{"id":139,"date":"2014-02-11T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-11T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/blog\/2014\/02\/11\/tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_11\/"},"modified":"2015-11-25T12:22:16","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T19:22:16","slug":"tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_11\/","title":{"rendered":"Tactical Tuesday: Advice for Self-Editing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nHave you
\never read a book so terrible that you felt sorry for the author? I have.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nWhen
\nthis happens to me, it\u2019s as if I\u2019m cruising past a train wreck, and I can see into each derailed car and the disaster inside. I find myself wondering why someone didn\u2019t switch the track to avoid the derailment.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nWhat
\nmakes a novel a disaster? There are many elements that go into the making of a
\ndisaster, but here is what stands out the most for me in a novel:<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nFirst
\nof all, I cringe when I see unrealistic or stilted dialogue. I want every word
\nspoken by a character to contain 1) a realistic tone and conversation; 2)
\ninformation that moves the plot along without the author obviously using the dialogue to
\ntell what the reader needs to know; and 3) a conversation that is appropriate
\nfor the moment and for the genre. For instance, I do not want two characters
\nwho are, let\u2019s say, astronomers, who, together, have detected a large meteor on
\na collision course with Earth, to begin reliving their discovery. They were
\ntogether. Their conversation isn\u2019t likely to go something like, \u201cHarry, do you
\nremember yesterday when we measured the meteor, did the calculations, and
\nlearned that Earth is in deep trouble.\u201d That conversation is not likely to
\nhappen. Instead, those astronomers need to be in action and in conversation
\nabout how they\u2019re going to stop the thing, save the earth, and become heroes in
\nthe process. Yes. All dialogue tells the reader information they need to know. The key to effective and well-written dialogue is to wrap the reader up in it so that they don’t realize they’re being told. Instead, they’re a part of a realistic conversation that moves the plot forward.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nAlong
\nwith dialogue, redundancies are often what turns a good novel bad very quickly.
\nYou know what they are. The writer isn\u2019t sure she even has a handle on the
\nstory, so she tries to cover it up by repeating what the reader understood from
\nthe start. While redundancies are most often caused by a writer’s insecurity over her ability to relay the message, the reader comes away feeling as if they’ve been talked down to. As noted above, that is sometimes done in dialogue as well as
\nnarrative.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nStopping
\nto smell the roses is another problem that stands out for me. Those are the
\nmoments when the characters are neck deep in trouble, and they\u2019re talking about
\nthings that don\u2019t matter. Let\u2019s go back to our astronomers, Harry and
\nJacqueline. A meteor is streaking toward Earth. The force of the blast will
\ntake Earth out of its orbit and everyone will die. But Harry and Jacqueline don\u2019t
\nlet that stop them from stealing a kiss on about every page or even taking
\nabout wedding plans. No-sir-ree, that part of the plot has to go forward, and
\nthey\u2019re going to discuss those things right in the midst of a disaster.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nWhen self-editing
\na manuscript, an author should check very carefully and remove any unrealistic and\/or
\nstilted dialogue from a manuscript. Redundancies should be reviewed and most often deleted. Likewise, all action and dialogue should be relevant for the scene. Remember, you’re not going to stop and smell the roses when a serial killer is on your heels.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nHappy
\nediting.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you ever read a book so terrible that you felt sorry for the author? I have. When this happens to me, it\u2019s as if I\u2019m cruising past a train wreck, and I can see into each derailed car and the disaster inside. I find myself wondering why someone didn\u2019t switch the track to avoid the […]<\/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":[112,92,113,70],"class_list":["post-139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editing-writing-advice","tag-dialogue","tag-editing-helps","tag-redundancies","tag-self-editing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139","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=139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}