less is...more?

Writing a novel or a memoir is publicly spilling your guts. You've put it all out there, and now you're ready to ask someone to read it. Maybe even pay for it. But what can you say about your editing?

 When I was in college, back in the stone ages, one of the most useful exercises I did to perform was to write a two page essay. Big deal, right? But it came back with comments and a grade, and a mandate to cut it to one page, while retaining the essence of the essay. Okay. Did that with a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. And then it came back again. This time with the tall order to cutting it by half again, without letting the content suffer. It was difficult. I did it. And I really learned something. I couldn't tell you what I wrote about, but I can tell you that I learned that a lot that we spill onto paper can be cleaned up. Cleaned up again, and then dusted off and polished. Writing without editing is the equivalent to crying without tissues. It's messy, less than discreet, and the people looking on are made vaguely uncomfortable.

So how do you go about editing your work? It's your perfect baby. Your baby's perfect. As an editor, of course I'm going to say that the first line of defense is to have an editor. It's always better to give birth with a doctor in the room, right? And asking friends to read and comment is roughly equivalent to asking your grandmother what she thinks of your baby. Even if she notices the a pointy head and odd ears, she's going to love it. It's yours, and s She loves you.

So, if you can't afford an editor, do what I'm doing here. Make the task slightly less daunting. Choose two pages, copy them into a new document, and start the surgery.

You are looking for extraneous crap. Things you don't give your reader credit for knowing from context. You wrote, "she had long, lovely hair streaming down her back that shone auburn in the evening light." Do you really need "streaming down her back"? I think not. Your readers know, or fervently hope, that her long hair is not streaming down her face. Try taking it out. Even if you decide to leave it after the exercise, you have made a decision. You have edited. And what about "lovely"? I'd opt for something more descriptive. Try a rewrite. "Her hair fell in a cascade of waves, shining auburn in the evening light." I think it's better. Oh. And now that I look at it, my original sentence has a weird construct, implying that her back was shining auburn in the evening light. Good to recognize. Better to take some time to edit. Best to excise the errors before some persnickety reader gives you a huffy review on Amazon.

Verbal Quirks

When editing works by others, I am struck by the quirks that show up over and over. I have one author who can't resist, "and thus". And thus, her work is propelled to the next idea or thought. Another seems stuck in hell. As in, "Hell, it was more than he could have expected." And, "Hell, he was there anyway."

Verbal quirks can be quite useful in framing a character's personality. The trick is to be sure that the quirk remains theirs alone. If it starts showing up in other characters, or in descriptive paragraphs, the reader is going to know that it is your verbal quirk, and the author has suddenly inserted himself into the story, which is usually jarring, and a detriment to the willing suspension of disbelief.

The exception, of course, is when the story is framed around a first-person narrator. In that case, verbal quirks can help the reader see into the narrator's mind. But be careful--you want that to be the narrator's mind--not the author's. Unless they are one in the same.

Most writers tend to have a strong voice and language skills formed by both place and time. So how do you avoid the pratfalls of your own linguistic quirks? That's where the 21st century comes to your aid. If you are writing in Word, and let's face it, most of us are, then part of the editing process involves using the "find" function. When reading your manuscript, make sure you note repeated uses of words or phrases. If "hell" shows up more than four times in a couple of chapters, do a search on "hell" through the whole book. "Find" is on the Home tab, to the far right, if you are on any version of Word from about 2003 on. Click on it, type in "hell", and see what it finds. If you have more than a dozen or so occurrences in a 250 page book, they merit a look-see, and some careful consideration. Do they need to be where they are? Do they advance the story, or say something about the character?

Part of the writing process is learning a bit about yourself, and in the process, learning about your verbal quirks, where they work, and where they don't. Think of it like taking your baby to the pediatrician. As much as you adore your baby, you'd probably prefer that the pediatrician mentioned that your baby has six toes on both feet--an anomaly you were blinded to because they are such cute, soft little feet . You'd want to know the consequences of that, and whether or not it was prudent to do something about it. A good editor can help you do the same thing with your precious tome. First, to make you aware of any anomalies, and then to advise you on the merits of some judicious surgery.

If economics dictate that you must be your own editor, then it's time to make sure you are your harshest critic. And cultivate a well-read friend or two. Ones who are willing to be frank about what they've read. And ones that you are willing to listen to. All defenses down. Ready to go back and excise those quirky appendages that may be getting in the way of a very good read.