{"id":193,"date":"2013-05-28T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-28T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/blog\/2013\/05\/28\/tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_28-2\/"},"modified":"2015-11-25T12:22:17","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T19:22:17","slug":"tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_28-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_28-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Tactical Tuesday: Advice for Self-Editing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nRecently, I asked fellow
\nwriters what advice they\u2019d been given from other sources concerning opening
\nscenes and what not to do. I\u2019d like to share what they told me and offer my
\nopinions on those \u201crules.\u201d<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe very first rule mentioned
\nwas to never start a novel with the weather. I can think of two reasons someone
\nmight make this suggestion: 1) the author is using a conversation between
\ncharacters to provide information about the weather which isn\u2019t necessary to
\nthe plot and, therefore, leaves the opening dialogue mundane and stilted; and
\n2) opening with the weather is a bit overused.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nHowever, what if I\u2019m
\nthe writer of a novel about a community of people overcoming the aftermath of
\nterrible tornadoes such as the ones that devastated Oklahoma? Note, my carefully
\nchosen description. The novel is about the aftermath, but in order to connect
\nthe reader to the story and to grab his attention, I can\u2019t think of any better
\nway than to open with an approaching storm. If the writing is engaging, and
\nkeeps an editor or agent turning the page, I don\u2019t believe many editors or agents
\nwould toss the book aside because it opens with weather.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe second rule
\nmentioned was a dream. I classify this with the \u201coverdone\u201d issue as well. Many
\nwriters try to use a dream sequence to tell back story. So, an author who opens
\nwith this type of scene actually has the reader in the past before the story
\never moves forward.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nAgain, there could be
\nexceptions to this rule: a young adult or middle grade novel in which a child\u2019s
\ndreams take them to places where danger and adventure await, but the child soon
\nlearns that his dreams are reality\u2014two separate planes of existence. I know an
\nauthor who has such a novel, and the dream lulled me right into his story.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe third one is going
\nto have everyone nodding their head in agreement: don\u2019t open a novel with a
\nmundane sentence or opening. Well, yeah, most often you want to grab the reader\u2019s
\nattention. et, there are exceptions
\nto this rule. What if the intent of the author is to set the mood for a character\u2019s
\nseemingly mundane existence? Everything appears normal. Nothing is out of
\nplace, but little hints begin to crop up that not all is as it appears.
\nSomething\u2019s terribly wrong. Let\u2019s say, for instance, our mundane character is
\nactually a psychotic serial killer. When the story opens, he\u2019s smiling and
\ncajoling his wife who seems to be on edge. It\u2019s best to let the reader see the
\nmundane and slowly show that the wife<\/i>
\nthe man is cajoling isn\u2019t his wife at all. She\u2019s his newest victim, and she\u2019s
\nterrified. You get the picture.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe fourth rule
\nmentioned was to avoid unlikeable characters. This one, I\u2019m going to say is
\ntrue at least 99.75% of the time. An author wants to connect the reader with
\nhis characters. However, what if your main character is the psychotic serial
\nkiller above. The author wants to connect the reader with \u201ccrazy\u201d as soon as
\npossible. That\u2019s part of the conflict. He\u2019s not going to be likeable except to
\nanother serial killer, but his character and his actions provide the conflict
\nthat pull the reader into his world.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThere\u2019s also another
\ninstance. What happens if the main character does something unthinkable,
\nsomething that, in our normal existence, we can\u2019t imagine every doing? The act
\nappalls the reader. Again, this should not be done in most cases, but if the
\ncharacter\u2019s actions result in telling a story of redemption, if all will be
\nmade right, if the reader begins to see this character as someone to be pitied,
\nwho needs love, who accepts God\u2019s love, then the horrifying act that served to
\nmake us draw away, pulls us back toward her, and we begin to connect. One such
\nbook is Mother of My Son<\/i> by Rachel
\nAllord, available now from Pelican Book Group (Harbourlight Books). This
\ntechnique is masterfully woven into the story.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe last rule we\u2019re going
\nto look at tells us to \u201cnever, ever, ever, ever start a novel with back story.\u201d
\nTo this rule, I say, \u201camen.\u201d If a writer cannot figure out a way to layer a key
\nportion of back story into the novel without stopping the front story, a prologue
\nis useful. While prologues are okay, they should be used only when necessary,
\nand they have to be written in such a way that the reader must know what
\nhappens from the end of the prologue.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe truth about back
\nstory is that it should never look like back story. The character\u2019s past needs
\nto be woven seamlessly through the front story\u2014always moving the novel forward.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nRules, rules, rules. We
\nall hear them; we all dispense them, sometimes without knowing the true reason behind
\nthem. In some cases, an agent or editor is one that has heard the rules, and
\nwell, a rule is a rule. You\u2019re not going to get past them by breaking something
\nthey hold sacred\u2014even if they don\u2019t understand why it should be held that way.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe decision for the author, when editing his book, is to determine if the
\nopening scene they have utilized fits the necessity of the novel. If so, and if
\ndone correctly, there is an agent or an editor out there waiting to read and
\nacquire his work.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nFeel free to share any \u201crules\u201d
\nabout opening scenes that you may have heard.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nAnd happy editing.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently, I asked fellow writers what advice they\u2019d been given from other sources concerning opening scenes and what not to do. I\u2019d like to share what they told me and offer my opinions on those \u201crules.\u201d The very first rule mentioned was to never start a novel with the weather. I can think of two […]<\/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":[67,18,135,161,70,4],"class_list":["post-193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editing-writing-advice","tag-editing","tag-editing-tips","tag-editors-tips","tag-fiction-writing","tag-self-editing","tag-writing-advice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193","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=193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}