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The Basics
What’s the difference
between a good writer and a mediocre writer? Sometimes it’s difficult
to put
our fingers on exactly what makes good writing good. And sometimes it’s
easier
to identify what makes bad writing bad. For surely, if you avoid bad
writing,
your writing will become, well, good.
The Devil of Rejection
tempts every writer with
the Seven Deadly Sins of Writing. They seem innocent enough—a misplaced
comma
here, an adverb there—but soon the writer finds himself sinking into
the
dreaded darkness of the Rejection Pile. Sadly, often the writer doesn't
even
know he's been deceived. So let's reveal the Seven Deadly Sins of
Writing for
what they are: Death to your manuscript.
I. Poor Grammar
and Spelling. Surely, nothing screams "amateur" as loudly
as
poor grammar and misspelled words. If your grammar is poor, take a
class at
your local community college. If your grammar is decent, invest in a
good
grammar reference book and use it whenever you are uncertain. See
the Grammar
Tips and Comma Usage Tip
Sheets for help on this one.
II. Telling, not
Showing. We must act out our scenes, through action and
dialogue,
in such a way that our reader feels that he is experiencing the drama
as it is
happening. See the Show, Don't Tell Tip
Sheet for details.
III. Passive Voice. Using
passive verbs, adverbs, intensifiers, -ing verbs and
unnecessary words suck the very life out of our prose. For examples of
how to
make your prose as active as possible, see the Keep it Active Tip
Sheet.
IV. Purple Prose. Overusing
adverbs and adjectives, using cliches and
euphemisms, and getting carried away with description in inappropriate
places
is called "Purple Prose." It's a lot of fluff with little substance.
Instead of using an adverb to make a weak verb stronger or an adjective
to make
a weak noun stronger, omit the adverb/adjective and choose a stronger
verb/noun. Instead of reusing phrases that you've heard before, find
fresh ways
of saying things. Instead of using euphemisms (attention: romance and
love-scene writers!) for parts of the body, use real words. Too much
fluff is
just like too much dessert-it leaves us heaving. See the Tip Sheet
on Creative
Dialogue Tags for
another example of this disease, and check out the Controlling Character
Emotion Tip Sheet for help in reducing the melodrama.
V. Repetitiveness. Not
trusting our words to do their job or not trusting our
reader to be smart enough to understand our words leads us to repeating
ourselves. We change our wording, but still present the same idea in a
slightly
different way. This redundancy kills our prose. Say it Once, Say it
Right!
VI. Point of View
Breaches. Switching our viewpoint character without
warning,
"seeing" or "hearing" things our viewpoint character is not
privy to, or switching from one type of point of view to another
disrupts the
flow of our prose and jolts our reader. Sometimes the reader isn't even
able to
state what the exact problem is, just that "something isn't right."
Always be aware of whose viewpoint you are in and why. For more help on
this
subject, see Point
of View and Other
Devices.
VII. Lack of
Persistence. Surely, giving up is the deadliest of all the
deadly sins.
Writers who decide they "aren't good enough" or "don't have
time" to write will never be published. Writers who fail to take advice
and further their understanding of the writing craft will never be
published.
And writers who accept rejection as defeat will never be published. To
quote my
favorite uncle, "You aren't defeated until you give up."
So, don't let any of
the Seven Deadly Sins of
Writing kill your chances of being published. Read. Write. Study.
Persist. No
one ever said it would be easy, but if you have that passion in your
soul,
nothing will stop you from succeeding. Go for it.
For additional
tips, worksheets, and discussions, order your own copy of the
Inspiration for Writers Tips and Techniques Workbook.
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