![]() Nicki Porter is the senior editor of The Writer. Because the real truth of writing is that so much of its power lies not with what you put on the page, but what you leave off. Ask yourself: What are they trying to say? And what in this draft is preventing them from saying it? To ask other readers questions about Tidy up, Trevor, please sign up. Take some time and really listen to your stories. When Trevor is bored and has nothing to do, the idea of tidying his cupboa. Clutter, nonsense, flab – all of these things obscure that message, making it impossible to hear a story’s truth. Don’t get me wrong: It’ll always be brutal, killing those darlings, but that checklist will make those darlings a little easier to spot.Īs an editor, all I ask from any short story is that it has something to say. ![]() You will build a checklist of these strengths and weaknesses that will make revision easier each time you attempt it. ![]() Pick from Venmo, Zelle, cash, credit card, & more. Learn More Invoicing Software Send your clients invoices that list what they owe and how they can pay you. Perhaps you are a world-class dialogue writer who ignores setting perhaps you are a champion setting-builder who ignores dialogue. sign up for free Top Features 1 Get Clients from TIDY Set the times and services you offer, and clients from our network can book directly on your schedule. Perhaps you lean heavily on too-long sentences and forget to write short ones perhaps you are an adverb fiend, wasting words describing action instead of showing action. The best news is that with more time, you’ll learn your own “tells,” the danger zones in drafts where you’re especially prone to writerly tomfoolery. What started this tidying up frenzy that caused me to throw out so much of my lifes possessions It was a book that I read. Only then can we analyze how the story is working as a whole without being distracted at the sentence level. Time allows our brain to shift from Writer to Reader, experiencing our stories as a stranger might. If the clever joke on page four distracts from the emotional resonance of a sorrowful event, logic dictates we must cut it. If we are showing the reader villainous behavior, it seems foolish to waste words telling the reader a character is a villain, a bad guy, a bully, a real bad egg. If we are trying to get to an inciting incident quickly, it’s a bit absurd to spend three paragraphs on your character’s past life as a zookeeper. When I say nonsense, I mean it quite literally: We must scrub out the elements in our manuscripts that make no sense in the context of the story. And when we eject all the nonsense that’s weighing down our drafts, they’re going to sing so sweetly even the staunchest, grouchiest, Grinchiest of editors won’t be able to resist them. If a single word, a meager semicolon in our work doesn’t bring us joy, it’s getting the boot. Vegetation management, litter pickup, and graffiti removal also took place around the Citys six gateway signs located throughout the city. We’re going to Marie Kondo our manuscripts. Our drafts are going to emerge from our linguistic boot camp leaner, cleaner, lighter, and swifter. We’re embracing revision, not dreading it. This month we’re spring-cleaning our prose.
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