Writing

I wrote thousands of pages of fiction over the course of about ten years before I finally settled upon a style that allows me to write what I want to write.

Also, reread what you have written. Give it a few days, and then go back. If something seems awkward upon rereading, edit it. People today are so lucky to have word processors. Typewriters and Liquid Paper really slow you down.

In addition to writing, I edit fiction at a sci-fi -zine. Here are the problems I see most often with the fiction of folks who have just started writing.

1. Word repetition. If you repeat a word on a page it gets an emphasis in the mind of the reader that it may not deserve. The thesaurus is your friend. Do not write

"Raymond stopped beside the car. He opened the car door and settled himself into the driver's seat. Cautiously, he eased the car down the driveway. Seeing the road clear, he accelerated, and his car took off with a roar of the engine and loudly squealing tires."

That is too many "car"s----unless the hero of this epic is the "car" and you want to make sure the reader knows it.

2. Narrative style that keeps changing for no particular reason. Pick a narrative voice---such as first person present tense or third person past tense---that will allow you to tell the story you want to tell. There is rarely a good reason to change tense---say from past to present---in the same paragraph, unless you are trying to create an atmosphere of heightened awareness (danger) or mental instability. Yes, when we talk we switch from past to present and back again frequently. So, is your narrative voice supposed to be that of one of the characters speaking dirctly to the reader in a casual style? If not, change paragraphs when you chance tense.

3. Dialogue problems. Your characters "talk" to you in your head, but they will "talk" to the reader through their eyes. Make sure that when characters "speak" their words look natural on the page. If you use too much odd punctuation and word mispellings to create the sense that a character is speaking a quaint dialect, your reader will decide that he or she is speaking an unintelligible dialect and stop reading. A few "gonnas" go a long way on the written page. Do not have a character who is ten years old suddenly start sounding like a college professor, even if there is a tricky bit of exposition that you want to get out of the way so you can return to the action.

4. Tell not show. I think by now everyone knows that the proper way to write is "Show, not tell." Especially when writing fiction, you want to suspend disbelief. The best way to do that is to carefully nudge your reader down a specific path, showing them this (shocking) image first and then letting them experience this (fearful) emotion next---just like your character.

5. Fear of short, choppy sentences. Yes, in school they taught us to write complex sentences, using lots of "ands" and "however" and "therefores." This type of writing is the enemy of "show not tell." If your character is in peril, he is not thinking cause and effect. He is thinking "What's that? Damn, scared me to death! Thought my heart would leap out of my chest. Better make sure no zombies are around. I'll just peek around the corner---Sweet Jesus! What the hell is that?"

6. Tell your reader why they should love your hero. Won't work. Readers love a character in direction proportion to how much that character loves someone or something else. And you have to "show not tell" that character in love through his or her actions. Prove that your hero is worthy of being called a hero.

7. Screenplay/graphic fiction in the form of fiction writing. For example, if your were writing a screenplay, having a kick ass martial artists priest would be a winner. Every time the guy wearing the white clerical collar raised his leg for a roundhouse kick, the audience would get that little thrill that comes from witnessing something shocking. On the other hand, if you write about a priest "He delivered a roundhouse kick" your reader will not bat an eyelash. You have to be sure to include lots of references to his priesthood. Yes, I know in your mind's eyes the guy with the black robes and white collar looks mega-cool when he is demolishing the bad guy. Now, get to work on your reader's mind's eye.

8. Let the reader infer the description. Your reader is not a mind reader. He or she will not know that the sunset is a crimson disaster spilling over the ruins of the blackened smoldering city unless you tell him it is.

9. Violate all the rules. Yes, you can violate all the rules if you are writing experimental/arty/surrealistic fiction. Just make sure that you can write as well as William Burroughs if you want to get recognized for doing it. Robert Heinlein wrote that there are only three stories---the Man Who Learned Better (corresponds to the human emotion of grief) The Brave Little Tailor (emotion of anger/violence/adrenalin) and Boy Meets Girl (aka love). I will wait for a moment while you try to think of some famous, much loved story that does not have one, two or three of these elements in it. Take your time. Yes, that's right. Comedy does not tell these stories. Comedy turns these stories on their heads. But they are still the same three stories. If your story does not seem quite right ask yourself "Which of Heinlein's stories am I telling?" If the answer is "None of them. My hero hates everyone. He always fails. And he does not give a shit when things go bad" you had better be writing satire or something akin to the French Cinema of alienation, because your reader is going to have a hard time getting engaged.

10. Write about what you are told to write about not what you want to write about. If you are bored silly by the story you are telling, it will show. Pick a topic that really excites you. Chances are, the story will come from the heart. And you will learn something about yourself in the process.

11. Always follow the rules. There is only one rule in fiction. If it works, then it is appropriate.