Once I returned home from SE Asia, I fell into a whirlwind (or was it a whirlpool) of writing. Novel 3 was in my head, in my dreams, and I awoke each morning and wrote for two hours, even before grabbing a cup of coffee. Things have calmed down a bit, although I am still making progress nearly every day. This book is definitely happening faster than the other ones did — at least in the first draft stage. But I just finished two hours of writing about Deborah, Srey and a host of new characters who are finding themselves in the beginning of their Siem Reap adventure, and I thought I’d take a moment to start compiling a list of how-to’s. I’m noticing that there are certain issues that I am aware of now, even in this early stage, that I wasn’t really thinking about until later drafts of novels 1 and 2 — of course otherwise known as Tangled Roots and A Clash of Innocents. I know getting them down in black-and-white will be helpful to me. Maybe it will be to you, too. So, in no particular order:
1. When writing in 3rd person, I am always stopping myself in a very self-conscious way to ask “who’s point of view is this?” Am I jumping too quickly between different viewpoints, ie am I making my reader dizzy?
2. After direct dialogue, am I falling into the “adverb trap”, ie “he laughed loudly” “she asked timidly” Kill those adverbs! Kill them, I say! If he’s so loud, let him show us how and why. If she’s so timid, let the speech express it for itself.
3. When writing in 1st person, am I letting my character explain away too much? You don’t want to hear her psychoanalyze herself. Where’s the fun in that? Let the readers play shrink.
4. This one might just be about me but — am I rushing? Am I in such a hurry to write the big scene or write the big confrontation that I’m not preparing the reader enough for what is to come? Granted, this is the sort of thing I often flesh out in subsequent drafts, but wouldn’t it be better to slow down a bit right off the bat?
5. Each character, I find, has a main trait which is the key to their journey. But no one is monochromatic. Am I allowing all their different sides to come through, no matter how conflicting they might seem to be?
6. I have a tendency to start every new paragraph with “So…” as if I didn’t trust the reader to follow the plot on his/her own. I think I also don’t trust myself to make it all clear and compelling. Oh Writer – trust your readers and Writer – trust yourself.
And lastly, for now…
7. Give yourself a break. If it’s not working on any given session, step away, go for a walk, try not to have a drink or a fifth cup of coffee, but do something else. And don’t beat yourself up about it. Very often, it’s during those breaks of desperation when the great stuff gets created. It’s hard enough writing a novel without treating yourself like a naughty schoolkid. Give yourself (ie myself) a break.
I’m sure I’ll have loads more of these as I go along and I’ll pass them on whenever they mount up. Actually, I’ll write myself a note to do it right now — my grasp of reality is a bit tenuous at the moment 🙂
Very sage and wonderful advice, from the horse’s mouth. Not that you are a horse – you know what I mean!
Do you edit as you go? ie, stop and take out each adverb as it pops into the prose? Interesting – I sort of edited a paragraph each time I returned to the work – to get myself back into the space of the novel. The free-wrote. And found the glitches yonks later!
Good points and ones I have encountered at various stages…some that hound me endlessly 🙂
lx
V- since I write longhand, the first edit happens when AI type the stuff into my computer, and that’s usually later in the day that I wrote it or the next day. But some of this stuff I’m realise as I actually write it, which I think is pretty cool — from 1 horse to another 🙂
Liz- yes, I think the reason I wrote this post was to make me feel as if I’m making progress, ie actually learning how to do this stuff. not thoroughly convinced, though.
So interesting to hear your experience as you write. Oops – I also started with ‘so’! I think some of the best advice I’ve been given in thrid person (and first) is not to explain too much. If in doubt that probably means you’re explaining too much. Trust us readers – we may all get a different interpretation from it but that’s because your characters come to life by themselves and we will understand and analyse them as we do a person we meet in real life. Although for some reason we’re more fussy about people in a novel and more judgemental.
In first person some of the best advice I was given was not to explain too much but also not to have the person analysing themselves too much. This can get really annoying as it can lead to people seeming as if they want to justify what they’re doing.
Deborah didn’t self analyse too much and didn’t explain too much in A Clash of Innocents so you got it just right.
With changing viewpoints you do have to watch for that. Unless rapidly changing viewpoints is a deliberate choice (it is in my novel for example as you keep seeing it through different eyes and yet they’re not all revealing all their thoughts) then it’s best not to shift viewpoint too quickly.
I’ve had a lot of people unable to deal with my shifting perspective style, so do avoid it unless you need it. The usual advice is that by keeping the focus on one viewpoint at a time for a lengthy period you draw the reader in.
However, I could see how you might use viewpoint that’s changing frequently, even though some people aren’t revealing as much as this technique can suggest.
Rapidly changing viewpoint could be due to you liking first person. I’m looking forward to reading this to see how you’re using the third person!
Thanks for the advice.My big baddy is POV shifts in third person. Lately I try to limit it to chapter changes if I can. One thing good with the romances I write, you always do third person from the woman, you never leave her head, makes things easier.
Trust the reader? Heaven forbid, at least as far as one rather distinguished English lady novelist once said (I can’t remember who). Basically, she insisted that she had to keep reminding the reader every few pages where the plot was going, otherwise they’d never find their way through it.
Personally – like you – I think most readers are intelligent enough to want the challenge of working at least some things out for themselves.
Adele and Laurie: POV shifts in 3rd person…yes, I think that’s this novel’s challenge. I’m both scared and excited to see how it goes.
Dotterel: That’s a great quote. I wonder if it came from Agatha Christie…
Yes – very good advice, Sue! I am envious of your writerly awareness. I usually can’t spot any of this at the time of writing. I seem to need a little distance (and then, sadly, no matter how many times I revise it never seems quite right…it’s a hard life :-)).
I’m so pleased to hear you’re making good progress with it as I can’t wait to read it!
Fab advice Sue, and so interesting, some of the points you raise.
As soon as I write an adverb, I’m (immediately) conscious and change it if at all possible.
And Vanessa’s point about editing as you write. I do that, but don’t think I should. It seems to slow down progress, and I can get hung up on editing the edits before I’m able to move on!
I think you can leave editing for your pc trying to save time and make more work to be done. Nice post.
essays service