POV - One or More

A while ago, I decided to read over my first NaNoWriMo success. I like to read the rough drafts on occasion to remember how it went and see how I feel about the overall results. It's not fantasy but it's the first novel attempt of mine that made it to 50k. Have to admit, it's rough. Since written during NaNoWriMo, that is expected but it's also from 2008. I have written so many words since then, it's crazy (such as the 180k novel first draft). However, I happened to notice something in the novel that I have been asked about in the past on a writing web site and that deals with having more than one character POV in a single scene.

I did not do it well in that first draft partly because I wasn't trying to change point of view on a conscious level. Instead, I had random bits of information that were not from the main POV character's perspective simply because I was new at writing and trying to get the story down on paper/word. Which is fine in a first draft but later requires finding ways rewrite and edit the thing so that those don't exist anymore because it's a one POV novel. Ah the fun of rewrites and edits.

While I'm going to edit out my little slips, it is possible to do novels with more than one point of view and in fact, I have a few that are two or more. So, let's talk about those. In the past, the omniscient point of view was popular and came in handy because it meant the reader could see the thoughts of different characters without sticking to one for too long even though one may have been the main focus a good part of the time. However, the popularity has decrease and far more common now is limited point of view approaches. But to the actual question: Can you use different POV in one scene?

Possible, but there are variables to consider. And note, all recommendations will be general and on there are times when someone will be able to do something I say not to and that's just fine. If you can make the difficult work then go right ahead and do you.


1. Are you writing first person POV?
If this is the case, it is not recommended to have different pov in one scene or even one chapter. If doing a short story with multiple first person pov, know it will be hard work and some readers won't like how much you'll have to jump around to get all of the views involved. And if going that route, at least try to have some way to indicate when the POV changes (even if not short story or first person narration). There needs to be enough space, asterisks, or something to give the reader a heads up that there is a change occurring, especially in first person because it is difficult to tell the different voices apart when every POV is "I". For novels, separate chapters works better though one I read had a boy and a girl POV and the boy sounded like a girl part of the time, so know it's not easy even if separating by chapters. But that's more for a topic on voice and such, not just point of view.


2. Are you writing third person POV?
Then it might be a little easier for you to do more than one point of view, dependent on how deep you go in the pov as this can get closer to the omniscient level a little. This is easier in part because people will get less confused even when there is a change in pov because it's more obvious when it's a different character. There are names involved and don't have the whole "I did this" type of situation. However, I still don't recommend just jumping between characters when it comes to a scene. It's possible to do and some people will do it very well, but many readers also complain about those stories because the jumps start to feel accidental and amateur like when done with less indication for the reader. Part of the success will come in the writing and in having ways to show the change so that it doesn't have that random, not on purpose feeling. Other parts will just be in taking the risk and having it be needed for the story.


When a scene has jumps in POV with no space or warning, it's easy for the reader to get confused. They might struggle to keep up and if the characters are in different situations/locations, the fast change will cause a sort of reading stumble, like a foot hitting a curb the person didn't notice was there. That's why having the space or separating helps, because it lets the reader know there is a change. And it's worse if the jump is short term and goes through a couple of characters all within the same scene. That, in particular, is where it looks more accidental even when we know stories are edited and such.

Plus, what we might think important to convey may not be as needed after all. I read one story where the two main character pov were fine and often split by chapters though even when it changed during a chapter it wasn't too hard to tell. However, the very beginning of the novel had a couple random moments where it slipped into the best friend's pov and I did not care for that at all. Sure, I could see the author was trying to show us something about the main female character by adding in the thoughts of the friend, but it really wasn't needed and just pushed it into head hopping territory instead of helping set the situation up for what was going to happen.

Which brings us to the end and my main point if you made it past my rambling. While doing different viewpoints can come in handy, we also have to consider who might read it (including ourselves cause I read my own and don't like the head hopping I did back then). Jump around too much and you'll get the "head hopping" situation, which is often frowned upon because the confusion it causes and the fact it jumps without much warning. Fantasy is great for having more than one viewpoint in a story but even the big name authors will limit in the beginning and will write in a way that shows a change is about to occur when they do switch. So, don't be afraid to do different points of view, but also remember to give the readers something to indicate the change. That way you can have the best of both worlds.





So what are your thoughts and experiences with varying points of views in stories?
Do you write more than one point of view in a scene?
What are some good examples of times where it worked for you (reading or writing)?

It Approaches... aka NaNoWriMo

That is right. After a long silence I'm going to talk about the first thing that comes to mind and right now, with it being already October 8th, the thing I'm focused on is getting ready for NaNoWriMo.

Yep, I'm doing it again this year. Last year was one of my not successful years but I don't have any qualms or regrets about taking part in it or any of the camp ones where I didn't write much. Even not making it to 50k (or in camp whatever goal was chosen) is still an accomplishment if something gets written.

Whether to prepare ahead of time or not is going to be a personal decision. It did help me the first year that I succeeded in getting 50,000 words. However, since then I have both prepped novels and written ones with no prep. Either way can go well and the end result tends to vary on the novel. Some are easier to write than others. I'm prepping this year but not as ahead of schedule as I've been in the past but still making progress. Although I'm finding I don't know much about this story yet. We'll see if that's the case when writing time comes too. Either way, I'll be writing.

One thing I need to work on as we get closer to November is going to be a schedule. I have a lot going on in general, plus will be gone for 6 whole days as my stepsister is getting married and I'm driving out to attend the wedding plus spending a day with family in a different state. I won't have much writing time at all from the 3rd through the 6th. So, I won't be trying to get 50k in 10 days or less this year. In fact, my normal beginning push and end of month slow down will need to be reversed. I will have work at least 5 days a week and the hours will either be closing or middle of day shifts, but not sure at this time. Plus, I have the gym though I will be running a little less by then since after the 10k the goal is just to maintain until spring, when I start training for the half marathon. The last few months, I have struggled to keep up with things, like blogging, and am slowly working on  regaining my ground. Hope to keep it forward so that by 2016, things run smoother.

I do have some suggestions, however, when it comes to November's writing and the results of the excursion. I could talk a lot about tips for during and before NaNoWriMo but we'll keep it to a few things for now.


A couple of things I don't recommend during and after NaNoWriMo:

1. Sending out to publishers or agents right after November ends, or with that novel a few months later. While it's exciting to have a novel written, there is much left to be done and the first is to take a little time away from the story. Plus, many agents and editors are closed to submission over the holidays.

2. Publishing right after November or a mere few months later. I'm not against self publishing and if that's what you want to do then great. However, I do recommend taking a little time between drafts and doing more than one draft of the story before putting it out for the waiting audience. Unless that is your already established protocol of doing very fast drafts and putting it out there where you have a readership that supports such, I just don't recommend it.

3. Fretting over word count often. I have seen a few spend almost more time worrying about how behind they've gotten than actually writing. Don't put too much into panic or talking about how you should be writing. Or posting too much in forums when you have 10,000 words to catch up on. Plus, even if you only write 5,000 for the whole month (I might have made close to that my very first attempt), it's still more than you had October 31. Whether you take a month or three years to finish a novel, doesn't matter. Just write.

4. Ignoring everything for the sake of the novel. Perspective and balance are still good to have during November. Sure, the house can be a little messier and meals take less labor, but it's also not good to completely ignore everyone or skip out on responsibilities just for the sake of getting to 50,000 words. Write, yes, but don't ignore the rest of your life entirely.


Those are just some general pointers. I know not everyone is a fan of the national novel writing month with the quick writing and rough draft results. For me, it works and helps me focus on a single story for exactly one month. Now I'm going to get back to preparing for it and write a few scenes/stories on the side because I multi-task and over commit.

Z is for Zealous

Made it to the end of the challenge with a similar Z word for both of my blogs. It was tough this year for some reason even though I've done A to Z for the past few years. I hope to do next year as well but we'll see how things go. For now, I'm glad to be at the end as I have editing to do.

Link: http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/p/a-to-z-challenge-sign-uplist-2015.html

Zealous

It helps to have zeal towards the novel when editing because it's hard to push through the tough work, especially for me the first time around. The first draft of my first novel was really hard. Then trying to figure out how to do the first rewrite and now that scary last edit. Every stage has its own difficulties. I keep working on it because I am zealous about the story and the series. I still want to see it grow and I want to give it a try at the publishing world.

Even though editing is work and it doesn't have the same fun that just writing can hold for me, through zealous drive, and just making myself work on it, this will get done. In June look for a post on submitting to agents because that is what I will be doing. :-)

Are you Zealous about your novel? Does it help drive you in the editing process?

Y is for Years

I'm a tad late on this one. These last letters are hard with the editing topic but I am going to make it to the end. Check out the other blogs over in the A to Z Challenge.

Why years? Well, because that is how long it has taken me to reach this final edit stage and I've been trying to do the edit for over a year now, though didn't actually spend that whole time doing any of it.

One of the good parts about not having a first book out yet, or having any publishing contracts is that you can take your time. No one is waiting at this stage and you can jump between different novel projects, try out all kinds of genres and take as long as you need.

However, the downside is you can take years in order to finish something. I'm better if I have deadlines and without them I meander and spend too much time on the Internet when I should be working. I don't do well if I go by the mood striking me on even first drafts. I need to decide to do something and just get it down within a time frame.

So, this novel has taken years (started first draft in 2007) but I'm not going to let this edit take up more years. Tomorrow, I get some stuff done.


How many years do you take on different drafts and editing?

X is for Xerox

Oh the dreaded X day. I did have to do some online searching and managed to learn a few words not relevant to editing. Lots of medical, geology and fear related words. Go to the A to Z Challenge in order to see what X word other bloggers picked.

After searching, it hit me when I saw the word on the list, aha!

Xerox

Photocopy may not seem like an editing term because it's an exact copy/replica of whatever is used, but that does bring up the questions: Which copy are you working on? Where do you save your copies? Do you print out and do a hard copy edit?

Right now, I don't do hard copies of my stories because aside from the cost of ink, there is the fact I don't have a sufficient printer. The library here costs 10 cents a page and I haven't looked into the costs of getting copies made anywhere else. So, at this point all of my edits are done on the computer.

However, when I'm editing I do make copies chapter by chapter within Scrivener (my writing program of choice) because I want to keep the  old version just in case something happens and I make a very big mistake. I also try to get a copy of a draft on Word and save it to a couple locations, including an external and now I have a flashdrive too. It's good to have numerous copies when possible.

I do the new copy for most edits and rewrites, however, for the last one, I am not doing a xerox or extra copy. I am using the draft that I worked on last time, which involved editing a few things. I"m hoping it's the last copy for now, because I will be sending out the story but I also hope that it's not the last overall because edits are necessary when publishing. Anyways, that's my X topic: Xerox and a couple types of copies that relate to editing.


How many copies do you have? Do you make a new copy for each edit?

W is for Weak Words

Near the end of the editing topic month, although not the end of the actual edits. There aren't many days left, so make sure to check out the other blogs still poster over in the A to Z challenge.

I talked a little bit about this in other posts, like J where I focused in particular on the word Just, but it is one that bears repeating because it's something I often have to edit out during a few different rounds of editing. Those pesky, not as useful as I first think in rough draft writing, weak words.

We want our writing to be strong and to hold the interest of the reader, but in first draft the whole point is to just some how get those words onto the page. Which can mean later, in edits there is a lot of muck to deal with in order to take the lump of clay and make it something presentable. Weak words have a use at times, much like everything else (even adverbs) but they also can hold back a story and lesson the readers experience.

I know for me, there are weak words I  use far too often. These include: just, almost, vague uses/descriptions/etc, multiple prepositions, and then, redundancies, something and many more.

I mean, sure it's okay to use them at times. There are instances where it makes sense to say the character almost fell. However, when  it happens too often then it just becomes boring and even I tell myself, "either make them fall or don't mention it" when that shows up a few times in a story. Or in edits I pick between "and" and "then" because most of the time they both don't need to be there together.

It's a constant struggle, determining what words are weak and not necessary in the story and how to make them better.


Links:
http://boostblogtraffic.com/weak-writing/
http://writeitsideways.com/shape-up-flabby-writing-stronger-verbs/
http://goinswriter.com/weak-words/
https://keligwyn.wordpress.com/2011/04/01/weasel-words-and-weak-words/


What weak words do you use often? Do you take out weak words when editing?

V is for Verb

Another grammar day here on Dawn Embers blog and part of the A to Z challenge. We're near the end and I must admit, it will be nice to get back to a regular, few posts a month, schedule in May. Though I also plan to jump around to others blogs to comment on them during May as that part I didn't quite keep up with well this time around. Make sure you check out some of the other blogs here.

Verb

Definition: any member of a class of words that function as the main elements of predicates, that typically express action, state, or a relation between two things, and that may be inflected for tense, aspect, voice, mood, and to show agreement with their subject or object. (source = dictionary.com)

All verbs are not created equal, however. Often times, the ones I need to edit out the most that I'm sure others might too, are the ones that show a general state of being. Yep, the "be" verb commonly known as "is" "was" and "will be". Okay, maybe not "will be" often because who writes in future tense? Not that they don't come in handy at times, but it's easy to overuse the "be" verb along with the adding of -ing to verbs. That's something else I also work on in edits, the number of times the action has the -ing added to it.


Links:
http://www.chompchomp.com/terms/verb.htm
http://www.grammar-monster.com/lessons/verbs.htm
http://www.momswhothink.com/reading/list-of-verbs.html


What are your favorite verbs? Do you have enough action in your sentences?

U is for Under

Near the end of the challenge and we're getting into some of the fun letters. I'm struggling through but will make it to the very end and have a plan to comment on random blogs throughout May too. Check out some of the other blogs here.

Today we are going to look at a few Under options in relation to editing.

under-whelm - This is something we don't want our story to do most of the time. You do not want to under-whelm the reader with the conflict and characters. You don't want to over do things to the point that it's hard for the worry to heighten or to keep the interest that active for too long, but definitely don't want the story to be under in the whelm category.

under-write - This is a depends on style and genre aspect. And will vary on draft too, so it can be okay. My first draft of the one I'm editing was only 23,000 words. Talk about under-writing. I had to more than double the word count during the following drafts in order to get it up to the sufficient 70k that it is now. I still under-write certain aspects, like description and am working on those aspects in my editing. It's not uncommon for a bit of an "edit" to increase a chapter word count, instead of decrease,  for me.

under-emote - I struggle with this because the main thing the beta readers noticed is they wanted more emotion. It's challenging to do it without telling and I'm still working on how the emotion comes across even in this final edit. Want the emotions to seem realistic but not melodramatic either.


What type of Under- do you work on in your edits?

T is for the Terrible Trouble

I may have made that up. Maybe.  Remember to check out other blogs in the A to Z challenge.


What do I mean by terrible trouble? First, both start with T and I couldn't decide which one to use, but also because it's a terrible mindset that can cause trouble during edits. It's the "everything is terrible" problem causing thoughts that surface when trying to make that final draft shine.

At some time or another, elements of the story will seem terrible. It happens to us all. One has to be able to tell the  difference between something really needed deleted or fixed versus being in a bad mindset where one might make a poor judgement call. It's also why you shouldn't edit the same copy of the novel. Make sure to have previous drafts as their own copy saved some where, just in case a mistake occurs and you delete whole chapters under the misguiding of "it's all terrible." Don't let a trouble hour lead to days of repairs and make sure to give yourself some space  before going into an edit to begin with because there are times when we are too close to a story. It can go either in the "it's perfect" or "it's all terrible" way of thinking and neither will give you that polished draft.

Also, as troubling as it might be, there will be a time when you can't fix everything. Even years after a book is published most say they had things they would change. At some point you have to let go.

I had a painting professor who would often say "a painting is never finished, it is only abandoned" because there is always something that can be changed. The same goes for novels.


Do you struggle with "terrible trouble" and how do you push the negative mindset away in order to get to a point where you can abandon the edits?

S is for Sentences

Back to the editing chatter. I am going right down to the nitty gritty and basics with this one. We're getting closer to the end of the month and alphabet. See how the other bloggers are doing over here.

Sentences

Definition: A sentence is a linguistic unit consisting of one or more words that are grammatically linked. A sentence can include words grouped meaningfully to express a statement, question, exclamation, request, command or suggestion.

Grammar. a grammatical unit of one or more words that expresses an independent statement, question, request, command, exclamation, etc., and that typically has a subject as well as a predicate, as in John is here. or Is John here? In print or writing, a sentence typically begins with a capital letter and ends with appropriate punctuation; in speech it displays recognizable, communicative intonation patterns and is often marked by preceding and following pauses.

Basic components:
Source = http://www.chompchomp.com/terms/completesentence.htm

First, it begins with a capital letter.
In addition, it includes an end mark—either a period [ . ], question mark [ ? ], or exclamation point [ ! ].
Most importantly, the complete sentence must contain at least one main clause. A main clause contains an independent subject and verb and expresses a complete thought.


How to edit: Depends on what needs fixed. In some instances it will be taking out the unnecessary, such as extra adverbs, weak words or in my case, the use of the word "just" 4 times in less than half a chapter. Other times, you might need to adjust the comma situation, where the independent subject relates to the verb, or how the complete thought is expressed. On the rare occasion, you will not edit something that is technically considered wrong. There are many ways to edit a sentence and the main point is the method and responsibility is up to you.


How many sentences did you edit today?

R is for Red Nose Day

A slight break from my theme on editing but it's for a good cause, I promise. Make sure to see what the other bloggers come up with for day R over in the A to Z Challenge.

Red Nose Day

What is Red Nose Day?

Red Nose Day, the U.K.'s #1 television fundraising event, is coming to America on Thursday, May 21 (8-11 p.m. ET) on NBC.

Inspired and supported by Comic Relief U.K. - the British charity behind Red Nose Day - NBC will televise the three-hour benefit featuring hilarious stand-up comedy, clever parodies, sketch comedy, incredible music performances from A-list artists and short, compelling films about the cause.

The money raised during Red Nose Day will be used to fund programs that address the immediate needs of children and young people living in poverty in the U.S. and internationally in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Charity organizations include: Boys & Girls Clubs of America, charity: water, Children's Health Fund, Feeding America, Gavi The Vaccine Alliance, The Global Fund, LIFT, National Council of La Raza, National Urban League, Oxfam America, Save the Children and United Way.

Where to get a Red Nose:
The red nose that is so kindly modeled by my stuffed penguin, Peppermint, was purchased at my local Walgreens. They can be purchased all the way up until May 20th and the money goes to the charities. A nose costs one dollar.  They also are encouraging selfie pictures of people wearing the nose with the tag #RedNose to be used on social media.


Links to check out:
http://www.nbc.com/red-nose-day
http://www.walgreens.com/topic/promotion/rednoseday.jsp?ban=RND2015_vanityurl+


I have my red nose. Do you? Do you have a favorite charity you like to support?

Q is for Query

Aside from all of this editing, the other thing I need to do is rewrite and edit my query letter. Since my goal for finishing the edit is to submit to agents, the query is of great importance and makes for a good Q topic. Check out the other words used for Q blog here.

Query

The query letter is an important one as it's one of the factors that will make an agent/editor consider reading your chapter/novel. It has some basic elements and examples are easy to find online.

Some of the elements are pretty simple. Novel title, genre and word count should be something you already know (or have a vague idea of at least since they don't need to know the draft is exactly 87,565 words). Genre can be tricky at times but you do the best you can. I have this part down though I'm not 100 percent on the exact location as I've seen it in a couple of places in queries that worked.

Personalizing the letter with a sentence or two that shows you've done your research and why you've chosen to send to that person in particular is also helpful but can be tricky at times. Sometimes we are sending because they represent the genre but beyond that, it's a slight shot in the dark. Do try and do some research even though many are aware how some send out to many in hopes of finding one that requests a full or partial.

The hard part, for many are the bigger paragraphs of the letter. That is the part about the story (the most important part some might say) and the may be small bio. My bio is tiny because I have no publications at this time and in some cases the bio won't even be on the query. That makes the toughest part the one or two short paragraphs that in an attention getting, voice showing way, describes the entire novel. No pressure or anything, right? ;-)

I have a rough draft of a query but still working on the voice aspect and wording things the right way to convey the YA novel. Hopefully I can get it in the next couple of drafts.

Some links on query letters:
http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/how-to-write-the-perfect-query-letter
http://www.agentquery.com/writer_hq.aspx
http://janefriedman.com/2014/04/11/query-letters/


Have you written a query? How many drafts did it take you?

P is for Progress

That thing we strive for with edits: progress. Also there is blog progress as me and all of the others still going along with the A to Z Challenge have made it to the letter P. Getting closer to the end and some tough letters are yet to come.

On N day, just a few days ago, I made my topic as No Excuses because yesterday I was going to do some editing no matter what. Did I accomplish that plan and finally make some progress?

Yes, I did.

I'm still not very far but I worked on the edits in the first section (aka first five chapters) focusing on making sure I have some use of the senses, looking at description and tying up a slightly questionable loose end. The trouble with final edits, for this one, is that there are the very small errors to fix just geared towards making it the best I can before submission, but there are a still bigger term issues that involve writing more. And since my typing is stall with this weird little keyboard I have to use, it them means also checking over every sentence for random extra spaces. So, it has elements of previous edits, new elements and yet marks an important line in the terms of progress.

It feels good to make progress but it also brings up a couple other things that need done in order to reach my goal of submission. I need to rewrite and edit my q... Oh yeah, that is monday's topic. See you then. ;-)


How is your progress? Did you edit?

O is for Organize

Organization comes in handy when it comes to editing. Organize and take notes, they are two aspects I've used both during and in between drafts. In fact, organization helps in many venues, including blogging. Like, if I had been more organized, I would have my blog posts done in advance and just be spending this time commenting on others in the A to Z challenge.

For editing, I do try to be a little better when I organize my notes and the novel.  I posted some time last year I think about my note methods for the previous edit. I did a set of color coded highlighting to emphasize weak words, passive voice, adverbs and the such with the help of editminion.com. Though I had to do a part of it on my own as any program will miss some and make errors on others. It wasn't that great on the saidisms because most of what would be highlighted on the site wouldn't be attached to dialogue, but that's okay. It gave me a starting point and I was able to keep the notes for the edit well organized using the color coded system.

For this final edit, the organize method is a little different. I split the novel in sets of 5 chapters and used index cards for notes on big items. This mostly focused on emotion, description/senses, locations and any extra things I noticed, like the gender of a teacher I needed to check to make  sure stayed consistent. I'm using my notes on the stuff I need to tweak in order to do this final edit.

I try to organize when editing. But it's a challenge either way.

How do you organize your edits?

N is for No Excuses

Or at least, that should be my new frame of mind when it comes to editing. Yep, no reason I shouldn't be working on my edits this month. Even if I have work, this blog challenge and other things to be doing, I should also find the time to edit. Also, no excuses for checking out other blogs in the A to Z Challenge as I am trying to catch up in commenting on other blogs too.

This time my N post is going to be short, but not for the same reason M was short (finished on my  phone as was late in the day it needed posted). My focus for today is the idea that I have No Excuses.

Friday I will work on the novel edits (day off from work).

How about you?

M is for Manipulate

Editing is manipulation and sometimes you have to manipulate yourself in order to edit.

When we edit there are many forms of manipulation used in order to get the draft twisted into our desired results. Whether it is changing characters, scenery or even down to the specifics of sentence structure and punctuation, during the process we are manipulating the draft in order to get the finished product.

Editing is manipulation and I made need to manipulate myself in order to get it done.

How do you manipulate your novel?

L is for Learning Curve

Another letter of the alphabet brought to us by the A to Z challenge.

I struggled to pick the write L word as a couple ideas came to mind when pondering this blog. Editing is a tricky topic for some letters but much easier for others. I could have even gone with letters, for example, but that's a little too minutiae for me. I decided on "learning curve" in the end because overall, editing does have a bit of a learning curve involved, especially for one's first novel.

There is a learning curve to edits. Sure we want things to go right the first time, or by the 5th draft at the very least, but with each novel, we are learning. Even later, if an agent and editor takes interest, there will be more edits and things to change.

We learn what to fix, over time can start to spot our own weaknesses and develop ways of fixing the story the best we can. We also learn when it's time to let go.

There is much to learn when it comes to editing novels, so it's a good thing there is a learning curve involved. And there are probably certain aspects of the first novel that are going to be different than the 5th novel, but that's just a guess.


How much of a learning curve do you think exists for a first novel?

K is for Kill Your Darling

This topic works well with editing because first draft is not the time to try and let go of a darling, no matter what form it takes. Even second draft is a bit too early. But nearing the end in rewrites and edits, that is a great time to kill the darlings and thus my topic for day K in the A to Z blog challenge.

Kill Your Darlings

What does it mean?
It is a reference to certain parts of a manuscript that the writer (creator) has grown attached to for varying reasons but it ends up not being a necessary part. The part can be a character, phrase, joke, description, setting or other forms within a draft. While it may be a great piece of writing, the love felt by the writer is not as experienced by the  reader who will find the bit superfluous and unnecessary. Think about those long paragraphs of description that you skipped in that book you had to read years ago. It's something like that. While it was good at the time, in that edit phase, sometimes the good sounding needs to go if it doesn't do enough for the story as a whole.

I haven't had too much experience with the full kill your darling concept just yet. While I like many aspects of the stories, there aren't many particular paragraphs, descriptions (pfft, still need to add those), or even characters that need cut that would cause me pain in doing so. I may kill a character some day in a series, my apologies to readers in advance for that, but so far,  haven't had to kill many darlings in edits. But this is my first major edit. Never know what the other novels will need.


Links to peruse:
http://writeroutine.blogspot.com/2012/02/how-to-kill-your-darlings.html
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/10/18/_kill_your_darlings_writing_advice_what_writer_really_said_to_murder_your.html
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Kill+your+darlings
http://www.writers-village.org/writing-award-blog/how-and-when-to-kill-your-darlings



Have you had to kill your darling? What kind of darlings do you find the most in editing?

J is for Just

As in the word I use way too much. I am not sure why, but during first drafts and the occasional second or third, one of the words I use too often is "just" even though I'm well aware of the overuse. The characters just do a lot of things. Like you should just check out the other blogs in the A to Z challenge.

Just

Definition:  (adverb) exactly. or... in the immediate past. Very recently. 

(adjective) Based on or behaving according to what is morally right or fair.

As you can probably guess, more often than not, the word just is used as an adverb. He just wanted a little ice cream. She just happened to have what they needed. So forth and so on. While I am pretty good about cutting down the obvious -ly adverbs, for some reason, my typing draft mind is drawn to the word just and I use it all of the time.

In at least two of the edits where I'm fixing sentences and cutting out excess, I take out "just" in almost every chapter. It's something I not only need to be aware about but accept as a factor involved in every edit. 

It's just something I do and often have to fix.

Do you use the word just too much? What is your overused word?

I is for Importance

Yes, a blog on what is important. This should be an important topic. That and it was hard to come up with an I topic for the A to Z Blog Challenge. Check out the link to see what other bloggers decided to post for today.


By importance I mean more than just it's important to edit. What I really mean and will write about briefly is in determining what information and actions are important to the story. This can be a challenge for some writers and why it's something one must focus on in particular during rewrites and edits because the first draft is no place to worry bout such a detail.

Is the scene important? Is that character important?

There should be varying levels of yes or no, however. It's not completely straightforward and just because something doesn't have a huge, pressing, plot changing level of importance, that doesn't mean it needs to be cut.

It can be hard to tell if something is important because having written the whole story, you might think of course it is important. Everything can seem important. This is why it's often recommended to take a break between drafts in order to gain some judgment distance. Getting a little distance will make it easier to both see some of the excess but also to not hate it if the rush of the draft ended with tiring of the story.

Overall, finding the important bits of story, fixing the minor errors and such, that is all part of editing. Important editing...


How do you determine what is important in your story?