TECH: Hone Your Chops (moldy oldie time again!)

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Original Posting Dec. 5, 2017

Writer's Digest, February 1994, had a two page article on pages 38 and 39 focusing on what to do when your editor says cut. "I want 25,000 words cut from your manuscript. When can I see a revision?" Yipes!

So, start out by separating thematic (content) and mechanical (text) editing. Then…

Thematic chops

1. Get into the story right away. In medias res? You know, get to the good stuff!
2. Chop character development. Secondary, minor – cut the lengthy characterization, but keep a essential action.
3. Pare character background. Will readers still know what's going on without this background? Will the plots suffer? Cut the extra.
4. Delete characters. Are there extra characters who don't play pivotal roles? Can you combine them with other characters?
5. Cut multiple motivations. If more than one motivation drives the same outcome, get rid of the extras.
6. Simplify atmosphere characters. Yes, waiters, taxi drivers and so forth are wonderful, but… Focus on the main guys.
7. Cut linking scenes. That walk along the river to get from one scene to another – use the movie camera cut, and just jump the transition.
8. Rely on the present. What's happening now is more important than the past. Get rid of the old.
9. Simplify writerly touches. Excess foreshadowing, contrasts, allusions, comparisons, imagery. Necessary description, but not purple prose.
10. Pare interrelated scenes. The same scene from different viewpoints, narrative scenes about a secondary storyline, try cutting it.
11. Cut action. If the dialogue is the most important part, cut down on the description of action.
12. Delete secondary storylines. Yes, they make the story richer – and longer!

Mechanical chops

1. Cut the "he saids" and "she thoughts." If there's only one or two characters, or they have unique styles, you may not need dialogue tags. Try it without them. The same for interior monologues -- we probably know who is thinking, right?
2. Line edit. Rephrase, rewrite, active tense.
3. Delete extra adjectives and adverbs.

All right? Start with the high level structural changes. Then get down to line-by-line tightening. See how many words you can take out!

TECH: Untensing over Tense (yet another moldy oldie!)

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Original Posting Dec. 11, 2017

Writer's Digest, February 1994, on pages eight, 10, 11 has an article by Nancy Kress about tense. The subtitle helps explain, "How to tell your story in the past, the present – or both."

The question of course is which tense to use. "Some of these decisions are judgment calls."

Now, the convention really is to tell the story in past tense. Readers expect this. So why would you use present tense? Well, for effect. What is the effect? Janet Burroway says, "the effect of the present tense, somewhat self-consciously, is to reduce distance and increase immediacy; we are there." Damon Knight, on the other hand, says, "the present tense in third person seems to imply the existence of an invisible observer a little more strongly than the past does." A little distance? Maybe.

Well, some people find present tense good for increasing immediacy. Others think it creates distance. How do you feel about it? Does it suit your story? Sometimes, such as time travel stories, present tense certainly can be useful.

Another possibility lies in mixing tenses. An older first-person narrator talking about childhood experiences. Be careful, this is attention grabbing, especially in third person. It tends to put some distance, and break the illusion of the story as reality.

Nancy also mentions two special cases of tense mixing. First is presentation of characters' thoughts. The other, and the one that she spends a little bit of time talking about, is flashbacks. Handled correctly, the conventions here help the reader follow the time shifts without getting distracted from the story. If the story is in past tense, a short flashback may be in past perfect. On the other hand, a longer flashback may start with a couple or three verbs in past perfect, and then the middle in plain old past, with the last few verbs in past perfect again just to inform the reader that we are about to transition. However, if your main story is in present tense, just make your flashback past tense.

"Only you can choose whether your story should be in present tense, past tense, or some mixture of the two. If you're undecided, write it in the more conventional past. Then hand-edit a copy, changing all the verbs to present tense, and read both aloud. Which creates the effect you want?"

All right? Default to past tense, use present tense if you like, especially for effect. Don't forget to signal flashbacks with a little mixed tense.

Practice? Well, Nancy almost lays out an exercise. Write a scene or even an entire story in past tense. Then go through it and modify the verbs to present tense. Read both of them aloud. How does the effect change? Which one gives you the effect you want?

Write!

EXERCISE: Why do you love...

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Original Posting Dec. 14, 2017

Over here, http://www.writingexcuses.com/2017/12/10/12-50-form-and-function/ the Writing Excuses crew tackled how form influences function, or at least, how media influences story. Then, towards the end of the podcast, they added a bonus section. Pretty simple, really. They asked each of the four panel members -- Mary, Wesley, Mary Anne, and Brandon -- to answer the question "Why do I love writing stories?" with a first-person discussion.

Their answers? Well, you can listen to the podcast, or read the transcript. Briefly, they said, "[Mary] It allows me to tilt the world on its side and see what's underneath, and the act of communicating that understanding makes me a better person. [Wesley] It allows me to be somebody I know I can't be in real life. I can be the hero, I can become a better person. [Mary Anne] Stories let me explore taboos, let me process things and say things that I can't any other way. [Brandon] Stories are the closest I can get to magic in real life. I can imagine something, and engage in telepathy with my readers!"

So, how does that make an exercise for us? Well, it seems to me that you might take that challenge -- answer the question, "Why do I love writing stories?" Doesn't have to be a long answer, but it should be a heartfelt answer, if you'll let me push you towards self-examination and reflection a bit.

Who knows, maybe you'll even feel like sharing that glimpse, that moment of looking into the writer's mirror and thinking about just why do I love doing this, with the rest of us?

Write?