Go to Opinionated Bitch
- Add a comment
- Go to ATTENTION: I Need Your Help!
As a freelance editor....
I say, get the damn thing finished as fast as possible, make a detailed list of everything you think the author should do to improve the salability of his book, and send the package back to him. Keep a copy of everything that you send him so that if he can't sell the poorly-developed novel you have proof that you warned him. And NEVER take another job from the weaselly dork again. Honestly. Character development is the writer's JOB, dangit, and if he isn't willing to put forth the effort, he ought not be writing a novel. He should be writing essays with Francis Bacon. Heaven save us from eccentric authors!
posted by
editormum
on July 3, 2003 at 9:04 PM
| link to this | reply
Thanks for the clarification.
Then you have done your duty by telling the author what you think. Since they hired you, there isn't a hell of a lot more you can do.
Good luck. At least the headache will be over soon.
posted by
Whim
on July 3, 2003 at 2:50 PM
| link to this | reply
So Far...
I really like Damon's and Pecan's suggestions. hehe
Actually, the author does not give even character background. The characters are flat. No substance.
Oh, and Whim, this is not something given to me at my day job. This was someone who hired me out as an editor through my own small editing business. That's why I'm editing a sci-fi novel even though sci-fi isn't exactly my "thing."
posted by
Jemmie211
on July 3, 2003 at 2:39 PM
| link to this | reply
No characters, eh?
You should have him read the 1st chapter of several sci fi books from different authors to see if/how the author introduces characters to the readers. Characters should develop based on their actions, and the reader will come up with his own idea of what the character really looks like, but the writer should provide some starting poin. Perhaps he'll discover a technique he is open to trying.
posted by
theelbster
on July 3, 2003 at 10:55 AM
| link to this | reply
how about this
okay,....since you didn't want to add any details for character development, I did the work for you. Character one is a pigmy lion with fetid breath and a weenie growing from his head. Character two is a female character. She is shaped much like a pecan tree. She looks and smells as if she is ready to "mate" or to "pollinate" as the case may be; however she has no interest in males of her species or any other. Character three is a pot-bellied pig with a tiny little brain; who spouts hatred and bible quotations whenever the opportunity arises. And so forth and so on. I could let you see the final draft, but by the time I'm finished...It will have to go to the final editor. It would have saved us a lot of trouble if you had just done your job in the first place.
Ooops gotta go..That damn pecan tree thing is farting on the pot bellied pig
try it. :-)
posted by
CatLadyintheAttic
on July 3, 2003 at 10:53 AM
| link to this | reply
Building Characters
You can develop your characters without spelling out ever last detail of their looks. True, this works best in shorter works. However, I am with you, I don't think I have ever read a book that didn't at least allude to appearance. And, in some of the science fiction that I have read, the appearance of the humans is left quite sketchy as more detail is spent on the ship or the interstellar species.
Does the author at least build on the other aspects of the character such as background?
I know this is a little off topic, but reading your post first brought to mind the old B Westerns that Clint Eastwood made. When I think back to those movies, I see parts of features, like a shot of his eye, or his cupped hands around a cigar that he is lighting. The character development was in bits, even though it was a movie where the audience could see the man. You didn't leave with a picture of the man. You left with bits of the man.
Do you normally read sci fi? If not, I am kind of surprised they have you editing it. Normally that is one of the genre they prefer a "specialist".
Good luck. Sounds like this project is a handful.
posted by
Whim
on July 3, 2003 at 6:08 AM
| link to this | reply
Dear Sir...
...Your response is ridiculous, and your solution lazy in the extreme.
In real life, we pick up hints about a persons character from the off, just by the way they look, sound, smell. You're asking your readers to get all of this, just from the way they behave and the words they use. Wise up.
Show me one good book that uses this insane technique of yours successfully. Otherwise, knuckle down, knucklehead, and do some professional character development work.
Yours etc.
(Or you could try a more direct approach ;-))
D
posted by
DamonLeigh
on July 2, 2003 at 10:19 PM
| link to this | reply