Writing Better...Lessons we can learn from books that annoy us.

Artist: Henry (O'Hare) Clive
I was going to title this blog, pet peeves, but realized that's way too negative.  Not my thing.


Instead, I got to thinking, why not do a series on writing since a lot of my blog visitors are authors as well as readers?  Where do the pet peeves come in you may ask?  Well, nowhere, 'cuz honestly I don't want to focus on what we don't like.  But some books that are otherwise wonderful can be really annoying and usually there is a "craft of writing" reason why.  I didn't use to think so, but I'm such an analyzer, I've come to see a whole lot of patterns.


So, once a month?  Articles on the craft of what I love to do.


And trust me, I'm not immune to my own analysis.  In fact, the whole reason I decided to write this series of posts/articles is that every time I recognize this pattern, I go looking for it in my own books in an attempt to improve my own writing.




From Chemistryland
This time, I'm going to focus on the "Character Revelation."  It's this amazing moment when you are writing and your character reveals something about her or himself that you didn't know before, but makes so much sense and makes elements of the story work even better.  I adore this moment and practically do the party dance around my office when it happens.  It's like a major case of "Eureka!" and other cool idioms like that to evince happy shock.


The downside?  When the author does not go back to the beginning of the book with her editing pencil to make sure that new revelation is reflected in the character's reactions, dialogue and relationships.  I'll be reading happily along and suddenly, I'm witnessing the author's moment of "Eureka!" only I shouldn't be.  I shouldn't know this is the moment she realized this particular thing about this character because the rest of the book should fit, but it doesn't.


And not to put too fine a point on it, but I want to tear my hair out and toss what otherwise could have ended up being a favorite book.


I may have jarred my readers a time or two with this one - without realizing as I'm sure most of us do.  But several years ago, Debbie Macomber gave me a piece of advice about revisions.  She said that when making revisions for an editor, it was best to do a whole book edit, rather than focus on only the area needing the change.  I've tried to apply that to my own edits as well and my "character revelations".  It makes for a more cohesive book, I think. :)


But deadlines put time constraints on us all and we can't always do the whole book revision - just, please...if your character gives you a revelation, don't let me tell from reading the book the moment it came to you. :)


Hugs and happy reading and writing!
Lucy


This week's question for discussion:  what's the newest book in your TBR pile (folder)? What's the oldest and why is it still there?