“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” - Anton Chekhov

Showing sets a virtual movie camera onto the scene. You as the writer then record in words exactly what it sees. Best of all, this “camera” can record not only sight but all five senses.

Writing “the house was creepy” is telly. It doesn’t reflect anything the mental camera recorded—it’s an interpretation all by itself.

Use physical details that express how creepy the house is. The shingles are askew and the windows smashed, with pointed shards still clinging to some panes. Cobwebs drape across the porch. Add sounds and smells that send a chill up the reader’s back.

Telling is fine for armatures, but when you need to capture your readers attention use similes, metaphors, and vivid imagery to paint a picture.

Jacob

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This offer expires on November 1, 2009.

Substitute “damn” every time you’re inclined to write “very;” your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. - Mark Twain

I used to think that words like “really” and “very” made my writing forceful. I realized how wrong I was when my boss started using the word “deeply” to describe everything. Everything was so “deeply” important or “deeply” urgent that “deeply” lost its meaning. Telling doesn’t improve your writing. It only gets in the way.

Learn more about how to show-not-tell by visiting our online writing lessons.

Jacob

Writing should be concise. Writing should generate meaning with the fewest words possible.

In school I was often given a minimum number of words for an assignment. I added fluff to hit the minimum and ruined my writing.

It’s difficult yet effective to be concise. Do you have it in you?

Jacob

“I try to leave out the parts that readers skip.” - Elmore Leonard

Unless you’re writing for personal reasons focus on the reader. Dull writing will not be read.

If you want to make sleeping pills or neural inhibitors go work for a pharmaceutical company. If you want to write then engage your reader.

One of the hardest things about writing is being able to do it consistently. Every writer knows the pain of dreaded “writer’s block,” which can strike at any time and for a variety of reasons. There’s no easy short-cut to get rid of it, of course, but there are ways you can get around those terrible periods where nothing you write turns out well and you lose all motivation.

One way is to just make a habit of writing a certain amount every day, no matter what. Many famous writers have used this method to ensure that they have a reasonable amount of output, and it can be especially helpful if you’re writing longer works that just seem to drag on and on. It can be difficult to keep going sometimes when you’ve been working on a novel for a month and realize you’re only about 1/5 of the way through it.

If you write every day, it will eventually become habit, and habit is a powerful tool in the human arsenal. The way our brains are wired means that things we do every day become second nature, until eventually it’s not a struggle to find the time to write out those words. Instead, it becomes just something you do, and something that you’ll account for in your daily schedule.

I’ve been struggling with this aspect of writing myself for quite a while. I started a novel last June, wrote 5000 words in a few days from the initial rush of excitement, and then… well, stopped. It sat untouched until December, when I wrote another 1500 words and stopped again. This May, I sat down and restarted the novel from scratch, rewriting what little beginning I’d done.

But this time, I did something different. I made myself write at least 500 words a day, with a preference for more. I told people I knew I was working on it, so that I’d have some kind of external motivation when they asked me how it was coming along. It’s now the end of June, and I have about 40,000 words with more every day.

I hope to finish by the end of August, which means I’ll have to churn out roughly 1000 words a day for the length I have in mind. It’s a tall order, but I’m hopeful. Now that I’ve been doing my daily 500 words for a while, it’s not nearly as hard. Even when I have periods (and I do still have them) where I hate every single word that goes from my pen to the paper, I still churn them out, where before I would get discouraged and quit. Habit is a powerful tool.

Some famous authors who wrote habitually:

• Virginia Woolf - 1000 words a day
• Kingsley Amis - 500 words each morning
• Isaac Asimov - Woke at 6am and wrote all day, sometimes until 1am
• Haruki Murakami - Writes 5-6 hours a day when working on a novel

Obviously, the more prolific writing schedules (Asimov, for instance, published over 500 books in his lifetime) are not for everybody. But even setting aside an hour a day, or setting a small word count goal, will help improve your output’s quantity. And since “practice makes perfect,” it’ll eventually improve your writing, as well!

Stewart B.
thestripedone

Part 1 of this series - The Publishing Process

Part 2 of this series - Preparing a Proposal

Getting the attention of the right agent is hard. Many good books languish in purgatory because their author can’t get an agent to even glance at it. As the days tick by waiting for an agent to respond don’t be surprised if you lose some hair or can’t resist eating an entire box of chocolates in 5 minutes. Don’t get down on yourself, waiting for a stranger to tell you if your baby is cute or ugly is truly maddening.

You can increase your chances of landing an agent by getting to know the agent before introducing your work to them. Agents divide themselves into groups, the most obvious being fiction and non-fiction. Look for agents that love the kind of work you are writing. If you are writing a the History of Harvard don’t send it to an agent that has only represented romance novels with a western twist.

Get a copy or the Guide to Literary Agents by Chuck Sambuchino to help you get to know some agents. Use this book, or another one like it, to find out what books agents have represented in the past and what each agent expects in a query letter. Work smart and work hard and you will eventually get an agent to seriously consider your novel.

Do you want to discover what your peers think of your novel? Upload a chapter and let us critique it for you.

Jacob

If your stories keep coming back with polite rejection letters or consistently get low marks from your peers look for these fatal errors.

It’s Dull
Dull characters leading dull lives make dull stories. Imagination and creativity should permeate your work. Clichés are the most common culprits of dull. Lawyers in league with the devil and abusive drunks from trailer parks have been written about enough. Put the lawyer in league with the angels of heaven and make the beer drinking guy from the trailer park the most kind and compassionate man alive. Mix it up and make it different.

Poor Editing
The best writing is not written, it is rewritten. Your first draft should form the lump of clay you need to sculpt your writing into a master piece by rewriting it several times. Once you are “done” with your story, put it away for at least a week then rewrite it one more time. Don’t spend a lot of time looking for spelling errors and typos until your last edit.

Just Do It
Keep adverbs and quantifiers on a short leash. Calling something small or large lacks originality and is undescriptive. Don’t waste your time writing about things the almost happen. Instead write about what actually happens. “She almost cried” doesn’t tell anyone what she actually did. Did she choke back the tears, burry her face in a pillow, or slap the two-timing jerk?

Make more with less
Quality counts. Quantity distracts.

Irrelevant Details
Details should always help develop the plot, setting, or characters. Subtly provide background information throughout the story. Don’t bother giving minor characters need names and rich full lives. Instead let them perform their job and bow out.

Shape and Structure
Fiction tends to works best when it concentrates on one character in one situation. The moment of change in the story should happen early, the rest of the story should be a carefully planned journey that helps the reader and character learn, grow, and develop because of the moment of change. Let the journey create tension and slowly reveal important information about the protagonist. Writing is an art. It should take on the shape and structure it needs to stand on its own.

Dialogue
Dialogue needs to sound real even though it’s not. Concise dialog keep readers engaged. Dialog should reveal new facets about the characters and plot.

Jacob

Beginning your story in the right way is essential. Before you put pen to paper or finger to keyboard make sure you have:

1. A plot that interests you. If you don’t think your idea is the best one out there no one else with either.
2. Spent time inventing characters that you are passionate about.
3. Developed detailed character profile.
4. Written a detailed and believable storyline that is not predictable.
5. Start writing.

Openings need to be engaging from the first word. Don’t start by spewing background info all over your audience. Focus on exciting the reader and making them want more.

Start in the middle of a problem or in an unusual environment. The problem or environment should be part of that turning point for the main character and introduce the problem the protagonist has to solve. The hero’s life should change because during the opening scene.

The problem should contain a healthy dose of mystery or intrigue that kicks the readers’ brain into puzzle solving mode. People love trying to puzzles out what’s going to happen next so provide clues about the coming conflict that engage their mind.

Do you want to know if your story has a good start? Join our writing group and let us critique your work.

Jacob

The famed Jedi Master Yoda taught a powerful lesson about writing good sentences when he said “Do or do not, there is no try.” I have found five ways to not write a decent sentence.

1. Slow starting sentences delay getting to the point by sticking an “it is” or a “there are” in the way. Why would you ever write or say “It would be appreciated if you could pass the yams,” when you can clearly and concisely write “Please pass the yams.”
2. Cramped sentences are formed when writers connect a series of related sentences instead of just ending with a period. Shorten cramped sentences by focusing on one subject.
3. Overloaded sentences are riddled with excess words. Passive voice or redundancy is almost always the culprit. Be concise.
4. Pompous sentences are filled with big words and trite expressions. Take time to prove how smart you are by selecting a well-chosen verb rather than a clause.
5. Run-on sentences drag on and on, packing an entire paragraph of detail into one sentence. Short sentences are easier to understand than long ones. Readers prefer to chew on bits and pieces of information instead of an entire cow. Varying sentence length will make your writing more interesting to read. The best authors us long and short sentences.

Jacob