Writing Tips

I could probably write an endless list of these, but in drafting this article, I chose a few that can be put to use immediately, in any form of writing.

WORKING WITH THE MUSE

Don’t wait for inspiration. The muse is always around, but she will help usually when it works for her, and only if you’re willing to work. Every writer goes through that period of, “I can’t think of anything to write.” And that’s the first mistake. Writing isn’t about thinking. Thinking should begin when you proofread the piece. The first stage of writing varies for different people: some brainstorm, some use listing, and some simply write whatever pops in their heads, regardless of its relevance or lack thereof to the piece they want to write. Whatever method one uses, the first stage is supposed to be a time for the raw idea to begin developing. If you don’t know what to write, then write, “Don’t know what to write,” over and over until something else pops out.

Every idea that goes into a poem, article, essay, novel, etc. is inspired because something gave the writer that spark of inspiration, but inspiration alone, however great, will never get you through the process. In my experience, it seems that the muse waits for me to prove myself by remaining stubbornly persistent; only then does she decide to jump in and help. (Whether my muse is satisfied, however, is another story.)

DÉJÀ VU

Does anyone enjoy repetition? Hands down, almost everyone would say no, and yet we repeat ourselves all the time. Sure, every writer has his/her favorite plot devices and such, but that, if the job is done right, is more subtle and harder to catch, if you can catch it at all. As in music, repetition can, in the right place, produce great effects, such as a sort of hypnosis that draws the reader subconsciously deeper into the plot, but this is one of those subtle tricks that takes a lot of practice to learn; if it isn’t done just right, it appears as just another dose of boring repetition.

One of my major pet peeves is descriptive repetition. Say you want to write an action novel, and you have a great idea for a fight scene in which the hero loses his weapon. It gets knocked from his hand and flies through the air, leaving him woefully unarmed. Say also that this happens again in the story. Would you write, “his weapon flew,” or “his weapon went flying,” in both places? I would advise against it, in any case, whether it’s serious or comic, whatever. I have seen an example very close to the one I just gave, and by the third time the writer said, “his weapon went flying,” I was bored with it all. Even if the repeated situation happens at very different places of the story, it tends to stick in the memory, and you come away thinking how great the writer is in repeating himself/herself.

If you have a story, or perhaps a multi-part poem, in which there are several night scenes, for example, you wouldn’t want to emphasize the same thing in each scene when describing the night. One night may be noisy, another may by quiet; one scene could emphasize the moon, where another could focus on the stars. This concept can be applied to anything, with a little thought. The examples I just gave are rather simplistic, but sometimes less is more; and besides, you have to start simple and gradually work into more complex themes.

Take care with your word choice, as well. Notice in the above paragraph I said, “emphasize the moon”; “focus on the stars.” While I mean basically the same thing with each, I used a different wording to keep down on repetition. Doing this ONLY to keep down on repetition is a mistake, though, given the many eccentricities of the English language. Reading widely helps greatly with this.

SURFACE LEVEL = NEXT TO NOTHING

In descriptive passages, there is basically one rule that I abide by. It’s a cliché, but it’s very important: “Never judge a book by its cover.” If you look at the ocean, you see waves. (Forget the extraneous things, like seagulls and such; I’m talking strictly about the water.) But do those waves hint at what’s below?

Look at it like this: The most well-dressed, gentlemanly man in the world could be the biggest psycho in the world. A punk rocker who looks like he was unleashed instead of born could be the nicest guy (or girl) you ever met, perhaps even a great friend.

If you write, “the sky is so blue,” it doesn’t really say much. You could get by with it if you wanted to focus on something else, but if you’re going for a descriptive passage of the sky, essentially making it a character, that phrase is what I call “surface level.” Here is something I would try for describing a blue sky:

“The hand of some peaceful deity held the sky that day. The purity of bliss was in its subtly shifting tone of blue and wisps of cloud that hung like an old woman’s hair.”

The idea is not to look at what you wish to describe, but SEE it, hear it, feel it. Dig beneath the surface and find the elements that strike you emotionally; this is what brings a piece of writing to life.

READING

I put this one last because what comes last usually remains longest in the memory. It’s the single-most important thing a writer of any vocation can do. The only advice I can really give is this: Read as widely and as much as possible. Then, if what you’ve read interests you, go back and study the writer’s word choice, how they orchestrate events, and so on. Writing instructors and the like can give us a head start, and can ground us in the mechanics of grammar, punctuation, etc. But we learn how to write from the authors we read and then through the process of writing. It’s easy to decide which authors we should learn from, because their writing is what strikes emotional cords in us. What strikes one might not strike another, but that’s part of the beauty of writing.