Tuesday, 25 September 2012

Self Editing Your Novel PART TWO

Okay, I have more notes to add but I wanted to carry on in a new post and explain that there might be some holes in this one. 

We took a coffee break and I "thought" I had an agent one 2 one... You can imagine my stomach felt like it was doing a spin cycle and I really felt ill.  I had been so nervous all day... so I decided not to go to the second half until after my 121.

Of course, in an ideal world I would have got the right time (or more likely pressed the right button on the internet when I booked).  However, me being me I didn't do either.  It was not on Friday it was on Saturday...duh! I know, anyone who knows me will tell you how scatty I am.

So, I slunk back into the lecture will my tail firmly between my legs!  And I believe this was the second half of the notes (I hope Debi corrects me if I get anything wrong).  I hope I do it justice but as you can imagine my head was spinning...

STYLE

If you write in 3rd person you can write either from one POV (point of view) or from a range of POV's, preferably 3 to 4 close ones.

At the moment the current tense that is trending is the presnt tense, but you can write in the past tense. (I like to use a mixture...)

The voice can be either omniscent or that of a character. (I prefer the character option...)

Things to consider:

  • Prose rhythm
  • Sentence structure
  • Voice colouring the perceptions
  • Pace of prose has to change
  • Gradual change from a person's POV
  • Be careful with "head hopping"
  • Control number of characters (oops...I like having a range)
  • Unreliable author... Read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time
  • Restrict Adjectives and adverbs
  • Careful use of dialogue and long winded paragraph's
  • try and pick dictinctive sounds for each character
  • Think - internal, external & surround features (this makes my think of my surround sound system!)
  • Don't describe something that can be simplified
* SHOW DON'T TELL * (Have you all heard this mantra enough times? lol)

I hope this is helpful in some way and look out for my next instalment... a talk by Jo Jo Moyes

thanks for reading
Vanessa :)

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