Welcome to the third week of the Rainbow Editing method!  We're halfway through!  Before I begin the list, however, I want to let you all know that Camp NaNoWriMo is beginning in just a little under a week!  For those of you familiar with the concept of regular NaNo, it is much the same, but with the option of setting your own word count goal, and the ability to create "cabins" of fellow writers for moral support and discussion throughout the month.  My first Camp sessions were last year, and I had a fantastic experience.  I recommend Camp for people who are thinking of trying NaNoWriMo to get into a writing habit, but aren't sure if they can handle the full 50k goal that November sets. For more information, you can check out their website here (which will open in a new window for you).  If you're feeling supportive and would like to cheer me on, my profile page is here, and it will chart my progress.  Now: on to the editing!

"Be still, so that your characters can speak for themselves and come alive in their own way." - Frederick Buechner

Green's area of focus is Character and Point of View.  I'm not talking about figuring out who your characters are - if you still aren't sure about that, even after a first draft, you're not ready to go over the rainbow yet.  With editing, you're looking at Character in terms of whether or not it fits or not.  Would your main character use euphemisms like "golly jeepers" or would she just rip right out on a streak that would make a minister blush?   E
verything on this list is rooted in one purpose, the most important one of all for fiction writers: connect your reader to your characters.  These are both some of the best tricks for doing that, and some of the biggest things to avoid. 

• Don't tell a trait when showing it will do.  This is close to last week's Orange list ... so it's no surprise that it's the first on the list.  If a character is nervous, show him picking at a loose thread on his sleeve while he waits to meet someone, instead of just saying that he nervously sat in the foyer.  If they're impatient, have them tap their feet or repeatedly check the clock.  If they don't want to be there, they might hunch in their chair or wrap their arms around themselves.  When you run into trouble assigning visible evidence of an emotion or trait, try going to a public place and watching people, or remembering how people you know act.  Or, of course, you could always check out The Emotion Thesaurus by Becca Puglisi and Angela Ackerman.  I've been following them on Twitter for about a year now, and they're both fantastic women and incredibly helpful.  Tell them "msfeistus" said hi.
  

• Backstories and Flashbacks: Yes, knowing your main character's history (and some of the supporting cast's, too) is necessary to crafting a plot that your readers can sink their teeth into and really care about.  The tricky part is knowing when showing that history to them directly is necessary!  That flashback about the main character playing poker with her uncle is cute, and telling, but while she's in the middle of a high-stakes game that could cost her the last of the money in her wallet, four hours from home with a broken-down rental car... are you really going to want to put the brakes on and tell your reader about it?   Maybe she could just coolly rearrange the cards in her hand and hope to herself that all her uncle's bluffing lessons after Thanksgiving dinners paid off, instead.  It tells the reader what you need them to know without yanking them out of that vital moment.
  
• Why are they saying it?  Or, in other words: check your dialogue.  This is, in my opinion, the worst mistake that can be made with dialogue, and lazy to boot.  It's easy enough to have two characters talking about last night's car accident outside their workplace, and yes, in some cases it could make for some really snappy dialogue.  But in most cases, it's much better to show one of them having to walk two extra blocks because their usual parking spot is taken up by traffic cones and yellow tape, because they're still cleaning up the broken glass and dealing with the bent road sign on the corner, right?  You can see "car accident" written all over that without someone else having to say it out loud.
• Pick a point of view and follow it.  I'm not just talking about first-person vs. third-person, I'm talking about whose head you're letting the reader into.  If you're primarily putting Elwood in the driver's seat, stopping in the middle of the highway and deciding to let Jake drive isn't going to work so well.  If you're going to need to show multiple characters' points of view, be sure to divide the attention you give to them equal, or it's going to jar your reader.  For example: From the Desk... follows Buster around almost 100% of the time. Somewhere in my second chapter, I got a little too far into his friend Cameron's head and started telling the reader what he was thinking ... after I'd just spent over 20 pages showing the reader how the world looks according to Buster.  It didn't fit with the flow, and I had to rework the passage.
• Don't just describe... transport.  If a scene is particularly dramatic or vital, your setting and descriptions should match your character's mood.  I'm not saying it has to be raining in every sad scene or that lightning should strike every time your villain breaks into peals of maniacal laughter - though being able to feasibly write those kind of scenes is ridiculously rewarding sometimes (she said, glancing at her outline for book #2).  What I'm trying to say is that any setting can be emotionally charged, and any action can be written to betray how someone's feeling while they're doing it.  When Katrina walks, is she noticing the way the sunlight catches glasses in a store window and makes them sparkle?   If Marvin is drinking his tea, is he huddled around the cup or leaned back in his chair with his feet up?   The same alley can look like a wide open space to a murderer or as small as a coffin to the person he's followed there... catch my drift?

Next week we're going into a blue period: there are two shades of blue in the editing spectrum!  Please come back and join me for Sky Blue, where we'll start listening to our writing and not just reading it.

Welcome back!  For the second week of the Rainbow Editing checklist, we're covering orange!  Symbolically, orange is a color of action and intelligence, so I thought it appropriate for the over-quipped, sometimes under-used "Show, Don't Tell".  The thing I've discovered about SDT: the showing doesn't apply so much to over-detailing every pebble on the road and piece of litter as it does the emotional content of a scene.  But we'll get to that. 

 Ready for the list?  Let's go!

• Main Events are for big scenes, not summaries.  At first glance, this might seem like a no-brainer.... and for the most part, it is.  For example: having your character leave work and then segue straight to the next morning, when he starts to think about how he'll go about a normal day after being mugged, is a sure-fire way to make your readers spam you with hate mail, or, if they're only beta-readers who know where you live, storm your porch with pitchforks and torches.  Not to mention that, uh, what writer doesn't look forward to writing a scene full of tension and that delicious, delicious drama?
• Resist the urge to explain (R.U.E).  I was surprised how guilty I was of this in a few scenes.  What RUE boils down to is that you need to trust your reader.  If someone's running a bath, you don't have to tell them exactly how they turn on the water, or that they have to wait for it to fill up, or test the temperature before getting in.  Everyone's run a bath.  Most people have started a car.  And even if only a small portion of the population has built their own computer tower from scratch, you still don't need to walk them through every step of the process.  Times like this are when you shouldn't show the external details: they're when you should turn that showing focus inward and let your reader know what's running through your character's mind: but only if they're thoughts worth showing.  For goodness' sake, they don't need to know that your protagonist's nose itches.
• Once Is Usually Enough:  If you hark back to the Sophistication checklist, you may remember that I said that routines only need to be described once.  If you're going to describe that routine, do it at a place in the plot where its impact on the character or plot is at its clearest, for maximum effect.   Finally, be wary of characters who have similar growth paths ... if two need to grapple with the death of a family member, let one carry the burden and give the other a different means toward development.  If you can't find one, maybe that second character isn't necessary after all.  I know, I know: it terrified me to think that someone I created and poured life into might be unnecessary, too.  It doesn't mean you can't use them at all.  Just save them for later.  It will be okay.  I promise.
• Don't overuse favorite words, phrases, or stylistic effects. As you go through your work, make note of things that you use in abundance (one of mine was, strangely enough, the phrase "a minimum of fuss").  Certain characters will develop quirks: polishing their glasses while they think, rubbing the back of their neck when they're nervous, shaking their leg under the table when they're bored.  That's fine!  It helps give a clearer picture of them to their reader.  Just make sure they aren't doing it in every. single. scene.  In terms of stylistic effects, I have a writer friend who's very fond of the "fake-out": making something seem much more or less important than it really is... but she is careful how she uses it, and to what effect.  Just like the description of a routine I discussed above, use your favorite stylistic tricks where they'll have the most impact on your plot!  If you start with a fake-out, for example, you may be setting your reader up to not trust you at all... and that's hardly the relationship you want to have, now, is it?
• Try not to re-describe, even with in-character recaps.  Yes, once Big Event A happens in your plot, it is very likely that not everyone in your cast of characters will be around.  The poor soul who experienced it is going to have to tell everyone else.  But RUE!  To paraphrase Mater the Truck: they remember, they was there, too.  Which means that they only really need to sit through one explanation in order to understand the lasting impact it had on your poor soul... unless, perhaps, there's a difference in the telling between people that might show something telling.  In that case, just skim the parts you've already covered with a dialogue beat (we'll get to beats in the blue sections, soon).   

Overall, the main theme of the Orange checklist is to trust your reader, and assume that they are relatively intelligent.  They'll remember what you've already told them, and they have everyday experiences of their own to bring to the table.  You don't want to show them how life works, in general: you want to show them how life works for this group of characters that you've created, and you want them to become involved and care about the way it ends out.  I don't know about you, but telling me how great a book is doesn't really make me care about it.  If you sit me down on a couch, put that book in my hand, and say "Here.  Read this.  I'll go occupy myself while you enjoy it"?  I will.  I may, in fact, forget that you're there.  And isn't that what we want our readers to do?

Next week, get ready to go green, when I cover character and point of view.  See you then!

This week marks the first in a series of seven posts about the Rainbow Editing method I discussed in my last entry.  Are you ready?  Let's paint our manuscripts red!  I know that for a lot of people, the thought of red pen conjures up images of merciless markings by teachers ... which is probably why I chose it for my first group of editing criteria: what Self-Editing for Writers refers to as Sophistication.  It's a far less intimidating way of saying "spelling, punctuation, and style".  Here are the items that fall on my red Sophistication checklist:

• Action sentences which start with "As", or verbs ending in "ing".  Replace these with a more active voice.  Crossing the street makes the street seem more important than the person doing so.  Buster crossed the street is much more lively and unlikely to make your reader remember they're .... well, reading.
  

• Adverbs: you know, those pesky yet ever so tantalizing descriptive words ending in "ly".  Easily, you could pepper your writing with them ... but why say that someone did something angrily instead of showing how they convey that emotion?  Which is the clearer picture: Angrily, Jeremiah served Daniel his drink or Jeremiah set Daniel's drink down with a force that rattled the ice in his glass?  .... Yeah, I thought so.  That being said, I must confess that adverbs are my worst enemy, especially when I'm rushing to meet a word count or get an idea out of my head, and not thinking quite so much about the quality of my work.
  

• Short, punchy sentences in abundance.  This is more likely to crop up in dialogue, because people are more likely to talk that way than you're likely to describe things that way.  (I would personally make an exception if this trick is used stylistically for humorous purposes, but do so sparingly.)   In dialogue, however, those short sentences  can be strung together with commas or ellipses.  "I know," Cam said.  "She's strung out, it's totally weird... I'm getting worried."
  

• Italics and exclamation points.  This is also, to me, a stylistic choice, and OK if used sparingly.  I tend to use italics for internal thought or stressing words in particularly emotional or heated bits of dialogue.  Exclamations are reserved for similar occasions.   I have also seen a lot of editors and writers giving bad press to the interrobang (?!), but find it useful for rare usage in dialogue which is equal parts shock and confusion.  (I think both instances of interrobang use in my first novel belong to poor Buster ...)
  

• Cliche figures of speech.  Don't worry, if a character is likely to spout them to the dismay of their friends and colleagues, let them loose.  Cliches as a personality quirk are fine ... but you should attempt to avoid them in descriptions (unless, like short sentences, you are lampshading them for the sake of humor).   The bag was heavy as a rock isn't half as effective as the weight of the bag nearly tore his arm from its socket.
  (The link within this example could potentially steal hours of your life. You have been warned.)

• Unnecessary profanity.  Have you ever known someone who held the opinion that stand-up comedians with clean language are funnier than those who riddle their routines with curses?  I may not agree in that respect, but profanity has no place in your descriptions.  Also, most people don't cuss blue streaks on a daily basis.  I have a few characters with foul mouths, but Aviario isn't populated with clones of Eminem or Samuel L. Jackson. 
  

• Abundance of mundane details.  Sorry, Hemingway fans.  For the most part, describing every single tiny thing your character does is going to slow your plot down and bore the living daylights out of your reader.  Most readers are well-versed in the ins and outs of basic daily routines.  If you have someone with a desk job, the reader will assume that in the morning, they'll power on a computer, check email, et cetera.  If the character has a crazy morning, but an uneventful afternoon, you can skip to the next noteworthy event in your plot by briefly summarizing the time that has passed.  Trust your readers to be intelligent... if you leave the mundane things out, they'll fill in the blanks.  Even if you have a character with OCD, you should only need to show their meticulous routine once to get the point across .... but that's edging into Orange, which we'll cover next week.
  

And so, we come to the end of the Sophistication checklist.  Which item on the list do you feel you need to work on the most?   Be sure to let me know, and please come back next week for the orange checklist, when we pull Show vs. Tell out from where it's been beaten into the ground.

Back in January, I finished my first, quick edit of From the Desk... and knew that it would not be enough.  I needed to roll up my sleeves and dig in.  Unfortunately, most of the editing advice I had seen in blogs and writers' sites was only helpful in a vague sense.   I knew I had to tighten my writing, but not how.  I knew I had to exterminate my adverbs, but I wasn't sure why.  Most of all, I saw that I had to "kill my darlings", but didn't know how to make it a mercy killing that would actually make the end result better without them.

Enter a book that has landed itself a spot in my top five writing guides and memoirs: Self Editing For Fiction Writers, by Renni Browne and Dave King.  You can read more about the book itself - and find yourself a copy, if you're so inclined - here on their website.   I'm not here to review, but here to tell you how I combined their wisdom with a "rainbow editing" tip I saw on a writer's blog several months ago. 

Each chapter in Self-Editing focused on a particular skill-set: character voice, dialogue, grammar, style, and so on.  Since I mostly do my editing during my lunch breaks at work, I refrained from taking notes, as I was hoping to come up with something portable that would take up a minimum of space.  Instead, I flagged each point that I found could pertain to my projected editing process.   Once I finished, I assigned a color to each skill-set and consolidated the chapters into checklists: simple descriptions of things I could scan for and mark to correct when it was time to edit my digital copy.   Then I bought a set of my favorite writing pens in rainbow colors, and got to work. 

I hit the halfway point in my hard-copy edit yesterday, and I'm happy to report that the method is working extremely well, so far!   In addition to helping me catch everything, I can use it as a sort of score-card for my writing style: more of one color than another means that it's an area I need to focus on improving when I start work on In The Cards again, this coming April!   

Since this method works so well for me, I feel like I should share it with any other writers out there - so expect one color checklist each week while I finish up my editing!