“Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.” Lewis Carroll
This past weekend was Super Bowl weekend. Fans or just fair weather revelers all over were glued to their TVs watching two teams compete for the big win. I, of course, was glued to my TV watching something else and getting much more writing done. In fact I am almost completed with Chapter Twenty Nine.
Whenever I was asked the question how long would my novel be I would say thirty chapters because in reality you do not know. Writing a novel is a lot like life. We can not always predict what will happen in the future but we try to plan it out the best that we can to protect ourselves. I did not know that in Chapter Twenty Nine a character I had not expected would come and assist one of our leading ladies. I did not know that in order for this story to finally come to an end I would need three or four more chapters more than I had planned. In reality, I did not know it would take me this long to finish my first novel. Although I am the writer it is as if the story unfolding before me is a surprise to me as well.
While I have felt the enormity of the task in the past, and I have felt brief moments of wanting to give up, I am also a stubborn individual who derives great pleasure from writing. All the work and the creativity have also gotten me through many rough times in my life. So as Lewis Carroll advised I started at the beginning and I went on and I am rewarded because I am almost to the end. I have a vision of how the ending of the story will unfold but I am still excited to see the end result and if it will happen as I planned.
I do know that I also noticed while I was editing a recently finished chapter that when I freestyle write I tend to use some favorite words for emphasis. Those same words often end up perishing under the red pen of my editing. It starts out innocently enough with a “though” or and “and” thrown in, maybe even a “yet” or “still”. This is pretty innocuous overall. It does not stay that way. Just because you know a big, beautiful, SAT-worthy word does not mean it should be thrown in for emphasis.
More often than not this sin of the wordy is not done consciously. When I noticed how much I was removing I thought to how we converse. If we want to emphasize or get a particular point across we tend to add in those filler words. If we are overly emotional or excitable this can happen to stress an important idea. I started noticing the habits of others in conversation. Now, it would seem that if we talk this way we should write this way. Well the answer to that would be “no.”
Think back to the donut and, in particular, the jelly or cream filled donut. Those donuts are very popular. I will admit I am not a fan of donuts but it is always fun watching people eat those in particular. If there is too much cream or jelly inside it shoots out and then the scene is chaos filled with sugar. It is a mess. When you go to take the next bite you proceed with caution. You do not have that uninhibited delight you had when you were about to take the first bite. It is the same for the reader. When we are reading we are already thinking about what is being written, understanding it and imaging the scene. When we add in too many filler words it often comes across as the cream inside the donut. Makes the story seem sweet but it will end up a mess. The story feels bogged down in too much detail. The reader feels covered in words that are unnecessary so it is taking longer to imagine the scene and enjoy the story.
Filler words are still necessary in many cases but there should be a “Proceed with Caution” sign as you are editing the document. Does that word truly enhance the story or are we filling it with too much sugar? As I finish Chapter Twenty Nine and head over to the BIG THIRTY I am a bit more cautious. These scenes are full of emotion and intensity and the filler words were creeping into the story. We are all a little wiser at thirty than we were at twenty and even my novel shows this maturity. Welcome to the Big Thirty!
No comments:
Post a Comment