Rambles about editing
Feb. 17th, 2024 01:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rainwatersparkI am—very slowly—working on edits for Novel #4, and I may have had a revelation?
Whenever I feel "bored" by chapter openings—usually when a chapter begins with setting description—I try to rewrite the descriptions to make them "voicier" (or more active). And now I'm starting to wonder, is THIS the secret sauce I was missing when I went on submission with this book?
I've read two books recently that I thought had amazing voice: Everyone On This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson, and Voyage of the Damned by Francis White. Maybe that's why I'm suddenly paying a lot more attention to voice now. In particular, I feel like I've (semi-consciously) picked up the idea that voice can really come through in physical descriptions and choice of metaphors.
I do feel like I'm improving Novel #4, but I'm becoming a little paranoid, too. Voice, for me, is something I have not really prioritized since I spend most of my energy while drafting thinking hard about character and plot. And then, while editing, I often have to look for places to add physical descriptions because that's a weakness of mine. Dialogue is a strong point for me, but voice in the narrative is something that I tend not to think about beyond a sentence here or there. To put it another way, voice has always been intuitive for me in the past.
The idea of voice as something I have to consciously craft? It makes me scared that my tiny brain doesn't have the space to pay attention to yet ANOTHER consideration while drafting/editing. Especially since my neurodivergent brain has a hard time verbalizing to begin with.
Sigh. Maybe I'll noodle on this some more.
Whenever I feel "bored" by chapter openings—usually when a chapter begins with setting description—I try to rewrite the descriptions to make them "voicier" (or more active). And now I'm starting to wonder, is THIS the secret sauce I was missing when I went on submission with this book?
I've read two books recently that I thought had amazing voice: Everyone On This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson, and Voyage of the Damned by Francis White. Maybe that's why I'm suddenly paying a lot more attention to voice now. In particular, I feel like I've (semi-consciously) picked up the idea that voice can really come through in physical descriptions and choice of metaphors.
I do feel like I'm improving Novel #4, but I'm becoming a little paranoid, too. Voice, for me, is something I have not really prioritized since I spend most of my energy while drafting thinking hard about character and plot. And then, while editing, I often have to look for places to add physical descriptions because that's a weakness of mine. Dialogue is a strong point for me, but voice in the narrative is something that I tend not to think about beyond a sentence here or there. To put it another way, voice has always been intuitive for me in the past.
The idea of voice as something I have to consciously craft? It makes me scared that my tiny brain doesn't have the space to pay attention to yet ANOTHER consideration while drafting/editing. Especially since my neurodivergent brain has a hard time verbalizing to begin with.
Sigh. Maybe I'll noodle on this some more.
