Check Out My New Site!

Hey Everyone!

I have a brand new blog site at https://www.innovativeediting.com/blog/, where I'll continue to post my crazy quirks and writing insights every Monday and Wednesday.

Starting next week, you'll also find posts specifically geared toward explaining writer-related jargon... challenging you to take your book-in-the-making seriously... and encouraging you that, yeah, you really can do this.

While you're checking all that out, feel free to download the special report "Writing Tips 101" or reach out for a free consultation about the novel or non-fiction project you're working on. Wherever you are in the process, I'd love to hear about it.

Happy writings!

Jeannette DiLouie
Chief Executive Editor
Innovative Editing

www.InnovativeEditing.com
717-312-4436

Unless You’re a Robot, Don’t Do This

I started reading a book yesterday. I also finished reading it yesterday.

It wasn’t because I was transfixed. I put it down after five pages because I was bored.

I picked it up because I was in the mood for a thriller, because the title caught my attention and the description seemed compelling. It’s by a fairly famous author who I’d heard about before but never actually read.

If you’re into the thriller scene, I’m sure you’d recognize his name if I wrote it here.

I’d say he doesn’t deserve such recognition, but I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say that, maybe, the novel I bought was an off-book for him. Maybe he’s normally just as thrilling as his reputation says he is, and this was an anomaly.

Problem is, even if that is true, I won’t ever be picking up another one of his stories again based on this one example. That’s what happens when an author employs:

·         Stilted sentence structure

·         Clipped conversation

·         Too many “main” protagonists

·         Over-detailed descriptions

·         Gratuitous explanations of obvious world issues, like readers are idiots who live in caves

·         Not a single contraction!!!!

Here’s the thing about that last point… People don’t think or speak in picture-perfect grammatical sentences. They slur their words together with contractions.

When you’re chatting with a friend, you don’t say, “I am sorry I was not able to go to your party last night.” Or if you’re discussing a project with your boss, you don’t explain, “I am sure this will not work unless we assign Casey to it.”

You don’t talk like that because that’s how robots talk, and you’re (hopefully) not a robot. So you instead say, “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to go to your party last night” or “I’m sure this won’t work unless we assign Casey to it.”

As fact goes, so should fiction. So the same applies to character creation. Unless they’re robots – or readers are supposed to roll their eyes and toss the book aside after five pages – the personalities depicted in novels should use contractions when they’re speaking. And so should the writer.

Trust me: It’s just the right thing to do.

Keep Writing!!!! Unless This Kind of Thing Happens. Then Who Cares About Your Novel.

I’m writing this blogpost really late today. Why? Because my beloved younger sister went into labor on Monday night.

I’ve never had kids. So when it comes down to it, I’m no expert on what it’s like to carry a baby inside me for nine months and then go through hours giving birth. But from everything I hear, that latter part is not a fun experience. So knowing that my kid sister (not really a kid at 28 years old, but still) was going through such trials and travails was more than a bit distracting.

I did get 2,000 more words written to Designing America on Monday night. But Tuesday was an absolute wash. I was practically crying at my desk that morning, drove up to Pennsylvania (where she lives) that afternoon, and then waited and waited and waited some more that evening.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my novel-in-the-making. I love the time period (Revolutionary War), I love the historical details, I love the characters and – sure – I love my own creative process.

It’s just that I love my sister so exceptionally, overwhelmingly much more. So while my fretting away over her experience didn’t do her a single bit of good, I can’t say that I regret focusing on her instead of my story.

There are just some things in life that are more important than NaNoWriMo. And family is one of them.