Category Archives: Editing

Describing Characters

When reading subs for TC, sometimes I come across a line like, “Bob, a 40-ish black man, walked down the street whistling…” I’ve always disliked this style of description, but I couldn’t pin down why exactly. It isn’t that these writers are being (overtly) racist; the descriptions themselves aren’t negative. I thought maybe I didn’t like it because it was too police-blottery: Robert (Bob) Smith, age 40, height: 6’2″, etc. But I’ve been thinking about it off and on and I realized that wasn’t it (much as that is irksome). No, its because people NEVER write: “Megan, a 20-something white girl, opened her guitar case…” Characters are never generically described as white. It’s the underlying assumption that, if you don’t say otherwise, they are, that bugs.

Now, it’s true that kind of thinking may be appropriate with certain first person narrators. But in third person? No. In third person it’s just lazy writing. A short-cut, rather than taking the time to look at your character and *see* them. Is it even necessary for us to know that the character is a particular race/ethnicity? And if it is, how else could you reveal it other than bonking the reader on the head with it? Plot? Dialogue? Names? A more nuanced description of the character’s appearance? There are so many other options.

Editorial Nudging

Sallie started a discussion at TC about Anne Rice and her aversion to having her work edited. Apparently she thinks she’s so beyond that. As in, she’s not in need of an editor because her work is sheer perfection. Ya, right. Now, it’s true, I’ve never read Ms. Rice. However, there isn’t a writer out there who couldn’t use the assistance of an editor from time to time. So you can probably figure out what I think her swelled head needs. *kick*

I much prefer what Madeleine L’Engle had to say on the subject of editing. From Two-Part Invention:

[M]y first novel [A Small Rain] was optioned by Vanguard … I was fortunate at Vanguard to have a fine young editor, Bernard Perry, who later founded the University of Indiana Press. Bernard somehow managed to make me understand what I needed to do with the shapeless mass of material I had given Vanguard, to refine it and tidy it until it became a novel.

Then a little later:

[M]y second novel [Ilsa] was accepted, with enthusiasm. But, alas, Bernard Perry was gone. There was nobody at Vanguard at that time to tell me that what I had submitted was an excellent first draft but that my manuscript needed work, a lot of work.

I have been blessed with editors who have pushed and prodded me, made me go back to the typewriter and rewrite and revise. This second novel needed that kind of editorial nudging and didn’t get it.