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Your Words or Your Editor’s?

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This month’s fiction therapy is a reply to a question from a member of the WU community, Nanette J. Purcigliotti.

I had edited some of Nanette’s work, and she had some questions afterwards, with concerns that I think many writers have about working with an editor. Here’s what she wrote:

“I thank you again for your revised suggestions. But they are your words, not mine. That doesn’t make me comfortable. How do I get around that?”

A fair question, I think, and I completely understand Nanette’s concern. Working with an editor means that some of that person’s suggestions, and even words, could make their way into your work, a work that is deeply personal to you. And this can be done to the point that it doesn’t feel like your words. I can get that, and I can understand that an author would be uncomfortable with that.

Here are a couple of sentences from Nanette’s text as an example of where she had this feeling. Please realize that these sentences are taken out of the context of the whole story, so they’re difficult to judge on their own:

Amanda’s mother appeared[1] in the bedroom’s oak-wood doorframe. She tapped the right heel of her Jimmy Choo shoes, said to her fourteen-year-old daughter[2], “This is no time to daydream. You’re beginning a new term in a new school.”

And here are two of the revision suggestions I made.

[1] The word “appeared” is a little passive. This seems to be a no-nonsense character. I think she’d wake Amanda from her dream with a hard rap on the doorframe, making Amanda turn to see her mother.

[2] The phrase “said to her fourteen-year-old daughter” here looks like exposition, like this is information the author wants to tell the readers. It would be better to let this detail come out in the story more naturally. And the next sentence has the perfect opportunity as you could revise that to: “You’re starting eighth grade at a new school.” Or: “You’re fourteen now. You won’t be able to dream your way through your new school.”

Here is Nanette’s latest draft of these sentences after my suggestions: [Read more…]

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A Simple Guide to Symbolism in Stories

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It seems we cannot get enough of pandemics. Dean Koontz’s novel The Eyes of Darkness jumped to number three in Amazon’s charts, with a reported increase in sales of 3,000%. It’s about a virus, a biological weapon, developed by China, called Wuhan-400. Spooky, right? Especially since it was written in 1981. Maybe it’s mostly conspiracy […]

Dream Journal of a Plague Month

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First Dream: I’m checking into a Las Vegas hotel, only to learn from the man at the desk that the conference I’m in town to attend has been canceled due to the pandemic. He arranges to have a cab take me to the train station, so I can return home. On the way, the cabbie—a […]

The Hack’s Guide to Writing During a Pandemic

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  Warning: Hacks for Hacks tips may have harmful side effects on your writing career, and should not be used by minors, adults, writers, poets, scribes, scriveners, journalists, or anybody. For years, you’ve thought to yourself, “If only I had more time, I could write a bestseller for sure!” The good news is your prayers […]

Writing When You’re Not Writing

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This month for Fiction Therapy, I answer a question from a member of the WU community, Al Rutgers. Al is 63 years old and has been writing in starts and stops for 15 years. He says: I’ve studied the craft of writing by taking some university writing courses, some online courses, and reading books and […]

You Had Me at the Title

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People often ask me what I’m reading and sometimes I forget. What’s the name of that book again? But then some book titles stick to my brain like a gecko clinging to a wall. They take root inside me and often the book itself proves to be just as unforgettable. In brainstorming the title for […]

So Your Feedback Session is Spiraling Out of Control

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Warning: Hacks for Hacks tips may have harmful side effects on your writing career, and should not be used by minors, adults, writers, poets, scribes, scriveners, journalists, or anybody. You thought your story was ready to go. Sure, you ostensibly shared your story with your writing group so they could critique it, but on the […]

Create Conflict in Your Characters

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There are no murders, no kidnappings, no killer robots, no evil wizards, no spies, no ghastly villains, no wars and not a single shot fired in Sally Rooney’s 2017 debut novel. In fact, the title pretty much describes what this book is about: Conversations with Friends. And yet this is a captivating page-turner of a […]

On Getting It and Showing Up

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There’s a popular quote floating around on the interwebs, stating that “comparison is the thief of joy.” I’ve never found a rock-solid origin for that quote, although it is most frequently attributed to Theodore Roosevelt. Frankly, I think it sounds a little too touchy-feely to have come from the uber-manly 26th US president, who likely […]

What Do People Get Wrong About You?

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We writers can go lots of places to find lists of questions to help us get to know our characters better and to lead us to twist the screws tighter to make them have to change. Writer Unboxed’s own Donald Maass is the king of questions that make us think more deeply about our own […]