A. Marie Silver

A. Marie Silver

Misadventures in Editing: Switching Things Up

Ever wondered what a writer goes through when editing a work-in-progress?  Here’s your chance to find out.  Take a look at some of the conversations I’ve had with my characters while editing my current novel. If you’ve ever had something like this happen to you, please tell me in the comments.

“Okay,” I said, trying to bring the meeting to an end. “Let’s take a vote.”

“I object!” Dr. Palmer shouted from his corner.

“You don’t get a vote,” Celeste sneered.

“Darn tootin’,” Amethyst chimed in.

“Well, now that that’s been settled, let’s get on with this,” I said.  We’d been at this for a few days now.  I don’t have time for all of these round table meetings.  At this rate, I’ll never get anything written. “”All in favor of me switching point-of-views–”

“Wait!” Amethyst waved her hands in the air.

The whole room groaned.

“What now?” Celeste asked.

“Just explain this one more time,” Amethyst pleaded. “Why is it you’re abandoning my scenes in favor of Dr. Palmer’s?”

“Because I’m the only one in the room with any intelligence.” One would think Dr. Palmer would sound confident when saying this, but this truth is quite the opposite.  He sounded tired and defeated.

“Says your straight jacket,” Amethyst cracked.

“I’m not abandoning your scenes,” I said….for the one millionth time. “I think we can all agree that right now, my writing is crap.  That’s why I want to switch to Dr. Palmer’s scenes.  He’s the antagonist.  The very creepy, annoying, slimy bad guy. Nobody cares if his scenes are crap.”

“I do,” Dr. Palmer muttered.

Amethyst chewed on her lip, pondering her thoughts. I know she was doing this because I was the puppeteer, writing out her stage directions. “So then, when you stop writing his crap, you’ll write my scenes and they’ll be awesome?”

“That’s the idea,” I nodded.  “Now, let’s get back to the vote. All in favor of me switching point-of-views…temporarily…say aye.”

“Aye!” They all said in unison, except for Dr. Palmer who was shaking his head.

“Fantastic! Now get back to your places.  It’s going to be a long night.”

 

2 Responses

  1. Not just me then. Don’t you hate it when some characters just can’t be bothered but think they can rely on their (perceived) stereotypical good looks, or the ones who are supposed to be comic start inventing their own ominous and not funny quirks?

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A. Marie Smith

Your short bio telling the story of why you are a writer and the things that you think are important.