Good morning Racers and guests. Please excuse my typing, I have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and my fingers are squished into a fetching elastic sheath. Would you mind pouring your own coffee or tea?
This morning, I want to have a chat about our past or present writing sins.
When I started writing (rather than talking and thinking about writing), all I could focus on was finishing my first draft. I didn't think about any errors I might be making. And perhaps that's as it should be or I’d have given up after the first chapter. But a bit further down the road, I asked for feedback and was pretty shocked by how much I had to learn. In fact the more I write, the more I find there is to learn.
Here are some of my writing sins:
1. Overwriting. Having been told that my novel read more like a script than a book, I tried to add what I believed to be much needed detail, such as: ‘Silver medals like mirrors in the moonlight. Dark eyes unfathomable in a face hardened by war…’ Oh dear.
But how pleased I was with my metaphors, my similes and well, my very pretty words.
Nicola Moran covers overwriting brilliantly on her blog: http://helpineedapublisher.blogspot.com/search/label/over-writing
2. Not thinking about my reader – if I ever got one. I wrote what I liked, what made me feel good, amusing little happenings in my life which I thought others would find enthralling. Nothing wrong with raiding my past, but it still had to interest more people than my mother.
3. Transitional scenes. Another writer told me I tended to jump cut too much, so I re-wrote and dutifully had my poor protagonist cleaning her teeth, getting in her car, driving, getting out of her car. You get the picture. I was so worried about this, I asked the good people on the Literary Lab blog for their advice. Scroll down their page to see my post here: http://literarylab.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2009-12-10T06%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=7
4. Then there's the plot - or lack of it. I had lots of action actions scenes but few of them related to the previous scene. I simply didn't get that what happens in one scene must link or build into the next scene's 'story'.
5. Characters: Now here's something I really struggle with. Most websites, books and writing tutors, recommend you ask your characters questions to discover who they really are. This doesn't work for me. How can you know the answers before you know your characters? Emma Darwin blogs about this here: http://emmadarwin.typepad.com/thisitchofwriting/2009/12/clothes-and-food-and-dropping-presents.html
3. Transitional scenes. Another writer told me I tended to jump cut too much, so I re-wrote and dutifully had my poor protagonist cleaning her teeth, getting in her car, driving, getting out of her car. You get the picture. I was so worried about this, I asked the good people on the Literary Lab blog for their advice. Scroll down their page to see my post here: http://literarylab.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2009-12-10T06%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=7
4. Then there's the plot - or lack of it. I had lots of action actions scenes but few of them related to the previous scene. I simply didn't get that what happens in one scene must link or build into the next scene's 'story'.
5. Characters: Now here's something I really struggle with. Most websites, books and writing tutors, recommend you ask your characters questions to discover who they really are. This doesn't work for me. How can you know the answers before you know your characters? Emma Darwin blogs about this here: http://emmadarwin.typepad.com/thisitchofwriting/2009/12/clothes-and-food-and-dropping-presents.html
I like her reasoning.
I could go on adding to my list of writing sins but what about you?
Do you, or did you, have any writing sins? Can you tell us about them so we can have a good laugh, learn how you handle them?
Finally, thank you to Inky Girl for permission to use one of her cartoons. She has wonderful website you might like to visit.
Have a good weekend.
Fia
