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Write, write, write ... and then write
some more
That should
be obvious, shouldn't it? To be a writer, one must write. Write
when you're waiting at the doctor's office; write when grabbing a quick
bite; write while waiting to pick your kid up from school. It doesn't
matter
what. The important thing is you're writing.
"Oh, yeah? What does my writing a load of horse pucky have to do
with getting published?" I'll tell you. Subconsciously, you're
teaching yourself to write, no matter what. No matter that your PC
has crashed and you're confronted with blank paper and a ball point pen,
no matter that you wake up with a killer hangover or a horrid cold, no
matter that everything you put to paper smells like last month's quart
of milk. You're training the words to come when you want them,
not
when they deign to appear. You're training ahead of time to overcome
the inevitable writer's block that ultimately plagues us all.
Do be do be DON'T
Make your
words sing. Rip those adverbs from your writing. Replace the
verbs. Use nouns that describe for you, not ones that require two
sentences of explanation. Yep, you've heard it before: show,
don't tell. Oh, and let's not forget: active, not passive.
But what does it all mean? And what's active voice anyway?
Even superheroes and action heroes rest once in awhile. Shouldn't
your sentences?
If your story prompts
yawns, search for varieties of the phrase "to be." Is, become,
are, will, have almost always can be replaced with stronger verbs.
Likewise, search for adverbs and adjectives and replace them with more
descriptive verbs and nouns. When you use an adverb, there's a verb
somewhere you should have used instead. Your heroine shouldn't run
"swiftly," she should sprint, race, zip, dash." The car shouldn't
"hit" the wall. It should smash, careen, slide, crash.
But take warning.
A few action verbs go a long way when it comes to dialogue. Please
don't have your characters chortling, breathing, hissing, simpering every
sentence. Dialogue should flow freely. These verbs draw the
focus to themselves instead. "Said" is still best. Better still,
omit "said" altogether. If you've done a proper job with the dialogue,
it should be able to stand alone.
Hire Freddy Krueger as Editor-in-Chief
Like the esteemed
Mr. Krueger, slash excess verbiage. Be ruthless. A favorite
phrase or metaphor? Does it add to the story? Has it or can
it be stated elsewhere and just as well? If yes, remove it.
Not only will your readers will thank you, but you'll be surprised how
much tighter your writing will become. Does it get easier?
Yes and no. I always keep a copy of my drafts. You never know
....
Write like the Concorde
Sometimes words
ooze like frozen molasses rather than flow like rushing rivers. Maybe
you're having a hard day. Maybe you want to ensure every word put
to paper is perfect. Don't do it! Perfection comes in the rewrite.
The important thing is getting those words down now. It's easy to
spend an entire writing session creating one splendid sentence. But
wouldn't you rather spend your time creating a not-too-bad chapter?
Naturally, the chapter needs improvement, but you'll be that much further
along with your project.
I start every
writing session by reading over the work from the day before. I make
a few minor edits. Anything major I'll save for the first rewrite.
This allows me to hone my skills before jumping into the fresh work of
the day. Also, by doing so I refresh my memory just in case I made
any slight plot changes along the way. After that, it's on to the
new stuff and no stopping until my time's done.
It's hard at
first. Sometimes I long to pause and rework a phrase here, a sentence
there. But I know if I do I'll be wasting time better spent writing.
As time goes on, you'll train your muse to dance for you -- not you for
it.
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