👋 Hello wordnerd!
Have you been keeping well? I hope your year is going well! If you’re at work, I sympathise. If you’re holidaying, I’m envious.
I recently received the proofed manuscript back for A Rockstar Has Exploded, the first book in the Seen in Silverbridge series.
📖 The Editing Journey
Now, the first edit pass had over three thousand edit suggestions, whereas this proof pass only had 180.
I’m counting that as a win.
When I was looking for an editor, I sent the first chapter of the book to a few different editors for a sample edit. While all the editors were proficient, I found that some of the edit suggestions dulled the soul of my voice in the prose.
It got me thinking: how much should I prioritise following grammatical correctness versus retaining my unique voice?
What’s the right balance between technical correctness and style?
🎩 How I Think About Style
There are all sorts of ways to write and all sorts of ways to read. Different strokes for different folks. But here are my feelings on why I enjoy reading what I read, and how I let that influence my writing.
- Pacing. I like it when things happen in a book. I know that sounds silly, because things should happen in every book, but all too often the plot takes a backseat to inner monologues. There’s too much navel-gazing in a lot of books, in my opinion. I like Ken Follett and J.K. Rowling because they pack a load of characters and plot into every chapter, and there’s the perfect amount of emotional intrigue and tension without slowing things down. I find myself more than happy to read about the emotional tribulations of characters because there’s a good balance of action.
- Diction. The words used. Vocabulary. Some writers labour over every sentence, making their prose sinuous and labyrinthine, luxuriating in their prolix desire to turn every paragraph into lengthy peregrinations through bucolic fields of words. Not for me. I like reading clean prose. It doesn’t have to be Hemingway clean, but clean enough to hear the author (or narrator’s) voice in my head. I find my first draft is always crammed with long words, probably a sub-conscious attempt to impress the reader because I feel like an imposter. I do a read-through pass and eliminate useless words and this usually shaves my draft down considerably.
- Dialogue. Talking has got to be one of my favourite things in the world. It makes sense then that being able to hear the characters in my head is important to me, and anything hindering that process should be eliminated. Have you ever read an Irvine Welsh book? The author behind Trainspotting fills his books with phonetic Scottish accents like: “Couldnae sleep last night though. Worried ah’d sortay blow it likesay, ken? Its jist when cats see ‘Craigroyston’ oan the form, they likesay think, well everybody thit went tae Craigie’s a waster, right?” Yeah, what? That can be exhausting to read after a while.
I recently finished The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly (loved it by the way!) and she did the same with her Irish characters, although she used the device sparingly and to great effect. Sally Rooney doesn’t use quotations marks in her books, she tags her dialogue with a hyphen at the front. It’s a bit of a gimmick but after a while, you get used to it. Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club, Choke) gives most of his characters a potty mouth. His dialogue is filled with swears and explicit naughty-naughties. It’s shocking but funny.
🎨 How do you find your own style?
No idea.
Apparently you keep writing, editing, writing, re-writing, publishing, writing some more, and after a few hundred hours of writing you’ll develop your own distinctive voice. The last thing I want to do is try to have a distinctive voice. It would be forced, and nobody wants to read a try-hard’s voice.
It’s more important to tell a good story. Substance over style.
For these first couple of books we’re releasing (the six-book Seen in Silverbridge series), I’ve trieA Rockstar Has Explodedple as possible. Here’s what’s happening, this is how the characters think and feel, and hopefully the story and characters are interesting enough that the reader continues reading. Story comes first and the style will come later, I’m sure.
I’m like a kid learning how to paint within the lines. Once I get the basics sorted, I can branch out and try something new.
That’s why I ended up accepting the vast majority of Tarryn’s edit suggestions, even though there were over three damn thousand of them.
🗣️ Your Unique Voice
Ultimately, the goal is to tell a compelling story in a way that feels authentic to you. While grammatical correctness provides a foundation, your unique voice is what will truly resonate with readers.
The only way to do this is to trust your gut. TRUST IT!
📣 What I’m reading: House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
House of Leaves is a genre-mash of horror, romance and satire. It’s got all these weird formatting changes in it where the text is flipped upside down and back to front, and random pictures and a bunch of footnotes on basically every page.
Weird, right?
It’s like… interactive, almost. I’m not sure I like it, but it was gifted to me by my editing mentor, so I’m gonna stick it out.
Thanks for reading and great to catch up. Chat soon!