Unnecessary Words

Editing cuts down sentences to get to the point quickly. An essential edit includes keeping an eye out for words such as Just, So, and That. These words can often be removed without changing the meaning of the sentence.

Example: “It was just the same as yesterday”

Edited: “It was the same as yesterday.”

Vague Words

Words can be deceiving. Vague terms such as Slightly, Almost, Average, and A Bit will be interpreted differently by different readers. Essential edits include crafting a sentence so it is more specific (without being wordy).

Example: “We were a bit late.”

Edited: “We were 15 minutes late.”

Adverbs

Adverbs are words that describe verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. They tend to end in -ly and function to prop up weak words. Essential edits require using strong verbs to show action or emotion will engage readers.

Example: “She ran quickly.”

Edited: “She sprinted.”

Over-Describing

Over-describing actions creates pleonasms or subtle redundancies. You can’t shrug anything except your shoulders, and you wouldn’t blink anything except your eyes. Give the reader a little credit for understanding how the world works. 

Example: “She gripped the doorknob with her hand.”

Edited: “She gripped the doorknob.”

Passive Voice

Passive voice occurs when the object being acted upon becomes the focus of the sentence. Look for Was and Were before a verb and a By after. Unless done purposefully, rework these sentences to be direct with your action. 

Example: “The balloon was popped by Sharon.”

Edited: “Sharon popped the balloon.”

Dialogue Tags

When writers choose dialogue tags, they tend to get creative to avoid being boring or redundant. People don’t growl, yawn, or cry things. Stick mainly to Said and Asked. Use action to add emphasis and description.

Example: “I hate you,” she growled at him.

Edited: “I hate you,” she said, her face scowling.

Clichés

When the same word, phrase, or situation is used again and again, it becomes cliché. Avoid everything from true loves literally bumping into one another to phrases like “in the nick of time.” Create your own original descriptions instead.

Example: “He got away like a thief in the night.”

Edited: “He made an easy escape.”

Punctuation

It’s okay if you don’t get every comma in the right place, but you should at least have the basics (periods, question marks, quotation marks) down. Be consistent and review some general rules before you edit. Make this level your last round of editing.

Example: “How did you do that”.

Edited: “How did you do that?”

Extra Hints & Tips

Most people don’t benefit from editing as they go. Take some time away from your work—a day, a month, however long—then start editing. Try changing the font of your manuscript. Looking at the text in a new way will help you catch typos, repeated words, and more. You can also read aloud. If you trip over a sentence or need to take a breath in the middle of one, you might need to revise it. Finally, don’t be afraid to use editing programs, but don’t accept all changes without reviewing first. You CAN edit your work and these eight aspects are sure to tighten up your wording and make your prose shine.

Jeanette the Writer is a freelance editor and writer based in Dallas, TX. When not at the computer, you can find her crafting, teaching a scuba diving class, or posting pictures of her cats on Instagram. Visit JeanettetheWriter.com for more info and sign up for her newsletter at Jeanettethewriter.ck.page.

The post Eight Essential Edits for Your Novel appeared first on DIY MFA.

But 2020 has been so strange in so many ways, which is why there is no Word of the Year winner this year. Instead, they released a full report of words—Oxford Languages 2020: Words of an Unprecedented Year. From the most-searched terms to the most recently added, here are the top words we heard, searched for, created, and used in 2020.

Anthropause

With global lockdowns and business restrictions, the regular buzz of human interaction and travel has come to a halt. An anthropause, therefore, is the slowing or stopping of cultural human activity. This is not to be confused with Cancel Culture, which is a public rejection of previously acceptable practices or views.

Black Lives Matter

This phrase exploded onto the scene in June and has remained one of the most-searched-for terms of the year. In fact, searches related to systemic racism have increased by 1623% from 2019 to 2020 according to the report. We expect and hope to see these words at a continual peak until the systemic racism and police brutality against Black, Indigenous, and other people of color has come to an end.

Blursday

Time tends to warp when your entire life has been upended. Your previous habits—gym on Monday/Wednesday, lunch with the girls every Thursday, etc.—gave you subtle ways of keeping the days and weeks straight. Now that folks are stuck at home, it doesn’t even seem to matter what day of the week it is, much less can anyone remember. Every day is now called Blursday.

Bubble

Previously a spherical pocket of gas enclosed in liquid, your “bubble” now refers to the group of people you have close contact with, such as any household members or coworkers. Coronavirus is known to spread within bubbles once it is introduced. Everyone’s bubbles overlap, which is adding to the spread of the virus. The tighter you can keep your bubble, the safer you may be (no guarantees!).

Coronavirus

This word isn’t new, but March this year was the first time most of us became aware of it and its meaning. Used as a general term for Covid-19, coronavirus has been reported as one of the most frequently used nouns of the year. This is one term that won’t be missed when it finally dissipates. 

Doomscrolling

There’s certainly a lot of bad news in the world this year, and 2020 made it more and more difficult to find a safe space on the internet to escape from it all. Thus, many of us turned to doomscrolling. This slang term refers to our tendencies to scroll endlessly through worrying pages of articles or social posts. Definitely something to be on the lookout for and abate immediately.

Infodemic

One reason doomscrolling happens is because of the corresponding cultural infodemic. Infodemic refers to a state where information (often incorrect or unsubstantiated) becomes overwhelming to the public until we cannot distinguish fact from fiction. 

Karen

Agree with this one or not, there’s no doubt that Karen has taken on a much deeper meaning than just a pretty name. In case you need a refresher, “Karen” is a general slang term used to describe a certain type of woman who shows disregard for others and often asks to see the manager. It may not be as eloquent as a Shakespearean insult, but our generation does its best. 

Net Zero

“Climate Emergency” was the Word of the Year in 2019, so it’s no wonder climate-related words are still on the list. Among others, there was a lot of buzz around the term Net Zero, which refers to the idea that an entity can reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by combatting carbon-producing activities with an equal measure of carbon-reducing ones. This is sometimes also referred to as becoming carbon neutral.

PPE

Standing for Personal Protective Equipment, this became a hot commodity in March when coronavirus cases began climbing worldwide. These days, billions of people around the world wear PPE on a daily basis, mostly in the form of face masks worn by the general public. Other pieces of PPE include gloves and face shields.

Unprecedented

This one definitely wins the award for most overused. Even Oxford Languages put it in their report title as a tongue-in-cheek nod to its abuse. Meaning “never before seen,” it certainly did apply to many of 2020’s events. But that still doesn’t take away the fact that everyone decided to use a $10 word where a $1 word would do.

Wildfires

This clearly isn’t new, and it didn’t take on any special meaning this year, but the news was dominated by wildfires raging in Australia, the US, and the Amazon (many of these are still burning). The devastation caused by these blazes has affected people near and far, including those in our word nerd family.

Workcation

This word is already a few years old, but it saw a 500% jump in usage in 2020 with the major uptick in remote working. Since most people can’t or shouldn’t be going anywhere anyway, it becomes tempting to take a day or two off and then end up doing work during it anyway.

It’s impossible to sum up the year that is 2020 in just a word or two. We applaud Oxford Languages for their creative list this year and look forward to a much happier list in 2021!

Jeanette the Writer is an editor, coach, and freelance writer who wants to help others demolish their editing fears and finish their manuscript. As a former scuba instructor turned entrepreneur, Jeanette knows about putting in the hard work to pursue your passions. She has worked with authors, speakers, coaches, and entrepreneurs—empowering them with the right mindset, knowledge, and tools to help them tackle their editing goals. You can learn more about Jeanette by visiting JeanetteTheWriter.com. 

The post The Words That Shaped 2020 appeared first on DIY MFA.

Ideas vs Words

Let’s get one thing straight right now: under current US copyright law, ideas cannot be copyrighted. If your book features a teenage superhero riding a dragon and another book gets published with a similar storyline, you do not have the right to dispute it. The law does, however, give you automatic copyright over your exact written words as soon as you type them out. In fact, it’s important that your book be similar in plot or theme to other published books so you can point them out as comps in your query! 

Simultaneous Invention

The simultaneous invention phenomenon, also known as “multiple discovery,” is an occurrence where similar ideas are developed by different people in different places at the same time. For example, the telegraph machine was patented in the U.S. by Samuel F.B. Morse in the same year (1837) as a patent was granted to Charles Wheatstone in England. One man did not steal the other’s idea. They had simply thought of the same thing at the same time. Similar occurrences can and do happen in literature, no doubt.

Reality of Time

If an agent, editor, or publisher really wanted to steal your book, they would still need to rewrite it to avoid a plagiarism lawsuit. This takes time and lots of it. The reality is, industry professionals don’t have the time to steal your idea. Editors are busy with editing projects; agents are busy pitching to publishers; publishers are too busy fighting the decline in popularity of the printed word. No one has time to steal your idea.

Likelihood of Theft

In order to truly steal your idea, another writer would have to take your exact plot and theme, write it better than you could, and make a ton of profit for any of it to have been worth it. While you may consider your manuscript to be the next bestseller, it’s unlikely other writers will see it that way. Writers are inspired by different things and their ideas spark from deep within. Why would someone else suddenly drop their own precious work and take yours?

Concluding Thoughts

When you google “writer sues [editor/agent/publisher] over stolen work,” you don’t find pages of news articles screaming Writer Beware. You get articles like this one, telling you everything will be fine and you have nothing to worry about. Am I the first person to have come up with this topic? Clearly not. Am I the first person to take this exact viewpoint and write about this topic in these exact words? Yes, absolutely. So, stop procrastinating and telling yourself excuses—because everything will be fine, and no one will ever be able to write your book the way you can.

Jeanette the Writer is an editor, coach, and freelance writer who wants to help others demolish their editing fears and finish their manuscript. As a former scuba instructor turned entrepreneur, Jeanette knows about putting in the hard work to pursue your passions. She has worked with authors, speakers, coaches, and entrepreneurs—empowering them with the right mindset, knowledge, and tools to help them tackle their editing goals. You can learn more about Jeanette by visiting JeanetteTheWriter.com. 

The post Will an Editor Steal My Ideas? appeared first on DIY MFA.

Question 1

I have a question for the editor about when to use italics and when it might be better to use something else, like a different font. I do use italics for some internal dialogue. Here’s the question bit—

My telepathic character is possessed by music. Music is like a character. Sometimes it speaks to him with short one- or two-word sentences like “Play” or “Play Beethoven.” Should this be italicized or would something else like a different font or all caps be better? Right now, I have it italicized without quotations but I’m afraid it looks like more internalization.

Do my other uses of italics or not italics make sense, or should I do them differently?

Signed,
Italic-ly Confused

Question 2

I realized that I might not be using the best way to express a character’s inner thoughts. I’m pasting in a passage here that I think works with the italics but I’m not sure:

Maisie’s right, Picka thought. It is strange Ramone’s seeds were in a line along his body, not swirled around in the wind like the leaves and branches. And…no other Hatch peppers were shredded by hail in the thunderstorm. Picka’s skin tingled like that time lightning struck too close. He couldn’t put together how, but he just knew right down to his seeds that Ramone’s death wasn’t an accident.
“Who would do this to Ramone, and why? How will I find out the truth?”
“Why don’t you ask your bird friend to help?”
Picka yelped and nearly fell off his stem. He did not know he had been talking out loud.

I can’t think of another way to show when Picka is thinking to himself and when he is talking out loud without realizing it. Any insight is appreciated!

Signed,
I Dream in Italics

Editor’s Answer:

Here’s the thing about italics—they have many uses, but it is also very easy to overuse them.

In the first question, there are quite a few options when it comes to the way this author can format their manuscript and use italics. My main piece of advice is to use italics for one thing and stick with that. So, if this author uses italics to indicate inner thoughts, I recommend they not use them for the disembodied Music character. In this case, choosing all capitals or a different font could work well. For a good example of how to pull this off, read through Terry Pratchett’s book Mort, where the character Death speaks in all caps. In the end, there’s no hard and fast rule here, it’s all a stylistic choice.

In the second question, this author is on the right track with their usage. Juxtaposing the italics against regular looking dialogue will give the reader a clear indication of when the character is thinking versus speaking. However, there are alternatives to indicating inner thoughts with italics, such as the lesser-known point of view known as Deep POV. This increasingly popular style allows you to take out all the pesky “he thought” or “she felt” kind of stuff because you assume the reader can determine this for themselves (i.e. without formatting to clue them in).

If they were trying for Deep POV, this author might rewrite this passage into…

Picka’s mind raced through the evidence. Ramone’s seeds were in a line along his body, not swirled around in the wind like the leaves and branches. Maybe Maisie was right. That was certainly strange considering no other Hatch peppers were even minorly damaged by hail in the thunderstorm. Picka’s skin tingled like that time lightning struck too close…

Here, we understand that Picka is thinking because we are given the clue that his mind was racing. It conveys the same information and feelings but doesn’t rely on formatting to tell the reader what’s going on.

In reality, italics are a tool with many uses. They can add emphasis, indicate inner thoughts, characterize disembodied voices, or even be taken out altogether. If in doubt, use the “less is more” philosophy. It’s possible a future agent, editor, or publisher will remove your extraneous italics anyway. In the end, the clarity and quality of your writing should not rely solely on the formatting. Choose your usage and stick to it. You’ll be italicizing like a pro in no time!

How to “Ask the Editor”

Have a burning question for the editor? Just ask!

Jeanette is always accepting questions for our Ask the Editor column. Send a few paragraphs introducing yourself and your question to Jeanette@DIYMFA.com. You can also send up to five pages of your WIP for critique. We do our best to answer every question we receive, so keep an eye out for our next Ask the Editor article. Your question may be featured!

Jeanette the Writer is an editor, coach, and freelance writer who wants to help others demolish their editing fears and finish their manuscript. As a former scuba instructor turned entrepreneur, Jeanette knows about putting in the hard work to pursue your passions. She has worked with authors, speakers, coaches, and entrepreneurs—empowering them with the right mindset, knowledge, and tools to help them tackle their editing goals. You can learn more about Jeanette by visiting JeanetteTheWriter.com. 

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What is Front Matter?

Front matter refers to everything that comes before the story. This sets the tone of the book for what’s to come. You may want or need some of these items depending on the book you are writing. Conversely, you may need to avoid having some of this front matter if your book falls in other categories and genres.

Forewords

Often erroneously interchanged with “forward,” this 19th-century term is a section of the book written by another author or person of importance. It is often signed with that person’s name and the location and date they wrote it. The person chosen to write the foreword should be someone credible and of high importance to your subject matter or genre.

The purpose of a foreword is to lend legitimacy to the work that follows. There is often a connection between the author of the foreword and the topic or the book’s creation/creator. The foreword author should also have a similar audience of readers to your book, to assist with your target marketing.

Forewords are common in academic and non-fiction works. You may also see forewords for collections of short stories or poems to help the reader understand the importance and relevance of the stories to each other. In novels, the foreword is usually replaced by Front Sales—snippets of reviews from important people or sources.

Prefaces

After the foreword (if there is one) comes the preface. This comes from the Latin praefatio, meaning “speech before.” This is a chance for the author (or sometimes editor) to address their readers directly in a non-formal way. The contents of a preface are meant to stand apart from the book and look in at the work.

Your preface might explain why you wrote the book, the timeline or process for writing, and give readers information about why you are the person of authority to write on this topic or theme. Many times, the acknowledgments and thank you’s are a part of the preface. Prefaces are common in narrative nonfiction works but rarely appear in novels.

Introductions

The introduction may sound redundant to the preface, but it has its own purpose and place in literature. The term was coined in the 14th century from the Latin introducere, meaning “to lead into.” This is a chance for the author to give critical information about the work to come.

In a technical or academic text, this section would give the reader the basic knowledge they need to understand what’s in the book. In an article, the introduction summarizes the text to come. In narrative works, the author may focus on the goal or purpose of the book.

Like prefaces, introductions are not common in fictional works. However, historical fiction may benefit from a short introduction giving context for the time period and events. Narrative nonfiction books may explain what you can expect to learn from the memoir. Generally speaking, the introduction should be written in the same style and tone as the main sections or narrative.

Prologues

Similar to a foreword, prologue comes from the Greek prologos, meaning “before the word.” But that’s where the similarities end. Prologues are a part of the story, told before the main narrative. It is told in a character or narrator’s voice, not the author’s. This could be a different point of view character than the main character. Or it could be a moment out of context that is critical to the rest of the story.

Prologues are most commonly found in fictional works, but even now their numbers are dwindling. They have fallen out of fashion and tend to irk most agents and editors who come across them. Why? Because authors are using the term prologue incorrectly.

Often, authors will insist on writing prologues when really what they have is an opening chapter. If the story in the prologue is continued within the main narrative of the book, then it’s not a prologue. Prologues should also not be used as info dumps or irrelevant hooks to grab the reader’s attention.

Other Front Matter

There are a number of other pieces of front matter important to your book. While every book will contain a title page and copyright page, some may have additional features, such as:

• Half title—the very first page of a book when it’s opened. Contains the title and nothing else.
• Frontispiece—an illustration on the verso (back side) of the half title. Often omitted along with the half title page.
• Dedication—a page stating who the book was written for or in memory of.
• Epigraph—a quote or short fact that gives weight to the theme or tone of the work.
• Chapter List/Table of Contents—a list of the major sections of the book; either parts, chapters, or scenes.
• List of Figures/Tables—a list of graphs, tables, or illustrations that appear in the work, their reference number or name, and the page they occur on.
• Maps—real or fabricated maps or illustrations to orient the reader to the world of the novel.
• Acknowledgements—a shout out to those who helped or supported the book’s creation. Often included within the preface.
• Second Half-Title—just in case you’ve forgotten what book you’re reading after getting through all the other front matter, here’s the title again.
• Front Sales—snippets of reviews from important people or sources.

Why Get These Right? 

If it’s all in the front, why does it matter what we call it? Using proper terminology for your front matter will keep your book standard with other published works. It also shows editors, agents, and publishers that you know what you’re talking about. Each piece of front matter has a different scope, purpose, and suitability to your manuscript. Getting these terms right is critical.

Jeanette the Writer is an editor, coach, and freelance writer who wants to help others demolish their editing fears and finish their manuscript. As a former scuba instructor turned entrepreneur, Jeanette knows about putting in the hard work to pursue your passions. She has worked with authors, speakers, coaches, and entrepreneurs—empowering them with the right mindset, knowledge, and tools to help them tackle their editing goals. You can learn more about Jeanette by visiting JeanetteTheWriter.com.

The post Forewords, Introductions, & Prologues… Oh My! appeared first on DIY MFA.

Everyone mourns for their first draft. What we spent months or years on is now being hacked to pieces before our very eyes—and often by our very own hand! To successfully move through the grief of this process, the Kübler-Ross model outlines five important emotions we may face. Experiencing some or all of these emotions during editing is completely natural and, arguably, necessary to craft the best draft possible.

1) Denial — I don’t need to edit

Editing often begins with a healthy dose of denial. During grieving, denial makes survival possible. The denial stage builds our inner strength so we are able to move on to healing. During editing, denial masks our other emotions so we don’t become overwhelmed and abandon our work. The denial phase gives us the time we need to step away and see our words with a fresh perspective.

Denial becomes dangerous when we can’t overcome it. The shock of beginning the editing process may stop us from clearly seeing what needs doing. Instead, we live in a perceived reality of what we want our manuscript and the editing process to be. Denial can leave writers closed to critique and lacking improvement. We must remind ourselves that editing is a necessary part of all writing.

2) Anger — EDITING IS THE ABSOLUTE WORST!

Now we actually sit down for our first attempt. It’s rough; we feel lost and confused. Suddenly, we get angry. The anger phase can seem counterproductive, but every stage of grieving has its purpose. Whereas denial isolates us, anger connects us to something. When we locate the underlying source of our anger and focus on it, rage in it, and expel it, we can then move past it.

Are we feeling frustration due to our lack of editing knowledge; disappointment at our mistakes; jealousy toward the work of others? We mustn’t place guilt or blame on ourselves or others. Instead, we collect these energies and focus them on our writing and revising. Don’t ignore anger either. Holding it in will only fester into resentment and we will lose the love we once had for our work.

3) Bargaining — If I just do this tweak here, then I don’t have to edit that part over there

To avoid the full pain of editing, we offer up deals in the form of “if/then” statements. We compromise and debate about how much editing to do and where to do it. We try negotiating with the ghost-of-manuscripts-past to avoid what is already a present reality. This mindset isn’t getting us anywhere.

However, bargaining does offer a form of control. We are now actively engaged in the editing process, even if we can’t see the full picture. As we continue to edit, we can always renegotiate our bargains to change, expand, and evolve every aspect of our novel for the better. The more we bargain, the more we end up changing.

4) Depression — This is never going to end and I’m a failure

Now, back in our immediate reality, we face the inevitable truth and we begin to lament. Point of view, tone, pacing, characterization, structure, syntax, grammar, punctuation—the editing process seems unending. Uncertainty or inexperience can leave us doubting ourselves and the future payoff of our efforts. Depression during this time is completely natural and important.

Depression gives us our first glimpse of a brighter future. Feeling depressed means we are facing and experiencing our emotions, not hiding from them. Without acknowledgment, we cannot move on to the final stage of acceptance. The trick is keeping up the strength during this phase to complete the editing and grieving processes.

5) Acceptance — I’ve totally got this

Achieving acceptance is no easy feat and we shouldn’t rush into it. Whether it’s the first edit or the hundredth, it takes time to learn to live with reality and face what comes next. Acceptance is not about forgetting where we started (a slip into the denial phase) or accepting only some of the truth (bargaining, anyone?). It is also not the ribbon at the finish line. We do not simply accept something and then never have to deal with it again.

Rather, acceptance is about using the past to create a better future. Instead of looking back at what we once wrote, we look forward to what our writing could become. Conquering our editing goals means accepting responsibility, putting forth our best effort, and taking pride in the resulting finished product.

Jeanette the Writer is an editor, coach, and freelance writer who wants to help others demolish their editing fears and finish their manuscript. As a former scuba instructor turned entrepreneur, Jeanette knows about putting in the hard work to pursue your passions. She has worked with authors, speakers, coaches, and entrepreneurs—empowering them with the right mindset, knowledge, and tools to help them tackle their editing goals. You can learn more about Jeanette by visiting JeanetteTheWriter.com.

The post The Stages of Editing Grief appeared first on DIY MFA.

I’m writing a novel in the first-person perspective, and one of my critique partners just pointed out that they don’t know what my character looks like. Is character description important? If so, how do I describe a character from their own perspective without having them look in a mirror?

Sincerely,

Wondering

Dear Wondering,

People used to believe that character description didn’t matter much to “experienced” writers. Orson Scott Card even says in his 2010 book Characters & Viewpoint that physical description is the last thing you should consider sharing when you’re writing. “If readers know a character’s actions, motives, past, reputation, relationships, habits, talents and tastes, they can often get through a whole story without ever knowing a character’s eye color, and they’ll still feel as if they know the person.” This idea still holds some weight in the writing world today, but with one big caveat.

Why Character Description is Important

Nowadays, due to a greater awareness of the need for diversity and representation in books, it has become more important to be specific about the physical traits of all your characters. When you consider who your readers are, you also have to consider how important it is for people to see themselves—or characters they identify with—on the page.

The book industry has, throughout its history, been dominated by white people (and for a large portion of that history by white men). What that means is that the dominant perspective in publishing has been white. As the publishing industry (and society as a whole) has become more self-aware, and hopefully more inclusive, movements like “We Need Diverse Books” and “Own Voices” have emerged to call attention to the need for more equal representation in book characters, and for less appropriation of diverse stories by those who can’t claim them directly.

The issue of characterization and unequal character description is not a new one. It’s been shown that the default assumption for characters who are not described in the text has been that they are white. Even as more diverse characters have appeared on the page, this has raised the issues of “othering” and “exoticism” for characters who are described, versus ones who are not described. In order to normalize diversity in writing, all your characters should have some sort of physical description to help characterize them and help your readers see themselves in the story more clearly.

Challenges of Perspective

But that raises the problem of how you can convey that physical description without coming off as utterly cliché (i.e. the “standing in front of the mirror” technique) or culturally insensitive (i.e. using food metaphors to describe ethnicities other than white). From a first-person perspective, this can seem even more challenging. First-person perspective means that we see everything through the eyes of the main character, as if we were that character looking out at the world around us. And unless seeing their reflection, your main character probably can’t see themself in such a way to notice descriptive features about themself.

Five Points to Remember About First-Person Character Description

Here are five helpful points to consider as you work through showing your characters and the diversity of your fictional world to your reader:

1) Exceptional details are worth mentioning

What makes your character stand out? Do they know about it? Is it something they would bring up in conversation with those around them, or that others would bring up to them? If it’s not exceptional, it’s really the last thing you need to squeeze in about the character. I don’t know about you, but I don’t usually have people sitting around talking to me about my eye color (hazel) or the size of my waist (Seriously though. Don’t ask).

2) What the rest of the world looks like is important

Sometimes a clever way to convey a character’s appearance is through observations they make about those around them. They may notice a character of the same height or build that they have, or with hair similarly styled. Perhaps they’re travelling and see someone who they identify with culturally or otherwise. Or maybe they notice how everyone around them looks completely different, and compare their own physical traits in that way. This may seem like a surface-level technique, but feeling as though one fits in or stands out is important characterization and world-building.

3) Character insecurities offer contrast

Sometimes a character’s appearance can be conveyed through their insecurity about how they look compared to others. The socially awkward teenager may believe that the head cheerleader’s physique is the perfection she strives for, and think about how far she is from achieving that “dream look”.

4) Info dumps don’t leave a lasting impression

Just as with other aspects of characterization and world-building, you want to avoid dumping all the details about your character in one lump for your readers. This is what makes “looking in the mirror” so cliché. In one fell swoop you take in all the character’s physical traits, so that may seem efficient. But they’re not important in the moment, and so the reader is less likely to retain those details for later. Sprinkle in the details throughout, remembering to SHOW not TELL, so that your reader has a reason to connect the details about the character with something else significant about the story world.

5) Avoid stereotypes as much as possible

Remember that the characteristics of one person do not apply to a whole culture or category of people. When writing about characters you do not have a shared culture and history with, it’s important to be as aware of your own biases as possible so that you can avoid perpetuating those on the page. This will require asking for outside perspectives, because none of us knows what we don’t know yet. As much as possible, ask others to critique your work and to be especially aware of any stereotypes or cliched descriptions.

The need for diverse perspectives and a clear understanding of who a character is and how they fit into their world are the two most important takeaways here. Describing a character’s physical traits is just one way of showing that to the reader. As they say, practice makes perfect, so keep working on those first-person character descriptions. Don’t be afraid to get it wrong a time or two before you get it right. That’s what your critique partners are for!

How to “Ask the Editor”

Send your questions to ekauffman@writingrefinery.com. Limit yourself to a few paragraphs to introduce yourself and the problem at hand. “Brevity is the soul of wit,” after all. And keep an eye out for opportunities to send in longer submissions for critique.

Elisabeth Kauffman is a freelance editor in California. Her favorite genres are YA fantasy, sci-fi, and romance. She regularly obsesses over board games, Doctor Who, and Harry Potter. Come share your ideas with her on Facebook and Twitter and on the web at www.writingrefinery.com. Also, check out her author website and her author page on Facebook.

The post Ask The Editor: Character Description appeared first on DIY MFA.

There’s something missing in my manuscript, and I can’t quite figure out what it is. But I know it’s missing. My beta-readers know it, too. I keep getting feedback that the pacing is off. I have tried outlining my story so that I know what’s there, but that’s not helping.

What do I do next?

Mystified

Dear Mystified,

Don’t despair! Pacing, it turns out, can be relatively easy to fix if you know what tools to use. First, let’s talk about what it is, and then we’ll talk about how you nail it in your next revision using a beat sheet.

What is pacing?

Pacing in your novel is the speed at which events unfold in the plot. It’s the rhythm that naturally pulls the reader through the plot. It differs from story to story, usually based on type. A thriller, for example, will have a much faster pace than an epic fantasy.

It’s important to recognize that reader expectations and genre conventions also help determine the pace of your story. A reader expects a thriller to be fast-paced and an epic fantasy to be more leisurely. Sometimes you can set your readers up to have their expectations subverted, but usually, a successful story hits certain highs and lows in relatively the same place as the others in its genre. This is where beat sheets come in handy.

What’s a beat sheet?

First let’s ask, what’s a “beat”? A beat is a specific point in a story such as the “opening” or the “first plot point” or the “climax.” These beats are common to all stories, and making sure they fall in the right places will greatly increase the emotional payoff your reader receives at the end of the story.

Save the Cat by Blake Snyder is the best place to start if you want to find a universal beat sheet. Snyder outlines very clearly the three-act structure that most stories fall into, and gives detailed explanations of each “beat” in that structure.

If you take your story and line it up with Snyder’s beat sheet, you’ll likely find your pacing problem really quickly. Maybe you waited to long to introduce the main conflict. Maybe your main character overcame their challenges too quickly. Maybe the ending didn’t allow enough space for the character (never mind the reader) to process what happened. Overlaying a beat sheet on your action will help you figure it out.

Is there a downside to using a beat sheet?

There’s a school of writing that resists the kind of structure that a beat sheet symbolizes. Other tools for understanding the arc of a story (like the Hero’s Journey) do similar work of telling you where the expected and universal parts of the story exist. While you want to make sure your story doesn’t come across as “formulaic,” if your readers are struggling with staying engaged, or finding themselves overwhelmed, it’s likely because somewhere one of the universal elements of the story has gone missing, or is working overtime. A beat sheet can help you figure out what’s off track, without completely wrecking your story’s natural structure.

How to “Ask the Editor”

Send your questions to ekauffman@writingrefinery.com. Limit yourself to a few paragraphs to introduce yourself and the problem at hand. “Brevity is the soul of wit,” after all. And keep an eye out for opportunities to send in longer submissions for critique.

Elisabeth Kauffman is a freelance editor in California. Her favorite genres are YA fantasy, sci-fi, and romance. She regularly obsesses over board games, Doctor Who, and Harry Potter. Come share your ideas with her on Facebook and Twitter and on the web at www.writingrefinery.com. Also, check out her author website and her author page on Facebook.

The post Ask the Editor: Beat Sheet FTW! appeared first on DIY MFA.

Do you have any suggestions on how to write a story as if the MC is looking back at earlier events? For my story to work, I feel my narrator needs the accumulated knowledge and wisdom to be able to describe many of the things she encounters and make sense of them.

I don’t want to include a scene with her as an old woman telling her story, and I’m trying to avoid “If I had known…” and other similar cliches that drop readers out of the story.

I had hoped that the fact that I wrote it in past tense would imply the story has already happened but my beta readers disagree.

Is there a way to hint that something has already happened without killing the suspense?

Sincerely,

Stymied

Dear Stymied,

Narrative voice (Who is telling the story? When/where is the story being told? Why are they telling this story?) is probably the hardest element of writing to get “right”. As you’ve already discovered from your beta-readers, you can think you’ve gotten it just perfect, only to discover your readers were lost, confused or disconnected from the story. Each new story presents its own narrative challenges. I could probably write a whole series on voice to try to answer your question. For now let’s look at those three questions, to see if they reveal anything else about your particular narrative’s problem.

Who is telling the story?

The interesting thing about voice and point of view is that it can be invisible or it can be completely dominating. The goal is to figure out what you need the narrative to do for the reader. If you didn’t need narrative at all, your story would be comprised entirely of dialogue between characters. But have you ever tried to write that way? It gets confusing pretty quickly.

The narrator in any story has a very particular role: to help (or less commonly, to hinder) the reader make sense of the story. The character in the midst of the story doesn’t know what she doesn’t know yet the way that the reader does. That’s part of good foreshadowing, allowing the reader to catch a glimpse of and anticipate what is going to happen next.

Sometimes writing from the main character’s point of view as they experience the story makes more sense. Sometimes revealing too many details of the story’s world or other characters’ experiences in the story kills the tension. In that case, writing from your main character’s perspective is ideal. That way your reader learns important details of plot and other characters’ motivations at the same time as the main character, adding the element of suspense and emotional impact.

One thing to consider, as you work out what your readers need to know versus what your character knows: Is your main character (protagonist) really the narrator? Think of stories like The Book Thief; The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe; Wuthering Heights; and even the Harry Potter series. We see the world and the action often through the eyes of the protagonists of each of these stories, but in each case we have a narrator who has a wider knowledge of the story and the world to help us (the reader) make sense of what the characters might not understand yet.

When is the story being told?

It might seem obvious, but the “when” of a story has very little to do with the verb tenses you use in constructing the lines of your narrative. Some writers use first person, present tense to convey urgency and being in the moment to the reader. But this isn’t always necessary. Can you imagine reading a battle scene from Lord of the Rings in first person present from Aragorn’s point of view? Whew!

Conventional storytelling leans heavily on third person past tense. Does this mean that the reader feels like the story is taking place in the past when they read it? Not always. The magic of storytelling is transporting your reader into the moment with your character. This happens in spite of the verb tense, often. Third person past tense, in this case, gives the reader just enough narrative distance from the plot to be able to process what’s happening, without losing the immediacy of the action. They’re still immersed in it, experiencing the story as it happens to the characters.

As you revise, consider: If your story is being told by a character looking back on events that happened in her past, and you want your reader to understand that, you may have to tell your reader that in as obvious a way as possible, especially if you want to avoid using cliche terms like “If I’d only known…” You could give the framework a structural element (like diary entries) or reveal everything about the narrator’s circumstances in the prologue, or something like that.

Recognize what this kind of information does to the reader’s experience of the narrative, though. I am pretty squeamish when it comes to reading (or especially watching) scary stories. But I was able to read and enjoy World War Z for one very important reason: The narratives were all obviously being told by characters who had survived. That element of suspense (will they make it or won’t they?) that often drives the reader’s connection to the character was, for better or worse, removed.

If your readers need particular information to understand a scene, but the character learns it only after they survive the scene, and you want to keep that element of suspense, you may need to consider this next question.

Why is the story being told by this particular voice?

This last question relates very closely to the first one. Omniscient narrators are best when they can be neutral, helping the reader connect details in the story to particular characters but not trying to influence the reader overly much. They don’t have any agenda or particular reason for giving you details other than to help you get a clearer picture of the story world and the characters.

When you tell a story from a particular character’s point of view (for a paragraph, for a chapter, or for the full length of the manuscript), it’s because you want the reader to experience the story through that character, because they have something important to tell us that none of the other characters in the story could share in quite the same way. Remember that each character has their own agenda and personality. That’s what makes their perspective so distinct from the other characters.

Orson Scott Card took this to the extreme in his Ender series. The book Ender’s Shadow has the same plot as the book Ender’s Game, but it’s told from the perspective of a secondary character. Because this character has such a different perspective from the main character of Ender’s Game, even though you know exactly “what will happen”, the story feels new.

What you need to consider as you tell your story is that your character who is the narrator and the character who is acting out the plot are not the same person. Sure they have the same name, but the story changes your character as she experiences it. So by the time she gets to the point where she’s ready to tell it to you, she’s a completely different person. And this story is obviously very personal for her. It’s her story! That adds another layer to the question: It’s not just why is she telling this story? It’s why is she telling this story? Is this character the only one who can tell this particular story and share the details the reader needs to know? Are those details a strong enough reason to sacrifice suspense?

The answers to these questions will help you decide who your narrator is.

How to “Ask the Editor”

Send your questions to ekauffman@writingrefinery.com. Limit yourself to a few paragraphs to introduce yourself and the problem at hand. “Brevity is the soul of wit,” after all. And keep an eye out for opportunities to send in longer submissions for critique.

Elisabeth Kauffman is a freelance editor in California. Her favorite genres are YA fantasy, sci-fi, and romance. She regularly obsesses over board games, Doctor Who, and Harry Potter. Come share your ideas with her on Facebook and Twitter and on the web at www.writingrefinery.com. Also, check out her author website and her author page on Facebook.

The post Ask the Editor: Tips for Identifying Your Story’s Narrative Voice appeared first on DIY MFA.

I’ve been working on my current manuscript for a while now. It’s special to me, and I want it to be the best it can, so I’ve had it read by an editor and gotten feedback from other writers and even an agent. I’ve murdered it so much at this point. Like I nixed a simple sentence somewhere per someone’s advice and now my readers are confused. My mom wants me to bring back original first chapter. And an agent told me to bring some parts forward in the timeline. I’ve revised and revised, but I’m not sure what’s what in my story anymore. Ugh.

It’s hard to know who to take opinions from and who not to.

Sincerely,

Unsure

Dear Unsure,

This is such a common problem! Writers are encouraged to seek feedback on their writing, to help it be as effective and and polished as possible. And so they do, but often they end up feeling confused by the conflicting advice they receive. Receiving critique is full of emotion and stress and performance anxiety.

It’s hard going into a critique session, wanting people to like your story, but knowing that there’s something not quite right yet. If you’ve gotten advice on what you should change but it doesn’t quite add up to you yet, sometimes more feedback is actually better. Because reading and story craft is such a subjective art, you can be sure that no two people will experience your story the same way. And adding up all those opinions can lead to a much more satisfying solution.

Law of critique averages

Think of it this way. You are the author. You are the expert on your story. When you send it out for critique, you are collecting data. That data may agree with what you know about the story, but not always. That data may agree with itself, but not always. You’re just gathering it all up, and then comparing it with itself and with what you know about your story. This is what I call the law of critique averages.

When you look at the various reactions that readers (professional and amateur) have to your manuscript, look for what you find in common. What themes from their criticism crop up over and over again? Complaints about backstory near the start or the setup takes too long can mean that you have a slow beginning that you need to spice up or rearrange. If scenes with a particularly problematic character in them keep getting called out, it may be the character who needs a shift, and not the scenes that need to be fixed. Your job is to analyze the data that is given to you and then work your way to a solution.

Trust your intuition

Avoid taking direct advice on how to fix a problem. Good editors and other industry professionals will offer you suggestions in the direction of how to fix something that might be wrong. But we never expect you to take us up on that advice, just use it as a launching pad to actually solving the problem. How I (or that one person in your critique group, you know the one) would fix a plot hole or a particular character is not the same as how you would. It’s your story, your voice and imagination we’re interested in.

You’ll know what is right by what resonates with you. You have to trust your gut in the writing process. And you have to know that whatever you decide to do is in service of the story. It’s not about who likes it or who might want to publish it if you fix it just the way they say to… it’s about what makes the story shine clearly and in the way that you intend for it to on the page.

Again. Receiving critique on your writing is hard, emotional work. It takes mindfulness and a methodical effort. But in the end it should make your story better. That’s the goal.

How to “Ask the Editor”

Send your questions to ekauffman@writingrefinery.com. Limit yourself to a few paragraphs to introduce yourself and the problem at hand. “Brevity is the soul of wit,” after all. And keep an eye out for opportunities to send in longer submissions for critique.

Elisabeth Kauffman is a freelance editor in California. Her favorite genres are YA fantasy, sci-fi, and romance. She regularly obsesses over board games, Doctor Who, and Harry Potter. Come share your ideas with her on Facebook and Twitter and on the web at www.writingrefinery.com. Also, check out her author website and her author page on Facebook.

The post Ask the Editor: Getting Conflicting Critique appeared first on DIY MFA.