Letting the Characters Speak

I’ve mentioned before that writing is a craft and I am constantly improving. It should come as no surprise then, that I have stumbled on a new and shiny understanding of my beloved craft.

Granted, I’m 99% certain someone somewhere has said this already and it somehow managed to go over my head, so let’s keep that in mind as I unveil my new and shiny understanding. I’m dense sometimes and I admit that.

A little backstory…

The publishing rights to one of my books are coming back to me (doesn’t matter why) and I have decided I will be re-releasing it myself. This means that I have already dusted off the manuscript and begun combing through it with editorial eyes.

Since I am also editing Nora and the Siren Song, this fits my schedule just fine. I’ve learned that I can either draft a novel or edit novels, but never both in the same day. I’m not sure why. There’s a weird clunkiness to my brain when I try to switch gears and my drafts are always deeper and more imaginative if I haven’t split my time up that way.

Now then, I have blushed a TON over the mistakes I’ve found in this older, supposedly polished and published book. This is a book that went through multiple edits before it found its way to a publisher, and then went through several edits AT said publisher. It’s amazing how much slipped through the cracks and I am doubly grateful for the opportunity to take it back and fix it.

Among the things that I have stumbled upon in this edit is this — I need to let the characters speak.

Yes, we all have internal dialogues and what comes out of our mouths is not the whole of what we are thinking and feeling at any given moment, but a lot of the information that needs to be relayed on the page can be done so through the characters as they speak to one another.

Let them ask questions.

Let them answer those questions.

The narrative flows smoother and the voices of each character keep things fresh and entertaining.

So that’s what I learned this week whilst bumbling around an old manuscript. And like I said earlier, I’m 99% certain someone has already said this, I just happen to be the dunce in the corner who wasn’t paying attention at the time.

Happy Writing!