, and teeth get lodged in guts, DID notice.

So what does this have to do with my own writing? I'm more conscious of re-using words and phrases and try to avoid repetition, but sometimes the echoes sneak through. I'm not talking about "invisible" words like the, it, said, and so on, but special words that sound great used once, overdone if repeated. Take words like frisson or cynosure. The first time I read these words I had to look them up. They are perfect when placed right. But if used again in the same work it seems like lazy writing. I've read books by top-selling authors and have seen them fall into the repetition trap. Makes me cringe. Were they not edited?

Those words are the swollen big toes. They stand out, make readers stop and shake their heads, and lose what's called the fictive dream. There are lesser words that are often repeated and would sound fine in context but often appear too close together in unrelated sentences. Most readers probably don't, but I notice these.

Microsoft Word has a search feature that finds every instance of a word in your file. It's a good way of rooting out undesirable repetition. Another thing I find helpful is having a Dragon NaturallySpeaking program read chapters aloud. Sometimes the ear picks up what the eyes miss.


Cat

Curse of the comma and more

While editing, I found I've been playing fast and loose with commas, constantly inserting them when not needed. Guess you could say I never met a comma I didn't like. Of course the comma is a necessary tool, it gives the reader a moment to pause, breathe, then continue. But too many, inappropriately placed, say pause, pause, pause, interrupting the hopefully fine flow of prose.
 
There are several helpful websites about comma usage. I may be one of few, but I prefer the Oxford [serial] comma. http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/commas.htm

As for the other horrors: I waste too much time reading. But reading is never a waste of time. No, because reading is learning. But I'm on learning overload. Not from novels or research texts, but from reading of the on-line sort. Call me a blog junkie--I read writers' blogs, literary agents' blogs, political ranters' blogs, people-living-on-the-other-side-of-the-world-learning-English blogs. Then there are writers' websites, writers' forums, all packed with information......whew! I have barely time left to do what I want to do, which is write.

So as of today I'm putting a stop to my internet wanderings and will GET DOWN TO BUSINESS.

So why am I wasting more time on this blog? Well, I feel somehow connected. Maybe someone living on the other side of the world learning English is reading this. What a concept!

Neat poem by Shel Silverstein:

FROZEN DREAM
I'll take the dream I had last night
And put it in my freezer,
So someday long and far away
When I'm an old grey geezer,
I'll take it out and thaw it out,
This lovely dream I've frozen,
And boil it up and sit me down
And dip my old cold toes in.


– Cat

Editing update

Progress –

Today I reduced my word count by 125 words.

I came across an unnecessary word. I then decided the sentence that contained it was unnecessary. As I read further, I asked myself if the paragraph that contained the unnecessary sentence that contained the unnecessary word, was necessary. [Oof – sounds like a song!]

And I laughed. Of course the paragraph, and the two that came after it were not necessary to the story. They may have added a bit of fluffy background for a character who isn't the main one, but their presence or lack thereof made no difference to the plot.

I'll have another update in a few days.

– Cat