The Ginsu Knife
When I was younger, I was amazed by the early versions of informercials. I was the teen who watched those commercials where they washed two identical stains--one in Oxyclean and one in your "regular" detergent, and by God, miracle of miracles, I believed you could get ANYTHING out of a white shirt--even red wine! Don't even get me started on spray-on hair.
Which brings me to Ginsu knives. It slices, it dices, it can cut through anything. Look, it can even slice through this ALUMINUM can and STILL slice tomatoes paper thin. WOW! Slicing and dicing!
I have now discovered I have a Ginsu approach to my work. I thought about it yesterday as I worked on my upcoming vampire novel, BLOOD SON. I sat here and read chapter four again and again up on my screen, slicing and dicing words. I would have singular word changes. I'd look for repetitive words and dice them the hell out of there. I might go through one entire read-through to slice ONE WORD. One word. Other times, I'd hack at an entire paragraph I deemed unnecessary.
I suppose that is what makes writers . . . well, writers. It's this craft you have to hone and sharpen. This is why I am amused when I meet someone at a cocktail party--I usually say I sell insurance or am an actuary. Honest, I do. I dread being stuck in a corner with someone telling me their Great Aunt Mildred has all the makings of a best-selling memoirist if only I would write the book and split the profits. But even MORE annoying are those people who tell me, "Oh yeah, I plan on writing a novel in my free time once I scale back at the office. Oh, and once I do that, how can I sell it? How MUCH do you think I can get?" As if this is a craft you can just sit down, do in your spare time, and perfect first shot out of the gate. As if the last twenty years of my life or longer, learning and studying and critiquing and working mean nothing. As if it's all about the Benjamins.
A real writer WILL take that Ginsu blade and cut a single word. THAT is one of many things that sets us apart. Or does it? Thoughts?
Which brings me to Ginsu knives. It slices, it dices, it can cut through anything. Look, it can even slice through this ALUMINUM can and STILL slice tomatoes paper thin. WOW! Slicing and dicing!
I have now discovered I have a Ginsu approach to my work. I thought about it yesterday as I worked on my upcoming vampire novel, BLOOD SON. I sat here and read chapter four again and again up on my screen, slicing and dicing words. I would have singular word changes. I'd look for repetitive words and dice them the hell out of there. I might go through one entire read-through to slice ONE WORD. One word. Other times, I'd hack at an entire paragraph I deemed unnecessary.
I suppose that is what makes writers . . . well, writers. It's this craft you have to hone and sharpen. This is why I am amused when I meet someone at a cocktail party--I usually say I sell insurance or am an actuary. Honest, I do. I dread being stuck in a corner with someone telling me their Great Aunt Mildred has all the makings of a best-selling memoirist if only I would write the book and split the profits. But even MORE annoying are those people who tell me, "Oh yeah, I plan on writing a novel in my free time once I scale back at the office. Oh, and once I do that, how can I sell it? How MUCH do you think I can get?" As if this is a craft you can just sit down, do in your spare time, and perfect first shot out of the gate. As if the last twenty years of my life or longer, learning and studying and critiquing and working mean nothing. As if it's all about the Benjamins.
A real writer WILL take that Ginsu blade and cut a single word. THAT is one of many things that sets us apart. Or does it? Thoughts?
posted by Erica Orloff at 7:28 AM
10 Comments:
Agreed, Erica. For me, writing isn't about whether or not I can make money (I've only been paid for one thing I've ever written, fiction and non-fiction). It's not even about getting published, although that would be wonderful. It's about the art itself. Creating characters and worlds, and expressing them perfectly on the paper.
I will merrily hack out entire chapters of my work if they don't fit my vision of the book or characters, because I would rather slog away and find the perfect word, phrase or paragraph than settle for something that's just "okay."
Hi Naomi:
It's also amazing how we all seem to have some internal barometer of what's "right" or "perfect." And we all seem to know when we've settled. I have seen that phenomenon in my critique group time and again. Someone in group will say, "I think this bit of dialogue is too revealing at this point in the story" (or whatever the criticism is). And the writer will inevitably say, "That is EXACTLY the spot I was worried about in this chapter. I was unsure of that myself."
Sometimes I'm scrolling down to where I ended the last time to start writing, and something just pops out with a handheld sign "Fix This!"
Sometimes I've this urge to revise, and the only thing I fix is One Single Word, but it makes me feel much better.
I think most writers know when something is wrong She/He might not yet be able to fix it--and I believe all of us have manuscripts hiding under the bed that are unfixable LOL--but she has this feeling.
Milady:
I still mourn the "loss" of the unfinished novel I was working on when I got the inspiration for SPANISH DISCO (which I then finished, became my first novel--and my first sale). The hero of the unifinished book is a bombmaker who breaks with the IRA. After 9/11, I knew that not only was the novel probably not fixable, but that it would be very hard to have people grasp a nuanced terrorist as "hero." (Even if he was, indeed, an anti-hero.) I periodically think I'll go back to it and try to fix it--and there are definitely some really good parts to it, but I don't believe it will ever see the light of day.
I completely agree. I go to writers' workshops for two things: for the networking (hey, it never hurts for Kate Duffy to know who you are), and for the CRAFT. Everything else (promo, how-to-build-a-website) is peripheral. I know someone who can't go to workshops and doesn't take the time to study the "craft" of writing, hoping and believing that all she needs is dedication (which she has) and talent. But raw talent has to be honed and sharpened too. Finally, an agent she queried told her to pick up the book "Self-Editing for Writers," and it was a BINGO! moment for her.
Honing the craft is, I believe, the single most important thing that a writer must continually do. Hmmmm...maybe I'll blog about this too on Monday.
First draft=machete
Second draft=Ginsu knife
Third draft and beyond=scalpel
One trick I use sometimes, when detailing a piece, is to crank the font up to 26pt. It's sort of like a surgeon using those magnifying goggles. When it's big and in your face, it's easier to see what needs to be cut.
Karmela:
When I was a book editor and ghostwriter, working from home, I can't even count the number of times someone who was a friend of a friend of a friend would call me and say, "I was an English major, and my friend told me you have this great business working from home [side note: I co-wrote a hardcover book for Prentice Hall about the work-from-home revolution called The Sixty-Second Commute, so I did do it successfully] and that's what I want to do. Can you just tell me how to get started." But the thing was I couldn't. Sure, I could tell people how to set up a business, but being an English major doesn't mean you can edit books. Editing and fine-tuning your writing craft is something learned through YEARS of experience and is, to me, a series of "Ah-ha" moments.
Example: Years ago, I was in a writers' group and someone pointed out to me that the chapter I was working on had way too much passive in it. I listened--I was only 24 at the time--but I thought to myself--I swear--"How on earth can I remove all those 'was' and 'is' words? How the hell ELSE am I supposed to write this? This woman is being anal." Yup. I was an idiot. It was only later, when as a book editor I got a book laden with the passive and was asked by the publisher to fix it, that I really GOT it. I had an "Ah-ha" moment of clarity and after that was ruthless about removing the passive from my own writing.
Being a writer and learning your craft is full of moments like that.
Jude:
Fabulous analogy!!!
As for the font . . . never thought of that technique. Very interesting idea.
E
Hey, I've a book featuring somebody who breaks with the IRA too. Except I may change the IRA to something more contemporary. Or make something up.
What I do when I'm editing is copy the scene I'm working on into a blank window, edit it, then paste it into a new window for the next draft.
milady:
I tend not to do drafts--when I sit down to write a new chapter, I'll re-read my old stuff, last chapter, whatever--and then move on. I think from so many years as a book editor, I tend to self-edit in my brain before I even write.
I find everyone's various techniques fascinating, though!
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