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Today we discuss the editing process on macro and micro levels. While Angie gets color and sound ready for her film, Elizabeth exists in a waiting period as equanimical as ever (ha ha), and the Book In A Year course gets underway, editing is on all of our minds. Whether we prefer sentence by sentence editing or big picture, it all eventually needs to be done. A listener asks how to go macro with an edit and get out of the weeds that sentences can become… so we talk about how to take a step back and look the project as a whole, considering theme, logic, premise, etc. Make an outline of your scenes, and then look for causality. Ask what function it serves, what would I lose if it were missing, and why is that scene where it is? While it may not be pretty, sometimes we have to kill our darlings. So take out your book, put on your reading glasses, and ready your chainsaw.
Links Discussed:
Episode 70: Breaking the Rules – 7 Steps of Editing
The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
The Gunners by Rebecca Kauffman
Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday
The Comedy Bible by Judy Carter
Sonoma County Writers Camp – Scene Workshop with Elizabeth Stark and Ellen Sussman from October 10-14
Don’t forget to send in your questions!
Story Makers is a podcast that features in-depth conversations with accomplished writers, filmmakers and industry experts about story craft, technique, habit and survival–everything you need to know to stay inspired, connect to your creativity, find others’ wonderful stories and your own success.
The hosts:
Elizabeth Stark is a published, agented novelist and distributed filmmaker who teaches and mentors writers at BookWritingWorld.com.
Angie Powers is a distributed filmmaker and published short story writer with an MFA in creative writing and a certificate in screenwriting from UCLA who teaches story structure at BookWritingWorld.com.