The torture of self editing and a sundried tomato and oregano pesto that outs a smile on your face


I've began work on self editing my upcoming novel just a couple of days ago. The manuscript so far has 245 pages, give or take. I'm currently on page 37. I've been asking myself if I will ever see the end of it, quite frankly. Before I even got started, I decided to do a little research, and googled apps and articles for self editing novels. Well, it's a world out there. A scary one, actually. The more I read from editors and publishers about what is considered no-no's and proof of newbie writers that lack talent, scared the hell out of me.


See, I have this problem with my writing - actually, according to many apps and opinion articles online, I have more than one problem! - and if you have been reading this blog long enough, you already know what it is. I loooove long sentences. I not only revell in writing them, I adore reading long sentences. It gives me a sense of all being right with the world, almost. It conveys emotion, builds up tension, it makes my heart stutter and pitter patter and go boom like a drum. But in the world of proper good writing, long sentences are a huge no-no. Long sentences make it all very difficult to read and should be nipped at the bud immediately.


The same applies to adverbs. I tend to use a few. Really - see what I did there? If you know anything about me, you know I adoooore Stephen King, you know I bow down to his genius and his art. But the first time I read his opinion on adverbs - as well as his opinion on Kubrick's version of The Shinning - I put down my foot. For most people, adverbs are akin to satan. Adverbs are evidence of poor writers, talent lacking scriveners, people who rely on those same adverbs to make their prose sound grander and snobbish and verbose. I utterly disagree with this. There's another adverb for you! I try to not overuse and was actually quite surprised when I used the Hemingway App - more on that later - to see I was not an adverb junkie like I thought. Still, the app did recommend I cut down more than half of all those I used. I did.


Then there's that thing with the use of weak words - thing's one of them, btw. Sometimes a thing has to be a thing, but you're advised to cut the thing out of your manuscript! Words such a 'like', or 'small', or 'short', are viewed as weak words. You're advised to substitute them with stronger words, with sentences even. I tried that. I cut 'short' and replaced it by 'elfin', as suggested. But a 'short' person is not necessary an 'elfin' one. Someone short and stocky will never be elfin. Elfin, to me, doesn't even mean someone who is not tall. It means someone who has a lithe figure, frankly. Reedy and thin but at the same time alluring. I also tried substituting 'short' and 'small' for 'not tall'. But it's not the same, sorry. Someone who is not tall - like 1,90m is tall - is not necessarily short - like 1,50m is short. Sometimes one can be 1,68m and that's not tall, but it is also not short. It's somewhere in between. So when I describe a character as short, this character IS short. As in 1,60m or less.


And then there's the war on the passive voice. I do use the passive voice a lot. If you've read my previous novel, you'll have noticed, and maybe you were even driven crazy by that - see, I just did it! Using the passive voice, these days, seems to be regarded as another evidence of weak writing, of action that does not flow, of things that keep happening to the characters and not the characters acting upon the story. Again, I disagree. See, there's the question of style, and I have noticed that my style of writing focus quite a lot on this use of the passive voice. My characters, like me, tend to brood a lot. They tend to analyze previous happenings. I can write chapter after chapter of characters thinking about something that happened like four hours ago, or five weeks prior, and there will be adescritpion of those happenings, because they are important to the story, with the use of the pasive voice. It is my personal style of writing. But it's another huge no-no.


So by the time I was ready to use this online app, the Hemingway App, that points out everything that needs to be changed, I was convinced my writing sucked big time and I should simply quit while I was ahead, save myself the trouble and the hassle and the long hours. But I decided to try it on first. I used the app and made the changes - most of them - I was advised to make. I haven't re-read it yet, but I know what I'm going to find. See, there's a reason why I don't read many contemporary authors. I find most of the prose being written and published today quite stale and empty. Characters seem to lack substance, and the writing to me lacks oomph. Dialogues sound hollow and contrived, no one speaks like that! People, regular people, they use a lot of weak words when they're talking to each other, that enriches the dialogues between characters and makes them credible. The books I read from contemporary authors all seem to have perfectly manicured dialogues, where characters are terse and curt and grammarly correct, never resorting to the use of adverbs and weak words, not even when they're gripped by strong emotions and trying to talk to another character in the midst of internal turmoil. This is not what I want for my writing, it would not be me. I don't know what to do, anymore. I want to keep my essence and my style as a writer - that's why I chose to go Indie! - but I also want to clean my prose of clichés and overemotional splurts.


So as you can tell, this is doing my head in. It's friday and I feel knackered and disapointed at myself, I feel like I could use a thick slice of pizza and a glass of red. And because I feel the need for pizza, here's a pesto I use on our latest ones. It can be used for pasta as well, and I even seasoned a roast chicken with it! A good pesto, all and all.
  • five to six large sundried tomatoes
  • half a cup of almonds
  • one garlic clove
  • a handful of fresh oregano leaves
  • a dizzle of good olive oil
  • salt and pepper
Place the ingredients into your food processor minus the seasoning and the olive oil. Whizz it up on the lowest speed and add the olive oil in a drizzle. Turn on the speed so everything is finely chopped and blended. If it looks too thick, add another drizzle of olive oil and give it another whizz. Taste it for seasoning, and if you feel it lacks salt and pepper, add those two. I tend to not need to add salt because the sundried tomatoes are salty enough, but I do add a little freshly ground pepper. Keep it in a jar in the fridge or use straight away on a pizza, on a spaghetti dish, on a bruschetta... just choose your vessel and enjoy!! I know I will!



Comments

  1. Nem sei o que te dizer rapariga, ânimo! E anda lá com a edição que nós queremos um livro novo! Eu também gosto de frases longas, só quem não sabe usar pontuação tem medo de uma frase com mais de uma linha e meia, tal é o disparate! Eu li o teu primeiro livro e acredita que não tens de te procurar com excesso de advérbios ou lugares comuns. ( única crítica, o jantar de pizza,,,, foodie que é foodie tinha comprado peixe local e feito um molho com manteiga clarificada, e também ninguém quer comer pizza antes de andar na rambóia, acho eu...) :)
    Bom trabalho e bom domingo!

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    Replies
    1. Oh céus, não consegui construir bem a personagem, então!!! Porque no contexto daquela mulher e da cabeça dela a pizza fazia todo o sentido, até porque ela já lhe tinha dado comida italiana e ele tinha gostado. Mas prontes, é aí que eu tenho sérias dificuldades, quando pequenos pormenores não fazem sentido ao leitor porque o personagem não está bem explicado, bem construído... na verdade a cena que se segue a essa é muito mais cringe factor, jazus, só a consegui ler duas vezes para corrigir e editar, depois passei sempre á frente pq se n o fizésse teria cortado a cena do livro ahahahah, e vai na volta teria feito melhor lol!!
      frases longas for liiiiife!!

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    2. Como dizemos na minha família: "Rellos!!!!"
      Obrigada pelo teu comentário, e lamento também a vossa perda, são coisas das quais nunca recuperamos. E nós, eu pelo menos como nora, evitei nestes dias estar triste ou chorar, pq não queria que o meu viking me visse triste. Até ao funeral só chorei qd ele me telefonou a meio de um serviço no restaurante para me dizer o que se tinha passado, e às vezes sozinha na paragem de autocarro às 4.30 da manha ninguém me via.
      Agora coisas mais felizes :)
      Eu penso que o meu mal é que me comecei a identificar com a personagem, mérito teu, e em vez de acompanhar o seu desenvolvimento, achei que ela devia ser como eu. Ora eu quero tudo menos barriga de pizza antes de tirar a roupita. penso agora que sendo ela mais segura e descontraída, essa não seria uma das suas preocupações :)
      A cena que se segue. Deixa-me dizer-te, grande mulher, eu nunca nunca nunca na vida seria capaz de escrever uma cena intima. E olha, até me vieram uns calores à cara. Só pode ser bom sinal porque eu nesse aspecto sou um pouco acanhada. Há tv dois anos estava a ler um livro da nossa AR quando aparece uma cena de sexo entre a personagem principal e uma senhora mais velha, que eu já tinha identificado com a escritora. Tive de passar as páginas, não conseguia imaginar a Anne Rice com o seu bob prateado na rambóia com um lobisomem.
      Boa semana!!! (vou ter mais cuidado com os advérbios, notei que na verdade os uso....imenso)

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    3. Ahahahah nunca pensei que te identificasses minimamente com a Camila Roeberg!! Eu tenho uma ideia de ti bem diferente dela que é um bocadinho ingénua e imatura demais a meu ver, muito dada a querer agradar ao homem com quem possa estar, mas ao mm tempo muito dada a duvidar de si mm qto á sua opinião relativamente aos homens - devido ao seu passado de burra. Se p um lado era óbvio q a rambóia poderia acontecer, p outro tentei dar a entender q ela mm n tinha a certeza se algo iria rolar p ser a data q era. Mas lá está, é mm destas coisas q eu mais sinto a falta no processo da escrita, analisar as personagens e ver como é q os leitores as percebem, acho q vemos a tipa de uma maneira muitooooooo diferente! Cenas intimas, yah, há anos atrás se lesses algum escrito meu pensarias q eram todos anjos q nunca sequer tiravam a roupa, lol, mas aos 15 anos escrevi um conto semi erótico . naquela altura em q se lê Anaïs e Henry Miller - e colegas mais velhos deram-me os parabéns pelas cenas intimas ahahahahaha!! Q estavam muito boas. Eu como te disse n voltei a reler essa, mas cada x q penso nela: mega cringe factor, acho q está demasiado fifty shades of grey, apesar de n ter lido isso imagino q seja assim um bocadidnho yuck. O mm relativamente ao tipo ser um choramingas do caneco, fogo, aquele homem é mm um fracote de dar dó...

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  2. It seems tasting great :)
    nice post
    kiss

    new post http://sarameirelesthesnowwhite.blogspot.pt/

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  3. Apesar de não conhecer as dores de edição de texto, sei o que é termos de analisar o nosso trabalho tendo em conta a futura reacção do público e isso faz-nos duvidar muitas vezes do nosso talento. Creio que não devas abdicar do teu estilo para ''melhorar'' alguma coisa, e tu tens noção disso! Força aí nessa coisa que te parece monumental mas terá um fim!
    em relação à pizza, há dias comi uma assim, de pesto e tomate seco e fiquei super fã, nem sabia que havia de gostar tanto!

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