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W is for WHAT? What does my editor mean? Some Common Writing and Editing Terms and Tips

6/8/2012

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Antagonist: The villain of the story or the person who blocks the protagonist.

Author Intrusion: The author is suddenly "telling the story" rather than the narrator.

Cliché: Hackneyed expressions which we've all heard. It beats me, why we can't let sleeping dogs lie are two examples of trite clichés. While some clichés carefully placed can give us a regional or historical flavor, most times it's best to avoid them—especially in narration.

Cut: Take out or remove the  line/words/paragraph/scene.

Dialogue tags, or speech tags: He said, she said or She said as twirling her hair, or  Action tag: She twirled her hair. Tags identify your speaker so your reader can follow  along. Don't overdo dialogue tags, but have enough to distinguish between your speakers.

Genre: The category in which a story  is placed. Your editor might point out something you've written which isn't appropriate or doesn't belong in the genre you've written.

Infodump: This can be backstory or technical explanations regarding your space ship's engine, but whatever it is, you've stopped the story's forward motion. 

Point of  View: An editor might say something changes point of view or breaks POV.  She is referring to the POV character. Most beginning writers can't write effectively in omniscient POV without head-hopping so sticking with one character at a time is best. Even if you are sticking with one character you can slip out of POV if you write: His eyes twinkled. If your hero is the POV character, he can't see his eyes unless looking at a mirror.

Protagonist: The hero/heroine of your story.

Purpose: An editor might question the purpose of a scene. Purpose is the reason for the scene, what you are trying to convey.

Slush: unsolicited manuscripts--the pile a publisher/editor/agent reads through.  

Some acronyms: WIP=Work in Progress, MC=Main character, MS=Manuscript, YA=Young
adult, MG=Middle Grade 

Telling: Usually accompanied with the words too much. The editor means you probably need to revise and get more into the character's head and the action. See other posts regarding showing vs. telling.

In no way is this intended to be a comprehensive list. In fact, if you have come across something that isn't included, let me know and we'll add it to the list.

Happy Writing!
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P is for Point of View Part II

8/11/2011

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First Person Point of View

First person POV utilizes I, me, we pronouns.

In this POV it’s difficult to get out of the POV character’s head, so you won’t fall into the head-hopping trap. In this POV the writer chooses a character (usually a main character) to tell the story. The pronoun I is prevalent. Many beginning writers (and advanced) use this POV narration quite effectively.

On the pro side, first person makes it easy for readers to relate to your POV character. It’s also a great POV for YA and some say even the preferred POV choice for that age group.

One drawback on first person POV is that your POV character must be present in all scenes and/or hear what happens from someone else. If that isn’t a problem in your story, then first person POV may be the narration to choose. If you have more than one main character you want to feature in your story, choosing one perspective may be a challenge. Often people will say you shouldn’t use multiple first person narration, but this barrier is being busted all the time. Witness Barbara Kingsolver, Jodi Piccoult, Kathryn Stockett to name a few who have used this technique successfully.

The main thing to remember is to make sure your sections/chapters are labeled so the reader can easily follow whose POV we're in now. The writer must skillfully distinguish the character voices. If you choose to use multiple first person POV each character's narrative should be distinctly hers.

One caution if you choose this POV, be aware of using "I" too much. Once you've established "I" as your main character POV, you don't have to include I in every sentence.

A first person narration with a strong voice often creates compelling reading.

I'd love to hear from you on this or any other writing topic. Please contact me through the comments below or email me at authorsassistant@hotmail.com

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O is for Overwriting

7/23/2011

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Overwriting is a pitfall many beginning writers fall into. It’s easy to do. You the writer possess this great story scene in your head and you want to convey it to the reader. The movie playing in your mind deserves to be told in detail, you think. And you are correct. The problem comes when a writer puts every detail in including stage directions and minute descriptions. Writing is called an art for a reason. Knowing how much detail to add and what to leave out is where the artist can paint the word picture.

Consider these examples.

    He felt angry and shouted, “Get out of my house!”

    His angry words must have hurt her. She felt the tears fall down her face and she stood up and ran out of the house.

Doesn’t the dialogue convey the anger, especially if he’s shouting it? The writer could simply cut felt angry and. The second paragraph can be pared down to solve several issues: overwriting, point of view shift and telling vs. showing.

    He shouted, “Get out of my house!”

    Tears streaming, she stood and ran. The door slammed behind her.

Writing two sentences where one does the trick, is overwriting. By eliminating this in your prose, you’ll find your writing becomes cleaner and leaner.

If you can include a fresh description that does double duty, your writing will achieve nuances and add character and color without seeming overdone.

Consider this example from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby: “Her voice is full of money,” he said suddenly. He does a brilliant job of conveying a description, sensory expression and the speaker’s attitude in one short sentence.

In your revisions can you find places where you’ve used too many words to convey your meaning?  

I’d love to hear your comments. Contact me here or email me at authorsassistant@hotmail.com.

Keep writing, and remember to enjoy wherever you are on the journey.

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N is for Narration

7/14/2011

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Choosing a narrator is like choosing shoes. You want it to be suited to the occasion. You want to be able to live with them a while.

Narration is closely connected to Point of View. You choose your narration and how close you will be in the character's head. For the purposes of this post I will talk a bit about Omniscient narration and Non-Participating narrator.

Omniscient narration is when the story is told from the perspective of someone all-seeing. Someone who knows everything going on in everyone's head and what has happened, is happening, and will happen. You as the writer know this, of course, and if you're an advanced writer you may be able to pull this off, but for beginners it's all too easy to slip into author intrusion -- where you, the author, insert your viewpoint and attitudes on events rather than let them unfold.

An Example of Author Intrusion: "I want a divorce," Julio said to Maria. In the next paragraph it might read: In Mexico, during the 1820s such things just weren't done.

You can see the information provided takes the reader out of the scene. It's an intrusion. This takes a lot of skill to pull off and my professional advice is to stay clear of such statements.

Another style of narration is the Non-participating Narrator. While this used to be rather stylish, it has lost popularity. This type of narrator is a bystander who watches and reports the events without being involved in the story. The problem with this type of narration is the narrator gets in the way of the story sometimes because you can't see the story itself without him/her telling you what's happening.

The current trend is either first person point of view narration or the more popular third person point of view narration. I'll be talking about this under P is for Point of View.

Questions or comments? I'd love to hear from you. Comment here or email me at authorsassistant@hotmail.com.

Remember writing is a process. Keep writing, keep learning, and celebrate wherever you are on your journey.
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    Tamara Eaton

     is an author and editor. Her former career as an English teacher assists her to help others through editing services. She's available for workshops. See her Editing Services Page for details. Be sure to get updates by clicking the RSS feed below for continuing writing tips.

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