tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13294573.post8281524326874269813..comments2024-03-28T22:40:10.893-04:00Comments on Cockeyed Caravan: Self Editing Advice from Novelist Trent ReedyMatt Birdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07319984238456281734noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13294573.post-8593771161279842612018-11-06T04:51:36.939-05:002018-11-06T04:51:36.939-05:00"Don’t describe things the hero wouldn’t noti..."Don’t describe things the hero wouldn’t notice, even in third person."<br />I've been thinking about this one a lot lately. It seems to me that a great deal of the magic of "voice" resides in knowing what each character will notice. (Particularly notable in the works of David Mitchell, who seems to have an uncanny ability to embody each character and never makes, say, an angry urban adolescent notice and identify rare birds.)Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11716224645143254255noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13294573.post-20909383178929401442018-11-01T16:17:36.308-04:002018-11-01T16:17:36.308-04:00And from John McPhee, nonfiction writing legend, t...And from John McPhee, nonfiction writing legend, three cool bits from a recent book of his:<br /><br />When there’s a word that feels not quite right, don’t go to a thesaurus to find a synonym, go to the dictionary, a good one. The dictionary explains and rephrases the meanings of words, which can be fruitful. Also, since the dictionary is a precise tool, you run less risk of accidental imprecision. <br /><br />Consider the magazine editorial step of “greening.” An editor writes on a draft the word "green" and a number, then returns it to the author. The number is the number of lines the piece needs to be shortened to fit in the space available in the magazine. The author has to go through the piece with a green pencil and cross out individual words or phrases to get it to the right length. The trick to greening is that you're not removing substance - everything you wrote still has to be there - but you have to say it in fewer words. McPhee and Calvin Trillin swear a "greening" pass improves their prose.<br /><br />When referencing anything, it’s wise to “pay back” the reference. Don’t say that “he looked like Wilford Brimley,” because that assumes the reader knows who Wilford Brimley is. Better to write “he had the aged solidity, walrus mustache, and disapproving eyes of a Wilford Brimley.” Harvey Jerkwaterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07118848012122050416noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13294573.post-31952598071689213292018-11-01T15:21:44.492-04:002018-11-01T15:21:44.492-04:00A piece of editing advice I like a lot: to keep ch...A piece of editing advice I like a lot: to keep character voices separate, check their dialogue for prepositional phrases and three-syllable words. If those repeat in the speech of different characters, it sounds stilted. (From Howard Tayler in the podcast "Writing Excuses.")<br /><br />My go-to counter-example is <i>The Goodbye Girl</i> by Neil Simon, in which two characters use the word "amicably" several times in the same conversation. The repetition may have been intended as one character mocking the other by repeating the word choice, but that was not how it came across when I saw it.Harvey Jerkwaterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07118848012122050416noreply@blogger.com