I think I'm getting the hang of it now. Chapter Seven looms today, so some progress has been made over the weekend. I certainly slept well last night!
Some of the places where I used the pronoun "it" read better when I say what the "it" is. Getting rid of the formatting balloons first helps, as I have no problem with US spellings etc. Turning sentences on their head is sometimes easy, sometimes hard. I still haven't thought of a way to show "perplexed." There are so many ways different people would exhibit the state of being perplexed - biting the lip, frowning, shaking their head, yet none of them absolutely defines the word itself. I think I'll leave it as it stands, unless some kind soul can give me a clue.
Edits are tiring, far more tiring than writing. I have the urge to go to my writing and abandon edits, but feel I must get the edits done sooner rather than later. I have scenes building in my mind, and hope I can hang on to them long enough to get them down when the edits are done. I should make notes, of course, but hey - whose perfect? Certainly not me.
Another thing to report is that doing edits is a learning curve, and helps to improve my writing, because even as I sit back in my chair saying No, no, no, I'm also thinking would doing this make the whole thing better? Putting aside pride and looking at my writing through fresh eyes is a good thing to do, and I'm benefitting from the exercise.
Watched Downton Abbey last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. ITV is doing well with this one.
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2 comments:
As far as "perplexed" goes, pick one physical reaction and use it. In the next place, use a different one.
Here's a link with Body Language Cues to Emotion: http://www.joannawaugh.com/Craft.html
It's a good one. On my first story, I got the same comment you did--show the emotion. This website helps.
One thing I've been told is NEVER (unless it's dialog) begin a sentence with this/that or these/those. These words are adjectives, and shouldn't be the subject of a sentence. People do talk this way, though, so I use them occasionally. You'll be surprised how much better your sentence sounds without the this/that, these/those subjects.
And replacing "it" with the word is a real improvement. I found out a lot of this stuff in the Roses Self-Editing Workshop (http://www.rosescoloredglasses.com/WSSelfEdit.htm). I learned a lot there. And no, the Roses did not pay me to plug their course.
Good luck.
My edits begin in November, and I have been avidly watching your posts - here and elsewhere -for all your trials with them. You are right - they are harder than writing. Don't let them strip your lovely prose of its music, Jen. It was great to begin with, remember!
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