At the recent Books bubbles and Brie event at Gladstone Library I was approached by several writers embarking on their first book seeking my advice.Now I'm no expert, Hitler's Zeitmaschine being my first and only novel to date out there in readerland, but I have come across quite a few tips that have improved the quality of my writing along the way. I would like to share some of these with any writers who, like me, wanted their narrative to be more 'professional'.
Here are a few URLs to visit on the internet:
https://dianaurban.com/words-you-should-cut-from-your-writing-immediately
(I suggest you don't click on any links found within URLs I post in my blog as I don't open them myself, and therefore am unable to advise whether they are safe for you to open).
Also here's another article I found very informative:
5 Tips for Instantly Improving Your Novel
The following article was written by Bill Henderson:
BEFORE WE GET TO THE 5 TIPS...a testament of sorts:
Somewhere along the road of life, I joined The Church of
80/20, where we believe
routine matters should require only 20% of your time so you can devote a full
80% to the big ones. If you're going to take on a difficult task, and goodness
knows, writing fiction – especially the novel – is right up there with the
toughest, don't obsess over the 20-percenters. They can be accomplished quickly
and with relative ease. Get them out of the way, as you go, in routine fashion.
Save your 80% for character and plot development, the
make-or-break core tasks that should rightfully get the lion's share of your
time and effort.
THESE 5 TIPS fall into the 20-percenters group, but may
require you to bring some new thinking to your process.
1. Replace words that tell with words that show
We all use "tell" words when we're churning out rough drafts. We
write, "Bill saw that the premises were uninhabited," and keep on
churning. Job 1, on looking back, is to identify those places where, as her,
you TOLD-i.e. "informed," as in a police report-the reader. Now make
the reader see, feel, and grasp the importance of the moment. "Bill looked
inside, through the shattered bay window. The living room was empty of
furniture. Stains and gashes of the kind normally hidden under rug screamed out
of the tired linoleum. A child's tricycle lay on its side. Bill sat heavily on
a square of bricks, once part of someone's hopeful garden. No one lived here.
No one. She was gone." Yes, it added word length. Seven words became 35.
But if it's an important moment, the extra baggage is worth it. Many times,
you'll judge you don't have the luxury-to linger would slow the pace-so you'll
want to use summary. Even so, go for some show: "Bill saw the refrigerator
door hanging open off one hinge. If she had been there, she was gone now."
Remember: as a fiction writer, your purpose is not to inform but to dramatize.
2. Remove interpretation- let action speak for itself
We all do this, too. "Mother came into the room looking as close to angry
as I'd ever seen her. Poor woman, what she must have been going through: her
tidy little home invaded by two sets of supposedly grown children with their
uncouth spouses and impossible kids-her own grandchildren. She must have wanted
to disown them right then and there." What's wrong with it? The narrator
has interceded to speculate about what Mother must be feeling at this moment.
As a reader, I come to fiction not for interpretation, but for drama. I want to
see it, hear it, and, on the basis of what the author has chosen to SHOW me,
understand it in my gut.
3. Replace passive verb constructions with active.
What is passive voice: it's a way of conveying information that an action was
performed without saying who performed it. "The table was set. The
temporary measure was made permanent. The boy was given a lecture." Who
actually did these things? We don't know because passive voice has put a cloud
of vagueness around the action, effectively screening us off from its full
impact. Does this sound like a promising way to write vivid action? Go back,
spot the passive, make it active: If you see: "We were at the dinner table
by noon, and a great meal was served. Jane never forgot how liberally the wine
was poured," recast it with active verbs (which, by nature, will create
missing images). "We were at the dinner table by noon, feasting on the
endless piles of turkey, stuffing, yams Mother produced almost casually."
4. Identify, then remove or "translate" cliches
Again, we all use them when we're on a roll. Why? Because they're so handy.
Every clichés was once brilliantly original; the problem is, because it was SO
good, it was used again and again and again until it came to stand not for
brilliant originality, but for author laziness: "Why should I bother to
imagine THIS sunset, in THIS story, carrying THIS special meaning when there
are so many off-the-shelf sunset clichés that will do?" Why should you
bother? Because they don't work anymore. They are like cold eggs on a plate. No
matter how nicely they were once served, no one wants to eat them now. This is
an eternal challenge for all writers. It's made more complicated by the fact
that certain genres-most notably romance, action, and
"blockbuster"-seem oblivious, even encouraging, toward the use of clichés.
(If you want proof, check out The Romance Writers' Phrase Book.)
5. Get specific. Replace general,
"informational" language with rich narrative summary full of
specific (and meaningful) images.
If I want to know what happened, I go to the newspaper or a news site on the
internet. If I want to experience what happened-to FEEL what it MEANT-I
go to fiction. "Scientists at the Mayo Clinic announced at an unruly press
conference that they have cloned a full family of human beings." That's
informational language, and it's quite sufficient to satisfy my need to know.
"Dr. Borsov, the gray eminence of the Mayo, stood, dazed and trembling
before the crowd of young, angry protesters. "Ladies and gentlemen,"
he began, and faltered. A tomato flew past his head. Another one splattered on
his cheek. My god, what have we done, he thought in a panic."
That's fiction.
Again, nothing here is rocket science. But it's
amazing how many novelists, even experienced novelists, have either forgotten,
or never really internalized, these 5 simple steps that, taken together, will
blow away 80% of the "problems" your work may be encountering.
