{"id":203,"date":"2013-04-16T16:22:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-16T16:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/blog\/2013\/04\/16\/tactical-tuesdays-advice-for-self\/"},"modified":"2015-11-25T12:22:18","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T19:22:18","slug":"tactical-tuesdays-advice-for-self","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/tactical-tuesdays-advice-for-self\/","title":{"rendered":"Tactical Tuesdays: Advice for Self-Editing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpFirst\">\nClich\u00e9s. We\u2019ve all heard<br \/>\nabout them. Most writers cringe when an editor or critique partner points out a<br \/>\nclich\u00e9 line like \u201ca penny saved is a penny earned.\u201d<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpFirst\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\">\nSometimes it\u2019s best to<br \/>\ndelete a clich\u00e9 from a manuscript, but sometimes just the right line will allow<br \/>\nan author to amp up the clich\u00e9 and make it fresh and new. What if an author has<br \/>\na cynical character standing in the grocery line? He\u2019s holding out his hand in<br \/>\norder to receive a mere penny in change. The cashier looks at<br \/>\nhim as if to say, \u201cMister, really? You want the penny?\u201d He takes it from her<br \/>\nand with a smirk holds it above the little cup left there for other customers<br \/>\nto dig out of when they\u2019re short a few cents. \u201cA penny saved is a penny given<br \/>\nto the poor sap who didn\u2019t earn enough.\u201d <i>Plink<\/i>.<br \/>\nHe drops the penny into the cup.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\">\nClich\u00e9s can also<br \/>\nencompass more than a line in a manuscript. An entire character may be clich\u00e9.<br \/>\nFor example, if I mentioned the name Snidely Whiplash, what picture comes to<br \/>\nmind? A mustache that curls at its ends, a black top hat and a coat to match. A<br \/>\nman standing over poor Pauline, the hapless, and also clich\u00e9, heroine he\u2019s tied<br \/>\nto the railroad tracks.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\">\nUnless the story is a<br \/>\nparody, a Snidely Whiplash-type villain just isn\u2019t going to work. So what can<br \/>\nbe done with him and with other clich\u00e9 characters? Turn those characters inside<br \/>\nout. Rather than a handlebar mustaches and an evil laugh, Snidely has a smooth<br \/>\nbaby face with blue eyes that can charm most women into doing anything he<br \/>\nwants. His laugh is soothing and draws people in. The heroine comes to believe<br \/>\nhe\u2019s the man she wants to take home to meet mother. He\u2019s so perfect, and his<br \/>\nname is Brian or Josh or David\u2014nothing to make the reader assume his villainy.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\">\nThen little by little,<br \/>\nwe see his imperfections. We get a look into the evil that dwells just beneath<br \/>\nthe surface, and we scream for Pauline (who also isn\u2019t a helpless heroine. She\u2019s<br \/>\nsmart, and crafty, and she\u2019ll be able to get away with or without help from a<br \/>\nhero) to run as fast as she can.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\">\nWhen editing, authors<br \/>\nshould look for familiar and overused lines to either delete, change, or<br \/>\nwhenever possible amp up with a new twist. Characters should be examined to<br \/>\ndetermine if anything about them is clich\u00e9. If so, add a little twist to the<br \/>\ncharacter and bring someone new to life.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\">\nHappy editing.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Clich\u00e9s. We\u2019ve all heard about them. Most writers cringe when an editor or critique partner points out a clich\u00e9 line like \u201ca penny saved is a penny earned.\u201d Sometimes it\u2019s best to delete a clich\u00e9 from a manuscript, but sometimes just the right line will allow an author to amp up the clich\u00e9 and make [&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":[],"class_list":["post-203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editing-writing-advice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203","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=203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}