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What's it all about? Editor's Notes #156 December 31, 2013 |
| Hello, it's better to aim for elegant simplicity rather than lyricism." --Jody Rosen In this issue: 1. What's it all about? 2. Tickled my funnybone 3. Interesting Web site ========== 1. What's it all about? Thomas Powers, in Advice to Writers, offers this gem: "Ask yourself repeatedly: what is this about?" Great advice for nonfiction writers, but fiction writers do well to heed this advice, too. My own advice to make every paragraph, sentence, and word earn its keep means much the same thing. Put into your manuscript only what you need to make your point. In great writing, whether fiction or nonfiction, everything on the page leads to the final conclusion. Often, the writer knows going in what the piece is about, what it's message is, but sometimes the message reveals itself only through the process of writing. Either way, the final product should contain only what adds to the strength of the message. At least one of the passes through your completed text should be to test each segment for its worthiness in your text. When you've taken out everything you can, let someone with a fresh outlook make the same examination. This weighing of value is part of a substantive edit. https://www.writershelper.com/substantive-editors.html =========== 2.Tickled my funnybone Acupuncture is a jab well done. =========== 3. Interesting Web site Here is a writer's blog you may enjoy. http://pbackwriter.blogspot.ca/ =========== Join Writer's Helper Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/WritersHelperEditor Follow me on Twitter @AudreytheEditor =========== If you know a writer who would appreciate receiving Editor's Notes, forward this issue. If someone has passed this on to you, you can get your own free subscription by signing up at https://www.writershelper.com/newsletter.html |
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