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Ana shares an editing prompt that helps her to not rue her writing.
R.U.E. stands for Resist the Urge to Explain. It's a helpful editing prompt from Browne and King, authors of Self-Editng for Fiction Writers.
Telling your readers about your characters' emotions is not a good idea. Showing the emotions through dialogue and body actions is preferable most of the time. This lets the reader experience the story.
The challenge, obviously, is to write "some original bit of action or interior monologue that shows the emotion you want to describe.
When they are editing, Browne and King suggest simply cutting the explanation of the emotion. "If the emotion is still shown, then the explanation wasn't needed. It the emotion is now missing, rewrite the passage so that it is."
Adverbs ending in -ly almost always "catch the writer in the act of explaining dialogue--smuggling emotions into speaker attributions that belong in the dialogue itself." An exception is an -ly adverb characterizing the word 'said,' as in 'said softly' or 'said clearly.'
Another prompt I use all the time when writing (so I don't have as many to catch when editing) is F.A.D. This stands for Feeling. Action. Dialogue. Passages will make the most sense if you write how the POV character feels first. Then s/he does a physical action. Then speaks. I watch for this a lot when writing and critiquing, and have found that the FAD order is the best arrangement most of time.
RUE is always a good one, Ana! I hadn't heard of FAD, but I'll have to use it when I'm in the editing stage. Thanks for the suggestions.
ReplyDeleteFAD is amazing. Easy to remember, so when I'm writing, it's "right there." I get the order right and have one less thing to edit later.
DeleteI hadn't heard of FAD either, but it definitely sounds like something to look out for when I'm writing. Thanks, Ana. With regard to RUE, my mantra is, Show Don't Tell.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Margaret. Show Don't Tell is the over arching commandment.
DeleteAgree about RUE - although I was surprised at the comment about adding an adverb to the word 'said'. Also there is a case to be made for not cluttering up dialogue with too many actions!
ReplyDeleteI was surprised, too, about the -ly adverb qualifying 'said.' But it makes sense: We're told to use said in dialogue. Too much action in dialogue is amateurish. The occasional -ly adverb might just complete the scene we're trying to show.
DeleteWhen we do critique sessions, we have a 'not explaining or defending' rule. That is, the reader cannot try to explain or defend when a critiquer is making a comment. Unless the reader is asked a direct question.
ReplyDeletePerhaps that fits along these lines, too. If you need to explain too much to a reader, maybe you missed something vital in your narrative.
I like the FAD acronym. I'm going to post that by my computer! :)
Interesting rule for in-person critiques, Debra. I've never had the chance to be in a face-to-face critique group, but I can see where this would be a good rule. Hard to be in the hot seat, though.
ReplyDelete