A note on writing…
Having been blessed to enjoy the friendship of many fellow writers, published and unpublished, I’ve been party to many conversations on the art and craft of writing. I’ve also occasionally been asked to critique stories. So I collected some of the things I’ve learned over the years into a short essay.
Those who write purely for their own and others’ entertainment, or aren’t interested in critical feedback or going pro–bail now.
Please note: there’s nothing wrong with eschewing critical feedback. Ultimately, to entertain is the goal of ALL writers, even Pulitzer winners.
In writing fiction, the writer attempts to touch the capacity of the heart. Stories which fail to do so are meaningless, no matter how stylistically artistic. Myself, I prefer stories which have heart and are well written. The better written the story, the more effective it is at entertaining readers and conveying any themes or points the author may wish to convey.
So studying the craft of writing is not elitist, but very, very pragmatic.
What follows is commentary on various technical aspects of writing: the nuts and bolts of narrative. Only 10% of writing is talent (maybe less), another 30% is having something interesting to say. The rest is being able to say it well. Talent and content amount to little without skill, and skill is what we learn. 
To be frank, the best way to learn is to find a mentor who will teach and do that tedious–but very necessary–task of detailed critique on a hardcopy manuscript. Writing, like bread-baking, is fundamentally existential: a hands-on experience.
But not everyone is lucky enough to find a writing mentor, so general scatter-shot advice does have some value, particularly concerning those things which are frequent technical offenses among beginning and intermediate writers.
So, how can one know if he or she is guilty of ____? I have found that as soon as a particular problem was pointed out to me, I could recognize it in my work. I simply hadn’t realized it was a problem before that point, and so had failed to ‘see’ it. If you think you’re guilty of ____, you probably are. (If however, you think you’re guilty of everything, you’re probably just paranoid!)
Finally, these are rules of thumb, not absolutes. Some of them are matters of debate even among award-winning authors. Ultimately, the only real rule in writing is, “Can you make it work?” If you can make it work, you can get away with it.
Hope you`ll like this Monday`s post:)
I`ll see you next time!
Write with joy, write with love…
Cristina Istrati
