The Best Way to Keep One's Word is Not to Give It
on May 31, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Let’s talk about promises.
Napleon loans us the title of this post, ”The Best Way to Keep One’s Word is Not to Give It“. Another one I like a lot, is “Promises are like babies: easy to make, hard to deliver.“ (Sorry, that one is anonymous. I’ve got to wonder why?)
So, what do promises have to do with writing? Any number of things from keeping your deadlines to letting a friend read. But for our purposes today, I want to deal with the promises we make to our readers.
Elsewhere I’ve written about Dead (not Red) Herrings. These are a form of broken promise to your reader, and while they are not that uncommon, they are a sign of sloppy work. A Dead Herring is a musket you put on the mantle, but never took down and fired.
Image: storiesandgrocerylists.blogspot.com
Books are huge—and sometimes rambling—things. Keeping track of all of the promises you make to your readers can be a daunting experience. Finding a way to do so is essential. No dropped clue can evaporate, no foreshadow or hint can go undelivered.
I’ll use another quote, something out of the California “beans, rice and enlightenment” era. “It is OK to not to promise. It is NOT OK to break your promise.”
There are any number of ways to keep track of the promises you make to your reader. For example:
- Use a Story Board. Sometimes done with sheets of paper taped together, sometimes on a roll of paper, with colored lines and symbols marking important points along the line of the story.
- Create a spreadsheet, either on paper or using your computer, and do roughly the same as above.
- I like to use yWriter, a specialized word processor for writers that keeps track of items, characters and locations, as well as helping format your work. See my writeup.
However you keep track of the atoms of your work, your Dead Herrings, your Muskets on the Wall, DO keep track of them.
I’ll be watching.
Your thoughts?
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There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio... and isn't it time you experienced some of them?
Discussion (6) ¬
So, I red herring is alright as long as it doesn’t die on you! It’s a bit like the difference between fore-shadowing and telescoping. These are interesting distinctions. I wonder if they can be technically tracked, or whether it might be a matter of taste and style. (Just wondering…..)
Excellent food for thought as usual Thanks.
On a related note . . .
I just started and stopped (!) reading a 400 page book by a #1 NY Times Bestselling Author because in the span of 5 pages, there were 3-4 “about faces.”
The protagonist and her kids were going to cut down the Christmas tree that night. The next day she planned to go shopping and pick up Chinese food.
Sounds like a plan . . .
Two pages later (i.e., the next day), she was out shopping and planned to START a pot of stew as soon as she got home.
Hmm . . . what happened to the Chinese food? My question went unanswered.
As she drove up the driveway, in blinding snow, she bemoaned the fact that they would not be able to cut the Christmas tree down due to the weather.
Hmm . . . weren’t they cutting the tree down the night before? Once again, no explanation was offered for the change of plans.
She goes into the house, says she’s starved, and immediately starts dishing stew OUT of the crockpot.
What? . . . I thought she planned to START the stew when she got home. Who started it? Gremlins? House Fairies? Nanny McPhee?
Now, these are obviously little niggling issues, not central to the plot. But it made me (the reader) feel unappreciated and taken for granted.
Three obvious discrepancies in the span of 5 pages means that this author of 43 (!) previous books (who could obviously afford to hire a proofreader and/or an editor) just didn’t care.
So I decided that I didn’t care either. Instead of wading through the next 300 pages to see how many more mistakes I could find, I put the book down and will not read any of her books again.
The author? Fern Michaels.
Fern Michaels’ proofreader and editor ought to be shot!
Well, it’s her name on the book . . .
Maybe she needs to proofread her own work a bit more carefully before rushing to crank out the next piece of tripe.