{"id":207,"date":"2013-04-02T13:37:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-02T13:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/blog\/2013\/04\/02\/tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing-15\/"},"modified":"2015-11-25T12:22:18","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T19:22:18","slug":"tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing-15\/","title":{"rendered":"Tactical Tuesday: Advice for Self-Editing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpFirst\" style=\"text-indent: 0in;\">\nYou\u2019ve<br \/>\nread the stories where the characters have repetitive actions. They\u2019re<br \/>\ndescribed in different ways, but in the end, they mean the same.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"text-indent: 0in;\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;\">\nHarold glanced at Audrey. \u201cAre you okay?\u201d<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;\">\nAudrey peered through the darkness at him. \u201cScared<br \/>\nis all?<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;\">\nHarold narrowed his eyes. \u201cDon\u2019t tell me<br \/>\nyou\u2019re afraid of ghosts.\u201d<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;\">\n\u201cI don\u2019t like anything I can\u2019t explain.\u201d<br \/>\nShe stabbed him with her glare.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;\">\nA low moan came from somewhere within the<br \/>\nhouse. Harold closed his eyes. He\u2019d taken the dare. He couldn\u2019t turn back now.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"margin-right: 0.5in; text-indent: 0in;\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"text-indent: 0in;\">\nYou get<br \/>\nthe idea. Some take the adage, \u201cThe eyes are the window of the soul,\u201d to the<br \/>\nextreme. Those authors, if they aren\u2019t using a speech attribute, give all<br \/>\nmovement to the eyes.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"text-indent: 0in;\">\nSome<br \/>\nauthors will have their character\u2019s gripping everything in sight. The same rule<br \/>\napplies. Characters\u2019 actions should be varied. Deep thought can be used to aid<br \/>\nin presenting rounded characters.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"text-indent: 0in;\">\nThe<br \/>\nbest authors use beats that provide insight into the personality of their<br \/>\ncharacters:<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-indent: 0in;\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;\">\nHarold strolled up the steps of the old<br \/>\nabandoned house. His friends had called him a coward. Still, he had a mystery to solve and nothing would stand in his way.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;\">\nAudrey clutched at the back of his shirt.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;\">\nHe reached for her hand and with a gentle<br \/>\ntug brought her to his side and slipped his arm around her shoulder. Supposedly<br \/>\nhaunted houses were great places to take a date. Girls loved to be frightened,<br \/>\neven if they wouldn\u2019t admit it. \u201cAre you okay?\u201d<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;\">\nAudrey leaned in closer to him. \u201cScared is<br \/>\nall?<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;\">\nHarold chuckled, but not too loudly. He<br \/>\ndidn\u2019t want to awaken anything that could be waiting for them in the dilapidated<br \/>\nmansion. \u201cDon\u2019t tell me you\u2019re afraid of ghosts.\u201d<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;\">\nIn his arms, Audrey shivered. \u201cI don\u2019t like<br \/>\nanything I can\u2019t explain.\u201d<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;\">\nA low moan came from somewhere within the<br \/>\nhouse. Harold stilled every muscle in his body. It wouldn\u2019t do to let Audrey<br \/>\nknow he was just as frightened as her. He\u2019d taken the dare. He couldn\u2019t turn<br \/>\nback now.<i><\/i><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"margin-right: 0.5in; text-indent: 0in;\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"margin-right: 0.5in; text-indent: 0in;\">\nWhen self-editing, a helpful hint for<br \/>\nauthors is to highlight repetitive motions and, when possible, provide a more<br \/>\nvivid picture of movement. Characters do widen their eyes, narrow their gazes,<br \/>\nglare, look up, look down, and look away\u2026but the best stories limit those<br \/>\nactions.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" style=\"margin-right: 0.5in; text-indent: 0in;\">\nHappy editing.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You\u2019ve read the stories where the characters have repetitive actions. They\u2019re described in different ways, but in the end, they mean the same. Harold glanced at Audrey. \u201cAre you okay?\u201d Audrey peered through the darkness at him. \u201cScared is all? Harold narrowed his eyes. \u201cDon\u2019t tell me you\u2019re afraid of ghosts.\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t like anything [&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-207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editing-writing-advice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207","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=207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}