On main characters and focus characters.

Why should you even bother to have one main character? Can't you just write a story, stuff a bunch of point-of-views (POVs) in from a bunch of main characters and get on with it?

What is my story (really) about? The Struggle 2

At any stage when you write your story, you need to ask yourself "What is my story about?"

I have found, through my own experience writing one story for 7 years, that if you can't explain it in one sentence, you're still lost. And if you're lost, imagine what the reader must feel like... :0

No one wants to listen to you talk like a little kid explaining their dream they had last night, right?

Example:

Details in Conversation: A Discussion

So, I'm editing like crazy these days and one thing I started to do was to add more conversation and less "Interesting Tidbits".

Here are some Writerly Jargon and I'd like to add "Interesting Tidbits" as one.

Interesting Tidbits: Those details that the Author thinks is interesting and/or creative. Those details are only there because the Author wanted to show the reader some interesting detail about the story even though that detail does not make another appearance in the story. Those details are there because the Author is boasting how creative they are.

Admit it. I do that, you do that, we all do that, we are creative writers who love to show the world how creative we can be.

Now, to get back to the topic, I have started to replace details with conversation to MAKE THEM IMPORTANT.

To give an example,

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.

Showing vs Telling: Examples and Exercise

This is to show you what showing and telling looks like side by side. Writing these up, for me, was certainly an exercise. I really needed to pay attention to show more for "Showing" and tell more for "Telling". I hope I did them both justice. Doing an exercise like this can really open your mind up to what showing or telling exactly feel like when you write them out.

The stories themselves, short and unfinished, are not from any story I have ever written. These were written on the spot but I hope you can get a gist of what showing and telling are.

To those of you who already are experts, let me know if I got them both right. Certainly there might be some mixing going on but the "Showing" to generally be only showing the story an the "Telling" should generally be only telling the story. To me, telling is like a kid telling a parent about a dream they had. "And then, I met a cat princess. And then the princess and I became sisters. And then we were flying in the sky. And then, we found a land of marshmallows. And then..."

So here are three stories each with a "Showing" version and a "Telling" version.

Story 1: A Winter Scene with Pigeons

Should I Edit My Story? Is it important?

The basic of basics of being a writer is that you need to edit.

Of course, if you have money, you can get a professional editor to help you out but still you should be able to at least do a basic edit yourself.

What is editing though? Well, here is a little introduction to editing for you newbies out there.

Is Editing...?

Is editing...

Can't Have it if it's (a) too expensive, (b) only for trade, (c) friends don't read

Writers, I am in that situation before publishing and I thought I'd let you into that world just so you know what you'll be up against if you decide to publish the traditional way.

The title to this post has three walls I'm facing.

(a) too expensive means that the editing services are too expensive. Even if it's only .75 to 2 or 3 cents per word, I have over 80,000 words. I mean...things add up and I haven't the money.

(b) only for trade means that I am on "Figment: Write Yourself In" a grand writing community site. But people will only edit your novel if you edit theirs, too. Right now aside from writing I'm also going to grad school and doing research for my thesis so a full edit of a whole novel is completely out of the question for me.

(c) friends don't read means that most of my friends don't read. And if you know about me from my other blog, "World Problems and Randomness", I live in Japan and most of my friends don't read English. Darn it.

So then why not my family? Well, my Mom said she'll read it when it's done but I don't think she'll edit it and asking your family to read is not such a good idea for two reasons: they will be soft on you and they haven't got the time.


The problem right now for me is to find some super bored person who will read my novel and edit it or at least tell me about any inconsistencies and stuff. Or, I'll just have to pay over a thousand bucks, which I ain't got and starve or somethin'.


Darn this whole thing.


But I'm gonna do it. I will, you'll see.


Happy Writing!


P.S.
If you're like me and your parents don't really approve of you writing a novel, it's hard to do anything that costs (editing services, online writing boot camp, going to literary conferences...) without them finding out because they still pay for your school.