Writing Life

The hardest thing for me to come by in writing is objectivity - that wonderful gift of being able to see my story with fresh eyes. I’ve found two tools that help. The first is time setting a story away for weeks, months or even years allows you to see it much more realistically. The most startling thing is the difference between the story in my head and the story on the page.

The story I know so well is a wonderful tale - full of passion, excitement, thrilling suspense and unforgettable characters. The actual manuscript? Bleh. There’s too much everyday business and irrelevant detail and too little emotion. The suspense element is totally missing from the first half of the manuscript.

The second objectivity enhancing tool is the color coding system. Taking a handful of highlighters you color your manuscript, blue for dialogue, pink for emotion and so on. To learn more about this sign up for Margie Lawson’s deep editing class. Information about her workshops is available here: www.margielawson.com