Articles in the Editing and Grammar Category
This post is part of the Guest Post Giveaway at the blog Unready and Willing. If you think articles about writing or personal development (or personal development for writers) sounds like a good fit for your blog, please take a look at the Guest Post Giveaway page and see if any of the articles spark your interest.
You may be familiar with the phrase “Murder your Darlings.” This is the mantra repeated over and over again by teachers of the revision process. For many writers this is a painful ordeal that seems to take the life from a piece. Painful as it is, cutting out the parts that seem most precious to you is essential in polishing your work. Oftentimes when an editor will suggest that you cut a passage out of your story or novel, it’ll be one of your favorite sections–this is probably because you felt very good writing it. You were in the flow, and everything that fell onto the page just “felt right” to you. And now this editor wants you to cut it? To trash it as though it never existed? How could they be so cruel?
Is this the part of the writing process that you hate the most? Do hate the feeling that the passages that you had had so much pleasure writing will not see the light of day? I certainly did when I started out writing, but there are good reasons for cutting the fat. Although certain passages are beautifully written, they may do nothing to contribute to a story’s plot or give any insight to the characters. Exchanges of dialogue, though clever, may not really be important at all. The character that you snuck into chapter three was forced into the story just because you thought he or she was interesting. Lost in the flow of your writing, you might have spent two paragraphs describing a horse-carriage and not even know it. These passages simply don’t belong.
Instead of getting out your ax and murdering your darlings right then and there, however, why not consider dropping them off at the orphanage so that another story might be able to pick them up? Essentially you can create a database of written material that just didn’t make the cut for your other stories. Not only does this take some of the pain out of revision, but it also can give you a place to access characters, descriptions, and clever turns of phrases that simply didn’t fit in your other work. Whenever you feel writer’s block coming on, you can infuse some of the good stuff you didn’t use from your previous work into your new one.
To establish this orphanage, create a folder on your computer for your rescued darlings and then make sub-folders with names like “characters,” “descriptions,” “dialogues,” “settings,” and so on. Every time you cut a substantial part from your story, copy it and paste into a new document. Title the document in a way that you’ll be able to recognize it easily when you come back to it. Your “settings” folder would have documents titled “Roadside Cafe,” “African Village” and so on. The “Characters” folder could have documents with the character names, or just a short description like: “Nerdy Mobster” or, “Obsessive-Compulsive Stockbroker.”
Personally I find that I tend not to use too many of my rescued darlings in my new work. It’s comforting, however, to know that they’ll always be there waiting should you ever need them.
Kenji Crosland is a creative writing major who, scared of becoming a starving artist, became a corporate headhunter in Tokyo. Since then he’s regained his sanity, quit his job, and now blogs about creating an ideal career at unreadyandwilling.com. He is also developing a web application that just might change the internet. Follow him on Twitter: @KenjiCrosland.
Have you ever cut a part of your story that you really wished you’d kept? What do you do with the darlings you cut? Have you used a character or scene that didn’t make the cut in one story for another? What kinds of safety nets do you use when editing and revising your work?
I feel quite honored being able to pop in and share a bit about myself and writing with each of you here. As the new bird on the block, an introduction seems necessary.
I am Mysti Guymon. I am a mother to two boys, both high needs. My time is limited throughout the day and most often I can be found writing the old-school way, early in the morning or far too late at night. I tend to capitalize “my time” when I should be sleeping. Maintaining early mornings and late nights can make for some pretty exhausting days, but in the end I’m still able to maintain my passion for writing.
Writing takes many different forms in our lives. Most recently, I’ve had the grand experience of creating invitations. Grammar, word selection and placement are important faucets when creating invitations. Most events in our lives are quite casual. This event, my wedding, took a much more formal stance.
The basic etiquette of wedding invitations:
- Utilize the full name of bride and groom. If space is an issue, omitting the middle name is acceptable.
- British spelling of favor (favour) and honor (honour) is recommended.
- Spell out all words including the hour, date and year. Saint (St.) and Mount (Mt.) are the only two abbreviations accepted.
- In names containing numerals (third) utilize roman numerals (III).
- For ceremonies taking place in a house of worship, you will “request the honour of your presence” whereas a garden wedding you will “request the pleasure of your company.”
If you are looking at creating your own invitations for a wedding down the road, a few key points to keep in mind:
- Are you issuing the invitations as a couple?
- Are you the parent of the bride issuing invitations?
- Are you the parent of the groom issuing invitations?
- Is the wedding of the garden variety?
- Would the couple be wed in a church?
Each question brings with it a different choice of invitation styles. The first and increasingly popular scenario, is couples issuing wedding invitations themselves. In this situation, the Bride and Groom’s full names will print at the top. All pertinent information will follow in sequence of date, time, place. The address of the location will always print at the bottom of the invitation.
Should the bride’s parents issue the invitation, it would read:
Mr. and Mrs. (Brides Father’s Name)
Request the honour of your presence
at the marriage of their daughter (Bride’s full name)
and (Groom’s full name)
on (Month, Date, Year)
at (full time)
Location Name
Location Address
Should the groom’s parents issue the invitation, it would read:
(Bride’s full name)
and (Groom’s full name)
request the honour of your presence
at their marriage
on (Month, Date, Year)
at (full time)
Location Name
Location Address
There are many more issues that could arise when creating invitations. Some circumstances to consider are a widowed parent, divorced and remarried parents, divorced and one remarried parent issuing the invitations. As we didn’t have to contend with those situations, you might want to check Emily Post’s Wedding Etiquette for suggestions.
As always, writing can be fun, invigorating and inspiring. Somewhere midst the grandeur comes grammar. Invitations are no different, even for a writer!
With computerization and online forms, submissions of many kinds are often required to meet strict word count limits. Going over is a common problem. Condensing text to comply with requirements but without eliminating essential content is a useful skill.
- Make sure you’ve stuck to the topic. Seems obvious, but re-reading may alert you to material that is not strictly necessary. Removing it will only tighten your work.
- Writing is a spontaneous process and we’re all prone to repetition. It can be a useful device to add emphasis but with a word limit, sometimes it’s got to go. Reread for repetitions – not necessarily repeating word for word but saying essentially the same thing in different ways. If found, cut all but the most important mention.
- Check your phrasing. You can shorten text without changing anything except the way you put sentences together and deploy language. For example, avoid the passive voice. There are two uses of passive voice in the sentence ‘It was claimed by Jack that the ball had been chewed by the dog’. Rewriting in the active voice – as ‘Jack claimed that the dog had chewed the ball’ – condenses the text by a massive one-third!
- Avoid wordy expressions. Often they are clichés anyway. Use ‘now’ or ‘currently’ instead of ‘at this point in time’.
- Consider using adjectives as shorthand. Instead of saying ‘People in European countries prefer coffee’ say ‘Europeans prefer coffee’.
- Eliminate adjectives that are pleasing but are not essential. It may be necessary to refer to ‘very heavy workloads’ in some contexts, but you might get away with ‘heavy workloads’ or even just ‘workloads’, because the word already implies some burden.
- Split two part sentences joined by ‘and’ into two, use commas or rephrase. ‘We travelled by train to Paris and then caught a plane to Rome’ is thirteen words. ‘We travelled by car to Paris, then caught a plane to Rome’ is twelve). Even better, ‘We drove to Paris, then flew to Rome’ condenses the text by a quarter!
- Sometimes sentences contain additional words that can be eliminated without transgressing grammatical rules. For example: ‘Growers of these plants bred them and crossed them to create new cultivars. Cut out the first ‘them’. The sentence is still intelligible. It may seem a small change but throughout a document it adds up. You’ll be amazed at how many opportunities for shortening text this strategy offers.
- Cheat (kind-of). Many word counters recognize hyphenated words as one word not two (world-wide, rather than world wide, for example), so go for the hyphen.
Know your writing style. If you know you tend to slip into the passive voice, you’ll know what to look for next time you need to condense text by chopping two hundred words off a thousand word document! If it seems tedious to go through text lopping one word here and another there, it is. Sometimes it means sacrificing elements of personal style. But when you’ve got a word count to stick to, it works.
What techniques have you used to cull the dead weight in your writing or meet a word count limit? When writing to a limit do you often find yourself needing to cut text or add to a limping count? How do you handle meeting word count expectations?
Talented author and song writer, Jill Moore shares six fantastic tips for writers. Honing your writing craft is a practice of love and dedication. Rules are meant to be broken but it is important to learn the rules, know how they benefit your writing before deciding which ones to break for best effect.
Improving your writing skills is actually quite easy if you know where to start. There are some areas of weakness that afflict almost every novice writer. Here are six simple tips to help you avoid these pitfalls and increase the quality of your written work.
- Get rid of excess words.
- Don’t use words as fillers.
- Avoid Being Redundant.
- Be Wary of Multiple Conjunctions
- Use Active Voice
- Choose Words Carefully
Sometimes inexperienced writers can weigh down their sentences with extra words or phrases. Writers often refer to these excesses as “deadwood.” Evaluate your sentences and eliminate any words that are not required to convey the main idea. For example, instead of writing, “There were not a lot of horses left,” write, “Not many horses were left.”
Some words should be used very sparingly because they are not of much use and only take up space. For instance, the following sentence is overly wordy: “I actually liked the class, but basically, I have no time to attend it.” The words actually and basically are unneeded because they do not add any worth to the sentence. Writers often refer to these extra words as “utility words.”
Make sure your sentences do not contain two words that mean the same thing, such as, “We received a free gift,” or, “I needed to buy some things to purchase at the store.”
Conjunctions, such as and, because and but, connect words and phrases. Be very careful not to overuse these words, because they will cause your sentence to be overly long and wordy. Instead of writing, “She is very nice, and she is interesting, and she seems like she has learned a lot in her travels, and she lives in New York,” write, “A very nice and interesting person who lives in New York, she seems like she has learned a lot in her travels.
Active voice, as opposed to passive voice, helps keep a sentence from dragging on and on. Here is an example of a sentence in passive voice: “A new road is being paved by the construction workers.” This same idea conveyed in active voice looks like this: “Construction workers are paving a new road.”
Although some words are neutral, many words have specific connotations. For instance, although the words sweat and perspire can be defined in the same way, most people interpret the word perspire to be something lighter or daintier than the word sweat. In the same way, calling someone skinny is generally perceived as negative, while referring to the person as slender has more positive connotations. Choosing the perfect word can sometimes prove difficult. Good writers will often use dictionaries and thesauruses to make sure they have chosen the best word for the mood they want to create.
Putting these techniques into practice may take some effort at first, but don’t give up! As you continue to pay attention to your writing, these techniques will become habits, and your writing will be much improved.
There is more comming to this category soon! Stay tuned.
Rebecca is also inviting Guest Posts. Feel free to email a query letter to Rebecca.
One of the things planners often have less trouble dealing with is Mr. Random Messenger. Inexperienced (and sometimes experienced) “Seat of the Pants” writers occasionally feel like they’ve written themselves into a corner. The only perceivable way out is to introduce a twist to the story that solves the immediate problem. Sometimes, it’s the twist that ends up causing more trouble then the original dilemma.
Fiction depends upon your readers’ ability to absorb the world and the characters they are reading about. The most enjoyable fiction allows readers to step away from reality and feel like they can exist in this alternate world. They MUST believe that these characters could truly exist there. This requires an intimate balance called the willing suspension of disbelief.
“Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.” Mark Twain
The suspension of disbelief is about creating extraordinary or fanciful elements in such a way that, despite being ‘out of this world’ or even ‘against the laws of Earth physics’, SEEM real in the reality you’ve created.
Who loved Doc’s Time Machine, the Delorean in Back to the Future? It was unbelievable. If your next door neighbor drove that pile of scrap into your driveway and said he was about to go into the future with it you’d probably laugh till you cry and tell him to stay away from the rum. It’s just NOT believable, in this reality. But, in Back to the Future we believed it. The story introduced this absurd idea and we WANTED to believe. Despite how absolutely crazy it was, viewers around the world suspended their disbelief because it made an incredible story.
When it comes to our novels it is important to ensure every element aids this feeling. However, Mr. Random Messenger can sometimes completely obliterate the suspension of disbelief. The truth is, as insane as the idea of a flying time machine car may be it was feasible in this alternate reality. If however, a freight jet fell out of the sky full of plutonian the minute Marty crashed into the barn after going through time it would have destroyed our ability to put our faith into that story. (Not to mention forcing an early close to the whole developing plot.)
“The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.” Tom Clancy
If you find yourself glaring at a dead end and need to throw a twist into your story it HAS to fit with what you have, it has to be realistic, it has to be explainable. Fiction, unlike real life, has to make sense. You can have fantastical things but in that fantastical world they have to be reasonable. Readers are fickle; they read for pleasure and expect certain things from the books they read. Readers are not stupid however, the moment they feel duped or let down they may put your book aside in favor of something more believable, something more involving, and something they can disappear into to leave their mundane lies behind.
“It’s no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.” Mark Twain
Never give your characters and easy out. If it’s too easy, it’s not believable.
Never have a random event that doesn’t tie into the overall plot. If it isn’t related to the rest of your story it isn’t believable.
Never give your main characters a problem they can’t solve themselves. Your stars should do all the work. If a third grade Girl Scout, delivering cookies, gets them out of a situation it’s just not believable.
Having said all of this there are some genres that are built on Mr. Random Messenger. Comedy for example is rife with extreme odds and unexplainable happenings. Mystery on the other hand is all about the tightly woven threads of plot. Thrillers are best when we’re terrified of the axe murderer because he ‘feels’ real. Fantasy gives you a lot of leeway when it comes to imagination but ultimately readers want to exist in the alternate world we create for them.
“Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
Watch out for Mr. Random Messenger. He can be a wonderful tool to get you out of a tight situation but he should be carefully monitored. Often he needs to be woven into the rest of the story. You may not need to worry about it so much in the first draft but he is something you should keep a sharp eye for in a second.
Take your readers on a journey. Give them a reality that is more real than real life. Truth is truer. Life is livelier. Everything makes sense and happens for a reason. That’s how fiction works.
