{"id":126,"date":"2014-03-25T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-25T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/blog\/2014\/03\/25\/tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_25\/"},"modified":"2015-11-25T12:22:16","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T19:22:16","slug":"tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_25\/","title":{"rendered":"Tactical Tuesday: Advice for Self-Editing"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpFirst\" style=\"text-indent: 0in;\">\nWe all<br \/>\nhave our little darlings, words, lines, scenes, chapters, that we love. Then a<br \/>\ncritique partner or an editor comes along and slashes a line right through<br \/>\nthem. Feedback is provided, such as: episodic, redundant, doesn\u2019t have anything<br \/>\nto do with the story, takes away from the immediacy of the scene \u2026 and many,<br \/>\nmany other disheartening reasons why the darlings have to be destroyed.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"text-indent: 0in;\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"text-indent: 0in;\">\nAs the<br \/>\none who gave birth to the darling, an author often attempts to do everything<br \/>\nshe can to save them. She holds them up and claims their cuteness, their<br \/>\nintelligence, even their entertainment value. Even when she can\u2019t explain how<br \/>\nthey are necessary to the story, an author might cling to them with all her<br \/>\nmight.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"text-indent: 0in;\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"text-indent: 0in;\">\nThe<br \/>\ntruth is, in fiction, we can\u2019t afford to waste a single word. They must be<br \/>\nintegral to the story, or they must be slashed.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"text-indent: 0in;\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"text-indent: 0in;\">\nWhen<br \/>\nexamining a manuscript for these darlings, it is good to approach them with<br \/>\nthat thought in mind. Are they necessary or is it just something that the<br \/>\nauthor likes?<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"text-indent: 0in;\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"text-indent: 0in;\">\nIf it\u2019s<br \/>\nsomething that the author likes, then there are two options: make it integral<br \/>\nto the story or take it out.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"text-indent: 0in;\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"text-indent: 0in;\">\nIs the author<br \/>\nholding on to characters that really don\u2019t belong? There are three options:<br \/>\nrework the story to make them count, save them for another novel, or get rid of<br \/>\nthem.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"text-indent: 0in;\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"text-indent: 0in;\">\nIs the<br \/>\nscene\/location a \u201cmust-have\u201d even though it\u2019s a rabbit trail for a million<br \/>\nreasons that only the author knows? Two options exist: Get the bunny on the<br \/>\nright trail and make the scene\/location necessary to the story, or stop chasing<br \/>\nthe rabbit and stay on the right path.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"text-indent: 0in;\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"text-indent: 0in;\">\nAre the<br \/>\nwords just perfect prose whose loss would be a disservice to humanity? One<br \/>\noption here. Take the first step in getting over yourself and delete it.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"text-indent: 0in;\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"text-indent: 0in;\">\nI know<br \/>\nthis is some tough talk, but as one who loves to hold on to my own darling<br \/>\nwords, scenes, and chapters, sometimes it takes tough love to help me to get<br \/>\nrid of them.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"text-indent: 0in;\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"text-indent: 0in;\">\nHappy<br \/>\nediting.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We all have our little darlings, words, lines, scenes, chapters, that we love. Then a critique partner or an editor comes along and slashes a line right through them. Feedback is provided, such as: episodic, redundant, doesn\u2019t have anything to do with the story, takes away from the immediacy of the scene \u2026 and many, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[504],"tags":[67,92,70],"class_list":["post-126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editing-writing-advice","tag-editing","tag-editing-helps","tag-self-editing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}