Empathy For Editors
I’m happy to say that I’m getting a nice response to my request for self-published novels to review. I’ve developed a system so hopefully I don’t miss any and I’m able to get through them in a timely manner. Many of the novels I’ve received are great reads and well written. I’m glad I got a chance to read them, but some, well. I feel really need more work.
I’m starting to better understand what editors are talking about. I guess I’ve always assumed the editors I’ve talked to or listened to at panels were exaggerating, or maybe being far more picky about the work of writers because they have to be. They want to make money so they want the best writers. But now I see they were telling the absolute truth. I’m surprised at the common mistakes writers are making and not fixing before putting their work out for the world.
If you’ve decided to be a professional writer, you need to do your homework on the craft of writing. Read books on writing, read blogs written by editors, and most of all, read great writing. You’ve got to understand what those writers are doing (or not doing) so your work will be as good. You can’t be lazy. Writing is not a quick and easy way to make money. It’s a lot of hard work.
Here are some of the mistakes I’ve seen so far.
1. Sending a book in a genre that wasn’t on the interest list. I understand how desperate a writer can be. I feel that desperation myself, but sending a book about paranormal romance to an editor, or in my case, a reviewer who only wants, say, horror books about bugs is not a good idea. You are wasting that person’s time and your own time. Only send your paranormal romance to people who want paranormal romance. Do your homework before sending your work out. Don’t pick random places and send your novel out to them just because they a excepting.
2. Edit, edit,edit and edit some more before sending out your work. If you are not sick to death of reading your own book, then you haven’t edited enough. If you haven’t let other eyes read your novel that are not family or friends, then you haven’t edited enough. If you can afford it, hire a professional editor to go over your book. If you can’t afford it, join a writing group and help other writers edit their books in exchange for editing your book. Your mom and your best friend don’t know the difference between telling and showing, unless they happen to work at Random house. Here are some thing s to look for while editing.
1. Misspellings and wrong version of words like there and their.
2. Missing words or sentences with extra unneeded words.
3. Passive sentences and overuse of the word was (normally a sign of telling and not showing)
4. Large passages of telling
5. Redundancy
6. Inconsistency, such as a character’s name changing half way through the work
7. Make sure your story is logical
8. Check your facts, science and history
9. Check your formatting by using several e devices and ordering a proof copy of soft a hard cover books
10. Check every sentence and see if you can rewrite it shorter and clearer
11. Clichés, unless they are purposely being used to show character
3. Which leads us into Show, Don’t Tell. This is the biggest problem I’m encountering with the self published books I’m receiving. I know within my writing group, it is a hard concept to grasp because it is not as easy as it sounds above. It took me a while to understand the difference between the two, and sometimes you do want to tell, but it should be brief and shouldn’t be something important to the plot. Telling should only be used to move the reader from one scene to the next. Everything else should be written as scenes. I’ve received a few novels where the first chapters were all telling, usually back story the author feels is important for the reader to know. If it’s important, then the writer should start their story with that back story and write it as scenes. Reading paragraph after paragraph of telling is boring. It’s information the reader doesn’t care about yet and they will skip over it or not read your novel at all. An easy way to tell if you are in telling mode and not showing mode is if you are writing without any dialog. Another way, if your character is alone, to tell is if you are writing about multiple locations and situations and not describing anything immediately around the character. Never start your novel with telling and never write the whole novel with telling. You’re not writing a novel then, you’re writing a synopsis.
Those are the main problems I’ve encountered. I’ll probably talk about each one in more detail sometime in the future, but now I must stop procrastinating and get back to my writing.
