As an editor as well as a writer, it’s hard to push those two sides of my brain aside when I read a book for pleasure and/or review. Reading has been a passion of mine since I was a kid and devoured story after story from the local library, or even the Reader’s Digest Condensed Books my mother used to buy at the thrift store on the corner.
Back then, I rarely read with a critical eye, not knowing what that actually was. It wasn’t until adulthood when I took a few creative writing courses to learn how to effectively write fiction , which was different from nonfiction.
In addition to the newspaper columns I wrote back then, I started writing reviews of books and theatre that appeared in regional and even national publications. That was a time when a book review for a major newspaper was a critical review, which meant addressing the craft of writing as much as the story and plot. I still tend to do that today, which is why I sometimes struggle with writing a review of a novel that has a great premise, and even great characters, but there are significant flaws with the craft.
Such was the case with a book that I recently stopped reading. I won’t share the title, as I prefer not to call out another author online, but it had issues from the get-go that kept irritating me. I tried to ignore them, especially the rather minor ones like people shrugging their shoulders and picking up something and holding it in their hands. There’s never a need to write that a character is using his or her hands to hold something. That’s pretty obvious.
As is the shrugging shoulders and nodding heads. One doesn’t often shrug anything but a shoulder, and that mention only needs to happen for a particular effect, like maybe lifting one shoulder in an elegant shrug. It’s also obvious that one nods with their head, not any other body part. I’ve often wondered if I’m the only one who finds those little things disruptive to the flow of the narrative and maybe just a bit of an insult. As if the reader can’t visualize the action without those extra words.
When I’m copy editing for a client, I fix the nodding heads and shrugging shoulders, as well as clean up things like: Sam asked Fred if he’d like a piece of the cake. Fred nodded his head and said, “Yes.”
The fix: Sam asked Fred if he’d like a piece of the cake. Fred nodded. “It looks delicious.”
Getting back to the book that I stopped reading the other day. I could’ve overlooked those minor issues, but there was so much telling instead of showing, that I stopped a little over halfway through the story. There were sentences like, Fred felt excited. Or Fred felt angry or Fred felt frustrated.
One of my creative writing teachers encouraged the class to find every time we used the word “felt” and remove it. Don’t tell a reader how a character feels, show the reader. For instance, with Fred:
Anger burned so deep in Fred it bordered on fury that threatened to make him explode with the heat of it all.
Excitement started as a small tingle on Fred’s skin and quickly built to a racing heart and fluttering in his stomach.
Fred tossed the report across his desk knocking the Styrofoam cup over and spilling coffee. He’d read it over and over and still nothing. “Damn.”
The author, Anne Lamott talks about shitty first drafts in her book, Bird by Bird, and encourages writers to get that first draft down without editing along the way. The challenge to make a book sing, comes with the rewrites and careful editing to fix all those awkward things we so often write while getting the story from beginning to end. Things like telling and not showing. Not only is the book a good resource, it’s written with her signature humor that makes it so much fun to read.
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To switch this train of thought to a different track, I’ve been wanting to share information that has come from a couple of newsletters related to the business side of writing. First is a blog post about writing effective taglines. They are often a challenge to write and Ellen Buikema has helpful tips over at the Writers In the Storm Blog that is well worth a read. Her comprehensive 7-step process makes sense.
To clarify for new authors, the tagline is not the logline, which is more of a summary of action. The tagline shows readers how the story will connect to them emotionally, not intellectually.
Even authors who’ve been in this game for many years can benefit from reading her post. The use of taglines has become more popular, appearing on book covers, the back of books, and as a bolded first sentence in the book description on retail sites. It’s beneficial for authors to learn how to write the most effective tagline to entice a reader to buy the book.
Another important part of a book listing on retail sites is the use of keywords. That’s something I’ve not been particularly good at parsing out, but Dave Chesson at Kindleprenour has good information on how to choose profitable Amazon keywords that’s easy to understand and to follow. His site has other articles that help authors keep up with the ever-changing world of digital publishing. He keeps up with the ever evolving use of algorithms and how book descriptions, and keywords, affect placement at online retail sites.
I highly recommend both Writer’s in the Storm, and Kindleprenour to authors who are publishing a new book any time soon. At Writers in the Storm contributors to the blog, also share tips on improving craft, which is as important, if not more so, than marketing and tech advice. Only rarely does a stunning tagline propel a poorly written book into the best-seller rankings.
If you’re a writer, what are your thoughts about this?
Readers, do those minor things I mentioned bother you? Do you even notice them?
That’s all from me for today folks. I hope you have a pleasant weekend. Whatever you have planned, stay safe and pray for peace.