Story

Story is what every fiction, non-fiction, and memoir is ultimately about. There’s much to say about story, but I’ll provide a few tidbits for now.

There are archetypal stories and stereotypical stories.

An archetypal story reveals and shares a universal human experience, even if there are unique cultural specifics involved.

A stereotypical story tends to be short on quality content and form; it focuses on non-specific generalities or hopes to match another commercial success. Though its words fill space on the page, the story is empty and leaves readers feeling empty, if they continue to read it, that is.

Stereotypical stories seem to stay in one place—there is little change of any significance in plot or characters.

Archetypal stories take people on a journey, preferably an inner and outer journey.

Good storytelling does not take shortcuts, but neither does it fill space with empty content and events. Every scene moves the plot and characters forward in some specific way, even in non-fiction and memoirs. Scenes work as they should when they elicit some emotion, which can include humor.

Story is about storytelling, not trying to guarantee sales. No one can guarantee that, especially for a first book. But every book needs to tell a good story and tell it well. It must create a movie in the minds of readers.

Aim at excellence rather than to be a copycat of what’s working in the marketplace now.

Have a desire to reach inside the minds and hearts of your readers—you want your words to speak to them in some way. You want them to relate in some way.

Do not confuse original storytelling with eccentricity just for the sake of filling page space. Just to be different, without a true purpose behind it for plot and character development, and genuine respect for readers, will not create desired results for a writer who wishes his or her work to be read and appreciated.

What Kind of Editing Will You Need?

Sometimes you need more than basic editing, which is called Developmental Editing, to assist you with plot and character development, as well as other creative and technical matters. I particularly enjoy this service when the writer’s story has “good bones.” Know this: most new-writer manuscripts need this service, especially first drafts; and when I see in the sample chapters sent to me that Developmental Evaluation (a critique) is needed instead, because the manuscript needs substantial revision, I advise clients to go for that service, unless they really want me to do an overhaul for them, which I can, though it’s labor-intensive.

Developmental Evaluation is also beneficial for non-fiction and memoirs, which sometimes need structure re-organization: the story is not told in the best order for the most impact or is confusing to read. It doesn’t help if your story makes sense to you but not to readers. Eventually, every manuscript needs an editor’s eyes.

Timing: New writers typically don’t know to anticipate that time may or will be involved to get their manuscript into final form, meaning into proper shape to self-publish or submit to an agent or publisher. This timing all depends on how much work their manuscript needs. Manuscripts generally need more than one revision. Even best-sellers go through multiple revisions.

The entire process of manuscript to retail product is an involved but fascinating one. You can learn a lot about what it takes from start to finish for an idea to become a book, and benefit greatly from what you learn, especially if you intend to keep writing.

Have a question? Contact me at http://editmybookandmore.weebly.com/ and I’ll blog about it.

I wish you the best with your writing and process.

Joyce Shafer

Services for Writers

Writing Times of Day

If you find you need to include times of day in your fiction, non-fiction, or memoir writing, it helps to know how to do this right.

When you use numerals, you follow them with a.m. or p.m. You can leave a.m. and p.m. as lowercase letters, which The Chicago Manual of Style recommends, but some publishers may prefer to use small caps (a.m. / p.m.). Do not use uppercase (A.M. / P.M.).

It isn’t a solid rule that you should never use a.m. / p.m. in dialogue, but it is best to avoid it. It sounds better to say “Let’s meet at eleven thirty Tuesday morning” than “Let’s meet at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.”

If you use a.m. / p.m., do not also use morning or evening—that’s redundant.

Incorrect Example: The phone rang at 3:00 a.m. in the morning.

Also notice there is a space between the last numeral and the first letter whenever you use a.m. or p.m.

Incorrect: 3:00a.m.

Do not use o’clock with numerals or a.m. / p.m.

Incorrect: The phone rang at 3:00 a.m. o’clock.

Correct: The phone rang at three o’clock this morning.

Correct: The phone rang at three this morning.

Other Correct Examples:

• See you at 1:20 p.m.
• The meeting starts at 7:50 in the morning.
• Her plane arrives at 2:48 a.m.
• Let’s meet for lunch at 12:00 m. (m. represents noon and is lowercase, and is seldom used) Better: Let’s meet for lunch at noon.
• Avoid using 12:00 p.m. or 12:00 a.m. It confuses people. It’s better to use noon or midnight.
• I’ll call you at ten forty-five tomorrow morning.

Times of day which are even (1:00), quarter (1:15), and half (1:30) numerals are best spelled out:

• I’ll deliver the flowers by one o’clock. (It’s assumed this means in the afternoon rather than the morning, but your context will make this clear.)
• He talked until a quarter after one.
• He talked until one fifteen.
• The movie starts at one thirty.

Use numerals for exact times:

• It’s now 2:25 a.m. in my time zone.
• She was on the 4:22 p.m. train.
• Your watch is set for 10:47 a.m. (EST). [EST represents Eastern Standard Time]

If you use the twenty-four-hour system of time (European and military):

• 1200 = noon
• 2400 = 0000 or midnight
• 0002 = 12:02 a.m.
• 1527 = 3:27 p.m.
• They started out at 1400 hours (or 1400h).

  

What Kind of Editing Will You Need?

Sometimes you need more than basic editing, which is called Developmental Editing, to assist you with plot and character development, as well as other creative and technical matters. I particularly enjoy this service when the writer’s story has “good bones.” Know this: most new-writer manuscripts need this service, especially first drafts; and when I see in the sample chapters sent to me that Developmental Evaluation (a critique) is needed instead, because the manuscript needs substantial revision, I advise clients to go for that service, unless they really want me to do an overhaul for them, which I can, though it’s labor-intensive.

Developmental Evaluation is also beneficial for non-fiction and memoirs, which sometimes need structure re-organization: the story is not told in the best order for the most impact or is confusing to read. It doesn’t help if your story makes sense to you but not to readers. Eventually, every manuscript needs an editor’s eyes.

Timing: New writers typically don’t know to anticipate that time may or will be involved to get their manuscript into final form, meaning into proper shape to self-publish or submit to an agent or publisher. This timing all depends on how much work their manuscript needs. Manuscripts generally need more than one revision. Even best-sellers go through multiple revisions.

The entire process of manuscript to retail product is an involved but fascinating one. You can learn a lot about what it takes from start to finish for an idea to become a book, and benefit greatly from what you learn, especially if you intend to keep writing.

Have a question? Contact me at http://editmybookandmore.weebly.com/ and I’ll blog about it.

I wish you the best with your writing and process.

Joyce Shafer

Services for Writers