[stylist] 25 ways to improve your writing

[Brad Dunsé]

Good stuff Menard. If one were to expand on these 
a bit, there'd be a half a year's worth of a 
weekly writing tip blog. I found some of the 
lingo a bit, non-conversational, but very good 
points here. I suspect the writer wound up with 
those  non-conversational areas as part of his 
30% reduction. Nonetheless,  excellent stuff.

Brad

On 12/29/2011  09:46 AM Chris Kuell said...

>This is From Writers Digest.
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>1. Flow
>A piece of writing is a living thing. Our goal 
>should be to serve it and do what it wants, to 
>be its instrument. The flow of words from our 
>mind to the page is impeded in two main ways-if 
>we try to make the story do something that it 
>doesn't want to do, or if something in us isn't 
>ready to face the full implications of the work's theme and emotions.
>
>Avoiding those blocks requires developing a 
>relationship with the piece we're working on, as 
>if it were a person. At the start of each 
>writing session, especially if you're having 
>trouble moving forward, literally ask your 
>work-in-progress, "What do you want to do? Where 
>do you want me to go with you? Why are you 
>stalling?" This is a psychological trick that 
>almost always creates an imagined response, 
>along the lines of, "This scene is boring. Why 
>are you making me do it?" Or, "This section is 
>full of gimmicks. Why aren't you being true to 
>the subject?" The device takes only one minute, 
>not 30, and over the years, it's saved me from 
>writing a lot of passages that would have been 
>either unnecessary or else dishonest.
>-David Morrell
>
>2. Precision
>In the study of traditional Chinese painting, 
>the term hua long dian jingspeaks to the need 
>for precision. It translates roughly to mean, 
>"Dot the dragon's eye, and it comes to life." In 
>other words, your subject remains inert until 
>you add the precise detail that brings it, in 
>the reader's mind, to life. Often when we finish 
>a draft, we feel the piece somehow isn't 
>working. Our writing group says they found it 
>dull in places, or just "didn't get it." The 
>culprit is often a lack of precision-the key, 
>specific details that bring the world of the piece alive.
>
>Develop the habit of dedicating time to 
>reviewing your work with precision in mind. How 
>would that scene change if you add a sweet tang 
>of honeysuckle to the breeze? How might this 
>character change if you fasten the top button of 
>his shirt? Henry James told us that writers are 
>people "on whom nothing is lost." The key to 
>successfully creating or conveying worlds for 
>our readers is painstakingly observing those 
>worlds, and then scribbling down the precise details that tell the story.
>-Jack Heffron
>
>3. Voice
>Your voice is how you write, the way you handle 
>language, your style-if you have one. Do I? I 
>write like I think. I like spontaneity. I push 
>and pull, change speed and rhythm, balance short 
>and long sentences. I compare it to jazz riffs 
>and drumrolls. I'm economical with words, but I won't interrupt a nice solo.
>I never have to think about this. It's me.
>
>But does it rise to the level of "voice"-and 
>does it even matter? I've known excellent 
>writers who don't have a recognizable voice, but 
>have earned awards and attracted readers through 
>their work. Your voice, ultimately, will be what 
>comes out of you. And you're entitled to it. But 
>how you use it will also depend upon the 
>audience at which it's aimed and/or the market to which it's sold.
>
>The desire to develop a voice of your own may 
>make you wish you could write like some others 
>you've read. Feel no guilt; all artists stand on 
>the shoulders of those they admire. Thus, for 30 
>minutes: Rewrite a page of your writing in the 
>style of someone you admire. Don't worry about 
>losing yourself in the process-you'll be doing just the opposite.
>-Art Spikol
>
>4. Originality
>It is perhaps ironic that the exercise I 
>consider most useful to spur originality is one 
>I borrowed from another writer (William S. 
>Burroughs). Then again, the best advice I ever 
>received on writing in general was Oakley Hall's 
>two-word bromide: Steal Wisely.
>
>In truth, originality is like voice, an elusive 
>quality that cannot be created; it exists or it 
>doesn't, all you can do is hone it. But we can 
>also strive to look at our own world and work in 
>a fresh way. If you're in a rut, change 
>something in your routine. Write in a different 
>place; write longhand; dictate into a recorder; 
>switch point of view; remove every modifier in 
>your text and start over-something.
>
>Or, try this: Print out a page of your writing, 
>cut it into quarters and rearrange them. Retype 
>the text in this quasi-jumbled state. Where 
>before your logical brain laid things out in an 
>orderly fashion, you'll now see them in jump 
>cuts and inexplicable juxtapositions. Return to 
>your work and revise with the best of these 
>angularities intact, to the point they serve the 
>piece, without reordering them back into 
>comfortable reasonableness. Honor the deeper, 
>inherent logic of your work by allowing its quirks and hard edges to show.
>-David Corbett
>
>5. Imagery
>A successful image can plug right into your 
>reader's nervous system at times when 
>explanation falls flat. Consider, "Donna felt 
>weak," versus, "Donna was unable to bring the 
>spoon to her mouth." Which one makes you want to know what happens next?
>
>To see how images give your writing a boost, 
>rewrite each of the following statements in a 
>way that shows instead of explains:
>
>   a.. Her hair was a mess.
>   b.. The garden was ready for picking.
>   c.. I hate broccoli.
>   d.. You always change your mind.
>   e.. The moon is full.
>Now, revisit a draft of your writing. Try making 
>vague moments more vivid by replacing 
>explanation with imagery. This won't always be 
>an appropriate solution-sometimes a simple, 
>unembellished statement will be the most 
>powerful choice. But you won't know until you try.
>-Sage Cohen
>
>6. Pace
>Much of screenwriter William Goldman's wonderful 
>Adventures in the Screen Trade can be applied to 
>other types of writing. Goldman advises getting 
>into each scene as late as possible, and out of 
>it as early as possible. Faulty pacing in almost 
>any work can be corrected with this advice.
>
>There's no need to begin scenes by laboriously 
>explaining how characters arrived there, or to 
>open an article or essay with excessive setup or 
>introduction. If you find you've done this, 
>chances are a more interesting way to begin 
>follows just after what you've written. 
>Similarly, many writers put an empty paragraph 
>at the end of a scene or section. When revising 
>my novels, I experiment by cutting the first and 
>last paragraph of each scene. Suddenly, a 
>sequence that dragged can become   speedy. 
>Arrive late in a scene and leave early. The reader will fill the gaps.
>-Morrell
>
>7. Unity
>One method for creating a sense of unity in a 
>piece of writing is the use of selective 
>repetition. A detail or remark or even just a 
>unique word mentioned early in your piece can be 
>echoed later, creating a sense of wholeness 
>through the reader's recognition of the previous 
>mention. That recognition also imbues the 
>repeated element with a resonance, not unlike a 
>coda in a musical composition. The reader enjoys 
>a satisfying sense of progression, of having 
>moved from one literary moment to another.
>
>Reread a piece you're working on with an eye 
>toward finding that element you could repeat in 
>a subtle way, and then look for a place later in 
>the piece where you could drop it in. If you're 
>unsure which one would be most affective, 
>experiment by trying several. Ask yourself: If 
>you had to cut all the details or images and 
>retain only one, which one would you keep? That's the one you want.
>-Heffron
>
>8. Sentence Structure
>Well. I don't know that any writer in the 21st 
>century worries about subjects and predicates. 
>Or believes that one shouldn't begin a sentence 
>with and or but or or. Or thinks contractions 
>are slang. So I don't have much to say on this matter.
>
>But this is important.
>
>Generally, I don't like rules for writers. The 
>First Amendment doesn't, either. But the English 
>language is democracy in action. It responds to 
>its users. If it didn't, we'd still be saying 
>"prithee" and calling taxis "hacks." Hence, my 
>30-minute recommendation is to sit down and 
>write whatever moves you, following only one rule:
>Don't bore anybody.
>-Spikol
>
>9. Word Choice
>The poet Frank O'Hara is rumored to have given 
>this advice: "If you think in pictures, write. If you think in words, paint."
>
>This turns out to provide some guidance on word 
>choice. If you're stuck on a word, sketch what 
>it is you're trying to describe. It doesn't 
>matter how good you are at drawing. What matters 
>is the employment of a different skill set, a 
>portion of the brain distinct from the one that 
>has been searching for the mot juste.
>
>Or consider a soundtrack for the scene. Let the 
>scene play out in time along with the music, or 
>read it aloud with the music as background. When 
>you employ a different depictive medium than 
>mere words, different associative threads (or 
>synaptic connections) can be brought to bear on the task.
>-Corbett
>
>10. Rhythm is the subliminal soundtrack in 
>writing. To explore options for moving a reader 
>along, choose a dramatic passage from a 
>published piece you admire. How do you feel when 
>you read it? (Notice your breathing, heart rate, 
>posture and emotions.) How did the writer 
>provoke this response? How do word pairings and 
>sentence and paragraph structures contribute to 
>its momentum? How do these rhythmic choices serve the piece's meaning?
>
>Now, write a passage that echoes the patterns 
>you've discovered. If the first sentence is 
>three short words, yours should be, too. Where a 
>descriptive image blossoms for a paragraph, let 
>yours do the same. Communicate emotion through 
>your rhythm. You might let rage stutter through 
>the syncopation of words and halting 
>punctuation, or stream through run-on sentences. 
>Notice how these choices support or squelch the 
>surrounding narrative. Just as a musician 
>practices scales until they become second 
>nature, your attention to the mechanics of 
>rhythm will help you improvise over time.
>-Cohen
>
>11. Inspiration
>In my writing classes, I devote a session to 
>daydreams, which are spontaneous messages from 
>our subconscious. After one of my presentations, 
>a puzzled member of the audience raised his hand 
>and asked what a daydream was. Others were 
>surprised, but I wasn't. Not everyone has a 
>daydream-friendly mind. In fact, some people 
>have been taught to repress daydreams as mere distractions.
>
>As writers, however, we should not only welcome 
>daydreams, but train ourselves to be aware of 
>them. In fact, the cores of most of my novels 
>have come from daydreams. Daydreams are our 
>primal storyteller at work, sending us scenes 
>and topics that our imagination or subconscious 
>wants us to investigate. Each day, we should 
>devote time (I usually do this before sleeping) 
>to reviewing our daydreams and determining which 
>of them insists on being turned into a story. 
>Don't push away those daydreams that make you 
>uncomfortable: The more shocking the daydream, 
>the more truthful about us it is. Embrace that truth.
>-Morrell
>
>12. Balance
>Creating a sense of balance in your piece is 
>similar to creating unity (see the opposite 
>page), but the repeated element is even more 
>obviously connected to its earlier use. A 
>classic example: In The Great Gatsby, as F. 
>Scott Fitzgerald introduces us to the Buchanans 
>in early summer, he emphasizes the breeze 
>blowing through the room, billowing the curtains 
>and the women's dresses. Later, the same 
>characters seated in the same place are shown in 
>the heat of summer as weighted down, dispirited, 
>languid. The connection between these 
>descriptions creates balance and gives the 
>reader a keen (if not necessarily conscious) 
>sense of progression. It also implies that the 
>characters are no longer free and airy, but 
>encumbered by the circumstances that have arisen.
>
>Set aside 30 minutes to reread your work, 
>looking for a description, scene or metaphor 
>that you can repeat later with some aspect 
>changed to serve as a counterweight to the first usage.
>-Heffron
>
>13. Clarity
>You have to lead your audience through a 
>tapestry of facts, ideas and events. No matter 
>what you're trying to get across, you have to 
>get it across, so keep it simple-unless complexity improves it.
>In 30 minutes, examine your work for the following:
>
>   a.. A Stake in the Action: Readers need one. 
> Drop the first shoe early to get them listening 
> for the second, and give them something to care about.
>   b.. Logic: It's the most important element of 
> clarity. If you've written something that 
> doesn't quite connect, try saying, out loud, 
> "What I'm really trying to say is ." and then 
> finish the thought. Sounds crazy, but it usually works.
>   c.. Bumps in the Road: Check your work for 
> brilliant phrases that you'd love to use 
> somewhere, anywhere-but that interrupt the 
> momentum. I used to cut and paste my elegant 
> gems into a "futures" file; it rightfully became a cemetery.
>   d.. Verbosity: Avoid longish, meandering 
> quotations by paraphrasing. Save the quotation 
> marks for particularly revealing or quotable statements.
>   e.. Jargon: Save it for cocktail 
> parties-unless it's the everyday language of your audience.
>-Spikol
>
>14. Effective Details
>The key to effective description is to realize 
>the importance of contradictions. The telling 
>detail is almost always one that at first glance 
>doesn't seem to fit, but by its being there 
>creates the unique whole that the object or action or person represents.
>
>Go to a good people-watching spot or a place you 
>want to describe. What's the thing that doesn't 
>quite belong? Pair one or two more typical 
>attributes of the thing/person/scene with this 
>anomaly, and judge the impression. If it differs 
>from what you meant to describe, figure out 
>what's missing. Add as few details as possible.
>
>A related point: Often, we read a description 
>and think, If this is there, then that has to be 
>there as well. Many writers then think that both 
>details must be included, but usually the 
>opposite is true. Provide the stronger, more 
>typical of the two, and the other is implied; 
>the reader's mind supplies it automatically.
>-Corbett
>
>15. Creativity
>Creativity is the secret sauce of the writing 
>life. Its ingredients are different for 
>everyone, and may change over time, which can 
>make it difficult to keep the cupboards stocked. 
>When you get stuck, take 30 minutes and try one of these:
>
>   a.. Switch genres. Write a poem before diving into a narrative piece.
>   b.. Review incomplete writing for a scrap of 
> idea or language; let it lead you in.
>   c.. Burn kindling. Keep a file of art, poems, 
> quotes, pressed flowers-whatever ignites your 
> imagination. Sift through it when you need a spark.
>   d.. Grow your own list of triggers. Repeat 
> what works until it doesn't; then try something new.
>-Cohen
>
>16. Simplicity
>The great film director Billy Wilder was once 
>asked if he liked subtlety in a story. He 
>answered along the lines of, "Yes. Subtlety is 
>good-as long as it's obvious." The same can be 
>said about complexity and simplicity. Some 
>stories are so complex that it's frustratingly 
>impossible to understand them. But others (like 
>Wuthering Heightsor Bleak House) are complex in 
>a way that we don't find difficult to 
>understand, and actually find enjoyable because 
>of the complexity. Conversely, Hemingway's 
>famous simple style is in fact very complex.
>
>What really matters is whether or not something 
>is clear. Each day, as you revise the pages from 
>your prior writing session, take a few minutes 
>to ask yourself, "Is this clear? Will the reader 
>understand it?" If you're not sure, revise until 
>the answer is yes. Don't be afraid to deal with 
>a complex topic in a complex way, but always 
>keep in mind that clarity will make you the reader's friend.
>-Morrell
>
>17. Avoiding Clichés
>Everyone "gets" clichés. That's why they show up 
>virtually everywhere. Clichés may be thought of 
>as overused and predictable, but few people 
>complain about movie car chases. For every 
>person who doesn't want "same old," hundreds 
>continue to enjoy stereotypical hard-boiled 
>dicks helping dames in distress. Depending on 
>your audience, a well-placed cliché can be more effective than an explanation.
>
>Nevertheless, we need folks like you to buck the 
>trend. So here are some ways to spend a half-hour:
>
>   1.. Create a cliché-free protagonist: you. 
> Choose a career you once contemplated. Change 
> your age, gender, race. Investigate something 
> that intrigues you. Invent a situation that 
> boosts your heart rate. Send your character to 
> a place you'd like to visit. Now write.
>   2.. Remove from a work unnecessary parts of 
> speech-such as replacements for the perfectly 
> acceptable said, and words like angrily to 
> reveal how someone slams a door. Say no more 
> than readers need to know; let their imaginations work.
>   3.. I've intentionally loaded my five 
> contributions to this article with more than my 
> usual share of clichés. Circle them. Do it now. The early bird gets the worm.
>-Spikol
>
>18. Communication
>Good writing connects with readers. For each piece you write, ask yourself:
>
>   1.. Who is my audience? Imagine the people you'd most like to reach.
>   2.. What do I want the experience and result 
> of this piece to be? What do I want readers to 
> know or believe? How do I want them to feel? 
> What do I want them to do when they're finished reading?
>   3.. How will I measure my ability to deliver 
> on these goals? Workshop it in a writing group? 
> Post it on my blog? Submit it to a publication?
>Pay attention to feedback. You'll start to see 
>the types of people and publications that are 
>attracted to what you write, how you're meeting 
>their needs (or not), and opportunities for becoming more effective.
>-Cohen
>
>19. Tension
>Tension results from two factors: resistance and 
>ambiguity. In nearly every piece of narrative 
>writing, fiction or otherwise, someone is trying 
>to achieve something. Tension results from 
>external or internal opposition to achievement 
>of the goal (resistance), or uncertainty as to 
>the narrator or character's understanding of the 
>situation in which she finds herself 
>(ambiguity), specifically its perils (psychological, emotional, physical).
>Tension is essential because it keeps readers 
>reading. Thus, in every scene you write, strive 
>to heighten tension by doing one of two things: 
>Enhancing the forces impeding achievement of the 
>goal, or confusing/complicating the narrator or 
>character's understanding of the situation.
>
>At the end of every writing session, take time 
>to find and stress those elements within the 
>narrative that serve these purposes. Trim away 
>elements that do not, unless they add necessary color.
>-Corbett
>
>20. Evoking Emotion
>Hemingway spoke of a story's "sequence of motion 
>and fact." James M. Cain discussed "the algebra 
>of storytelling: a + b + c + d = x." What they 
>meant was a sequence of incidents in a story 
>that, if arranged correctly and dramatized 
>vividly, will create a stimulus that compels the 
>reader to feel the emotion the author is trying 
>to create. Talking about emotions won't compel a 
>reader to feel them. "He felt sad" won't make a 
>reader feel sad. Instead, the reader must be 
>made to feel the situations in the story, to 
>experience what the characters experience; as a 
>result, just as a sequence creates emotion in 
>the characters, it will do the same in the 
>reader. This is a case of stimulus-response.
>
>Writers can achieve this effect if they take the 
>sense of sight for granted and emphasize the 
>other senses, thus crafting multidimensional 
>descriptions and scenes. Details of sight alone 
>almost always create a flat effect, so when 
>revising, take a few minutes to make sure that 
>each scene has at least one other sense detail. 
>In this way, the reader becomes immersed in the 
>story, feeling it rather than being told about it.
>-Morrell
>
>21. Figurative Language
>Figurative language can enrich our writing, 
>adding nuance and depth, like the addition of a 
>harmony line to a melody. The right metaphor can 
>enlarge our subject and offer our readers new 
>ways of perceiving it. The risk involved, like 
>adding a heavy sauce to your delicately flavored 
>meal, is that the language can distract the 
>reader and obscure your meaning rather than 
>developing it. Figurative language calls 
>attention to itself, can easily descend to 
>cliché, and asks for the reader's complicity, 
>all of which could break your reader's focus.
>My advice, therefore, is to use figurative 
>language sparingly, strive to make it fresh, and 
>understand the implications of the comparisons 
>you're making (directly or indirectly). Make 
>sure it's serving the piece. In creating an 
>effective metaphor, trust your subconscious, 
>which makes connections our conscious minds 
>cannot readily make. Don't reach for the quick, 
>easy one. Instead, take the time to plumb the 
>depths of your imagination. Risk a reach toward 
>an unlikely comparison rather than a safe one. 
>You might be surprised at one you find, and your reader will be delighted.
>-Heffron
>
>22. Objectivity
>The perils of subjectivity arise largely from 
>overidentifying with a subject, narrator or 
>character in a narrative, and making it (or him 
>or her) the vehicle for a thematic point in 
>which the author himself is overly invested. The 
>antidote is at least as old as the New 
>Testament, specifically Matthew 5:43-48, where 
>Christ instructs his followers to love their 
>enemies. If what I have to say seems old hat, 
>therefore, I'll be neither disappointed nor surprised.
>
>If you find yourself overidentifying with a 
>topic or character, try to identify within the 
>sympathetic subject, narrator or even oneself a 
>trait or belief or habit that is repellent or 
>inexcusable or just plain odd. In doing so, 
>you'll enhance the psychological or moral 
>distance between yourself and the object of familiarity
>or allegiance.
>
>Another possible strategy is to rewrite the 
>scene or section from the point of view of 
>someone other than the object of sympathy. This 
>forced disconnect can achieve a similar effect.
>-Corbett
>
>23. Revision
>There are two good reasons for revising what 
>you've written: Either you want to change 
>something, or your editor, agent or client does. 
>If the revision is your idea, that's good. It 
>means you know what you want, or what you 
>suspect won't fly. If the revision is by 
>request, remember: The customer may not always 
>be right, but she has the money and the 
>medium-as well as the experience of buying for 
>it. (You can fight for what you believe, of 
>course, but choose your battles carefully. Races 
>are won or lost in the final minutes.)
>
>I knew a writer who would write a first draft 
>and submit it without even reading it over. 
>Others, myself included, substitute and trim and 
>pinch and juggle until the work pours like melted butter.
>
>With that in mind, here's your 30-minute assignment:
>Reduce by a third the word count of one of your 
>recent efforts without losing its essence. (I 
>did this myself, in fact, with my contributions 
>to this article.) Note: Don't constantly reread 
>what you've written; if you memorize it, 
>self-editing will be tougher. Put it away for a few days. Then read it fresh.
>-Spikol
>
>24. Language
>Think of your writing as a windshield. 
>Ill-suited words can streak and cloud your 
>reader's view, and just-right language can be as 
>clarifying as a high-powered carwash. Once you 
>have a solid draft, it's time to consider:
>
>   a.. Could a different word bring even more 
> energy or resonance to a poignant moment 
> through sound, subtleties of meaning, or syllabic rhythm?
>   b.. Could the setting be conveyed more 
> vividly? Is the natural world palpable?
>   c.. Is the emotional tone consistently 
> resonant? Are there neutral words or passages that could be more charged?
>   d.. Does the language powerfully enact the action?
>As you polish and prune, each piece of writing 
>will teach you something new about what is possible. Let yourself be surprised.
>-Cohen
>
>25. Style
>Writers sometimes speak of style as if it were 
>an ingredient to be added to their story or poem 
>or memoir. Instead, style is the thing itself. 
>E.B. White said it best, writing, "Style takes 
>its final shape more from attitudes of mind than 
>from principles of composition, for, as an 
>elderly practitioner once remarked, 'Writing is 
>an act of faith, not a trick of grammar.'" The 
>key, then, to developing one's style is to 
>write, as White states, "in a way that comes naturally."
>
>Sound easy? It's not. In fact, finding the "way 
>that comes naturally" can take a lifetime, and 
>the way can change with each piece you begin. 
>One key to beginning that journey is to think 
>about style not so much as a matter of addition, 
>but subtraction-casting off feelings of 
>awkwardness and self-consciousness, affectation 
>and pretension. Focus on presenting your piece 
>clearly, in a way that connects with readers. 
>For practice, imagine a single reader sitting 
>across a table from you. Spend a half-hour 
>relating your piece to that reader, as clearly 
>and honestly as possible. Spend another 
>half-hour striving to make the piece more clear, 
>more honest, more affecting. Then spend another 
>half-hour making the piece more clear, more .
>-Heffron
>
>
>--
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Brad Dunsé

"This world is but a canvas to our imaginations." --Unknown

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