by Bobbie Christmas
Q: Why is it that one-word sentences, made-up words, sentences beginning with “and” and “but,” and clichés can be found in novels written by bestselling authors. But when a manuscript is sent to editors or copyeditors for proofing, these things are “corrected.” And when such are corrected, the content sometimes takes on a different meaning. I certainly don’t mean that glaring grammatical errors, i.e., dangling participles, or an excessive amount of clichés should be accepted, but why are creative issues not accepted?
A: Bestselling authors are not necessarily great writers but good storytellers and moneymakers. When you have a following as large as John Grisham or Dan Brown, you can break all the rules and publishers will still produce your work, because publishers know the books will sell regardless.
Acquisitions editors, manuscript editors, and agents, however, take a stricter approach with manuscripts that come from new authors. If you want to sell your work before you make a name for yourself, you must pay attention to the rules of grammar and punctuation as well as the guidelines for strong writing. Great writers know these things and may intentionally go against them for a specific purpose or on a rare occasion.
Not to be cruel, but the question above had four sentences, and half of them unnecessarily began with conjunctions. The four sentences used “but” three times and used i.e. (which means “that is”) whereas e. g. (which means “for example”) would be more appropriate. A professional editor would have “corrected” those things, improving the quality of the writing. The key word is “quality.”
Although I don’t critique or edit emails I receive, I wanted to make a point about how an editor might improve—not necessarily correct, but improve—a manuscript.
It’s true that a one-word sentence adds emphasis and increases the pace of a passage. Overused, however, the ploy loses power and leads to weak writing. Beginning a sentence with a conjunction such as “and,” “but,” “so,” “therefore,” and “however” is not an egregious error and may even add power, but attentive writers know the formation also creates a sentence fragment, and too many fragments or too many sentences beginning with the same word, and the writing grows feeble. The goal of a good writer is to create strong prose.
If editing a sentence changes the meaning, the original meaning wasn’t clear. The basic tenet of strong writing is this: always be clear.
Lazy writers may grumble about having to stick to rules and guidelines, but adhering to them makes the difference between weak writing and lasting literature.
Q: I have a client whose manuscript has a limited omniscient point of view and gets into the perspective of a woman and her boyfriend. These perspectives are not in separate scenes, but within one scene, all through the book. Nobody else’s thoughts come in anywhere, so my question is this: can an author do that? I’m thinking it will be a deal breaker with a publisher, but the author is quite determined to keep it. What do you think?
A: Creative writing tends to have guidelines, rather than rules. The guidelines say to use only one point of view per scene and that each scene should be in the point of view of the most important character in that scene. New writers hoping to sell to a publisher are wise to follow that guideline, because, as you suspect, ignoring the guideline could be a deal breaker with many a publisher.
I recall reading a wonderful book with two perspectives of each scene, but the author handled it brilliantly by putting the points of view in separate chapters. One chapter was a scene or situation written from the woman’s point of view, and in the next chapter, the same scene was told from the man’s point of view. The book rocked!
Has anyone ever succeeded while disregarding the current one-point-of-view-per-scene recommendation? Yes. John Grisham comes to mind. He tells great stories, but in at least one book I read, the POV was often in three or more characters within the same scene. It drove me crazy. If a writer has a reputation and readership as strong as John Grisham’s, perhaps it’s fine to ignore rules and guidelines. Yet-to-be famous writers, though, are more likely to meet with success if they follow the tenets of strong creative writing.
Bobbie Christmas, book editor, author of Write In Style: Use Your Computer to Improve Your Writing, and owner of Zebra Communications, will answer your questions, too. Send them to Bobbie@zebraeditor.com. Read more Ask the Book Doctor questions and answers at www.zebraeditor.com.
