What ELSE Not To Do In Your Novel
Last week I talked about some things fiction writers should NOT do if they want to see their work published. Since then several fellow authors have mentioned some other crimes that writers need to avoid, enough to warrant a follow-up blog. For example…
Don’t write a classic. Thomas Hardy’s “Return of the Native” opens with an entire chapter describing the setting. That may have made readers swoon in the 1870s but it will simply put today’s readers to sleep. Keep your book focused on the story, and give us no more detail in setting or background than we really need. The easiest way to avoid being wordy is to seek out and delete all adverbs and most adjectives. Nouns and verbs make the story.
The only thing worse than being overly wordy is being overly scholarly, especially in your dialog. Atlas Shrugged was a big hit in the 1950s, but you won’t be able to sell a manuscript with a 70 page monolog today. Dialog needs to imitate the way people converse, and none of us is going to let our friend go on for even a fraction of that time without chiming in. Also, dialog doesn’t need to follow the same rules of grammar your prose sticks to. People speak in fragments, use contractions, and sometimes just misuse words.
In the same vein, don’t focus too much on detail in general. Tom Clancy is a very successful writer, but he had brought any of his manuscripts to Intrigue Publishing we would have passed unless he cut about a quarter of the book. We just don’t think our readers need to know much more about a particular weapons system than its name and what it can do. The same applies to day-to-day activities. Unless something exciting happens during the trip I don’t really need to see our hero sitting in his car going from here to there. We will assume that your characters do brush their teeth, shower, go to the bathroom, get dressed, etc. Unless something happens that moves the plot forward or deepens characterization, let it all happen off camera.
Don’t make me work to follow your story. I’m not against flashbacks, but non-linear storytelling (the TV show Lost comes to mind) will prompt me to put the book down. Flashing forward and back is not necessary if you have a good story anyway. Using literary techniques just to show off does not impress me, or most acquisition editors. The last writer I read who I thought got away with being cute with a story was O. Henry.
If you have more ideas for things that writers should NOT do if they want to get published, share with us!
Don’t write a classic. Thomas Hardy’s “Return of the Native” opens with an entire chapter describing the setting. That may have made readers swoon in the 1870s but it will simply put today’s readers to sleep. Keep your book focused on the story, and give us no more detail in setting or background than we really need. The easiest way to avoid being wordy is to seek out and delete all adverbs and most adjectives. Nouns and verbs make the story.
The only thing worse than being overly wordy is being overly scholarly, especially in your dialog. Atlas Shrugged was a big hit in the 1950s, but you won’t be able to sell a manuscript with a 70 page monolog today. Dialog needs to imitate the way people converse, and none of us is going to let our friend go on for even a fraction of that time without chiming in. Also, dialog doesn’t need to follow the same rules of grammar your prose sticks to. People speak in fragments, use contractions, and sometimes just misuse words.
In the same vein, don’t focus too much on detail in general. Tom Clancy is a very successful writer, but he had brought any of his manuscripts to Intrigue Publishing we would have passed unless he cut about a quarter of the book. We just don’t think our readers need to know much more about a particular weapons system than its name and what it can do. The same applies to day-to-day activities. Unless something exciting happens during the trip I don’t really need to see our hero sitting in his car going from here to there. We will assume that your characters do brush their teeth, shower, go to the bathroom, get dressed, etc. Unless something happens that moves the plot forward or deepens characterization, let it all happen off camera.
Don’t make me work to follow your story. I’m not against flashbacks, but non-linear storytelling (the TV show Lost comes to mind) will prompt me to put the book down. Flashing forward and back is not necessary if you have a good story anyway. Using literary techniques just to show off does not impress me, or most acquisition editors. The last writer I read who I thought got away with being cute with a story was O. Henry.
If you have more ideas for things that writers should NOT do if they want to get published, share with us!
No comments have been added yet.
