Lane Heymont on editing and structure

[Brian G Turner]

Literary agent, Lane Heymont, discusses how he works with editing a client's manuscript here:

Pub Hub: In The Life of an Agent: Editing Edition Part 1

Pub Hub: In the Life of an Agent: Editing Edition Part 2: Plot Structure

It's interesting to see the issue of filler words come up again:

Every word in a book needs to serve a purpose. Be it character development, pushing the plot forward, or evoking one of our senses. If it doesn’t do anything, cut it out. There’s a few words consistently marked as fillers. These include:

- Just (as in “She just stared at her.”)
- That (as in “He stood there, thinking that if he could just make it across the parking lot he’d be safe.”)
- Like ({most often in dialogue}) as in “Mike, you need to, like, stop it.”)
- So, a weak modifier (as in “She so wanted to punch him.”)
- Very, also a weak modifier (as in “He was running very late.”)
- Really, basically the same as “so” and “very”.
- Some (as in “He thirsted for some gold.”)

 

[Gonk the Insane]

It never hurts to be reminded about filler words but... There are times when all of those words do serve a purpose, particularly in dialogue. For the most part I'd agree they should be avoided where possible, but not necessarily excised altogether (unlike our old friend "suddenly", for example).

 

[Juliana]

Off-topic: last November I volunteered at an event where Lane was doing 10m pitch sessions... (I was time-keeping for the pitch sessions) He seems like a nice guy, although a little on the serious and quiet side. But that may have been because he was vastly outnumbered by the female agents.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Writer's Digest have had him asking for submissions in fantasy and science fiction:
7 Literary Agents Seeking Fantasy Novels NOW | WritersDigest.com

However, I'm struggling to find much of either represented by the Seymour Agency. Then again, I don't have a PublishersMarketplace.com subscription that would allow me to more properly track deals. Not yet, anyway. If Lane Heymont sees this thread he's welcome to update us.

 

[Juliana]

I think he's a writer, too. I seem to recall he arrived early to the event to do some of his own work.

 

[Gonk the Insane]

I'm struggling to find much of either represented by the Seymour Agency

I checked their website after reading your post. They had a long list of authors, but I didn't recognise a single name.

I think he's a writer, too.

Yes, I followed a link and it looks like he writes as well - I think he mentioned it in a bio page somewhere.