AI Is Muzak for Literature

/ Ann Aubrey Hanson / Leave a comment

I was recently editing a chapter from a client. It was beautifully written. Immaculate. I’m talking old-fashioned literature like in The Great Gatsby. I was pleased with what I read in the first paragraph, thinking, “Hey, this is good stuff!” I made a note to the effect in the Comments in the margin of the page. Then I read the second paragraph. Another beauty, exquisitely written, shining like the white tablecloths of a fine-dining restaurant with cobalt-blue-based wine glasses standing watch above perfect ranks of polished silverware. … Then it hit me. I ran an AI check. Yep, indeed, my Spidey sense was correct. Some 87% of the text was AI generated. Dammit!

I know my client has the story in him. But this is no longer his story. His voice is completely missing. I know his voice, from having heard him speak and having read his emails. Is he a gifted writer? No, but that doesn’t matter. That’s where I come in as his editor. He has a story to tell. I will help him tell that story in his own words, and then fix the spelling and grammar and anything else that needs to be fixed to raise it to a publishing level. But his voice will remain intact.

While the writing he sent to me is lovely, I was disappointed not to hear his voice. As I said, it is perfectly fine writing, elegant even, but it had no soul. Muzak. Have you ever heard a song on Muzak that you want to dance to, or keep humming? No. Because while it is note perfect, it is lifeless, without a heart. AI writing might be word perfect and elegant, but it has no resonance. It falls as lifelessly on the eyes as Muzak falls lifelessly on the ears.

Just to make my point clear. Imagine Mick Jagger using AI to help with his lyrics.

I can’t get no satisfaction
I can’t get no satisfaction
‘Cause I tried and I tried and I tried and I tried
I can’t get no, I can’t get no

When I’m driving in my car
And a man talks on the radio
He’s telling me more and more
About some useless information
Supposed to fire my imagination

…. becomes …..

I find no satisfaction—
though I keep trying, endlessly.

Driving in my car,
the radio man insists,
feeding me facts without meaning,
meant to spark imagination—
but they only fall flat.

It might mean the same thing, but can you dance to it or sing it to yourself repeatedly and with delight? I think not.

WRITE YOUR OWN STORY. Don’t let AI con you into believing you are a writer if you let AI put words on the page for you. No one will read and remember. They will be words adrift on the wind, gone without memory.

Side Trips Can Lead to Huge Discoveries

/ Ann Aubrey Hanson / Leave a comment
(U-turn road sign, against panoramic blue sky. Time to change direction.)

My writing partner and I just finished the first draft of our first book together. Several weeks ago, we had thought we were approaching the end, having turned a legend into a world-killing nightmare. I awoke one morning with the dreadful feeling that we had lost our way.

We had taken a limited story world and exploded it. I wrote a note to my partner and said we needed to talk, indicating that I thought we had gone astray. My partner was quiet, taking it all in. (I found out later that my partner was actually thinking along the same lines, but was just hesitant to mess with our new villain, lest I disagree about changing the story again. We now both agree it is far better to put things in the open right away, rather than let them fester.)

Several phone conversations and email exchanges later, we discovered that were actually on the same page. But man! We had written some incredible stuff! And our villain—well our villain was to die for. But we agreed that the villain was too large for our current story.

We ejected the villain and stuck with our main characters, including a much-diminished villain, still evil but bite-size, as befits our story.

It took deep breaths and my partner’s trust in me as an editor for us to admit that we had taken a wrong turn onto a tangent, and that we needed to do a U-turn and get back on track. We were verklempt to have “wasted” so much time on a wrong turn, but the more we spoke, the more we realized that it wasn’t time and effort wasted.

My partner trusted my instincts, and I handed over the reins for the rewrite, trusting my partner’s instincts for the rewrite, returning to the original story. We know we like each other, but now we know that we truly trust each other’s strengths in the partnership. Hurdle cleared!

As a result of our digression, we now had an incredible villain for one of our other series, a cataclysmic series that deserves a colossal villain. Et voilà!

Our side trip also helped us to focus on our current book and enlarge ideas within it, while also streamlining the plot. Less is more with legends. Our current book has been enriched by our segue, and our future book beckons, calling urgently for us to ditch our present plans and jump to that book. But no, we must not. Our villain must bide and grow.

In the meantime, noses to the grindstone, we now turn our minds to editing. Not nearly as much fun as original writing, but certainly necessary. At least twice.

Onward!

Good Editors Make a Respectable Writer Remarkable

/ Ann Aubrey Hanson / Leave a comment

“A good editor can make a respectable writer remarkable, just like a good parent helps a child become amazing.”―Justin Alcala

I have been working a great deal lately on editing fiction and memoirs. Both require a delicate touch from me as editor: in both, I strive to preserve the voice of the author.

The difficulty with this is that I must show them how to improve their writing while avoiding imposition of my voice in any way. This is where Microsoft Word’s Track Changes and Comments come in handy.

With the author’s permission granted, I make suggested changes to the text, always explaining my changes if I think the reason behind them might not be clear. This might be a grammar point, or it could be a change for impact, for emphasis. Anything I change or suggest is in their power to accept or reject.

Often, I make changes from passive to active voice, which is a concept that takes time to understand. The way I explain is that passive writing is “newspaper reporting” in which this happened and then that happened. More active writing will show what is happening in the moment, rather than reporting it in the past.

If necessary, I will make suggestions about character as well. All too frequently, authors have their characters do something or say something because they “need” them to do or say that to move the story along. But sometimes the author hasn’t clearly considered what the CHARACTER might want to say or do in that instance. Given their own voices, characters can surprise us with their reactions. Where we thought they might be acquiescent, they have another opinion. If, as writers, we allow the character to develop and grow with the story, it often impacts the story in marvelous ways that we had never considered, sometimes turning the book onto a completely different track.

I also discuss motivation, pointing out holes or lack of reason for characters to behave a specific way. Understanding the WHY behind a character’s actions or personality can improve the story and plot significantly, broadening the possibilities for that character within the story. Rather than answering, “I just see him that way,” an author can look deeper into the character and find his or her motivations, the driving force within him or her, which in turn can open up a wide range of story enhancements. I suggest that a character is not just evil because the author needs him to be evil, that is boring. And unimaginative. Rather, I encourage the author to create a backstory for the main characters, and even the supporting characters, so that the author can more fully understand how a character might act.

That is the way to surprise yourself as an author, and certainly to surprise your readers.

The author’s intent is to tell a compelling story, whether in fiction or memoir. To do that, the author must resist becoming predictable. As an author, you must seek the “other perspective,” whether character driven or in response to an event. Rather than walk blithely down a paved path, why not go in the same direction, arrive at the same point, by hopping on rocks in a river? Keep the reader guessing, or at least interested in the journey.

Those are the sort of suggestions I make as an editor. Each story, each memoir, is unique. I help authors to find the uniqueness in their story. Once we find that, the book is immediately more powerful.

That is the gift of a good editor.

Literary Liposuction

/ Ann Aubrey Hanson / Leave a comment

I love that term. I was chatting with an author client of mine today and he referred to my editing as “literary liposuction.” I couldn’t have put it better myself.

Lipo, as it is called, is a fat-removal procedure used in plastic surgery. Lipo is not a treatment for obesity, nor a substitute for proper diet and exercise.

The same can be said for editing. Editors help to remove extra verbiage and tighten the writing, but it is no substitute for careful crafting of each sentence, and careful attention to detail in story and plotting.

That said, I do encourage my clients to give their ideas room to breathe during their first draft, concentrating on telling the story and creating memorable characters. In the editing process, we go through and take out the dross, the word waste. We suck the fat out of sentences, honing and sculpting. Think of the finishing work of a sculptor, starting with a shapeless lump of stone and whittling it down to perfection.

As Gras, my client, says, that’s the hard part of writing. The easy part is getting the story on the page, giving your imagination free rein. Editing is much less fun, requiring the writer to trim and streamline focus. But the result is shining prose and a work worth the effort.

Don’t fret if your writing is wordy in the first, or even second, draft. The fine-tuning comes during the edit cycles. Get the story on the page, and then trim, trim, trim.

Know When to Stop or Step Aside

/ Ann Aubrey Hanson / Leave a comment

windingpath

I am guilty of the same error that many writers are guilty of: Because I fear rejection, I quit writing. I’ve done it in the past, I’m doing it now, and I will likely do it in the future. But the fear of rejection should not result in my NOT writing.

As a writer I know once said, “If they don’t like your stuff, write new stuff!” Rather than banging your head against a dead-end , wishing that your readers would respond to what you are writing, turn and try another path. This could lead to a new genre, or just a new idea in your current genre. It will certainly help to open new horizons for you, horizons that might offer pay dirt, or at least potentially a more fertile arena.

I have many starts in my writing files — and far fewer finishes. These arrested starts still call to me, and there is a chance that I will get back to a few of them in the future, though certainly some are fatally inert and best left that way. But I don’t see these unfinished creations as a waste of time, or as failures.

What I have found is that stepping away when I am having trouble writing often frees my blood circulation, literally and figuratively, allowing me to see a way around my writer’s block, or to recognize that the block is too massive to overcome and I’m just wasting my time assaulting it.

The best thing I can do at that moment is to abandon the path I am on and seek out another, where my creativity can thrive and sing on the page.

croc on fence.png

HOWEVER, that is not to say that we writers should abandon every project when it gets hard. Certainly not. Part of the fun of writing is pushing through the obstacles, getting over hurdles, finishing what we started because we know it’s worth it. The fun is seeing how you can find creative ways past those obstacles. Typically, your writing is stronger because of those challenges overcome.

But know when it’s time to call a halt. Sometimes, certain paths just shouldn’t be followed. You’ll know when it’s time.

deadend

 

Editors Are Not Your Friends

/ Ann Aubrey Hanson / Leave a comment

It’s a fact: Editors are not your friends. You pay us to be more.

So many times, I’ve received a manuscript to edit where the author has informed me that it has been read several times, “and my family and friends love it,” so it should need very little editing. They send the manuscript to me just to check off the Edit box before launching it for publication.

Inevitably, I have to tell the author that the manuscript needs so much more than a pat and a kiss before being sent into the world. This isn’t mean-spiritedness on my part; it’s what I am paid to do. I am both cheerleader and trail guide.

It is my job to look at all aspects of the book, separate from who wrote it, which is something that friends cannot do. I can tell the author that the characters aren’t fully developed, or that they are a bit stereotypical. Or I can point out flaws in the plot, or gaps in motivation. Again, I’m not being unkind. I am showing the author how to improve the story.

That’s not to say that I won’t be positive and encouraging. I am always happy to cheer, as well, emphasizing what is right and strong in the book. My task is to help an author achieve that power throughout the book.

By all means, let your friends read your drafts, and listen to what they have to say. But before you rush to publish, here are a few reasons why you should send your manuscript to an editor:

  • Editors take the broad view. While family and friends might find it difficult to unlink the author from the story, an editor takes the broader view, allowing the story to stand on its own merits, separate from any feelings about the author. This allows honesty without circumspection.
  • Editors ensure a solid foundation. Editors do more than just read the story; they take it apart to its basic elements and verify that all elements are where they should be, and that nothing is missing. This strengthens the structure of the story. After all, you can build a glorious tower, but if it isn’t on a solid foundation, it will quickly flounder and crumple to the ground. Editors ensure that foundation.
  • Editors question your characters. Too often, authors create characters who do exactly what they are told, exactly what they need to do for their role in the story. But a good editor will question your characters, ask why they are who they are and why they do what they do. This helps to make your characters come alive on the page, rather than existing as cut-outs for the story line.
  • Editors test your story line and plot. It is the editor’s task to test your story line and to challenge your plots, all in the name of strengthening your book. The editor will look for gaps in the story, lack of continuity, and errors in reasoning or motivation for the plot to develop. This is hard for the author to do alone, being close to the story and so very aware of where the story needs to go.
  • Editors give your manuscript the chance to thrive. Editors understand the effort you have made to create your story. We know the love and pain that has gone into the writing. Our only goal is to give your manuscript the chance to succeed in the vastness of the world.

It is a major, and costly, decision to hire an editor once you have finished your book. Absolutely. But it is a necessary step for achieving what you dreamed about when you started your story. Take the step.

“Sonder” — A Delightful Concept for Writers

/ Ann Aubrey Hanson / 1 Comment

sonder2

My son just exposed me to a new word, which now enchants me: sonder. According to the Dictionary of the Obscure, it is “the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness—an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk.”

I have always intuited this idea, but never put it to words like this. We are in this life together, but living it uniquely. It is brutish to expect that others will live their lives as we do, to have the same values and purpose as we have. How could they? Their experiences of life are distinctive to them. We must embrace this concept of individual perspective, in life and in our writing.

This concept will now more consciously inform my writing. I make it my habit to know my characters inside and out, as complete creations, not as cookie-cutter personae who simply do what I need them to do on the page. With this concept in mind, I will be more aware of how life experiences can be diametrically different for each person involved, depending on their perceptions.

In grad school, I  wrote something that I thought incredibly profound, but which my roommates and friends found remarkably inane. I think, perhaps, it was my version of “sonder”: I think everyone in the world is exactly as I am, except those who are different, warped versions of the universal type, which is me.

Okay, not quite as profound now as it seemed then. But therein lies truth. I stand by it.