Writing is a Learning Journey

I started my writing journey in 2002 and my first novel was published in 2003.  I thought it was awesome, but several years later, after many editing sessions and learning through critique groups and on-line classes, I shuddered when I read the finished product and realized the amateur mistakes I'd made.  Luckily, when my contract expired, I took my rights back and reworked the book, improving it.  Is it perfect?  No.  I still find things I wish I would have known and changed, but every book I write is better than its predecessor.

I highly recommend critique groups to help you hone your work and reviewing the writing of others has helped me immensely.  No, I'm not a know-it-all, but I sure recognize problem areas in books, and often wonder why their editors didn't suggest changes.  One I'm reading right now has me scratching my head over that very thing.  The story is very interesting and the author writes with great descriptions, but because I read with an editorial eye, I can't get past what I consider problem areas. 

Several would disagree with me, but one publisher limits the amount of "internal" thoughts an author can use, and I understand why.  My first manuscript was fraught with them, but when i re-read the book, I realized switching from third to first person on a regular basis pulls the reader out of the story.  My preference is to have the internal thoughts posed as questions for the reader to ponder.  See which you prefer:

 I thought he was going to kiss me.  He's good with the girls, and I think he likes me, but he does seem worried about something.

 Her heart raced with hope he'd kiss he but he didn't. She earned only brief hug on his way out the door.  He'd been so good with the girls and acted as though he truly liked her, but he seemed preoccupied. Should she worry?

IMHO, the flow is much smoother.

A second pet peeve for me is using unnecessary adverbs.  Why not just use stronger verbs?  For example: She ate her pancakes hungrily.  How about she devoured her pancakes?  Or...The dog barked viciously.  I'd prefer to have you show me the vicious dog.  The dog bared his teeth and growled deep in his throat.  The fur on his back stood on end.  Better?

My most recent lesson learned deals with eliminating needless verbiage and insulting the reader's intelligence. *smile*  If we, as authors, do our job, we put the reader into the character's POV, therefore it's unnecessary to continually indicate who watched, felt, sensed, saw, etc.  Example:  She watched him pour a drink.   If we've been in her POV, then it stands to reason she's watching what he does, so he can just pour a drink.  He meandered to the bar and poured himself a drink.  Another example:  She felt the cold air on her bare arms.  How about showing the reader?  Goosebumps peppered her bare arms.  She embraced herself against the cold air.

There's a rule in writing called RUE=resist the urge to explain.  Readers are intelligent and little things like "to him, at her, for him" are easily figured out. Example:  He read the article aloud to her.  If they are the only two in the room and he's reading aloud, then I think you get my drift.  Seems petty, but these are the things that jump out at me.

 I learned to eliminate"that" from many sentences because it's unneeded.  He knew that she would feel insulted.  He knew she would feel insulted, or even better, if at all possible, eliminate the "he knew."  Of course, she'd feel insulted if he...  Put the reader into the story and let him/her figure it out.  It shouldn't be difficult. 

Word echoes show laziness.  Instead of using the same word over and over, consult your thesaurus and find something different.  No one likes redundancy.  Of course sometimes, using the same word over again is used for dramatic effect, and that's perfectly okay.

I've listed a few problem areas here.  Feel free to list your pet peeves in the comment area.  This is all about learning, and good authors never stop.  Teach me something new so I can pull out the rest of my hair.  :)


  

Reviewing Books - Yay or Nay...Can't Decide.

Sometimes I wonder if as an author I should review the work of others.  Before I was published, I read for the sheer enjoyment, but now, after going through so many editing sessions and being whipped into an actual author, I cannot read without my internal editor whispering in my ear.  I read with an eye for pitfalls I've been advised to avoid rather than losing myself in the story as I once was able to do.  Heck, before my debut novel, I hadn't even heard half the terms I hear now--headhopping, passive voice, transitions, etc..  Now the simplest mistakes keep me from really connecting with the characters. It could be that the books I read all those years had been finely edited so assuming a place in the heroine's shoes came naturally. 

Don't get me wrong.  I think editors are an essential part of the process, and now when I read, I can definitely tell the novices from the professionals.  Is it fair to report to readers that I've found areas in a story that should have been caught by an editor and the reader advised to fix?  I'm not sure.  Does it make me come across as a "know it all?"  Trust me, I don't.  I learn a new rule every day, and the scary thing is that I'm never sure that the rule is hard and fast.

It's a fact that the majority of editors working in small press are authors as well, and possibly some that haven't been writing very long themselves.  Could it be they are just passing along what they've learned?  I've found that some of what I've been told isn't exactly true, but I think some of the examples I can share with you today make sense.  For example:  Overusing He/She if you've made it clear whose POV your in at the moment.  Read these two paragraphs and see which sounds more polished.

John smelled Joan's perfume as she twirled by him on the dance floor.  He envied the man who held her in his arms.  He believed she was the most beautiful woman in the room, and he vowed to ask her to dance the next time the orchestra played a slow song.  He intended to be the one to take her home tonight.

John inhaled the sweet smell of Joan's perfume as she twirled by him on the dance floor.  The man who held her in his arms was one lucky guy.  Before the evening ended, John intended to share a slow dance with her, and if his prayers were answered, he'd be the one to take her home.

See, you don't need he envied, he believed, he intended.  You've let the reader know by John enjoying the aroma of Joan's perfume that we're in his POV, so anything you type should be interpreted as his perspective.

Another pet peeve are needless tags.  It's always best to use an action tag in place of he said, she said, but if you end the dialogue with a question mark, do you really need to say, she asked?  I think the punctuation is a big hint.  *smile*  When only two people are in the room, using the character's names over and over becomes redundant.  The reader is usually smart enough to determine who is talking, and if you need to clarify, you can say something like:  "Are you crazy?"  John's eyes widened beneath a furrowed brow.

Editors become very important in keeping the redundancy out of the story line.  Authors don't usually write an entire book in one setting, so it's very hard to remember everything you've already written.  For example:  If you've pointed out to the reader that the heroine broke her leg by falling off a horse, it isn't necessary to repeat that information again in dialogue with someone and then add it in a descriptive paragraph pages later.  Readers, me included, roll their eyes and say, "enough already...I know, I know."

Since I don't plot my stories and find my memory isn't what it used to be, I've taken to making notes about the physical attributes of my characters.  It's quite easy to describe sky blue eyes in one chapter and chocolate brown in another further down the line.  Unless you're writing from the perspective of an Australian Shepherd, both eyes should be the same color and remain that way throughout the story.

As an historical author, I learned long ago, and I'm still learning, that you really need to be on guard to assure your language is appropriate for the period about which you write.  I've read some love scenes lately that left me shaking my head because of the present day terminology used for body parts.  It's really not believable that an Indian brave would bust out with the word "clitoris."

I've found the online Etymology dictionary most helpful in determining the origin of most words, but judgement helps too. Think about your story's time period and how people spoke.  While you might find word origins described from the 1500s, that doesn't mean they were used all over the globe.  Example:  Ma/Maw/Momma is how a child addressed their female parent rather than just Mom in 1840.  Although "kid" has been a word for a long time, the manner in which it was used in the 1800s most often referred to a baby goat.  Children were not kids, but you could kid with them (tease).  Historical credibility is all a matter of knowing your time period and doing your research.  Trust me, if you make a mistake, someone will notice and let you know.

My most recent editor pointed out her amazement that my heroine still had a bottom lip as she constantly chewed on it.  *lol*  It's so easy to utilize the same action without realizing you've overdone it.  Here again, that's because we don't write books in one sitting nor do we usually go back and re-read the previous chapters.  Thank God for those who devote their time and talents to making us stop and think about our writing habits.  What would we do without our editors...internal and external?