I’m thinking about returning to the novel I wrote at the beginning of the year. I hired an editor who proofread my last novel to do developmental editing. A mistake. Her real talent lied in copy editing, when I complained that the process was not interactive, she wrote back that developmental editing was just enhanced editing. It was too, late. She already had my money. I didn’t go through the normal hiring process; I trusted her based on her prior work. Had she given her opinion on developmental editing, she would not have been hired.

I’m looking for another developmental editor. A lot of them say they can fix the story. I think they mean that they can help fix the story, but that’s still off the mark. Story’s can be tuned and tweaked. Themes can be enhanced, scenes reworked, but if the story is bad, the best thing an editor can do is suggest the author write another story.

During development, editors guide authors through rewrites. Very rarely can authors produce a lengthy work that does not need rework. Even rewrites can not repair fundamental story elements. The best thing an editor can do is recommend that the author scrap the attempt and start another story. A good editor would first go over what the author got right with their work and recommend that they build off of their strengths in their new work. There is real possibility that my new editor will do that with my novel in progress.

This comes to mind because the last novel I read had some good work, but it should have been scrapped. There is no fixing an over stretched concept. In this case it is compulsion. Three main characters each follow their compulsion to the grave. A good short story concept, but in the novel, it lead to stagnant character development. None of their characters actually met their goal (okay, one did, but he was dissatisfied with it and kept going). This lead to story spiraling. What was an explorable topic just kept repeating it self. Of course, the author produced variations, but it really read more like repetition that kept covering the same ground.

The author tried make some details interesting. In my review, I harped on of these details and tried to turn it into a metaphor.

In truth, there was one detail that was fairly clever. One main character, Mendel, composes songs. The other characters find and produce his discards. The popularity of his music inspires the creation of Pro Mendel (PM) groups, resentment of the music’s success or perhaps some lyrical content (I’m not really sure and it really doesn’t make much sense) leads to the formation of Anti Mendel (AM) groups (who seem much more inclined to violence). For every demonstration, there is a counter demonstration, and these are discussed in the novel. The clever part is AM vs. PM. Like morning people versus night people. Anyways, these groups clash and some people’s lives become collateral damage.

Here’s the review of In Quest for the Perfect Storm by .Dennis Miller

A Serrated Knife?

More than half way through the novel, a man threatens a lead character by putting a serrated knife to his throat. The man snuck up on the main character, Paul, while he surveiled another main character, Mendel. I found that detail disturbing. On the reality series Forged in Fire, the contest rarely asks contestants to make serrated blades. A quick Google search revealed that most hunters and chefs prefer straight blades for the simple reason that serrated blades are difficult to keep sharp. Serrated blades are often used as bread knives because bread is soft and unlikely to dull knives. Many steak knives are serrated, but like bread knives, it’s because cooked meat is easier to cut than raw meat. It is also the case that some seamen prefer serrated knives to cut rope, but this attack was not in a nautical setting.

Choosing a serrated knife in this context seems not just an odd choice, but a poor choice. It makes the author seem to be reaching for interesting sounding details that actually call the author’s knowledge into question. A quick Google search revealed a vast preference for plain edged knives. It is a small detail, but several major details in this book seem to be made the same way and gave the same impression.

The title lead me to believe this book would be about music. Writing about music is difficult. Music is complex. Even relatively simple songs, like The Beatles Obladi Olbada, are difficult to describe well let alone the song’s impact on listeners and how they impact society.

This novel has about as much to do about music as serrated blades has to do with Forged in Fire. There are elements there, but it really is minuscule. For the first half of novel, the author tries to describe events in Mendel’s journey, how it made him feel and that Mendel encapsulated this into song. This is about as interesting as reading an esoteric music critic write about an obscure opera.

The worst part, is that the author has Mendel write the music fully formed. This is counter to what I know about song writing. Most songs are more wrought than written. There are accounts of songs created in just a few minutes, but most stories of songs include details of long collaborations and reworking of songs: The original lyrics of The Beatles Yesterday were “Scrambled eggs, oh baby how I like your legs,” and Eagles Hotel California started as a Don Felder guitar lick, but Don Henley and Glen Frey wrote the lyrics and the dueling guitars at the end of the song was initiated by Joe Walsh. In a documentary, Glen Frye talks about living above Jackson Brown and listening to him work through his song writing.

Mendel’s song writing is like the serrated blade. It sounds good, but it also shows an ignorance of how great songs are made. Songs are more than just a good lick or snappy lyrics. It needs to have a good beat, a hook, the right arrangement and not overdoing any part of it. A quote from the movie That Thing You Do sorta sums it up, “I’ve found that a hit record is like a stew. All the ingredients have to come together just right. Otherwise, it’s just soup.” The author’s description of Mendel’s music seems devoid of standard musical terms like key, minor or major chords, tempo, beat, harmony and melody. These terms would indicate a closer relationship to the music and give readers a stronger sense of what’s great about Mendel’s music. The author may have decided that using music related terms is something that’s done to death, so he might have decided to forgo them. It’s a choice. In this novel, a poor choice like the serrated blade.

So, if this book isn’t really about music, what is it about? The three major characters: Mendel the music writer attempting to write the perfect song, Paul an out of work person who collects and sells Mendel’s discards and Beasley who buys and produces Mendel’s music. Mendel criss-crosses America, penniless and mostly off any path, as he gathers experiences and writes songs. He is compelled to continue on this way to write the perfect song. Beasley is compelled to be the biggest businessman in music. Paul becomes compelled to follow Mendel and collect his songs. It seems clear that is a novel about being the inability to shake your primary compulsions.

Mendel has a couple of interludes, but in the end, he just continues. Beasley also cannot stop even after the marketing frenzy he creates produces a man who almost kills him. As a side note, Beasley’s dependence on Mendel songs seems a bit off. Most music moguls seem to build a stable of talent. I really don’t know the music industry well enough, but this feels like another serrated blade. Paul struggles the most with his compulsion. He is aware of it, and attempts to leave it behind, but in the end, he also can not stop.

A novel where the main characters keep doing the same thing is a boring as it sounds. There are cycles and the story spirals up before it spirals down. There is a side element. The media frenzy over Mendel creates a Anti-Mendel (AM) movement which clashes with the Pro-Mendel (PM) movement. This seems based on the episode where people burned Beatles albums after John Lenon quipped that The Beatles were more popular than Jesus. That episode is too dated to be relevant today. Perhaps the anti-Trump protests versus MAGA would have been a better model. Neither really fit well into the novel because Mendel never interacts with society (no interviews, no appearances) and even Paul fights to retain his anonymity. When the AM/PM clashes are not serving as a plot device, it reverts to the side show which, in the end, is all it really is.