This past Tuesday was an auspicious day. I finished my second edit of Beyond Omega’s Sunrise, began writing the second book of The Spheral Series, and the Kindle version of Unison was ready. Talk about synchronicity!
Now on to my favorite topic: editing. Well, not really my favorite. Writing the first draft is still at the top of my list. I couldn’t relate to why some authors had a preference for editing until I witnessed the transition between manuscript to book. I never perceived this transition with screenwriting. I can only assume it’s because none of my screenplays were made into movies, so they’re all incomplete journeys. There’s something about this new awareness that feels oh so very good. It has nothing to do with money or whether people will like my book, but that I completed a piece of art according to my vision. Writing the story in novel form made the difference because I wasn’t writing for an agent or studio executives. I read so many blogs with authors emphasizing the importance of writing authentically. I agree with that crew. It’s the way to draw out your own unique voice. If you write with an audience in mind, you’ll be stifling your own voice with imagined expectations, preferences and opinions from people you’ve never met. I’ve read a few authors that write by envisioning one specific person reading their book. That doesn’t work for me either.
Writing is personal and sacred…
It’s a form of meditation for me. I can’t look to others to determine what my story should be any more than I would ask others how I should live my life. I’ve mentioned in previous blogs that writing is my outward spiritual expression. It’s what made me fall in love with writing.
ON TO THE FINE TUNING
The editorial process is getting easier for me. It seems like my second pass through Beyond Omega’s Sunrise gave my story its shape. I can see what it looks like now, and I like where it’s headed.
In my blog post, Sculpting a Story, I mentioned how my third draft was where I saw the shape of a story emerge. I managed to streamline my editorial process because in addition to the obvious concerns regarding plot, structure and characterization I learned how to analyze my manuscript like a nit-picky editor. These fine tunes take time to develop as they’re mostly intuitive. But once mastered, they save a lot of time. I firmly believe, and now know, authors are their own best editors. I know I”ll get a lot of flack for this statement, but no one knows my story as well as me. It’s all a matter of learning the craft and being objective…very objective. The latter is the most challenging for most people. Most writers are either enamored by their own words or unsure of them. My issue was the latter. Luckily, I got over that hurdle, but new ones have come up to replace them. It’s always something. I’ll save that for another blog as I want to get into three very important editorial techniques that saved me a lot of time once I understood them.
RHYTHM
A sentence can feel awkward when read, even if it’s grammatically correct and makes logical sense. This one used to drive me nuts until I discovered it had to do with rhythm.I went over this in the Sculpting a Story post; however, I’ll take it one step further here. The rhythm must not only flow from one sentence to the next, but it must have an equally flowing transition into the next thought. Giving away my age here, I compare it to what happens when the needle on a record skips over a scratch. When a skip occurs in my edit, I don’t stop and analyze it. I brainstorm until I find the proper connecting thought and voila…the skip is gone. I find this type of edit the most time consuming because it’s very ambiguous and hard to identify.
A CAR IN THE CITY?
Would a person in New York own a car? Yes, some of them would, and I’ve known a few. Nevertheless, I pondered over this question because my protagonist owns a car in the City. As it wasn’t an implausible scenario, I left the question unanswered and gave my manuscript to my editor. She ended up mentioning the car issue, and I was astonished. Apparently even something that wasn’t implausible can be viewed as implausible when it’s not a common occurrence, such as owning a car in the City. This may seem petty to most readers, but I thought it was very revealing in that I had the same concern. If both of us thought about it, you can believe that some equally fussy readers would discern the same thing. I did, and admittedly, I’d question it.
Why on Earth would someone own a car in the city when parking is almost impossible and garages charge a fortune?
So, no matter how insignificant I think a concern of mine is, I fix it immediately because I know my doubts won’t disappear. They’re there for a reason. I brainstormed a fix, and it added to the characterization of my protagonist, who likes the freedom of moving around.
UNFAMILIAR TERMINOLOGY
I reference a theramin in Jessie’s Song. My editor was concerned that a lot of readers wouldn’t know what a theramin is. Now granted, they could easily go to a dictionary, as I typically do when I don’t know a word. Rather than throw in annoying exposition, I injected a little humor into the dialogue that makes it obvious that it could be used for music. This fix worked both for the lazy reader, which I admit to being at times, and the curious one who need to know the definition of every single word in the English language. The additional benefit is that the dialogue enhances the protagonist’s characterization.
With a little brainstorming, there are always creative ways to make mediocre text shine and help add to the characterization and meaning to the story.
Love and light,
Eleni
