writing a novel – pulling out the weeds

poetry and prose about place

writing a novel – pulling out the weeds

I have completed Draft Three of my novel ‘Crossing at a Walk’. The entire story is there. If I add more ‘story’ now, I will only confuse my plot and my readers. Next I have to concentrate on honing every sentence, including dealing with the oddities I allow to creep into my writing. As if I am growing a garden, I have to find and pull out the weeds.

I think these are different for every writer and writers have to learn these for themselves. For me, the culprits are:

writing in the passive voice.

using the word ‘that’. I never use ‘which’.

using adverbs, although I (quickly) drilled this one out of my system.

repeating the same word in adjacent lines or adjacent paragraphs.

using phrases like ‘she stood and … ‘, ‘I opened the door and …’ , ‘I looked at her and …’ – I sometimes tend to breathe for my characters!

using colorless words like ‘felt’, ‘drove’, ‘went’, ‘wondered’, ‘just’ and so on.

putting two spaces after every period – I learned to type on a typewriter!

I also have to do careful editing with respect to tense and person. I tell Sadie’s story in the third person and past tense. Tom speaks in the first person and present tense. I also have an angler who likes to fish just below the covered bridge and always speaks in the second person (something new I am trying).

my husband when he was a boy, fishing on the North Branch of the Rusagonis River, under the covered bridge … this covered bridge is now gone from our community

My husband is not looking forward to the completion of Draft Four. It ends with me reading him the entire novel, chapter by chapter, every evening, an hour before ‘Coronation Street’ on TV. Until we finish. Poor fellow.

Written by jane tims

April 13, 2015 at 4:00 pm

Posted in covered bridges, writing a novel

Tagged with Crossing at a Walk, editing, person, tense, writing, writing a novel, writing process, writing weeds

3 Responses

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You mean there is more to writing a book/story than just putting words down on paper?

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ladysighs

April 13, 2015 at 8:51 pm

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- Ha! The first draft is so much fun and then it starts to seem like work! Jane
  
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  jane tims
  
  April 13, 2015 at 9:04 pm
  
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  - I was teasing of course. Even in some of my ditsy poems I am looking at verb tense and other things. It must be a nightmare to go through and make sure things line up.
    
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    ladysighs
    
    April 13, 2015 at 9:09 pm