GOING TO CLASS
20 Basic Rules of Good Writing:
- Determine the purpose of your writing and try to put it into one sentence. Make that purpose the “red thread” you tie all of your points to in your manuscript.
- Determine your audience. Write to that audience as if they were sitting in front of you.
- Follow some suggested steps to good writing and focus on your organization of the writing process.
- Begin with an opening or lead that grabs the reader's attention. This is especially important for the first chapter, but is equally important for every chapter in your book. The uses of an anecdote, a fact, a dialogue, or a quote are all proven ways.
- Write in simple sentences and vary the length of your sentences and paragraphs. Watch out for sentence fragments (a group of words without a complete thought), run-on sentences (two sentences joined together without punctuation or connecting word), and rambling sentences (too many short sentences connected with and).
- To emphasize a word or phrase, put it at the beginning or end of a sentence or paragraph.
- Show - don’t tell! Use dialogue, descriptive words, and all the senses to show what happens.
- Use the active voice rather than the passive voice (i.e. The dog attacked the man, instead of: The man was attacked by the dog.
- Use concrete nouns and action verbs. (i.e. Instead of saying “East Coast city,” say New York. Instead of using “be” verbs--was, were, be, should, etc.--replace them with stronger verbs: He was tired. He felt tired.
- Use dialogue in order to draw the reader into the action. Use italics for thoughts, not quotation marks. And DON’T overuse the word “said,” if in fact you need a tag at all.
- Avoid slang, jargon, and clichés.
- Stick to the point. Write tight!
- Pick catchy titles--book and chapter.
- Stay in the right tense (past, present, future).
- Check spelling, punctuation, and grammar. A copy of Strunk’s The Elements of Style, would be helpful and you can download a copy free from the web.
- Ask critics, other than your husband or wife, best friend, mother-in-law, or creative writing class to read your writing.
- Make sure any quotes you use are accurate.
- Don’t use someone else’s writing (plagiarism) without giving credit.
- Use strong transitions between paragraphs to make your writing flow.
- Stop when you reach the end.
HOW TO WRITE
10 SUGGESTED STEPS:
I have a couple of weekly writing assignments in the genre of nonfiction. The combined development of ideas, research, rough draft rewrite, editing, rewrite, and final draft takes me from 8 - 10 hours each. However, writing fiction is a much lengthier process and can stretch over a period of months or even years.
To write a good novel takes most writers the equivalent of a year’s full-time work. This, most writers will tell you, is stretched out over two or three calendar years worth of evenings and weekends.
Craftsmanship, whether working with paint, clay, words or any medium, employs structures and habits to manage the artistic process. No two artists or authors work in the same way. And what works for me may not work for you. But I would like to share some steps I have used to develop my novels, which you may also find helpful.
Step 1. Develop the idea. It helps to know something about the theme you want to write about. Ask yourself, “What do I know? Have I read a book, watched a movie, or heard about a scientific research project that can lend credence to my idea? Or better yet, have I lived through an experience I can use to expand into a technological premise and use that to develop a particular theme?”
Based on the above introspective questioning, begin to brainstorm and free write. As you free write, write steadily, without rushing, without stopping, without judgment. Don’t worry about what to write next. Just keep the words flowing onto the writing pad or computer screen.
Don’t correct spelling, grammar or punctuation if it is going to interrupt your train of thought. If your thoughts sound illogical, stupid or out of order, don’t stop. At this stage you’re not concerned about getting a point across clearly, making sense, or planning what to say next. If your thoughts are flowing faster than you can get them on paper, develop a quick note to come back to that point later.
When free writing you are trying to get the words moving from your mind to the paper or screen--freely--unself-consciously, and without inhibition.
Step 2. Research. Writing in any fictional context requires the use of known information and then infusing and projecting that information through the context of fiction. In other words, extrapolating from reality in order to make it believable.
The more concrete the details are that you see, touch, hear, or taste in your writing, the clearer the sensory impressions will be to the reader. Since we come to know and experience things through our senses, writing needs to approximate the same process. So our words need to get the reader’s mind working: imagining, sensing, and possibly reliving actual experiences.
As an example, when I say food, what comes to mind? Probably any number of things. But when I say ice cream, you begin to use your senses of taste, touch, and see. Taking it one step further, when I say Tom and Jerry’s Moose Tracks ice cream, your senses become even more concrete.
Which of the following activates your senses more: Sweet or chocolate? Big or elephant? Sharp or razor blade? Pungent or rotten egg? Loud or clap of thunder? The more detailed our suggestions, the more actively we prod our own minds and the minds of our readers to relive tastes, textures, sights, smells and sounds.
Step 3. Outline the story. It is now time to get more focused on your subject or development of the theme. At this stage, a general plot is developed. Characters take on rough shapes and begin to move in and out of scenes according to what the plot dictates.
At this time the plot should be outlined according to the following steps:
3.A. Design the action. Where are the characters at the beginning of the novel, and where are they when the novel ends? How do they get from here to there? Where does the action in each scene or chapter open? Where does it close? What happens in between? This is sort of an action flow chart.
Do the characters go on an inner journey as well as an outer journey? Who are they and how are they changed by what they experience, in the interim and at the end?
3.B. Trim the fat. Once you’ve developed the story lines, tighten them up. Those of you using computers understand links. It is important to link the characters together so their actions overlap one another. Now’s the time to eliminate characters which serve no thematic purpose and are taking up writing space.
3.C. Do a scene-by-scene schematic. Some events in a story are better told out of sight. Ask yourself, what should the reader see or not see? In other words, is it show or tell time?
3.D. Replot the story. Your story becomes more complex as it grows, just like a city. Go back over the first three steps. You may find that some scenes can and should be repositioned, deleted, or brought back to life. Foreshadowing may be used to tie an earlier scene to a later scene.
Step 4. Write the first draft. Every author’s mind should contain both a creator and an editor. As the creator sees words coming alive on the computer screen or writing pad, the editor also begins to come alive. However, the creator needs to gag and hand-tie the editor long enough for the creator to produce an entire creation before the editor is let go.
Nobody, and I do mean nobody, produces perfect prose the first time around. We do what is known as draft-writing, or in other words, write and throw out; write and throw out; write and... You got it?
4.A. Design the scene. Begin by reviewing your 100-word chapter summary so that you know its thematic and dramatic objectives. Next, mentally stage the scene as if you were directing a play. Who is the main character in the scene? Is the scene from the character’s point of view? Who else is in the scene? What are the key actions, emotions, bits of information in the scene? How does the character in focus react to each one?
4.B. Storyboard the scene. Storyboard the dialog: who says what, how others react, etc. Don’t be overly concerned about word choice yet: Bob and Shirley are watching TV; Jim and Judy go for a walk, etc. (Stylizing comes later.) Keep the storyboard short, 2 - 3 pages maximum. The point is to get the ideas down fast and visualize the scene.
4.C. Write the “cooked draft.” I call it this, because after the creator prepared all the above ingredients, the editor turns up the heat and edits it into a first draft. Editors tend to sleep in and so the creator writes the cooked draft during the early morning hours. The story comes alive at this time with characters sometimes refusing to behave the way they were supposed to. Unexpected events sometimes occur. However if this happens, know that the story is “cooking.”
Step 5. Micro-edit. In contrast to first-draft editing, microediting is easy. My editor brain is in its heyday. Decisions aren’t difficult, as they only involve editing at the sentence level and below: word choices and rearranging phrases. These changes can be made without affecting the overall picture. The pages of manuscript should take on a look of measles at this stage.
Further microediting should be done the same as would a carpenter who is sanding with a progressively finer and finer grit of sandpaper, until the only inspection left to do is with a sensitive hand.
Step 6. Shelve the piece. Most writers have an over-inflated opinion of their first drafts. It is therefore best to set them aside for a month or two to get the creator mind off of what has been written. Then the piece should be given to those with a sensitive hand--a hand that will run over the piece to find the slightest flaw.
Having set the piece aside for a period of time, prior to the inspection by the sensitive hand, allows the creator to hear and accept the fact that flaws in the piece have been found.
Step 7. The sensitive hand inspects. This stage will most likely overload the author with ideas, some of which will contradict other ideas, while others may be sensible, given a different story, but inappropriate for your story.
Those inspecting your manuscript should be both serious and good at what they do. They are an invaluable resource. Use them as often as possible. Family, friends, and adult creative writing classes may be willing but they may also be too nice or too critical. It is best to use critics non-related in any sense of the word.
A good critic’s comments almost always flag real problems. A wise author will not disregard any advice without having considered it carefully. As for criticism, I say, the more the better. Nobody likes his/her work criticized, but if it improves the piece, isn’t that what matters? You will also be getting praise, which is a source of inspiration.
Look especially for those critic’s comments that agree and make a note of them. Let your critics know which of their comments you used. And when you get published, make sure they get a free copy or two.
Step 8. Polish the piece. Taking the critic’s comments into consideration, redraft the piece, drawing together the areas found to be too dissimilar, unclear, or needing further development of character and action.
Step 9. Retrofit. At this pre-write stage, you may have decided, based on what you did in step 8, that you need some major structural changes of scenes throughout the story. Here is where it is imperative that you have created the setting and characters that make your story believable.
Step 10. Rewrite. If you have followed all of the preceding 9 steps, you will only have to be concerned with rewriting now. Rewriting is a chapter-by-chapter revision. You’ve identified your flaws, reread, accepting the best of the critic’s suggestions, deleted and replaced sections. Now you will draft and polish, draft and polish, as you repeatedly pass through your manuscript, narrowing and tightening your focus each time.
My most difficult manuscript, The Beholders, begun a few years ago, has required three drafts. I am now on my fourth and, hopefully, final draft. If you read it, I hope you will see that I have followed my own advice to produce a story worthy of your reading.