The best way to edit a novel

There is no one way to approach writing or editing a novel except to say that the more you write and read over what you’ve written as you go along the better the prose will be and the less you will have to edit later on. Your publisher has read your novel and throws a thick package containing 400 pages of words on your desk and says, ‘ready for editing’, and you have a huge task ahead. You have gone through the process of developing the plot and the characters, choosing a setting, choosing a first or third person point of view, structuring the story so that you have a beginning, a middle section and an end and now have to attend to the final bits you have to include or delete.


• To edit a novel once it is done, take a break from it for a week, work on something else, and come back to it with fresh eyes; sort of like cleaning the palette between wines so that one can better see and appreciate its contents. This will immediately tell the writer what is lacking, what needs to be better explained, and what he has to throw out no matter how delightful. Sometimes a writer has to kill off certain passages and sentences as it just does not add anything to the story and is there purely because the writer likes it. This is called killing off your darlings. The writer will also see instantly what works in the story and what does not. Getting the story in one reading also tells you whether the structure works and what should be cut out and what kept. Editing a novel does not just mean making corrections; sometimes huge blocks of text are added, moved or removed resulting in a restructuring of part of the story.

• Use a tracking device so that the editor can see in red what has to be amended, included, or removed.

• Ask a friend who loves books to read the draft and comment on what she thinks of the characters, the plot, the structure of the story – and ask her if she would change anything.

• Don’t edit when you are tired; you need a sharp brain to proofread and edit your work.


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Do not be a bystander when you see a crime commited against a child

When we speak of child abuse today it is mostly to do with cruelty to children by outsiders such as child molesters, pedophiles and perpetrators who indulge in criminal acts with minors. The parties don’t know each other and the acts are random. But what of the child who comes from a good and prestigious family who is the object of his father’s love? His father comes to his bed in the middle of the night. He is daddy’s boy. He has to obey his father because the preacher at the church tells him so. He is six years old, innocent. His father performs sexual acts with him. His mother knows but she is weak and does not protect him. She pretends that he is not doing anything wrong because he won’t hurt his own child. So she abandons his needs and rights, turns inward and says nothing. The child who both loves and hates his father is a prisoner. If he tells his mother, he fears that his father will beat him, so he keeps quiet and endures the abuse, building up hate. The mother pretends all is well and does not talk to the child when the father is not home. She is afraid to lose him and embarrassed that the news might leak out. Her husband and her standing in society come first, even if it is based on cruelty, immorality and deceit. What she has in fact done is something that a wild animal in the bush would not even do. She has abandoned her child and cannot see that she has contributed to the problem. She is too numb to know the hurt she has caused and the difference between right and wrong.



Innocent at five

Children are innocent and adults have to protect them. They are not born with sin and have a clean slate upon which the parents make the first impressions as role models for them. Today’s children are tomorrow’s leaders. We destroy the fabric of society and all that is good when we witness cruelty and keep silent. When you witness a grown man act inappropriately with a child it is your duty to do something about it. Don’t be a bystander. Don’t worry that you will lose a friend. Step forward. Say what you know and what you have witnessed. There are young children all over the world who are snatched and kidnapped and are used in all kinds of situations. They lose their innocence when they are barely out of diapers. They suffer at the hands of their own parents and there is no one to stand up for them. Don’t think that because they are your parents that they can’t do wrong. They are committing the biggest sin of betrayal – betraying the family, betraying God, and betraying the child. Don’t save a predator and abandon a child. The child has no one on his side except you.


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When kids lie to escape punishment

For some children, depending on their age, lying to a parent can range from small fibs over who dropped the eggs on the floor and did not clean up, to big carbuncles where money has gone missing in the house and no one knows anything about it. Usually someone knows; the person who took it. In any event, a three year old knows when he tells a lie that he is doing wrong and usually the lie is to escape punishment. As he grows older and becomes more developed he may discover that telling a lie has advantages and that by telling them he not only gets what he wants, but someone else gets the blame for what he’s done. The number one disadvantage for telling a lie is that you forget what you lied about previously, and you get caught up in your own lies.


How to handle continuous and unnecessary lying

• Set strict rules with consequences for anyone stealing money from the kitty, and list the punishment which can range from a two-hour timeout to no allowance for that week. When the child is found lying, carry out the punishment and don’t veer from it. Children have to know that you mean what you say and know that there will be consequences. If you don’t act on it they will take you for granted and not pay much attention the next time you chastize them. Punishment for a toddler need not be anything greater than a two minute timeout in his room.

• As a child grows older and is more developed you can start to reason with him. Something like, “if you tell mummy a lie, I will not know when you are telling the truth and I won’t believe you again even though it might be the truth.”


• Punishment does not mean sending him for a two minute timeout where he can have the remote control to the television set. It will in fact be a reward where he can watch his own program in peace.

• Encourage a child to always tell the truth, especially when he owns up to the infraction. Always punish and reward a child without threatening that you will tell his father. That sets the father up as the bad guy.

• Don’t become frustrated and spank. Cutting into his playtime or banning him from watching television is far more effective. Don’t label your child as a liar, but work with him to improve.

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