Making a book the best it can be
I’ve been talking a lot about grammar recently (or rather, having my editor do so) because it’s vitally important that you have as close to perfect grammar as possible in the book you’re going to publish. But it’s not only your grammar that has to be perfect, your whole book has to be that way. That means that your writing craft as to be as perfect as possible as well.
I’ve written about story structure a number of times on this blog, so I won’t do so again today (here is a link to a posting on the topic ) even though without a strong structure, you know that your story just won’t work well. Instead, I want to go over a few of the areas of craft I always have to check for – and by check, I mean print out the entire manuscript (studiously ignoring the waste of paper because this is really important to actually print it out – you catch so much more when something’s in print, in your hand). This is, in essence my work plan for the next week – yes, week, because I plan to go through my manuscript many times over the next few days.
Each time I go through my manuscript it will be with one highlighter in hand (each time I do so, the color of the highlighter will change). I will look for one thing each pass, and one thing only, so that I can really focus in on that one aspect of my craft that I need to check for and fix. I’ve tried going through my manuscript with a handful of highlighters, but invariably when I’m looking for one thing, I miss another, so instead I’m going to make a number of passes and, hopefully, I’ll catch every instance where I need to fix that one thing that I’m looking for. So, what am I looking for?
Show vs. Tell
Dialogue Tags
Emotion
Character Consistency
Pacing
Show and tell is the hardest thing for me to get right. Every book, every scene is usually a blending of the two. Mostly, though, you want to show (see this posting on the subject). When I look for instances where I’m telling instead of showing, I’m looking for those awful adverbs. They’re the biggest clue that I’m doing it wrong.
Hand in hand with showing is emotion. You’ve got to show the emotion, which means going into deeper POV and getting into your character’s gut. Sometimes this can be really hard because it can slow down the pacing of your story. It’s a constant fight to show the emotion and keep the story moving forward.
Pacing, is, of course, another thing I’m looking for in my work. Action scenes need to have those short snappy sentences, fewer dialogue tags, less description. Everything needs to happen faster. When there isn’t the immediacy needed, being sure those five senses are in there, descriptive dialogue tags that clue the reader in to what the speaker is feeling as well as what they’re saying, is so important. But getting that balance just right… it takes effort.
And finally character consistency. Wow, is that a tough one! When a quiet character gets angry, how do they show it? When a boisterous character gets romantic or sad and needs a quiet moment, how can you write it so that it’s believable that this is the same person. We all have so many sides to us, our characters must be the same way. But it needs to be clear that that is what is happening – that your character is simply showing another side of their multi-faceted personality, not that they’re acting like a completely different person. It has to be shown in a way that is believable. So hard!
So what do you look for when you’re editing your work? And do you pull out the highlighters like I do, or do you have another trick for catching these all-important pieces of craft that need to be in your work? Please share!
