In my writing, I like to be thorough. That is, I like to have parts of the process like an involuntary muscle so they do not have to be redone in the editing wash. Certainly, I’m all for the idea journey where I just let ideas flow. Many are. We all want that Jim Morrison trip through the ether in order to concoct the Lizard King. But before that, it’s important to have some basic training. That varies from person to person. And then, we add things on: organization, outlining, and whatever else helps you complete the march from “Chapter 1″ to “The End.” These things apply to nonfiction, too.
Part of my own mental checklist is a list of five questions. Some usually reserve these until the editing process starts, but I prefer to get them into the organization, outlining and Butt-In-Chair writing process. Here they are:
- Why did I write that? Some times I look at actual words. Sometimes the sentence. Sometimes the paragraph. Sometimes the chapter. The “why” has to relate to the overall piece. For instance, does it affect something in this act, or another? Does it set something up? Does it provide necessary description. Does the word make sense? Is it the correct word? Does it feel right? Sometimes a word may not have the actual dictionary definition, but carries more weight. The goal is to train my mind to catch crap and lessen the burden on the editing side.
- Do I really need it? In the draft of the first novel I penned, I had four descriptive pages about driving down Highway 101 from San Francisco to Monterey, Calif. I did it for no other reason other than to fill space and to give some idea of the beauty California. But at that moment, I thought I needed the prose in the same way used car dealers stick sawdust in a transmission to help it run better. Necessity, accuracy, brevity and clarity should have dictated the words and sentences. So, the same process goes through my head now. For instance, do I need to describe his trousers and shirt? Do I need to explain just how brown someone’s eyes gleam? Necessity may be the mother of invention, but it also creates crap sometimes, too.
- What else does it tie into? For almost everything I write, I believe that characters are tied to one another through props, locations or events. When placing a character in Monaco, Burundi or Los Angeles, I ask myself how that ties into what I’ve already done and where I’m going? Does mentioning the long-lost cousin add anything to the story; does it bolster a character or will it mean something down the road. Ties are important because they lend the book some continuity and allow readers the opportunity to see the work as a whole.
- How will what I’m writing here help me later? This is another big question for me. A character may have a meeting with someone. So, what’s does the meeting do? Does it expose the chief antagonist? Does it start the romance sub-plot? Or am I having a meeting for the sake of having a meeting? In a current manuscript, I have the main character and his ex-wife together in several places. It all leads somewhere later. If it helps, think of every paragraph like cards in a poker hand. The quality of each card improves your chances of winning. You discard those that don’t.
- Is it the best I can write it? I would say 70 percent of the time, I wait to answer this question in the editing process. Sometimes, however, I get tied to a blocks of text because of flow or choice of words. So, it’s important for me to find the middle ground with my emotions and rationally judge the characters and their situations. They may be experience extreme emotions, but as the writer, I need to control myself and ensure I convey that sense of dread, terror, fear or elation. So, in asking if that was my best effort, I;m also looking at how high or low I may have been approaching the process. A little positive is probably better than more negative. Otherwise, I get 2,000 words of pseudo-goth poetry. In any case, the good news is that if I edit the thing right, then this one cleans itself up nicely at the end of the writing process.
In conclusion, the more tools you can have ingrained in your writing process, the easier the editing becomes. The easier the edit, the faster the query. The faster the query, the quicker the acceptance and eventual pay check.
What do you do strengthen your writing as you go?
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Great post! I favor the “write tight” school of thought. If I can cut extraneous words without losing the mood, I’m happy. If I go on too long about a sunset, I need to step away from the scene and think about where it’s going in relation to the piece and if I really need four extra words to convey “pretty.”
Call it a short attention span or Hemingway-esque, I call it efficiency. ;)
My journalism background makes almost everything I write ABC. So, I felt like this could help someone else. :)
I love the idea of a poker hand and discarding the cards you don’t need. If I think about it that way I can trash my darlings a little more easily.
I like to think I write sparingly, but I don’t know if I do. Some readers have complained that I don’t describe characters enough but I don’t feel like the physical descriptions are necessary. I hate reading about peoples’ eyes, etc, so I don’t include it in my own.