Proper development of characters
December 6th 2006 12:33
This is one of my favourites when it comes to writing and editing. It is one of the areas that writers make the most mistakes.
I have posted on this subject before but it always crops up in books that I read. It drives me to distraction. There is really no reason for it to happen.
The latest is in Terry Pratchett’s “The Light Fantastic”. Page 139 in the Corgi paper back.
The character is Twoflower. ‘There was this. . . a clock that. . . and these people who. . . ’ said Twoflower. He shook his head. ‘Why does everything smell of horses?’
Now we fast forward to Page 228 where we find;
Which explains why, when the shop finally materialized in Ankh-Morpork, Rincwwind sat bolt upright and said ‘We’re here,’ Bethan went pale and Twoflower, who had no sense of smell, said, ‘Really? How can you tell?’
Now, how does this happen? Well, it’s all too easy. There we are writing away and we write something about a character and later on while the words are flowing and the keys are running hot under our fingers, we write this really great line.
As fate would have it, and we all know that fate is a real bitch, someone points out the discrepancy to the whole world to see. Character development is important. You have to get to know your characters.
Now another point of editing that has caught my eye is a matter of inconsistency in style. Style is different from country to country and indeed from publisher to publisher. As a writer you will need to know what the style is for the publisher you intend to regale with your writing.
Now, Corgi books is British. The style convention for British publishers is to use single quotation marks for speaking and double quotation marks for quotes. The interesting thing is that while Corgi follows this convention they have used the American spelling of “materialized” as opposed to the British “materialised”.
Well, that’s enough for this post. Now all I have to do is find a subject for the next one.
I have posted on this subject before but it always crops up in books that I read. It drives me to distraction. There is really no reason for it to happen.
The latest is in Terry Pratchett’s “The Light Fantastic”. Page 139 in the Corgi paper back.
The character is Twoflower. ‘There was this. . . a clock that. . . and these people who. . . ’ said Twoflower. He shook his head. ‘Why does everything smell of horses?’
Now we fast forward to Page 228 where we find;
Which explains why, when the shop finally materialized in Ankh-Morpork, Rincwwind sat bolt upright and said ‘We’re here,’ Bethan went pale and Twoflower, who had no sense of smell, said, ‘Really? How can you tell?’
Now, how does this happen? Well, it’s all too easy. There we are writing away and we write something about a character and later on while the words are flowing and the keys are running hot under our fingers, we write this really great line.
As fate would have it, and we all know that fate is a real bitch, someone points out the discrepancy to the whole world to see. Character development is important. You have to get to know your characters.
Now another point of editing that has caught my eye is a matter of inconsistency in style. Style is different from country to country and indeed from publisher to publisher. As a writer you will need to know what the style is for the publisher you intend to regale with your writing.
Now, Corgi books is British. The style convention for British publishers is to use single quotation marks for speaking and double quotation marks for quotes. The interesting thing is that while Corgi follows this convention they have used the American spelling of “materialized” as opposed to the British “materialised”.
Well, that’s enough for this post. Now all I have to do is find a subject for the next one.
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Comment by K.L. Almeroth
Motherhood
Ooh, interesting.
You should email the publishing house about this error. I heard in the grapevine years ago, that for every mistake a reader picked up, you got a free book or something out of them.
I don't know. Could be a fib. Or a rumour I'm now starting.
But I hate seeing mistakes like this. Nora Roberts' books are notorious for mistakes....typos, not character slip-ups such as this....it drives me loopy.
Your loopy pal,
K.L.