The Writer’s Right Dither And Stormrider Giveaway

 ** Don't forget the Stormrider signed paperback book and Unique Totebag giveaway ends July 7!  Enter now!

  

Well actually it’s the ‘wrong’ dither. Are you a writer who’s trying to get your word count down and can’t figure out why it is you can’t?  All those words are so special, so pertinent, so important to the story.

No they’re not.

Here’s the thing. First of all word count is important. You shouldn’t be obsessive about it, but if whoever you’re writing for has a word limit then stay within it. Don’t think because you write so brilliantly they’ll make an exception.  They won’t.

So, to reduce the word count (funny how we almost always over-write and not under-write) remove empty words. You know all those words that get thrown in to express an idea (or even to pad out a story or article) that you might not even be aware of.  Words like “maybe”, “try to”, “perhaps”, etc.  (yes, the etc. means something – think about all those other ‘filler’ words.)  The spinning and multiplying of words as a writer whirls and dance with language because he really doesn’t know what he wants to say.

And think about sentences like this: He decided it was about time he should be beginning to be learning about science.

Huh? What? How about: He decided it was time to learn about science.

Most of the time there are simple ways to cut lengthy sentences which not only reduces the dreaded word count, but believe me it will help hold the interest of the reader – after those cuts keeps a deciding editor happy.

Now, before I get everyone jumping all over me, there are times when the longer sentences are a necessity. There is such a thing as beautiful prose; that in which the writer creates a world, uses poetic metaphor and scintillating adjectives. So, as the writer (and at least first editor) the writer (you) is going to have to weigh exactly what is what in the story being written.

But, as a reminder, at the same time don’t fall into the cliché trap. That’s not poetic writing, it’s simply boring and shows the world the writer is a bit low on imagination. Let’s just skip things like “looking like the cat that swallowed the canary,” or “the early bird catches the worm,” or “things that go bump in the night” –  get it? It’s so much easier to avoid adding all those words, to create better, smarter and tighter sentences and create a much more engaging story all with just a little extra thought. It’ll become so easy over time that very little conscious effort will be needed to create your own metaphor and skip those old, worn out ones that have morphed over time into clichés.

So, instead of “he looked like the cat that swallowed the canary” how about, “he looked smug.”

Instead of “things that go bump in the night” how about “his heart pounded in the wake of the thump in the dark, deserted basement.”

Make words your playground ~don’t let them fence you in.

Language - the source of Misunderstandings ~ the Flow of the Written word

 “Language is the source of misunderstandings.”― Antoine de Saint- Exupéry

Yep, there it is, on a whole lot of levels. Language, writing or speaking, can lead to misunderstandings of a whole host of varieties.

But let’s just stick to the reading and writing arena.

Readers, you read for information, education, entertainment, a whole host of reasons. When you read you hope what’s on the page before you will be clear and concise. If fiction it might be gripping and evocative as well, but still has to be clear so the story can be understood. The simple reality if it isn’t reasonably so, or in the case of fiction, very much so, then the reader stops reading. Sets the material aside and goes on to something else.

Writers, your intent is to inform, entertain and hold the reader whether it’s for purposes of education or entertainment. If you don’t hold on to your reader for whatever intent, then the information or entertainment won’t follow. So again, the simple reality is if the words on the page are scrambled and difficult to understand the reader stops reading. Sets the material aide and goes on to something else.

Simple, right?

Well, actually, not so much. Sometimes the material, if informative or educational, filled with something that must be learned or absorbed, then no matter how badly written the reader will slog on (no doubt muttering and curing to him or herself), but nonetheless will probably continue. It’s still not good that the reader is forced to stop, read and re-read to unscramble what’s on the page before him.

If you’re a writer of fiction or scripts, then it gets even worse. See paragraph 4 above. The fiction reader is far less patient because, well, he doesn’t have to be. The script reader will toss your script aside in favor of one he can make some sense of. The novel reader will curse whatever he or she spent on your book and your name or an editor will toss your manuscript in the digital recycle bin.

Writers read your work, re-read your work, have your friends read it if you can get them to. Have it professionally edited. Whatever it takes, make sure your writing flows, that it makes sense, that it doesn’t have places that brings the reading to a screeching halt. Drop all extra words; cut mercilessly. Read. A lot. See what makes that writing smooth and seamless. Your story, your information will get lost if the reader can make no sense of a sentence or a paragraph.

Don’t think ‘this is okay’ or fall into the trap of ‘I know what I mean so everyone else will too’.

Too much of what I read has words left out, sentences half written or so long it’s impossible to keep the thought straight. Too much has dialog where it’s unclear who the speaker is. Put yourself in your reader’s shoes and make sense of the senseless. Just because it’s the era of texting and twitter doesn’t mean that’s the language of text book and novel. Focus and your writing will stand out.

Writers & Readers Websites Wednesday

This one's for the writers out there and for the curious readers who love to learn what goes into putting a story together.  It's Stephen King on Wordplay - writing about creating imagery.  It's a fairly lengthy article as online posts go - but well worth the read.

Five Tips To Better Your Writing

 

 

Good writing is simple writing. I don't mean dumbed down, I mean basic and clear. I think most experienced writers and readers will agree. Readers from the viewpoint of story flow and involvement and writers from virtually the same viewpoint.

Here’s the thing, when writing it’s easy to fall into old (and new) traps. Easy to get flowery, unnatural and fall back on clichés (I won't elaborate on it below, but catch the cliches and kill them).

So here are a few tips to do some quick fixes to that writing of yours and get past the tank traps.

1.  First, let’s keep things natural, shall we? When we talk with friends, business associates, family or simply think in our heads things are pretty straight forward. You don’t want to use a ton of words to describe what a handful will do. You don’t want to get so lyrical your reader says, “huh?”  For example, from a book I read (well tried to read) in which there’s a thunderstorm and the lights suddenly go out. Could be a scary scene if done right, or humorous, or any number of other things. Not, however, when the writer says “an ebony abyss claimed the den”. 

Really?

Okay, it can be tempting to create sentences like that. Might even feel good in the moment, but that’s something that the writer needs to reconsider at edit time. Don’t make your reader translate your more flowery writing into the simple, such as, “the room went dark”.  It just throws them out of their reader’s trance and probably tempts them to throw your book. The experienced and very good writer doesn’t call attention to the actual writing, rather he or she keeps it focused on the story. If you read your writing aloud it’ll be easier for you to pick out sentences that are contrived and unnatural with flowery elements you wouldn’t consider saying to a friend.

2.  Second, don’t throw information at the reader in huge doses.  Am I right readers? It’s hard to swallow large amounts of information. Sometimes we can be unaware of how much information we throw out there in one sentence. So go through at edit time and look for sentences that contain more than two or three pieces of information about a setting or a character. Break it up into smaller sentences, maybe even spread them out a bit more over the page. Do background in small doses, not a flood.

3.  And speaking of sentences, keep them short, or at least shorter. Plainly I’m not talking about a staccato delivery, and sentence length must vary, but you don’t want to pack many ideas into a single sentence. A simple guideline is to keep sentences below twenty or thirty words. So while you write wild and free for the first draft and keep moving to finish that story, remember at edit time to get rid of the extra, unnecessary words. Check where you’ve put a comma and think about whether it should be the end of a sentence. Reword a sentence that’s taken off without you. Tighten things up.

4.  And here’s one I’ve come across lately that has struck me sideways. Color.  Yes, color. It’s a trap many new writers fall into. Lots of color, meaning their descriptions are loaded with it.  You know, “The sunshine yellow school bus climbed the sage green hills on a dusty rust colored road lined with the white rivulets of downpours past.” (I didn’t get that sentence from a book though I’ve seen some lately that are close.)  Color is good. It sets a stage, but make it really count, use it sparingly and appropriately.

Oh, and one more thing. Yes, this is number 5. Don’t forget that old writer’s trick of letting your work sit for a day or two or maybe a week (whatever feels right to you) before you dive into your editing. Sort of like dough rising, it takes a bit of time for some of those over-dones to come to the top. 

Hope these little short-cuts are a help; new info for the new writer or reminder for the more experienced. 

Go forth and write - and readers, tell us what your pet peeves are, what makes you want to toss a book aside or what just irritates you as you read. 

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Developing Your Craft – of Writing

We do a lot of wandering in this blog about writing, writers, the craft of writing, websites for writers; pretty much anything writing related. This time around we're going to get back to some basics and those basics apply to pretty much all writing. 

A number of these you may have heard before, but well, you're going to hear them again.  This is a wake up call – get your head out of the sand and improve your craft. We know you have good ideas. Now's the time to back up, take a break, look around and get really good at expressing those stories into books, screenplays, whatever  your pleasure.

So, here goes ~

1. Use simple, declarative sentences. Don't get all fancy and flowery on us. Write tight and write exciting. Grab the reader by the eyeballs and that doesn't happen when you write the sentence that never ends.

2.  Avoid using the passive voice. Who wants passive in an exciting, engaging and interesting story? So don't use sentences like “The village had been scorched by the dragon's fiery breath”, instead, make it, “The dragon scorched the village with his fiery breath.” or “Why was the road crossed by the chicken” becomes “Why did the chicken cross the road.” Really folks, it's not that hard, read with an eye toward passive voice – look it up on the web if you need more examples or don't get what I'm telling you here.

3. Again, keep it simple and limit your use of adjectives and adverbs. Yes, give your reader the information he or she needs to want to continue reading, but a continual barrage of adjectives and adverbs. If you have trouble with this concept Karen Elizabeth Gordon's book, The Deluxe Transitive Vampire: The Ultimate Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed may be of assistance.

4.  Go easy on your descriptive narrative.  Yes your readers want the scene set, they want to know about the people, but they don't want it to go on forever so don't overwrite.  And that leads us to –

5.  Reread your work – consider each word you've written thats three syllables or more long and think about whether it can be replaced by a simpler, crisper word.

6.  Avoid ifs, buts, and can'ts – unless absolutely necessary. I try not to say things like this, but I've seen them peppered throughout manuscripts and it's definitely worth keeping your eye on.

7. Oh, and finally, cut the crap and never rescue your hero. Seriously. He got himself into this, he can darn well get himself out. In fact he better get himself out. I mean where is your imagination? If the main character doesn't find a way out of whatever hot water you've tossed him or her into and you need to extract tweezers and pluck the hero out of the boiling cauldron, what fun is that? Nope, that stalwart has to find a way out. You're not it – well you are in the sense that you're writing the story, the book, the screenplay, but you know what I mean.

8.  And finally you might consider stopping the multi-tasking crap when you write and go more with mono-tasking. Turn off the phone, Click off your browser (unless you're researching and then click off when you're done). Break your addiction and focus.

Think about it and writers tell me if any of these reminders strike a chord.

Readers, tell me if any of the above ring any bells and have caused you to be unhappy with a book or to give up on it altogether.~ We're all in this together.

Three Helpful (I Hope) Writer's Decrees Readers May Find Interesting

- Your Space, Research and Revision

There are a whole lot more than three of them, but well, I don't have the time to go into all of them right now, or the space on my blog, or the typing finger (I just sliced it open while prepping food for Thanksgiving and the finger really  hurts when I hit a key). So, at great sacrifice I'm typing this up for your reading pleasure, edification, education, whatever you choose to consider it

Decree number one. You, as a writer, must find your space to write, daydream and create and you must shut the door. It doesn't have to be a large space, perhaps even a closet with a good light and space for a small desk (hope you're not claustrophobic).

Depending on circumstance it might not even have a door in the physical sense, but you have to create one for yourself anyway. A means to shut out the world and yourself into the world you're creating. Somehow you must arrange it so you're not constantly interrupted or distracted. You have to shut off your cell phone, the land line, the TV, any distracting video games (you might consider not having these on your work computer) and make sure your internet access is something you have to go to, not automatic running in the background.  You might need it for research, but your don't want it constantly clamoring for your attention. And if you're not actively engaged in research, shut it off. Email too.

Give yourself a break. If you seriously want to write, you need to commit to the environment that allows you to do so to avoid frustration, self-anger, and never getting anything accomplished.

Decree Number two: research. You know, that thing I just mentioned above, the reason you might have your internet access running. You've read lots of books (um, at least I hope you have). You know there are writers who do a heck of a lot of research and then create page after page in their story parceling that newly discovered information out. Some do it well. Some not so much.

Research is a tricky devil for writers. If you're writing about something you know little to nothing about then you're going to have to research. But, once you've done the research pick out the plums and spice your story with them. Research always must take a back-seat to the story. The story always comes first and should never be overwhelmed by all that great research you've done. All that stuff you found out is really cool. And you may have waded through a morass of text to extract exactly what you need, but don't let that become the star of your show.

Story always comes first.

Decree Number Three: Revision. Ah, yes, the biggie. The one writers really don't want to face at all and yet it it is at the heart of good story telling. It's part of the process.

And the process for me, is this: slap the story down on paper, writing unleashed, not editing! Put it away, let it rest. Later, come back with pen in hand and start reading and making notes. Look for character discrepancies, large logic holes or plot gaps, whatever jerks the reader out of the story. Then open the door to my writing room a crack and slip the manuscript out to First Reader. Get comments and reactions. Then revise some more.

Now this process can be different and take different amounts of time for every writer. The first part can be hardest for people who can't resist editing as they write. It's a matter of style. I highly recommend not editing as you go, but some must. If you MUST, then do so, but try to keep it minimal and in the background as the story goes up on your computer screen.

The waiting period can vary wildly as well.  Writer Stephen King says leave it marinate/fester/mold/whatever for a minimum of six weeks in that drawer or on that shelf. Really? Six weeks? I can't wait that long, but if you can perhaps while you get some new ideas down  on paper or crammed into your computer, then have at it. If you have to get to it sooner, then do it, but do give it a rest between finishing the first draft and thinking about revision.

Oh, and when you come across all those 'mistakes'; plot gaps, character gaffs, logic jumps, don't be too hard on yourself. You're a writer, you can fix it, and your readers will be all the more thrilled for the flotsam they never saw.

And that First Reader, that ideal reader you hand your manuscript to trustingly for opinions and input? By all means, listen to the suggestions and comments, digest them and make adjustments, this is your trusted reader, the one who'll give you the most honest input whether you want to hear it or not. But don't think you have to respond to every little thing the reader suggested. Work with it and you'll come up with a better manuscript or screen script.

Who's your Ideal, most Trusted Reader?

 Have you over-researched? 

Do you have an unusual or beloved writing space? 

I'd love to hear about it. Put it in the comments below.