Skip to content

Posts tagged ‘writing tips’

Feb 11

Make your setting active to keep your reader engaged

When reading other authors’ novels, do you ever find yourself skipping over the setting descriptions? I do. If that description goes on for more than a few paragraphs or, God forbid, a page, I’m annoyed.

I know some bestselling genre novels do this and get away with it, I think, because of the big names of the authors—they come from an earlier time (you know, when raptors roamed the earth). But, after a few weeks, they seem to fall off the list. Those books that tend to stay on the list for weeks and weeks (I’m thinking books like The Help and Water for Elephants), don’t annoy us with pages of dead description but have learned how to tell us what we need to know when we need to know it.

One way to keep your reader engaged in your story is to make sure your setting is active. Instead of dropping big chunks of setting description in your scene—which may have been all the rage when Jane Austin was alive but is a sure way to bore your reader to death now—is to drip in bits of description and to “make it active.” What do I mean by that?

The easiest way to explain is to show you a “before and after” example from my work-in-progress:  Read more

Feb 6

1 Comment

Style is more than the arrangement of words on a page, part 2

In my previous post on the subject of style, I mentioned how style is not achieved by merely the order of words on the page but through all aspects of writing as they coalesce into a whole.

Another way of looking at style is through the words of author Lowell Cauffiel who says, “Style is not how a writer puts words together but what he perceives and how he thinks.” He says beginning writers often think of style as how words are put together—i.e. they think, “Should I write sparsely like Hemingway or use more words like Faulkner?”

Cauffiel says style is not about word techniques but how you perceive the world around you and how you relay that information. Read more

Feb 4

1 Comment

Style is more than the arrangement of words on a page, part 1

I was on a business call the other night speaking with a man who lived in Oregon when we added another woman to the call. As soon as this third party joined us, the man’s voice and manner changed. He went from sounding very normal and nondescript to suddenly sounding like a cross between Yogi Bear and a Scottish Highlander. I was totally freaked out.

He continued in this voice and manner for the entire call. Why? Did he secretly have a crush on the other woman and this was his way of sounding “debonair?” Was he terrified of her and used this new voice and manner to distance himself? I have no clue.

In the craft of writing, this Yogi Bear/Highlander persona could be called a character’s or narrator’s voice.  Voice is one element of a writer’s style–that five letter word that many writers seem to have a hard time defining.

Style relates to how the writer puts words on the page—the arrangement of the words—but it’s also more than that.

In Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction,Jeff Vandermeer defines style as follows:

This slippery term more or less means the way the story is told; i.e. the patterns of words, phrases, and sentences through which the writer achieves certain effects….Style is the means by which the writer’s subject matter, passions, and interests reach their fullest expression on the page.

He explains that most writers fall somewhere between Ernest Hemingway (sparse) and Angela Carter (lush) and also between the painter Chagall (who always painted in the same style) and Picasso (who experimented and mastered many styles). Read more

Jan 30

2 Comments

Make your writing stronger by removing filter words

When editing my work, I inevitably discover more of my bad habits.  When I do, I add them to my editing list so I can be sure to catch them later. Some of these bad habits are listed in my post, “Edit out literary throat clearing to make your work stronger.”

My current work-in-progress is told from the first person point of view. In reviewing recent chapters, I discovered  I was using too many “filter” words: I saw, felt, heard, thought, noticed, and especially, I “glanced.” Cheez Whiz. I must have had this last verb six times in one chapter!

But it’s not just first person narrative where this is a writing sin. How many times have you read, “She touched, he heard, she saw, he felt…?” Read more

Jan 28

1 Comment

The misconception Author Patricia Cornwell would like to correct

Forensic crime author Patricia Cornwell was recently interviewed by Rob McGibbon for the UK Daily Mail. Besides getting a fascinating glimpse into what Cornwell considers a “fantasy day,” we also get a clue into what the beginning of her career was like and what it took for her to break out and become successful: persistence and never giving up.

When asked what misconception about herself she wishes she could erase, Cornwell answers:

“That I was an overnight success. I had four books rejected before I got accepted. There seems to be a feeling it was a breeze for me and it all comes easily. It doesn’t!”

For more fun facts about Cornwell, you can read the rest of the article here.

For tips on surviving rejection in your own writing life, read my previous post, “Six guidelines for turning rejection into success.“

Jan 23

Tips for choosing a writing teacher or mentor

In my last post, I wrote about what I learned on a raw food retreat with author and raw food guru David Wolfe. That post discussed that if you want to be an “expert” in a field (like writing your novel), you may want to practice the concept of total immersion.

The second principle I learned at that retreat has to do with who you choose as your mentors or guides. We were talking about food, of course, and David said if you’re considering purchasing a cookbook or diet book, look at the picture of the author. Are they glowing with health? Do they look fit? If they don’t—if they’re obviously unhealthy or unfit—then why would you want to buy their book?

This same concept is true for choosing a writing mentor or teacher. A gaggle of people teach writing, and if you search online, you’ll find hundreds selling their classes or products.

Choose your mentors with care. Read more

Jan 20

5 Comments

How total immersion can help you finish your novel

At a raw food retreat I attended in 2004, raw food guru and author David Wolfe said two things that have stuck with me through the last ten years. This post will discuss the first principle. My next post will go over the second one.

He said that if you want to become an “expert” in any field you have to totally immerse yourself in that field: study it, read books about it, talk about it, write about it. Eventually, you begin to dream about it. Total Immersion.

Writing and finishing a novel requires the same type of immersion. Even when you’re not sitting down to write, your story needs to be running in the background of your subconscious. Read more

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »