"You know, I like some "roundabout" in a sentence, if it fits the character, and when I first draft, I have a lot of longer sentences with a lot of roundaboutation. I'm not the writer you go to for terse, just the facts sentences. :) But... but character-revealing voice-ian roundaboutation might be acceptable, but confusing verbosity is not." Edit Torrent blog
Excellent advice, as per usual from Edit Torrent. It's important for a writer to be able to distinguish the difference between what suits the character (in terms of language/word choice, verbosity, sentence structure, punctuation, or what have you) and what is your personal style...or your personal ego stroking.
In the cited blog article, she uses some good examples, so I won't beat that particular drum. However, reading this made me consider the vast difference between what should be in a piece to convey the characterization, mood of the scene, or other subtextual elements...and what are we writers tooting our own horns for the audience. The subtextual soap box, as it were...or, if I am to continue the loose metaphore, the subtextual band stand. Ahem. Anyhow, what I mean is that we write a certain way because we like that particular voice. This can be due to an uneducated writer's ear, or a fondness for rambling structure, or a profound case of "I know what I mean so I see what I meant, not what I said." We all do the latter to some extent, of course; but some are more susceptible or possibly incapable of seeing this in their own work.
Developing the ability to step back from what you wrote and see what you said and not what you meant is a major hurdle every writer faces. I don't care how great an author you are, or whether or not you are published, "pre-published" or unpublished, you will encounter the problem of not seeing what's actually on the paper.
You have to learn to work around your natural proclivity in that regard. Setting your work aside until you forget that gestaltic sense of what the MEANING was versus seeing reality is the biggest step. You can (or it's easier to) read it as a reader at that point.
A second important thing is the critique process or a beta reader. Depending on skill level, opportunity, and other personal circumstances, this has varying degrees of usefulness in terms of specific projects. But to do a critique of your own work, you DO need to understand and learn the process of performing in depth critiques of others' writing. I highly recommend taking a creative writing class with workshopping as part of the curriculum. It taught me an incredible amount about reading critically and critiquing. There are also web sites where writing, first paragraphs, or query letters are critiqued. Reading how others read and critique the submissions is also educational. Additionally, there are sites like critters.org where you can join and both get critiques and read others'. There are both good and bad examples to be found in these places; both types are educational. It's up to you to develop an instinct for what works for you stylisitcally as a writer and what is plain old good writing.
Critque partners and beta readers are an incredible resource. They invest a lot of time in your writing, and their time should be respected! In my personal experience, it takes a week or two to go through a standard length novel draft and provide in depth comments and suggestions. That is a massive investment of my time, which I am glad to give...but only if the work is really ready for it. My advice? Make sure that you really, truly have a solid draft for them to look at before you request reads. If you are not sure, ask them to look at a chapter or two and get an opinion on the state of the story. If you trust them enough to ask them to beta read or critique, you should trust them enough to take a no for an answer.
At any rate, it's important to see the difference between your style, your ego telling you your writing is perfect (it isn't), and what is useful for the writing.
If you can articulate why you chose to do a certain thing, then perhaps it should be there. If your only response is that "I love the sound of that word" or similar, I suggest you remove it. Drop that chunk of writing in the Precious Purple Prose file for that particular project, and, if you really need it back, you can always find it again.
Also, check out the excellent post on the "Top Ten Reasons Your Editor Doesn't Love What Your Critique Group Loves." Useful advice that is particularly appropriate for story structure.
Recent Comments