{"id":135,"date":"2014-03-04T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-04T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/blog\/2014\/03\/04\/tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing-4\/"},"modified":"2015-11-25T12:22:16","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T19:22:16","slug":"tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Tactical Tuesday: Advice for Self-Editing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nI
\nattended the Florida Christian Writer\u2019s Conference this last weekend. This is a
\ngreat conference, and if you\u2019ve never looked it up, you should. When most of
\nthe states are covered in snow and ice, the writers at this conference might
\nhave to brave some sixty degree temps while attending a conference with the
\nbackdrop of beautiful Lake Yale.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nI
\ndigress, though. This is about something that occurred to me at conference.
\nWell, it didn\u2019t just occur to me. I\u2019ve touted deep point of view for years, but
\nit never entered my mind that those who wish to write would not know about this
\nconcept from the very beginning of their writing journey.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nDepending
\nupon what I knew of the author\u2019s journey toward publication, I asked three very
\nimportant questions of those who scheduled appointments with me. <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nFirst,
\nI\u2019d lean forward, and I\u2019d ask, \u201cHow long have you been writing fiction?\u201d<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nYes,
\nthere are authors who achieve success in a short time after deciding to write.
\nVery little of their success was caused by a fluke, though. <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nI received
\nmany different answers. Some had never written fiction, but their non-fiction
\ncareers were established. They recognized that fiction and non-fiction are
\ndifferent fields, but they also understood that non-fiction does incorporate
\nelements of fiction. Some writers were readers, and they had always wanted to
\nbe writers. Some had written for decades. Some were published.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nAfter
\nestablishing the length of their writing journey, I tightened the trap I set. \u201cWhat
\nhave you done to study the craft?\u201d<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nAgain,
\nthe answers varied. Some had decided to venture out for the first time to learn
\nwhere to get started. Others were readers, and if they were readers, why couldn\u2019t
\nthey write fiction? Still others had attended conferences, sat in classes, and
\nhad talked to those already successful; they were active in online writer\u2019s
\ngroups and online and person-to-person critique groups; they\u2019d studied their
\nchosen genre; they knew the elements of storytelling.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe third
\nquestion for me is like the salvation question, \u201cIf you were to die today, do
\nyou know if you would go to heaven?\u201d<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nOkay, my question wasn\u2019t nearly that <\/i>important, but it was a trick
\nquestion designed to know exactly where the writer sitting across from me was
\non his or her journey. With this question, I could almost put a pin in the map
\nto show how close that writer was to the destination.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nAgain,
\nI received all kind of answers. Some believed it was all about first, second,
\nor third person. Others knew that point of view is about one scene per
\npoint-of-view character. Then there were those individuals who made the choir
\nsing in my head when they said something like this: \u201cPoint of view is about
\nbringing the readers as deeply into the story as possible, allowing them to be
\na part of that story. Oh, yeah, and doing it one point of view per scene per
\npoint-of-view character.\u201d<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n\u201cHallelujah!\u201d
\nThey got it. Most likely they had arrived at their destination or the train was
\njust a little delayed. Their next journey would soon be on the other side of
\npublication\u2014at least for the book being pitched.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThose
\nthree questions allowed me to know, without fail, the level of story I would
\nget when I read sample chapters.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nYou can
\nimagine which authors were asked, and I should say that sometimes I almost
\nbegged, to submit their stories to me.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nPoint
\nof view and deep point of view: remember those terms. I contend that they are
\n85% of story element because with an understanding of point of view comes the
\ninfusion of the other elements of storytelling. Yes, one point of view per
\nscene is fantastic; understanding of that function of point of view is the
\nbeginning, but drawing me into the story is beyond marvelous. It doesn\u2019t
\nguarantee a contract, but it sure gets the interest of the editors, and I
\nsuspect a few agents would be grabbed as well.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nWhen
\nself-editing, examine your novel for deep point of view. If it is absent, you
\nstill have some work to do.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nHappy
\nediting.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I attended the Florida Christian Writer\u2019s Conference this last weekend. This is a great conference, and if you\u2019ve never looked it up, you should. When most of the states are covered in snow and ice, the writers at this conference might have to brave some sixty degree temps while attending a conference with the backdrop […]<\/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":[107,18,108,70,109],"class_list":["post-135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editing-writing-advice","tag-deep-pov","tag-editing-tips","tag-pov","tag-self-editing","tag-writing-conferences"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135","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=135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}