Edit Yourself

1. Edit Yourself Tiffany Yates Martin FoxPrint Editorial www.foxprinteditorial.com www.facebook.com/FoxPrintEditorial tiffany@foxprinteditorial.com

2. “The first draft of anything is shit.” —Ernest Hemingway

3. Overview • How to approach a self-edit—objectivity • Steps to successfully editing your own work • The big picture: what to look for • Understanding macro-edits

4. Most common author missteps • No plot catalyst (action but no story) • Nothing at stake • Characters undeveloped/not compelling or relatable

5. Preparing to self-edit • Time/distance • New place/environment • Read aloud; have it read to you • Different font, different name • Print out

6. TRIAGE • Objectivity • Read like a reader • Make brief notes • Address big issues—macroediting • Objectivity • Read for polish—microediting

7. Macro Editing The Big Picture

8. Plot • Make an “X-ray” of your story. • Does it hold together? Are there plot holes? • Check why each plot event happens. Is it realistic? Believable? • Is there any easier or better way out of the mess? (The answer must be no.) • Are there loose ends? Unanswered questions? Anything unresolved? • Any unmotivated actions? (Deus ex machina)

9. Plot X-ray: Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown) • A curator of the Louvre is shot by what appears to be a monk. • He desecrates his own body before he dies, to leave a message for Robert Langdon, an expert in religious symbolism with whom he had been scheduled to meet. • Langdon shows up at the scene and learns he is the prime suspect of the investigating officer. • Another police officer, who specializes in cryptography, Sophie Neveu, comes and reveals that Langdon is being railroaded, and offers to help him escape. • Sophie and Langdon first find a key by following the clues the curator left specifically for them (his P.S. is for his granddaughter, Princess Sophie, and he left explicit instructions for her to find Langdon). • They decipher the code, which takes them to a bank, where they must again crack a code to get into a safe-deposit box. • That reveals a cryptex that Sophie knows the workings of.

10. W plot structure created by Emily Breder, http://contentstud.io/

11. Plot • Have you started in the right place? (Baiting the hook.) Inciting event, in medias res: • Kiss Me First, Lottie Moggach—opening graf: “It was a Friday night, about nine weeks into the project. Tess’s voice sounded normal, but I could see that she had been crying and her narrow face was pale. For the first few minutes of the conversation, she leaned her head back against the wall behind her bed, gaze turned to the ceiling. Then she righted it and looked straight at the camera. Her eyes were as I’d never seen them: both empty and terrified. Mum sometimes had the same look, toward the end.”

12. Stakes • Characters must want something desperately, and there must be consequences—meaningful ones—if they don’t achieve that goal • Great actors always make the strongest possible choices • Torture your characters

13. Character • Do you know what your character’s arc is? • How does each protagonist change by the end of the story? Must change and grow throughout the story; must end somewhere different from where they began, whether emotionally, mentally, idealistically, philosophically, spiritually, etc. • Do all main characters have a strong, clearly defined goal? Is their motive for achieving it strong and evident?

14. Character • Is what happens to the protagonist caused or worsened by the antagonist? • Is every main character essential? Differentiated? • Is each main character flawed if good, some good quality if bad? • How do your main characters react to events/one another? Are their reactions consistent with who they are?

15. Character : Da Vinci Code • The curator is an art expert—his knowledge makes sense. He needs his secret not to die with him. • Langdon specializes in religious symbolism, and there are symbols all over the murder scene—his involvement makes sense. He is compelled to solve the murder to exonerate himself. • The officer determined to pin it on Langdon is a member of a religious society that is loosely tied into this killing—his involvement makes sense. He is a zealot and is compelled to protect his society’s secret. • Sophie Neveu is a cryptographer and, we later learn, the victim’s granddaughter—her involvement makes sense. She is compelled to discover who killed her grandfather.

16. Creating Character Bigger Falkirk came back from South America missing a testicle and I envied him. He said he picked a fight with a surly muchacho at a seedy Columbian bar. The fight turned into a brawl when the muchacho’s pals joined in. Bigger threw beer mugs and bar stools. He landed his fair share of punches, but then he got speared in the ballsack with a broken-off beer bottle and that was that. Bigger fell….I envied Bigger for the story he could tell. I envied him for surviving. I envied him for the mystery of it all. Aaron Brown, Bigger

17. Creating Character The past year had taken a heavy toll on him, but he didn't appreciate seeing proof in the mirror. His usually sharp blue eyes looked hazy and drawn tonight. A dark stubble was shrouding his strong jaw and dimpled chin. Around his temples, the gray highlights were advancing, making their way deeper into his thicket of coarse black hair. Although his female colleagues insisted the gray only accentuated his bookish appeal, [he] knew better….Last month, much to [his] embarrassment, [XX] Magazinehad listed him as one of that city's top ten most intriguing people-a dubious honor that made him the brunt of endless ribbing by his Harvard colleagues. Tonight, three thousand miles from home, the accolade had resurfaced to haunt him at the lecture he had given. Dan Brown, Da Vinci Code

18. Creating Character [Grant] noted the date and time [of the victim’s death], then retrieved a tray of stainless-steel tools from the cabinet. They had offered him new ones when he arrived, but he preferred to work with his own. Most people didn’t know it, but tools had a personality. Like a car that responded well only to its owner, Grant liked to think that a tool made the best cuts only when in the hands of a skilled examiner familiar with its moods. He was particularly fond of his rib cutters and wouldn’t let anyone else near them. He carefully polished each one—a ritual he completed before every autopsy. It was unnecessary, but so was making the bed every morning. John Chambers, Blood and Flowers

19. Analyzing plot, character, stakes • Hamlet, William Shakespeare: Tight plot, good character development, high stakes (internal and external) • Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell: Good plotting, good characterizations, high stakes • Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown: Good plotting, high stakes, minimal character development • Fifty Shades of Gray (E. L. James): Minimal character development, minimal plot, high stakes

20. Analyzing plot, character, and stakes • Ironman: Good plot, very high stakes, good character development • Titanic: Good plot, very high stakes (external and internal), minimal character development • Dexter: Good plots (small and large), high stakes, good character development (slower in series) • Big Bang Theory: Plots and stakes are smaller-scale (comedy/sitcom), most of the work is character

21. "There is a difference between a book of two hundred pages from the very beginning, and a book of two hundred pages which is the result of an original eight hundred pages. The six hundred are there. Only you don't see them.” —Elie Wiesel

22. Edit Yourself Tiffany Yates Martin FoxPrint Editorial www.foxprinteditorial.com www.facebook.com/FoxPrintEditorial tiffany@foxprinteditorial.com