Story world. In First Half, where I’m still working on setting up the story world, I'm extra careful to include the right details. By the time I get to Second Half, suddenly my main character who's been raised in the wilderness since infancy knows how to read a clock. I don’t think so. To help with keeping the world consistent, I'm drawing sketches of buildings and maps, making lists of technology, foods, power sources, etc.
Voice. In First Half, I've worked hard to eliminate words like "but", "walked" and "looked" and to write from my character's perspective, making those interesting internal observations that she'd make. A Wordle on First Half shows me I’ve used the word “was” 18 times. In Second Half, I’ve used “was” 284 times!
Um...I think a little more work is needed.
-- Andrea
'Was' and 'as' are the magical words I'm after at the moment...but 'looked' isn't a bad idea. I haven't heard that 'but' is a trouble word before. What do you do with those? ('Cause I'm sure I have a plenty :) )
ReplyDeleteI think I overuse "But" so I try not to, and often find a sentence works well without it if I just delete the word.
DeleteMy crit buddies also pointed out that I used "walked" a lot. I think that means I was writing too much about how characters moved around instead of writing their story.
haha
ReplyDeleteI definitely have the problem of working on the first half much more than the second half. That's why after I edit the first half (for the bazillionth time) I take a break and reflect over the characters and what I like and don't like about them, much as I would if I were a reader. Then I go back in the middle of the book, and the things that don't seem in character jump out more. It's been effective for me to catch my mistakes :)
Tiffany, that sounds like a good strategy! I think I might also read through all of the main character's dialogue without the rest of the story, to see if she still sounds in character for the whole book (I'm guessing she doesn't).
DeleteThis is a great post and full of reminders. There is something about first half of books and second halfs. I think part of it has to do with the fact that we know our characters better in the second half. I really need to use Wordle more!
ReplyDeleteChristy, it is true that it's a bit easier to do the character part in the second half, so I don't pay attention to it as much. I think in the second half I'm focusing so much more on getting story events to weave together coherently, rather than on how it sounds as I do it.
ReplyDeleteI've never thought about this First Half/ Second Half business before, but now I'm positive I have this problem too!
ReplyDeleteHmm... I guess I might need to take some time and see where my fuzzy zone is and how I might smooth it out.
Good post.
--Lora
I'm quite certain I have the First Half/Second Half problem too.
ReplyDeleteYay for Wordle. Things I look for in my manuscript: just, almost, looked, there was. As I'm in the Second Half, I seem to be falling back on the character constantly asking herself questions in internal dialogue, a habit I thought I broke myself of in the First Half. I'll have to start searching question marks, I'm afraid.
ReplyDeleteKate, I have that question problem too! I find it makes my MC seem younger than she really is, and I'm working on getting rid of a lot of them.
ReplyDelete