EDITING

Tips, tension and adjectives

Today I am using Ally’s notes from Tuesdays evening event. TWRP (my trad publisher) kindly provides a weekly writing event. With a wide range of people invited to host topics for discussion, including: editorial staff, the Big Boss and authors who wish to share their knowledge it can be seriously helpful – especially for newbies.

This week, they worked over a wide range of hints and tips regarding editing.

Editing is one of the essential parts of writing – of course once you’ve managed to get the whole story down!

The trouble is, I write and edit on the go, then re-write – edit – and re-write, and on it goes. I guess it’s no bad thing, though. I want the very best I can produce before I send to my editor for approval – and here’s my tip: if you’re thinking of submitting a manuscript – be sure you are convinced it is at its shiniest best –  before even going there. They don’t take kindly to sloppy, lazy authors who think that editors are there for that specific job. Trust me, they’re not – they hold a lot more power than you may imagine – think about it – if you turn up for work and expect someone else to do the job for you – would you want them on your team?

So back to the original reason I’m here on my blog and this comes from an Editors POV.

.

TIPS

‘I have found that many writers use unnecessary words and phrases. I advise going through each page of your manuscript (MS) with the intent to cut a minimum of 10 words. When you look at it with that kind of eye, you’ll be surprised at the clutter words you can remove to tighten your prose. Tight pacing makes for a more enjoyable, engaging read.

A good way to increase your word count when you are writing a draft is to use ‘speech to text’ in Word or with your phone by opening a Google doc. You can speak the scene and it’s much faster than typing. when I write, I have a list of scene notes. Then, for each scene, I basically ask the who, what, when, where, why, how and I speak that into Word or a google doc on my phone. Then I have the bare bones of as scene that I can easily flesh out and improve.

Lastly, some tips about adding tension to your story. I see many manuscripts where there really isn’t much happening, characters are happy, readers have nothing to worry about, etc. A story with tension keeps a reader hooked and that is our goal, right?

Getting Good Tension

Tension is a very crucial element of any novel, whatever the genre, because you can’t have a story so bland that nothing happens or worries the reader, or you’ll not be giving your readers any reason to turn the page. However, creating tension is a very complex task.

There are a few points you might like to bear in mind when trying to inject tension into your tale.

FIRST HINT

If you want to create tension about some plot element, don’t tell everything up front. In fact, don’t tell anything until you have to! Keep the reader waiting and dribble the information out with a miser’s hand.

One of the most common mistakes people make when they first start writing is to tell too much too soon, because they are terrified of people not understanding the complexities of the story. Trust your readers. They’ll understand. When polishing my novels, I still often move scenes in order to postpone giving information till later in the book – which improves the tension. It’s so easy to do with a computer.

SECOND HINT

Surprise your reader, in small ways and large. Do not give them what they expect at every point. Put in twists and turns. Even a minor surprise can work wonders.

THIRD HINT

Sometimes you can use time to enhance tension. Have the characters waiting for something, as well as keeping the readers waiting for information. That ticking clock can be a powerful tool.

FOURTH HINT

Make sure your readers know or suspect more than the main characters do, then they can agonize in advance for them and pray they won’t fall into traps – which the characters will sometimes do, naturally. But at other times, you can use the surprise element previously mentioned to allow the character to avoid a trap in a totally unexpected way.

FIFTH HINT

Interrupt the action and leave the reader in suspense by stopping at a tense moment and switching to some other part of the story, before later returning to the resolution of the particular cause for tension. To give a simplistic example, Mary may be driving along when her brakes fail and she starts to skid and everything goes black. Switch to the person who is waiting for her, wondering why she is so late. Then switch to the hospital where she is being treated. You’ve eked out the tension and had the reader breathlessly waiting to see if Mary survived.

SIXTH HINT

Variety is the spice of life – in creating tension too. Don’t keep doing the same old thing.