An iconoclast examines fiction writing–lesson two of five…
[Many readers of this blog are familiar with my unconventional and acerbic opinions about the writing business—see the posts archived in the “Writing” category of this blog. I recently saw something about SkillShare, so I thought maybe it was time to distill some of those ideas into a short course on fiction writing for would-be authors. You’re in luck. A perusal of that site’s offerings about writing didn’t impress me at all. So, here’s my short and unconventional course—and it’s free!
Actually, like any Irish whiskey, this little course is thrice distilled—a development over the years of my own ideas about writing, the afore-mentioned blog posts, and now this mini-course. You might not like some of the things I say because I don’t sugarcoat my opinions. That’s too bad. They’re my honest opinions at this stage in my writing career. BTW, while readers might enjoy my points of view, this is mostly for indie writers, but traditionally published authors who aren’t Patterson’s workers on his book-writing assembly line, or other Big Five old stallions, i.e. midlist authors, can benefit too. Without further comment, here’s lesson two.]
An Iconoclast Examines Fiction Writing
Lesson Two: The Path to a Polished Manuscript
OK, so you have a first draft. If you’ve been content editing all along, your story is complete. (You have to know when to stop. Stopping is essential! You need to write the next story.) Now you have to polish that manuscript (MS) so other people can deal with it (while you write the next story), because it’s probably a bit ragged for wear already. You might have used too many dialogue tags, for example. Or made multiple grammar and spelling errors. You’ve already done your content editing, so the next step is copy editing. You can do much of that yourself—maybe all of it, because you’ve been writing long enough to know your own quirks, probably better than any copy editor you can hire. In any case, you need to make a few passes before you send the MS off to anyone else.
There’s a common misconception about indie-authored books (promoted in part by traditional publishers and their authors, of course): the claim is that indie authors write badly edited books. This misconception is often given top billing in any traditional v. indie debate. It has nothing to do with that debate, though. Whether you’re an indie or traditional author, you must copy edit your final MS and you must proofread your final product, or pay for professional help (if you don’t, you need another kind of professional help). For the latter, beware of editors who also want to content edit your book—they can destroy your style and voice! And traditional publishers are often the worse sinners about that when they take over a successful indie book or attack a new author’s book. Pay for a professional copy editor if you want (you might need to take out a second mortgage), but insist s/he do only that. Or go DIY, using some of these copy editing tricks.
Spell checking and grammar. This is the least you can do, of course, because it’s done for you, for the most part. (And if you don’t do it, you’re really crazy!) Most word processors can check these things automatically. Be careful, though. MS Word gets confused with long sentences. I’ve never been able to teach it the difference between “it’s” and “its” either. (This dubious “feature” has remained constant through various versions of Word.) Trust, but verify. (That’s good advice for anything dealing with computers and the internet, by the way.)
Age-appropriate language control. MS Word also can check the language level—it’s another automatic tool you have to trust but verify, of course. If you’re writing adult fiction, there’s probably less of a problem here—but be forewarned that the language tool won’t tell you when you’re erudite and pedantic (some of the examples King admires in On Writing are exactly that)—but books for YA and younger readers can be trickier. You probably weren’t flaunting your extensive vocabulary if you’re writing those (as King implies, looking for that erudite bon mot to replace an easily understandable one can alienate your reader, but this is especially true for a YA reader), but these tools will help you maintain an age-appropriate vocabulary.
Search and destroy. You should have a list of your own quirks. Are you a cliché junkie? Make a list of the most common ones and search and destroy (clichés are more forgivable in dialogue, though, because they can be a character quirk—some people speak in clichés). Do you overuse –ly adverbs? Search and destroy. These are particularly egregious in dialog tags. Example: “Want to join my conspiracy?” she said seditiously. That –ly adverb is completely unnecessary in this example. Anything beyond said is also unnecessary, in fact. The ? indicates a question—why replace “said” with “asked”? Be nice to speed readers—they read more books! (King emphasizes these points a lot. He doesn’t give a name to it though. I call it minimalist writing.)
Beta-readers. Copy editors generally want to be paid, but frankly you don’t get much for dollar spent. Beta-readers are often volunteers—they’re people who are excited about reading your MS before anyone else does. They’re great people. Be nice to them. Send them your MS AFTER you’ve done your main copyediting. They can be very helpful in finding inconsistencies (during the car chase, the sedan turned from red to blue, for example). They also can find edits that escaped you and/or your copy editor. (There’s always another edit.) Beta-readers are your first readers (King uses the term first-reader, in fact), they can save you a lot of embarrassment, and they will help you offer a great product to those other readers who buy your books. Like reviewers, their volunteerism helps everyone—you, as the writer, and readers of what you write. (The term beta-anything probably finds its genesis in the digital revolution, so we can forgive King for not using it.)
Critique groups. Forget about them. Many MFA programs are based on the critique group concept. Forget about those too. The idea is that person X reads what person Y offers and makes comments (all too often, they’re negative). Unfortunately, this often reduces to person X trying to force person Y to write in X’s style. This a good way to destroy your writing persona. It’s also a good way to create a homicide suspect when Y kills X. (Good plot for a mystery?)
The other side of the coin is that X tells Y that Y’s stuff is the greatest stuff since Hemingway’s. (Hemingway was a quintessential minimalist writer, by the way, as opposed to Cormac McCarthy, who is an erudite maximalist—both are mentioned by King.) That might help motivate Y’s writing, but it also might delude Y into thinking s/he’s the next Hemingway, especially if Y is an incurable narcissist (leave your narcissism for that ubiquitous narcissists’ club, Facebook). Of course, “to thine own self be true” has to be tempered with an acknowledgment that Sturgeon’s Law also applies to all writers. If you’ve read enough, especially in your genre, you’ll know if you’re stuff is crap or not. Be your own critic.
It’s not over. Most of a writer’s writing time is over when s/he has that polished MS that’s gone through beta-readers. Now, what does s/he do with it? Decisions, decisions, and more hard work, that’s what!
[Next week: Lesson Three: “Indie or Traditional?”]
In libris libertas….
