Thursday May 16, 2024

 

How Writers Read

 

As a close reader of literary fiction (either as an English professor or as an English graduate student or as a scholar writing an article for a journal), I read for such elements as theme, setting, characterization, pacing, storyline, and the like.

 

But as a writer of literary fiction, I read differently—mainly how a literary fiction writer gets from point A to point B; in other words, how such a writer paces a novel or a short story.

 

A fiction writer may wish to expand parts of a novel or a short story into a scene in which the novel “slows down”—using dialogue, close description, and the like.

 

Or a fiction writer may wish to “speed up” parts of a novel or a short story by using summary or narration.

 

Or a fiction writer may start a novel or short story either in medias res or at the beginning of a novel or short story.

 

For example, in The Road by Cormac McCarthy, he starts his novel in medias res. To illustrate, the unnamed protagonist, a middle-aged man, and his young son find themselves on an Earth that’s lost 90 percent of its biosphere owing to an unnamed cataclysmic event. The first part of the novel begins in medias res: the man, along with his young son, are traveling a “road” that leads from east Tennessee (likely Knoxville) down to the Gulf coast. The man pushes a shopping cart that contains all their possessions, while the boy sits in a sort of basket at the front of the cart. About 30 pages in, the novel actually begins: “the clocks stopped at 1:37 in the afternoon.”

 

Also in The Road, McCarthy uses scene to slow his novel down. For example, the man’s wife, near the middle of the novel, says she will not continue the journey on “the road.” The man begs her to continue, but she foretells that only death awaits the three of them—likely at the hands of human cannibals. Their conversation (dialogue) lasts about six pages.

 

In addition, McCarthy uses summary/ narration to speed up his novel. For example, McCarthy uses transitions such as the following:

 

“Nine days later . . . ”

 

“The man and the boy spent six weeks climbing the Cumberland Gap.”

 

One literary fiction writer, Herman Melville, starts Moby-Dick at the beginning of the novel: “Call me Ishmael.”

 

So a literary fiction writer reads mainly for pacing (scene, summary/ narration /in medias res /at the start).

 

My current novel, Klan Country, contains only “scene”—virtually no summary/ narration. In fact, there is so little summary/ narration that my novel is far too long and far too unwieldy.

 

For example, my protagonist’s mother stars in Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance, and I present too many details about the production.

 

So, in yet another revision, I must either summarize or narrate the production with phrases such as the following (my novel is told in the first person):

 

“At the start of the play, I could barely hear Mother’s lines. But by the end of the play, she projected her lines to the point where I could more easily hear her.”

 

In addition, my novel starts in medias res, on a Saturday five days after the Kent State Massacre—May 9, 1970.

 

But my novel actually starts many weeks earlier, on March 20, 1970.

 

So I have to retell so much of my novel that it becomes repetitive.

 

To make my novel less repetitive, I should start my novel at the very beginning—March 20, 1970.

 

So, once again, a literary fiction writer reads mainly for pacing (scene, summary/ narration /in medias res /at the start).

My editing business, Elliott Editorial Online (https://www.elliotteditorial.com), was established in May 2003. Based in Hillsborough, NC, it offers the following services and specialties: ghostwriting, developmental editing, substantive editing, copyediting, and proofreading of fiction; literary nonfiction; general nonfiction; literary criticism; master’s theses and PhD dissertations; textbooks on law, criminal justice, and political science; and textbooks for teachers.

 

I am particularly interested in coaching writers of fiction and literary nonfiction in developing and editing their works for publication. In addition, I relish the prospect of editing academic manuscripts for graduate students, as well as professors.

 

My clients have included BOOKMARKS MAGAZINE (Berkeley, CA); Carolina Academic Press (Durham, NC); Harcourt (San Diego);  Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill; the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing (Madison, WI); and many novelists and short story writers.

 

As an author, you need an advocate to make your book or journal manuscript the best it can be. I am that advocate; I am on your side. If you would like to work with me as your ghostwriter, developmental editor, substantive editor, or copy editor, please feel free to contact me either by email (managingeditor@elliotteditorial.com) or by telephone: (919) 239-7431. I look forward to hearing from you.

I have edited a number of first-time writers, and when I ask them, “Who is your audience?” most of them say, “The general reader.” Of course, such an answer is much too vague.

When I copyedited a novel about the competition among student violinists at a fictional Conservatory based in Chicago, the author knew exactly who his audience was.

They consisted of literary readers who are familiar with composers, especially those who write for the violin. The author would need to only mention Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D Major, and his audience would immediately recognize it. The same with Mendelsohn’s.

But when I copyedited a long and meandering nonfiction book, the writer’s audience wasn’t as precise as the novelist’s. Sometimes the writer’s book was a self-help manual; at other times, it was an autobiography.

For example, the writer sometimes demonstrated the efficacy of a certain kind of exercise.

At other times, he recounted his participation, along with his friends, in various ultramarathons and his reactions after winning and placing in them.

So the writer’s audience was two-fold:

Readers who wanted to know how to performs certain exercises with efficacy.

Readers who had an abiding interest in the writer’s life story.

So when I find further editing clients, my first question before I start the editing process will be:

“Who is your audience?”