Fiction's Fatal Flaws--Interview With Editor Christy Distler

I recently had the opportunity to read a pre-release copy of an excellent book, Five Editors Tackle the Twelve Fatal Flaws of Fiction Writing. The title is a long one, but it describes the content very well. And the five editors who wrote the book—a series of short chapters, each one addressing a fatal flaw from a different perspective—are well qualified to present this information. Today I’m interviewing one of those editors, Christy Distler.

RM: Who are the five editors, and what are their qualifications?

CD: Thank you for hosting me, Richard. The five editors are C. S. (Susanne) Lakin, Linda S. Clare, Robin Patchen, Rachel Starr Thomson, and me (Christy Distler).

Susanne is an editor, the owner of the award-winning Live Write Thrive blog, and the author of more than a dozen novels and the writing craft books in the Writer’s Toolbox Series (our book is part of this series).

Linda is an editor, a college creative writing teacher, and the author of two women’s fiction novels and three nonfiction books.

Robin is a freelance editor, as well as a line editor for Redbud Press. She also teaches writing courses and has authored four books.

Rachel is a freelance editor, the author of numerous fiction and nonfiction books, and was a teacher before she transitioned to full-time editing.

I’m a freelance editor, working with individual authors as well as with three publishing houses. I also write contemporary and historical fiction.

RM: Each of you addresses one of the flaws, coming at them from different standpoints. How did you all decide which ones were the twelve most important?

CD: Susanne chose the twelve biggest craft issues she sees as an editor, and then from that list of twelve, we each chose a commonly seen aspect of that flaw.

RM: I think a unique feature of the book is the inclusion of long sections (not just a single paragraph) that demonstrate the errors, and then a revised section showing how to avoid them. How did you all come up with that?

CD: The Before-and-After format actually reflects one of the fatal flaws we cover in the book: “show, don’t tell.” Many people are visual learners, so we wanted to show the flaws (and their fixes) instead of just tell what to do and what not to do. The Befores and Afters provide greater clarity of how the flaws can look in context, making them easier to spot and remedy.

RM: And which “fatal flaw” do you think is the absolute worst in your opinion?

CD: Personally, I would say overwriting. Many writers struggle with overwriting, and for good reason. They see their book’s incredible setting and want to convey it in full to their readers. They want everyone who opens their book to experience the same scenes that unfold in their mind. So they gush it all onto the page—but in doing so, they leave nothing to the reader’s imagination and can end up on tangents that muddle the storyline. That affects just about every facet of the story and often makes for an unsatisfying read. If wordiness (another form of overwriting) also comes into play, the story really suffers. Fortunately, overwriting is fixable once a writer can recognize it for what it is, and we show just how to do that in the book.

Thanks, Christy. The book is Five Editors Tackle the Twelve Fatal Flawsof Fiction Writing. I'm told it's available in both e-book and print form from all booksellers (online and brick-and-mortar),  and I believe every writer should have it on his or her bookshelf—after they’ve read it. 

The five editors are making a copy of their book available to a randomly selected commenter. Leave your comment, and don’t forget to include your email address so we can contact the winner—use this format to foil web crawlers: Dr R L Mabry at yahoo dot com.

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