How long or how short and how much cutting is a good idea?

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Don’t miss an excellent article on the length of sentences and pieces of writing at Write to Done:

Here: http://writetodone.com/2013/06/10/how-miniskirts-will-make-your-prose-sexier-the-golden-rule-of-length/

Sometimes short is good. Sometimes long is good. It depends on how well you write and what you want to say.

Some cutting is nearly always a good idea, but it is all too possible to go to far.

 

Do you copy your favorite authors?

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Do you mimic passages from your favorite authors?  Here’s a link to a Write To Done post I heartily agree with and that advocates doing just that.

http://writetodone.com/2013/05…..g-authors/

I think some of us worry too much about originality and a unique voice.Your own recognizable and mature voice comes from a lot of writing–miles of digital paper. That and only that. Write enough and your own unique voice is inevitable.

Meanwhile, learning some stylistic ways and means from your favorite authors and copying the ones you particularly like can provide you with a few potentially-quantum boosts on the learning trail.

It will not– repeat: will not–damage your originality, even if you slavishly copy another’s words, word for word for a time. Even then, with time, your own personalilty will have its way. You’ll wind up writing like you.

It’s a good article, Check it out.

 

Do you write by the rules?

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A review of the “Simple Writing, Straight Talk for Smart Writers” blog.  http://simplewriting.org/

Do you want good advice?

Do you feel you need good advice about writing? Would you welcome a skilled editor’s help now and then.  I know I would.

I appreciate the fact that there are available right now excellent books and blogs on writing well. When I started writing years back, there weren’t that many really good books on the subject to be had.

First, I forget most of the rules.

Often I do not write by the rules. That is in my first draft, when I dash it off rather intuitively, when I don’t want to be inhibited by worrying about getting it just right. Not at first. But when it comes to good writing advice, I always welcome it.

Revising is another story.

To me, I need those “rules”–call them guidelines–when I am editing my writing. I can’t go out every other month and hire a pro editor to read my writing and offer advice. So for the most part, I need to know what to look for in my writing that stands in need of careful revision or downright re-writing. Nevertheless, I am in favor of hiring a good editor to checkout any serious writing for publication.

Back to the blog: the Simple Writing blog offers sound and sensible tips and techniques that make for good writing. It is primarily focused on nonfiction writing, although much of the content certainly applies to fiction writing too. I find its balanced and knowledgeable approach practical and pleasing. We all need to know to write well, of course, in whatever niche we target, including nonfiction.

Why bother with another blog on writing?

I have been writing for a while, and if you are reading this blog, you probably have been too. So why bother with a blog that calls itself “Simple Writing”? I can‘t speak for you, but I find that when I am tempted to think I don’t need more writing advice, that’s when I seem to get into the most trouble. Like when I have reached the point with a writing project where I can’t figure out how to improve it more. Hence, I like to read sensible and reliable sources that reinforce essential points re good writing in my memory.

Need to improve your blog writing?

The Simple Writing blog is a fine one for improving your own blog writing too, which is essential to developing a platform, which in turn is essential  to getting published or self-publishing successfully these days.

Here are some of the recent post titles:

  • “25 editing tips for your writer’s toolbox”
  •  “41 Hot Blogs Every New Blogger Should Know”
  •  “Personification: good for writing not weather”
  •  “The only way to get over fear”
  •  “3 great ways to get those creative juices flowing”

About the blog’s author…

The author is Leah McClellan is  a writer and copyeditor who’s mission is to help other writers develop their craft. She offers a free 6-week mini writing course: “The Fast Track to Polished Prose.” I checked it out, and it looks good. In brief, she knows her stuff.

Her course  will be a good refresher for me and could be for several of you, my readers, too. Wink

Highly recommended.

What advice would you offer to a writer young in her craft?

Story Writers: Don’t Miss KM Weiland’s Latest on Sequels

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It her most recent post, KM Weiland tackles sequels, their importance and how-tos.

Sequels are rarely explained this well. Too often they are forgotten or neglected or shied away from.

They are vital part of story writing.

Find her post here:

Highly recommended.

I am not a robot, nor do I cut like one.

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Have you been harassed by the writing-efficiency taskmasters? Have they told you that you should edit out every redundant word until your writing (in effect) is cut to the bone? Sounds to me like a butcher in a meat market.
 
I always want to point out to them that I am not a robot!
 
 
Let me explain. Language is more than mathematics, just like reality is more than the physical universe alone.
Language is a higher language than the so-called language of math (as beneficial as mathematics can certainly be and has been). It is a mistake to try to apply scientific reasoning to the language we speak, read, write, and think with–at least when it comes to doing such things. Such misapplication can kill language, limit its meaning, make it just about unreadable. 
 
Cut until your writing bleeds?
I’ve heard it said that words such as “really” and “very” and various other imprecise terms and colloquialisms should be edited out of one’s writing (maybe even one’s speech). But, to me, that can be the pathway to impoverishment of communication. But is the word “really” really meaningless and empty? I don’t think so. I’ve read some writing, precise and well-defined, but cut to the bone so much that it is definitely not reader-friendly. In fact (sorry!), it’s a chore to read. Needlessly a chore.
 
Language is not a science.
Nor should we try to confine it in lockstep to logic and reason. It is more than that. It is subjective as well as objective (who among us is ever totally and purely subjective?). It is human.
 
And when writing patterns itself to a degree after the way we talk, with all the expressiveness of being a person, all the quirkiness of being a unique individual, and even includes a word here and there that doesn’t strictly-speaking really need to be there to be precise–it still can communicate very well indeed.
 
I don’t know about you, but in front of my monitor, I for one will not let the sometimes rigid, super-conservative and occasionally cold and unfeeling gods of business–efficiency and profit–kill my writing. I am not a machine to be judged by my efficiency or even by the standard of perfect accuracy. I am not a computer. I am not a robot. Not even an android. Really, I don’t even want to be cloned.
 
Does editing out superfluous wordiness help a piece of writing? Of course it does. In spite of what I wrote above, I advocate careful editing and cutting. But must we students of the writing craft insist on going to extremes in that direction? I don’t think so. 
 
Moderation, my fellow writers. 
 
Moderation. Really.

I have to Confess: I like Reading Nancy Drew

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I’m a mature–well, at least older–male who reads Nancy Drew. The original series of 64, that is.
 
Why on earth would I do that? Well, I started reading them to check them out to see if they would be appropriate for my granddaughter to read. They are. But surprise! I found I like them. Why so? They’re good, that’s why. None of them will ever vie for Great-American-Novel status. But the stories are solid, as well as good examples of sound story structure.
 
Granted they’re dated. They’re straight like a boy scout convention (or should I say “girl scout convention”?), kosher and proper in every way–no sex or violence or even occasional profanity. Darn! They’re filled with frequent and sometimes funny coincidences and some improbabilities here and there. They have wonderful. honey-coated endings that at times rival a Disney feature presentation. And Nancy Drew herself, in addition to being pretty and brave and smart, consistently comes across as a saint with strawberry-blond hair.
 
But, these novels, incidentally, have sold zillions of copies. And starting in 1930, they have been translated from English into as many as 25 additional languages and published in an impressive number of European, Scandinavian, Latin American, and Asian countries–and most recently in Estonia. Not too shabby.
 
Want to learn mystery writing? Read Nancy Drew. Now why would I say that to you my savvy readers? Rather cheeky, right? Empty boast? I don’t think so, based upon thoughtful and commendable consideration. But Why? Because their mystery-writing bones are nearly naked for all to see, laid bare certainly to the critical eyes of students of the craft–those of us who know some of the tricks well enough to spot them easily where and when they occur. The books are chuck full of classic mystery and thriller/suspense techniques, twists and surprises.  And come complete with simple, straight-forward examples of those techniques right there on the page to learn from. At least if you’re relatively new to the genre. And for you veterans, some reminders couldn’t hurt.
 
I am often pleasantly amazed at how when reading these stories, I keep getting worried when Nancy or also George and Bess get themselves into dargerous situations. And I keep getting mad when those diabolical bad guys and gals–some of which are downright nasty–devise and pull off such shameful trickery against such a likeable heroine (old fashioned word, I know). And I must also confess that my heart is often warmed by the nifty, all-loose-ends-neatly-tied-up endings, each like a cleverly wrapped Christmas package.
 
Hey, they’re a quick read, and I don’t lose any sleep when I make them my night cap, which lately has been embarrassingly often. 
 
Well, having gotten that off my chest, I’m off to start chapter 1 of The Ghost of Blackwood Hall, #25 in case you’re wondering. That’ll be my reward for some exhausting editing work done earlier today.
 
Stay tuned!
 
P.S. I do read other novels too.
 
P. S. S. Your turn. Be honest now. Have your read Nancy Drew?

A bunch of dynamic strategies for improving your writing…

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Been wondering what you can do to improve your writing? Want some ideas, activities that can build a fire?

Help is on the way (sorry, borrowed that from the Democratic National Convention a few years back. Catchy isn’t it?). Take a look below…

  • Study what other writers are doing–in your niche and others.
  •  Don’t  just write choppy  short sentences. Vary your sentence length. Listen to the music of your words, the rhythm of your sentences and phrases. You’ll be improving your writing right away.
  • Read good books on writing, and practice what they preach, do any exercises they include, at least once or twice or thrice. Or invent your own.
    • For instance, Getting the Words Right–a classic on that subject, one of the best on editing, revising and re-writing every written.
    •  Or, on novel-writing: Donald Maass’s Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook–guarnateed to give you some new ideas.
    •  Or, get some powerful rhetorical devices under your belt with Word Magic for Writers by Cindy Rogers.
    •  Or, read a brief chapter a day from James Scott Bell’s The Art of War for Writers.
    • For nonfiction, Roy Peter Clark has two excellent books out: Writing Tools, 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer; and Help! for Writers, 210 Solutions to the Problems Every Writer Faces.
    • …It’s a wide-open opportunity…
  • Read and re-read well-written books, especially those you like a lot. Which genre? Doesn’t matter. Absorb greatness wherever you find it. Reading best-sellers couldn’t hurt either. When you find one that resonates powerfully with you, study it, dissect it, find out why and how it affects you so potently.
  • Work on your sentences. Don’t be satisfied with those come-easily versions that pop into your mind–unless they came to you super-effective as is. Try various things, different wordings, especially when what you just wrote doesn’t seem quite right.
  • Make your own greatness as a writer an ongoing quest, a never-ending preoccupation. Don’t be discouraged. Don’t quit. Get more determined. And work at identifying they types of writing activities that catapult your writing skills forward.
  • Have a readily-accessible and reliable place to record your insights before they get away from you. Take them seriously. Cross-reference them, index them, bookmark them. Watch them grow–some maybe into a whole new book or essay or post.
  • Dare to write some of the wild sentences and phrases that occur to you. Hey, you can always edit them out later–that is, if it’s absolutely necessary.
  • Search for, research, find and join the right writer’s group for you. You will be amazed at times what your fellow group-members with tell you about your writing–aspects, both positive and negative,  that you might never see looking at your monitor in relative isolation. (Mine is The Writers Huddle, find it here: http://www.writershuddle.com/  Please note: this group is currently closed to new members, but will open again one of these days. If you find yourself interested, add your email address to the waiting list.)
  • Be eclectic. Be open to ideas and sources of information all around you, all the time, wherever you go. Again, have a portable and convenient way of recording it all–like a digital voice recorder or the traditional pad and pen.  Like that old Candid Camera line, “And remember when you least expect it…” (not there I go again, dating myself). Ideas can occur to you at the strangest moments.
  • Be optimistic. If it’s not the Great American Novel today,  it could be tomorrow. If your magazine article doesn’t blow the socks off and rattle the teeth of the publication’s’ editor today, you could make it better tomorrow, couldn’t you? If your song doesn’t melt the hearts of those you sing it to, try a different toon. But for goodness sake, don’t give up on it.
  • Take advantage of all the blogs on writing and the books and the advice your readers or your editor or coach give you. Try out their suggestions, and when they help you make improvements, remember how and  practice more.

In other words, worry less, do more. Try the above strategies. See if they build a fire.

Would you like to comment and add any strategies of your own? Please do!