Hi, I'm Margaret and I'm a Lazy Writer

FINISHED THE FIRST ROUND OF EDITS ON FAERIE!!!

As I edited my first draft of FAERIE, I had to change virtually every sentence.  In the process, I managed to cut roughly 10% of the story.

Why? 

Because I'm a lazy writer in the first draft. I puke it out, and yes, I like doing it that way.  In this particular story my main character is in first person, which tends to result in a lot of 'I' sentences.  Even worse there was a lot of:  I felt, I saw, I knew, I seemed, I heard, etc. etc.  

This is very lazy writing because being in first person pretty much assumes the 'I' portion of the equation.  Sometimes all I had to do was cut those first two words and the sentence worked, but many times I had to change the entire sentence.

Another lazy writer problem of mine is using multiple verb complexes.  Oh, I'm sure there is some technical grammatical type of term for this, but I'm not a grammatical type of writer . . . so you get what you get and don't get in a snit.

For example:  I might have thought about it.
Changes to:    I thought about it.

Stupidly simple, right?  It is.  Don't worry about this stuff during your rough draft, unless you simply can't let it go.  Instead, fix it on your second draft. 

Why? 

Because by the time you finish the draft, you know the WHOLE  story (if you're a pantser like me) and you'll need to change the sentences to reflect the POV character's personality.  FAERIE is written in the point-of-view of an eleven year old girl, and yes, the narrative is in her POV

BUT dialogue happens between numerous characters:  a teacher, mom, a goblin PE teacher, a Down's Syndrome child, a young faerie, a faerie King, etc.  Each of those characters speak differently than the others AND YOUR CHARACTER'S VOCABULARY AND RHYTHM MUST REFLECT THE DIFFERENCE.

That's it for today.  I need to work on my serial Halloween blog. BWAHAHAHAHA . . .

Write on!