How to Edit (part 2): What to do with Details

I wrote an article about this before and I would like to, in a way, update the info there a bit. The reason is, I discovered more things during my own editing process (ongoing) and I would like to share my insights with you.

This is all about those details you put into your story in the beginning because you thought they were necessary. Most often I have found that these include the following:

How to...Keep Moving the Story Forward: a NaNoWriMo article

I talk about it a LOT in this blog. One way I say is to ask "who what when where why and how"? But there's another way to do it and I must confess, I just recently realized what it was I was doing.

The trick is

How to Edit: What Details to Cut, What Details to Keep

In some stage in your editing process, you will find that you've got your story down and you know exactly how the beginning, middle, climax, and end are supposed to play out, you've got your world set up and your characters straight. The relationships between characters are so clear you can tell them to anyone.

Now you need to get rid of those details that hold the story back.

But how do you distinguish that from the details that you actually need?

Here's how.

How to: Increase tension?

How do you go from writing a scene where it is sunny, nice, blue sky, ocean, freedom, peaceful, happy to TENSION MADNESS PANIC! ???

What I have found through experience, especially listening to others' opinions in Writers' Workshops on stories that need tension, the most suggested was to shorten sentences.

Now, just saying shortened sentences might not give you much idea...so here is an example from my own novel.

How to: Start Fiction? Like...how???

So, I thought this question was pretty interesting considering, well, I had never thought about it really. Fiction writing has just been my natural style of things. Maybe it's because I read a lot of fiction, perhaps that influenced the kind of writing I eventually plunged myself into. I also loved playing make-believe when I was little so maybe that came into play, as well.

I asked on Whisper, of all places, what questions they (other writers) had about writing fiction.

One was, how to start fiction.

Nothing else. Just, how to start fiction.

Well, I would have to imagine myself in their shoes for a moment. Perhaps, say, some of you have NEVER really read a good fiction story. All you have read are non-fiction stories, magazine articles, or some very heavy philosophical, political, or religious books. Maybe when you read books for class they were just FOR CLASS and you were never interested in the sequel. Maybe you have never even read any of the famous books. Nothing's wrong with that. Of course not :)

But then one day you are intrigued by fiction and want to start writing it. You have been writing memoirs, non-fiction stories, articles...but never true fiction. You never made up a whole entire story.

What do you do?

How to: Worldbuilding - Use Wikipedia, I'm Not Kidding

My novel was born like this.

Since I just jumped into it, I already had a basic world, a basic image typed up. All I needed to do was to expand that.

It might be different from the typical worldbuilding style where you might plan things out more before getting into the grit. I just dove into the mess and just added things here or deleted things there and just tried to sort out what I was imagining in my mind.

Worldbuilding is so frickin hard! Good heckish goddish heck! :0 Oh mah gawd! I used the Internet a lot, looking up how to build a fantasy world, trying those tips and drawing a makeshift map, looking up "fantasy village" in Google Image Search, reading the first book of Lord of the Rings to see how the big guys do it...

THEN I had an idea...the perfect GOLDEN solution! ... ... Wait for it...

How to: Begin Writing a New Story (5 Tips)

If you've already been to my blog and already looked at all the articles you might think,

NVM about that stuff, how should I even frickin start writing this ish? (iiSuperwomanii reference)

So, let me give you some tips so you can write your ish.

These tips will be very very VERY helpful IF you have a basic plot line. I'll show you one of my NaNoWriMo plot lines later in the blog label "Editorial Details". Keep in mind, as long as you get everything in that is important to your story, then it is okay to drive completely off your plot line road.

Okay now that we've established that,

Tip 1: Just write. Even if it sounds stupid just write. I mentioned this same tip in "How to: Start Writing Again" and I think it's a pretty good start. You'll start writing and then you'll be "AH! I know how this should go."



Tip 2: If that doesn't work,

How to: Start Writing Again

So you've had a busy month, months, or even a year and you had ZERO time to write. How do you get back into it again after such a long time?

Writing is just like going to work or school on a Monday or after a long holiday. You are dragging that enertia, that sluggishness with you and the first day is like major Writersblockitis.

Note
Writersblockitis: A sickness/disease that only writers get. Symptoms are, writersblock, enertia, a drive but no creativity, easily distracted, and if any story comes out it sounds awful.

So what should you do?

There are several ways to conquer Writersblockitis. I will introduce ways I have conquered it especially at times when I had a deadline like NaNoWriMo but keep in mind that not every single way is going to work for you. I will also introduce suggestions from other writers so it's not just my preferences.

1. Just write even if it sounds stupid.

Even if it sounds like a five-year-old wrote it, write anyway. Sooner or later after several stories of "Pickles the Dog Meets A Duck!" your brain will start going into its creative zone again and you'll find yourself back in your momentum. Then you can expertly go back and edit out that storybook you have shoved in the middle of your grand masterpiece.



2. Google Wallpaper

I know you're probably like "Wha da heck???" but

How to: Colors of Things and Feeling the Five Senses

Moved from the original post on my other blog, World Problems and Randomness.
Which explains the bluntness and the sarcasm and the frankness.
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Colors of Things:
Eye color, hair color, the color of clothes, accessories, and anything else your character owns

Okay that's it! I'm gonna talk about this.

"His grey eyes made contact with my blue ones"

This is a sentence from someone's writing piece (I am not stealing because it is something someone partially posted on Whisper) but I have seen lots of people do this (I'm not calling you idiots. I do it, too. And I stop myself but sometimes...well *looks sheepish*).

Imagine a moment when someone is looking into your eyes. Do you think "His brown eyes made contact with my brown ones?" NO! We do not normally think about the color of our eyes. The color of the eyes of your character has little value. The color of your character's ANYTHING frankly has little value.

UNLESS...