We’ve gone over our characters and probably have an idea of a story or plot. So why stop now and look at the very words we use? It’s important because we want to get our words, sentences, and paragraphs in good working order before we get too deeply into our manuscript.
The the next few blogs will be an updated lesson on some writing tips I published a few years ago. Let’s start with the very heartbeat of every writer, the words we use.
How do you make your writing tight, crisp, and masterful?
I have often heard that you grab your reader in the first five pages. If you don’t interest your audience by the first few pages you will probably lose them. The same is said of acquisition editors. How do you grab your readers or interest a publisher?
There are many ways to improve your work, and I would like to share some little tips and tricks of the trade. Over the years, I have picked up some great suggestions from books and fellow authors. As a writer, I know that having a good story, likable characters, and an exciting plot are essential to a good novel.
However, whether you write fiction or non-fiction, a great tale or message can be lost if the writing gets in the way. One of the easiest ways to lose a reader is to bog him down with over-description. What is over-description? It is, in essence, an insult to your reader. By over-describing your action, characters, and settings you insult your reader. You disallow him or her the opportunity to use their imagination.
For example, let’s say that you want to describe a car.
“Natalie spotted the getaway car immediately. Its metallic green color sparkled in the sun as the glare of the chrome bumpers testified to its classic styling.”
or
“Knowing it was a classic, Natalie spotted the getaway car immediately.”
See how the reader can now use his own imagination to envision the car without your detailed description. The same goes for your action and characters. For example, here is an action scene that is too detailed.
“Pushing open the wooden door, Paul ran down the white, narrow hallway and into the ornate lobby. He scanned the large marbled entry quickly. Sure that there were no witnesses, Paul pushed open the heavy glass entrance door and escaped to the street.”
or
“Scanning the hallway, he was sure that there were no witnesses. Running through the lobby of the building, he escaped to the street.”
It is easy to see in the above sentences which sentence is tighter. However, how do you tell what is just enough information to give your reader. Here are some tips to tighten up some of your sentences.
How do you check your writing?
Take a few pages or a chapter of your work and print it out. Take a red pen and draw a line through every adjective and adverb. Have no mercy when you do this and draw a straight line that allows you to see what the original word is. On a separate page, write all the adjectives in order in one column and adverbs in order in another column. Now sit back and read the pages out loud without any of the adjectives or adverbs you crossed out. Does it sound better? Do you understand the story?
How do you improve your sentences?
Now go to your list of adjectives. Are they unique or colorful? Does each adjective reveal something that is not common? Or have you gotten lazy and used humdrum words? Let’s change them. In the sentences that you feel could still need an adjective use an uncommon tag – one that gives the reader a vision.
For example, instead of saying “the fat man” why not say “the burly man”? Doesn’t that give you a different and more descriptive image? You will find that you will not need half of the adjectives you originally used. And even more importantly, you will be using adjectives that pop. Read over your selection again. Isn’t it crisp and tight?
In the next blog, we will go over why and how a writer should get rid of those adverbs!
Copyright 2020 Karen Kelly Boyce
Karen Boyce
Karen Kelly Boyce lives on a farm in N.J. with her retired husband. She is a mother and grandmother. She is the author of “The Sisters of the Last Straw” series published by Tan Books. You can see her work and learn more about her on her website: www,kkboyce.com