Sarah Cypher

plot point, any action a character takes that can’t be undone, which moves the plot ahead.

EXAMPLE: The fast-paced first 100 pages are dense with plot points, but while the main character is recuperating from the car accident, he doesn’t make enough progress in his investigation, and the novel drags.

***Until April 12, the official release date of “The Editor’s Lexicon: Essential Writing Terms for Novelists,” I will be posting one definition a day here. Check back often! Read more about the book here.

clarity is the writer’s first goal, because without it, art cannot affect its audience. It eliminates vagueness, avoids awkwardness, and shies from over-writing. Revise for clarity by showing us what something—an emotion, a person, a setting, a gesture—is not, while also attempting to show us exactly what it is. Using precise details and your ear for language, aim to make the ordinary extraordinary, and the imaginary real.

NO: The woman would wait for the bus every day, looking tall and cold.

YES: She waited for the 61C. She resembled the bus signpost, but without the mantle of snow across her shoulders.

***Until April 12, the official release date of “The Editor’s Lexicon: Essential Writing Terms for Novelists,” I will be posting one definition a day here. Check back often! Read more about the book here.

flashiness, a form of over-writing, when the writer chooses words that draw attention away from the story’s content and to themselves. We cannot forget that we are reading. Revise by toning down the narrative voice.

NO: The car purred and growled and caterwauled and, with a screech, shredded the outer three millimeters of high grade rubber across a swath of Flanders Street as it took off like a demon cat.

YES: Uncle Jimmy’s Subaru idled in a cloud of exhaust. When I gave him a whistle, he revved it one last time—the engine made a predatory growl—and then took off down Flanders Street, leaving a layer of high-test rubber on the pavement and the smell of burned hair.

***Until April 12, the official release date of “The Editor’s Lexicon: Essential Writing Terms for Novelists,” I will be posting one definition a day here. Check back often! Read more about the book here.

clock, a story element that gives the main character a limited amount of time to accomplish an important task. It is essential because it creates suspense and urgency.

EXAMPLE: Consider adding a clock to the character’s promise to improve his grades. If he doesn’t earn a B by mid-semester, he’ll be off the basketball team and he’ll lose his scholarship.

***Until April 12, the official release date of “The Editor’s Lexicon: Essential Writing Terms for Novelists,” I will be posting one definition a day here. Check back often! Read more about the book here.

blandness (also flatness) is a problem created by not enough attention to detail. The writer relies on dull adjectives, overused adverbs, and simplistic actions to convey emotions and description. The effect on the reader, after several pages, is boring and numbing because the writing doesn’t tell us much, and further, lacks the precision of music that comes from having an ear for the English language. Revise by adding succinctness and more voice.

NO: He ate his sandwich with one hand and drove with the other. The light turned green and he accelerated through the intersection. He listened while she spoke, and made a left at the next light.

YES: He navigated the streets, driving, eating, stopping, and going when the lights prompted him to go. He paid fastidious attention to everything but his wife’s voice.

***Until April 12, the official release date of “The Editor’s Lexicon: Essential Writing Terms for Novelists,” I will be posting one definition a day here. Check back often! Read more about the book here.