WEbook Blog: A Writer's Resource

Writing Your First Novel: Defeat the First Draft Blues, Part 4

This is Part 4 of a series on revising the first draft of a novel. Read Part 1 to find out why it's important to take a break from your first draft before you revise it. Read Part 2 to discover why a messy first draft is a good thing. Part 3 teaches you how to take stock of what works (and what doesn't).

Step 4: Put the Vision back in Revision

"Strategic planning is worthless -- unless there is first a strategic vision." -- John Naisbitt, American writer and thinker

If you've followed steps 1-3 of the WEbook Guide to Revising a Novel, you should have a good handle on your book as it exists today -- warts and all. You may be tempted to get right in there and start applying liquid nitrogen to those warts. But then all you'll be left with is a toad with no warts. Why settle for that when you could have -- oh, I don't know -- a griffin, or a jackalope, or an animatronic space monkey?

In other words, they call it revision for a reason. Now that you know what your book is, it's time to create a vision for what your book could be.

There is no simple formula for discovering the greatest potential inherent in your first draft. You cannot plug in character A's strength rating, divide it by subplot B's development score, and multiply the whole thing by the square root of plot twist C. Instead, you must draw on the mysterious forces of inspiration and vision that led you to want to write a book in the first place. Luckily, there are a few signposts that can help you find your way in the dark.

Below, you will find eight questions that will guide you towards your greatest vision. Before you get started on the questions, establish some ground rules to help you get the most out of this process.

Forget what you think you know. Let go of any preconceptions you have about your book. Presumably, you started your first draft with some more or less definite ideas about plot, character, and/or premise. (Even if you started with nothing, you probably developed some ideas along the way.) Throw them all out the window. You may end up back where you started, concluding that yes, in fact, this is a realistic first-person narrative describing a lonely housewife's journey from depression to international pop stardom. But in order to find your vision, you must create space for the possibility that your book could in fact be a third-person narrative exploring the perspectives of twelve different roadies backstage before the once-lonely housewife's final arena concert.

So many possibilites, so few lifetimes. Once you open yourself up to the possibility that your book could be something other than what you originally imagined it to be, you may find yourself overwhelmed by all the somethings other it could be. Don't despair. Focus on finding the most promising path for your novel, and leave the other possibilities for another day -- and another book.

Keep it positive. Remember when you read through your first draft and took stock of what worked well? Let those bright lights guide you to your vision. As you reflect on the questions below, think mainly about the elements of your draft that stand out as great, successful, and/or energetic.

Grab a pen. Carve out some time in your day to sit down with a pen and a notebook. Devote roughly ten minutes to each of the questions below. If you need to, you can come back to some of the questions again -- and again -- until you're satisfied. You can also jot down other questions that occur to you as you answer these. Remember, you should answer these questions not necessarily about your first draft as it is, but about your book as it could be and as you want it to be.

Document your vision. Spend as much time as you want brainstorming about the questions below. When you feel that you have a solid grasp of the greatest possibility for your story, take one piece of paper and collect the downpour from your brainstorm into a single bucket. Write 2-3 sentences summarizing each answer. (If an answer covers more than one character, it's okay to devote 2-3 sentences to each character.) Incorporate your favorite ideas from the final question ("What if...?") into your answer to question # 7.

The questions:

1. Whose story is it? It's fine if the answer includes more than one person; however, it may be easier if you have one main person to focus on.
2. Who tells the story? This may or may not be the same person as question # 1. It also may or may not be a person in the story at all -- the person telling the story might be you, the author.
3. How does the story begin? Pinpoint the chronological beginning of your story -- not necessarily where you begin telling it, but where the story itself is set in motion.
4. How does the story end? See above, substituting "end" for "begin." Look for the place where the strongest elements of your story resolve themselves.
5. How do the book's characters change over the course of the story? What transformations occur -- or should occur -- to your characters between the story's beginning and its end?
6. How does the reader change over the course of the story? In your vision for your book, imagine what you want your reader to think and feel at the beginning of the book, and chart the changes in their perspective that should take place along the way. You may be mainly concerned with your reader's thoughts about people or events within the book; or, you may want your book to have an effect on your reader's larger worldview.
7. What events or elements of the story are crucial to the changes experienced by your characters and readers? Make a list of things that happen in the story that lead to character or reader transformations and shifts in perspective.
8. What if...? Finally, take ten or twenty minutes to brainstorm on possible new story elements that could strengthen the transformations you envision for your characters and readers. Repeat as necessary.

Join the Conversation

Share your revision wisdom and woes with fellow WEbookers on the WEbook forums.

WEbook Writing Secrets

Got a secret I don’t know about? Share it with the world in WEbook Writing Secrets. To submit a secret, email me or visit my profile and send me a message with the subject line: Writing Secrets. The best secrets will be published here and in the WEbook Toolbox. Authors will be credited with a byline and a bio.

Get Feedback on your Novel at WEbook

Find readers for your work – sign up for WEbook today.

-- Melissa

Creative Writing Advice # 15: Defeat the First Draft Blues, Part 3

This is Part 3 of a series on revising the first draft of a novel. Read Part 1 to find out why it's important to take a break from your first draft before you revise it. Read Part 2 to discover why a messy first draft is a good thing.

Step 3: Survey the Damage

So you've taken a nice, long break from your novel, and you've made peace with its imperfections. Now it's time to survey the damage -- but don't worry. You won't be making a list of all the things you did wrong. Instead, you'll be looking at what you did right, and asking yourself some very important questions.

Find What Works

When you come back to your novel after a break, the first thing you need to do is read it. That may seem obvious, but it's important that you set some guidelines for how you will read the first draft.

• DON'T change a word. That's right, not a single word. Don't add a comma, don't remove a quotation mark. Don't make any changes at all to your manuscript.
• DO read in big, uninterrupted chunks. If you can manage it, set aside a few consecutive days to get through the book. You may not be able to do it all in one sitting, but the last thing you want is a two-week break between page 100 and page 101.
• DO print your manuscript. Working from a hard copy instead of a computer screen has many advantages. It will make it easier to resist the temptation to start "fixing" things. (See above.) And, you can scribble all over a piece of paper. (See below.) That doesn't work so well on a monitor.
• DO break out the highlighters and colored markers. How you choose to mark up your manuscript is up to you, but it pays to get creative.
• DO look for what works. Underline or highlight any passages that are particularly resonant, well-written, and effective. Write notes in the margin, pointing out sections of strong characterization, setting, action, etc. 
• DO ask questions. As you read, leave yourself memos asking what, where, how, who, and, most importantly, why. 
• DON'T get too focused on flaws. You could agonize over why a scene doesn't work, only to decide later that the entire sub-plot it belongs to needs to go. For now, think of yourself as a doctor treating a patient with an exotic, unknown disease. You can't make a diagnosis, much less prescribe a treatment, until you take the patient's history and make a list of all the symptoms. As you're reading, jot down a note if a scene moves too quickly or slowly; if dialogue is stilted; if a character does something implausible; or if something just plain doesn't make sense. Then let it go, and move on to the next page.

Ask for Help

Feedback can be a great help to a writer -- but it's important to get the right kind of feedback for whatever stage you're at with your novel. When you're planning a revision of a first draft, ask your readers to follow the above guidelines, with one modification: tell them not to focus on the flaws at all. Let your readers know that the manuscript is very rough, and you'll be working out the kinks soon. For now, you're interested in hearing what elements of the book your readers like the most.

Coming Soon: Defeat the First Draft Blues, Part 4: Find your Vision

Join the Conversation

Share your revision wisdom and woes with fellow WEbookers on the WEbook forums.

WEbook Writing Secrets

Got a secret I don’t know about? Share it with the world in WEbook Writing Secrets. To submit a secret, email me or visit my profile and send me a message with the subject line: Writing Secrets. The best secrets will be published here and in the WEbook Toolbox. Authors will be credited with a byline and a bio.

Get Feedback on your Novel at WEbook

Find readers for your work – sign up for WEbook today.

-- Melissa

Creative Writing Advice # 15: Defeat the First Draft Blues, Part 2

This is Part 2 of a series on revising the first draft of a novel, dedicated to all the NaNoWriMo winners out there. Read Part 1 here.

Step 2: Embrace the Mess

When I was a kid, my mom had a cross-stitched sign in our living room that said, "A messy house is the sign of a brilliant mind." If I knew how to cross-stitch, I'd hang a similar sign over my desk: "A messy first draft is the sign of a brilliant mind."

I know a few good writers who edit their work as they write it. Sentence 1 has to be just right before they can move onto Sentence 2. Chapter 1 has to be perfect before they write Chapter 2.  If they get to Chapter 13 and decide to make a change that affects Chapters 1, 2, 5, and 9, they go back and fix those chapters before they write Chapter 14.  Some of these writers even manage to finish books!

This guide to revision is not for those writers.

Let's assume that your first draft is a total mess. You wrote it (maybe in a single month); you left it alone long enough to get some perspective; and now you know for sure:  This book is a piece of junk.  No one in the history of time has ever written a book this bad.  At the beginning of the book, your main character's name is John; by the end, it's Jan.  You have no idea how or why Jan spent three chapters in Bangladesh shopping for a puppy -- she lives in Indiana, and she hates dogs.  Plus, you forgot to give Jan any friends, family, or source of income.  Whoops!

Good thing writers are so famously crazy.  You'll need at least two separate personalities to deal with this mess.

Personality #1: The Creator.  The Creator is great at coming up with cool ideas (like sending your main character to Bangladesh).  Flashes of insight and inspiration are the Creator's specialty.  Without the Creator, the world -- and your book -- would be very, very boring.  However, the Creator is lousy at logic and planning.  That's why you need...

Personality #2:  The Editor.  The Editor cleans up the messes the Creator leaves behind.  Editors are great at seeing the big picture, making outlines, setting deadlines, fixing details, and refining language.

If your first draft is a mess, that's a sign that your Creator has been hard at work -- which is a very good thing.  A mess means you've been thinking big, and you probably have some really great ideas buried under all the digressions and mistakes.  Now it's time for the Editor to take over for a while. 

In the steps to come, you will learn when to delegate responsibility to the Editor, and when to call on the Creator. For now, make a deal with yourself: The Creator and the Editor are not allowed in the same room without a chaperon.  

And stop worrying about the mess.  If you want to build the Sistine Chapel, you have to spill some paint.

Coming Soon: Step 3: Survey the Damage

Join the Conversation

Share your revision wisdom and woes with fellow WEbookers on the WEbook forums.

WEbook Writing Secrets

Got a secret I don’t know about? Share it with the world in WEbook Writing Secrets. To submit a secret, email me or visit my profile and send me a message with the subject line: Writing Secrets. The best secrets will be published here and in the WEbook Toolbox. Authors will be credited with a byline and a bio.

Start Writing Now

Put your secrets to work – sign up for WEbook today.

-- Melissa

Creative Writing Advice # 14: Defeat the First Draft Blues, Part 1

National Novel Writing Month (a.k.a. NaNoWriMo) ended November 30, but for the 21,683 writers who successfully completed a 50,000-word (or longer) draft of a novel, the work has just begun. If you're one of them -- or if you've ever stared at a first draft of a novel, wondering, "What's next?" -- WEbook Writing Secrets are here to help.

This is the first in a series of practical tips for writers facing the first draft blues.

It's Not Over!

Unless you're Jack Kerouac, chances are good that the work you create in a white-hot frenzy is nowhere near publishable quality. (Frankly, I've always had my doubts about old Jack, too.) Even if you're not sure you want to publish your novel, you can learn just as much -- and perhaps more -- about telling a story from editing and revision as you can from writing a first draft. Here's how it's done.

(Note: These tips come from my experience working with writers to get their first -- or second, or third, or fifteenth -- draft of a novel in shape for publication. None of these steps are compulsory. Plenty of people write, revise, and publish novels without following my advice. If you have work habits that work for you, keep working 'em!)

Step 1: Take Five

A first draft of a novel is a lot like a really, really dense forest. There may be a path in there, but if you're lost in the trees, you'll never find it. Get out of the forest. In fact, go far enough for long enough that you completely forget what the forest is like. Then, rent a helicopter and fly over the forest, making a map of what you see from a distance. When you get back into the trees, you'll be less likely to get lost.

What does this mean in non-metaphorical terms?  Quite simply: Take a break, then come back and read your entire first draft with fresh eyes, making notes before you start changing anything. Your break should be long enough that you forget a lot of the details of what you wrote. The length of this break will vary depending on how much your mind resembles a steel trap. There are a few things you can do to speed up the process. Choose one of these cross-training activities, or combine a few.

1) Read one great book. Pick something long and difficult that you've been meaning to tackle since high school. Anything written by a 19th-century Russian writer or an early modernist European should do the trick. Spend a week or two on War and Peace or The Magic Mountain, and you'll have no idea what you were working on before. Beware! Reading dense old books can infect your writing style. This is more of a danger during the composition process, but you should be on guard for accidental overdose nonetheless.

2) Read three silly books. The books should be reasonably well-written (you don't want to rot your writer's brain), but light and fast. It's best to steer clear of your novel's genre -- if you wrote a horror novel, don't read Stephen King. For all writers, I recommend anything by P.G. Wodehouse.

3) Complete a physical challenge. Train for a 5K, a 10K, a marathon, or a triathlon. Hike a segment of the Appalachian trail. Climb a literal mountain.

4) Become an art enthusiast. Take two weeks, and see as many plays, dance performances, concerts, and museum exhibits as your schedule and your town's cultural offerings will permit. Don't go to literary readings -- they lead to nothing but pointless, poisonous fantasies about what you'll wear to your first book signing.

5) Don't stop writing -- but don't work on your novel, and don't start anything that can't be finished in a day. Your goal is not to start new projects during this time -- you just need to keep the old writing muscles in decent shape. Think of yourself as an athlete in the off-season, or an opera singer between shows. You want to run drills and sing some light scales, but you also need to rest. Commit to a few weeks of free-writing for an hour or so a day, or write some 200-word short short stories. File the stories away for later. When you're done with your novel, you can pull them out and use them for inspiration for your next project.

Coming Soon: Step 2: Embrace the Mess

Join the Conversation

Share your revision wisdom and woes with fellow WEbookers on the WEbook forums.

WEbook Writing Secrets

Got a secret I don’t know about? Share it with the world in WEbook Writing Secrets. To submit a secret, email me or visit my profile and send me a message with the subject line: Writing Secrets. The best secrets will be published here and in the WEbook Toolbox. Authors will be credited with a byline and a bio.

Start Writing Now

Put your secrets to work – sign up for WEbook today.

-- Melissa

Creative Writing Advice # 13: Surprise! It’s your Character!

By FirstYearGrad

The better we know someone, the more they surprise us with their inconsistencies.

I once worked with a woman who color-coded her desk drawers. She sorted her pens and pencils into three separate holders, depending on the duty they were to perform, and never thought to put a plastic coated paper clip into the same pot as the shiny silver wires.

One day I agreed to pick her up for work. When I got to her house, I was shocked to see that her kitchen table was covered with last night’s dishes, and her sink was full of even older dishes. A great orange tabby cat walked up and down the counter, carefully picking its way around newspapers and old mail. The floor may have been clean, but it was hard to see it under the pile of dirty laundry.

Now, if I had put this woman into a story before I visited her house, her character would have been flat, one-sided, and uninteresting. As I got to know her better, she surprised me all the time with new sides to her personality.

So, writer, know your character — and you best know them better then that person you sit next to at work.

Desperately Seeking FirstYearGrad

Are you the author of this clever writing tip?  If so, please visit my profile and send me a message so I can include a short bio with your entry!

WEbook Writing Secrets

Got a secret I don’t know about? Share it with the world in WEbook Writing Secrets. To submit a secret, email me or visit my profile and send me a message with the subject line: Writing Secrets. The best secrets will be published here and in the WEbook Toolbox. Authors will be credited with a byline and a bio.

Start Writing Now

Put your secrets to work – sign up for WEbook today.

-- Melissa

Creative Writing Advice # 12: Read Other Books Carefully

By Marieke

Many serious novels, especially those that tackle social subjects, come with a reading guide, which supplies questions for book clubs, students, and other committed readers. If you’re writing a novel, why not make up your own reading guide as you go along? Imagine the questions your readers may have about your book’s themes and characters – this will help you find the strengths and weaknesses of your story.

Here are some suggestions for questions to include in your “Writer’s Reading Guide”:

1. How do the first and last scene frame your novel?

2. Why are the main characters friends? And what do they fear from each other?

(After the Reading Guide to The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini )

3.  Discuss the topic of marriage as it is represented in your novel.

4. What are your thoughts on the structure of your novel?

(After the Reading Guide to The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan)

5. What rules, both written and unwritten, do the characters follow in the novel?

6. In what ways do the settings affect their residents?

(After the Reading Guide to The Cider House Rules by John Irving)

You can find more reading guides on readinggroupguides.com.

About the Author

Marieke van Buytene from the Netherlands is freelance writer, editor and creative writing teacher, so fate has decreed that she’ll never get a novel published.  Fortunately, a friend tipped her on WEbook in August 2008, so now at least she can share The Devil’s Virgin, and soon also her comic mystery stories and more.

WEbook Writing Secrets

Got a secret I don’t know about? Share it with the world in WEbook Writing Secrets. To submit a secret, email me or visit my profile and send me a message with the subject line: Writing Secrets. The best secrets will be published here and in the WEbook Toolbox. Authors will be credited with a byline and a bio.

Start Writing Now

Put your secrets to work – sign up for WEbook today.

-- Melissa

Creative Writing Advice #11: Cut Unnecessary Description

Melissa arrived at the office five minutes late, as usual. She opened the door and walked down the hall. She put her laptop down on her desk and sat in her chair. She double-clicked on her Outlook folder, and brought up her cluttered to-do list. Stage Directions Blog was written right at the top. Great. She’d been looking forward to this for a long time. But first, she had to do something about breakfast. It was no good writing on an empty stomach. She pulled her whole wheat bagel out of her backpack and unwrapped it. She put a napkin in her lap. She tore off a chunk of bagel and put it in her mouth. She chewed. She swallowed. Soon, the bagel was gone, and it was time to write the blog entry. She opened Microsoft Word (despite the program’s nightmarish incompatibility with Typepad’s text editor), and put her hands on the keyboard. She began to type.

Cut!

You follow all that, readers? Or did you scan right down to the bottom, thinking, “All right already with the napkin in your lap! Get to the good stuff!”

If you answered the latter, I don’t blame you. That paragraph is a living, breathing specimen of a prose writer’s mortal enemy: Stage Directions.

Any time you narrate a physical action that gets a person from point A to point B, you’re using Stage Directions. Of course, sometimes it’s necessary to include some stage directions. But many writers – especially novices – use far too many stage directions in their writing.

The term Stage Directions comes from – you guessed it – playwriting, where stage directions are used to tell actors what they should do with their bodies during a play. Some plays include more stage directions than others. The most basic stage directions provide cues only for when a character enters or exits the stage. But plays never provide detailed directions for every single action a character should make during the play. Why not? Because actors and directors would revolt! “Don’t micromanage me!” they would exclaim. “I can create my own interpretation of my character’s actions! Give me some creative freedom!”

Your readers are sort of like these actors and directors. If a person you’re writing about goes from the kitchen table to the back door, you don’t need to tell your readers about how they stood up, walked around the table, walked into the hall, opened the door to the laundry room, etc. Your readers are perfectly capable of filling in the blanks with their imaginations. In fact, the process of doing this is one of the major pleasures of reading. Don’t rob your reader of that pleasure by micromanaging his or her imagination.

How do you know what stage directions to put in, and which to leave out? Practice, practice, practice. You might start by putting a lot of unnecessary directions in, and then taking them out in editing. Wise, helpful readers can help you find places in your writing where you use too many stage directions. As a general rule, you should include only those physical actions which are absolutely necessary for a reader’s comprehension of a scene; and those which reveal something interesting about your character or his/her situation. If you’re still uncertain, pretend your characters are capable of teleporting both through time and space. If you can teleport them somewhere without totally confusing your reader, or missing something crucial in the story, don’t describe the steps it would take for them to get there.

Now try this on for size:

Melissa arrived at the office five minutes late, as usual. She glanced at her cluttered to-do list: Stage Directions Blog. Great. She’d been looking forward to this for a long time. But first, she had to do something about breakfast. It was no good writing on an empty stomach. She tried to make her whole wheat bagel last, but before she knew it, it was time to write the blog entry. She opened Microsoft Word (despite the program’s nightmarish incompatibility with Typepad’s text editor), and began to type.

WEbook Writing Secrets

Got a secret I don’t know about? Share it with the world in WEbook Writing Secrets. To submit a secret, email me or visit my profile and send me a message with the subject line: Writing Secrets. The best secrets will be published here and in the WEbook Toolbox. Authors will receive a byline and a bio.

Start Writing Now

Put your secrets to work – sign up for WEbook today.

-- Melissa

 

Creative Writing Advice #10: Use Believable Language

by Julian_Finn

Never use language in your prose that's noticeably more complex than your characters.

As writers struggle to find their voices and develop definitive styles, it's tempting to use "impressive" vocabulary -- sort of a textual scream that says, "See!  See!  I English good!"

Instead of focusing on showing off your language chops, it's usually a good idea to use language that syncs with your characters.  If you're writing about gruff, gritty, morally complex characters, make your prose gruff, gritty, and sharp.  Alternatively, if you're writing about pretentious, snobbish characters, it makes more sense to be more stylish and haughty with your language.

This rule is especially true if you're writing in the first person.  It makes no sense for your rude, uneducated doormat protagonist to use five syllable words to describe a tree.

About the Author

Julian_Finn is a Canadian writer and corporate sales professional.  He is currently working on revising the first draft of his novel, There but for Luck.

Got a Secret?

Do you have a writing tip you'd like to share with the world?  Send me an email, or visit my WEbook profile and drop me a message with the subject line: WEbook Writing Secrets.  Keep it practical -- your tip should be something a writer can apply directly to his or her craft.  The best Writing Secrets will be published here and in the WEbook Toolbox.  Contributors will be credited with a bio.

Put our Tips to the Test

Ready to write? Join WEbook today and see Writing Secrets in action.

-- Melissa

Creative Writing Advice #9: Story Writing by the Letters

So you want to write a short story, but you don’t know where to start? No worries – today’s WEbook Writing Secret is here to help.

The key to overcoming writer’s block is structure. Counter-intuitive as it may seem, giving yourself less freedom rather than more can help jump start the creative process. Blame it on humankind’s will to overcome obstacles. If you see a mountain, you’ll climb it. No mountain? Might as well stay in bed.

As a writer, you have lots of options for finding structure. Deadlines, contests, and writing classes are all good ways to harness your boundless energy into real words on the page. But even if you don’t have any deadlines, you can give your writing some structure by using the A, B, C, D, E formula. What’s it stand for?

A = Action
B = Background
C = Conflict
D = Development
E = Ending

By breaking down the story-writing process into five simple steps, you narrow the billions of possibilities for starting and writing your story into just one concrete, practical approach. Of course, it’s called a formula for a reason. Stick to the plan too rigidly, and your story might turn out…well, formulaic. You and your readers will have more fun when you add complications and twists. But, just like a jazz musician, it’s worth practicing your scales before you move onto improvisation.

Here’s how it’s done:

Action: Start your story with a compelling action. This action should raise questions in the reader’s mind. Example: Jack and Jill went up the hill. The reader might wonder, “Why did Jack and Jill go up the hill?” This curiosity gets your reader to turn the first page.

Background: Imagine what circumstances could have led up to the initial action – this is the background. The background should at least partially answer the question posed by the reader in response to the action you started with. Example: To fetch a pail of water.  The background section should not be too long in relation to the rest of the story – otherwise, it might seem as if your story is about what happened yesterday, instead of what’s happening right now. Your story will be most compelling if you can find a way to convey background without being purely expository.

Conflict: Next, introduce the central conflict of the story.  The best, richest conflicts provide a story with forward momentum – they require the character to make an action or choice in the scope of the story, which will have real consequences, changing the character's life or outlook in some way.  The conflict should involve both motivation (the character wants something) and stakes (something is at risk).  Example: Jack fell down.

Development: The longest part of the story is usually development.  Development of what? Of the conflict, of course! This is the “what happens” of the story. As the story develops, the conflict will exert pressure on your characters, and they will make choices in response. Those choices may involve resolution of the conflict, escalation of the conflict, or the introduction of a whole new conflict! Example:  And broke his crown.

Ending: At the end of your story, the conflict must be addressed, if not completely resolved. There can still be a conflict at the end – stories shouldn't all end “happily ever after” – but it should be a different conflict than the one you started with.  Something needs to have changed, whether it's something subtle or something big. Some of the best endings are those that could potentially be the beginning of a whole new story. Example: And Jill came tumbling after.

Ready to give it a shot? Write your own story using the A, B, C, D, E formula and share it with your fellow WEbookers by posting it in this project. Bonus: The first five writers to submit a story will receive personalized feedback from yours truly – priceless!

WEbook Writing Secrets

Improve your writing with WEbook Writing Secrets, featuring writing tips from masters of the craft. Got a secret we don’t know about? Visit my profile and submit a writing tip of your own.  The best of the bunch will be published here and in the WEbook Toolbox. Authors will receive credit, and a link to their personal writing or website.

 

Start Writing Now!

To try your hand at writing short stories, sign up for WEbook today!

-- Melissa

Creative Writing Advice #8: Make Your Poetry Concrete

Today’s WEbook Writing Secret comes from WEbooker Moot_Caroo. Mr. _Caroo is a senior at the University of Illinois, studying poetry and rhetoric. In his previous life, he served in the United States Navy; studied radio, television, and film at the University of North Texas; and worked as a journalist, photographer, and essayist.

Connect Your Poetry with an Audience: Make it Concrete

One of the most valuable things my poetry mentor ever told me has to do with one simple word. It is the most commonly used word in poetry, and it’s also a pitfall for new writers. Why? Two reasons:

1) Writers know the word intimately, yet they don’t know how to write about it.

2) By using the word, writers fail to connect with the reader, because the word automatically invokes the reader’s own associations, including associations from watching movies and TV, hearing songs, and reading other poems and books.

Do you know what the word is?

Love.

The next most commonly used word is soul. Love and soul are abstract concepts, along with denial, anger, fear, faith, and despair. Loneliness, depression, elation, and lust are others.

Suppose you have a feeling – an emotion that only you have experienced in your own particular way. Many readers out there have had similar experiences, but their experiences aren’t identical to yours. How can you connect?

Make your poem concrete. Fill it with facts, objects, sounds, and smells, instead of abstract concepts. Your abstract emotion will translate into something vivid and real, and your reader will relate to the actual experience you’re writing about, instead of imagining all the times he or she has experienced love, or even seen it on TV.

Here’s an example:

Poet “A” writes the line, “My love is envious.”  There are two abstracts here: love and envy. Of course the reader might relate to envious love, but only in an abstract, impersonal way.  How does the reader connect to the writer, instead of to his or her own understanding of envious love? Poet “A” has a personal relationship with envious love, but cannot convey that to the reader on an intimate level.

Poet “B” is also familiar with envious love, but decides to take this route instead: “My love is a sharp-eyed raven; it covets all things shiny and new.” There are several concrete, specific words in this line, such as raven and sharp eyes, as well as objects that are shiny and new.

Poet “C” takes things even further, eliminating the word love as well as envy: “I am a sharp-eyed raven, and I covet all that is shiny and new.”

Love is an overused, abstract word that writers have been attempting to describe for thousands of years.  If you want your reader to understand what you know about love, you’re going to have to make it concrete.  Otherwise, we’ll all write about love, and yet we will never learn about love from somebody else.  Just like real life.

WEbook Writing Secrets

WEbook Writing Secrets is a regular feature of the WEbook blog. WEbookers, readers of this blog, and other writers and writing teachers are encouraged to submit their tips on the craft by visiting my profile and sending me a message titled “WEbook Writing Secrets." Submissions should be no more than 500 words long, and should focus on practical elements of writing – the more nuts n’ boltsy, the better! The best submissions will be published here and in the WEbook Toolbox, and authors will receive credit, a bio, and links to their personal blogs or other writing. Good luck!

-- Melissa