This one was super useful and very much about the mechanics of fiction writing (and self-editing); I've been selective about the 'how to' books I've read, and this is the first I've come across that I felt I could usefully study. I was pleased to see I've learned to look for many of these things in my own writing (sometimes intuitively and without a name for them - e.g. proportion), giving me a better chance of doing them well, not that surprised to spot other habits to which I am prone but which, pointed out by this book, do tend to weaken my stuff (e.g. as and -ing formulations), and delighted to learn a wholly new concept which I think will help me a lot if I can figure it out (narrative distance).
There are useful short checklists at the end of each chapter but here is a list of ideas, terminology and traps especially helpful as an aide memoire for me.
Show and Tell
To write exposition at length - describing your characters' pasts or events that happened before the story began or any information your readers might need to understand your plot - is to engage your readers' intellects. What you want to do is engage their emotions. (10)
Narrative summary has its uses, the main one being to vary the rhythm and texture of your writing. Scenes are immediate and engaging, but scene after scene without a break can become relentless and exhausting ... (12)
Characterisation and Exposition
Point of View
If the first person invites intimacy and the omniscient narrator allows for perspective, the third person strikes a balance between the two. ... the third-person point of view as a continuum, running from narrative intimacy to narrative distance. (47)
Allowing your characters' emotions to steep into your descriptions also lets you use description more freely. ... When description also conveys a character's personality or mood, you can use it to vary your pace or add texture without interrupting the flow. ... The emotions have to go somewhere, and the language of your descriptions is a good place for them. (50-51)
Proportion
Fiction writers [today] are much freer to use ellipses, to leave more of the mundane, bridging action up to their readers' imaginations. (68)
Properly proportioned does not mean textureless. There is always room for philosophical asides that reveal the narrator's character, subplots that may resonate with the main plot, forays into odd corners of background that make the fictional world more three-dimensional. The trick is telling the difference between digressions that harmonise with the story (even in odd and mysterious ways) and those that hang on the story like limpets. ... ask yourself what interests you the most, what really comes to life, what involves and intrigues. What moves or fascinates or disturbs or pleases you? ... If most of what you enjoyed doesn't obviously advance your plot, then maybe you need to change your plot. (74-75)
[Y]our viewpoint character's interest at the moment should control the degree of detail you put into your description. (77)
Dialogue Mechanics
Resist the Urge to Explain. (84)
See How It Sounds
[H]ave your characters misunderstand each other once in a while. Have them answer the unspoken question rather than the one asked out loud. Have them talk at cross-purposes. Have them hedge. Disagree. Lie. (104)
Interior Monologue
So what's the right amount of interior monologue? ... The balance you hit depends on what your characters are feeling, how important their feelings are to the story at that point, how you want the scene to flow, and, especially, how evident their feelings are in other ways. (122)
[G]aining control of your narrative distance can open the door for all sorts of effects, and this is even more true when you work interior monologue into the mix. (131)
Easy Beats
[B]eats allow your readers to picture your dialogue taking place. ... Where you want the tension high ... pare the beats down to a bare minimum. (149)
Breaking Up Is Easy to Do
Once Is Usually Enough
Reread your manuscript, keeping in mind what you are trying to do with each paragraph - what character point you're trying to establish, what sort of mood you're trying to create, what background you're trying to suggest. In how many different ways are you accomplishing each of these ends? (188)
Sophistication
Both the as construction and the -ing construction ... take a bit of action ("She pulled off her gloves") and tuck it away into a dependent clause ("Pulling off her gloves ..."). This tends to place some of your action at one remove from your reader, to make the actions seem incidental, unimportant. (193)
[Only use poetic figures of speech where you want to draw the reader's attention. (202)]
Voice
[M]ost of the great stylists have developed their style in service of their stories. (219)
When you take the time and energy to capture precisely a particular state of mind, make sure it's a state of mind that's worth capturing - a turning point in your main character's life, a moment of realisation ... (222)
When you come to a sentence or phrase that gives you a little jab of pleasure, that makes you say, "Ah, yes," that sings ... try to absorb their rhythm or fullness or simplicity or freshness or whatever made them sing to you. What you've been reading aloud will represent, for now, your voice at its most effective. (228)
... those passages that make you wince or that seem to fall flat ... Is the writing flat? Strained? Awkward? Obvious? Pedestrian? Forced? Vague or abstract? (229)
There are useful short checklists at the end of each chapter but here is a list of ideas, terminology and traps especially helpful as an aide memoire for me.
*
Show and Tell
To write exposition at length - describing your characters' pasts or events that happened before the story began or any information your readers might need to understand your plot - is to engage your readers' intellects. What you want to do is engage their emotions. (10)
Narrative summary has its uses, the main one being to vary the rhythm and texture of your writing. Scenes are immediate and engaging, but scene after scene without a break can become relentless and exhausting ... (12)
Characterisation and Exposition
Point of View
If the first person invites intimacy and the omniscient narrator allows for perspective, the third person strikes a balance between the two. ... the third-person point of view as a continuum, running from narrative intimacy to narrative distance. (47)
Allowing your characters' emotions to steep into your descriptions also lets you use description more freely. ... When description also conveys a character's personality or mood, you can use it to vary your pace or add texture without interrupting the flow. ... The emotions have to go somewhere, and the language of your descriptions is a good place for them. (50-51)
Proportion
Fiction writers [today] are much freer to use ellipses, to leave more of the mundane, bridging action up to their readers' imaginations. (68)
Properly proportioned does not mean textureless. There is always room for philosophical asides that reveal the narrator's character, subplots that may resonate with the main plot, forays into odd corners of background that make the fictional world more three-dimensional. The trick is telling the difference between digressions that harmonise with the story (even in odd and mysterious ways) and those that hang on the story like limpets. ... ask yourself what interests you the most, what really comes to life, what involves and intrigues. What moves or fascinates or disturbs or pleases you? ... If most of what you enjoyed doesn't obviously advance your plot, then maybe you need to change your plot. (74-75)
[Y]our viewpoint character's interest at the moment should control the degree of detail you put into your description. (77)
Dialogue Mechanics
Resist the Urge to Explain. (84)
See How It Sounds
[H]ave your characters misunderstand each other once in a while. Have them answer the unspoken question rather than the one asked out loud. Have them talk at cross-purposes. Have them hedge. Disagree. Lie. (104)
Interior Monologue
So what's the right amount of interior monologue? ... The balance you hit depends on what your characters are feeling, how important their feelings are to the story at that point, how you want the scene to flow, and, especially, how evident their feelings are in other ways. (122)
[G]aining control of your narrative distance can open the door for all sorts of effects, and this is even more true when you work interior monologue into the mix. (131)
Easy Beats
[B]eats allow your readers to picture your dialogue taking place. ... Where you want the tension high ... pare the beats down to a bare minimum. (149)
Breaking Up Is Easy to Do
Once Is Usually Enough
Reread your manuscript, keeping in mind what you are trying to do with each paragraph - what character point you're trying to establish, what sort of mood you're trying to create, what background you're trying to suggest. In how many different ways are you accomplishing each of these ends? (188)
Sophistication
Both the as construction and the -ing construction ... take a bit of action ("She pulled off her gloves") and tuck it away into a dependent clause ("Pulling off her gloves ..."). This tends to place some of your action at one remove from your reader, to make the actions seem incidental, unimportant. (193)
[Only use poetic figures of speech where you want to draw the reader's attention. (202)]
Voice
[M]ost of the great stylists have developed their style in service of their stories. (219)
When you take the time and energy to capture precisely a particular state of mind, make sure it's a state of mind that's worth capturing - a turning point in your main character's life, a moment of realisation ... (222)
When you come to a sentence or phrase that gives you a little jab of pleasure, that makes you say, "Ah, yes," that sings ... try to absorb their rhythm or fullness or simplicity or freshness or whatever made them sing to you. What you've been reading aloud will represent, for now, your voice at its most effective. (228)
... those passages that make you wince or that seem to fall flat ... Is the writing flat? Strained? Awkward? Obvious? Pedestrian? Forced? Vague or abstract? (229)
