I came across this article by Sarah White which i found interesting. Read on.

Sometimes as a writer, you wonder if you are just screaming into the void or if your words are really touching other people, helping them out in some way or changing the way they think. As a writer who writes a lot about writing, I want my words to help people become better writers, to make more sales and have more confidence in their craft.

In the few months since Rob and I first published “Doing the Write Thing: The Easy Way to Self-Edit,” I have been lucky enough to hear from some readers of the book and articles I have written about it and discover how the ideas I present have helped them.

Many times the comments I have received have had to do with the fact that my advice validates ideas they already had about writing. They are gratified to know they were doing some things right and eager to try other things I suggested.

As an example, one reader writes: “Your ideas were really good and I have found the best thing for me is printing it [the manuscript] out and reading it. Sometimes in this high tech world I think I am wasting so much time to do that, but I am more able to catch my mistakes.”

I love this comment because it’s funny how we as writers know that something is good for us, we know that it helps, but we don’t want to do it because it takes too much time.

We’re in such a rush to make sales we don’t even want to do the things we know will help us make sales!

Others have been thankful that I mentioned the value of taking time away from a manuscript before trying to edit it. If you think it takes too much time to go through these steps, think about how much more time, energy and resources it takes to send out a error-filled manuscript over and over looking for a publisher who is willing to fix it?

When you think about it that way, a little extra time on the front end is nothing if it helps you sell your work faster. And that’s really what all of this is about. Most of us write because we want to be published, we want to share our thoughts and ideas with others and hopefully get paid for it.

That’s what this article, this system, is really all about.

It’s not about making you learn arcane grammar rules or tying your muse up in the closet while you painstakingly rewrite every word of your manuscript. It’s about providing you with tools and ideas, all of which will improve your writing and your chance of sales. You don’t have to do every step every time, but as you read through the book and think about your own writing, I think you will see the value of these steps and how your writing will improve immediately, even if you don’t adopt all of the suggestions.

And as your writing improves, your number of sales will improve. And there’s really nothing better than that.

Recently, an esteemed correspondent of mine pointed out that the ‘Murder Your Darlings’ quote that I always attribute to F Scott Fitzgerald (see article here) was actually a phrase used by William Faulkner in his Nobel Prize speech. I wondered at this and decided to do an Internet search.

To my surprise, the phrase is originally attributed to Arthur Quiller Couch, and used subsequently by authors from Virginia Woolf to Stephen King. Whatever its actual source, perhaps the most important thing here is that the concept of ‘murdering your darlings’ is one that strikes a real chord with writers. Always has, always will.

It’s funny, I’ve had new writers send me (sometimes quite angry!) emails - appalled by the suggestion that they cut out all the good bits in their writing, complaining that would leave nothing left, etc., or that the process would somehow detract from their enjoyment of writing. I think this attitude misses the point somewhat. You see, it’s not the ‘good bits’ you’re taking out, it’s only the bits that don’t help the writing - and they are very often the same bits you are most proud of - some clever turn of phrase or simile or metaphor, whatever.

Because, basically, it’s not ‘clever’ to try and ‘look clever’ in your writing - it actually makes you look amateurish and self indulgent.

Your primary job as a writer is to transfer strong images and good ideas from your head into the mind of another person - a kind of telepathy if you will. The words are the medium you use but in a sense, they are also the barrier that can limit this process.

So the next time you’re reading through your material, it’s wise to remember that the truly great writer is the one who will sacrifice any and all of their words if the point, the image, or the story, suffers.

The bad writer is the one who leaves in all those long, pointless descriptions, their ‘academic’ literary references (that nobody gets!) and insists on telling instead of showing. If you want to write like this, you may get grants from your local state council to develop your work, but I guarantee you won’t sell many books!

Remember the old adage: If in doubt, leave it out!

How many times have you heard people say this about a book? Have you ever analyzed the books that people say this about?

I have.

They all share one ‘secret’ in common.

Questions.

Reading is not a passive exercise. Not to the brain, anyway.

As you read and take in the information on the page, the brain is trying to work out where the story is going, what significance certain actions might have. It’s also trying to work out puzzles and generally try to second-guess the plot.

This is human nature. It’s what makes reading an interactive experience–where you have a kind of relationship with the author for as long as you’re reading.

Stories that don’t make the reader ask questions are unsatisfying to read, as are stories where the reader guesses the outcome.

Many writers forget this and write aimlessly in the hope that the reader will like their style and want to read on, no matter what.

This is not a strategy for success! In order to be in control of your story - and your reader, you, the writer should feed them questions. This is not as difficult as it sounds.

First you need the major question - your book’s reason for being, if you like.

Questions like ‘Does money create happiness?’ or ‘Will good triumph over evil?’ You should subtly place this question in the mind of your reader quite early on in your book, so that the reader is already on a kind of quest for the truth.

Next you have chapter questions that are more specific to your characters. Like ‘Will Alex overcome his problems?’ or ‘Will Sally win the love of her father?’ This gives your reader a reason to read on–just to find out!

Then, you should have smaller questions at every point you can - at least one every 500 words.

Here’s an example:

‘Lucy went to see her father. He was angry that she was seeing Brad but she told him there was nothing he could do about it’

Obviously this is flat and lifeless prose that invites no great speculation. How about this?

‘Lucy stared at her father’s implacable face. When he was like this, she couldn’t gauge his feelings. She swallowed hard. If he was angry, she’d end up with nowhere to live.

‘I won’t stop seeing Brad,’ she said, not quite believing her own words.’

You see the difference?

In the second passage the reader is forced to ask three questions.

1. What’s her father thinking?
2. Will Lucy get kicked out?
3. Will she carry on seeing Brad?

Rather than simply stating what your characters think and do, always try to leave an element of uncertainty in the reader’s mind as to what will happen next.

The trick is to get your reader asking questions constantly. Yes - on every page, so that there’s a compulsive need to turn the page, if only to find out the answers.

Good novelists do this unconsciously - they know it’s the best way to tell a story. Good crime novelists deliberately get you to ask all the WRONG questions so that their plot twists are far more effective.

People keep turning the page in best selling novels because they are in a constant state of limbo - ignorant of what’s coming next but eager to find out. In effect, it’s almost a state of agitation, even frustration that will keep a reader turning the page.

Has this happened to you?

It’s weird because you almost HATE what you’re reading - there are so many unanswered questions - but you just can’t put it down!

1. Always avoid alliteration.
2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3. Avoid cliches like the plague–they’re old hat.
4. Employ the vernacular.
5. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
6. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
7. Parenthetical words however must be enclosed in commas.
8. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
9. Contractions aren’t necessary.
10. Do not use a foreign word when there is an adequate English quid pro quo.
11. One should never generalize.
12. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: “I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.”
13. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
14. Don’t be redundant; don’t use more words than necessary; it’s highly superfluous.
15. It behooves you to avoid archaic expressions.
16. Avoid archaeic spellings too.
17. Understatement is always best.
18. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
19. One-word sentences? Eliminate. Always!
20. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
21. The passive voice should not be used.
22. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
23. Don’t repeat yourself, or say again what you have said before.
24. Who needs rhetorical questions?
25. Don’t use commas, that, are not, necessary.
26. Do not use hyperbole; not one in a million can do it effectively.
27. Never use a big word when a diminutive alternative would suffice.
28. Subject and verb always has to agree.
29. Be more or less specific.
30. Placing a comma between subject and predicate, is not correct.
31. Use youre spell chekker to avoid mispeling and to catch typograhpical errers.
32. Don’t repeat yourself, or say again what you have said before.
33. Don’t be redundant.
34. Use the apostrophe in it’s proper place and omit it when its not needed.
35. Don’t never use no double negatives.
36. Poofread carefully to see if you any words out.
37. Hopefully, you will use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.
38. Eschew obfuscation.
39. No sentence fragments.
40. Don’t indulge in sesquipedalian lexicological constructions.
41. A writer must not shift your point of view.
42. Don’t overuse exclamation marks!!
43. Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of 10 or more words to their intecedents.
44. Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided.
45. If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.
46. Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
47. Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing.
48. Always pick on the correct idiom.
49. The adverb always follows the verb.
50. Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors.
51. If you reread your work, you cn find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be by rereading and editing.
52. And always be sure to finish what

I once heard a quote from a literary writer.

As far as he was concerned, there was a five-step formula for writing a Booker Prize novel.

To paraphrase:

1. Take three or more characters
2. Place them in a location that assures theirtotal isolation from the rest of the world
3. Create a threatening situation whereby all the characters would be forced to face their own mortality
4. Construct a plot that highlights sex, relationships, death, despair and redemption (in that order)
5. Fill the text with lots of metaphor, analogies and references to other literary works

Now, I’m not sure if this is true but it struck me this is also a formula for writing almost any kind of compelling book! Try coming up with your own scenario as an exercise. You never know where it might take you.

Once a person becomes a reader they tend to stay one. The hard part is getting people comfortable with reading, especially the young.

One of the best things about JK Rowling was the unprecedented ground swell of interest in reading she generated in 9 to 15 year olds. It’s almost a shame her books were made into movies.

Getting more people into the reading habit is important. And sometimes the only way to do that is to get them to read ‘easy stuff’ first, like ‘spin-off’ books about characters they already know and love. As in Buffy, Angel, Charmed, Star Trek and Star Wars books, plus a whole host of others.

I get many emails from young people asking if it’s okay to write this kind of ‘fan’ fiction. Well, of course, any kind of writing is good, no matter where you start or end up. But beware. Writing this kind of ‘spin-off’ fiction for TV and movie books is not quite as simple as you’d think.

The publishers of these books have very strict guidelines that, if you want to try your hand, you can request from them. They will normally send you very detailed reports on the particular ‘universe’ you wish to write for. They will also stress that your story must be completely consistent with that ‘universe.’

There are lots of rules in this game. For instance, you can only kill off characters you personally create. And with any submission, you must normally specify the EXACT time when your story takes place – at which point in the series – so that their editors can check whether your story ‘fits.’

Usually you are not allowed to bend any of the rules laid out for characters, or insert any type of activity, place or influences that would not make perfect sense to a fan of the series. It’s the way these things are done.

I’ve known writers who have come close to despair after the dozen or so re-writes requested by various editors, agents and publishers in this genre. A friend of mine once spent months writing a Star Trek Next Generation script.

A huge fan of the series, he came up with what he thought was a brilliant concept that would blow everyone away. He wrote and wrote, rewrote, editing to perfection and eventually sent off his ms, convinced of its genius.

Almost one year later he received it back, tattered and torn. It had a pencil scrawl on it that said simply, ‘This could never happen.’ Needless to say the writer decided that never again would he ‘waste’ so much time on a project, no matter how much fun it was!

The message is, if you think you have an idea for movie or TV series follow up, get the guidelines, read them thoroughly, and stick to them like superglue.

Better still, change the characters, setting and plot and write it as an original piece. It’ll probably be easier in the long run!

Believe it or not, I get many messages from students asking me to clarify what OTHER English and creative writing teachers have said to them. Now, I have to be careful with my replies in these situations. Not least because I don’t want to start needless arguments about what’s right and what’s wrong when it comes to fiction writing!

I invariably point out that there very few hard and fast rules in most cases. No one knows all the answers and the rules do change over time, according to fashion and usage.

That’s good. A static language is a dead language.

Most English teachers have their particular bugbears and will recite them as ‘laws’ that must be adhered to at all cost. That’s okay. They’re only human. This is not always helpful to a novice who might get the impression there is always a right answer, when in fact certain ‘rules’ are to some degree flexible.

Yes, when it comes to grammar and spelling, there are ‘rules’. The novice is obliged to listen and learn them. However, there comes a time in most writer’s lives when they realize that most of these rules are broken – and perhaps should be broken – often and regularly.

Experimentation and refinement is not altogether a bad thing. Once I picked a library copy of The Great Gatsby where one singularly retentive individual had ‘corrected’ the grammatical errors, using a thick black pencil to score through (apparently) redundant adverbs. He’d drawn arrows everywhere to indicate dangling participles and the like. He’d even listed suggested improvements in the margin.

It struck me this person would probably have trouble writing out a shopping list, so perfect would it have to be. Yes, errors jar. But a good writer can – and should – occasionally break the rules for effect and to show up the inadequacies of the language.

There’s nothing wrong with inventing new words either. It’s actually a great literary tradition. Shakespeare did it, as did James Joyce, even Stephen King often uses the word ‘insectile’ which I have yet find in a standard dictionary! But it’s a great word, isn’t it? And I’m sure you can guess exactly what it means, can’t you?

The point I’m trying to make is that once you consider yourself a writer, and you know the rules, you are perfectly entitled to go your own way.

Words are your tools. You are the craftsman. Use them as you see fit.

And it’s not just words. There are lots of theories about how you should construct plots and prose. Some teachers can get very uppity about them. They’ll tell you in what order to introduce elements like scene setting, description, internal monologue. When you can and can’t do certain things. The same teachers usually have a battery of texts (from dead authors) to quote from to prove their point.

Don’t listen to them!

Take on board what they have to say but ask yourself if these rules are appropriate to your own fiction.

Of course sloppy and undisciplined writing is unforgivable but a fresh new voice with the occasional gaffe can be a joy to read. Writing is not a static art. Nothing is set in stone. Writing is a lifelong learning experience. If writing is to be good, challenging and of value, it should be as refreshing and liberating as life itself.

Writers always need more time. Whether you’re a beginner or a professional there never seems to be enough time to get everything done.

The result? Guilt and self-flagellation. You hate yourself for letting yourself down. You beat yourself up over your lack of creativity and commitment.

How do you get around this?

A good start is to do what you do normally but from a writer’s perspective!

1. At home, never turn off the PC. If you write freehand, always leave a pen and paper out somewhere. Commit yourself to writing a sentence or two every time you walk past the computer or your pad. That’s all, just a few words. If you’re disturbed or have other chores to do, fine, stop. But come back again regularly.

2. The old chestnut. Write at night. When she was in power, Margaret Thatcher slept only 5 hours a night. She would get up and be at her desk by five in the morning where she could read and write undisturbed for 3 hours without interruption. It’s hard to re-educate your body for this technique but I’ve known many serious writers who’ve done this for years before they become successful enough to give up their day jobs.

3. Write in front of the TV. Okay, it’s hard to concentrate, but the weird thing is, if you keep at it, you can eventually “teach” your brain to “zone out” and ignore the TV. Try it for a couple of weeks. You’ll be surprised.

4. On the bus or train or when driving, imagine scenes you want to write about, rehearse them like actors and directors, improving on them, thinking of the words and phrases you will use to describe them.

5. Become liberated and suggest your partner do all kinds of thing on their own – go out with their mates, have a weekend away, go and see their parents. Everyone needs alone time – writers perhaps more than most. It’s not a crime, an insult or a mental aberration. It is your right as human being. Take it.

6. Here’s one I got from David Bowie. It’s especially useful if you have children who like to join in with your writing (bless them!) Write words on cards and get the little ones to throw them into the air. Then rearrange them into sentences or titles or other weird combinations. Think of the result as a springboard for ideas.

7. In spare moments, make lists of things you need to do. For example:

a) Next chapter
b) Profile of Eric (bad guy)
c) Find article writing book
d) Draw location map
e) Outline climax

Pin up these “things to do” lists where they will annoy you most: bathroom mirror, fridge door, bedside lamp.

8. The ultimate in desperate measures. Write in the john. Always take a notebook with you and jot down a few lines. What else are you going to do in there?

9. Finally, before you go to sleep at night, tell your subconscious to give you stories and solutions… The fact is, there IS time, if you really need to find it. The trick is to turn a decision to write regularly into a commitment to act. Change what you do - just a little bit at a time.

Live your life to the full, yes, and have fun, but always remember you’re a writer – and writer’s write!

You have thoughts. You write them down as words. Later, others read them and your thoughts become theirs. Spooky, eh?

I’m sure it was once, when the Druids roamed prehistoric Europe, exchanging information in the form of archaic symbols.

I imagine the illiterate masses looked on with awe and not a little fear, convinced these markings the magicians called “words” had power in themselves.

It’s interesting that the echo of the magical context of writing is still with us, contained in the word “spell”, with its double meaning.

If you think about it, the question, “How do you SPELL that?” literally means, “How do you conjure that image with symbols?”

The science of semiotics is a broad subject – one that is way outside the scope of these lessons, but I want to share with you its basic premise:

Ahem. The human brain needs to NAME something before it becomes REAL.

The idea is that, before something is named, it doesn’t really exist because either our awareness of it is too dim to understand it, or, if we haven’t noticed it yet, it might as well not be there.

By the way, I’m not making this up, honest, this is Major level philosophy!

Anyway, the important thing is that once named an object can then “exist” to someone who hasn’t actually seen it!

This is a pretty neat trick, unique to the human race, but also one we take completely for granted. It’s only words that make this possible.

And it’s also why writing works.

Your job as a fiction writer is to place invented objects, images and emotions into other people’s heads. Do this well and your career will prosper. Good writing is a form of hypnosis. You use the rhythm of words to put your readers into a kind of trance, so that they are more receptive to your ideas.

When a reader is happy to experience this, they are said to be in the “fictive dream”. In order to keep your reader “entranced”, there must be nothing in your writing that might startle them out of this dream.

Your reader must trust you and be able to give over their imagination to you. You, in turn, must honor that trust by playing by the “rules” of good storytelling.

There’s one technique in particular that can destroy a reader’s confidence in your storytelling skills. “Authorial intrusion” is where you express a personal opinion about a character, situation or scene. Or where you describe anything your characters could not be aware of.

Although you, the author, is considered to be an omniscient viewer and recorder of events, you must also be seen to be objective – and invisible. Though it would seem to contradict common sense, the reader should be unaware of you, the writer.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the phrase, “Willing suspension of disbelief”. This is the state of consciousness you’re after. The reader “knows” that they’re being told a story but, because, they like and trust you, they are willing to make a slight shift in their minds and accept what you’re saying as the truth - for the time being.

Therefore, during storytelling, you must never break the spell - that word again – by offering witty asides, stating your views or commenting on the action. Of course, rules are made to be broken. There are times when authorial intrusion does work.

Some authors use it as a way of introducing a story but quickly retire to the sidelines. A technique as old as storytelling itself! Others use it at the end of a story, to wrap up events like some movie voice over. It works sometimes - as long as you don’t sound over smart or condescending!

But if you really want your reader’s trust, keep them in the fictive dream. Let them live the characters and situations without distraction. Let them enjoy the feeling of being swept along by a story and taken out of themselves for a while.

They’ll love you for it.

These days, it’s far easier to catch the common cold than it is to obtain a suitable agent to represent your work to publishers. All the top agents are closed up – zipped tight – not reading new stuff at all.

Ah! But you have heard about writer X whose first book sold for a squillion dollars through one of the best agents in the biz. How did this happen?

Well it happens in a number of ways. The most common is that an editor saw the work, made an offer to the author who then ran to an agent with the contract, who signed the author and negotiated the deal. Hence, new author added to agents’ list. It’s always easier to get an agent when you have a contract in your hand.

Another way is through referrals. Remember, in this business it pays to have contacts throughout the industry. What can happen is that someone connected to the industry reads the unpublished author’s work, they like it and tell someone else about it, soon agent B wants a look. Ta da! New author added to the closed list of big agent B.

For most writers landing big agent B is near impossible. You submit your query to a few dozen agents, one answers with, “Send me more,” you send more and then a polite form-letter saying, “No thanks” lands in your letterbox three months later (and that’s a fast reply). Does this sound familiar to you?

Then how DO you get an agent? As an agent who does still look at new writers – increasingly fewer as the weeks go by – I need to be startled by the whole approach to the writing business as well as by the work submitted.

For me, and just about every agent worth his salt, the submitted manuscript needs to drip professionalism while the actual writing has to be better than is currently on the bookstore shelves. There is no point writing as well as published author X, because unlike you, published author X is selling thousands of books while you are unknown. The book you submit to the agent has to be BETTER.

In my years as an agent I have seen some remarkable submissions and some of the poorest writing possible arrive on my desk. I have seen Harry Potter clones, retellings of The Lord of The Rings and bad Stephen King stylists. These efforts will not influence the agent, they definitely will not influence the publishers – all this stuff has been done before and done many, many times over. As an author you need to strive for freshness in the story you are telling – there are no new ideas, but you can still be fresh with your approach, clever with your writing.

So, the old adage of ‘show me something I haven’t seen before’ still stands true today. Research your market, read extensively in your genre and ensure you are not submitting another clone of what is already out in the market place. Readers are not dumb, and genre readers are amongst the most intelligent readers of all literature – agents know this, publishers know this and now YOU know it. Before sending something to an agent, any agent, be sure that what you are sending them is blindingly brilliant.

Many of the ‘lower’ agents, myself included, will take on an author whose work is good, but might need some direction. Again, this is getting rare as the whole publishing industry grows tighter each year. Knowing this perhaps still offers some hope to the new writer and all is not lost.

Some simple advice:

When writing a query letter to the agent be short and direct at all times. No full-page explanations of the book, or that you have a cat named Boris, or that you have had a story in the online magazine Xerox. The agent isn’t interested.

Open the letter with, “I am a first time author,” don’t play out the letter and then drop this in on the last line, as this can really p*ss an agent off. If you are willing to mislead them now, they may think you could do it later. Be honest from the outset – it always works in your favor.

So, the letter explains you publishing history, the genre of your novel, a very brief outline of the novel’s content – one short paragraph.

Include all contact details including a self addressed and stamped envelope.

The actual chapter submission with synopsis (only a two page synopsis at all times) needs to be of the highest professional manner: double-spaced, easy to read font in 12 point, wide margins etc.

Querying after submission. Don’t even think about it until 3 months have passed and then do it via mail, not email, again including return post. It is also good at this time to put any additional credits you might have obtained on the query letter. This shows you are not sitting back and waiting but are actively working.

Don’t send out the queries, chapters etc without first sending the book to publishers that are still open to unsolicited material. Remember, it is easier to get an agent with a contract in your hand.

Why get an agent after you have the contract? Because they can negotiate a far better deal than you will be able to.

Once the book is out, the letters and samples have been sent, get down to work on the next book. Agents sign authors AND individual books, so if you have a ready body of work behind you, the potential for representation becomes stronger.