Oct 6, 2021
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The following is a transcript of this episode. I complete transcript can be found on the show’s webpage.
[00:00:00] That's right guys. We are back in the tiny house with tiny house acoustics and you are listening to the podcast Writing in the Tiny House. Hello. Hello. Hello. And welcome back to the show. Welcome back to Writing in the Tiny House. I am your host Devin Davis, and I am the guy who lives in a tiny house who is here to show you did that work of fiction that you have bubbling around in your brain is completely possible to write, no matter how busy you feel that you are with your nine to five. I am safely back in Utah. Thank goodness. The journey home was pretty long. I traveling is so weird now. To fly back from Hawaii, it seems that the only way to do it is through a red eye flight.
[00:01:13] And I couldn't sleep on the red eye at all. And when I arrived in Phoenix, because flights, I had a 10 hour layover in Phoenix, it ended up being a 10 and a half hour layover in Phoenix because the red eye flight got in early. So anyway, I have spent more than enough time for the next long while in airports and airplanes and face masks, and all that stuff. During the 20 hours that I was either on a plane or in an airport, I was also in a face mask and I was tired of wearing one when I got home. So anyway, we are back, we are here. I have some fun things to share with you guys in later episodes likely for November that I got to do in Hawaii.
[00:02:07] And we're going to be sharing some of that during the episodes that we released for NaNoWriMo. So be sure to like, and subscribe, I don't know about liking, be sure to give us a five-star rating and subscribe to this podcast. So you don't miss out on the NaNoWriMo push that we do in November.
[00:02:28] Before we get into the topic of today's episode, let me go ahead and give a shout out to Krissy Barton with Little Syllables editing, she is a wonderful editor. She is fast. She is comprehensive and she keeps in good communication with the author of the work that she is editing, which is rare. And so anyway, she is the resident editor for the Tales from Vlaydor collection of short stories and novelettes that I am putting together and working on now. And if you have anything that you wish to have a professional look over get ahold of her. I will include her website in the show notes of this episode. And she's great. It is worth it every single time to get an editor on board to whatever your work in progress is.
[00:03:18] So guys, Little Syllables editing with Krissy Barton is definitely the way to go. So today we know that I have been working on novelettes and short stories. It has been the main theme of the past few episodes. And today I have another thing to share in regards to that, in regards to the tips and tricks to get your novelette or short story off the ground, this is a way for developmental editing.
[00:03:47] And when I read it, I thought, nah, I don't think I would ever do this, but here's what the deal is. Here's what the tip is. The recommendation, the advice comes from the book, a swim in a pond in the rain. I have referenced this book before on previous episodes when I shared the thing about the cat. The metaphorical cat is what I called it. Describing one thing in a room so that your reader can accept the room without you having to go into too many detail about it, because in a short story or a novelette or frankly, a novel, there is not enough room.
[00:04:34] Every single paragraph, every single page, everything has to be. On point and there is no room for fluffer in these shorter works. And so, unless it is super important to describe the entire room, which I don't see many instances in which that would apply a trick is to describe one thing in the room.
[00:04:58] And then we can accept the rest of the room. The rest of the room can be filled in with our brains and we can carry on with whatever the story is. This trick that I'm about to share is it's more of an exercise, but it's very important when we do these shorter works, there is less content there. That does not mean that there is less meaning there.
[00:05:22] And it doesn't mean that it's less important. It just simply means there's not as much room. There's not as much text. And so delving into things like story arcs and subplots and whatever else, likely in a short story, there is not going to be a subplot. And if there is, there will only be one, if there's a subplot at all.
[00:05:46] And so. Sometimes with developmental editing, there is kind of less of a story to see and less of doing the sluthing to pick out what the plots and the subplots are in order to make sure that they all make sense. So this is another process that you can do. You can either do it with your short story.
[00:06:08] You can do it with your shorter works in progress, or you can do this with every chapter of your book. So every now and again, we have a thing and we print it. I personally don't own a printer, but it is possible to print a thing. And then. Mix up the pages so that when you read it, you can consider each page on its own.
[00:06:35] Go through and read each page completely out of context, read it and see if there are points in it. That makes sense. If there are important things that stand out. And if the idea by itself as a page is something that you want to continue on with. So we say that the reasons why people will continue to read any work of progress is due to suspense or it's due to fun imagery or it's due to humor.
[00:07:09] All of that can be true, but what it boils down to is people continue reading simply because they want to read the next line. However you have chosen to build that. So if we take each page out of context and we see what is there, unrelated to the page that comes before it and the page after it. And we're able to write in the margins or in a notebook or somewhere, what good points are in that page.
[00:07:43] It can be an easy way and a very good way to first find the pages that are awesome to find the pages that rock, to find the good points and the really exciting moments and the funny parts and whatever, and absolutely nail that down and know where it is. But, and equally as important, we can nail down the fluffer parts.
[00:08:13] Sometimes when we read a section or a page or even a short story, there are moments where the story drags by. And sometimes because we are so close to the story and we're so close to the flow of things, it can be hard for us to pin down where it started dragging and where it stopped dragging. Sometimes that can be hard to pay attention to, and just find. If we read pages out of context, we can think to ourselves, oh my goodness, this entire page is so boring.
[00:08:52] Or we can see that the first half has good stuff, but the second half sucks. Or whatever, or we can see that this one paragraph at the top is fluffer, but the rest of it's pretty good. It's an easy way for us to break down the story itself. And find the things that work and the things that don't work. So for something like the novelette Brigitte, it's 50 pages, this process would take a while to do, but you can understand the importance of it.
[00:09:28] So you take your random page. I mean, if you choose to keep it in your word processor, if you choose to print it out and do what I suggested, you know, a second ago, that's up to you and. You read the page, just what's on the page. Even if it doesn't start with a complete sentence, read it anyway, and then summarize the points that are there.
[00:09:54] It's a way to see if not only if it's good or bad stuff, but sometimes in a short story. It can be hard to actually put together a story. And so picking out the important parts and summarizing up to the very end, what is there can also be a way for you to pin down where the story is. There can be parts in the story.
[00:10:20] Not only that are fluffer, but that don't relate to the story at all that are simply there because it was fun to write them. And perhaps as the development of the story happened, you needed to write them in order to get the next parts out of your brain. But that doesn't mean that you should keep them. And so sometimes when we're so close to a story, we can't see the nonsense and we can't see. Some of this stuff that we've worked so hard and spent so much time on. Sometimes doesn't need to be there while I was in Mililani Hawaii. I cut out eight pages. Of my 50 page. Novelette I mean, that's like 20% of the words I wrote.
[00:11:05] No, I think it was seven pages and it was good. It felt great because I realized that those things didn't belong there in that way anymore. And the way that I was choosing to approach the conflict and choosing to reveal some of these fun secrets along the way, I was able to get a better understanding and a better vision of what this thing needed to be.
[00:11:29] It is absolutely okay to slash out big parts of your text so long as you know that you are doing it responsibly. And so long as you know, that it is part of the refining process for you to get to the end. If you are simply slashing your book apart because you are bored with it, or because you have fallen off.
[00:11:53] Hard self-esteem times and you don't feel good or confident about yourself or about this project. I encourage you to stop slashing your book, but if you have new found clarity and you understand. A better way for your characters to get along the storyline and to get there in a more meaningful way then?
[00:12:17] Yes. If there is fat to be trimmed out of your novel, then trim it. So sitting down and reading each page out of context. And summarizing the good or bad or whatever points of each page is a perfect way to see, first of all, what the story is. And secondly, what the story is not, and the story is not the filler.
[00:12:46] The story is not always a subplot. The story is not a fun little moment that isn't related to the rising action of your story. And this is an easy way to identify that on your own. Another good way is to find a friend. So that's it for today.
[00:13:05] Big shout out to my patrons without your contributions. This podcast could not be possible. If you wish to become a patron and donate to the writing and the tiny house podcast, please visit patreon.com/writinginthetinyhouse and sign up today. And every little bits and every contribution is definitely appreciated.
[00:13:29] Go ahead and find me on social media and follow me there. My Instagram handle is @authordevindavis and my Twitter handle is@authordevind. Otherwise, thank you so much for joining me today and have fun writing. We will see you next time guys. Bye.