The Briefcase: "Open wide, I am your editor and this won't hurt."

Dr. Joel Feimer is my editor.  He is a fine gentleman with a gentle nature (most of the time).  He read my 120,000 word first draft and praised the plot as it existed at the time.  Praise is always a good way for an editor to help soften what will come next when dealing with an author's ego.  I believe it is safe to say that the typical author's ego rivals that of a politician's ego.  

Next he gently mentioned he would like to know more about some of the characters. He pointed out that sometimes he could not figure out what was motivating a character's actions.  He said the most interesting books he had read -- this is from someone whose home is like a library and who rents a storage locker so he can rotate books in and out of storage and the house. Joel is not capable of walking past a bookstore without stopping to browse it's contents.  He recommended I create a biography for all the major characters.  This would help me create patterns of actions for the characters based on their personal motivations.  If there is an action that is out of character, it will need explanation.  I begrudgingly started these biographies, but questioned their worth since in my mind this was not moving the novel forward.

Once I had started this task and shared what he said was an ongoing task --  the biographies must be updated as they become more complex characters, he next pointed out a passage where one of the major protagonist was talking to his wife.  He pointed out that I wrote they were on the patio of their home.  He assumed I had an idea of what that patio looked like.  Readers will not be able to read my mind on how that patio looks.  I have to give them enough information so the reader and I have a shared vision of the patio.  There will always be room for the reader to enhance the scene, but I should not have a twenty by twenty foot patio in mind and the reader a one hundred foot long multi-leveled patio overlooking an ornate swimming pool.

So I start chapter by chapter revising Word for Mac manuscript.  Joel and I were working on one shared document. Soon the documents had more notes and comments than actual text!  

I will add more in my next post.