Fun with Editing

Fun with Editing

I hear people say it all the time, they hate editing. I, however, don't share this dread.
In first drafts, we write what inspiration thrusts upon us as quickly as possible, getting it all down as it flows into our heads from where ever ideas come from. Everyone agrees that trying to edit in this stage stagnates creativity. So we tear through our keyboards, throwing the words on the page in a frenzy. This apparently, for most people, is where the fun stops. But for me that's where new fun begins.
When we're writing that quickly, what our leading man says to the bad guy at that cliff hanging moment has comes to us in a flash of genius, and before we have a chance to think Oh, that's good! we're already on to what Mr. Badnews says next to stymie our guy's hopes, and on it goes. There is no time to find perfect words, no time to weed out the irrelevant, no chance for using setting in dialogue, or picking up on the nuances of what the characters are thinking and feeling. All that fun stuff comes in the editing process.
The first draft may be where the meat of the story is laid out, but editing is the accouterments that make a story extra special yummy. Lot's of stuff needs to be filled in, fleshed out and fluffed  up. But editing isn't just cementing up the gaps in what's still a skeleton of a tale, it's also taking away. Usually lots of taking away. There is the deleting of redundant sentences or even whole paragraphs; there is the trimming of run-on sentences, and the fine tuning overly-wordy narrative. There is the reworking of awkward sounding phrases (for example "overly-worldly narrative" - which I was going to rewrite but thought I'd leave to make my point). All this is an art into itself.
Finding that perfect word that makes the idea come through like a bright light challenges our writing skills. Paring down dialogue, and adding details of body language, until the scene feels perfectly real and as intense or loving or angry as your characters actually feel is so much a part of what great writing is about. I love this process, because when I'm done I have this wonderful finished product; I've solved the puzzle of how to make it all come together.  Editing isn't just irritating busy work; it's a huge part of the craft of writing. And if you're like me, there's always lots and lots of editing that needs to be done before your first draft is the great story you envisioned as you wrote it.

Using Humor in Dramatic Fiction

Using Humor in Dramatic Fiction.

I saw the movie Winter's Bone with my mother some time ago. We were quite impressed by the movie but it was super intense and my mother said, "There just wasn't any comic relief."
I had never thought about the role comic relief plays in dramatic stories before. However, I realized that I had been using it all along in my writing and that most dramatic fiction does too. Like a lot of things in life, we act out of instinct or perhaps in reaction to things we've picked up on subconsciously.
My novel "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe" is a dramatic tale of a man struggling to be himself in a world that doesn't want to have to accept who he is. After hearing me read many passages from my book, a fellow writer's group member said to me once, "I really enjoy your humor."
I especially appreciated the compliment as the humor in my book, despite being pervasive, is quite subtle. I was glad to see that I was successful in getting it across.
The humor is needed in my book; it's necessary to break up the tension, to prevent the reader from getting bogged down in the character's problems. As my novel is written in the first person, the humor is really that of my main character, Jim. Accordingly, the humor in his narrative also serves to gain the reader's empathy and allegiance. Everyone likes a good chuckle, and if Jim, despite all his problems, can get a little comic relief from the drama in his life, perhaps so can we when the going gets tough.

What's So Great About E-Publishing.

What's So Great About E-Publishing.

I first started writing the short-story that ended up becoming my novel "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe," in 1989. No, that's not a type-o. Yep, 1989, and I started writing it as a novel in 1995. My final edit (there where tons of edits) was done around the turn of the century. Then around 2007 - after sitting in a drawer all those years - there was an "Oh, yeah, I guess there's going to be one more edit." And yep, my book has been sitting around now, again, - for about 3 years.
My point is this: I never published it in all those years. Why? Because when I was done writing it the first time around, there was no e-publishing, and well it's taken me this long - since e-publishing started up - to get the idea firmly in my head that e-publishing is an established, successful, legitimate, and respectable way to go.
But why didn't I try to go the usual old-tymey route of hard cover publishing? Because I knew my book had a limited audience; I knew it wouldn't be mainstream enough for traditional publishers. After all, those guys can only afford to publish books that are going to have - I think the number is something like - a godzillion, sales. This was a shame, because I knew there were people out there who would really appreciate my novel - just not a godzillion - and they'd never get to read it.
So what's so great about e-publishing? E-publishing works for books that will attract any size audience. That means there is now all kinds of groovy stuff out there that in pre-e-publishing times never would have seen the light of day. In fact, back in the old days, most people - not me of course - didn't even bother to write books that couldn't get published traditionally. But now they are! And now "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe," gets to be out there for any and all who will appreciate it, to enjoy! Cool, huh? I think so.

Writing from the Opposite Sex's Point of View.

Writing from the Opposite Sex's Point of View.

My novel "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe" is written from the first person point of view of a man (Jim). What made me think I could pull this off despite the fact that I'm a woman? First of all, to my credit, I would like to note that I didn't think it was a good idea, and fought (valiantly, I might add) against the notion. But, alas, to make the novel work that is what had to be done. When you read it you'll see, getting inside Jim's motivations, emotions, and internal conflict is what makes the story.
But my reluctance was not because I didn't think I could pull it off. My reluctance was because I was concerned that others would find fault in the notion.
So, back to the question, what made me think I could know what a man would think, feel and want? There are a few things that contributed to my confidence in this task.
For one thing I am, personality-wise quite androgynous. I don't feel especially female, but nor do I feel especially male. Personality attributes that are mainly considered highly feminine or highly masculine are mostly puzzling to me. Thus, by making Jim not hyper masculine in personality, it was fairly easy for me to get a grasp on how he'd think.
Another thing about me - and I think this is the norm for all good writers - is that I have a strong sense of empathy. Being able to put yourself in another person's shoes (or bed, or bar scene, or classroom, or dinner conversation) enables one to imagine, or understand, what that person - based on what you know about them and I know a lot about Jim - would be sensing or experiencing, no matter who they are.
Indeed, there is so much that is universal to all humans when it comes to issues of love, desire, being true to oneself, loneliness, friendship, fear, hope and longing that no matter what sex you are, you can tap into those themes (all of which are in my novel) and the accompanying feelings, actions, and reactions.

Writing Sex Scenes

Writing Sex Scenes.

Lots of people say they dread writing sex scenes. I find it not so challenging myself, though reading sex scenes out-loud can be a bit unnerving - especially if I'm not too familiar with my audience. It helps though, that the feedback has been very positive.

Here's Harrie's Helpful Hints:

It depends a lot on what type of story you are writing, who your projected readers are, and what importance the scene is to the story. Adjust accordingly.
In my novels, love and sex are pretty paramount to the plot and theme so I tend to get a bit more in detail and don't worry so much about telling the reader too much. However, in some scenes the sex is way more important than others. Usually, when I show more detail it's because I want to show the love that developing between my characters, or I want to show how deviant, or drunk, or confused, or...whatever, my character is.
Gratuitous sex is ugly in any book that hasn't set out to be erotica or pornography, so make sure there is a point to your details.
Many sex scenes work really well with just some titillating foreplay, a glimpse of the more deep breathing stuff, and then the cigarette smoking, or rolling over and going to sleep, or entangled sleeping in one-another's arms, or the awkward avoiding of the wet-spot.. or whatever. However, if your book is one where sex is important, you don't want to cheat your readers out of some of the good stuff. I find it best though to leave readers wishing for just a little more.
Avoid a play-by-play sports' announcer recount. Better to show the total-abandon looks on their faces, and the anguished cries, than an in-depth explanation of the techniques being applied - unless you're writing a training manual.
Mostly though, I implore you not to describe a totally vanilla, missionary-scene quickie, with a lot of whispering of sweet nothings, between pressed sheets, and expect your readers to buy this as the most awesome sex your character's have ever had - I hate that.

Weed out the Irrelevant.

Weed out the Irrelevant.
I have those words on a physics classroom chalkboard in a scene in my novel, "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe." Those words on the chalkboard are not important to the scene, but they are relevant, and those words are relevant to most any situation.
They certainly are important and relevant when it comes to writing.
In a writer's group I use to belong to, one of the other writers was reading a scene from her novel. At the beginning of the scene she has her character take his wool cap and gloves out of the car. She makes a point of showing us this action so I kept looking for the relevance in the scene. Does he leave them at the party and this is why he goes back the next day and meets the person who is going to change his life? Does he turn out to be the only one who is prepared for the cold night and thus impresses his date? Does it turn out the cap and gloves belong to someone else thus revealing him to be a thief? Do we see this behavior so that we'll know he's the kind of guy who's always prepared? No. In fact, the hat and gloves are never mentioned again, and when I asked why she put that in there, she said she just wanted to keep the story true to life by including what a person would likely be doing at that moment.
We can't keep our fiction TOO true to life. There are so many details in life that are... well, irrelevant. And these details, like the cap and gloves - become distractions from your story. Likewise, if you included every hello and good-bye for every conversation in your book, it would drive your readers to boredom. But there may be times when the particulars of the encounter make including those necessary or important.  Sometimes the relevance of a detail is subtle but very useful - as in my chalkboard words.

Why I Started Killing People Off.

Why I Started Killing People Off.

I've never been interested in murder mysteries, honestly the idea of reading about people being murdered leaves me cold (pun intended), so how did I end up writing a novel with three murders in it?Someone in my Writer's Group once asked me if I'd ever thought of inserting a murder in my novel "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe." I'm still trying to figure out why this guy, who I thought of as being pretty sane and reasonable (well compared to most of people I come across), would ever even think that was an even remotely good idea.
Even if I thought a murder would be fun to write, there is nothing about "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe" that would lend itself to a possible murder.
Meanwhile, though, I had begun to write "Bonita Verses Ivan Rastaman and the Monkey-Go-Round." As an exercise (I thought), I decided to allow myself to imagine what the possible scenario could be for a murder to occur in that book (I'm really big on thinking outside the box especially boxes I find I've put myself in). Well, I came up with an idea that I found quite interesting and thought I could have fun with in this already quirky novel, and as these things do, one thing led to another and - though this novel does not fit the genera of "murder mystery" - I've got three dead bodies I'm now responsible for.
None of the scenes where the murders actually takes place are described - only eluded to - which is one way I kept to my personal sensibilities. But I do even start the book with one of the murders. Here's the opening scene for "Bonita Verses Ivan Rastaman and the Monkey-Go-Round," (still in it's first draft form):

 "Wha' dis?"  Liston Taxi-Man stared gape mouthed at the white man laying in a pool of fresh blood on Miss Rachel's front porch.  "Nah, mon, nah."

The hush of a light trade wind dancing through the palms was pierced by a loud screech. Liston jerked his head toward the calabash tree across the dirt road.  A monkey, with fur glistening and matted by a sticky red substance, let out another anguished howl. 

"Mannix, wha' happ'n here?  You do dis t'ing?"

Using Setting in Dialogue

Using Setting in Dialogue

In real life, conversations usually have a lot of pauses - especially emotionally charged conversations. In fiction, much of the dialogue occurs in emotionally charged situations. A rapid exchange of comment and response will not ring true in this case. Adding, "he paused" or "She thought a bit" is fine once in a while, but that gets over used quickly.
One of the things I do to handle this is have my character's interact with their environment to show the pause or thinking occurring.
In "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe," during a very intense scene in a coffee shop when Jim, my main character, reveals he's bisexual to someone very important to him who's homophobic, I breakup dialogue and show his discomfort by having him feel the granules in a packet of sugar. In the same scene I have the person he's talking to stare fixedly at a car parked on the curb. I also show Jim gripping the edge of the saucer at one point, later, he's looking at the cold slosh at the bottom of his cup.
In "Bonita Verses Ivan Rastaman and the Monkey-Go-Round," I have Bonnie's mother accidentally singeing the blouse she's ironing for work when Bonnie asks her if she'd been a planned child.
The trick is to intersperse dialogue with body language at key moments. This also has the handy effect of creating suspense for the readers - keeping them waiting just a bit for what's going to be said next.

The Time a Writer Can Put into One Sentence.

The Time a Writer Can Put into One Sentence.

In "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe," - which is written in first person from the character Jim's perspective - Jim mentions, in one sentence, what a particular sexual situation he had was like. I wrote that sentence and kept writing. When rereading what I wrote that day, the sentence struck me as lacking. I rewrote it. Later, in an edit, I realized I still didn't like the way it sounded and rewrote it again. This time I struggled some but left another not great sentence in it's place. In another edit - in which I specifically was working on all the places where I let myself be lazy in the writing - I struggled some more. This time I wasn't going to let myself off the hook. I put it aside after several attempts, to rework the next day. That day I had a talk with Jim (my fictional character) out-loud as I was driving to the store. I said, "I'm not getting this. Something is wrong. Somehow I don't really have a feel for what that was like for you. You have to open up to me Jim; you have to tell me what you two did that night." I was a bit shocked by what he revealed, understood his reluctance to tell me, but finally got the sentence to my satisfaction. I don't tell the readers what Jim told me, just conveyed the sentiment that summed up the experience for him. It wasn't even an important part of the book - other than every sentence is an important part of the book.

Promoting One's Work

Wow, so excited. I have been so busy trying to figure out how to make sure people will know I have a book out there when I e-publish. With no big publishing house behind you when you e-publish; one has to self-promote.
I set up this blog and a website among other things. However, over the last few days I was very frustrated to see what came up when I Googled my name. So I've been spending a whole bunch of time trying to fix that and my website which yesterday did not come up at all in searches suddenly is at the top of the list when I google Harrie Farrow!
So good to see hard work pay off! It's a complicated world on the web, that's for sure - the learning curve is huge. But the cool thing is it can be done with more than a little perseverance. Here's one valuable tool.
Another helpful thing to do is go to your website or blog host help and search :  "Search engine optimization."
Good luck; if I can do it so can you.

What's a Quarter Worth?

What's a Quarter Worth?

When I was maybe seven or eight years old, I wrote my first piece of fiction. It was a short story entitled, "A Dog, a Cat and a Mouse." I sent it to my aunt. She was so pleased, she sent me a quarter to encourage my writing career. I don't have the quarter anymore (my guess is I spent it on candy), or a copy of the story, but I do still - after several decades and many, many moves - have the note of encouragement that she taped the quarter to.
Obviously I already had the writing itch within me when I wrote that story, but it's likely that my aunt's encouragement and that first paycheck for my writing had a lot to do with me someday becoming "Novelist, Harrie Farrow."
Is there some wee person in your life who might benefit from such encouragement?

Every Experience is Potential Fodder for a Future Novel.

Every Experience is Potential Fodder for a Future Novel.

If you're a writer, one way to help cope with a bad experience is to realize that it might come in handy someday when you're writing. Years ago, as I was being wheeled down a hospital corridor to go into surgery, I kept telling myself to pay attention. I may want to use this someday in a book. What does this moment feel like? What are the sights, smells, sounds? Of course, the irony is, what I was feeling at the moment was that the moment might someday be useful in a book. Oh well, I guess I can always write about a writer going into surgery and thinking about how that might be a good experience to put in a book some day.
In "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe," my main character's parents turn fundamentalist christian when he is a teenager. I use statements that a born-again relative of mine used in conversations with me when writing dialogue Jim has with his parents.
Likewise, in "Bonita Verses Ivan Rastaman and the Monkey-Go-Round" I have Bonnie's father, Ted, and her mother Karen make some bizarre comments to the mysterious Rachel that someone once said to me.
So remember when things get bad, at least your gaining another tidbit for a great scene in a novel.

Getting to Know Your Characters.

Getting to Know Your Characters.

Characters who seem like flesh and blood people to readers is an essential part of good fiction. Mainly this requires that a character is multidimensional - just like real people. A character needs to have a past, hobbies, issues, dreams etc. 

One way to get to know who your character is in-depth, is to imagine him or her in all sorts of scenarios. It can be especially helpful to include situations not related to your story at all. In my novel, "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe," my main character, Jim, never once goes to a beach. But when I was on vacation during the time I was writing the book, even though I did not write during the vacation, I took the opportunity to - in my head - imagine Jim on the beach in Mexico. What circumstances would have brought him there? Who would he be with? What would they be saying to each other? What would he like or dislike about that beach? What kind of swimming attire would he wear? What beach activities would he partake in? Would he use sun block? etc.  

Once you have a real grasp on the people you people your novel with, it will come more automatically to you to know how they will respond to the situations in your book, what they will say and how they will say it. 

One of the things the other writers in my writers group use to say to me when I read from "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe" is "you really get inside Jim's head!" The truth was, I told them, that Jim really got inside my head. 

What Novelists Choose to Write About.

What Novelists Choose to Write About.
Yes, often our characters dictate our stories and it feels like we have very little control over it. But what was the impetus that developed the character in the first place? We - as authors - breath life into a new (fictional) being; what was our intent? People have myriads of reasons to create a story. Often the desire to entertain is really what it's all about. Sometimes a desire to educate in an entertaining matter is more the point - think "To Kill a Mocking Bird," or "Lord of the Flies." These books each highlight a reality of life in a way that keeps readers interested, and helps them understand the issue on a deeper level or from a new perspective.
My novel "Love, Sex and Understanding the Universe" was not written by me but by Jim, my fictional character. He told me his story and I put it on paper. But I created Jim as a vehicle to help me impart a greater understanding on the issues affecting bisexuals, in a way that would keep readers interested.
My novel, "Bonita verses Ivan Rastaman and the Monkey-go-round" is more about entertaining readers, but also deals with bisexuality, and the aftermath of alternative lifestyles of the Age of Aquarius.

Why I Never Wanted to Write a Novel

Why I Never Wanted to Write a Novel
Commitment, commitment, commitment - writing a novel is a long term commitment and there is no guarantee it will payoff. Not only do you not know if it will payoff financially, you don't know if anyone will ever even enjoy it. If you're going to get it done and do it right it takes lots of time away from other things you could be doing or writing. I have not ever taken even a second to contemplate how many hours I put into my novel "Love, Sex and Understanding the Universe." I think I'd get dizzy and faint if I did.
I wrote the book simply because I had no other choice. It was intended to be a short story but the short story, which I really was excited about, would not fit into the confines of that format. My main character, Jim, would not be satisfied with me telling just that one little bit of his life. He wanted the whole thing told, and I could see too that without his back-story the short story did not make sense. Jim was not the kind of guy to get himself into the mess he was in. I wanted to know what happened to get him there and he told me, and told me and told me. But I answered back that this was all fine and well but I was NOT going to write a novel. He wouldn't shut up and even went on to tell me what happens after the slice of time in the story. Finally, I gave up and did as he insisted, and told his story.
So, was it worth it? Do I regret the time - years - I put into that book? Well, of course it was worth it to get Jim to stop his incessant narrating in my head. More importantly though, I love the novel. The few others who have heard parts of it - no one else has ever read the whole thing (YET) - have been intrigued too, and that's very encouraging. However, what's most telling about how I feel about having put that time and commitment into the book is that fact that once I was done I wanted to do it again, and thus, my second novel, "Bonita verses Ivan Rastaman and the Monkey-go-round."