Editing With Margie Lawson:

A Psychologist Reads What Is On The Page

and What’s Missing 

By Patty Burns

Margie Lawson, a psychologist with a fascination for the written word and the creative process, is well known to KOD chapter members. Her popular editing courses, EMPOWERING CHARACTERS’ EMOTIONS and DEEP EDITING: THE EDITS SYSTEM, RHETORICAL, DEVICES, AND MORE have been featured in COFFIN, our College of Felony and Intrigue. They provide tools for adding power and punch to your work in progress. (I think of Margie as our very own Max Perkins.) 

Recently Margie took time out from her busy counseling/writing/lecturing schedule to tell us about her editing courses and how she developed them. 

Can you tell us a little about your background and training?

I’ve always been intrigued by nuances of communication. As a counseling psychologist, I chose two, year-long, post-masters’ specializations: marriage and family therapy, and hypnotherapy. Not the kind of hypnosis where you make people act like chimpanzees . . . it’s where you use hypnosis combined with strategic therapy to help people access inner strengths, and eliminate the blocks that keep them from enjoying life.

My career has allowed me to explore some fascinating tracks, including teaching doctoral level psychology courses, running a thriving private practice, and being the Director of an Impotence Clinic. I’m currently the Director of a Counseling Program where I keep my clinical skills honed by seeing crisis patients and facilitating debriefings for traumatized employees.

How did you become interested in working with writers?

It was natural to apply an analytical bent to my manuscripts. I’m currently co-authoring a mainstream suspense with my easy-to-love and talented husband— and I’m taking material I created for my two editing courses and developing a DEEP EDITING WORKBOOK for fiction writers.

I didn’t conceptualize and orchestrate a big plan to share my psychological expertise with writers. It’s one of those happy and fortuitous it-just-evolved stories. 

How did you develop your editing courses?

I challenged myself to learn how bestselling writers capture emotion on the page. We all know that bestselling doesn’t necessarily mean best reading. I analyzed and dissected hundreds of books and separated them into two groups: page-turners and skimmers. I found thirty-plus skimmers to every page-turner.

I set the best-reading bar high. Initially, some books masquerade as page-turners then disappoint the reader. I wanted to learn how to write top-of-the-line page-turners, books that grab the reader on page one and never let go. 

As a psychologist, I analyze what’s on the page as well as what’s missing that would have made that page stronger. I developed two editing courses with a combined total of over 400 lecture pages. 

Can you describe the courses?

I created EMPOWERING CHARACTERS’ EMOTIONS first. This course teaches writers how to use the full range of nonverbal communication, how to write fresh, how to analyze their writing using my EDITS System, and how to add emotional power.

A year later, I developed a second editing course, DEEP EDITING: THE EDITS SYSTEM, RHETORICAL DEVICES, AND MORE. This advanced course takes my EDITS System deeper so writers learn more about how to fix what’s not working. It also explores twenty-five rhetorical devices— and how and when to use them. And it shares more deep editing techniques to add power to the read. 

One of those deep editing techniques is my Five Question Scene Checklist, appropriately titled the FIVE Q. When a writer applies those five questions and their multiple subsets to their scene . . . they know that scene carries emotive power. 

A writer’s goal is to add power in dozens of subtle ways that speak to the reader’s unconscious. No speed bumps. Just a smooth read that keeps the reader hooked viscerally.

In the DEEP EDITS course you use examples from many different writers, can you tell us how you find and select these samples?

I’m a sticky-tab addict. When I read, I hold small sticky-tabs in my hand and tab each example. I barely pause—I tab it and keep reading. When I finish the book, I create a file with stellar excerpts from that author. Lisa Gardner’s books head my list every time with hundreds of examples.

I load my courses with strong examples from all genres to support my teaching points. Seeing how other writers dig deep to give the reader a fresh read, motivates writers in my courses and workshops to push their creativity.

You feature various rhetorical devices. How did you select which ones to recommend?

I cover twenty-five rhetorical devices, then suggest that writers make their Top Ten List and focus on using those first. If they like, they can add more rhetorical devices to their writing later.

I emphasize several rhetorical devices that carry the most psychological weight. I can count on Lisa Gardner and Harlan Coben to use anaphora when they need to up the power. Anaphora is repeating the same word, or phrase, at the beginning of a sentence or phrase, at least three times in a row. Sometimes the lead word or phrase is repeated four or five times. 

Here’s an example of anaphora from Lisa Gardner’s gripping 2007 release, HIDE. 

Truth is, looking back on all of our days on the road, I never noticed anything out of the ordinary. I never felt unknown eyes watching me. I never saw a car slow down so the driver could get a second glance. I never, ever felt threatened, and I thought about it, believe me, I thought about it every time I came home and saw our five suitcases packed and stacked against the front door. What had gone wrong this time? What sin had I committed? I never had an answer.

I’ll slip into teaching mode for a minute. Read Lisa’s paragraph out loud.

Lisa uses ‘I never’ to start a phrase or sentence four times in a row. Then she uses ‘I never’ one more time at the end, anchoring the power.

Does it seem like overkill? Does the repetition of anaphora get in the way of a smooth read? Or does it empower the read?

What else does Lisa do right? Great cadence. A Double: ‘I thought about it’. Rhyming words: packed and stacked. Referring to what didn’t happen. Rhetorical questions. And she nails the theme into the readers’ hearts. The reader cares.

If we distill this paragraph and share the essence, such as any writer might write, it could read like this.

I remember our days on the road. I’d come home and find our five suitcases packed and stacked by the front door and wonder why. Why did we have to move again?

My distilled version covers the topic. Critique members would think it was fine. 

And . . . my version has no power. It doesn’t speak to the readers’ unconscious. Plus, the reader may not understand how important this piece is to the big story. 

Lisa Gardner empowered her passage so at an unconscious level, the reader understands that these thoughts are relevant to the big story. This internalization supports the author’s promise to the reader. By the end of the book, the reader will have the answer.

You’ll have to read HIDE to get that answer. 

OKAY – Back to the interview questions. 

Lisa Gardner and Harlan Coben, both New York Times Bestsellers, use anaphora and other rhetorical devices at some of their turning points throughout their books. Rhetorical devices can create smooth reads that add psychological power and boost the reader to turn pages faster and faster and faster. 

What do you believe is the most common writing or editing mistake?

Clichés , clichés, and clichés. 

When a reader reads the beginning of a clichéd phrase, they can finish it in their mind before they finish the line. It’s predictable. They know what’s coming. There’s no uplift.

It pays to write fresh. When clichés weasel their way into a manuscript, and they will, writers can highlight them. They can go back later and write them fresh. The completed manuscript will be stronger.

What is the single most important device a writer can utilize to strengthen their work?

One device? I have to limit myself to one?

I can’t do it. I can’t. It’s too cruel. 

Okay. I’ll try. A deep question deserves a deep answer.

The single most important thing a writer can do is: Dig deep to add power that speaks to the reader’s unconscious.

Hmm . . . that’s not a technique. It’s a credo.

I teach writers how to analyze their work and how to add power. What if a character is hit with an emotional bullet? Emotional bullet—emotionally loaded information. That’s the stimulus. Writers can learn how to have that character respond in an emotionally authentic way, using fresh writing that evokes a visceral response.

That’s one way to work toward writing a page-turner.

What kind of feedback have you received from students? How have the courses impacted their writing?

Feedback from writers who’ve taken my classes has been incredibly positive.

Donnell Bell e-mailed me as she was compiling the KOD History. She told me my COFFIN courses were ranked the highest by KOD members. I’m honored.

I love teaching. 

I often hear from Margie-alumni that after taking my editing courses, they’ve revised their previously rejected manuscripts and won contests, received requests for fulls, and were offered contracts. I’m always so thrilled for them. I love hearing about their successes. 

Patty Burns is the Editor of RWA’s Kiss of Death newsletter.