Deus ex machina

'God from a machine’ who was lowered on to the stage by mechanical contrivance in some ancient Greek plays to solve the problems of the plot.

It's cheating, basically. Coming up with the One Grand Solution to solve issues that a writer created for his or her characters, then couldn't come up with a logical exit strategy or got lazy/rushed/bored.

I'm guilty of that myself, once or twice.

Okay once. I swear. Really. And any writer who tells you they've NEVER done it is fibbing. It's pretty easy to do in Science Fiction, and even easier to convince yourself you aren't doing it. With SF, you sugar-coat the Deus as "alien" and the machina as "science".

Wait, hang on . . . I've done it twice.

That's what I'm editing out of my (admittedly beloved) Keeper series. And yes, those of you who know better are saying "What a dolt - she keeps going back to that series instead of putting it in a drawer and moving on." But what you don't know is I've written 12 full-length novels so far, the Keeper series is just a few of them - and yes, it's a favorite. Nothing wrong with that ! *I'm petulantly sticking my tongue out as you read this *

Let's face it, I'm not the next Stephen King. I'm not even the third to last Stephen King.

Hell, I don't even read Stephen King!

So I get to do what makes me happy - which would ultimately end with my name on the spine of a paperback nestled neatly among the W's of the Science Fiction section of your local Barnes & Nobel - but until then . . .

Over the many months at Absolute Write, hanging out with people who know things, I learned a lot of No No's, a few Taboos, and a couple of That's Ridiculous's (say that out loud, I dare you). Then I started to apply those newfound realisms in my writing -- some of them took, some bounced right off, hit the corner to my left, ricocheted down the hall and were lost forever when someone opened the door at just the right time. Or was that a meatball?

Anyway - I once joined in a conversation wherein we were defining and then more or less mocking the use of the Deus Ex Machina. Then it dawned on me that in the Keeper series, I'd used basically that same scape goat of reasoning.

So, I'm editing. Taking the Deus out, putting some logic and forethought in. Making the series stronger for it. (please GOD, I hope that's true). And as I said before, I've created this wonderful spin-off series that will be completely stand alone, as they all should be, but will benefit from a lead-in. Especially true if these babies never get published. My peeps will at least get some enjoyment out of it all.

Meanwhile, though, I find that editing of this level has got to be one of the levels of Hell. Probably the third, or maybe fourth. Not so much because of the restructuring that has to take place, but the embarrassment of realizing how much has to come out ! I've used MSWord's lovely Find and Replace to highlight every mention of this 'god' issue, and when I go through the stories and see how much lights up, it's freaky.

It's embarrassing.

Writers learn from each story, and get better with every novel - so I can forgive myself to a certain degree. I've learned a lot since starting this series, and keep on learning as I edit and create more. And when I look back over everything I've written, I still love them all - but the devil's in the details, and some of my details have even me shaking my head in that "what was she thinking, going out to the grocery store in those pants" kind of way.

So that's about it - I'm editing, sometimes with my head inside a paper bag, which makes it a little hard to see the screen, and promising myself the series will be SO much stronger for it all.

End whine.