On Writing
I am no great writer by any stretch, but even I have standards. Since I have been writing so much lately, it seemed like I should list them out just in case anyone wants to know what I think about the subject. This is meant for fiction writing, or non-fiction written to sound like fiction (biographies, etc). For expository stuff (like this post), anything goes.
1. Never use "you" unless it is part of dialogue.
1a. Don't use "you" in dialogue unless you want your characters to have an accusatory tone to them. I generally try to avoid it in (my own) speech because it implies there's something wrong with a person, when what you really mean to point out is their action. People take sentences phrased with "you" very personally whether you like it or not. Example:
"You didn't put the toilet seat down." (very accusatory)
vs.
"The toilet seat was left up." (doesn't sound nearly as offensive)
2. Never begin a sentence with "There are" or "There is" or "That is" etc unless it is dialogue and that is (ha ha) how you want your character to speak. Sentences that begin like this are boring and sterile and abstract, and when rewritten with a more active verb are almost always far more interesting to read.
I have seen this one violated a lot in published work, but in general I try to adhere to it when possible.
3. Vary your sentence type/structure. Standard violations: using all of the same sentence type (simple "she did x", compound "he did x and then he did y", etc), always making the subject of your sentence the same thing (such as your main character). Example:
She glanced down at her hand. She saw water from her tears streaked across her knuckle. She wiped the liquid off on her lapel before replying, "That was really low of you."
vs.
She glanced down at her hand. A series of tear drops moistened her knuckle, reminding her of the past hurt that, it seemed, was still festering inside of her. With a heavy heart, she brought her knuckle across her lapel, wiping the tears clean. "That was really low of you," she said, her voice almost breaking.
Too many "She did " sentences. Both the same subject every time and almost all simple sentences. Snore.
4. When possible, do not end a sentence with a preposition. This rule should be used as more of a sanity check than a hard-and-fast rule. In some sentences, it is unavoidable**. I have seen violations of this one all over published text, but at least consider that when you see yourself typing a '.' behind a preposition, go back and look at your sentence again and analyze it to see if it can't be rewritten with the preposition elsewhere.
** "This is the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put."
5. Don't use the same word multiple times in the same sentence. Try not to use the same word more than once in the same paragraph. Try not to use the same word more than a handful of times in the whole text if it is a relatively uncommon word. As always exceptions exist here as well, but only for more generic words or extremely common words like 'said' and 'and' and 'the'. When writing action verbs or adjectives or adverbs or nouns, make sure you change it up a little. That said, don't go overboard:
Said Jessica... Said the young blond... Said the petite paralegal... Said the former student who graduated with honors.
Generally speaking, this comes up most often with adjectives or adverbs or verbs. She doesn't need to 'sigh' three times in the same paragraph. Or smile conspiratorially multiple times right in a row. For people, use their name once per paragraph and use pronouns the rest of the time. That said...
6. Clarify your pronouns. Just because you know who you're talking about when you type "he" doesn't mean the reader does. Make sure that every time you use a pronoun it is clear who is speaking or to which person it is referring. In cases where multiple people of the same gender are doing something, it is okay to use the characters' names more than once to provide clarity. That said, try to indicate who is doing things in ways other than just using specific character names over and over again (such as their relative positioning or what each character is doing individually or the differences in their appearances).
7. Try to keep a tight leash on idiom usage. Sometimes nothing gets a point across in a concise manner like an idiom. Make sure it is appropriate for the setting if you decide to use it. But in general, avoid them where you can.
8. Anachronisms. This is a tough one for anyone writing in a setting that isn't present-day here-and-now. Which is pretty much everything I write. Try replacing modern concepts with other similar concepts that are more appropriate for the setting. Use "candlemarks" or "bells" or "chimes" to signify an hour in a fantasy setting. But what about measurements like "inches" or "feet" or "miles"? I went with "hand-lengths" and "arm-lengths" and "cart-lengths" for the smaller measurements but left in "miles" for extremely large distances in one story. Sometimes it is better to go with the anachronism in order for the reader to understand what you're talking about without having to consult a dictionary in the back of your book. That said, don't use them if you can at all help it. "Helicopters" and "elevators" are not appropriate in a medieval setting.
One I had a hard time with was "nuke". Nothing gets across a fireball of unimaginable proportions like the very concise word "nuke." In the end, I left it in the story because I didn't want to use five adjectives to get the point across. It was a choice I consciously made. And one you must make too, if you choose to leave in an anachronism like this.
9. Think long and hard before you replace common terminology with something you made up for your own world. "Elves" and "Dwarves" and "Dragons" are specific and common terms for particular fantasy races and are already well-understood by readers. Using them in your writing immediately brings up all sorts of visuals and information to readers about them without you having to specifically state the peculiarities of the races in your text. However, I've read books that replace the common race name "elves" with words invented specifically for the setting (but mean basically the same thing). "Eletians" is used in the Green Rider series and "Lirin/Liringlas" is used in the Symphony of Ages series. Others I've seen replaced are "coffee", various fruits, animals, types of clothing or gear. Even if you're just using the Iranian word for coffee, it is still something the readers are not going to be familiar with and they may get confused. If you pile too many of these into your text the reader will need a dictionary to sort out which word means what for the fiftieth time.
10. Always use third-person perspective. First-person point-of-view comes with an incredible number of problems that you, as a writer, will have to overcome. For starters, your perspective character must always be present for every important event which might be a difficult task to accomplish depending on what your story is about. Second, no one wants to hear the constant internal droning of the perspective character. One of two things usually ends up happening: the reader cannot connect with the perspective character because the internal dialogue reveals him/her to be a douche, or the reader gets bored to tears when they have to murk through paragraph after paragraph of mental whining or insecurities.
Nobody's a saint. Every single one of us has, at times, looked at someone and thought "he's hideous" or "she needs to comb her hair" or "god my friend Foo is so annoying when she constantly interrupts me." We all criticize internally all the time, even the people we love and are friends with. The fact that we don't blurt out all this criticism to the person or others means that we're decent human beings. But using first-person perspective in writing now gives readers a view into that aspect of the main character, and will torpedo the readers' respect for them in no time flat. It is hard enough making a generic but interesting enough main character in third-person that the audience connects with and likes, but throwing first-person onto the mix is like writing with a significant handicap.
Again, exceptions exist. As an example, Twilight was an extremely popular series written in first-person. But despite its popularity it suffered from being written in first person -- Bella had a lot of internal droning and she was always putting down her friends in her mind making her seem like more of an asshole than she probably was.
I will admit shamefully that many of my stories are written in first-person because most of them are from the perspective of my role-playing characters, thus much of the text was originally written as journal entries from their respective perspectives. Ho ho ho what a rhyme.
11. Use vernacular sparingly, and keep it mild when used. You can convey a bumpkin without making the text unreadable. Only alter every 3rd word spoken and only by a letter. Something like that. Not every word needs to have its letters rearranged into an unreadable, incomprehensible mess. The point is to convey an accent, not eschew the entirety of the character's dialogue because the readers can't understand it.
12. (Almost) Everything in moderation. This includes (but is not limited to): idioms, vernacular, repetitive uncommon words, simple sentences, anachronisms, and especially, ESPECIALLY descriptive text. Elaborating on that last -- If you need to describe something, a scene, an object, a person, then do so. But do it in as few words possible to get your point across. Excessive flowery descriptions (purple prose) will turn readers off to your overall story. I know few to no people who like reading mountains and mountains of descriptive text. That said, some authors are extremely awesome at writing descriptions. Just be really sure, when you look at your writing, that you are one of these people if you find you have oodles and oodles of it in your story. Just saying.
13. Dialogue is the meat of your story, spend time making it perfect. Dialogue is by far the most important thing you will write into your story. If you can't write good dialogue, your story will flop. For some people, this is no big deal; dialogue flows out of them like water from a garden hose. Other people struggle quite a bit with it. Still, it doesn't matter how good you are as long as you put in the work to make your dialogue both as plentiful and as well-written as you possibly can.
Stepping aside for just a moment -- why is dialog so important? Because we are social animals and people are wholly unpredictable. If the main character is about to fight a dragon, you already know he's going to win, you just don't know how. The point of this scene is to see how he/she does it, and then to see how this success affects the story down the road. When the main character interacts with an estranged former love interest, you have no idea how this is going to turn out until you read it. And anything that is said between the two characters affects not only their relationship, but their relationships with other people as well, and theirs, and theirs, etc. In this way, one word spoken by one character can cause two characters, three people removed from them, to break up their long-standing relationship. By comparison, fighting a dragon is pretty straightforward and perhaps even simplistic where the plot is concerned. This is why dialogue is so important.
14. Avoid songs and poems unless they are integral to your story. I'll be honest here; I didn't read a single song or poem in the Hobbit. That stuff bores me to death. A lot of people feel the same. If you include stuff like this, expect many of your readers to skip right over it (unless it is an integral part of your story -- as in the main characters are trying to decipher the meaning of a poem because they think it's a prophecy).
1. Never use "you" unless it is part of dialogue.
1a. Don't use "you" in dialogue unless you want your characters to have an accusatory tone to them. I generally try to avoid it in (my own) speech because it implies there's something wrong with a person, when what you really mean to point out is their action. People take sentences phrased with "you" very personally whether you like it or not. Example:
"You didn't put the toilet seat down." (very accusatory)
vs.
"The toilet seat was left up." (doesn't sound nearly as offensive)
2. Never begin a sentence with "There are" or "There is" or "That is" etc unless it is dialogue and that is (ha ha) how you want your character to speak. Sentences that begin like this are boring and sterile and abstract, and when rewritten with a more active verb are almost always far more interesting to read.
I have seen this one violated a lot in published work, but in general I try to adhere to it when possible.
3. Vary your sentence type/structure. Standard violations: using all of the same sentence type (simple "she did x", compound "he did x and then he did y", etc), always making the subject of your sentence the same thing (such as your main character). Example:
She glanced down at her hand. She saw water from her tears streaked across her knuckle. She wiped the liquid off on her lapel before replying, "That was really low of you."
vs.
She glanced down at her hand. A series of tear drops moistened her knuckle, reminding her of the past hurt that, it seemed, was still festering inside of her. With a heavy heart, she brought her knuckle across her lapel, wiping the tears clean. "That was really low of you," she said, her voice almost breaking.
Too many "She did " sentences. Both the same subject every time and almost all simple sentences. Snore.
4. When possible, do not end a sentence with a preposition. This rule should be used as more of a sanity check than a hard-and-fast rule. In some sentences, it is unavoidable**. I have seen violations of this one all over published text, but at least consider that when you see yourself typing a '.' behind a preposition, go back and look at your sentence again and analyze it to see if it can't be rewritten with the preposition elsewhere.
** "This is the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put."
5. Don't use the same word multiple times in the same sentence. Try not to use the same word more than once in the same paragraph. Try not to use the same word more than a handful of times in the whole text if it is a relatively uncommon word. As always exceptions exist here as well, but only for more generic words or extremely common words like 'said' and 'and' and 'the'. When writing action verbs or adjectives or adverbs or nouns, make sure you change it up a little. That said, don't go overboard:
Said Jessica... Said the young blond... Said the petite paralegal... Said the former student who graduated with honors.
Generally speaking, this comes up most often with adjectives or adverbs or verbs. She doesn't need to 'sigh' three times in the same paragraph. Or smile conspiratorially multiple times right in a row. For people, use their name once per paragraph and use pronouns the rest of the time. That said...
6. Clarify your pronouns. Just because you know who you're talking about when you type "he" doesn't mean the reader does. Make sure that every time you use a pronoun it is clear who is speaking or to which person it is referring. In cases where multiple people of the same gender are doing something, it is okay to use the characters' names more than once to provide clarity. That said, try to indicate who is doing things in ways other than just using specific character names over and over again (such as their relative positioning or what each character is doing individually or the differences in their appearances).
7. Try to keep a tight leash on idiom usage. Sometimes nothing gets a point across in a concise manner like an idiom. Make sure it is appropriate for the setting if you decide to use it. But in general, avoid them where you can.
8. Anachronisms. This is a tough one for anyone writing in a setting that isn't present-day here-and-now. Which is pretty much everything I write. Try replacing modern concepts with other similar concepts that are more appropriate for the setting. Use "candlemarks" or "bells" or "chimes" to signify an hour in a fantasy setting. But what about measurements like "inches" or "feet" or "miles"? I went with "hand-lengths" and "arm-lengths" and "cart-lengths" for the smaller measurements but left in "miles" for extremely large distances in one story. Sometimes it is better to go with the anachronism in order for the reader to understand what you're talking about without having to consult a dictionary in the back of your book. That said, don't use them if you can at all help it. "Helicopters" and "elevators" are not appropriate in a medieval setting.
One I had a hard time with was "nuke". Nothing gets across a fireball of unimaginable proportions like the very concise word "nuke." In the end, I left it in the story because I didn't want to use five adjectives to get the point across. It was a choice I consciously made. And one you must make too, if you choose to leave in an anachronism like this.
9. Think long and hard before you replace common terminology with something you made up for your own world. "Elves" and "Dwarves" and "Dragons" are specific and common terms for particular fantasy races and are already well-understood by readers. Using them in your writing immediately brings up all sorts of visuals and information to readers about them without you having to specifically state the peculiarities of the races in your text. However, I've read books that replace the common race name "elves" with words invented specifically for the setting (but mean basically the same thing). "Eletians" is used in the Green Rider series and "Lirin/Liringlas" is used in the Symphony of Ages series. Others I've seen replaced are "coffee", various fruits, animals, types of clothing or gear. Even if you're just using the Iranian word for coffee, it is still something the readers are not going to be familiar with and they may get confused. If you pile too many of these into your text the reader will need a dictionary to sort out which word means what for the fiftieth time.
10. Always use third-person perspective. First-person point-of-view comes with an incredible number of problems that you, as a writer, will have to overcome. For starters, your perspective character must always be present for every important event which might be a difficult task to accomplish depending on what your story is about. Second, no one wants to hear the constant internal droning of the perspective character. One of two things usually ends up happening: the reader cannot connect with the perspective character because the internal dialogue reveals him/her to be a douche, or the reader gets bored to tears when they have to murk through paragraph after paragraph of mental whining or insecurities.
Nobody's a saint. Every single one of us has, at times, looked at someone and thought "he's hideous" or "she needs to comb her hair" or "god my friend Foo is so annoying when she constantly interrupts me." We all criticize internally all the time, even the people we love and are friends with. The fact that we don't blurt out all this criticism to the person or others means that we're decent human beings. But using first-person perspective in writing now gives readers a view into that aspect of the main character, and will torpedo the readers' respect for them in no time flat. It is hard enough making a generic but interesting enough main character in third-person that the audience connects with and likes, but throwing first-person onto the mix is like writing with a significant handicap.
Again, exceptions exist. As an example, Twilight was an extremely popular series written in first-person. But despite its popularity it suffered from being written in first person -- Bella had a lot of internal droning and she was always putting down her friends in her mind making her seem like more of an asshole than she probably was.
I will admit shamefully that many of my stories are written in first-person because most of them are from the perspective of my role-playing characters, thus much of the text was originally written as journal entries from their respective perspectives. Ho ho ho what a rhyme.
11. Use vernacular sparingly, and keep it mild when used. You can convey a bumpkin without making the text unreadable. Only alter every 3rd word spoken and only by a letter. Something like that. Not every word needs to have its letters rearranged into an unreadable, incomprehensible mess. The point is to convey an accent, not eschew the entirety of the character's dialogue because the readers can't understand it.
12. (Almost) Everything in moderation. This includes (but is not limited to): idioms, vernacular, repetitive uncommon words, simple sentences, anachronisms, and especially, ESPECIALLY descriptive text. Elaborating on that last -- If you need to describe something, a scene, an object, a person, then do so. But do it in as few words possible to get your point across. Excessive flowery descriptions (purple prose) will turn readers off to your overall story. I know few to no people who like reading mountains and mountains of descriptive text. That said, some authors are extremely awesome at writing descriptions. Just be really sure, when you look at your writing, that you are one of these people if you find you have oodles and oodles of it in your story. Just saying.
13. Dialogue is the meat of your story, spend time making it perfect. Dialogue is by far the most important thing you will write into your story. If you can't write good dialogue, your story will flop. For some people, this is no big deal; dialogue flows out of them like water from a garden hose. Other people struggle quite a bit with it. Still, it doesn't matter how good you are as long as you put in the work to make your dialogue both as plentiful and as well-written as you possibly can.
Stepping aside for just a moment -- why is dialog so important? Because we are social animals and people are wholly unpredictable. If the main character is about to fight a dragon, you already know he's going to win, you just don't know how. The point of this scene is to see how he/she does it, and then to see how this success affects the story down the road. When the main character interacts with an estranged former love interest, you have no idea how this is going to turn out until you read it. And anything that is said between the two characters affects not only their relationship, but their relationships with other people as well, and theirs, and theirs, etc. In this way, one word spoken by one character can cause two characters, three people removed from them, to break up their long-standing relationship. By comparison, fighting a dragon is pretty straightforward and perhaps even simplistic where the plot is concerned. This is why dialogue is so important.
14. Avoid songs and poems unless they are integral to your story. I'll be honest here; I didn't read a single song or poem in the Hobbit. That stuff bores me to death. A lot of people feel the same. If you include stuff like this, expect many of your readers to skip right over it (unless it is an integral part of your story -- as in the main characters are trying to decipher the meaning of a poem because they think it's a prophecy).