NaNoWriMo-How to punch up your writing in six-easy steps

Last night at the writers critique meeting I talked to some of the writers who are going to take the challenge and try to complete a novel in 30 days for National Novel Writing Month, which is really great. I like the fact that many of them looked at it as a personal challenge, they have completed some works but never completed an actual novel, first page to last.

I talked to one writer, a friend of mine, who has written and published a book on poetry, but has reservations about doing a novel. I sent off an e-mail to her today, for encouragement, and in that I have today's blog post which is about style. As a poet she has a wonderful style, evocative, intimate and she writes with clarity. However she doesn't feel confident in her ability to actually write a novel.

Because she has such a clear and distinct style with her poetry, I sent her six tips that I think will help her transition into writing a novel. Good prose, which is what we strive to write, is a balancing act between the sensual styles of poetry, which evokes emotion in the reader. And a straightforward narrative that just deals with the story. The problem I think a lot of new novelists have experienced when they try to evoke the poetry aspect into their story; they use clumsy greeting card-esque type poetry.

That's something that I have always told people who asked me, as a writer we must be well read in fiction in general and our genre in particular. But I also asked people to read poetry, not the free verse style of poetry but rather the metrical poems and sonnets, because this will help you understand the concept of good prose.

So here's a short list of what I think is important to writing good fiction and hopefully will help you write a better novel this month.

Clarity is the first thing I always stress that writers have to do is be absolutely clear what they write. Last night at the meeting I told a few writers that I liked what they wrote but they were too verbose. I think that's a problem that a lot of new writers have they prefer longer words because they think it sounds better or more intelligent. I'll tell people who ask me use the simplest word that you can to express your meaning. Words have power, and always use the simplest word that can convey that power.

The second tip that I gave her was to be precise. By that I mean make sure you use the word you want to use. Last night during the meeting we were critiquing a new writer’s story, he did some good things but he used the wrong word in several places that just jarred me out of the fiction. I always recommend having a book of synonyms and antonyms or a thesaurus next to you. I asked him about the word issue, the word was poor, yet he constantly used pour. He also missed used a few other words in his descriptions and emotions. So you need to be absolutely precise with the word, if you not sure what the word means look it up.

The third tip I gave her was variety. As a writer sometimes we get stuck in writing long sentences. But we need to break that up as they say variety is the spice of life. If we break up our sentences bury our sentence structure will get a sound and rhythm that helps to enhance the story were telling. If you constantly use three or four or six word sentences, you will find yourself writing probably declarative sentences that tell the story but don't show the action that you're telling.

Fourth is fluidity. As writers we tell stories; we paint pictures and we build world with our words. In order to do that are words have to flow. That's why I always recommended when you are revising your work read it out loud; you'll pick up on those mistakes. Any needlessly complicated sentence the wrong word, a word that is misplaced, these are all things that can stop fluid motion of your story. Fluidity in your story is important because that is what draws the reader in. If the reader starts reading gets drawn in by the characters in the story and the flow they will not want to put the book down.

And that fluidity ties into this fifth point which is consecutive sentences. What do I mean by consecutive sentences? Well if you are writing a story that flows, each sentence carries the action. Each sentence builds on the previous sentence and there is a natural connectivity between the sentences. It is this connectivity between sentences that keeps the reader going; it doesn't give them a place to stop.

There is an inherent beauty in reading good writing; the writer uses precise words that have impact, as the sentences are connected to one another and the words flow, drawing the reader in. This inherent beauty that ties all of the other aspects, clarity and precision; variety and fluidity as well as consecutive sentences together is economy.

The sixth tip is economy. I can see you scratching your head, what do I mean by economy?  I mean use the smallest number of words that will say exactly what you mean. When you don't clutter your story with unnecessary words you build the intensity of the story and allow the reader to become fully immersed in the story. Get rid of the padding because it holds little meaning and adds nothing overall to your story.

So I passed on these six tips to my friend and to several of the other writers who are attempting to do NaNoWriMo, I wish them the best and look forward to reading their works in December.