Writing A Novel - Editing

After you think you are done writing your novel, when you first reach "The End", you can sit back, relax and brace yourself for the real work ahead of you: EDITING. Depending on who you talk to, this is either the most exciting part of the writing process, or the most dreaded. I fall somewhere in the middle. I am well aware that this is my least practiced skill (so therein lies the dread), but when I have successfully worked on editing short pieces I have felt more fulfilled than ever before.

Since I have much to learn about the process of editing a novel and feel ill-equipped to advise on the topic, I instead offer you some notes I've picked up along the way.

On The Terror of Editing

When you are faced with the decision to cut out words and sentences that you created it feels that brutal. Your novel - every sentence, word and piece of punctuation - is personal and a piece of you. To admit that some of those don't belong, or are "wrong" can be painful. (This is also why it can be difficult to hear even the best intended criticism of these words!). Here are a couple of thoughts from authors reflecting the terror of editing:

• "To make the piece work, it's essential to murder on demand." - The Memoir Project, Marion Roach Smith p. 103
•  "...what's left out may haunt you as much as what gets included." - The Memoir Project, Marion Roach Smith p. 102
• "Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts." Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott p. 25

On Why Editing is Necessary

In short, Anne Lamott's terrifying statement above - that all good writing begins terribly - is why editing is a necessary evil.   However, to get an idea where the "terrible" comes from, here are a few more notes on the topic:

• "It's not volume we need. It's precision aimed at illustrating your unique point of view, and that's what editing is all about."- The Memoir Project, Marion Roach Smith p.105
•  "The difference between a word and the 'right' word is the difference between a lightning bug and lightning. " - Mark Twain
• "The effect of judicious cutting is immediate and often amazing -- literary Viagra." - On Writing, Stephen King p. 223
•  "What the Formula taught me is that every story is collapsible to some degree." - On Writing, Stephen King p. 223

On How Editing Is Done

It's feared. It must be done. Everyone has their own method (I'm still developing mine!). Here are  tips on how to edit your novel from some seasoned veterans:

• "Pencil in hand, touch each word in every sentence, make hard decisions." - The Memoir Project, Marion Roach Smith p. 108
• "If you find yourself skimming a sentence or paragraph thinking the reader will enjoy herself later, forget it." - The Memoir Project, Marion Roach Smith p. 109
• "Toss it even if you love it." - On Writing, Stephen King p. 197
• "Your job during or just after  the first draft is to decide what something or somethings [your book] is about. Your job in the second draft -- one of them, anyway -- is to make that something even more clear." On Writing, Stephen King p. 201
• "2nd Draft = 1st Draft - 10%. Good Luck." - On Writing, Stephen King (in quoting an editor's note from a submission to Ellery Quenn's Mystery Magazine) p. 222
• "The story always comes first." - On Writing, Stephen King p. 231
• "...take your story through at least two drafts; the one with the door closed and the one you do with it open." - On Writing, Stephen King p. 209
• "It's a good idea to wait awhile before your reread your writing." - Writing Down The Bones, Natalie Goldberg, p. 205

On Dulling The Pain Of Editing

Natalie Goldberg's book Writing Down the Bones is just about one of the best reads for the insecure writer. She has a wonderful way of freeing writers from fear and bring joy back to every part of the writing process - even editing. Here are some soothing words to end off on, to remind you that editing is something every writer goes through and that it can be just as creatively fulfilling as putting together your first draft:

• "See revision as 'envisioning again'." - Writing Down The Bones, Natalie Goldberg, p. 209
• "Often you might read page after page in your notebooks and only come upon one, two, or three good lines. Don't be discouraged." - Writing Down The Bones, Natalie Goldberg, p. 210

More Guidance On Editing

If these wise words are not enough for you (and I do realize they only scratch the surface) , them I highly recommend you read the books they come from.

 

In the meantime, here are some click-able resources:

11 Resources to Make Editing Your Novel Easier

Editing Your First Novel: 7 Things You Need to Know

 How To Edit Your Book In 4 Steps

How to Edit a Novel Manuscript

Writing A Novel - Dialogue

Writing good dialogue is a tricky business. Even though we spend most of our waking hours listening to and participating in the act, the art of capturing it for the page is not as easy as one would suspect. If we write dialogue exactly as we hear it, we are likely to bore our readers right off the page, however, if we don't pay attention to the reality of dialogue, then our characters will be two-dimensional and lacking voice. In the end, we have to fall somewhere in between keeping a delicate balance throughout our novels.

Listening To Dialogue

To fully engage readers, dialogue has to fall somewhere in between realistic and entertaining. Adding in every hesitation, "um" or staggering thought a person utters while engaged in a conversation will easily get distracting and dull for a reader. In their article How To Write Dialogue That Works, Creative Writing Now presents a perfect example of how a fictional phone conversation ends versus a real one:

Something I've noticed in TV shows and movies is that people hang up on each other a lot.
"I think the police are onto Scotty."
"I'll take care of it."
Click.

I don't know about you, but my phone calls tend to end more like this:
"I think the police are onto Scotty."
"I'll take care of it."
"You will? Great."
"Yeah, well, I'll try."
"Okay, great, thanks a lot. Appreciate it."
"Anyway, I should get back to making dinner."
"Okay, then, talk to you later. And good luck with the police."
"Thanks, I'll need it. All right. Got to go."
"See you."
"Right, on Saturday."
"That's right. We'll be there at six."
"Okay, see you then."
"Hm..."
"What's that?" [...]

Let me stop there before you stop reading my blog! I personally cracked up when I read this article, because I had just got off the phone with my best friend, and our farewell was oddly similar. The fact is, our real conversations have so much nonsense in them that isn't necessary.

So what do we listen for when we are listening to dialogue for realism?

David Corbett, author of Devil's Redhead (New Blood) and Done for a Dime wrote a guest post for The Bookshelf Muse today that answers that very question. He offers up five different characteristics of real dialogue that can safely included in written dialogue without fear of boring our readers, They are:

1. Giving unsolicited advice.
2. Topping the other person’s story.
3. Finishing the other character’s sentences.
4. Interpreting what the other character is saying.
5. Asking a question, then not listening to the answer.

Hop on over to The Bookshelf Muse to read the entire article, called Communication Breakdown, to read the full power of each of these characteristics in defining both your character and his/her voice.

Reading Dialogue

After grabbing the tools from real dialogue that are appropriate for your prose, the next step is to see how to fictionalize dialogue to be pleasing to your readers.  Think back to Creative Writing Now's TV dialogue example:

"I think the police are onto Scotty."
"I'll take care of it."
Click. 

It's short, to the point, and moves the story forward. Now we know that the police has figured out Scotty's scheme. It's going to be taken care of; the drama is about to begin! Of course, since this is TV dialogue and not from a novel, there is a glaring omission. Who said these things? it is in reading dialogue that we learn about the importance of dialogue tags.

Dialogue tags are a tricky business. After reading Stephen King's On Writing , quite frankly I was terrified of them. In the first pages of my first draft of Dear 302, I had a half-page long conversation that looked exactly like the TV conversation above - there were no dialogue tags! Bad idalogue tags King warned me about (page 126 of On Writing):

• Swifties (named for Tom Swift) adding adverbs for description, like "Tom cried bravely"
• Shooting the verb attribution full of steroids like "Jekyll grated", "Shayna gasped", and "Bill jerked out"

 Creative Writing Now adds to the list of dialogue tag don'ts, with these gems:

• Don't get too colorful with the dialogue tags.
• Don't feel obligated to add a tag to every bit of dialogue.
• Don't let your reader get disoriented.

After all this it almost feels like all you can do is write tag-less dialogue! So what's left? He said, she said, Joe said and Mary said are really not as boring as they sound when placed into your writing. They are clear, to the point and, above all, not distracting to your reader.

The Continuing Conversation on Dialogue

There is so much to talk about dialogue, I could probably complete and entire A to Z Challenge with Dialogue as its theme. For now, I will end off with these tips and send you over to David Corbett's article on The Bookshelf Muse as well as Creative Writing Now's two articles on dialogue, How to Write Dialogue That Works and More On Writing Dialogue for a deeper education on the topic.

thanks for reading!

Do you have any tips or "dos" and "don'ts" for writing dialogue?

How about further references to learn about writing dialogue? 

______

UPDATE: Here are a couple more resources for writing dialogue that I forgot to add into the article:

• A NaNoWriMo Worksheet on Writing Dialogue (includes a list of "Tags Other Than 'Said'")
• Top 8 Tips on Writing Dialogue from About.com's Fiction Writing

Book Love of The Moment - Math and Writing Unite

Since we have no book love interview this week, I thought I'd share my current book love with you. I am midway through a fascinating learning experience that came to me by way of Reddit. Yes, you read that correctly, I got a book from a website! Back in February, I signed up for the RedditGifts Book Exchange, a Secret Santa type of game that you play with strangers on the Internet, only this one is all about books. The person who sent my books found out I was a writer and, although she said she had no experience in the matter whatsoever, picked out three awesome books on writing for me. Right now I'm reading the first of the books she bought me, Story Engineering by Larry Brooks and it is literally the perfect book about writing for me there could be!

I'm a math chick. I know I've mentioned this before. I spent twelve years teaching the subject and an entire college career studying it. The thing is, I love Mathematics. I love the patterns in it; I love the truth in it; I love the way all of Nature seems to be built around it. Mathematics is seen by many as this exceedingly formulaic, boring and stagnant subject, but what it is, when you can see all it touches is beauty and art.

I am also a writer. This you have come to know, and I've mentioned this before as well. I've spent a lifetime steeping myself in stories. I read them; I told them; I wrote some of them down. What I always saw was the beauty and the art in each of the stories, but I believed that beneath it all,

there

must

be

a

pattern.

Perhaps this is the inner mathematician striving to make sense of every beautiful thing she comes in contact with. I don't know. What I do know, however, is that Larry Brooks is bringing this pattern to light for me. He is not stripping away the art or the beauty that lies within the worlds our words create, he is simply showing me their underpinnings. He is showing me the math behind the natural world of the story.

In introducing this structure that he argues is present in all stories and screenplays, Brooks discusses the resistance he often runs into from writers who argue this type of thinking is too formulaic. Brooks says he is not instructing the reader how they should write the story - you can still be a pantser, if you like to just let things flow; or be a plotter if you'd rather plan ahead - either way, there is a structure, a core that lies beneath the story no matter which approach you take.

I can not fully express to you how closely this rides to discussions in math education. The argument rallies on over whether mathematics should be taught procedurally (this is akin to our plotting writers - set up the rules ahead of time, then dive in) or through problem solving and discovery (like our pantsers, problems solvers dive in, start working, make mistakes, start over, make discoveries along the way and unearth the rules for mathematics as the problems are solved). Whichever teaching technique is employed, the mathematics at its core remains the same.

There is so much in this book that simply makes sense to me and, I believe, will make me a much better writer as a whole. When I have completed it I will be sure to write a thorough book review discussing Brooks' thesis in full. For today, I simply wanted to share with you my most current book love experience. The book that has currently enthralled me and pulled in my conscious and subconscious thoughts toward it. While I am reading these days, with pen and notebook in hand, I am thinking of stories, of structures, patterns, architecture and the beauty that they all create. It's a wonderful read and I just wanted to let you know!

Writers: Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Math Minds: Do you think math is best taught procedurally or through problems solving?

Readers: Do you believe there is an inherent structure in all stories you read? Why or why not? 

Realizing This is My Cocoon to Eat

It occurred to me this week that I am stuck. Just like a butterfly in a cocoon, I have made it through the beginning stages of my metamorphosis, then wrapped myself up really tight and secure for the final transformation and have been unable to budge since.

To become a butterfly, there are four stages of life. First there is an egg, then the larva (what I typically call the caterpillar), the chrysallis (the cocoon) and then, finally, there is a butterfly.

Writing can be looked at in the same four stage process. We begin with an idea, which, much like an egg, has the potential for life if protected and handled with care. Then there is the outpouring of the idea, which Anne Lamott calls "the shitty first draft" and which Marion Roach Smith calls "the vomit draft," whoever you talk to it's icky, sticky and not unlike a caterpillar; it eats everything in sight, it's alive, but only beautiful to those who have unique vision; it is unfinished. After the outpouring comes the hardest work of all - the true metamorphosis - the editing phase. At this point of writing it is often advised that you pack away your work, let it be for a while and then return to tear it asunder. I can't help but think of that caterpillar sleeping in that cocoon, hidden from the world and then eating his way out of the cocoon bit by bit just to see the light of day again.

But when he does, he is something beautiful, something majestic and he can fly. This is the same thing with my writing. It will fly once it gets out of its cocoon.

The only problem is it seems I was waiting for help. Have you ever read the story of the butterfly who received help with getting out of his cocoon? He never finished developing. He couldn't fly. It is heartbreaking.

So, for Round 2 of ROW 80, I have one simple goal: I must edit my novel. I must take the time necessary to transform it from caterpillar to butterfly. Will I be done by the end of this round? I have no idea, but if I am not don't you dare try to pull me out of this cocoon before I am done!


Click here to support the rest of the writers in Round 2 of ROW80.

Write On Edge: My Distant Teachers

I am a writer. If you ask to see my credentials, I will show you all I have written. I did not say I was a published writer ...yet. To be a writer all it really takes is to set to the task of writing on a regular basis.

That is fulfilling, but, personally, I don't like to do anything half-assed and I know that I am on the steep end of the learning curve when it comes to all that is involved in the craft of writing. I did not study writing or even literature in college. I was a double major in Mathematics and Education. These studies have served me well, and, I believe they continue to serve me, but there is much I don't know about that which I spend my days doing now, and I am thirsty for knowledge.

Enter Write On Edge. This is a website often linked to from Rivera Runs Through It and discussed in passing. I was recently asked in an interview for the Carpe Diem blog what my number one favorite website was (besides my own). I nearly dismissed the question as unanswerable, until it occurred to me, I visit Write On Edge every single day. Here's just a piece of my answer:

I have gotten an incredible amount of inspiration from Write On Edge. This group has two weekly writing prompts that I try to participate in as much as possible. Those prompts, in part, are what inspired me to start Rivera Runs Through It so I would have a blog space to write creatively.

I realized that if I had a computer that could only access one website and nothing more, I would set it to http://writeonedge.com/ because I could sit by my computer with a notebook and some paper and still write, still learn and still grow as a writer only with access to their site.

It began with a quest for writing prompts and community. I sought out the two prompts a week from what was then known as The Red Dress Club, and let them unleash my creative juices. (Off My Trail  was the first post I wrote for the community, I am still so proud of it.) Then, as each prompt came with a word count, I began to learn about word efficiency. Through reading the posts created by other bloggers linking to the community, I began to see how many different angles one theme could be perceived from, which led to even more creative thinking. Finally, I started to read the posts in between the prompts that were filled with writing tips, experiences, lessons and the creation of a book club for writers.


I did not intend to write about the Write On Edge community today as I sat down before my computer. My intention was to write about and review the book I finished yesterday, The Memoir Project by Marion Roach Smith. The book taught me so much about writing, research and observing life, but I would never have read this book if not for Write On Edge. It was the selection for our current book club. We will be discussing the first three chapters tonight on Twitter at 9:30pm EST (use hashtag #writeonedge if you want to join the discussion).

The other two books we read as a group were On Writing by Stephen King and Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. With each turning page I feel more connections being made, more dendrites growing and a new skill is blossoming at my fingertips.These are incredibly exciting reads for me. So, just as I wrote about On Writing and as I reviewed Bird by Bird, you can be certain you will be reading my reactions to The Memoir Project, but it appears that story was not for today. Today's story is about my distant teachers, the wonderful people behind the scenes at Write On Edge and the community of people who participate there as well.

Today's blog post is a long overdue Thank you to a community that probably has little to no idea what a large impact they have had on me.

Do you participate in an online community?

How have they helped you grow, learn or just share in your time with them? 

For fellow writers, where do you find your inspiration and your education?

 

ROW80 I Still Love You!

I promised myself I would not miss out on another check-in for the ROW80 challenge and now I have about twenty minutes to slap this together. So let me get to it already!

What Happened to Me?

 MY WRITING: My "writer's mind" was captivated for the last month by a fantastic online writing workshop. Ironically, during this involvement I did not do a lot of writing because there was a lot of reading and then I spent my writing time reacting in the discussion forum!

MY READING: I read a heck of a lot this last month, but I did not make a lot of headway in my Goodreads 2012 Challenge. HOW COULD THIS BE?! I know, I know... I hear you. Well, my reading for my workshop does not count as reading a book. Also, I did a lot of reading for my writing on the Word of the Nerd website, but they were mostly single issue comic books or trade paperbacks that are not in the Goodreads database, so they don't count.

MY COMMUNITY: One place I made some progress was in finding more fellow writers. Just this week I created a BigTent group for the writers from the writing workshop so we can continue to connect and support one another now that our course has ended.

What's Next?

PLANS & SCHEDULES: This week I started creating a timed schedule for myself each day. I have covered every minute of the day and have set aside time for writing and blogging, as well as the ridiculousness that is laundry and other household chores (laundry is my arch nemesis!). After three days of this I can not believe how productive I have been!

CHALLENGES? I received an e-mail yesterday from the NaNoWriMo people telling me that Script Frenzy is starting next month. I almost dismissed it, I have no desire to write a script, but then they mentioned the option of script writing for a graphic novel and my mind started whirling with possibility... I'm thinking about it. I have a month to see if I can come up with an idea worth attempting. So I'll keep you updated on that front.


Well, that's about it. Part of my new scheduling plan is that I wake up crazy early every day, so I need to wrap this up and get to bed!

And Then I Found ROW80

After a little more than a week of pumping myself up and day-dreaming about what goals I would like to set for myself (see how this story started) I happily stumbled upon ROW80 during Wednesday night's informal #commenthour twitter chat (follow #commenthour on Twitter for details, if you're a blogger, you need to join this party!). Since I am a sucker for hashtags and Twitter chats of all sorts, I asked what #ROW80 was all about. Tui Snider of Mental Mosaic sent me the link and said it seemed cool to her and she was planning to join in.

So I checked it out, and Tui was right. It is cool and I'm joining in. Right now, in fact, with this post.

OK, OK, for the uninitiated you are completely baffled and that isn't fair. Here's the description of ROW80, (which stands for A Round of Words in 80 Days, by the way) as they describe it:

What Is ROW80?

A Round of Words in 80 Days is the writing challenge that knows you have a life.

We are all different and we all have different demands on our time.  Why should we all have the same goal?  The simple answer is that we shouldn’t.  If you want to be a writer, then you have to be able to roll with the punches and adapt to your changing circumstances.  If that means changing your goals when your life blows up, so be it.  ROW80 is the challenge that champions the marriage of writing and real life. [from A Round of Words in 80 Days website]

I do want to be a better writer. My real life does tend to get n the way more than I'd like to admit, but all the same there's no reason why I shouldn't be able to work around that!

Let me cut to the chase and get to my goals already:

Writing:

• Write three hours per day Mon-Fri.
• Become an active member of a writing group.

Reading: 

• Read at least one hour per day
• Complete goodreads 2012 challenge of 52 books this year 

Spreading Out/Getting Published:

• Start claiming and completing assignments from the Yahoo Contributor's Network of which I am a part. (Although I have yet to submit a single piece of work!!)
• Enter at least one writing contest per month.
• Send at least one piece to a literary magazine per month.

Alright. That's it. It feels a bit terrifying to have that all written down there. Which is a pretty good sign they're the right ones. I have that fear of failure because these are the things I really want.

I'll be checking in here on Rivera Runs Through It, to link to Round of Words in 80 Days as part of my accountability, so you'll get to see how I'm doing. I hope to make you proud!!

What do you think? Are these goals do-able?

Have I set my sights too high?

...perhaps too low?

What goals have you set for yourself?

Classroom Connections

"Hey Miss, I didn't know you wanted to write," this echoes in my head in the voices of a thousand students in my memory.

Why would they?

Why would anyone?

For over a decade there were no clues, no signs, no thoughts cast in the direction of my writing. I was creative, I couldn't help myself there, but the journals lay dormant and the "Writing" files on my floppy discs and hard drives stayed closed. I had stopped writing.

Over the last year I have truly wondered why this was the case. Now that I have released my words and allowed them to walk the world again, they (and I) keep asking, "Why were we stifled for so long?"

I imagined it was the teaching, but felt, in the depths of my soul that must've been some sorry excuse to cover up something else I could not fully comprehend. Last night, while reading Stephen King's On Writing for the Write on Edge book club, Read on Edge, I found my answer. It seems that one of my greatest writing heroes had exactly the same problem as I did. In his own words,

...for the first time in my life, writing was hard. The problem was the teaching. I liked my coworkers and loved the kids -- even the Beavis and Butt-Head types in Living with English could be interesting -- but by most Friday afternoons I felt as if I'd spent the week with jumper cables clamped to my brain. If I ever came close to despairing about my future as a writer, it was then. [Stephen King, On Writing, page 73]

The one distinct difference between Mr. King and myself is that I did not despair about my future as a writer, I simply gave it up. I chose teaching - heart, body and soul.

No regrets there.

Never a one.

However, life has taken me down a very strange path in recent years and teaching is off the table. Leave this girl alone long enough and her words will surely surface. I've decided there's no use in denying it, just like there's no use in trying to hide my cowlicks. I roll with it instead -- spiky haircut is back and, while I have to acclimate myself to these waters I abandoned so long ago, I'm writing again.

I don't know what will come of it, but I promised Stephen King as I continued to read his book today that I would "not come lightly to the blank page."

I'm here, Mr. King, and I hope you are enjoying your Friday afternoons however they find you these days because, whether you intended to or not, you're still teaching me.