A book that might help some people

[Alex De Kok]

I'd just like to pass on some info that Whispersecret passed on to me a while ago, while she was still active around here. There is a good book on the market, Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, by Renni Browne and Dave King. Published by Quill at $14.00 US (at least my copy), ISBN 0-06-272046-5

It won't help with spelling, misused words or grammar, but it can make the difference between rejection and acceptance if the points made in the book are understood and applied.

Alex

 

[Aaron Dazer]

What is it a continuity checker?

 

[HawaiiBill]

Staying with the flow

What is it a continuity checker?

Continuity is defined as, "The state or quality of being uninterrupted
in sequence or succession, or in essence or idea; connectedness,
coherence, unbrokenness."

The problem, whether in writing or a film or other work, is sometimes
referred to as a "hole."

I'm not sure about a 'checker' for that but the function indicated is
certainly a task for any competent editor.

Writers sometimes get started on a sub-plot, stop work for a day
and come back the next day only to forget all about it. So they
don't catch it themselves before sending it along and the 'hole' is
evident to a fresh eye, a character is introduced, say, but never
heard from again. That sort of thing.

 

[Aaron Dazer]

I shouldn't have been so brief. What I meant to ask was.

"Does it show how to Check continuity. If it’s not going to help grammar or spelling what else are you going to ‘EDIT?’"

Basically I read that and it was like one of those infomercials that state.

We can Make you Money.

Well how?

We Make you money.

How do i start?

Well first you send us some mon...

Wait Send you money? Thought you were going to make me mon..

Well we do. But you need a star..

Well if I had money to Start as you say why would I need to you?

Because We can make you money

Well How?

We Make you money..

How do i start?

Well first you send us some mon...


Basically before I consider anything I need a better idea of what the heck it's going to do for me. If anything and just saying, “It’s going to Help.” Doesn’t buy my confidence.


Or i could have just said. "Could you tell us more?"

 

[GingerV]

I haven't read this book, I don't know what's in this book.

BUT, if I was ever so presumptuous as to write such a book, there are loads of things that I would include between the grammer and the continuity phase.

I had a comp teacher once recommend that you first edit your stories for content. Who does what to whom when (and I don't just mean that sexually ), and that sort of thing. When you're happy with that, put it away and come back in a week. Continuity slips are first looked at here, although they can be caught later. But they're only one of the things you're doing. Still, that's not the question at hand.

After your week off, you have another look, this time you want to edit for style. You want to improve the flow and structure of your sentences and paragraphs. You want to maximize the impact of your imagery. You do that by any number of means, all of which make your story more readable and help focus your reader's attention on the parts of the work you want them to understand.

I'm not, at this point in my life, presumptuous to write such a book, so I'm not going to pretend that I can include an exhaustive list of such techniques here. Heck, it's the editing forum, most of the folks who hang out here are better at it than I am. I'm just a newbie who won't stay in the proper boards . But some of the things I've found myself recommending around here are careful word choice, avoiding passive voice, minimizing use of prepositional phrases, using one perfect descriptor instead of an inferior one with qualifiers (very very helpful ), varying word choice and sentence structure, etc. etc.

The last thing you do is fix gramatical and spelling errors. After all, those are errors, by in large, and can be introduced in any previous edit.

Like I said, I don't know this book. But You seemed interested in what could possibly fit between continuity and grammer (not just what IT thought fit in that slot), so I thought I could help.

G

 

[Alex De Kok]

As I made the recommendation, perhaps I ought to say a bit more. Perhaps the easiest way is to lay out the chapter headings, so here goes -

Chapter 1 Show and Tell
Chapter 2 Characterization and Exposition
Chapter 3 Point of View
Chapter 4 Dialogue Mechanics
Chapter 5 See How it Sounds
Chapter 6 Interior Monologue
Chapter 7 Easy Beats (Beats - little bits of action interspersed through a scene)
Chapter 8 Breaking up is easy to do
Chapter 9 Once is usually enough
Chapter 10 Proportion
Chapter 11 Sophistication
Chapter 12 Voice

Anyone looking for help with grammar and spelling needs to look elsewhere. This book's about telling your story well. It assumes you can already use English. It doesn't really help with plotting, either, but it does give an idea of what to look out for.

Alex

 

[Aaron Dazer]

Ahh see that's what i was asking for thanks.