Editing, Essential to Writing
While you may not do hundreds of revisions when you finish a piece of writing, it is important that you do several revisions and ‘edit the editing’ over again. While looking for the regular problems, there are other things a writer (and editor) may reflect on too.
I just finished reading, Pray For Silence (Minotaur Books, 2010), a novel by Linda Castillo. It was an excellent murder mystery, ‘who-dun-it’ book that kept me engaged from start to finish. The first one I have ever read in the murder mystery genre, so I found it interesting. I was also paying particular attention to plotting, and characterization as the genre was new to me and I wanted to see if the writing complexities had to be different from another type of genre.
The plot kept me guessing which was great. I wasn’t sure where the writer was going with the scenes, and they had the up and down movement of interest levels that kept me turning the page. The characterization was good, but I became stumped when the main character was introduced. In the first chapter, we meet an officer and discover how he comes upon the murder scene, written via third person. This officer becomes a very minor character as the book proceeds, and this is the first and last chapter that is ever written in the third person point of view (different from books I have normally read).
In the second chapter, the point of view switches to first person, and we are in the mind of the main character, the Chief of Police. Even when her name, Katie, is mentioned, I still never clue in that she is female. I just thought it was an odd last name for a man.
Automatically I had formed the stereotypical opinion that this person must be a man (and a big one to boot). It took into the third chapter and some backward page flipping to discern that the main character was indeed a woman. I was thrown off a bit and I never really did form a clear picture of the main character in my mind throughout the book.
I figure this point is a great thing to look out for when editing a piece. Can we assume that the reader may form a connection to characters based simply on stereotypical viewpoints? If so, perhaps we should base our editing on that implication and be absolutely sure to allow the reader to form a clear picture of the character in their minds before the book proceeds too far.
The other thing I picked up on as I was reading, although minor, kept striking me as odd. Every character at one point or another would look at the main character and reply to some dialogue – ‘with a sage look’, which taken from the dictionary means a wise look. It seems to be a favorite term of the author’s and I was just curious why the editor didn’t pick up on it in the final edits. I can see using the term more than once for a particular character, as that may be a trademark ‘look’ that they have. But, when it became interspersed between many characters, I had a hard time with the term and thought that a different word choice would be appropriate.
I am interested in reading the other books that Linda Castillo has written, although I will still be on the lookout for her writing style to see if the editing has changed at all. I don’t think I am a murder mystery genre fan, but this author did engage me enough that I am intrigued to read more of her work, editing aside.
(A sidenote: When I talked to my daughter (who lent me the books) about my findings, she commented, “Can’t you just enjoy the book without looking at the writing!” I guess not.)
Tags: editing
