Making It Perfect by Victoria Chatham

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Question: Do you have any character habits or favourite words that always crop up in your writing?

Oh, boy! Do they ever. But – that is why we write first drafts. Once I have started writing, I try to keep going. I say try because I am a Virgo, and if you know anything about astrological signs and their characteristics, you’ll know that Virgos are perfectionists. I like the first sentence, first paragraph, first chapter to be perfect – except there is no such thing as perfection.

I learned by trial and many errors to get on with the story, taking Nora Roberts’ advice to keep writing as you can’t edit a blank page. Quite apart from those niggling fillers like had, was, just, really, very—I could go on but won’t—I find that I have a different ‘crutch’ word with each book I write.

In one of my books, my hero grinned so much I’m not sure that he would ever have straightened his face out if I hadn’t taken myself in hand and did a painstaking search to rewrite practically every instance of where I had him grinning. Another hero groaned—a lot— and a Regency heroine was forever sighing. I’ve had my moments with ‘however,’ ‘especially,’ ‘nevertheless,’ and many more.

Then there are the phrases that crop up everywhere like weeds, the unconscious shorthand if you will, of many Regency novels. A hero’s hair may be ‘slightly longer than fashionable’ (a phrase of which I have been guilty) or ‘curl over his collar,’ and a heroine’s toes may ‘her curl in her boots,’ plus my pet peeve of romances in general ‘she shattered.’ As writers, it behooves us to find the words to create the emotion and the moment to satisfy our readers fully.

But this is where self-editing comes in. Being aware of the nuances of what you’re writing means you can go over your work and search out those offending words, which are often repetitious. The editing process gives authors a chance to weed out those wretched stumbling blocks, and in that process, make their writing more powerful by rewriting sentences and phrases for more of an impact. (this is an example of redundancy. It means much the same as ‘more powerful’ so it has to go.)

Writing a book is not usually a solo effort. It starts with the author’s idea, building on the original concept by brainstorming with writing buddies to create a setting, characters, plot, and conflict. (Wine is frequently involved!) However the book comes into being, the first revision will include (or should) a thorough search for repetitions and redundancies, and those words ending in -ing (gerunds) and -ly (adverbs.)

The next stage will be beta readers who, if they are doing their job, will point out any character or plot holes and often pick up a ‘crutch’ word the author may not have been aware they were using. Early in my efforts to become a published author, a wise writing tutor warned me to ‘learn to love rewriting,’ and she was right.

Getting the idea down in the first draft and then editing and editing some more, and likely more after that, is the grist of learning the craft of writing.

​Victoria Chatham

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