The importance of editing:

Keeping track of continuity

by

Naomi Rabinowitz

During my 14 years writing for Soap Opera Digest magazine, I was asked many questions about my job, mainly along the lines of, "So, you get to watch TV all day, huh?"

Well, yes, watching the soaps was a big part of my job description, but writing about the shows involved much more than simply watching them. We editors had to keep track of characters, actors and the histories of soaps, most of which were several decades old. We had to worry about everyday editing concerns, such as spelling an actor's name correctly or using "there, their, they're" properly, but we also had to worry about things like how many times a certain character had been legally married to another.

It may sound amusing and kind of unbelievable that we put so much effort into getting our facts straight about a fictional land, but in the daytime world, this was of the utmost importance. If we got the slightest bit of information wrong, we'd inevitably hear from angry fans ... and it put SOD's integrity into question.

The point of me sharing this is that I believe that as much care should be taken into keeping track of continuity when an author writes his or her own fictional work, a novel. Many authors with whom I've worked, worry about making grammatical mistakes; they'll ask me to do a line edit or to check for typos in their writing, but a true edit goes way beyond that. You want your characters to stay consistent throughout. This applies to small details, i.e., if a character has green eyes in the first chapter, don't suddenly write that they're blue unless there's a storyline-related reason that they've changed. If someone's name is spelled a certain way, i.e., a girl's name is "Jen," don't also spell it "Jenn" or "Gen." Pick one and stick to it.

Of course, you need to keep track of bigger details, too. If a character finds a magic sword at the start of a story, it can't be a magic shoe later on. If a certain curse turns people into bugs, this has to stay the same throughout. If a character is cold and stoic, he or she shouldn't suddenly change personalities; the shift should be organic. This is especially important if you're writing a series and these details need to stay consistent from book to book.

A novel may be fiction, but in order for your words to be believable, you need to treat your world with respect and think of it as if it is real. If you put the effort into making your world whole and keeping every detail in place, then your readers will have a much easier time getting lost in the work that you've created.

Revenge of a Band Geek from Bad

Amazon.UK

Amazon.com

Love. Lust. Blackmail. Romance. Revenge. Is finding love worth getting even?

Shy, overweight Melinda Rhodes' sophomore year of high school isn't going so well. Her mother mocks her weight. She spends her weekends holed up in her room making what her friend calls "Freaky eyeball paintings." Her pants split in the middle of school, earning her the nickname, "Moolinda." She then loses first chair flute in band to Kathy Meadows, the pretty and popular mean girl who's tormented Mel for years. 

This is a coming of age tale about finding love, staying on top and staying true to yourself. Is it really possible for Melinda to have it all?

The challenges of writing YA romance explained

by

Naomi Rabinowitz

  

For many, simply expressing the idea of love is difficult enough. Most of us have said "I love you" to at least one person, but there's no true definition for what that means, and it's the type of statement that has to be backed by actions. Many turn to cards or poems for help. And I know several guys who are still too scared to say the actual words to their significant others.

I could understand this frustration when crafting the romantic scenes in my YA novel, REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD, because for me, these were the most difficult to write.

For starters, teens vary in sexual experience. When you write romantic sections for an adult book, one can assume that the characters have had other partners, and that even if someone is a virgin, he or she has at least done some experimenting. However, you can't assume this with younger characters. Sure, teens have sex, but there are just as many 15-year-olds, like my narrator Melinda, who've never even been kissed!

Therefore, the challenge comes in not only writing about someone's first kiss with a particular person, but in writing about a  complete life-changing first for that character. Writing about a character whose first introduction to romance and sex was, for me, something that had to be handled gently.
 
An inexperienced teen wouldn't necessarily know what he or she's doing, which means that several things need to be questioned: Just how explicit should the romantic scene be? Is it awkward or sweet, or both? What emotions is that character feeling as the encounter ensues?

All of these need to be addressed, as well as the fact that your young character's first kiss -- or first time -- would be a VERY big deal. This is why I didn't have my main characters, Mel and Josh, share a smooch until the latter half of my story. I wanted readers to savor that lead-up and excitement to it, right along with my narrator.

That said, the biggest challenge is in keeping those romance scenes tasteful, as well as sensual, because you are, after all, writing for a younger audience. You want them to be able to relate to the things that your characters are going through and if the characters, and the sexual language, are steps ahead of them, the scene might just come off as overwhelming. Of course, you don't want to patronize your readers, either; the trick is in finding that balance.