Is Writing a Skill, Craft, or Gift?

Whenever you gather writers together they talk about writing. There are many different types of writers. Those who prefer to compose in long-hand or can only write on an old-fashioned manual typewriter. Those who write to music, demand complete silence, or create best surrounded by noise. You have the writers who must plan and outline before they can begin and those who find even talking about a project before it is drafted can stifle their creativity. But one of the most controversial divisions among writers is about whether writing is a skill, craft, or gift.

I admit that I like to stir the fire a bit because I can argue all three points and depending on how my own writing is going at the moment I may find that one viewpoint carries more weight for me personally.

I know as a teacher of writing that writing is a skill. I have taken people, young and old, who loathed writing and believed they would never be able to write — and provided them with basic tips and tools to become good basic writers. I have taken good basic writers and given them the support and direction they’ve needed to become skilled writers. I’ve watched skilled writers with practice and determination become proficient writers. I have seen this in the classroom, at writing conferences, and in newsrooms. I have witnessed this transformation enough to know that writing is a skill that can be taught and a skill that can be learned.

I know as a writer, editor, and reader that writing is a craft. As the definition reads to craft is “to make or produce with care, skill, or ingenuity”. A skilled writer can capture our interest and convey information, but a writer can also craft a story, poem, or essay that touches our emotions as well as our brains. For those who have gone beyond simply skilled to be craftsmen and craftswomen they can rely on their knowledge, experience, and instinct to create writing that does more than simply delivers — it also sings.

I know as a writer and reader that writing is a gift. Some writers simply possess a special quality that allows them to step beyond and above the huddled masses. For some it is a special ability to shape words into images and ideas and for some it is a unique vision of this world (or another) that speaks to our souls in a way others cannot.

Are writers born or made? Many people argue that some gifted writers are born, but I am not convinced. Perhaps you could have some predisposition but I believe that writers are made. They are made in the rocking chair when Mother reads “Goodnight, Moon”; they are made under the cover with a flashlight when you simply must finish “The Hobbit” for the first time; they are made when you proudly pocket your first library card; they are made when you fill your first notebook; they are made when you submit your first poem, article or story for publication; they are made when you receive your first rejection; and they are made when you turn the computer on every day to write.

I believe some writers are supremely gifted but even so does that mean it was a gift given to them whole or was it a gift developed through years of reading, writing, talking, and thinking about words?

So, I believe, writing is all three — a skill, a craft, and a gift. Some writers find their ability spans all three while others never progress past the level of skill.

Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com

Deanna Mascle has been teaching and writing professionally for more than 20 years. Find more articles about writing at Answers About Writing at answersaboutwriting.com

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Interweaving Your Novel’s Themes And Subthemes

Part VI of the 8-Part BRING YOUR NOVEL TO LIFE Series

When you’re writing a book, you want every page to drag the reader to the next one, even if she’s late for work, even if it’s two o’clock in the morning and he needs to be up at six, even if the plane has landed and your weary traveller really must get bags in hand and get off the plane. You want what you’re writing to be compelling. Enthralling. Un-put-down-able.

And that’s where the themes and subthemes we’ve been working on come together.

First we’ll put together an example where our main theme of rage against misused power, by now well disguised, becomes the story of a heroine who has been wrongfully accused of murder and must prove her innocence. We’ll have a subtheme of unhappy divorce, wherein the heroine’s two children are being told by her ex what a horrible person she is.

We could do an enormous number of things with these two storylines, and I know dozens of ways to meld themes and subthemes together and use them to play off of each other, but I’ll give you my three favorite techniques here.

THE BLENDED SCENE

Start with the heroine discovering the body of a stranger in her basement. Since she and her husband split up, there hasn’t been anyone down there but her and the two kids, who are five and eight years old. She carries a load of laundry down the stairs, trips over the the body, scatters laundry everywhere, and goes racing up the steps to call the police, just as her ex arrives to pick up the kids for the weekend. She’s frantic, her husband first thinks she’s joking, then thinks she’s hysterical, and finally goes into the basement and comes out as she’s calling the cops. He’s not sympathetic—he wonders what’s going on in that house since he left, what sort of atmosphere she’s raising his kids in, and when the cops arrive, he gives a statement, then hustles the kids out of there fast, wondering aloud if she’s had men in the place while his children were there.

• Locate the characters—other than the main character—who are involved in the theme and those involved in the subtheme. In this case, those characters are the police (theme), and the ex-husband and kids (subtheme).

• Decide how to create ties between theme and subtheme–in this case, the husband ties the police into his vision of his ex-wife as a bad mother by suggesting she’s been entertaining strangers in the house with his kids present. The police, meanwhile, will tie the husband into the story as another suspect.

• Get elements of both theme and subtheme into one scene.

THE INTERCUT

Now we’re going to play with time and space. We’ll write alternating four alternating scenes, two from the point of view (POV) of our heroine, and two from the POV of her ex. In each scene, we’ll work either the theme or the subtheme, but not both.

First, we have the heroine being questioned at the kitchen table, denying any knowledge of the man in the basement or how he got there, honestly describing over and over how she found the body, and then we have a forensics guy telling the cop in the background that the man had a note in his pocket signed by someone with the same name as the woman, and they’re going to need pre-existing handwriting samples.

Next, to the father driving the kids home, who’s asking his kids who comes over to the house when they’re there with mommy, and the kids saying no one, and the father asking if mommy told them to say that.

Third, back to the heroine, who is asked to go to the police station, and who is seated in an interrogation room, where, as soon as she’s left alone, she gets up and starts pacing, trying to work through where the man could have gotten a note from her, who he might have been, how he ended up in her basement, why he was dead, and who was responsible for his death.

And back to the father, who gets the kids to admit that, once they’re in bed, they don’t know if anyone comes over, and yes, mommy does have music on sometimes, and maybe someone could have been there, and while they’re at school, they don’t know what she does. Except for laundry. They’re very firm that she does lots of laundry.

• With intercuts, you want to show facets of who each character is, and how they’re acting toward their own ends, whether those are good or bad.

• You have to create change, but you are only creating change toward the specific theme you’re working on (at least visibly). The police don’t ask the heroine about her ex, they don’t visibly pursue interest in the ex. They want to know about her. Meanwhile, the father doesn’t mention or worry about the police. His focus is on his kids, and on finding out what’s going on over at their mother’s house.

THE CLIFFHANGER

Finally, we’re going to bring both of these themes into play again, as we have a scene involving the forensics folks. They’ve found a picture of both kids and the mother in the dead man’s pocket, and the picture is signed on the back, “Love, Lisa” (the heroine’s name). The signature matches the one on the note that was in his pocket. It’s not proof she was involved with him, but it certainly doesn’t look good for her. They call the police out of the interrogation room and let them know what they’ve found. The police go back into the room and ask her why the dead man had a picture of her and her kids in his pocket, signed by her, and she panics and starts crying, and can’t—or won’t—answer the question.

And that’s where you leave that scene. The reader is forced to consider the possibility that the heroine might have been lying, that she might know the dead man, that she might even have killed him. The reader could also suspect the husband, who could have had possession of notes and pictures signed the way these have been. But if the scene closes with the heroine in deep trouble, panicked, and not talking, the reader will have a strong incentive to keep reading to find out what happens next.

• Use elements of both theme and subtheme in your cliffhanger (the mother and her connection to the dead man, and HIS possible connection to her and her kids)

• Leave either the most important character of the theme OR the subtheme in desperate straits (in this case, the main character of the theme is in trouble…you can save trouble for the ex in a later part of the story).

• Pick up the next scene with a character from one of your subthemes, and gradually work your way back to the character who was dangling over the cliff.

By carefully using blended scenes, intercuts, and cliffhangers, you can weave your theme and subthemes together in ways so exciting and compelling your reader will stay up late, miss his stop, be late for work. Cruel, yes, but it’s the sort of cruelty readers will thank you for.

Next time, in BRING YOUR NOVEL TO LIFE, Part VII, Planning A Heart-Stopping Story, you’ll learn how to outline the bones of your story using theme and subthemes to keep things moving.

Full-time novelist Holly Lisle has published more than thirty novels with major publishers. Her next novel, THE RUBY KEY, (Orchard Books) will be on shelves May 1st. You can receive her free writing newsletter, Holly Lisle's Writing Updates at http://hollylisle.com/newsletter.html

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Impulse Writing for Better Ad Headings

Writing headlines for your ads is the most important part of your online presence.

When posting your ad to classified sites, directories, message boards, newsgroups or mailing lists, the only part of your ad that is showing is the heading.

So, what your heading says will make the difference between your ad being read or being………………

………………..passed right on by!

The overall importance of headings, as a means of bringing in targeted traffic to your site, is simpy immense.

But, don’t let that stop you from writing attention getting headings.

These steps will allow you to write heading that the average surfer will want to see.

Sit down and really go over what you’re trying to sell. Look at every word on every page of the site. If you’re selling an ebook, read it. If it’s for software or service, use it. Learn everything you can about what you’re selling.

Grab a sheet of paper and just start writing down all the phrases that can describe the product you are trying to sell. The very first things that pop into your mind.

Write down everything that just pops in. Not what you have to think about, but the phrases, words or benefits associated with that product, that enter your thinking with no effort. Write them down until you have to sit there and think of something else.

Stop right there. Go over what you just wrote. If more just happen to pop in your head again, write it down.

Since you have just looked over the product and website associated with it, everything that you wrote down is what any potential customer will also remember.

These are all the phrases and benefits that stick out and make people buy the product. If your emotions have been stirred (excitement, passion, happiness or any impulsive feelings that make you really want the product), then these are the same emotions that you have just written down.

I bet if you go over your sheet of paper you will find some great headings. If not, then you were thinking way to hard!

Impulse buying is one of the ways that we, as Internet Marketers, get people to buy our products or use our services.

So why not use those impulsive feeling in your ads?

Copyright © 2001 Randy Lever

Randy Lever is the owner of the Expertly picked "Complete Internet Marketing Package" - Marketing Profit. Everything you need to know about building a successful Online Business is in Marketing Profit! http://www.glimmersmarketing.com/marketingprofit

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Intelligent Optimism Wins In Today’s World

The reality of today’s world seems to leave little room for optimism. Almost every news story can lead because it does bleed. We hear of critical food shortages in Africa, daily gang deaths on city streets, the profiteering from child pornography, and the climatic disasters prompted by global warming. Health care costs move up faster than a hummingbird in flight and more children now spout profanities as a regular part of speech. With such negativity, no wonder a 2004 U.S. government survey found that depression afflicts one in 10 adults 14 days a month or more.

You probably get depressed just reading the opening paragraph. But wait! There is hope. Not the cock-eyed optimism that became fodder for a song from the musical South Pacific, but rather what psychologists in France are calling “intelligent optimism.” Such optimism does not deny the reality of today’s world, but rather seeks to LEARN how to fashion a life amid such difficulties. Martin Seligman, the psychologist who had made optimism and happiness his life’s work, would agree with the French: optimism can be taught.

Consider these basic steps:

(1) Focus on what you can control. Don’t get carried away by circumstances you cannot change. You might not change global warming but you can control your energy consumption. You can’t stop the downsizing in your company but you can arm yourself with marketable skills.

(2) Reframe the event so that you are not a victim. There is always another way to view a situation. The flight cancellation that caused me to miss (and forfeit) a major engagement was not “planned” to “get” me. It just was. My choice is to figure out what I can do to help the current client and what I will put in the place of the cancelled work.

(3) Think “enough”. When we concentrate on what we don’t have, we miss all the many things we do have. The truth of the matter is that if you are reading this article, you do have enough computer power. You do have enough intelligence. You do have enough time.

(4) Cultivate optimistic responses. Like a farmer tending a field, optimism will never grow unless it is watered, fed, weeded and nourished. We all have days in which negativity can take over. And, sometimes, that is a WISE response because it keeps us grounded in reality. Just make sure it is reality and not the imagination making extraordinary leaps into conjecture. Weed out that conjecture. Ask what you can DO to see a result that gives you a sense of power. If we don’t cultivate such intelligent optimism, be aware of reality and willing to find options, then we might do what Alexander Graham Bell warned. “Stare so long at the closed door we fail to see the one that is opening.”

(5) Remember the power of generations. Children of depressed parents are more prone to depression. Children of optimists are more prone to be optimists. What do you choose to pass along? Even if your parents were negative, you can break the cycle with stopping, freeze-framing a situation, listening to the negative self talk, and then literally giving yourself a different message. Yes, this takes practice but you can make it a habit if you work it over time.

Ultimately, intelligent optimists understand that change and chaos are given. They know that “this too shall pass”. In the meantime, they CHOOSE to take whatever action they can within their own sphere of influence and then settle back. It is enough.

(c) 2005, McDargh Communications. Publication rights granted to all venues so long as article and by-line are reprinted intact and all links are made live.

Named by Executive Excellence Magazine as one of the top 100 thought leaders in business, Eileen McDargh, CSP, CPAE authored one of the first books on work/life balance. Numerous books and articles later, Eileen serves the meetings industry as a popular international keynoter and on the Board of Directors of the National Speakers Association. You can find products and services offered by Eileen at http://www.EileenMcDargh.com

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Influence Your Audience With Your Story Using These 4 Tips

As a storyteller, what you’re doing when you tell a story is painting a picture. The part of your anatomy that you use most when telling this story is your imagination. And, it’s just amazing that how little of it you have to use to get your readers interested in your story. Here are just four tips to help you.

1. Make your audience FEEL like listening to you.

What I mean by this is very simple: put yourself in the position of your intended audience. What would make you feel like listening to your own story? Once you’ve got the answer to this question sorted out, you’ll know that your audience will want to listen to your story even more.

2. Make it HIS story.

What I mean by this is that when you tell the story, use the words, “You” all the time – if you know the name of the author, then all the better. Involve them in the tale you’re telling. Every person in the audience loves it when they’re name is used by the storyteller.

3. Ask a QUESTION of your audience.

Do you remember a time in your childhood when you were left alone in the house? The lights went out and it was scary. Do you remember that night? Now, you’ve got to admit that even you would like to know the rest of the tale.

4. Describe something the audience does NOT want to relive.

You’ve just been asked to submit a story of no more than 500 words … in one hour. You’ve not transcribed the interviews and you’ve hit writer’s block.

Can you see how you’ve caught your audience’s attention?

All you need to tell a good story is emotion. Once you’ve got it and also ‘ignited’ it in your audience, you will have them eating out of your hands.

Copyright © 2006 Jane Goodlaw. All Rights Reserved.

Jane does not manage a website. She has no ezine to promote and all she is doing here is sharing her knowledge with you. If you would like to contact her, please do so at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. By the way, there is no problem with you using this article, as long as you do not make money from it – you do not need to send her an email to ask permission to use this article. She’s not so arrogant as to charge for information she shares and hopes that you aren’t too. But, please, keep the article and this byline intact.

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Indecision

Indecision oftentimes hinders us from achieving goals we have set for ourselves. Indecision can cause regrets. How many times have you said to yourself, “If only I…” or “I wish I had…” or “If I only did it another way, then…”

Where there is indecision, there is no resolution. Instead of being convicted to a decision, a stand or a principle, indecision causes us to ‘swing’ from one side to the other; to take one step forward only to take two steps back.

Indecision breeds reluctance. And where there is reluctance, there is a certain fear — fear of trying, fear of doing, fear of failing and yes, even fear of succeeding.

This week, you will come face to face with your indecision.

Freewrite for ten to fifteen minutes. Based on your freewrite, go on and craft an essay, story or poem.

~ Monday: Think of something you wanted to do last week but did not do.

What was it?

Why did you not act on it?

What hindered you from doing it?

How do you feel about not being able to do what you wanted?

~ Tuesday: Now think of something you wanted to do last week and you went ahead and did it.

What was it?

Why did you act on it?

How did you feel after doing it?

~ Wednesday and Thursday: Freewrite using any or all of these prompts:

1. I remember ten years ago when I ___________, and if I can do it all over again, I would…

2. One of the things I regret not doing is…

3. One of the best decisions I’ve made is…

~ Friday: Brainstorm and list at least five situations you hope you never have to find yourself in. Then, write the courses of action you would take if you do find yourself in those situations.

About Shery: Shery is the creator of WriteSparks!™- a software that generates over 10 *million* Story Sparkers for Writers. Download WriteSparks!™ Lite for free at http://writesparks.com

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In a Rut or Blocked: 9 Tips to Help You Get Back to the Business of Writing

You’re sitting at your desk, staring at a blank sheet of paper or a blank word document on the computer screen. You actually want to write, but just can’t bring yourself to it. You have no clue what to do with your characters next, and they don’t seem eager to tell you.

Or perhaps you have a deadline, but you’re aimlessly typing random letters on the page, none of which seem to make sense, and you’re getting more and more frustrated as every minute passes. That deadline that you have in two weeks seems to be coming round very quickly and, at this rate there is no way you are going to make it!

Whether you are experiencing this for the first time or for the hundredth time and you’re at a loss as to what you should do, don’t despair. You can consider yourself as having a case of writer’s block or being stuck in a rut; it can and does happen even if you haven’t been neglecting your work. Other writers experience this too.

Your muse needs to be fed, her energy recharged! So how do you do it? Staring at the screen is not going to help. In fact, it will make your situation far worse because the day will have passed before you know it! Here are some tips:

1. If you’re going through a rough period, take a vacation. Taking a few days off from writing is sometimes necessary. At the end of this period, you are most likely to feel much better and more inspired. For many writers, this is the perfect time when a story idea pops into their mind and they begin percolating.

2. If taking a few days off isn’t an option for you, take a short break. Get out of the house or your office for a few hours. Take your mind off your work by doing something different – watch a movie, go to a café, meet up with a friend…just do anything that will take your mind off your writing for a while. This will give you a new perspective that you can take back to your computer later.

3. Write ten positive things about your writing skills on a piece of paper and put it on the wall above your computer. This will remind you just how good you are at what you do so it will give your confidence a boost.

4. Go on despite your mood. Don’t let your feelings get in your way, but use them instead to help you in your work. If you are angry, perhaps it’s time to write the fight scene you had in mind. Sad? It’s probably a good idea to develop the break-up scene between your two main characters. You may never use this work, but at least you’ll be writing.

5. Reread what you have already done. You may be stuck because you have lost your place in your writing so read what you’ve written and find your place again.

6. Accept the current difficulty as normal and necessary. You may not be able to feed your muse properly simply because you haven’t accepted that stress is a normal part of your life, too. As a matter of fact, very often stress catalyzes our energies and pushes us towards the deadline.

7. Trust yourself. For many of us, the greatest enemy is the lack of confidence. You will not keep the momentum going unless you identify the negative source that causes your insecurity. You will feel much more inspired when you write without thinking of your insecurities.

8. Use your fear. Your fear will become your ally if you dare to face it. Endow your main character with the same fear you experience, and then let him or her deal with it. Only you can decide where fear is taking you. Just let go and write!

9. Celebrate yourself. You deserve all the self-respect you can take for your courage to commit to writing. There may be times when you may not feel like this at all, but remember that while you cannot control the respect you receive from others, you can influence the respect you feel for yourself.

Even the most seasoned and famous writers get stuck in a rut or get a bad case of writer’s block at some point in their lives. If none of the suggestions work for you, just sleep on it. Getting a good night’s sleep can rejuvenate your mind and give you a clean bill of mental productivity in the morning, as well as give you the ability to look for inspiration! That will soon cure your writer’s block or get you out of the rut!

About Shery: Shery is the creator of WriteSparks!™- a software that generates over 10 *million* Story Sparkers for Writers. Download WriteSparks!™ Lite for free at http://writesparks.com

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If The Price Is Right

Writers are often advised never to sign “all rights” or work-for-hire contracts. I say “never” is too strong a word.

Of course, we should avoid these contracts as much as possible. After all, when we sign away our rights, we lose the ability to sell reprints, which can be a freelancer’s lifeblood.

However, my policy is “if the price is right, I’ll sign.” A few months ago, a writer’s organization proudly proclaimed that one of their members had turned down a $2/word contract because of the publication’s rights-grabbing contract. I say that member was a fool.

How many places were going to reprint that article of his? I believe it was for Skiing magazine; a specialized market to say the least. He couldn’t have sold to another national magazine afterwards, since almost no nationals will buy reprints of articles that have already appeared in other nationals. So, fine, he might have sold it to a few local or regional publications at drastically lower rates… but was it really worth it to turn down this assignment?

Let’s say he lucks out like crazy and manages to sell it to another national publication instead. This publication will buy first North American serial rights, but they’ll only pay $1/word (half of what he would have been paid before). Now he has the right to sell reprints, so he does—he researches markets, sends out cover letters and copies of his article, and he manages to resell it to a newspaper (for $100), a regional magazine (for $.10/word), an overseas publication (for $.25/word), and a website (for $.15/word). He still hasn’t made as much money as he would have if he’d signed the original contract, and now he’s put in much more work in researching markets, sending out his article, corresponding with editors, invoicing, etc.

I think these unions and writers’ organizations have missed the point when they insist that writers should never sign these kinds of contracts. The whole point of retaining rights is so writers can earn a decent wage from their articles. It’s presumed that a writer can’t earn a living wage merely selling each article once, so they need the right to resell each article. However, if every publication paid $2/word, would we really need to worry about reprints at all?

The price must be right, and it must be appropriate for the work involved. I’m less hesitant to sign all rights contracts for timely news articles that I likely won’t be able to sell again next week; I’m also less hesitant to sign when the article is so specialized that it only fits a few magazines (for example, an article for a trade magazine for window washers). If I won’t be able to sell the reprint anyway, why bother fighting to keep that right?

When I think I could sell the reprint, I add up what I think I could reasonably expect to earn from the piece if I sold only non-exclusive rights. For most articles, I would only sell about 2-3 reprints. There have only been a handful of articles that I continue to sell time after time; for articles with that kind of potential, it would never be financially feasible for one publication to pay me enough to make it worth it for me to sell all rights.

But for most articles, I’ve made about $.50/word for first rights, and between $.10/word and $.25/word for reprints in small-to-mid-sized magazines and e-zines. So, when I’m done, I’ve made between $.70 and $1.25/word altogether. Now, if a magazine comes along and wants to pay me $1.25/word for all rights, I’ll likely sign. Why? Because that’s the maximum of what I think I can earn for that article otherwise, and because they’ve just saved me the time and effort of having to sell reprints.

All I ask is the opportunity to earn a decent living; I would almost feel greedy trying to resell that $2/word article. I don’t need to make more than that; if I got paid $2/word, I’d only have to sell about two feature articles a month to earn a very comfortable living.

Who could ask for anything more?

Jenna Glatzer is the author of OUTWITTING WRITER’S BLOCK AND OTHER PROBLEMS OF THE PEN, available at http://www.absolutewrite.com/jenna/books.htmm. She is also the editor-in-chief of Absolute Write (http://www.absolutewrite.com) and a friend to small furry creatures everywhere.

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If In Doubt, Leave It Out

You probably won’t be surprised to learn I read a lot of unpublished manuscripts. I also read a lot of published work. Are there some glaring differences between the two? You betcha.

The fact is most beginning writers write too much. That’s okay for the first draft but when it comes to editing, you need to give that delete key a thorough work out!

Good writing is about pacing, about taking the reader on a journey and keeping in step with them along the way.

If you get the pacing wrong, the reader will stumble and begin to lose interest because it will seem you are more interested in writing the words than telling the story or relaying the information.

Here’s some tips on how to cut down on unnecessary verbiage!

The Art of Description

With the advent of global communication and visual media, we all know what most things and even most places look like. It’s no longer necessary to spend more than a couple of sentences establishing what things are, where scenes are set and what the weather is like, if that’s important for mood.

Many readers nowadays will actually skip descriptive passages because they find them dull and interrupt the flow of the text. So don’t beat yourself up over getting all the details across – that’s what the reader’s imagination is for!

Qualify That

Sometimes we write scenes etc. we’re not sure the reader will understand – so we add extra words to explain ourselves, resulting in more confusion than clarity. For instance, look at this:

“With the divorce weighing on his mind, and his fears about losing his job, John was having difficulty deciding what to do with himself. Could he face going out, knowing that Pete would probably spend the evening ribbing him over his his inability to get along with his boss and his problems with his estranged wife?”

Clearly this is clumsy and confusing to read. Much better to remove the qualifiers and simplify:

“The divorce was weighing on his mind – and his job. Did he want to go out? John wasn’t sure. Pete would probably just want to rib him.”

In the above version, even though the propositions are only loosely defined – the reader still gets it. You don’t always need to explain every little nuance to get a point or two across. Quite the opposite in fact.

Room to Breathe?

When you write you make a contract with your reader – whom you must regard as your equal. Not someone who is slow to understand and needs to be carefully led, shown everything and generally talked down to.

It’s perfectly okay to leave out obvious – and therefore redundant – details. You don’t always have to explain exactly who said what, what happened where, why and how long.

Too many new writers clog up their stories with unnecessary backstory, linking scenes, plot justifications and long complicated explanations of things the reader already regards as clear.

If you write with honesty and intelligence, your reader knows what and who you mean – when you over explain, you insult the reader. Don’t do it.

Direction

Quite often writing suffers because the reader doesn’t know where you’re going. They wonder why you’re focussing on certain characters and details – especially when you haven’t first hinted at the ‘point’ of your story.

When you open a piece, you need a big ‘sign’ that tells the reader you’re going THIS WAY – so that the reader knows what to expect along the way. You need to define your objectives – your purpose – in some way on the first page.

For instance, if you’re writing a murder mystery, don’t spend the first chapter following the protagonist around doing her laundry. Get on with the story and as soon as you can, show us the body!

Play By The Rules

Especially in genre fiction, you have to adhere to certain rules, because that’s what the reader wants. Horror stories need to be at least a little horrific – right from the start. Romance requires that you have lovers at odds with each other by page two. Science fiction and Fantasy require the elements of their genres too.

Publishers often say that, though many writers are good, they often write themselves outside of any given genre in their desire to be different or original – thereby, alas, disqualifying themselves from publication!

Of course it’s important to be original – but if you can do that within the confines your reader expects, your chances of publication skyrocket.

Focus

What you’re looking for is sharp writing that relays the facts. When you go back and edit for sense, go for simplicity rather than exposition. If you waffle on about the intricacies of conflicting thought processes or meander through long descriptions of the countryside, you lose all sense of tension.

Pick up any popular novel. The best ones have no words that are about writing. They’re all about story. However concise.

Speech tags

Okay. Speech tags – you know all the ‘he said, she cried, they exclaimed blah de blah’ – I’ll keep this advice simple and precise. Unless you’re writing children’s fiction, lose them. As many as you can. It’s the way of the modern writer.

The way to do it is to use other, more subtle ways of suggesting who is saying what. It’s easily done, it just requires a little thought.

You can refer to character’s actions just before or after dialogue, or use different styles to suggest different people.

Just as an experiment, try editing out all of the speech tags from your next MS. I think you’ll be surprised and…master this technique and publishers will love you for it!

Adverbs

Yep – we all know we’re not supposed to use them, especially after a speech tag. They really are mostly redundant and add nothing to the story. Repeat to yourself three times before bedtime: I will try to edit out every word that ends in ‘ly’! (I just noticed there are two in this paragraph – oops!)

Well I could go on like this for hours – ‘do this, do that, don’t do that’ etc. – I take writing very seriously, as I’m sure you’ve guessed. But I hope these few tips will help you the next time you edit your final draft.

The general rule, by the way, is that at least 20% of your MS is probably surplus to requirements! And that goes for all of us!

Keep writing!

This article is written by Rob Parnell. Visit his website at www.easywaytowrite.com

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