|
mary rosenblum
|
Hello, all.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I hope you've had a good week!
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
This is our After Hours Forum,
with me, Mary Rosenblum, your web editor. I've published seven novels and
more than 60 short stories and will do my best to answer any questions you
have. If you're new here, remember that you need to click on the 'Ask a
Question' button or the 'word bubble' next to the red question mark at the top
of the screen in order to ask a question. Your regular 'send' bar won't
reach me! Or you can use /ask and type your question into the regular send
bar if that works better for you..
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I'm a little under the weather
tonight, so if I'm a bit slow, I apologize. :-)
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I think my brain is still
functional, anyway.
|
|
vmaroukian
|
mary, didnt you say a story of
yours is coming out this month in sci fi magazine
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Yes, vmar. 'Jumpers' will be
out on June 23, I gather.
|
|
gskearney
|
Hey, take care of yourself and
get well soon. Is it a computer virus or one of Speck's gremlins? --gk
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Thanks, Gary. Maybe that's
where I got it, LOL!
|
|
dvjlabonte
|
this is a chat about padded
words right?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
That's right, dvjl.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Or layered words, might be a
better term.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
If you can make a sentence do
three things you're right on target.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Even if you can make that
sentence do two things, you're ahead of the game. :-)
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
One of the most common
problems novice writers have is that they use one sentence to do one
thing...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
and thus they end up with a
wordy story that suffers from a slack and sluggish pace.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
This is a pacing issue.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
The more information you can
pack into a sentence, the more your reader 'sees' with less effort...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
and the less that reader is
aware that he/she is reading a book.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
They are much more likely to
begin to 'live' the story with you.
|
|
tkat_2
|
what are those three things a
sentence must do?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
You're thinking of a scene,
tkat.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
It's a lot to ask of a poor
little sentence! LOL
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
But a good SCENE should: 1.
advance the plot 2.deepend the characterization 3.enrich the setting.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Now you CAN do all three with
a sentence now and again, but not EVERY sentence. :-)
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
However, it's the same idea.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Look at this start.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Emily ran into the living
room. She had red hair and a bright smile. Her dog followed her in.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Why not condense to : Emily
bounced into the living room, beaming, and shook back her red hair.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
We know she's happy. We know
she has red hair. We know she's the kind of person who expresses her
emotions in her body language very clearly...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
and since she shook her hair
back from her face, it is probably longer rather than shorter.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
All that from a single sentence.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
You would be amazed at how
much you can shoehorn into a single strong sentence.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Remember that strong prose
means lots of visuals and information in few words.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
And yes, 'telling' gives us
lots of information in few words, but not many visuals. You want both.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Let's start with a skeleton
sentence: Jim walked down the street.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Pretty plain. Not much there.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Okay, we're writing a story
and we want to give the reader certain information. Let's start with where
Jim is.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Jim marched along Main, past
the Bijou.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
We're downtown, in front of
the theater.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
And we also know that Jim is
not in a relaxed and idyllic frame of mind. He is marching.
|
|
smeagol
|
Mary, just a minute ago you said
that if you can "make a sentence do three things you are right on
target." What did you mean by this? I'm confused :-)
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Well, three or two or seven...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
But if you can make a sentence
convey more than a single piece of information to the reader, you are
strengthening your prose.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I have a student who is a
rather talented SF storyteller, and the brother of a well published SF
author. I can probably cut his stories by nearly 1/2 just by doing this...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
making each of his sentences
convey more than a single piece of information. HIs stories are good, but
they drown in words.
|
|
cloux
|
doesn't this fall showing vs
telling, Mary?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Not entirely, cloux. Even when
we are showing, you can still convey more than one thing.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Look at Jim. I showed him to
you all marching down Main. Two pieces of info: He is not relaxed and he's
downtown on main.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Okay, what else can I add to
this?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Jim marched down Main, past
the Bijou, seeing nothing but Julie's face as she said goodbye to Brad.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Okay now we know he's uptight,
he's on Main, and he's thinking of Julie's face...which implies that Julie
looking at Brad is a problem for him.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Depending on how much we
already know in the story, this may advance the plot to greater or lesser
degree.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
But it sure beats: Jim walked
down Main Street past the Bijou theater. He was angry. He couldn't get the
memory of Julie's face as she looked at Brad out of his mind.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
And that last example is how
most of us, myself included, wrote when we first started out. :-)
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I'm now MUCH less wordy than I
was when I published my early stories. I suspect I could tighten any of
those early stories by a good 20% :-)
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
This is, in my opinion, one of
the reasons that it pays to write short stories before you work on novels.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
It has nothing to do with
selling or gaining publishing credits.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
It has everything to do with
learning to write tight.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
You don't have to write nearly
as tightly in a novel as you do in a short story.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
But if you learn to really
layer content into a single sentence, you will have a dramatic and tightly
paced novel.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I got a LOT of critical praise
for my novels in terms of pacing and tension.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
And that was entirely due to
the fact that I had written a LOT of short stories before I ever attempted
a novel, and i had learned to make one sentence do three or four things.
:-)
|
|
cloux
|
maybe his facial expression?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Cloux, yes we could add that.
Jim walked dwon Main sTreet pat the Bijou theater, scowling at the memory
of Julie's smile for Brad.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Now we're getting a little
long and unweildy here. I would probably leave the scowling out when I
revised, since his marching is going to imply that it's not a pleasant
memory. :-)
|
|
dvjlabonte
|
better yet, is this sentence a
good example? "Amanda loves him. You can see it in her faded blue-jean
colored, almond shaped eyes as she watches him."
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I like the blue jean eyes,
dvjlabonte. :-)
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Well, this is a sentence where
a narrator is telling us that Amanda loves him.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
If this is a first person
story, that's fine. That might be our first person POV talking.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
But we could do this as a
showing sentence, too.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
But if we're using Amanda as
POV character, we won't be able to see her cool, blue-jean eyes. Not unless
she is looking in the mirror.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
But as a first person
narrative sentence, we know that Amanda loves him, and that she has blue,
almond shaped eyes.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Several bits of information in
a single sentence. Good job.
|
|
coway
|
so every sentence does not have
to be showing? some can tell?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Yes, but you want to keep
telling to the bare minimum, coway.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
In first person, of course,
our POV character is telling us everything. But in third, if your
narrator's voice intrudes...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
it constantly reminds the
reader that this is a story and they are NOT living this adventure.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
So you want to show the action
as much as possible in third person.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
This layering is NOT something
to even think about in your first draft.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
It is the editor-brain's job
and not the creator-brain's job.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Just write the first draft.
Who cares what every sentence does? If they each contain a single piece of
information, fine! Just tell the story. Put it all down on the page or
screen and don't worry about it!
|
|
roe
|
He looked into Amanda's almond
shaped eyes and could see the love reflected in the cool blue jean color
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
That works. Or He looked into
Amanda's almond eyes full of blue-jean colored love.
|
|
doodledorry
|
mary-when i read i get tired of
always reading description
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Yep, doodle. As do we all.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Which is why you really work
on this technique.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Because it allows you to
deliver description in small concentrated doeses that don't bore the
readers who don't care to sightsee much.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
The reason that a lot of
description is boring is that you have one piece of info per sentence and you
have to wade through a lot of sentences to get it all.
|
|
dvjlabonte
|
so this is more about sentence
structure than just single 'padded WORDS'?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Well, one of the things you
need to do when layering lots of info into a single sentence is to choose
your words carefully.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I started with Jim walked down
the street, remember?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Marched tells us much more
than walked.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
And Main instead of 'the
street' puts in some kind of city or town.
|
|
doodledorry
|
isn't this something to be
careful in writing?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Yes, doodle. We walk a lot of
fine lines in writing...too much description or too little is one of 'em.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
You learn to walk these lines
by falling off a lot, essentially.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
This is where good readers
come in.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
You ask your readers after
they have read your work: Was there too much description? Enough? Where did
you get bored? Where did you want more?
|
|
roe
|
So we need enough description
for visual effect, but not too much as to be boring?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Yep. A lot of writing is
learning what you can leave out. That comes with practice. You gain
confidence as you realize that your readers are 'getting' what you are
trying to convey.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
This is our After Hours Forum,
with me, Mary Rosenblum, your web editor. I've published seven novels and
more than 60 short stories and will do my best to answer any questions you
have. If you're new here, remember that you need to click on the 'Ask a
Question' button or the 'word bubble' next to the red question mark at the
top of the screen in order to ask a question. Your regular 'send' bar won't
reach me! Or you can use /ask and type your question into the regular send
bar if that works better for you..
|
|
ejamortizer
|
Mary, I have a problem moving
back and forth between first and third person when I write. Any tools to
correct myself and get my POV more consistant?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
That is very common, ejamort,
especially when you identify with your POV character.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
That is the kind of thing to
catch on your revision. Don't let yourself get swept up in the story on one
of those revision passes...focus on your POV. First? Third?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
The other common thing is to
switch from past to present tense as you concentrate on the action.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Another thing to catch on
revision.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
But if you find yourself
constantly switching over to first person in your third person story, try
writing it in first.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Maybe it needs to be in first.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Or vice versa.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Remember that for most of us,
it is better to turn off the editor on that first draft.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Just write. Worry about
shortening your sentences, adding stronger descriptives and the like on the
second draft.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
that is where I do most of my
real work on a story, and that is where I start layering those sentences.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I'll look at a scene, decide
what the reader needs to know here, and then work on showing those things
to the reader in the fewest words possible.
|
|
doodledorry
|
mary-boy is that a good point
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
You mean the 'write' the first
draft and 'edit' on the second?
|
|
doodledorry
|
i nod my head yes
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I think it is a critical
point, especially for anyone who has taken a writing course or workshop
where you have been getting input from some kind of instructor or critique
group.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
You can start hearing that
teacher-voice in your head as you try to write that first draft and it can
bring you to a screeching halt.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I attended a six week long
'writers boot camp' back when I first started out. It took me MONTHS
afterward to shut up the various voices that kept whispering in my ears as
I struggled through first drafts.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
That's pretty typical.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
You get to write it your way
first, and then you can let your editor have at it.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Try taking a scene.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Maybe your POV is in a possee
trailing someone. They have to cross a flooded river.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Read over the scene and ask
yourself what your reader must get here. The scene right? Rain, mud,
swirling water, foam, darkness...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Lots of cool details.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Then see how many of those
details you can squeeze into a sentence. But realize that the sentence
still has to read well.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I'ts not a matter simply of
'more is better'. More is only better if the sentence fits your prose,
flows well, and doesn't seem ludicrously long.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
They waded into the swirling,
dark, foamy, cold, muddy river water.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Sounds kind of clunky, huh?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
They waded shivering into the
muddy swirl.... might be just what you need.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
We probably know it's a river
already. Shivering gives us cold. We probably know it's night time unless
we just started a new scene. If we did, we'd need to set the time.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
At midnight, they waded
shivering into the muddy torrent.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Aha...a better word than
swirl. :-) See? That's revision...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
you keep finding words that do
more for less. Swirl doesn't suggest the force of a torrent.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Torrent suggests a more
violent flow.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
That in a nutshell is the
revision process.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
If our possee is afraid of
water demons who live in the river (this is now a horror story...)...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
They waded, shivering and
fearful, into the muddy torrent.
|
|
doodledorry
|
You really almost need to take
it sentence by sent UH?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Oh, I do. Most of us do.
Sentence by sentence. :-)
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
BUT...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
here's a tip for you...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
this is how you get better
faster. And how you tip the balance from 'almost made it' to 'sale'.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Because a lot of those
unpublished writers in the slush with you do not revise. :-)
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
And believe me, editors LOVE a
tightly written story. It really leaps out at them. When you edit, you see
all the places that need to be tightened and it's like a whole lot of
fingernails on blackboard.
|
|
janp
|
At midnight they waded into the
frigid, muddy torrent.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
There you go: Time, river,
cold, probably swollen from rain.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Lots of stuff in that single
sentence.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Revision is asking yourself
'how can I say the same thing in fewer words'.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
And then doing it. And
layering those details into a single sentence is how you do it.
|
|
speckledorf
|
Change waded into rode and they
are now on horseback...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
There you go!
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
And if we need to know, say
that they're Civil War Union Soldiers...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
At midnight the Union blues
rode into the frigid, muddy torrent.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
This, by the way, is what your
editor does to your words when you sell a story. :-)
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
They do not change the content
without asking you, but they DO tighten your prose.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
That's why they appreciate
something that is already tight and clean.
|
|
gskearney
|
Mary there's a piece of software
called Word Menu that is kind a visual thesarus. When I first looked at it
I didn't think it would be too useful, but it excels at finding words
similar to a given word, and I think it would be very useful in the editing
stage. It's , which seems a bit expensive. But it is very good at finding
the exact right word for what you want to say.
http://www.wordmenu.com/store/index.html
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Might be worth looking at,
althought I'm not a fan of the Thesaurus myself. I see a lot of stories
where the writer went to the Thesaurus to 'improve' his or her prose.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Problem is...what the
Thesaurus includes as 'synonyms' are not the same in meaning exactly.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
If you are not really really
certain about the nuance of a particular word, don't use it.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Making an editor chuckle is
NOT a good selling tactic!
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Most of us if we enjoy reading
have all the vocabulary we need.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
It's how we use it that
matters. We have 'usual' words that fall right into place.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Walk. Ran. ate things like
that.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I call 'em vanilla pudding
words and they're just fine in the first draft.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Think of 'em as place holders.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Joe ate dinner.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Joe gobbled down yesterday's
pizza.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
That is the second draft
version.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Because we realize that we
want the reader to know that Joe is in a hurry and that he's kind of a big
eater so that half pizza was a quick supper.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
How many of you hate revision,
raise your hands. :-)
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Most people do at first...but
once you sell and people start to tell you, 'Oh, I loved your story, I
really felt I was there...' you begin to realize how much power lies in
that strong, tight prose.
|
|
labtek
|
It seems when I try to write
tighter, I write longer
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I do. :-) What's wrong with
that?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I'm laughing. My standing joke
as always been...I tightened that story from 8000 to 9000 words.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
But a lot of that is simply
that if you add what it takes to give the story depth it may well be
longer.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
We tend to use shorthand in
first drafts. Joe at dinner.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Clearly, Joe gobbled down last
night's pizza is longer, but what do you see when you read joe ate dinner?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Not much. You see a lot more
as Joe crams that cold, greasy pizza into his mouth.
|
|
ejamortizer
|
Mary, I read the Stephen King
book 'On Writing' and loved it. He mentioned 3 months between writing and
first revision on a novel. What would you do on a short before revision? A
few days?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Be a little careful with
edicts likethat, ejamor. King's three months may be six for some writers or
a single short story for another (that's me. One short story first draft
and the novel is fresh and new).
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Same thing with a short story.
The one that's coming out in SciFiction this month sat for TEN YEARS before
I could figure out what was wrong with it. Now that's a BIT excessive.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
But I have found that simply
writing something new is the best way to get some distance from your new
first draft.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
As you work on that new first
draft, you'll kick yourself out of that previous universe, and when you
come back to it, you'll have clear eyes for the weak spots.
|
|
labtek
|
Nothing if you don;t go over you
r word count
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Yep, that's true, labtek. And
if you ARE going to go over your word count, think about changing the plot,
not just dropping words.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
The plot determines the
story's natural length.
|
|
arfelin
|
I hate writing the first
draft--I love revision!
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Me, took arfelin. That's why I
do extensive chapter summaries these days. They are shorthand first drafts
but I don't have to type as many words. :-)
|
|
mrsdesktop
|
Interesting to know what was
'wrong' with your story and how
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
The one that I have coming up
in scifiction?
|
|
mrsdesktop
|
you fixed it. (My cat literally
hit my mouse and knocked me
|
|
mrsdesktop
|
to another web site!
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Now if the website it knocked
you to sells fish by airmail, I'd worry! LOL
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
It was an ending problem.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I kept butting my head against
an ending that didn't work.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
When I stumbled across the
forgotten file, I knew by the time I was a third of the way into it how it
had to end. :-)
|
|
mrsdesktop
|
Believe it or not, I went to
thecatsite.com :)
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
ooooh...that's spooky! Maybe
you and your cat need to collaborate here!
|
|
labtek
|
hey mrsdesktop can I use that in
a story?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I'm laughing. I was thinking
the same thing!
|
|
mrsdesktop
|
Sure, just send all royalties to
2425...NC! ;)
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Laughing!
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Next time you're stuck on a
story, trying giving the cat a turn at the keyboard...just for the heck of
it! :-)
|
|
mrsdesktop
|
or put my name in the thank you
section Mary (free PR)
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Thre you go.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
But the thing that makes
revision much more palatable and maybe...even fun!...is when you realize
what it does for your characters and your story.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
It really does bring them to
life.
|
|
labtek
|
I liked what you said about the
changing the plot, I have
|
|
labtek
|
done that to try to narrow my
focus
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Good for you, labtek. That
takes a lot of novice writers a while to figure out...that plot determines
length.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Every story has a natural
length and if your story is a 10,000 word story, it will read like summary
if you tell it in 7000 words.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
So you simply narrow the plot,
so that you can tell it in those 7000 words.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I do keep word count in mind
when I"m writing for some publications where I can't play with
12,000words. :-)
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
And if I realize the story is
going to be too big, I stop and change the plot.
|
|
shayon-joseph
|
What about an article? Would you
cut the "plot" to accommodate length/word count as well?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Yes, shayon. There really are
a lot of similarities between fiction and nf.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
You can probably narrow the
slant.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
If you are going to end up
with a feature length article on gladiolas for a garden mag and you KNOW
you need...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
to send in a short filler if
you want to sell, narrow your slant.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Instead of talking about all
joys of growing glads, talk about the new hybrids offered this year...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
and you can do that in many
fewer words.
|
|
shayon-joseph
|
What do you mean by narrow your
slant?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Talk about fewer things,
shayon.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
For example; raising dairy
goats is a book. Or three.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Oregon artisan goat cheeses is
a feature article for the Sunday Supplement.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Goat cheeses in your local
market is a filler.
|
|
labtek
|
It reminds me of when we had to
write a term paper in
|
|
labtek
|
school, the teacher would always
say "That's to broad a
|
|
labtek
|
subject.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Ha, labtek. You think TEACHERS
are bad! This is the reason 99% of novice articles are rejected by nf
editors.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Too broad a topic. Magazine
topics are much more narrow than term papers!
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
If you think your article idea
is narrow enough, take it one step down to an even narrower focus and
you're probably close. :-)
|
|
doodledorry
|
good practice for that is
letters to the editor--200 words
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
You're right, doodle. That is
a suggestion I make to a lot of my students who write sprawling opinion
pieces. LOL
|
|
t green
|
like talking about discipline
and ADD and narrowing it down to ONE experience with YOUR child?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Exactly, t green.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
ADD is a huge topic...a book
length topic.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Homework with an ADD child --
your son -- might be a perfect topic.
|
|
ejamortizer
|
Just like assignment #3...I had
to revise my idea completely to make it fit with the word count!
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
It's the same thing as with
fiction. You ahve to change the topic if you want to make it shorter.
|
|
shayon-joseph
|
Sounds like I lose
"flavor" when narrowing my slant. Recently wrote a 1500+ article
for my company newsletter. Editor came back saying should could only take
700! I cried to get it to 950! LOL ...begged Editor to please work with
that, since cutting any more would make piece unrecognizable.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
That's when you really need to
write something different that will fit the 700, shayon. Sounds as if your
topic just didn't want to fit in that tight a space.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
But in the nonfiction world,
word counts are cast in stone.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
If the editor has a 700 word
space to fill, that's all you get ...at least until you are VERY well
established!
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
A skill to acquire is learning
how to say 'okay, how can I do something interesting on this topic in this
space'.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
We all tend to be wedded to
our original ideas when we first start writing. :-)
|
|
labtek
|
Does the word count have to be
exact?
|
|
labtek
|
Can it be less?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
If you get a specific word
count, then that is how much space the editer has allocated on the page for
your article. (We're talking nonfiction here).
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
If you send in something
shorter, she has to find something tiny to fill that space, or at least
rearrange the page layout. You will not win points that way!
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
In a lot of magazines,
particular 'departments' or types of articles use the same amount of space
in every issue...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
so the page may be laid out
before your piece hits the editor's desk. Making production change layout
is BAD.
|
|
patchworkcat
|
How is word count decided? Is it
safe to use your word processor's opinion or should we go by 250 words per
page? Or is there another way to get an exact count?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Me, I'm lazy. I use my
computer and round it. If an editor wants to count 'em differently,
fine...but my counts have always been accepted.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
YOu don't have to be EXACT.
Plus or minus ten percent should be fine, even in nf.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
The editor can trim that much
easily.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Now I'm generalizing here.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
If you run into an editor who
throws a fit unless you use his formula...use it!
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
But they're not gonna reject
you if your word count is a few words off. A few thousand words off, yes.
|
|
shayon-joseph
|
In regard to
getting-more-bang-for-your-buck in sentence structure etc, is it mainly
accomplished with stronger verbs, adjectives or ????
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Yes, Shayon.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
And avoiding the to be verbs:
was is were
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
and the foggy words: seems,
could have... and the like.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
and by all means the was + ing
verbs. was eating, was going, was sleeping.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
She was happy. She beamed.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
He was tired. He plodded.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
The building was very tall.
The building soared.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
The girl was frightened. The
girl trembled.
|
|
gskearney
|
I was herding sunflowers when
the war started??
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
What's that from, Gary? I
can't remember.
|
|
gskearney
|
The new story that I'm working
on.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I guess I heard you say it. It
sure has stuck with me. Has to be one of the better hooks I"ve heard
lately!
|
|
arfelin
|
The TEN PERCENT SOULTION opened
my eyes to the to be and foggy words.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Yes, that is well well worth
it's very paltry price!
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
www.fairwoodpress.com
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Well, I"m going to quit.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I'm fading!
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I'll post the transcript in
the usual place: Forum Transcripts in Writing Craft.
|
|
gskearney
|
I guess it's the exception that
proves the rule. I couldn't think of any way to do it differently. --gk
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
It is, Gary. The content is so
striking that we just don't care about that 'was'.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Nothing is always or never in
writing!
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Remember to write than at the
top of your monitor.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
See you all Sunday for our
casual chat.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Same time, same place, but on
Sunday.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Have a good weekend, all!
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Good night!
|