Cheap Advice (for what it's worth)
There's nothing cheaper than advice, I know, and most of the time -- like an
over the transom manuscript -- it's "unsolicited." Even so, (hand to the lips, mumble, muffled) ahem decades ago, I wish I had known some of the things about writing that I know, or I think I know, now.
So here are some drops of wisdom I've acquired over the years from writers themselves, from writing magazines, teachers, and books about the subject.
1. FALL IN LOVE WITH WORDS. Chase them, court them, woo them, as a
down-on-his-luck stand-up comic pursues the elusive sitcom. Words are the
most essential tools of your trade, like nails to a carpenter. But unlike nails
which all look alike in the bucket, each word is different from every other one. Even synonyms are not identical twins. The more words you know (and love) the more likely you will choose the exact one. As Mark Twain said:
"The difference between the right word and the wrong word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug."
Also, when you have caught the right bug, er, word in the jar, you can use that particular word rather than struggle with four or five other words or phrases in order to say exactly what you want to say. Note I said : fall in love with words-- but don't be promiscuous. (And don't mix your metaphors-which as I did in this paragraph.)
2. Read. Read. And -- oh yeah, Read. Learn from the masters who teach you how writing is supposed to be done. Read the crappy stuff, too, so you'll know what to avoid. Don't worry about unconsciously copying some other author's style or being "derivative;" T. S. Eliot said, "Bad writers borrow;good writers steal," but what I think what he may have been getting at is that when you read enough, you will remember the styles and techniques that work. Some kind of osmosis takes place and your own personal, unique style will take over.
3. You have to learn the rules before you break them.
That's true. Believe me, if your manuscript is full of spelling, grammatical, and usage errors, the editor will not read past the first couple of sentences, and other readers will find that they are expending unusual effort trying to decipher just what it is you are trying to say. Not only that, a careless piece of writing is like having it rubber- stamped with the word "amateur" all over it. If you fell asleep during English classes, you can still rescue yourself by
reading the experts, among them:
The Elements of Style by Strunk and White. That's "the" E. B. White who
wrote Charlotte's Web.
The Elements of Expression by Arthur Plotnik
On Writing Well by Donald Hall.
4-5 (choosing topics.)
4. "Write what you know," is the advice we hear a lot. That's only effective if what you know is worth mining for a writing topic-- it's really effective if
your unique take on "what you know" is new or revelatory. Write about what you love and want your readers to love as well. Write about what you are passionate about and what pisses you off.
Many young writers take the "write about what you know" advice too literally and think they have to be Hemingway and go out and physically fight a bull or break their necks in some other macho activity. No. Henry James once said that he had enough material to write volumes when he reached the tender age of twenty. And look at Emily Dickinson: she never got out much! Not only that, we all have a little genie in our brain called the imagination. So let's tweak that advice: write about what you know + what you would like to know -- which means research, i. e. more reading. According to what I heard on the Science Channel last night, that's exactly what Jules Verne and H.G. Wells did --and as a result their science fiction works were uncannily visionary.
5. Remember the KISS rule? Keep it Simple, Stupid (or "Sweetheart") Try to remember the Goldilocks rule, too, and make sure that your topic isn't too large or too small but "just right."
Don't try to write a short-short story about
Napoleon's entire European campaign. Bite off a little chunk of a napoleon and see how much meaning you can extract from it.
6. REWRITE
When you finish a draft, go back and cut out the padding--everything that is extraneous or unnecessary to the point you are trying to make. Slash the "padding." While you're at it, get rid of everything that smells even slightly like a cliché.
7. Proofread.
and
8. The ultimate rule: When the work is finished, ask yourself:
"Does This Say What I Want it To Say?"
Yes? Then congratulations! Not so much? Go back and give it another shot.
Comments, please!
