My eyes have been opened and they cannot be closed.
In the last few weeks of my Australian Writers' Centre course about editing a novel, our writing group has discussed 'filtering'.
It seems I'm a prolific filterer! I need to find some kind of Filterers' Anonymous group! There was no stage of denial, as I was entirely unaware that I was doing it. Yet, once some of my manuscript scenes were returned from workshopping bleeding with red ink, my filtering ways were there...in black and white (and red)!
Editing a Novel - What is Filtering?
In novel writing, filters are unnecessary words that disrupt the story's action. Essentially, they separate the reader from the character's point of view.
Filtering forces the reader to observe the character rather than being in the action. They are told what is happening rather than seeing what is happening.
Let's see an example from my manuscript:
'Well, yes. You cannot be surprised. We must have spoken about this dozens of times.'
'Yes, of course. It’s just that I still thought you had at least six months or so of your studies still to complete. The timing just surprised me that’s all.' Lizzie’s chest felt tight. She’d known that Nancy planned to enlist and follow all four of her brothers. But in that moment she felt the claws of fear wrapping around her heart. She decided she would pester Nancy no longer with her fears.
The highlighted words disrupt the copy. I shouldn't tell you how she felt. As a reader, you should just feel it as my character does.
'Well, yes. You cannot be surprised. We must have spoken about this dozens of times.'
'Yes, of course. It’s just that I still thought you had at least six months or so of your studies still to complete. The timing just surprised me that’s all.' Lizzie’s chest tightened. She’d known that Nancy planned to enlist and follow all four of her brothers. But in that moment claws of fear wrapped around her heart. She would pester Nancy no longer with her guilt.
I found that to fix my filtering it wasn't enough to just proofread my manuscript.
In general, editing your own work can be difficult as you're often thinking of a number of different aspects about writing at the same time and you lack objectivity, often reading what you wanted to write rather than what actually appears on the page.
Here are the steps I followed to fix filtering in my manuscript:
Read through some of your scenes and identify the filtering words that you use the most often.
Use the 'Find' tool to search for those words within your manuscript.
Assess if the word use is filtering.
Fix incidences where it is.
My most common filter words are seem, feel and notice. Here is a list of common filter words to help your search.
To seem - She seemed angry.
To feel - She felt as though her heart would explode.
To notice - She noticed the small bird by the window.
To wonder - She wondered if she he was telling the truth.
To decide - She decided she would never eat lamb again.
To know - She knew she needed to get home soon.
To watch - She watched the magpie swoop at the children.
To realise - She realised she had forgotten her purse.
To sound - She sounded sicker than ever.
Editing a novel specifically for filtering will increase action and enable the reader to connect more readily with your story. It will quite often cut down your word count as an added bonus!
If you are in the process of editing a novel I highly recommend the Edit Your Novel course.
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