Being a Better Writer: Adding Small Details in the Edit · 7:18pm April 14th
Welcome once more writers! We’re on the final topic of Topic List #26. Yeah, that’s right: Since I started numbering these around ten years ago we’ve gone through twenty-six full lists of writing topics to discuss. In another ten years, we’ll have hopefully passed fifty!
Now, this does mean that sometime this week there will be a Topic Call post for those of you who’d like to see something specific covered. But I’ll have spent this last weekend (as I write these posts in advance) figuring out some new topics for the newest list, so it won’t be empty as is.
For now though, if you’re enjoying Being a Better Writer but want to see something specific covered (or have an inkling that you’d like to) start thinking about it! Oh, and don’t forget to check out last week’s news. It was a very quick, short post, but it was for something cool!
And with that, let’s talk about the last topic from list #26. Let’s talk about adding small details in the edit. Hit the jump!
Sometimes, a lot of small details get added in the edits. I'm a little notorious for that. A good author accepting my 'assistance' in editing will be reading down the document going "No, not going to do that. Or that. Nope. Not that. Hey, that's not bad. But that is. And so is that." If I get 4:1 bad idea/good idea ratio, I'm doing pretty good.
Sometimes, really BIG good ideas get added in the edits. Tek I believe was helping me edit Child of Nightmares and Everfree and suggested a way for Mama's baby to be saved instead of dying. It *really* took a lot of darkness out of the ending.
Other times, chance comments or discussions trigger entirely new stories. The Lazy Dragon of Dragonvale is one of those. So is The Young Knight, the Fey Maiden, and the Bridge Troll which was inspired by yours truely saying there were no elves in Axtara.