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by
Aliza Mann
I’ll never forget the words of author Candice Havens during a 2012 craft workshop. She noted that we should be careful not to edit ourselves ‘. . . right out of your book. . .’ It’s a hard concept to grasp when editing is such an integral component of the writing process.
Instead of probing further, I took my tidbit home, like most writers do, and thought about it – turning it over and over in my mind until it clicked. That was not for quite some time. Actually, it wasn’t until a dear friend of mine sent me a portion of a manuscript (MS) that had been through several different rounds, with beta readers, critique partners and even a few publishing agents. Since I’m one of her critique partners, I’d seen the original MS and by the time she asked that I review her final revisions, I knew something bad had occurred with this work. Her voice was completely stripped from the work. At that point, the overall tone was something that was indistinguishable from any other contemporary romance.
A boiled down version of any piece of literature is not only something that is horrible for the author, because he or she upon submission to any publisher, may become slush-pile –bound; but for the reader, if the book were to make it to the point of publication, may end up with the dreaded DNF (did-not-finish) status. And no author wants to hear that about her book.
My advice to my friend was to go back to her original draft, edit the things that are offenses against grammar, but attempt to maintain the nuances that are uniquely indicative to her writing style. The challenge of writing a novel is to strike the sweet cord of an error book that allows the individual’s own storytelling panache to remain intact.
‘How on earth do you do that?’ you may ask. Well, it’s no easy task, as previously mentioned.
The simplest and most paramount undertaking would be to find a good and reliable critique partner. One that is familiar with your genre and overall tone based on the many novels that they’ve read. The critique partner should be strong in recognizing true issues – switching POVs (head-hopping), bad transitions, weak voice, etc. – as well as the usual grammatical error identification.
Once you find the yang for your yen, be sure that this person is as committed to you as you are to them. Meaning, in the event of emergency edits requested at 3:00 a.m., this person is willing to review your manuscript while heading across town. Seriously, that’s happened and my partner was willing to do that for me, as I am for her.
The next piece of business would be the need to develop your own voice, so that you grow more comfortable in your writing style and voice. The most practical way to achieve this would be to read a great deal and to practice. Sounds so elementary, but it’s true.
There are several ways to strengthen your writing voice and a great deal of books to help the budding writer. Once your voice is stronger, this will help with maintaining the unique flavor in the tone of the novel.
Once these two key pieces are in place, honing your novel into a masterpiece becomes a bit less daunting. That is not to say that there will never be a need for beta readers, or even the editing process with publishing houses, but there may be fewer changes required in the longer run.
One a final note, too many cooks in the kitchen can sully the meal. Building confidence in your writing and knowing that there will always be someone that thinks things should be different helps a great deal. The goal should include having as few errors are possible, not pulverizing the flavor from the work; which is exactly what could happen if you allow too many critics into your creative process.
Based on the numerous tweets, blogs and articles dedicated to perfecting the practice of editing, one can fathom that most authors rank editing right up there with having a tooth extracted or child birth. As painstaking as it is, the outcome is highly desired – a beautifully crafted novel that will be enjoyed by readers for years to come.
