Five Rules for Pleasant Writing
Hello and welcome to another Writer’s Resource! The focus of this month’s column is all about what makes for pleasant reading. I have been doing quite a bit of reading the last month both recreationally and for the lovely ladies that I beta for, and I have five rules that I would love to share. None are inherently better than the other; they are listed in no specific order.
- Keep your audience involved, without becoming involved yourself.
- Keep it clear and concise.
- Do not coddle, confuse, or condemn your audience.
- Write naturally.
- Write, revise, and rewrite.
1. Keep your audience involved, without becoming involved yourself.
This has been driving me wild for the last few months. I have found that Author’s Notes are quite popular within fandoms on Fanfiction.net, FictionPress.com, even Twilighted and TWCS. Don’t get me wrong, I love to hear what the lovely authors have to say, but I do not want to read it in the middle of a chapter.
I’ll give you a simple example.
The brown fox jumped(AN:OMG jumped!) over the lazy dog.
Did anyone cringe?
I realise that most of you can completely disregard this first one, because you wouldn’t even think about doing it. But like I said, this has been driving me up the wall. Keep your opinions to the top or bottom of the page, but never scattered throughout your chapter. I personally think it to be a little rude, and it definitely detracts from the piece, as well as breaking one of my five rules. When we write, we create an entire world for the reader to enter. They can hear, smell, see, feel, and even touch what we describe for them. When you interrupt that, you break away from the world and they enter your reality once more. They enter the world where an author sits behind their technology stringing words together. Keep your audience involved, without involving yourself. Then, at the end, say whatever it is you wish to say.
2. Keep it clear and concise.
I suppose I don’t have to go back into pretentiousness and repetitiousness once more, but I will brush over a couple little things. My first little grumble is about foreign languages. I love foreign languages. In fact I speak a fair amount of French, Italian, and Croatian. I understand that sometimes a word can be completely summed up in one word in another language and that there might not even be an appropriate word for exactly what you are trying to say. In saying that, if I have to scroll to the end of a post to read the six, seven, ten, fifteen translations that an author has placed at the end of their chapter – I will simply flounce, even though I might understand, it just seems so unnecessary.
When you feel the need for such exuberance, you should consider your audience’s comfort. I don’t mean to be so harsh, but I am being honest when I say that if I see foreign languages spread throughout a piece, I will put the piece into a little box in the back of my mind reserved for show-offs.
“It[sprinkling foreign languages] is a bad habit.” Strunk/White/Kalman.
My second point is about concision. As a beta, I am constantly pulling out needless words. Writing should be concise and to the point. If I have to read “in a hasty manner” one more time, I think I will scream. Hastily. If you are going to tell me rather than show me, that’s your decision, but do it in the least grating way possible.
“The fact that is an especially debilitating expression. It should be revised out of every sentence in which it occurs.” Strunk.
I’m sure I don’t really need to go into this one…Tense. Keep it consistent. Need I say more?
3. Do not coddle, confuse, or condemn your audience.
This particular rule has several aspects. Firstly, do not coddle your audience by restating material that has already been shared. Do not use a character’s name in every line of dialogue. Your audience is smart enough to follow the line of speech, as long as you are descriptive. I tend to use a dialogue tag every third or fourth line, but that can change depending on what exactly I am writing. But do not confuse them by omitting dialogue tags and character names completely.
It is possible to condemn your audience to a bloody pond of prose. Rather, very, little, pretty. Avoid the use of qualifiers. These words are the leeches that infest the pond of prose, sucking the blood of words. We are all prone to break this rule, but before you click post, or even before you type or write it, say to yourself “is this word necessary?” If you are being very, very honest, can’t you just say that you were honest? If it was a rather hot day, couldn’t you simply say that it was a sweltering summer day? If she wore a pretty nice dress, couldn’t you just say that her enticing summer dress fit her curves perfectly?
Avoid the use of qualifiers. Do not condemn your audience to them.
4. Write naturally.
Almost everyone I know has heard the phrase “write what you know.” Whilst young writers in high school might take this to mean, “I am a student, I’ll write a story about a girl.” I have found that more importantly, you write how you know. Bear with me for a moment. For a few months now I have been in WC’s (Word Counts, Writing Challenges – whatever you’d like to call them) with some of the most brilliant women in the Twilight Fandom. Their styles are unparalleled; their work almost flawless; their descriptions enticing and just beautifully written. I had to admit that when I first began to write with them, I was terrified. My writing was clunky, untidy, and without any of the natural suave that these fantastic women had managed to incorporate into every breath of their characters.
But slowly my writing took a form of its own. A child learns language from its parents and then books. A child imitates. The art of imitation is not to do it consciously, for then it becomes the ugly word – plagiarism.
Write naturally. Avoid the pretentious, avoid the unfamiliar, and write in the way you feel most comfortable. The more you write, the more you will develop.
5. Write, revise, and rewrite.
Never give up. Never accept that what you have written is perfect and cannot be altered. This is something that I have always struggled with. But it is so important to know that next to nothing that you will ever write will be perfect after the very first time you have strung the words together. Your writing will always be able to be improved. Write. Get what you can out of your system. Write as much as you can, as fast as you can and don’t stop. Then go back. Read through what you have written. Cringe, cry, whinge, moan. Get that out of your system, and then go again. Write, and rewrite. Some of the greatest manuscripts have had to go through a mass overhaul. Accept that your writing is not perfect and needs work. If you are always looking for ways to improve, you will never stop growing as a writer.
Write, revise, and rewrite. Revise it again, and then when you’ve reached the point where you’re happy to post, send it to a beta! But please, for the sanity for all us betas out there – please read through it first. Check that your writing is clear, check for those little errors. We’ll do our job, but if you read through it first, you’ll save yourself a great deal of red ink on your pages.
I’d like to leave you with a quote.
“If you want to be published, expect blood on the pages and tears on your pillow.
For you seek perfection, and only through pain will you find it.”
Thank you for reading, darlings and I hope to hear from you soon!
-Millie/PerAmore91
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