I'm going full steam editing on Spiritcaster - getting it ready for sub. It's going so well. I think my friend Julia Knight has cured me of my evils. Sentences beginning with "It was" and "There were". Look for them and cull them. Mightily. Seriously. Go through and take that crap out. Simplest advice I've ever gotten, and it changed the landscape of my writing. You know how you read and read and read until you aren't reading it anymore, you're reciting in your head what you think you're saying? Well, I started looking for It was and There were and all of a sudden I saw through the familiarity to the garbage that I had written.
I had about 100 pages of utter crap where I was rewriting every other sentence for filtering or passive voice, and then all of a sudden it stopped sucking so bad. That got me nervous. It's like.. where did all the crap go? Have I lost the "sight" or did it just stop sucking? That's the rub, isn't it? I don't know about you, but I fall into these traps, where I lose train or track or voice, or something! and everything goes all passive and filtery. **shudders**
What about you? Any tricks or simple things you look for on the edit to clean things up? I'm all ears....
I have learned...that 95% of my sentences don't make as much sense to others as I thought they did, so I'll have to do a lot of reading aloud or maybe letting my sister look at a part to see if she gets it.
ReplyDeleteI've been looking for all the parts where I tell about a character instead of letting who they are show better, but I've learned just slowing down and closing my eyes to see the character and their scene helps me figure out how to show them.
Erm, those are all kinda obvious though.
Bettie, the only trick I have is editing and reworking. The more I learn the easier it is to stick away from those things but it still happens. Don't be too hard on yourself, we all do it. :D
ReplyDeleteI like Magicalwords.com they help out a lot... if you ever get the chance it's a good place to learn and speak with published authors. :D
Good luck on your preparations. We should have a party for ya.
I know exactly what you mean about reading it so much that it's all gibberish in my head! I'm glad you found a way to see it differently!
ReplyDeleteCharlene? Chest bump! Totally!
ReplyDeletekara... magical words?! I shall check it out.
Aubrie - I love the word gibberish! And I"m super glad, too!! :)