Blogging the Editing: Day #3

4th January 2018

I only managed to edit half of Chapter Four today because 1) it’s a long one, and 2) I needed to eliminate a good deal of CLUNKINESS.

Chapter Four turned out to be structurally sound with good bones. It works for the way it builds on conflicts that have been set up in Chapters 1-3.  But, oh dear, what lost opportunities for CHARACTERISATION! What was I even thinking when I submitted it to publishers and agents three years ago?

Anyhow, half of Chapter Four has now been tightened, brightened and whipped into shape. Fortunately the dialogue was lively enough to not need more than the odd tweak.

Summary of Problems I sorted out:

• Too much TELLING in places where SHOWING would elicit emotion.
• SHOWING where TELLING would work better, because who wants to know the minutiae of every routine action?
• Too much preamble at the beginning of scenes, also known as WAFFLING.
• Not knowing when a scene has ended, and weighing it down with unnecessary epilogue — another example of WAFFLING.
• An excess of repetition, unnecessary words, wrong words, awkward phrasing.
• PASSIVE VOICE in places where ACTIVE VOICE works better, which is actually most places. Occasionally I use passive voice when I need to vary sentence structure or emphasise an interesting concept, but I make sure it’s pulling its weight before I let it stay.