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."

Beacons of Excellent Writing

I was once an English substitute teacher for grades 6-12. During that time, I created several worksheets I could use as a lesson plans or give to problem students to complete. One of those worksheets--something I now keep next to my computer--contained Gary Provost's "Seven Beacons of Excellent Writing." Another list, I know, but I thought I'd share it with you today.

1. Brevity. Excellent writing should be tight. Every word should count. To that end, eliminate all unnecessary words and don't start your piece too early.
2. Clarity. Don't "hide" your meaning. Make it clear to the reader. \
3. Precision.This means, be more than clear--be precise, exact. Use the only noun or verb it should be. The perfect use for our Thesauruses.
4. Harmony. LIke music, writing should flow beautifully, without obscure or pretentious words and with varying sentence lengths and structures.
5. Humanity. Write about people, not things. Tell your story from the eyes of those involved, not the event itself.
6. Honesty. Be yourself in your writing. Don't try to impress people with words you don't know, just use the "right" words you already know. And make sure you write the truth, not some built-up, more exciting shadow of it.
7. Poetry. This one's hard to describe, but I think we all understand it on an instinctual level. For instance, there is one musical note in "Les Miserables," in the song, "Bring Him Home," that brings me to tears. Just one note. It touches my heart, inspires me, lingers inside my soul long after the song, even the play, is over. It's that experience, only through our writing, which Provost encourages writers to develop. In his words, "If you can turn an essay into a prayer, do it."

That is Provost's list, but I have added one more to it: Humor. I don't know anyone who doesn't like to laugh. And I don't know anyone who's ever hated competent writing that made them laugh. Have you?

With that said, do you have any beacons you'd like to add? If so, please do so in a comment.

A Block of Horror

Today I decided to make a list in honor of Halloween, or more appropriately named, the Horror market. While I don't generally like this genre, I recently came across an article written by Stephen King way back in 1973. It's titled "The Horror Market Writer and the Ten Bears." While there was way too much in his article to cover in this blog, I thought I'd share his "Top Ten Bears"--fears people have--that he has used and encourages other horror writers to use when forming their stories.

1. Fear of the dark
2. Fear of squishy things
3. Fear of deformity
4. Fear of snakes
5. Fear of rats
6. Fear of closed-in places
7. Fear of insects (especially spiders, flies, beetles)
8. Fear of death
9. Fear of others (paranoia)
10. Fear for someone else.

"The bears can be combined, too," King said, but one of his comments that most caught my eye was his opinion about using vampires, werewolves, and mummies. "My humble advice," he said, "is to leave these bears to their well-deserved rest. They've been done to death."

Perhaps that was true back then, but the recent hoopla created by the Twilight series tells me it's resurrection day. Or is it just that the undead have reawakened?

Anyway, back to the bears. While King used this list to illustrate points he made later in his article, he also made it very clear that the above fears are not the only terrors we can use. Most often, writers have their own closeted skeletons they could use to scare the begeebees out of readers. How about you? Do you have any skeletons you'd like to share? I do. Did you know, for instance, I once had a ghost--I'm not kidding--creep up my leg?

Exception to the Rule: a List

I found another good list for writers. It was published in an old (March 2003) issue of Writer's Digest's magazine's "Novel Writer," and it came from an article by James Scott Bell, titled "Exception to the Rule. " In summary, this is what it said:

As most of us know, "show don't tell," is the rule. However, there are important exceptions--reasons--we should sometimes tell instead of show. For instance, "telling" might be the quickest way to delineate a character's emotions or set up for a forthcoming, intense scene; but the best way to know if a scene should be told or shown is to rank it from 0-10 on a scene intensity scale.

And now the list, or in this case, the scale:

10= Extreme emotion, handle with care. Very few scenes per book should hit this level. Show.

8-9=Big scenes and turning points. Show.

6-7=Conflict, important emotions and personal turmoil, sharp dialogue. Show.

5= The middle point. Lean toward telling on any scene at this level or below. This is a good place to start scenes that are about to build to a greater intensity.

3-4=Transitions and set up scenes. Another good place to start "about to build" scenes.

1-2=Danger! Get out as soon as you can.

0=DO NOT ENTER. Includes lengthy setting descriptions, especially in the first chapter.

There you have it! So now all you have to do is figure out what level each of your scenes are at and plot them on a graph (just a suggestion) to see if their linear progression makes sense to your novel. Right?

Or is it write?