Hi, Ginger here, and I liked this post so much on my own blog, I decided to share it here. Hey...tis the season of TV reruns...why not blogs? :)
For
someone who has been seriously writing for the past dozen years,
I've absorbed a thing or two.. The very first thing I learned is the
vast difference between telling a story and being a novelist. You must
engage the reader and make them want to become part of your story, and
here are a few things you can do to insure that:
1.
Hook the reader from the beginning. It's a proven fact that if people
are bored with the opening of your story, chances are they aren't going
to even finish the first chapter. Your story must be engaging...yang
the reader in and hold them fast with a desire to find out more. Make
them want to put on the character's shoes and walk in them. Don't make
them guess whose POV they're reading from, make it clear, and if you
change to another, make that even clearer.
2. In order
to accomplish number one, there are few more fundanmentals you need to
apply. Don't TELL the story, SHOW the reader what's going on. The
difference: If you've amply displayed emotions, the reader is going to
feel them. Don't just TELL the reader the heroine is crying, SHOW them
the pain shooting through her heart, the emptiness in the pit of her
stomach...give them someone with which they can identify. Make them
remember what it felt like to lose their first love...in other words,
let them experience the pain.
3. Avoid
redundancy. The reader doesn't need to be told on every page what
color the characters eyes are or that the courch is on the far wall. As
an author, I know it's easy to duplicate information you've already
shared, so reading your story aloud helps you discover places where
you've echoed words or information.
4. Speaking of
words echoes...this is one of my pet peeves. I detest reading the same
word over and over in the same paragraph. I realize there are instances
where the word is duplicated for a definite purpose, but most of the
time all word echoes do is indicate to the reader that you're a lazy
writer who doesn't want to take the time to find another word with the
same meaning.
5. My newest "learn" is to avoid
unnecessary verbiage. For example, if you are firmly in someone's POV,
it is not necessary to tell the reader who is doing the feeling,
hearing, seeing, etc. As in using word echoes for emphasis, sometimes,
you will need to stress the obvious, but in most cases, using "he heard,
he felt, he saw, he watched" can be eliminated. See the difference:
She watched him unfasten his belt and saw him drop his pants to the floor.
He unfastened his belt and dropped his pants to the floor.
If you are in her POV, then we already know who is watching and seeing, so why expose the obvious?
6.
Watch your apostrophe's. It's and its aren't exactly used the same way
as other possessive words. Your and you're also take on entirely
different meanings. Their and they're are another great example of two
meanings, and then if you add in "there" then you have a triple threat.
These mistakes are hard to catch even if you proofread till the cows
come home. As an author, our mind reads what we think should be there,
so another important tool in writing a great novel is having an aswesome
critique group or beta readers.
7. Using "that" in
sentences where you don't need it, is common place. This simple mistake
was the main reason "that" a very good story was rejected. If you read
the sentence again, you'll notice "that" "that" is not even required.
The rule of thumb...re-read the sentence without "that" and if it makes
perfect sense, then delete "that."
8. Avoid "ly" words
when possible. Sometimes they are a necessity for emphasis, but
usually, if you try, you can find a stronger verb to use. Example: She
stepped loudly across the floor, can be She stomped across the floor.
Or how about, he spoke softly can be he whispered. Get the idea?
9.
Spell checker won't help in instances where you've used a correctly
spelled word. Like the apostrophe dilemma above, hear/here,
there/their, to/too, then/than, and a thousand other examples. The
English language is one of the most difficult to learn, and even if you
know it, it's still a challenge.
10. Don't go crazy
with punctuation. I've discovered that house rules are what dictate
commas, semi colons, and exclamation points. I was surprised upon
re-releasing oneof my novels to find the editor for the current house
put back in every comma the previous house had removed. Even though I
was advised semi-colons are not appropriate for fiction, you'll find
them in my current version. House rules rule, and that's not being
redundant. :)
Just for your information...some of us
dislike internal thoughts, especially in third person, unless they are
done extremely well. For me, because of the sudden tense change, they
pull me right out of the story and make me wonder why the author didn't
just paraphrase. See what you think:
Jasmine craned her head to the side, allowing Damon's lips to trail his lips along her throat.
Boy, does that feel good. I hope his kisses are this good.
Jasmine craned
her head to the side, allowing Damon's mouth to trail along her
throat. Her body tingled in anticipation, warmness gathering in her
very core. Would she be as impressed once their lips met?
Oh,
and one last tip...Avoid unnecessary tags. If there are only two
people in the room, the reader can usually figure out who is speaking.
Mary said, John said, Mary said, John whined, become boring after a
while. If you feel you must use a tag, use one showing action. Have
the character do something to identify them before or after the
dialogue. Mary crossed to the sofa...John lit his cigar...Mary moved to
the window, admiring the bounty of color in the garden. Instead of
boring tags, you can add visual scenes that enhance the story.
Okay...I could probably list ten more, but I'll save those for another day. Happy writing.
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