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.
