Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
Wait! I know what you’re thinking!
See? I told ya.
A short post this Monday morning.
When one* sets out to self-improve themselves, the object of their ambition becomes more complex, even as they struggle to overcome the resistance of the original form.
I’m currently in the process of editing/re-writing Almira. I’m employing an editing tool (ProwritingAid) in order to ‘tune up the prose’. At first blush it seemed that all I needed to do was eliminate all the extra ‘thats’ that I tend to plug into the sentences that I write.
Ok, I can accept that.
Then came ‘passive voice’. I believed the advice: Passive Voice slows the story down. Don’t allow yourself to be victimized by the presence of excessive passive voice.
Cool… This presented another order of ‘repair’. The ‘that’ problem required a click of the Delete button. Passive voice, on the other hand, forced me to re-write the sentence.
Two words: ‘Ayyiiee!’
Finally, the latest shift in perspective. My editing app informed me that although I’m much improved in terms of voice and unnecessary ‘thats’, ‘48% of my sentences start with a subject (compared to 8% in published writing)’.
What the &*($@!?
I’m proud to say I spent only five days thinking, ‘Screw that! It’s my story, I’ll write it the way its meant to be written.’
Then I started looking at sentence structure in my reading (of published works).
Damn!
So now I will learn about an element of writing I was not (consciously) aware existed.
And that is our tie-in to the Wakefield Doctrine. The Doctrine allows us three perspectives on life and the people who make up our worlds. The key is accepting that to a small, but very real degree, reality is personal. The world I experience today is for me.
My efforts to write Almira reminds me that, as the book’s subtitle holds, ‘…there is always more to the story’.
* pretty much directed at clarks and/or scotts or rogers with significant secondary clarklike aspects**
** yeah, I know, that, prima facie, describes the readership here ask me why… go ahead, I dare you, I double dare you… ask me why that describes the readership here one.more.time.
About clarkscottroger
Sometimes it is helpful to be a Roger, in that one knows one is right even when disagreeing with the “experts”. Be true to your voice.
Point taken.
(Where I refuse to listen to the Experts of Edition is when my characters have something to say, or even do. They are the voice of the story. Complete with extra thats and passive voice)
There is so much more to being a writer than just writing. It’s good that you are willing to learn, unteachable people never improve.
Good thought.
Phyllis and Mimi make very good points.
There’s something to be said for structure, for grammar but without your own “voice” steering the words, they are simple well constructed sentences. Keep those extra “that’s” and a passive voice or 2 :D In the end, your characters will guide you and you will know the “final” draft when you read it :)
this is true