A to Z: Jargon

2017 THEME: Editing Fiction (Because that's what I'm in the middle of doing.)

What is the Blogging from A to Z challenge and where can I find more participants? Right here.



Beyond keeping your story straight and characters likable, you've got to know your own Jargon.  If you're writing a story based in the real world, this would fall under doing your research and knowing what you're talking about. If you've made up your own world, well, you should probably also know what you're talking about.

Make sure you keep special words for technology, races, planets, gizmos and magical things straight. They need to be spelled the same, capitalized or not, italicized or not, used correctly by whomever is using them and possibly in a different manner by characters who don't. Write down the rules for the thing-which-you-have-created so that you, as the Creator of Worlds, make sure those things follow those rules and don't become McGuffins, plot holes, or any other point of weakness.

The things that you create should have purpose and meaning to the plot or character. Don't create or use spiffy words for the sake of tossing them around. If you're going to pull in some technical jargon the reader has to Google to follow the story, it better be worthwhile in the grand scope of things.

Have you spent days/weeks/months creating the most detailed galaxy and know everything about all seven plants and their collective fifteen moons, the nearby asteroid belt, and the two stars that keep it all habitable? That's great, but if your story only involves one of those worlds and has a legitimate reason to mention maybe two others but we never go there, we probably don't need the chapter of world building it would take to share all of that. Stick to what is necessary for the story. Adding a little more for flavor is fine, but don't drag down the pace.

 I once created a bunch of spiffy items with rules and special words, only to realize I could get by with two of them for flavor and the rest weren't necessary to the story at all, fun as they were to create and awesome as they might be in my own mind. That epiphany led to a lot of hack and slash editing. As writers we love to create things, but we also must learn when to cut them. (Tune in tomorrow for more on that.)

Today's post breaks down to a simple: Know thy shit and use it wisely.

Have you created something nifty only to cut it later?

A to Z: Introductions

2017 THEME: Editing Fiction (Because that's what I'm in the middle of doing.)

What is the Blogging from A to Z challenge and where can I find more participants? Right here.



Introducing your story to a reader starts at the beginning.  There are four beginnings we're going to touch on today, but we'll start with the obvious: The beginning of the story.

When editing, you want to make sure your story is starting at the actual beginning of the story. This point will depend on your genre and your voice, but generally this isn't where your character is waking up or taking in the picturesque scenery. It's where something is happening.

When writing that first draft, we start where we think the story starts, but that doesn't mean we were correct. Take a good look at the whole story now that its finished and make sure its the closest to that something moment.

The something can seem like a delicate balancing point. I don't mean where someone is suddenly on fire or a car crash / gun fight / bar brawl, but the point where the thing that launches your character into the story happens. Something interesting. It doesn't have to be huge with fireworks and flashing lights, but make it catchy. Make us want to know more about the character, situation, or world around them.

Next up: the beginning of your chapters. If you're switching POV with each chapter, make it clear which head we're in in the opening sentences so we're not floundering. While I enjoy a good mystery, whose head I'm now in isn't one of them. Make it clear if we've jumped to a new setting or advanced a significant amount of time from the previous chapter. And again, we should start with something interesting happening.

Now we're going to get nitpicky, take a look the beginning of your paragraphs. Do three in a row start with the same person's name or word? Time for some rewriting.

Maximum picky level: start looking at the beginning of your sentences. Last week I picked up a book where every sentence in the long opening paragraph began with "He". You would be correct if you guessed that I put that book right back on the shelf. Also watch for starting a sentence with the same word that ended the last one. It's distracting when reading.

Have any story introductions that drove you nuts or a favorite to share?

A to Z: Holes in the plot

2017 THEME: Editing Fiction (Because that's what I'm in the middle of doing.)

What is the Blogging from A to Z challenge and where can I find more participants? Right here.



Nothing ruins a good story like plot Holes.  You're busy writing a scene and thinking ahead to the next and the next after that. Perhaps you're consulting a carefully planned outline, or you're going off a rough idea in your head. Maybe, like I often am, you're pulling words from the ether, wondering where the hell your story is headed. In any of those cases, it's easy to get ahead of yourself and miss resolving or explaining something along the way.

As a certified pantser, my preferred method of combating plot holes is two-fold. I don't have an outline to start with, but after the first draft, it's time to make one. Going through each scene from chapter one to the end and writing down what happens, how it's resolved and the motivations of your characters along the way is a great way to make sure you've filled in those holes before the story moves on to other eyes.

Even then, you've probably still missed a few things.

It's hard to believe that is possible, knowing the story you've spent months/years with like your best friend, but yeah, it happens. Why? Because you've spent too much time with your best story friend to see the flaws.

Step two of the plot hole filling process: shipping your best story friend off to a pair of fresh eyeballs who are bold enough to tell you what is missing. Meaning, probably not your mom or your actual best friend. This is something that would be caught in a developmental edit, but if you're hoping for a publisher, it would be in your favor to catch this stuff before your story goes into submissions or it may never make it into an editor's hands.

What's the biggest plot hole you've discovered either in your own work or a book you've read?