Consider This - The Mistakes we all Made at the Beginning
Reading over the manuscripts of new writers I see in them all the mistakes I used to make (and probably some I still make). So here are a few to ponder:
- Adverbs are bad: The English language is a descriptive and beautiful language and actually possesses many verbs for the same action but with varying degrees of subtle meaning. Instead of using a standard verb and modify with an adverb (those -ly words) pick a better verb. Stephen King had a lot to say about adverbs in his book "On Writing". I highly recommend it.
- The story doesn't start with the back story - it starts with the action: Many new writers have about 2-10 chapters of back story before the action actually starts. This is important information for the writer and some of it can make it into the main story, but on the whole yawn worthy.
- "I saw a giraffe riding on the bus." Watch the order of your sentences: Clarity is important. Did this person see a giraffe that was sitting on a bus and heading into town, or were they sitting on the bus and while looking out the window they saw a giraffe munching on a tree by the side of the road?
- Word repetition: Watch out for the same word appearing over and over and over.
- Those little words that we use all the time: "Well..." "So..." We say them all the time but don't write them. If you do want to use them, don't write them for everyone. Attribute different people with different speech tics. Not everyone is going to say "gonna". Kill your darlings, they say.
- Speech tags: Speech tags are important so we know who is talking, but don't use them ALL the time and don't use them when it is obvious who is speaking. "He said" is fine, as long as we know who "he" is and the speech tells us how he said it.
- Pronouns: While pronouns are great and very useful so we don't use a name over and over, you need to be sure the reader knows which "he" or "she" you are talking about.
- Focalisation: Who is talking? Who are they talking to? When are they talking? There are different points of view you can use to write a story, the most popular is third person with a narrator or third person but from one character's perspective (think of Harry Potter). Another popular form is first person which is more prevalent in Young Adult writing (eg Hunger Games). And think about when the story is being written - as it goes or some time in the future. This will influence whether you can make references to future events eg "She didn't realise what was to come."
Some people like to write from many people's points of view, changing from chapter to chapter (Game of Thrones) or mid paragrapgh (Virginia Woolf!). If you change focaliser/POV, it has to be obvious or the reader gets confused.
- Trust your reader: The reader doesn't need to read EVERY motion the character makes. If the reader can see the scene, they will understand that if the character was previously sitting and he wanted a coffee, he may need to walk across the room to get it. Reading what every character does every second gets tedious.
- Show don't tell: This is the big one. So often a new writer is almost writing a summary of the action. They tell the reader everything that happens and how people are feeling rather than let the action play out in a dramatised fashion and allow the characters to emote in their actions and speech. Let a scene run like it would in a movie. Play it in your head then write it down.
- Contractions or no contractions?: It's OK to use contractions in speech or when inside the head of a character, but usually when a narrator is speaking or it is just action, NO contractions. AND, a corollary, write out numbers in full.
- Different story telling methods: Not every story lends itself to the traditional paragraph and speech. Sometimes it can be more interesting to intersperse diary entries or lists or something unusual to break up a page.
- LARGE slabs of text: Talking of breaking up a page, ever noticed how hard it is to read a page just filled with text (those textbooks you hated from school?). Then don't do it when writing. Break up long speeches with movement and interjections and such. Make the page's white space enticiing.
- Em dash and ellipsis: Speech interruptions are indicated with an Em dash (that long dash immediately after-). Trailing off speech is indicated with the ellipsis when someone just trails away and...
("Eats Shoots and Leaves" by Lynn Truss has stuff to say on this and colons, semi-colons and other punctuation. Great read and funny!)
- Writer's ideology: As a writer you will have a view of the world and this will come through your writing, but not all your characters will hold to this ideology. Watch out for that and motherhood statements.
- Captain Obvious: Try to avoid the obvious explanations and exposition. Trust that the reader may just work it out. Half the fun of reading is making meaning from the text.
That's enough for now. I'm sure more will come to mind.
- Adverbs are bad: The English language is a descriptive and beautiful language and actually possesses many verbs for the same action but with varying degrees of subtle meaning. Instead of using a standard verb and modify with an adverb (those -ly words) pick a better verb. Stephen King had a lot to say about adverbs in his book "On Writing". I highly recommend it.
- The story doesn't start with the back story - it starts with the action: Many new writers have about 2-10 chapters of back story before the action actually starts. This is important information for the writer and some of it can make it into the main story, but on the whole yawn worthy.
- "I saw a giraffe riding on the bus." Watch the order of your sentences: Clarity is important. Did this person see a giraffe that was sitting on a bus and heading into town, or were they sitting on the bus and while looking out the window they saw a giraffe munching on a tree by the side of the road?
- Word repetition: Watch out for the same word appearing over and over and over.
- Those little words that we use all the time: "Well..." "So..." We say them all the time but don't write them. If you do want to use them, don't write them for everyone. Attribute different people with different speech tics. Not everyone is going to say "gonna". Kill your darlings, they say.
- Speech tags: Speech tags are important so we know who is talking, but don't use them ALL the time and don't use them when it is obvious who is speaking. "He said" is fine, as long as we know who "he" is and the speech tells us how he said it.
- Pronouns: While pronouns are great and very useful so we don't use a name over and over, you need to be sure the reader knows which "he" or "she" you are talking about.
- Focalisation: Who is talking? Who are they talking to? When are they talking? There are different points of view you can use to write a story, the most popular is third person with a narrator or third person but from one character's perspective (think of Harry Potter). Another popular form is first person which is more prevalent in Young Adult writing (eg Hunger Games). And think about when the story is being written - as it goes or some time in the future. This will influence whether you can make references to future events eg "She didn't realise what was to come."
Some people like to write from many people's points of view, changing from chapter to chapter (Game of Thrones) or mid paragrapgh (Virginia Woolf!). If you change focaliser/POV, it has to be obvious or the reader gets confused.
- Trust your reader: The reader doesn't need to read EVERY motion the character makes. If the reader can see the scene, they will understand that if the character was previously sitting and he wanted a coffee, he may need to walk across the room to get it. Reading what every character does every second gets tedious.
- Show don't tell: This is the big one. So often a new writer is almost writing a summary of the action. They tell the reader everything that happens and how people are feeling rather than let the action play out in a dramatised fashion and allow the characters to emote in their actions and speech. Let a scene run like it would in a movie. Play it in your head then write it down.
- Contractions or no contractions?: It's OK to use contractions in speech or when inside the head of a character, but usually when a narrator is speaking or it is just action, NO contractions. AND, a corollary, write out numbers in full.
- Different story telling methods: Not every story lends itself to the traditional paragraph and speech. Sometimes it can be more interesting to intersperse diary entries or lists or something unusual to break up a page.
- LARGE slabs of text: Talking of breaking up a page, ever noticed how hard it is to read a page just filled with text (those textbooks you hated from school?). Then don't do it when writing. Break up long speeches with movement and interjections and such. Make the page's white space enticiing.
- Em dash and ellipsis: Speech interruptions are indicated with an Em dash (that long dash immediately after-). Trailing off speech is indicated with the ellipsis when someone just trails away and...
("Eats Shoots and Leaves" by Lynn Truss has stuff to say on this and colons, semi-colons and other punctuation. Great read and funny!)
- Writer's ideology: As a writer you will have a view of the world and this will come through your writing, but not all your characters will hold to this ideology. Watch out for that and motherhood statements.
- Captain Obvious: Try to avoid the obvious explanations and exposition. Trust that the reader may just work it out. Half the fun of reading is making meaning from the text.
That's enough for now. I'm sure more will come to mind.
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Consider This
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