This advice emerged in a writer’s group setting but I don’t remember who said it first. Basically—
The onus for clarity is on you, the writer. If someone misunderstands your point, having an attitude that writes them off as an idiot isn’t going to help you write better. You missed an opportunity to convey something clearly, so try again till the reader can’t miss it.
At a Maui writers meeting some years ago I was in the early stages of my travel memoir. On explaining I didn't want to start w/ my whole entire origin story, the facilitator, a wonderful local author, said "en media res." Start in the middle! Brilliant! I dove right into the center of the tale, and it really made the opening pop. I did it too w/ my first thriller. I started w/ the plane crash in the jungle as the narca was transporting 2 tons of Colombian, and walked it back from there. I love en media res!
Yes! It's always surprising to me how little information is actually required for a reader to know what's going on. Too much detail can be as problematic as too little.
“Finished is better than perfect” - rather than circling around and around polishing a single piece it’s better to consider it done and write a new piece. You learn a lot more as you work through different pieces, and can always come back to write a new version if you realise you can now do it better.
And because we tend to become better writers as we go along, you could be rewriting the same piece endlessly, because you'll always be getting slightly better. It's an infinite loop. Better to finish, as you say, and have that piece as a moment in time that reflects the writer you were.
I don't have the book to hand to get the direct quote but basically, what King said about knowing a lot of fancy words and communicating with readers. It's great that you know a lot of big words, but if there's a nice, clean simple one that will do, use that.
Margaret Atwood is my go-to practitioner for this. It's the literary equivalent of physicist Richard Feynman's advice: if you can't easily explain a theory or concept using simple terms then you don't understand it well enough.
It's a line that I learned in my day job as a software engineer: "Do it. Do it better. Do it faster."
To me, it means, write the story. Then, re-write to fill in the holes, make it seem like you knew what you were doing all along. And then, finally, cut the fat; cut anything that is extraneous.
Your first draft is a vomit draft. It’s meant to be messy. It’s not meant for public consumption or to be perfect in any way. Living by that motto helps me to “just write” and not focus on making it sound right.
That's common advice but it doesn't work for everyone. I'm more of a painter: I might be slathering on the plaster in one room whilst top-coating another. By the end my first draft might look like someone else's second or third. It's a slower technique though.
Part of why I write on a computer, rather than by hand, is that I'm constantly editing and fiddling around while I write, shuffling sentences and paragraphs and word, and hopping back and forth within the chapter I'm writing. As you say, my 'first' draft tends to be more like a 1.5 or 2nd draft.
That's really useful advice, for sure. For me, I've had to learn to live with making my vomit drafts public - the fiction I publish isn't first draft exactly, due to the way I write (I edit continuously while writing, and run it through another coupe of passes after that), but it's pretty close. Certainly a lot closer than most people would recommend, I think.
But that's the only way I've found to get my brain back to the table so I can write more words.
Write as often as you can, even if it's a load of bollocks. Writing is a muscle, and you need to flex it.
Write for quantity.
Edit for quality.
This advice emerged in a writer’s group setting but I don’t remember who said it first. Basically—
The onus for clarity is on you, the writer. If someone misunderstands your point, having an attitude that writes them off as an idiot isn’t going to help you write better. You missed an opportunity to convey something clearly, so try again till the reader can’t miss it.
My POV exactly!
At a Maui writers meeting some years ago I was in the early stages of my travel memoir. On explaining I didn't want to start w/ my whole entire origin story, the facilitator, a wonderful local author, said "en media res." Start in the middle! Brilliant! I dove right into the center of the tale, and it really made the opening pop. I did it too w/ my first thriller. I started w/ the plane crash in the jungle as the narca was transporting 2 tons of Colombian, and walked it back from there. I love en media res!
Yes! It's always surprising to me how little information is actually required for a reader to know what's going on. Too much detail can be as problematic as too little.
And it was really fun to just jump in to the middle! Like I'd escaped some chore or something. I also love the sound of the phrase itself.
By walking the path unfolds
How about the walk with the pencil?
How about a pencil talk?
How about a talk with the pencil?
How about a walk will talking to the pencil?
How about a talking pencil?
Good writing is really good editing. Bad writers just stopped too soon.
My writing coach, Ruth Buchanan, told me to read, read, and read some more.
Write every day. Oh and learn how to spell
“Finished is better than perfect” - rather than circling around and around polishing a single piece it’s better to consider it done and write a new piece. You learn a lot more as you work through different pieces, and can always come back to write a new version if you realise you can now do it better.
And because we tend to become better writers as we go along, you could be rewriting the same piece endlessly, because you'll always be getting slightly better. It's an infinite loop. Better to finish, as you say, and have that piece as a moment in time that reflects the writer you were.
YES! This one is great advice.
I don't have the book to hand to get the direct quote but basically, what King said about knowing a lot of fancy words and communicating with readers. It's great that you know a lot of big words, but if there's a nice, clean simple one that will do, use that.
Margaret Atwood is my go-to practitioner for this. It's the literary equivalent of physicist Richard Feynman's advice: if you can't easily explain a theory or concept using simple terms then you don't understand it well enough.
I love this one. I'll often use the thesaurus but if the alternate word is too esoteric, I'll keep the original word I used.
Someone once said the job of a good writer is to get your character up a tree, then throw rocks at him.
Looks like that was Nabakov! I've heard that before, it's a good one.
It's a line that I learned in my day job as a software engineer: "Do it. Do it better. Do it faster."
To me, it means, write the story. Then, re-write to fill in the holes, make it seem like you knew what you were doing all along. And then, finally, cut the fat; cut anything that is extraneous.
I like that. It's a more responsible version of Zuck's 'move fast and break things' mantra, which hasn't aged well.
WRITE FAST, WRITE CLEAN, PUBLISH OFTEN — Enjoy the process, write for yourself, and treat everything else as a bonus
Your first draft is a vomit draft. It’s meant to be messy. It’s not meant for public consumption or to be perfect in any way. Living by that motto helps me to “just write” and not focus on making it sound right.
That's common advice but it doesn't work for everyone. I'm more of a painter: I might be slathering on the plaster in one room whilst top-coating another. By the end my first draft might look like someone else's second or third. It's a slower technique though.
Part of why I write on a computer, rather than by hand, is that I'm constantly editing and fiddling around while I write, shuffling sentences and paragraphs and word, and hopping back and forth within the chapter I'm writing. As you say, my 'first' draft tends to be more like a 1.5 or 2nd draft.
That's really useful advice, for sure. For me, I've had to learn to live with making my vomit drafts public - the fiction I publish isn't first draft exactly, due to the way I write (I edit continuously while writing, and run it through another coupe of passes after that), but it's pretty close. Certainly a lot closer than most people would recommend, I think.
But that's the only way I've found to get my brain back to the table so I can write more words.
I like show don’t tell, and keep it on-the-body.
For me, it was when I started writing and looked up how to start, and what to think about.
Result: don't think to much and just start.
Even though maybe a cliche your tip/trick, it stayed with me.
Whenever I'm stuck in my novel and don't know how to continue, I just write something. Mostly I figure something out, sometimes I don't.
By just starting you either figure out that you're not in the zone or suddenly you finish the whole chapter.
So just start write anything and if it doesn't work out put it away and tomorrow is another day