Editing and Whispers update
I don’t have much to talk about today, so I thought I’d give a brief update on where Whispers stands currently. 30 chapters are currently edited and in their final (pre-discovering an editor) form. We’ve managed to trim over 30,000 words which has made for a much better flow. It’s also a great exercise in studying your own writing style.
Some of the common errors to look for when doing a style edit:
- Passive Voice (The book was studied vs She studies the book)
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Dialogue split by large descriptive paragraphs. (It’s much better to put a chunk of 4 - 6 dialogue phrases together before having a large paragraph).
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Description repeated in dialogue (Use your dialogue to show things whenever you can)
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Combining sentences. (If you have 3 sentences of description, see how changing the location of an adjective or adding an active verb can let you combine to one).
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This is one I’ve particularly noticed in Whispers, descibing tone.
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“Quit it!” Her tone was angry. vs “Quit it.” She snapped.
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“Are you always so stupid?” She said with disdain. “Are you always so stupid?” She sneered (Or even just “Are you always so stupid?” I mean why do you need to say how they spoke that? It’s self explanatory).
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Repeated information (If your characters have already experienced something, there’s no need to re-hash it again in the next chapter. The reader knows! Make sure you’re always introducing new information.)
More from me on Wednesday. If you have more suggestions, fire them my way.
~Kristen
