Concepts and Bloody Huge Plot Twists

Evening lovely readers 🙂

I had a thought as I sit here with my piping hot brew, quilt and raging yucky head cold. How much do you know about plot twists? Lots I hear you cry. We all love a good plot twist but how affective were they really? Did they leave you saying ‘oh… okay then’ or were you screaming ‘holy mother of the unending light, why… WHY… did you do that to *insert random character’s name here*???’ Surely a plot twist should throw something completely random and unexpected at you and leave you blindsided by it for at least a good few hours…

Okay, basically let me start making sense. Just today I had a brilliant and eye opening conversation with a wonderful friend of mine. The conversation began with them asking ‘Are we okay?’ Now I’ll admit to you I was a little confused from lack of sleep and a heavy dose of the real life work life so that opener left me a bit…

But soon it started to make so much sense. I won’t go into detail here but they told me something that I fully wasn’t expecting. I love my friend as much as I ever have but this plot twist left my brain exploded and the rest of me trying to catch up. But that’s good right? I don’t view my friend any differently; they’re still the exceptional and talented person I’ve always known. I just determined that I really need something like this in my own writing. Something life changing and urgent to happen to my protagonist that doesn’t change your concept of them but leaves you reeling and focused on finding out why this thing happened.

On the flip side, should the concept of the protagonist remain unchanged? Maybe it’s good for things to be shaken up once in a while. Why always love the protagonist when sometimes they need a healthy dose of hatred to get them through the harsh points of the narrative? Either way, a ruddy good plot twist will accomplish any of these things and still leave you smiling. I want to leave my readers looking pretty much like this…

It means they like my writing and will come back for more 🙂

What do you think? 🙂

The perils and pleasures of being an editor

Read this brilliant article 🙂 I have to admit I’ve never laughed out loud as much. This is an example of a great editor with a keen eye and a good view of what we should look out for as a writer for when we need help 🙂

Eagle-Eyed Editor

As a professional editor, I’m often asked to read someone else’s writing. I’ve edited people’s resumes, books, requests for proposals, news articles, press releases, short stories, newsletters and other written pieces.

Sometimes it’s easy. In some cases, all that’s needed is proofreading. I check over spelling, punctuation, grammar and other basics, marking up the work with a red pen or using MS Word’s editing feature.

But if someone’s work requires substantive editing….well, that’s a judgement call. Substantive editing is when you check the overall parts of what you’re editing: Does it make sense for the target audience? Is the wording going to be confusing or should it be simplified? Is the writing well organized? Have the facts been double-checked for accuracy?

Substantive editing requires diplomacy. Some writers don’t mind the changes when the writing improves due to the editing. Others get feisty, wanting to sneak up behind me and whack…

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