Writing Advice from CS Lewis

We can hardly do better than that...

• Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure you or your sentence couldn't mean anything else

• Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don't implement promises, but keep them.

• Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean “More people died” don't say “Mortality rose.”

• Don't use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the thing you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us a thing was “terrible,” describe it so that we'll be terrified. Don't say it was “delightful”; make us us say “delightful” when we've read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers “Please will you do my job for me.”

• Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say “infinitely” when you mean “very”; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

What Are Your Writing Goals for 2010?

It's time for new year's resolutions, everyone! Luckily, it's Saturday, so they don't really have to kick in until Monday...whew! But as with everything, if we want to succeed, we have to have clear, challenging, achievable, well-defined goals.

Let's break those down.

• Clear. Be specific. Don't say, "I want to become a famous writer in 2010." Instead, tell yourself exactly what you want to do. "I will write 2000 words of fiction a week," or maybe, "I will start sending chapters of my fantasy novel to my betas on June 1."

• Challenging. Is it pretty easy for you to write 2000 words a week? Then make your goal 2500. Stretch yourself. Do more, commit more, work those creative muscles. Not a lot more...just some more. Improve yourself and your writing.
  

• Achievable. Don't set yourself up for failure; make your goals things you can achieve if you work at it. Nothing's more discouraging than saying, "I'm going to write The Great American Novel," then letting day after day slide by with nothing done. You can't write The Great American Novel (what is that, anyway?), but you can fill up this page, or complete this scene. It feels great when you do, and it leads you to want to write even more.

• Well-defined. This is a lot like clear, but more concerned with details. How are you going to write 2000 words a week? When are you going to write those chapters to send to beta? It might be something like, "I will write for 2 uninterrupted hours on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons," or "I will write and mail a query letter every Friday morning."

If you're interested, here are mine:

• Freelance earnings. I will make at least $2000 per month from January - April, at least $3000 from May - August, and at least $4000 from September - December.
  

• Freelance writing. I will have at least 13 queries in circulation all the time. At the moment, I have 3, so I need to build up to this one. Also, will have my website up and running (that's actually a goal for this week, not this year!).
  

• Fiction writing. I will write at least 2000 words a week. I will complete at least 1 of the 4 fiction books I am working on. I will have something to send to beta on June 1.

• Blogging. My blogs will earn money! Still working on the specifics of this, but if you see ads, you might click them!
  

I guess that's enough to be going on with. So now, I really want to know, what are your writing goals for 2010? Please let us know, and remember, we're here to help you achieve them.

10 Words You Need to Stop Misspelling

This is from The Oatmeal, and it's great! I wish I'd written it. Here are the words you should stop misspelling, but you really need to go to the link and see the pics and examples he put in.

Lose / Loose (a huge one with me!)

Weird, not wierd

Their / There / They're

You're / Your

Its / It's

Definitely (it has no A in it!)

Affect / Effect (affect is a verb, effect is a noun)

Weather / Whether

Alot (which is not a word...it's A LOT)

Then / Than (I don't like this, either, but I find it's often a typo)

Writing Peeves

So, you're reading a book...or a paper or a fanfic or a story or an essay or an article or a website, or any of the thousands of ways people put words together to communicate something. With all that reading, what is it that bugs you when you come across it?

I do a lot of reading. For one thing, I love to read. For another, I'm a college professor, and I assign speeches and papers...and I then I have to read them (which is often why I get to the end of a semester and ask myself, "What were you thinking when you assigned this?"). I'm also a professional and volunteer beta, so I read for a living.

Here are a few of my pet peeves and irritations in my various reading roles.

• As a reader. Typos. This is a published book, for heaven's sake. How many people have had their hands on these galleys? How do typos that are obvious to me get by that many professional book producers? There is at least one in the Twilight series, but I can't remember where it is right now.
• As a beta. Punctuation around quotations. Actually, there could be dozens of items on this list, but this is something I'll correct once, and if it's fanfic, I'll send it back after that. If it's original, I'll explain the rule and ask the author to fix all the errors. This is an extremely common error.
• As a teacher. Plagiarism. I failed 4 students for plagiarism this semester, even after I explained to them what it was, what would happen if I caught them, and how I always caught them. In addition to plagiarism, which I oppose on principle, I am offended by bad plagiarism. At least try, people! This semester, I had students copy first-person stories told by doctors...as though they were telling the story! And I had students copy from websites and include all the typos (not to mention all the erroneous information out there). Look, if you're going to cheat, at least do it well!
• Bonus...because I can't let it go unsaid. Using apostrophes for plurals. "There were two soda's in the fridge." That means, "There were two soda is in the fridge." Makes no sense.
  

I could go on for a long time, but I want to hear yours. What really bugs you as a reader?

Kat

New Writing Exercise on the Website!

Check it out here!

We'll publish the three best ones we get here and on the website!

Common Errors and How to AvoidThem

We're all about helping you fix errors, so here's an article from this month's Fiction Factor Newsletter, written by Dr. Vicki Hinze. In this article, Dr. Hinze gives concrete examples of easy-to-make mistakes and how they might be improved or corrected.

I'm going to reprint the article here, but I really encourage all of you to look into getting Fiction Factor. It's free, and it's always full of helpful articles for writers.


Common Mechanical Pitfalls
by Dr. Vicki Hinze

When asked, a group of editors from top publishing houses, responded that the following are the most often seen mechanical errors in works submitted by authors.

By removing these errors from our works, we greatly enhance our potential for publication—and strengthen our writing skills.


* Author Intrusion, Filtering, Passive Voice.

Use the active voice in writing. Avoid weak verbs: "to be" and its variants: was, are, is. This puts the reader on-scene, makes what’s happening, happen now. Author intrusion reminds the reader she’s reading, hence you lose immediacy, empathy between reader/character.

Show, don’t tell applies. Watchwords: thought, wondered, considered, realized, and the like.

Example:
Filtered: She realized she’d breached the point of no return.
She had to kill him.

Unfiltered, no intrusion: The point of no return. She had to kill him.


* Autonomous Body Parts.

Parts of a character’s body cannot act alone. The character must lift her hands, dart her gaze, tiptoe. Otherwise, the visual images created in the reader’s mind are horror. Disconnected body parts shouldn’t move without the character’s body being attached.

Example: Her eyes roamed around the room.

Corrected: She let her gaze roam around the room.

(Eyes shouldn’t roam. Use gaze. Note that she caused this roaming. In this corrected version, her eyes didn’t act autonomously or independent of her.)


* Cause before Effect, Reaction before Action, Syntax Error.

Whatever the reader reads first on the page, happens first in the readers mind. This error occurs when the reaction to something, say fear, is written down before the action causing the fear, say a hissing snake. Or when the effect is shown before the cause prompting that effect.

Watchwords are: when, as, before, during, while, until, after, and since.

To correct this error, simply flip-flop the phrases to be sure you list cause then effect, action then reaction.


* Use of names in dialogue.

When conversing, people don’t often use names. To be clear about who’s speaking, give the character a distinct voice, an outstanding feature, and use action tags. Have character do something with an object and use it to make it clear to the reader who’s talking. This writer’s tool does double duty: tags the speaker and creates an illusion of action. Body language is an extremely effective method.


Avoid: Figure, Frame, and Presence.

This editorial Pet Peeve doesn’t show up as often now as it once did.

Don’t write: He leaned his massive frame against the door.

Do write: He leaned against the door.

A point: When is the last time you saw a hunk and thought: Wow, what a nice frame?


* Separate Actions.

Keep actions separate, otherwise you risk having the character do the physically impossible. "And" can be a wicked abuser of this mechanical infraction.

Example: She called 911 and drove to the hospital.

Can she really do these two things simultaneously? Without a cell phone? More likely, she called 911 and then drove to the hospital. The actions were separate. One followed the other. They didn’t occur simultaneously.



* Keep Items in a Series Parallel.

Make sure your subjects/verbs/syntax are in agreement.


Do: Walk and chew gum.

Don’t: walk and be chewing gum.



* Ellipsis (Series of dots)

Use the ellipsis sparingly. Otherwise, when you need it, it lacks impact. Punctuate it like . . . this. Or at the end of a sentence, like this. . . .


* Unheroic Character Behavior.

Protagonists aren’t like us, they’re people we want to be like: admirable, honorable, considerate, strong, and aspiring—in their thoughts, actions, and deeds. They’re not perfect, but they are admirable. Respect your characters—even your villains. Give everyone a redeeming quality, and make them strong. Anchoring Scenes.

Show the readers where the scene is taking place, where the characters are and what they’re doing. Specific, concrete details immerse the reader. Without them, reader can’t visualize. Use the senses, and use details that are indicative of the characters’ mood at the moment. Write cinematically: using words that form distinct and vivid pictures in the reader’s mind that convey his/her emotional mood at that time. Intensity.

When in intense situations, characters don’t think deeply. They think in short spurts. In fragments. Readers read faster, which imparts a sense of urgency, hence intensity. Point of View.

Today’s trend is third person, multiple viewpoint. That is, a single viewpoint which at specific intervals transitions to a different character. Some experts recommend one viewpoint per scene to avoid losing intensity.

Hint: use the character with the most to lose as your viewpoint character.

Eliminating these mechanical pitfalls from your work greatly enhances your writing skills and gives the editor fewer distractions during the reading. That translates to fewer reasons to reject your work.

© Copyright Vicki Hinze. All Rights Reserved

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dr. Vicki Hinze is an award-winning, best-selling author who routinely shares her expertise at national writers' conferences, online, and through her writing guides. Her latest non-fiction book is ALL ABOUT WRITING TO SELL, from Spilled Candy Books for Writers. This 589-page ebook covers everything you need to know about the craft of writing, the publishing business, and the secrets to getting published. ALL ABOUT WRITING TO SELL is available at www.SpilledCandy.com as a download or disk.

Or you can visit Vicki's author site at www.vickihinze.com

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