Must Have #2--Clarity

A couple of weeks ago, I began a series of posts that defines my "Must Haves" in writing. Most of them come from Gary Provost's 1984 article, "The Seven Beacons of Excellent Writing," and the first was Brevity. Today, it's Clarity.

At this point in my career, clarity is the Must Have I'm most conscious of. Far too often, I find myself plugging away at my writing, knowing exactly what is going on with my characters and plot, and yet when I receive feedback on it from other authors, I get this question: "Huh?" That response tells me I haven't said exactly what I mean, and I must now go back through the section and rewrite it until it is clear.

To quote Provost: "the good writer makes his meaning as clear as possible. He leaves no room for doubt about what is being read and he is not vague except when he has a good reason (bold & italics added)."

Here are a few clarifying tips:

1. Replace pronouns with exact nouns if appropriate. Instead of writing "He put it over there," write "Tom put the garden hose under the oak tree."

2. Tell the reader right up front who is doing what and when. For instance, don't write a sentence like this as your opening line or throughout your opening paragraphs:

He opened the package, and when he saw what was inside, he collapsed.

Sometimes new writers believe vagueness creates suspense, but the truth is, it may irritate and will probably confuse the reader.

3. While it's important to avoid repetition whenever possible, don't be afraid to repeat for clarification. For instance, if you write "Mom and Susan went to Broulims. She bought some furniture polish," your reader might not know who "She" is. Instead, write your second sentence as "Susan bought some furniture polish." This is also important in dialogue. If you're not sure your reader will know who's talking, repeat the speaker's name as much as necessary.

4. Finally, being direct is okay. Good, even. I don't know why, perhaps it's due to my poetry training or my school, literary, reading studies, but whatever the reason, I sometimes find myself alluding to my meaning, rather than saying straight out what I mean. When I do this, my readers's responses always contain, "Huh?"

Like I said before, that response is not a good thing, and I then know it's time to rewrite. To clarify.

My Writing Must Haves #1--Brevity

A couple of years ago, I posted about how I use lists to help me stay focused on the nuts and bolts of writing. One of the most important of those lists I keep for easy reference on the wall directly behind my computer monitor. I've simply titled it: "My Writing Must Haves," but in actuality, I adapted it from an article I read several years ago by acclaimed author, Gary Provost. It was titled "The Seven Beacons of Excellent Writing."


Because "My Writing Must Haves" list has been so helpful to me, I've decided to write a series of blogs discussing each point on it. The first is Brevity.


Gary Provost began his discussion of brevity (tight writing) with this statement: "When you write and rewrite, don't think about what you can put in. Think about what you can leave out."


Since magazines require writers to say a great deal in very few words, I initially believed this advice mostly applied to that media. However, after Missing was accepted and later as I went through an extensive revision process, I learned that brevity is also important to novel writing. Think about it. Haven't you read novels in which you were at least tempted to skip over sections, sometimes even pages, of an author's prose because it was boring or redundant? I have, and every time it wasn't because the author's story line was boring; it was because the writing was too bogged down with words that didn't carry their weight. So on my list, next to "Brevity," I've written this definition: "include only words that are necessary."


How do we do that? Again, borrowing from Provost, I'll end with three, "brief" tips:

1. Stick to your subject matter; i.e., the specific slant of your article or the goal of your story. Don't wander down unimportant paths or dally in unnecessary information.

2. Begin at the beginning, where the story takes off or where your character's life changes in relation to the plot, and not a moment sooner.

3. Eliminate unnecessary words. I've discussed one way to do this here.

So that's it. Write tight and check back soon. My next post in this series will focus on "Clarity."

I've Submitted my Revisions

As you know, I've been a bit absent in the blogging arena because I've been furiously rewriting my novel, Missing, per my editor's concerns. I sent it to her on Wednesday night (actually Thursday morning) at 1:00 a.m. My goal had been to submit it that day, so I stayed up until I completed it. Yay! I'm now waiting for her and her co-worker's responses. So far, they've mentioned they like my "new" beginning, which is actually a prologue I'd previously edited out of my book, so I hope that's a good sign. This will be my 4th full rewrite of this novel. I guess I should expect stuff like this since this is the book I've "learned" on, but let me tell ya, I've been over the same story and the same words so many times I'm not sure I can see it subjectively anymore. One bit of writing advice I've heard over the years is that you should work and rework your novel until you've done everything you know to do, and you're sick of it. I've been at that point a few times now. I guess we'll see what happens.

As far as my second book goes, I've finally completed the final chapter. It is a romantic-suspense novel, like Missing, but also includes a hint of fantasy. Everyone who knows anything about this book loves it. Hopefully, once I find a publisher, etc., you will, too.

I know I still have some scenes to adjust, some details to include, and some overall editing to do, but I'm grateful to be at this point. My next goal for it is to begin drumming up interest in it through contests, etc., while I edit. So, back to writing.

I've Been Blindsided!

Last weekend, my editor sent me half of the "final" edits of Missing to look over while she worked on the other half in preparation for it to go to press this weekend, but somewhere between then and now, she decided there were several elements to my story that she'd like revised. I now don't know when my book will be ready for publication. I'll let you know as I learn more. Meanwhile, back to the revising board!

MISSING latest updates

Throughout my blurb gathering process, I've learned there were a few places in my book I wanted to tweak; so after talking with my editor, Linda Prince, about what worked best with her editing schedule--to revise it now and send it to her or to wait until she edited it so I could fix it all at once--I spent a lot of hours, including most of an entire day, last week going through my book again and editing some of the grammar and tweaking some of the scenes. I'm much more "at peace" with it now.

Meanwhile . . . I'm trying to move my thoughts back to my second novel. I only have a couple of chapters left to write of my first draft, and I really want it completed before I attend the Storymakers Conference on the 24th-25th. While it's kind of hard to switch my focus from MISSING's main character, Stacie Cox, to my new book's main character, Emi Warrin, I'm finding it's not quite as hard as I'd expected. A good thing.

Triple Duty Verbs

I recently learned that an author named Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a 50,000 word novel, titled "Gadsby," which never used the letter "e." Not only that, his language flowed beautifully. I know this is kind of an odd way to begin this entry, but I wanted to stress this point: exact words have power. In Wright's case, his goal may have been, in part, to see if he could meet this challenge, but also--I'm guessing--a marketing gimmick--Who wouldn't be curious to see how he had accomplished this feat?--but for my purposes here, I want to emphasize the importance of word choice.


In recent years, I've had editors and an agent describe my writing as "tight," "subtle," "wordsmithing," and "saying a lot in a small amount of space." On first glance, you may say, "those descriptions are redundant," and my response would be, "Yes they are!" Which is exactly my point, because they all describe my detailed use of "word choice." Perhaps I learned this skill through my magazine writing experience. Or maybe it was my poetry training. But either way, I've learned to take great care (it's almost automatic with me now) in choosing words, especially verbs, that will do double or even triple duty.

My first step is to imagine exactly what is going on in the scene and write it using "active" rather than "passive" voice.

Second (either during the creation process or on a later draft), I delete/avoid "ly" words (adverbs) as much as possible and implement verbs that convey that "ly" meaning (double duty). For example, if my character "runs quickly" into a forest out of fear, I might consider "hurtled," "charged," or "tore." On the other hand, if she "runs quickly" out of joy, I might look at"lilted," "raced," or "loped."

Finally, I narrow my verb choices down to one or two "common" ones by deciding which verb actually "fits" the character (triple duty). For instance, Anne Shirley could readily "charge" into a forest out of fear, whereas Sandra Bullock's character in Miss Congeniality would probably "hurtle" or "trip" or even "crash" into the forest. Get the idea?

Now one final thought. I struggle with absolutes. I've always blamed that on the writer in me that believes nothing is absolute (except the gospel, God, etc.), and so I hesitate to guarantee the success of anything. But in this case, I have no hesitation. If you change your verbs from passive to active voice, eliminate most, if not all, of your adverbs, and choose verbs which depict both the action and the character, your prose WILL be stronger. I promise.

A Lifesaver Block

Have you ever made something? You know, sewn a dress, quilted, or even, say, built a house? I've done a bit of all these things, and while I've done my share of unpicking, remodeling, and pulling out nails, I seem to do way more editing (remodeling) in my articles and books. What's worse, I've rarely, if ever, wished I hadn't unpicked that seam or pulled out that nail, but I've frequently wished I hadn't deleted a certain paragraph or sentence so soon.

When such a scenario happened during my early writing years, my only option was to groan and move on. Not anymore. Now I keep two files up on my screen. One is the piece I'm working on, and the other is one I title, "(Name of article or book) Misc." Then, when I'm writing, or especially when I'm editing, and I decide to remove a section (especially a large section), I transfer it to the misc file and save it.

I can't tell you how much calmer and easier this simple process has made my writing life. True, "Misc" ends up being a large file of stuff I'll never use, but there have been MANY times I've pulled things--including entire scenes--from it and either reused it or reworked it somewhere else in the piece. It's been a true lifesaver.

I bet it would be for you, too. If you try it.