Want to improve your writing? Try these suggestions culled from my decades at the craft:
1. With few exceptions, stay in the moment. Use your chronology and don’t get ahead of it.
2. Don’t save anything for later. Bring whatever you have right here, right now.
3. Each time a character appears on-stage, some aspect must deepen. Characters develop vertically.
4. Every chapter, every paragraph must relate to the theme. The theme is what the story is about: love, war, jealousy, revenge . . .
5. Every chapter, every paragraph must move the action forward. You need a firm command of where the story is going so you can arrange the pieces in a way that allows the reader to discover things for himself. Don’t tell the reader anything. Just set him on your shoulder and off you go, the story unfolding before you.
6. All meaning must be imbedded in action. Don’t deliver any lectures or philosophy lessons telling the reader what you want him to know. He has to discover this through the action. Similarly, don’t weight the story down with description.
7. Use all your senses. Taste it. Smell it. Hear it. See it. Touch it.
8. Tell it straight, as if talking to a five-year-old.
9. Finally, if something is really not going well, walk away. And don’t come back until you’re ready to see the thing with new eyes: reset, reinvent, reappraise.
Comments welcome and edited to include first names only, and website, if provided; never your email. Photo credit: bighappyfunhouse.com.
As usual, you cut to the chase. I think I’ll post these on my wall…
Could you expound a bit on number 1? Are you saying to simply write it as it happens, then go back later and rearrange things? I’m working on my first novel and have not yet figured out some of the how-to’s that more seasoned writers have, but am wondering if that is how you get it all down before you go back and rewrite, weaving things in as they need to be brought into the story. Thanks! Love reading your posts.
Hi Di. Good question. Two thoughts. First, yes–I’d just write and write. For me, some eighty percent ends up in the trash and what remains gets sorted into a framework for telling the story, plumping it up as needed, filling in holes, refining. Second — when I say, “stay in chronology” I mean, don’t get ahead of your story. Once in a while, you’ll start a piece with the big bang, and then turn the page, start at the beginning and work your way back up to the bang. Once in a while, you’ll use a flashback (sparingly, please!). But mostly, you want the reader following along, discovering things as you do. First this happened, then that, then this, then next . . . according to the arc of your story. (See past post on narrative arc.) Does this help? I invite any questions you have. Don’t be shy. Let’s get it right, as it’s your work and important. All best. Thanks for writing.
Can you address two theories I hear from writers on the process?
First, John Irving says he can’t write the story till he knows the ending line in his head.
I hear many others say they write to find out what happens.
If it’s your first novel, do you suggest the second theory is then better to follow than the first…?
The first thought gives me a headache, personally.
Or is it genius, do you have to know where you want to end up, in order to chart the course?
Thanks!
Hi Jan. Great question. I’m going to do a post on this shortly, so stay tuned, but the short answer is: no genius required. Thanks for writing.