Rani Divine's Blog, page 5

Genre Mashups: The fantastical past

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I’m so glad you stopped by. Have you been enjoying our month of writing prompts? I’ve gotten a lot of really unique ideas out of it—some of which I really do think I’ll be using in some upcoming stories.
As you know, if you’ve been around for the month of October, we’re talking genre mashups—and discussing some writing prompts for mashing those genres together. Why are we talking about this? Well, because we could all stand to get outside our comfort zones, as writers, and because with NaNoWriMo coming up, now’s the time to really get those ideas hammered out, so next month we can power our way through writing a whole book.
Today? I have a fun one for you.
Genre Mashups: The fantastical past
It might seem basic, sure, but like we’ve said all month long, there’s nothing new under the sun. Every single genre pairing has already been done, by someone. To be frank, I’m fairly certain that every story has already been told—but I know for sure that it hasn’t been written by every one of us, and that just like writers are different, readers are different. The same story written by different authors will appeal to different readers, across the spectrum. So don’t let the “but I’ve read this story before” notion put you off from writing the story you want to write. It hasn’t been written by you, so the world doesn’t have that story yet. No excuses. Write it.
But let’s start by defining our genres, shall we?
Historical fiction is, well, just that. It’s fiction that takes place in the past. There are a couple primary ways we generally go about doing this, but essentially, it’s just fiction that’s not set in present day or future. It’s often either centered around a specific place in the past, a specific (often famous) person, or a specific event from history. It’s really more of a category, than a genre. It’s pretty easy to mix other genres in with historical, since historical really just means that as a category, books in this genre take place in the past. Fantasy, in all actuality, isn’t all that different from historical, as a genre. It’s also more of a category than a specific theme, meaning that it also blends well with others. Fantasy is generally defined by the existence of nonhuman beings, like dwarves, elves, gnomes, dragons, and any manner of author-created beings, often (but not always) alongside the use of magic. Because it’s really more of a category, a genre that’s defined only by a few specific things that exist within the genre, it mixes extremely well with others.
And that’s why I wanted to talk about these two!
To be fair, fantasy, as a genre, often takes place in the past. It doesn’t always, but it’s been primarily associated with medieval times, up through the Victorian era. I’m honestly not entirely sure why that’s the case, but it is.
Because of that, I want to play around with these two genres a bit, for our writing prompt. I think, in some ways, these two can be a bit easy to play with, a bit too easy to really consider a fun mashup… so let’s do something very typical of historical fiction, and put a fantasy spin on it.
Pick one of your favorite events from history. Something big. Something most people would recognize. Now, change it. Change it so that the world is a fantasy one, where all the beings of your imagination exist. Write that event now, but write it with all those beings involved. Write it, thinking about what might’ve changed or been completely different, by the existence of these other beings in the world.
Me? I think I’d write about Henry VIII… and maybe he’s struggling to have kids because his wife is an elf, and halfbreeds don’t exist… I’m not sure, but I think it’s something to play around with.
What did you come up with? If you’ve written anything fun off any of the prompts this month, I’d love to read them!
[love]
{Rani Divine}

Genre Mashups: A mystery of the past

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I’m so glad you’ve stopped by. All month long, we’re talking about genre. We’re preparing for NaNoWriMo by getting those creative juices flowing, by setting ourselves up with lots of ideas, by mashing genres together and creating something new and exciting, something we might never have read anything like, before. And that’s what makes this month so much fun!
So far, we’ve talked about things like historical science fiction and fantastical mysteries, and we have so much more to go! And did I mention that I’m also coming up with some fun writing prompts along the way, to help us get some ideas before we dive into a full month of novel writing?
Let’s get started!
Genre Mashups: A mystery of the past
Yeah, you read it. It’s time. Let’s talk about historical mysteries. And you’re right, there are many authors who put these two genres together all the time. There are many ways to put them together, many shapes in which their stories can take place—but remember, like we’ve said all month long, there’s really nothing new under the sun. There are only stories that are new to us, as writers, and stories we ourselves haven’t written yet.
Let’s define, shall we?
Mysteries are just that: they’re stories that are focused on a mystery, that usually focus on a protagonist of a detective, or someone who must unwittingly solve the mystery put before them. It’s a story that can take on many shapes, but that is always almost entirely focused on that mystery, the thing which must be solved. It’s very thematic, in form, and therefore mashes up very nicely with other genres. Historical fiction, on the other hand, has two main shapes it can take. Either it’s an accurate take on a historical tale, a retelling or semi-fictionalized telling of a tale that takes place within a major (or sometimes minor) historical setting, or sometimes it's just a story that takes place in the past. Sometimes it’s real, it’s a story we know, a story from our past (or the past of our family members), and sometimes it’s something we’ve made up, but that’s set within a very particular time period. It doesn’t matter, either way. They both fall into this category. And it’s just that, a category, which means thematic genres fit very nicely within it.
So, in the mashing up of these two genres, I see two main options. Either we write about an actual mystery from the past, perhaps an unsolved one, or we make up a mystery and set it within our favorite time period.
Which do you prefer?
Me? I have a lovely prompt for you, in which you’ll see what I prefer…
Write me a story set in the nineteen fifties. Wherever you will. I’ll leave that part up to you. But make up your own mystery, a mystery that's interesting to you. Make it a mystery based around a man and a woman, who want to be wed, but who can’t. Find out why. Find out what’s keeping them apart. And do it all through the point of view of a third party.
Make of that what you will, my friends. And I hope you’ll share some of your ideas with me, along the way!
[love]
{Rani Divine}

Genre Mashups: A horrifying mystery

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I’m so glad you stopped by. All month, we’re talking about genres, and getting those creative juices flowing by mashing two genres together in a way we might not have considered before. We’re talking mashups, and I’m ending every blog with a short writing prompt, to really help you get those juices flowing—and just in time for NaNoWriMo, too!
Thus far this month, we’ve talked about everything from historical science fiction to historical horror, and this week, I have two more super fun subjects for you.
Genre Mashups: A horrifying mystery
Like I’ve said many times over the past two weeks, there’s nothing new under the sun. I’m sure many of you have read horror-mystery mashups before, and some of you might have even written in these genres before, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take a new spin on it, does it?
Let’s define our genres:
Horror is, as we discussed recently, just that: it’s a genre that focuses on the theme of the horrifying, of jump scares and setting your nerves on edge, of making your teeth chatter and making you wonder as to the reality around you. It’s terrifying, and that’s what makes it a whole lot of fun. Sometimes it’s paranormal, sometimes it’s based in the actual—but it’s always bent on getting a good scare, and it usually gets it. It’s a thematic genre, which means it blends extremely well with others. Mystery, on the other hand… well, that’s not hard to guess at either, is it? Mystery is a thematic genre that’s focused on the solving of a certain mystery, though that mystery varies from story to story. There’s generally a detective involved, one who’s primary goal is to solve the mystery upon which the story revolves, to whatever end that may lead.
And, in my opinion, the two very easily go hand in hand.
They’re both thematic genres, which means they’ll also blend well into whatever time period you have in mind, whatever character set you have in mind, and essentially, whatever wonderful ideas you have in that noggin of yours. They bind easily, because the horrifying elements can very simply seat themselves as the basis of the mystery, or can propel the mystery forward. Whatever you choose. The story is ready and waiting for you, even now.
So, here’s your prompt:
Write me a story about a hardened detective, one who’s seen his fair share of crime. His fair share of hardship. Only when this deed goes down, even he’ll be terrified by what’s going on. It’ll shake him to his core, get his boots trembling, and make him wonder if anything he’s ever believed in could actually be true.
It’s up to you, what time period you set the story in, what horror you have in mind, even what the mystery may actually be. But I want your mystery to be based around the past of your primary character, and I want the story to reveal him for what he really is, in a way that he didn’t think possible. I want to discover him through the horror that’s around him, and I want the pieces to unfold like a mystery.
Let that challenge you, and let your mind take it and run.
Me, I’ve got some ideas, myself.
[love]
{Rani Divine}

Genre Mashups: Elves in space

Hi there! Welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I’m so glad you stopped by. This month, we’re talking about genres. We’re taking genres that might not be often seen together, and putting them together to get our creative juices flowing—and, we’re doing all this just in time for November, NaNoWriMo! I’m hoping I’ll be able to inspire some of you to try something new, and maybe make a really cool story along the way.
If you’ve been trying out my writing prompts, I’d love to see what you came up with! I’ve been having a grand time coming up with prompts for mashing all these genres together, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what I get out of this, by the end of the month. I always learn something too, you know.
Today, let’s talk about my two genres of choice! These are my favorite genres, my wheelhouse genres, the genres I camp out in as my happy place. Only, I never really write them together, nor is it a very common mashup, as far as I’ve seen.
Genre Mashups: Elves in space
Yeah, that’s right. We’re talking science fiction and high fantasy. And sure, it’s been done before. I’m fairly certain that every single genre mashup has already been done, that you can find examples of it all over online—but that doesn’t mean you’veever done it, nor does it give you the excuse not to do it. Because the story in you is a story that can’t come out of anyone else. The exact same story told by two different people is always a different story, in the end.
So let’s define our genres:
Science fiction, as we discussed last week, is a genre of the future. It’s not always set in the future, but it tends toward futuristic themes like space travel, time travel, and scientific advances not currently known to mankind. It is really more of a category than a full-on genre, because you can blend many different theme-genres into science fiction, to make a really cool story. Fantasy, on the other hand, tends toward being set in the past. It isn’t always, but tends to focus on medieval times. High fantasy, in particular, deals with the lives of elves, dwarves, gnomes, dragons, and every other fantastical creature you’ve ever heard of in your life. It also tends toward containing the use of magic, in one shape or another. Like science fiction, fantasy is also more of a category, which also makes it easy to blend with theme-genres.
That means that today, we have two categories we’re mashing together. We haven’t done that yet, this series.
Like I said, fantasy tends toward being set in the past, but it doesn’t have to be set in the past. So I really want you to think outside the box on this one. I want you to imagine what fantastical species would’ve gotten to which scientific advancement first, to show a difference between peoples. I’d like to see at least one species with the ability to space travel.
So, write me a story. Write me a story about a gnome who’s just trying to move up in the world, but he’s a gnome, and he’s small, and only the big people have the best advancements. He wants his people to be the ones to make the next advancement. And he learns how to blend magic with science, to do things no one thought possible.
Write me a story that’s set in our future, but a future where every fantastical race you’ve ever heard of exists and thrives around us. A future where racial tensions aren’t within a single species but pointed outward, at other species (science fiction loves to play with politics, you know). A future where the apocalypse is looming, and everyone’s trying to prevent it—but every species wants their species to be the one to end it, so they’ll have the upper hand in the new world.
My mind is going a mile a minute, I have so many ideas… and I hope you do too!
Happy writing!
[love]
{Rani Divine}

Genre Mashups: A horrifying history

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I’m so glad you stopped by. This month, as you know if you stopped by last week (which I’m sure you did!), we’re talking about genre. We’re looking at some genre pairs that we don’t often or always see together, and discussing how we can do a mashup with them, to get our creative juices flowing and teach ourselves a little more on how to write outside the box.
Last week, we talked about mashing fantasy and mystery together, and paired historical with science fiction—and I’ve personally been having a lot of fun with the writing prompts I came up with. I hope you have been, too!
Today, let’s talk something that’s probably a little more common, but one that I want to take a different spin on.
Genre Mashups: A horrifying history
We’re talking horror, and we’re talking historical fiction. Not genres I generally dabble with, but ones that I do read from time to time, and that I think are really a lot of fun to play with, when it comes to writing.
Let’s define, shall we?
Historical fiction is just that: it’s fiction that takes place in the past, often focusing on a specific event, person, or place in the past and using it to form a story about an (often unlikely) hero. I’m not sure why historical fiction leans toward unlikely heroes, but from what I’ve read of this genre, it does. And it is, really, a category. Because historical fiction is just fiction that takes place within a specific timeline, in the past—and that’s it. It’s a genre that’s happy to include other genres, because history is more of a category, and other genres (like mystery, or even horror) are slightly more specific as a genre. Horror, on the other hand, is what you might expect—though I find that it often crosses lines with thrillers, which I won’t be discussing in this series. Horror fiction leans toward exactly that: the horrifying. Sometimes it’s paranormal, sometimes it’s alien, sometimes it’s a serial killer… point is, in horror fiction, there are plenty of scares, lots of thrills, and often (but not always) a fair amount of gore. Unlike historical fiction, which I call a more category-based genre, horror is more thematic. It plays well with others because it’s all about a specific theme, which is why I think it’s one of the most fun genres to mashup.
So what are we waiting for? Let’s get mashing!
The thing I love about pairing these two is that there are so many millions of ways to go about doing it. We could focus on a serial killer from history (Jack the Ripper, anyone?), we could place our story among the horrors of war, or we could invent a story of our own, a horror of our own, and set it in a real-world historical place.
And that’s what I want you to do.
Pick your favorite time in history. I know you have one. So use that, because it’ll probably be a bit easier to write and you won’t have to do quite as much research before you can start writing. Take that setting, and put into it your worst nightmare. You know the one. That dream you used to have as a kid. Throw that into a story, and make your characters deal with it.
Bonus: I’ve actually heard of writers using this method to move past things that happened to them in their childhood, so you might even be doing yourself a favor by writing this one.
As to how the story ends? Well that’s up to you. Do your characters survive the horror? Do they come out on the other end, stronger than ever before? Or do they perish, not knowing what was really going on around them? Depending on your horror of choice, the answer could be anything.
Happy writing!
[love]
{Rani Divine}

Genre Mashups: A Tolkien whodunnit

Hey everyone, and welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I’m so glad you stopped by. This month, as you’ll know if you were here on Tuesday, we’re talking genre. We’re discussing the many different sides of genre, and the ways we can mash those genres together to develop something extra creative and extra fun—and I’ll be sharing a short writing prompt at the end of the post, to get your creative juices flowing! (no, I don’t expect you to do all the writing prompts… but I will be)
Today, I have a really fun mashup for you.
Genre Mashups: A Tolkien whodunnit
Okay, so we’re talking fantasy and mystery. Maybe not so uncommon a concept, but still, not one that I’ve seen a massive amount of on the market. I’m not just talking about having a little mystery in your fantasy novel—I’m talking a fantasy novel that’s based entirely off a mystery. Two genres, mashed together to make something really cool.
Let’s define!
Fantasy, especially high fantasy, is the genre we think of when we think of The Lord of the Rings, The Witcher, and a whole lot of other popular stories in today’s world. It’s one of the most popular genres I know of, and just so happens to be the one I love writing the most. It’s the genre that’s generally either set on another world or on a past version of Earth (but not always past), wherein elves, dwarves, dragons, gnomes, orcs, and a plethora of other creatures exist and are a part of everyday life. Because it’s more of a concept than a real, full genre, it mashes well with others. Mystery, on the other hand, is just that. It’s a story that’s based around a mystery, around a whodunnit or crime that must be solved. It usually (but not always) involves a detective who’s trying to solve this mystery, for some purpose set forth in the beginning of the story. Sometimes it's a detective who does this for a living, sometimes it’s just an average joe who’s trying to find the answer to some important question. Whatever the case, mystery is really more of a theme than a full-on genre, which means it mashes super well with concept genres like fantasy.
Like I said, this is nothing new under the sun. None of these mashups will be, if I’m being honest. Everything’s already been done. What I want to do is get your creative juices flowing. I want to get you thinking about genre, about concepts and themes, and considering a little bit more of what you’re doing, while you’re writing.
The way I see it, there are two ways to go about mashing these two together. Really, there are a lot more, but I’m just going to mention two of them. ;-)
1: A classic mystery, maybe even a Dickens-era mystery, set in a fantasy world. 2: A standard, medieval fantasy world, in which the protagonist must solve a mystery.
I like the first option better, personally.
So let’s try that, for our writing prompt! Here’s what I’d like you to write:
Focus your story in a London-esque city, in Victorian era. Start either in the middle or the beginning, whatever your personal preference. And have your protagonist, your detective, be anything but human. They could even be a half-breed (I don’t see enough of those, in fantasy). What’s the mystery, you ask? The mystery is human. Make of that what you will. I have lots of ideas, myself.
See what I mean? Mystery and fantasy can create a very unique play on genre, and one that perhaps isn’t seen as often as it should be. That’s why I think we should play with it, at least a little bit.
Let me know what you come up with! I’ll share some of the stories I’ve gotten out of these writing prompts, if they turn out any good. You know how it goes. ;-)
[love]
{Rani Divine}

Genre Mashups: Back in time gets futuristic

Hi everyone! Welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I’m so glad you stopped by. It’s October, so we’re getting into a new series today, and it’s one I’m really excited to talk about. I’d mentioned something, semi recently (as in, I'm not sure when it was, but I think it might've been over the summer?), that struck a chord with me. I was talking about genre, and how every genre really has more than one genre inside it… and I think we should talk about that, a bit more.
Let’s talk genre mashups, shall we? Every Tuesday and Thursday, I’ll be taking two genres and talking about how we could, as writers, mash them together to make something really fun, and maybe even a bit outside the box. Along the way, I hope we’ll all discover a little something about how genre really works, and why categories really make more sense than genres, nowadays. ;-) I’ll also be sharing some writing prompts, to get our creative juices flowing, just in time for NaNoWriMo!
Genre Mashups: Back in time gets futuristic
Now, I should mention at this point that a lot of these mashups won’t be anything new, to a lot of you. Like they say, there’s really nothing new under the sun. Writers all over the world have been mashing up genres their whole career. We’re just going to explore them, a little bit.
Historical Science Fiction
It’s a thing. If you didn’t know that, maybe you should look it up. But even the X-Men delved into this genre, honestly. Magneto is a Jewish character, who survived the Holocaust. That’s historical fiction. But he’s a mutant, a being who’s developed the power to manipulate metal. That makes it science fiction. But the mashup of the two is what makes that story one that will never get old, in my opinion.
And there are a lot of ways to mash these two genres together, to create something extra special.
In a lot of ways, these two genres are pretty opposite. Historical fiction is set in the past, so there’s a lot of older technologies, sometimes even minimal technology, depending on your time period. But science fiction, on the other hand… well, that tends to be thought of as futuristic, a genre that’s firmly set either in the future or on another planet. And that, to me, is what makes these two the perfect mashup.
Maybe you’re doing a WWI story, where aliens were the ones who really started the war. Maybe you’re writing a medieval fiction, about Napoleon, but he’s so good at what he does because he keeps jumping into the future to figure out the best ways to defeat his enemies. There are a lot of ways these two genres can be combined, to become something you might not have imagined.
So, I have an exercise for you. And don’t worry, we’ll have one of these with every genre mashup, just to get your creative juices flowing. (I’ll be doing the exercises too, I promise!)
Write a short story, that puts these two genres together. But don’t just write any short story. I have two specific things I want you to use, in your short story. I want you to write a short story about rural China in the eighth century, and I want one of your characters to discover their bones are made of metal.
Take that idea, and roll with it. See what your creative mind comes up with. See if you can make a novel out of it, if you will. But most of all, don’t let the constrictions of either historical fiction or science fiction prevent you from being fully creative.
If you’re up for it, share your concepts, ideas, and maybe a paragraph or two with me! I’d love to see what you come up with!
[love]
{Rani Divine}

You Need an Editor: Show, don’t tell (and tell, don’t show)

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Too Many Books to Count, as we finish out our series for the month of September! All month long, as you know, we’ve been talking about the myriad reasons why you need an editor. During this series, I’ve talked about some of the things editors will look for in your manuscript, and (I hope), shed some light on how the editing process goes, in general. I’ve had a lot of fun with this series, as I always do, and I hope that you’ve learned some things as well. After all, editing is one of those things that we just can’t get around. We, as writers, really need editors. We just do.
You Need an Editor: Show, don’t tell (and tell, don’t show)
Now, I’ve talked about this before, fairly recently, but I still wanted to bring it up in a series about editing. Why? Because it’s one of the first things we ever learn when it comes to writing, and yet it somehow never completely sticks—or it sticks so much that the manuscript suffers in the exact opposite direction as before. We don’t want either of those things to happen.
See, writers have a constant struggle when it comes to knowing how much to show and how much to tell. We do. I know, because I’m a writer. I still struggle, with knowing what sections need to be fully shown and what sections don’t. But my editor? She knows. She knows almost instantly, in my manuscripts, what pieces I need to show more of.
Again I’ll tell you: as the writer, as the creator of the manuscript in question, it’s nearly impossible for you to spot the errors in your writing. You know how it’s supposed to read. You know how every scene plays out. You’ve blocked it all out in your mind, and you can see it, without even having to read it. But that’s part of the problem. You can see it, without the words. Your readers can’t. But how are you supposed to know what they can’t see, when you can? An editor; that’s how.
Your editor will look through your manuscript and highlight areas where you’ve told instead of shown. They’ll look through your book and tell you why you need to add more details in some areas, why some sections of the book need to be better described and given the extra attention. But they’ll go one step further.
If you’re anything like me, then there are some descriptions you’ve done that you absolutely love. You just love them, fully and completely, and you don’t want to remove them from the manuscript at all, ever. But some of those descriptions don’t need to be there. Sometimes we’ve spent a great deal of time describing something that has literally no significance in the story, and that’s a problem. If you’re going to spend a lot of time describing it, then it needs to be important. But I highly doubt that you can see those things, that you can notice them at all, because, of course, you wrote and love that description. Which I don’t blame you for, in the least.
But I do encourage you, as I have all month long, to seek out an editor. Hire someone you trust, someone you know will work well within your genre and lead you in the right direction. Find an editor. Work with them, all you can. Let them change and better your manuscript—because, believe me, your work will be better for it.
All you have to do is take the plunge.
Thank you all so much for sticking around through this series! I have something really fun planned for October, but if you have any suggestions for upcoming topics, please let me know!
[love]
{Rani Divine}

You Need an Editor: How long/short is too long/short?

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I’m so glad you stopped by. It’s the last week of our series, and I have two more reasons for you, why you need an editor. You know me, I’m full of reasons why you should hire an editor, why you shouldn’t leave the editing only to your own eyes. For the sake of your readers, if nothing else, editors are extremely necessary if you intend to publish your work. If you’re only going to let your mom read it… well then, you’re probably fine without editing. ;-)
All month long, I’ve done my best to tell you of the myriad reasons why editors are important, for writers. And today, I have what is probably one of the biggest reasons why you need an editor.
You Need an Editor: How long/short is too long/short?
My dear writer, if I know you like I think I do, then you really don’t have a clue how long your manuscript should be. Sure, you’ve probably done a little bit of research into how long an average novel in your genre is, and you might even know how long youwant the story to be, but I can nearly guarantee that you haven’t considered how long your story wants to be, on it’s own.
That’s a thing that editors know, and can tell simply by reading through your manuscript. It’s one of the things I pride myself on doing. I know, on a single read-through, which sections need to be lengthened and which sections need to be cut down. I know what parts will read extremely well from the point of view of the reader, and which ones will be boring, confusing, or just need to be blocked out better. I know this, because I know novels. Because I’ve worked with novels for a very long time. And, honestly, because I’m also a reader.It’s not to say that you, as a writer, aren’t a reader and therefore can’t possibly know where you’ve written too much and where you’ve written too little, but that because you’re soclose to your manuscript, because you’re the one who wrote it and therefore you have an amazing vision into what’s going on, what’s happening, the background, the information never entirely privy to the reader… you literally cannot tell, where the manuscript needs scenes to be extended and better fleshed out, and what sections you need to skip through, because the information isn’t exactly necessary.
That’s where your editor comes in. That’s where we’re able to help you, to show you which scenes you might need to expand, which things we want to know more about, which things we want to see more of, and which things you can cut back on a bit.
In my own writing, this often means cutting out some dialogue, and replacing it with exposition. When I’m writing, I like to give a lot of information through dialogue—but that’s not always the best way to do things. And I didn’t know that, until I’d worked with an editor and she told me I was using my dialogue as a crutch.
We don’t want crutches, in our writing. We want to better our writing, all around. And sometimes, an editor is the only one who can really help us do that.
So yes, my writer friend. You need an editor. Because your eyes cannot see what’s unknown to them, until someone else point it out. I think that sentence might’ve gotten away from me, a bit.
[love]
{Rani Divine}

You Need an Editor: Exposition that just needs help

Hi everyone! Welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I’m so glad you stopped by. Really. It wouldn’t be the same without you here.
This month, this lovely, finally-starting-to-cool-down-below-90-degrees month of September, we’re talking about editing. We’re talking about editing because it’s one of the most important things for writers to discuss, one of the most important things for us to understand, and to do. We need to both edit our own work, and to hire someone to edit our work after we’ve edited it ourselves. Why? Well, that’s what we’re talking about, this month.
You Need an Editor: Exposition that just needs help
Really. Your exposition needs help. I know it does, because I’m both a writer and an editor, so I know writing from both sides. There isn’t a writer in the world who writes perfect exposition—but there are a whole lot of writers out there who think they write some of the most amazing exposition in the world. And sure, they might be right, but they probably also hire an editor, to make sure it stays that way.
See, there are two kinds of miswritten exposition, and editors are great at finding and fixing either one.
Option 1: You’ve written too much exposition
Let’s face it, this happens not infrequently, to a lot of us. We sit down to write a scene, and we get overwhelmed ourselves by the amount of information we want (and need) to include in the scene. So we write all of it, we love all of it, and we think all of it is necessary, even in its chunky, blocky, pages upon pages upon pages format. And that’s not okay.
My general rule of thumb is that if it was overwhelming for you to write, if it was a lot of exposition and seems to you, as the writer, to be a lot of showing without a lot of telling and without a lot of action or dialogue… it probably needs a good edit. And if you can’t figure out how to find or fix those places, well then. You need an editor.
Option 2: You’ve written too little exposition
Logical, right? Those are the only two options. It’s fairly rare to have actually written the proper amount of exposition throughout your entire manuscript. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen it happen, and I’ve edited a lot in my day. Some of you have underwritten your exposition. Maybe you’re not as comfortable writing it, maybe you didn’t know what needed to be said, but you didn’t include enough descriptions, enough actions, enough not-dialogue text in your manuscript. And that needs to change.
How do you spot writing like this? That’s easy. It’s mostly dialogue, without much happening that isn’t directly stated, through dialogue. And it’s actually one of my least favorite things to edit, because it feels like I end up changing a lot more than I would usually do in someone else’s manuscript. But most writers in this camp honestly don’t know how to fix it themselves—and that’s okay. That’s what editors are here for.
We want to help you. We want to teach you how to write better exposition, how to match your exposition to your dialogue. How to get your ratios right, so you don’t have too much or too little of either one.
And I’m willing to bet you can’t do that on your own. ;-)
[love]
{Rani Divine}

P.S. If you have any suggestions or ideas of things you’d like me to talk about in the coming months, let me know in the comments or contact me on Facebook!