On Writing: Thoughts

I feel somewhat arrogant posting this here, but I've get asked these questions on a fairly regular basis, so I figure maybe it will be easier on everyone if I bang up a set of answers here: I can attempt conciseness; anyone reading is spared me rambling at them for half an hour.



Disclaimers: If you use someone else's idea - say so. If you have a character who's say, a violent, bigoted Nazi, you might want to mention those aren't your views, because some people - a very few - have a bit of trouble distinguishing character opinions from author opinions.

Having said that: all that follows is MY opinion. You don't have to agree with it or like it.


Writing – the long, the short and the bits in between

1. Spelling and Grammar

George RR Martin, a fantasy writer, said the devil’s in the details. He’s right, but it’s possible to exorcise it. Spelling and grammar may seem like small things, but they can make the difference between a readable, coherent piece, and a confused and indechiperable mess.

Spelling and grammar are there for a reason: to make your work easier to read.

Spelling

Word has a spellcheck. Use it. It can be found by hitting F7. If there are words you commonly misspell (palce for place is a personal favourite) put them in the autocorrect. If you don’t agree with Word, check on www.dictionary.com. Bad spelling is laziness when there is so much technonlogy devoted to making literature easy to read.

There may be more than one spelling for a word: program / programme. Specialise / specialize. In which case, go with whichever you prefer, but be consistent.

Spell your own characters’ names, places and concepts correctly. If you can’t do it, why should anyone reading?

Avoid text-message / chat-room spelling. I mean it. Writing u in place of you, l8r in place of later is lazy and makes it difficult to read your piece. It also makes me knock about ten points off your IQ, and click that small ‘x’ in the top right of my screen.

Grammar

Grammar is there for a reason. There’s nothing like reading a fifteen-line run-on sentence to make a reader want to throttle you where you stand. At the end of the day, what you produce needs to be readable by an intelligent outside party.

Something as simple as a mis-capitalisation can completely alter meaning:

I had to help my Uncle Jack off a horse as opposed to: I had to help my uncle jack off a horse.

While there are many rules of grammar, no one’s saying that you have to be able to distinguish between when to use a colon and semi-colon or to lead long and witty debates about the necessity of the Oxford comma.

But you should know when to use a comma or a full stop; there is no excuse for leaving off apostrophes, and the word ‘I’ is always capitalised, as are proper names. Ignorance isn’t an excuse; Word has an adequate, if overly conscious grammar checker, though you are better off discovering grammar rules for yourself.

A good basic grammar site is: http://englishplus.com/grammar/

2. Reading

The most common piece of information you’ll hear published writers give is: read. Read everything. If you have nothing else, read the back of a cereal packet; at least you’ll improve your nutrition.

Especially read outside your subject: as Terry Pratchett (a best-selling comic writer) said, ‘You should be importing, not recycling’. Horror writer? Go pick up some slushy romance and pretend you’re in love with Bruce McBeard, Australian He-man. Fantasy writer? Pick up some historical non-fiction and take a time-warp into World War One.

Read the bad as well as the good. Sometimes learning what not to do is just as important as what to do.

3. Writing

Words and Tone

Be yourself. Don’t try and copy someone else’s style; it won’t work, because you’re you. Speak with your own voice, your own characters, your own ideas. I promise you, it’ll be much more interesting.

Words are beautiful things. Treat them with a little respect; be careful you have exactly the right word for what you want to say. There are subtle nuances even in differing uses of the same words. For example loving someone is not the same as being in love with someone.

Thesauruses are handy things, but don’t overuse them. If you’ve got a word meaning the same thing three different times in one paragraph, odds are you’re repeating yourself.

Don’t use a complex word where a simple one would have done and might even have been more effective:

Her hair was the colour of caramel, burnished softly by the sun.

Her mane was the tincture of boiled sugar, scoured sensitively by the luminary.

The difference is obvious; the second one makes almost no sense. It also highlights the common trap of the thesaurus – you may wind up with a word that isn’t correct. Soft and sensitive are sometimes synonyms, but not in this case.

Description

It’s easy to get carried away with description. We don’t need to know what everyone in the room is wearing down to their underwear. Nor is it necessary to describe them fifty thousand times in one scene.

On the other hand, it’s nice to hear a little unusual detail about a character. Very few people in this world don’t have some cute quirk on their faces or in their dress sense. One of my friends is never seen without an enormous pair of clattering earrings; another cannot be parted from her mobile phone.

Avoid repetitive phrases. There’s more than one way to skin a cat; there’s more than one way to describe someone. Saying ‘S/he had (colour) eyes and (colour) (length) hair’ gets old very quickly.

Mary-Sues

They are known the world over in fanfiction. And they are loathed.

We all do it; it’s difficult not to. Mary-Sue is the ideal character, the dream, the glittery beautiful angel we all occasionally imagine ourselves to be. She has superpowers. She looks amazing. She has an incredibly tragic past, and is conveniently free of all family and / or lovers. If she has a family, odds are good they’re canon characters.

If every other characters in the story either fawns over her or loathes her – she’s probably a Mary-Sue.

A guide to what Mary-Sues is and how to recognise her can be found here: http://www.fictionpress.com/read.php?storyid=1440163

A great – and stunningly funny - guide to the horror of Mary-Sues in the Lord of the Rings fanfiction can be found here: http://www.timelady.net/unbroken/full.html but it applies to all fanfiction in its generalities.

And just in case you aren’t sure – here’s a Mary-Sue quiz! http://www.springhole.net/quizzes/marysue.htm

Three words: Don’t do it.

Characters

Give them a chance – give them a sensible name.

I know I don’t – but I hear about it, believe me.

Planning and Plot

It’s a good idea to know where you’re going, or at least where you were intending to go. That way, you can work in all those fun things like foreshadowing.

This took me a VERY long time to learn, and I'm still learning it, but having good characters matters more than having a lot of stuff happen. Having said that, go wild *shrug* Why not?

As long as you enjoy writing it, whether it's two people in a room watching TV, or sixteen rabid dogs hunting down a guy in suspenders and high heels, go for it.

Other people’s characters / concepts / ideas

There is only one rule: ask them first.

4. Readers, Reviews and Critiques

Yes, people reading is very cool. But it doesn't just happen. Write 'cause you enjoy it, not 'cause you want people to read. It wasn't until I started writing *well* (some two-three years after I started writing) that people starting reading.

Having said that, shamelessly beg for comments if you want :) I can't see it does any harm. Just don't threaten to stop if no one comments.

If people flame you (e.g. YOUR STORYS CRAP I HATE YOU LIE DOWN AND DIE BITCH), sign them up to porn-I mean, reply with quiet grace. They're probably signed up to porn anyway.

A great site about criticism and reviews can be found here: http://www.lyricalmagic.com/publiccrit.html

5. Inspiration:

Inspiration is personal to everyone. A lot of mine comes from music; I use certain music for certain moods. It also comes from the books I read, the poetry I enjoy, the small quirks of life I get a kick out of, and reality.

Everyone's writing, however fantastical, is based around reality. In the end, if you care about the characters, the events become a bit superfluous. If the characters are realistic, they're a lot more fun to read about. George R. Martin , a fantasy writer at whose feet I shamelessly cringe and grovel, is an amazing example of this. There's no right or wrong to his books - just people being people. It makes for a wicked read. If you have a lot of time on your hands and like involving books, pick him up. Otherwise, I recommend the thoroughly amazing Wind on Fire trilogy, by William Nicholson.

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That’s all, folks!

And this is more advice - love your characters, or at least hate them with a passion ;). If you don't, how can you expect anyone else to? Soulless writing isn't much fun to read.



Much love,
Ki