PLAY THE EDITING GAME

The suggestion that editing can be seen as a game is made partly to reduce anxiety in strongly right-brained writers like Karen and Zubin, and partly to draw attention to the capricious nature of editing requirements. Unless you are in the position of being able to follow Polonius’ dictate, ‘This above all: to thine own self be true,’ editing criteria will vary according to market, genre, and current taste. One editor will like your style but not your storyline, another the reverse. For one magazine your story is too long, for another too short, for another it is just right, but the heroine is too old – and so on.

Below are listed ten aspects of your work which will require scrutiny whatever your current criteria. Some general questions are asked under each aspect. As a focusing exercise, make this into an ‘Editing 10 × 10’ by adding more questions to suit your particular requirements.

1. The beginning

• Does it really grab the reader’s attention? (If not, you could lose your audience altogether.)
• Does it intrigue, shock, strike a chord, plunge the reader straight into the action? (See Chapter 5.)
• Does it make you want to read on?
• Is the ‘implicit contract’ it makes with the reader a valid one? (See Chapter 5.)
• Have you read the beginning aloud to anyone and asked for their feedback?

2. Characters

• Have you brought them to life? Will the readers feel they know these people and will they care what happens to them? (See Chapters 2, 4 and 6.)
• Are your characters authentic? Do their descriptions ‘ring true’? Are clothes, speech patterns and cultural references right for the period and location?
• Is their behaviour consistent with their personalities? Is their appearance consistent? In longer works, continuity of costume and hair colour/style may need to be checked. A story-board is helpful in this respect. (See Chapter 9.)
• Do any elements of your characterisation need more emphasis? Have you asked anyone for feedback about this?

3. Setting

• Have you given the reader a clear picture of the surroundings?
• Have you done your research thoroughly? Are clothing, architecture, artefacts, cultural references, in keeping with the historical period?
• Have you checked continuity in this respect? Again, a story-board can be useful for this purpose.
• Have you conveyed the atmosphere you intended to convey?

4. Plot

• Is the story line absolutely clear?
• Could it be set out in narrative steps as in Chapter 8 or could you plot it on a route map, as in Chapter 9?
• Were any ‘added complications’ fruitful, or were they just ‘clever sidetracks’ which diverted attention from the main thrust of the story?

In the example given in Chapter 8, Cinderella languishes in a dungeon while the prince, ignorant of her plight, is far away fighting. The reader has the overview, which creates dramatic tension.

This path has many possibilities, e.g. having received no word from the beautiful stranger, the prince concludes she does not care for him. Eschewing love, he agrees to a politically sound marriage with a princess from a neighbouring kingdom. As the day of the marriage draws near, Cinderella tries to send the glass slipper to him but the ugly sisters intercept it. This all adds to the story’s emotional impact. If the Prince had gone off to war and Cinderella had gone home and worried about him for a year or so, this would be a side-track. Other than a chance to reveal the strength of Cinderella’s love, it would serve no dramatic function. In fact it would confuse the plot and destroy the story’s momentum.

5. Story-telling vehicles

• Have you chosen the best way to tell your story?
• Have you used straight narrative throughout, or have you interspersed this with flash-back, dream-sequences, letters and other devices? What were the reasons for these choices – and were they valid? (See Chapter 9.)
• What tense have you chosen and whose viewpoint have you used? Do you have sound reasons for these choices? Might other choices be more effective?
• Have you used dialogue as a story-telling vehicle? What were your reasons for doing so? Was it always a good choice? (See Chapter 9.)

6. Dialogue

• Is your dialogue realistic?
• Is it authentic?
• Is your dialogue consistent with the characters’ historical period, geographical origins, and social class?
• Is it distinctive? Could only that character have made that particular speech?
• Have you read your dialogue aloud? How does it sound?
• Have you checked that every piece of dialogue you have written performs at least one of the following functions:

7. Feelings

‘Proper structure occurs when the right things happen at the right time to create maximum emotion.’

(Michael Hauge: Writing Screenplays that Sell)

It is also important to remember that these ‘right things’ must happen to people and that these must be people about whom the audience cares. Casualty and Holby City are watched avidly by millions, not because they are about hospitals but because they are about people in crisis.

• How heart-rending or heart-warming is your story?
• Could your characterisation benefit from some fine-tuning to help the audience care a little more?
• Are the ‘right things happening at the right time’ – or are changes needed?

8. Pace

• Do any passages interfere with the pace you intended? Have you read any doubtful passages aloud?
• Have you checked sentence length, use of punctuation, use of active or passive voice and of present participles?
• Have you checked the number of images and their speed of presentation? Are these appropriate?
• Have you checked the lengths of the sounds involved in speaking the words. (See Chapter 4.)

9. Style

‘You don’t have to consciously cultivate a style. Just learn to write well and your style will emerge ... If you peer too closely at your style you will end up parodying yourself. Your writing voice must flow from you naturally, just as your conversational voice does.’

(Gary Provost: Make Your Words Work)

• Have you ‘tuned in’, as suggested in Chapter 9? Returning to the exercises in Chapter 2 before dealing with any ‘iffy’ passages will pay great dividends.
• Are there any elements of ‘stylism’? Does style sometimes take precedence over clarity? (See Chapter 9.) Describe your style.
• Have you used too many adjectives? Have you used too few?
• Have you engaged in any stylistic ‘hanky-panky . . . just for the fun of it?’ (See Chapter 9.) If so – was it fun?

10. The end

• How effective is it?
• Is it satisfying – or does it leave the reader feeling stranded and/or disappointed?
• Is it active or reflective?
• Is there a link with the beginning, which brings the story full circle?
• Does it round the story off, make you cry, make you shudder?
• Can you improve it? (See Chapter 5.)