I've been AWOL for two Saturdays, but not for lack of trying. Posting a blog from the cruise ship proved difficult, at least for me. And not inexpensive.
But, I'm back and have kept a daily diary. I left palm trees, sunshine, warmth and returned to cold, snow and more snow. We won't even discuss coming back to work, the job that actually pays me. Regularly.
I did what most travel agents say not to do. I flew in the same day we boarded the ship. Given the Midwest winters, it's a risky thing to do. There were horror stories from passengers who had to drive South from New Jersey in order to get a flight that would guarantee a timely arrival, before the ship sailed without them.
I was lucky, the plane left on time, they did not lose my luggage and pick up by Royal Caribbean at the airport went without a hitch; we were safety deposited on board by lunch time. Life was good.
Everyone has heard about dining on board a cruise ship; it is plentiful. We start with breakfast, and of course there is a snack before lunch, and after lunch, another snack to tide you over until dinner.
Dining is a delight, bright lights, linen tablecloths, attentive service adds that extra spark in the evening. And, you can order as many entrees, salads and sweets as there are on the menu. Still hungry? Never fear. There is more food everywhere you turn. Hot coffee is always readily available, not good coffee, in fact remarkably bad coffee, drinkable only because you're on vacation, surrounded by water as you listen to the waves lapping and bouncing off the ship. You're lulled into contentment.
Between food and more food, I grabbed a book found a quiet place and enjoyed my first day at sea.
More next week,
Margot Justes
www.mjustes.com
A Hotel in Paris.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Waterlogged Writing; Bloated w/Dead Wood
WHAT MIGHT BE SWAMPING YOUR SENTENCES
by Robert W. Walker
I see a lot of writing any given day as I teach English at the college level along with writing courses and literature courses, and sometimes I get feeling no pain and let this pass and that pass as there is only so much I can do about the dumbing down of American schools and curriculum....a situation that has been going on for decades now. When a student tells me she has in four years of high school not had to write one single research paper, it makes my jaw drop. "What did you do for four years?" Her reply -- Watched films.
The problem that manifests itself in the writing of such a one as this sweet kid is writing with a proliferation of non-words, leech words, words that suck the meaing out of all she wants so desperately to say and get out of her mind. Bloated sentences that are run ons, others that are fragments, but the worst crime to clarity is a preponderance of pronouns put into play. For example: Mary told her mother that she was fat and ugly.... No way to know who in that sentence is SHE...which she is fat, I mean. Another example of a waterlogged sentence, waterlogged with pronouns. We have three little girls in a short story and the student -- another studnent this time -- writes the following: The little girl was upset because the other little girl told the other little girl that she did not belong at the party as a guest but that the first little girl, whose mother was a servant at the party, was there to serve food and not to party with the other little girl.
Makes you want to say Jesus, Joseph, and Mary, I know....I know. Talk about a sentence that was dead in the water before it began. And it could all have been cleared up and made alive by a simple use of NAMES....Name each lil' girl. Rosari, Madeliene, Tasha -- thank you. Naming names, even repeating names thoughout your story keeps a reader focused; names have power and magic and are far, far more like a Kodak moment in the brain than she or he or we or they or it. Name it, name him, name her, and name the town, the river, the lake, the park, the cemetery. Names have resonance and meaning. We can connect with names of people, places, and things but not so much with IT or THEM, especially when there are more than one set of its or thems in the story or sentence for that matter. You can't go wrong with coming back to naming names, using nouns. The two most powerful words in any given sentence are the subject noun and the verb...followed by the object noun. If you replace the subject noun and the object noun think about what happens to the following: Mark looked sharply at Christopher where he stood leaning against the fencepost. NOW let's replace the names with pronouns and we get less definition and clarity and focus (more confusion): He looked sharply at him where he stood leaning against it.
Dead in the water. Pronouns cause all sorts of questions to be raised in the mind of the beholder. The power of a full name like Jack Buckland or Kelly Irvin or Milicent Carver is where it is at, especially in fiction and it sure helps in nonfiction and research papers as well. These are the things that try an English professor's soul and cause doctors of philosophy to pull out their hair. That and the missteps and missues of words like stuff, thing, alot a lot, get ( I dislike get); not to mention the failure to distinctly speak and understand such pronouns at THEIR as opposed to THEY'RE and THERE or Its and it's. Even hole and whole! Even roll and role! Worst yet the unnecessary overuse of prepostional phrases all over the place, and using thre prepositons when one will do the job, but that is another day....
All right I have ranted enough but let it be known that the majority of my students are sharp and intelligent and are learning better now that they are trapped in a classroom three hours a week with this teacher. THEY know now that Writing is Rewriting.
Rob is conducting a unique experiemtn at Dirty Deeds - Mystery/Suspense Author's Advice wherenin you can watch him write his next book in a Julia & Julia styled journal on How to Cook a Book in a year. Drop by and leave a comment or follow. A contest for a better title will soon be put up and you could win a signed copy of one of Rob's novels.
http://www.robertwalkerbooks.com/ will also guide you to the new blog.
by Robert W. Walker
I see a lot of writing any given day as I teach English at the college level along with writing courses and literature courses, and sometimes I get feeling no pain and let this pass and that pass as there is only so much I can do about the dumbing down of American schools and curriculum....a situation that has been going on for decades now. When a student tells me she has in four years of high school not had to write one single research paper, it makes my jaw drop. "What did you do for four years?" Her reply -- Watched films.
The problem that manifests itself in the writing of such a one as this sweet kid is writing with a proliferation of non-words, leech words, words that suck the meaing out of all she wants so desperately to say and get out of her mind. Bloated sentences that are run ons, others that are fragments, but the worst crime to clarity is a preponderance of pronouns put into play. For example: Mary told her mother that she was fat and ugly.... No way to know who in that sentence is SHE...which she is fat, I mean. Another example of a waterlogged sentence, waterlogged with pronouns. We have three little girls in a short story and the student -- another studnent this time -- writes the following: The little girl was upset because the other little girl told the other little girl that she did not belong at the party as a guest but that the first little girl, whose mother was a servant at the party, was there to serve food and not to party with the other little girl.
Makes you want to say Jesus, Joseph, and Mary, I know....I know. Talk about a sentence that was dead in the water before it began. And it could all have been cleared up and made alive by a simple use of NAMES....Name each lil' girl. Rosari, Madeliene, Tasha -- thank you. Naming names, even repeating names thoughout your story keeps a reader focused; names have power and magic and are far, far more like a Kodak moment in the brain than she or he or we or they or it. Name it, name him, name her, and name the town, the river, the lake, the park, the cemetery. Names have resonance and meaning. We can connect with names of people, places, and things but not so much with IT or THEM, especially when there are more than one set of its or thems in the story or sentence for that matter. You can't go wrong with coming back to naming names, using nouns. The two most powerful words in any given sentence are the subject noun and the verb...followed by the object noun. If you replace the subject noun and the object noun think about what happens to the following: Mark looked sharply at Christopher where he stood leaning against the fencepost. NOW let's replace the names with pronouns and we get less definition and clarity and focus (more confusion): He looked sharply at him where he stood leaning against it.
Dead in the water. Pronouns cause all sorts of questions to be raised in the mind of the beholder. The power of a full name like Jack Buckland or Kelly Irvin or Milicent Carver is where it is at, especially in fiction and it sure helps in nonfiction and research papers as well. These are the things that try an English professor's soul and cause doctors of philosophy to pull out their hair. That and the missteps and missues of words like stuff, thing, alot a lot, get ( I dislike get); not to mention the failure to distinctly speak and understand such pronouns at THEIR as opposed to THEY'RE and THERE or Its and it's. Even hole and whole! Even roll and role! Worst yet the unnecessary overuse of prepostional phrases all over the place, and using thre prepositons when one will do the job, but that is another day....
All right I have ranted enough but let it be known that the majority of my students are sharp and intelligent and are learning better now that they are trapped in a classroom three hours a week with this teacher. THEY know now that Writing is Rewriting.
Rob is conducting a unique experiemtn at Dirty Deeds - Mystery/Suspense Author's Advice wherenin you can watch him write his next book in a Julia & Julia styled journal on How to Cook a Book in a year. Drop by and leave a comment or follow. A contest for a better title will soon be put up and you could win a signed copy of one of Rob's novels.
http://www.robertwalkerbooks.com/ will also guide you to the new blog.
Favorite Quotes by DL Larson
I admit it, I love quotes. I have them splashed all over my house, inside my kitchen cupboards, on plaques, slips of paper and cut outs made of wood. Some are decorated by talented artists, some are hand written, others pulled from a magazine or typed up to preserve the message. In no particular order here are a few: (many have no author and for that I apologize)
ENTER WITH A HAPPY HEART!
FAITH ~ FAMILY ~ FRIENDS
DO NOT FOLLOW WHERE THE PATH MAY LEAD, GO INSTEAD, WHERE THERE IS NO PATH, AND LEAVE A TRAIL.
LIVE YOUR LIFE IN SUCH A WAY THAT WHEN YOUR FEET HIT THE FLOOR EACH MORNING SATAN SHUDDERS AND SAYS … “OH (insert your favorite swear word), SHE’S AWAKE!”
NEVER LET THE FEAR OF STRIKING OUT GET IN YOUR WAY.
Babe Ruth
IF YOU CAN IMAGINE IT, YOU CAN ACHIEVE IT; IF YOU CAN DREAM IT, YOU CAN BECOME IT. William Arthur Ward
ABOVE ALL THINGS, NEVER THINK YOU ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH YOURSELF. Anthony Trollope
GOD LOVES EACH OF US AS IF THERE WERE ONLY ONE OF US.
St. Augustine
A DOCTOR LOOKING THROUGH AN X-RAY MACHINE TO PATIENT:
“By George, You really do have a book in you!!”
PRACTICE RANDOM KINDNESS AND SENSELESS ACTS OF BEAUTY!
WE LIKE THAT A SENTENCE SHOULD READ AS IF ITS AUTHOR, HAD HE HELD A PLOUGH INSTEAD OF A PEN, COULD HAVE DRAWN A FURROW DEEP AND STRAIGHT TO THE END.” Henry David Thoreau
THINK POSITIVELY ABOUT YOURSELF, KEEP YOUR THOUGHTS AND YOUR ACTIONS CLEAN, ASK GOD WHO MADE YOU TO KEEP ON REMAKING YOU. Norman Vincent Peale
SOME LEADERS ARE BORN WOMEN!
EVERY SUNRISE IS A MESSAGE FROM GOD … AND EVERY SUNSET HIS SIGNATURE. William Wordsworth
YESTERDAY IS HISTORY; TOMORROW IS A MYSTERY; TODAY IS A GIFT. THAT’S WHY THEY CALL IT THE PRESENT.
IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT YOU WRITE. WHAT YOU BELIEVE WILL SHOW THROUGH. Theodore Sturgeon
I GET MY EXERCISE FROM SPECTATOR SPORTS!
REAL COURAGE IS WHEN YOU KNOW YOU’RE LICKED BEFORE YOU BEGIN, BUT YOU BEGIN ANYWAY AND SEE IT THROUGH NO MATTER WHAT. Harper Lee
WE DON’T KNOW WHO WE ARE UNTIL WE SEE WHAT WE CAN DO.
IF A MAN DOES NOT KEEP PACE WITH HIS COMPANIONS, PERHAPS IT IS BECAUSE HE HEARS A DIFFERENT DRUMMER. LET HIM STEP TO THE MUSIC WHICH HE HEARS, HOWEVER MEASURED OR FAR AWAY.
Henry David Thoreau
HAVE I NOT COMMANDED YOU? BE STRONG AND COURAGEOUS. DO NOT BE TERRIFIED; DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED, FOR THE LORD YOUR GOD WILL BE WITH YOU WHEREVER YOU GO. Joshua 1:0
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE IMPOSSIBLE AND THE POSSIBLE, LIES IN A PERSON’S DETERMINATION. Tommy Lasorda
Share a few of your favorite quotes with us.
Til next time ~
DL Larson
ENTER WITH A HAPPY HEART!
FAITH ~ FAMILY ~ FRIENDS
DO NOT FOLLOW WHERE THE PATH MAY LEAD, GO INSTEAD, WHERE THERE IS NO PATH, AND LEAVE A TRAIL.
LIVE YOUR LIFE IN SUCH A WAY THAT WHEN YOUR FEET HIT THE FLOOR EACH MORNING SATAN SHUDDERS AND SAYS … “OH (insert your favorite swear word), SHE’S AWAKE!”
NEVER LET THE FEAR OF STRIKING OUT GET IN YOUR WAY.
Babe Ruth
IF YOU CAN IMAGINE IT, YOU CAN ACHIEVE IT; IF YOU CAN DREAM IT, YOU CAN BECOME IT. William Arthur Ward
ABOVE ALL THINGS, NEVER THINK YOU ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH YOURSELF. Anthony Trollope
GOD LOVES EACH OF US AS IF THERE WERE ONLY ONE OF US.
St. Augustine
A DOCTOR LOOKING THROUGH AN X-RAY MACHINE TO PATIENT:
“By George, You really do have a book in you!!”
PRACTICE RANDOM KINDNESS AND SENSELESS ACTS OF BEAUTY!
WE LIKE THAT A SENTENCE SHOULD READ AS IF ITS AUTHOR, HAD HE HELD A PLOUGH INSTEAD OF A PEN, COULD HAVE DRAWN A FURROW DEEP AND STRAIGHT TO THE END.” Henry David Thoreau
THINK POSITIVELY ABOUT YOURSELF, KEEP YOUR THOUGHTS AND YOUR ACTIONS CLEAN, ASK GOD WHO MADE YOU TO KEEP ON REMAKING YOU. Norman Vincent Peale
SOME LEADERS ARE BORN WOMEN!
EVERY SUNRISE IS A MESSAGE FROM GOD … AND EVERY SUNSET HIS SIGNATURE. William Wordsworth
YESTERDAY IS HISTORY; TOMORROW IS A MYSTERY; TODAY IS A GIFT. THAT’S WHY THEY CALL IT THE PRESENT.
IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT YOU WRITE. WHAT YOU BELIEVE WILL SHOW THROUGH. Theodore Sturgeon
I GET MY EXERCISE FROM SPECTATOR SPORTS!
REAL COURAGE IS WHEN YOU KNOW YOU’RE LICKED BEFORE YOU BEGIN, BUT YOU BEGIN ANYWAY AND SEE IT THROUGH NO MATTER WHAT. Harper Lee
WE DON’T KNOW WHO WE ARE UNTIL WE SEE WHAT WE CAN DO.
IF A MAN DOES NOT KEEP PACE WITH HIS COMPANIONS, PERHAPS IT IS BECAUSE HE HEARS A DIFFERENT DRUMMER. LET HIM STEP TO THE MUSIC WHICH HE HEARS, HOWEVER MEASURED OR FAR AWAY.
Henry David Thoreau
HAVE I NOT COMMANDED YOU? BE STRONG AND COURAGEOUS. DO NOT BE TERRIFIED; DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED, FOR THE LORD YOUR GOD WILL BE WITH YOU WHEREVER YOU GO. Joshua 1:0
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE IMPOSSIBLE AND THE POSSIBLE, LIES IN A PERSON’S DETERMINATION. Tommy Lasorda
Share a few of your favorite quotes with us.
Til next time ~
DL Larson
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Blog or Website - The Eternal Question by Morgan Mandel
Now that Blogger has added the ability to add 10 new pages to a blog, it's even more tempting not to maintain a website.
I've got one over at http://www.morganmandel.com/, but I have to admit I don't update it anywhere near as often as my personal blog. That's because blogs are designed to be interactive. The news is fresh. I can see almost immediately when someone makes a comment and can answer right away. A website doesn't offer that, unless--
Unless, you have the best of both worlds and can somehow place your blog prominently on your website, so people can still makes comments. I still don't know how to do that, but I believe there is a way. I do have links to my blogs listed there, but that's not the same thing.
Anyway, the next best thing is the extra 10 pages Blogger offers. I've already set them up at http://morganmandel.blogspot.com/ . If I don't incorporate a blog in my website, someday I may change the layout of my blog so it looks like a website. Until then, I'll keep my main website at http://www.morganmandel.com/ . I may always keep it. There's so much over there I'd hate to waste it. If you've got nothing to do, stop over sometime. You may find something of interest there.
If this post seems all over the place, that's because there are a bewildering number of choices. You can tell I'm not exactly sure where I'll go next, or what will happen next in the blogging world.
What about you? What do you prefer - a blog or website? If both, how do you manage them - altogether, or separate?
Thanks,
Morgan Mandel
Find me also at http://facebook.com/morgan.mandel
I've got one over at http://www.morganmandel.com/, but I have to admit I don't update it anywhere near as often as my personal blog. That's because blogs are designed to be interactive. The news is fresh. I can see almost immediately when someone makes a comment and can answer right away. A website doesn't offer that, unless--
Unless, you have the best of both worlds and can somehow place your blog prominently on your website, so people can still makes comments. I still don't know how to do that, but I believe there is a way. I do have links to my blogs listed there, but that's not the same thing.
Anyway, the next best thing is the extra 10 pages Blogger offers. I've already set them up at http://morganmandel.blogspot.com/ . If I don't incorporate a blog in my website, someday I may change the layout of my blog so it looks like a website. Until then, I'll keep my main website at http://www.morganmandel.com/ . I may always keep it. There's so much over there I'd hate to waste it. If you've got nothing to do, stop over sometime. You may find something of interest there.
If this post seems all over the place, that's because there are a bewildering number of choices. You can tell I'm not exactly sure where I'll go next, or what will happen next in the blogging world.
What about you? What do you prefer - a blog or website? If both, how do you manage them - altogether, or separate?
Thanks,
Morgan Mandel
Find me also at http://facebook.com/morgan.mandel
Monday, February 22, 2010
REGISTER AND WIN A TICKET TO THE VIP dinner at Spring Fling 2010!
Happy Monday!
I wanted to share another announcement for the Spring Fling conference!
Register to attend Chicago North-RWA's Spring Fling 2010 and be entered into a
contest to win one of two tickets to attend our VIP dinner on Friday night,
April 23, 2010.
The winners will gain admittance to this exclusive event and a chance to meet
our headliners, Cherry Adair and Julia Quinn in addition to our editors, agents
and workshop presenters. Anyone who's already registered for the conference
will automatically be entered into the drawing as well as any new registrants
before March 15, 2010 at midnight CST. For more information on the conference,
please check our website:
http://www.chicagospringfling.com
Thanks!
Best~
June
I wanted to share another announcement for the Spring Fling conference!
Register to attend Chicago North-RWA's Spring Fling 2010 and be entered into a
contest to win one of two tickets to attend our VIP dinner on Friday night,
April 23, 2010.
The winners will gain admittance to this exclusive event and a chance to meet
our headliners, Cherry Adair and Julia Quinn in addition to our editors, agents
and workshop presenters. Anyone who's already registered for the conference
will automatically be entered into the drawing as well as any new registrants
before March 15, 2010 at midnight CST. For more information on the conference,
please check our website:
http://www.chicagospringfling.com
Thanks!
Best~
June
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Voices in My Head
Now usually, if someone tells you they hear voices in their head, the first thing you do is recommend a good therapist. However, if you're a writer, those voices are a good thing.
When voices speak to me, I know I'm in the zone: the writing zone. These days, I hear voices all the time. My characters are with me everywhere I go. They speak to me. They tell me what needs to happen next. They're telling me how they're feeling.
Not only do I hear my characters, I've been seeing them a lot, too. In church this morning I saw a man pick up his little girl in a certain way, and I thought, That's how Chase would do that.
I have a small notebook with me at all times (in my purse, on my desk at work, on the nightstand next to the bed) just in case an idea pops into my head that I absolutely must right down that very minute. I have little sheets of yellow paper everywhere.
And all of this is a good thing, because (not to sound boastful) I am on a writing roll. I am just a little past page 100 in my current WIP, which means I'm just shy of about a third of the way there. And I actually know where I'm going with this one. In fact the happily ever after is written...I just have to drag my characters through a little more heartache, turmoil, and conflict to get them there.
So on that note, I think I'll sign off here and check in with Chase and Erika. I wonder where they'll take me today.
Until next time,
Happy Reading!
Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com
When voices speak to me, I know I'm in the zone: the writing zone. These days, I hear voices all the time. My characters are with me everywhere I go. They speak to me. They tell me what needs to happen next. They're telling me how they're feeling.
Not only do I hear my characters, I've been seeing them a lot, too. In church this morning I saw a man pick up his little girl in a certain way, and I thought, That's how Chase would do that.
I have a small notebook with me at all times (in my purse, on my desk at work, on the nightstand next to the bed) just in case an idea pops into my head that I absolutely must right down that very minute. I have little sheets of yellow paper everywhere.
And all of this is a good thing, because (not to sound boastful) I am on a writing roll. I am just a little past page 100 in my current WIP, which means I'm just shy of about a third of the way there. And I actually know where I'm going with this one. In fact the happily ever after is written...I just have to drag my characters through a little more heartache, turmoil, and conflict to get them there.
So on that note, I think I'll sign off here and check in with Chase and Erika. I wonder where they'll take me today.
Until next time,
Happy Reading!
Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com
Thursday, February 18, 2010
The Good Editor & The Great Editor
OR: A Good Editor is Hard to Find, a Great Editor is Harder Still to Find
by Robert W. Walker
Nothing is harder for a writer to see clearly than his or her own work, to look at it objectively and with laserlike precision so as to make those all important rewrites and to live by the credo that Writing is Rewriting. It is no small task to remove the emotional ties to your book and look on it with a cold, sure eye--with an eye to seeing its flaws. Hard to wear the editor's hat on your own work, not unlike the surgeon who must operate on his own child.
We might just as well be looped on drugs or alcohol to find our way through our own emotional baggage when it comes to our baby--our manuscript, but it does get easier with experience, lots of experience until we start to put into practice all we have ever learned from our editors--every line they ever corrected. We take them all to heart. We learn. Down to how the word HAD is best used and when to take it out if we are paying close, close attention to what our editors over the years have had to say about our style, our sentence structure, our pattern errors, our Voice --and trust me every element of the story from dialogue to details to setting to character development. All of it. And each correction is a little sling and arrow, painful to endure and even more painful because the change or correction is obvious now and so in keeping with the book, and inescapable and truly needed.
Good editors catch errors on every page, and great editors make the book sing at a higher pitch. An excellent editor like an excellent reference librarian is a gem and a wonder and a pleasure to work with. Whenever I edit another person's book, I make every change not for the good of the author but for the good of the book, the betterment of the story. It doe not mean the voice need be lost but rather improved, honed, made tighter and less rambling, less seemingly overblown or bloated.
However, suppose the voice is so bad it can not be fixed? So confusing there is no repariting it. If sentences are choking on passive constructions and unneeded prepositional phrases that cause reader confusion or stumbling, and if the author's authorial voice is less than authorial, say even wishy-washy or equivocating and chockful of qualifiers and lacks absolute control over the material, then it is unlikely an editor can repair it. But most great editors can and will take on such challenges. An editor is as passionate about your book as you are when she or he is in the throes of massaging it and working it over and beating the hell out of it until it is molded and kneaded just right.
Please do leave a comment or question!
Rob Walker
The Knife Editing Services
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
by Robert W. Walker
Nothing is harder for a writer to see clearly than his or her own work, to look at it objectively and with laserlike precision so as to make those all important rewrites and to live by the credo that Writing is Rewriting. It is no small task to remove the emotional ties to your book and look on it with a cold, sure eye--with an eye to seeing its flaws. Hard to wear the editor's hat on your own work, not unlike the surgeon who must operate on his own child.
We might just as well be looped on drugs or alcohol to find our way through our own emotional baggage when it comes to our baby--our manuscript, but it does get easier with experience, lots of experience until we start to put into practice all we have ever learned from our editors--every line they ever corrected. We take them all to heart. We learn. Down to how the word HAD is best used and when to take it out if we are paying close, close attention to what our editors over the years have had to say about our style, our sentence structure, our pattern errors, our Voice --and trust me every element of the story from dialogue to details to setting to character development. All of it. And each correction is a little sling and arrow, painful to endure and even more painful because the change or correction is obvious now and so in keeping with the book, and inescapable and truly needed.
Good editors catch errors on every page, and great editors make the book sing at a higher pitch. An excellent editor like an excellent reference librarian is a gem and a wonder and a pleasure to work with. Whenever I edit another person's book, I make every change not for the good of the author but for the good of the book, the betterment of the story. It doe not mean the voice need be lost but rather improved, honed, made tighter and less rambling, less seemingly overblown or bloated.
However, suppose the voice is so bad it can not be fixed? So confusing there is no repariting it. If sentences are choking on passive constructions and unneeded prepositional phrases that cause reader confusion or stumbling, and if the author's authorial voice is less than authorial, say even wishy-washy or equivocating and chockful of qualifiers and lacks absolute control over the material, then it is unlikely an editor can repair it. But most great editors can and will take on such challenges. An editor is as passionate about your book as you are when she or he is in the throes of massaging it and working it over and beating the hell out of it until it is molded and kneaded just right.
Please do leave a comment or question!
Rob Walker
The Knife Editing Services
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
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