Wordsmithing: writing advice: be natural

Wednesday, 4 August 2010

WRITE IT'S WEDNESDAY

10 KEYS TO THE MANSION

←Taking the dream from this

To this →

Wednesday is all about writing advice. I am going to keep it short and sweet. Shorter and sweeter than last week, when I got a bit carried away – probably on the subject of brevity ;)

1 Write it simple - avoid clumsy, flowery or literary styles

2 Be natural, use the flow of your own language.

3 Write brief and powerful sentences .

4 Trim out as many words as you can so your narrative can move along quickly.

5 Tighten up ~~the~~ sentences, to increase the drama.

6 Keep your descriptions brief :-/ a few details will get your reader on the right track;

7 Trust your reader to fill in the ↑ gaps from their own imagination.

8 Balance your ratio of longer to shorter sentences, depending on the affect you are trying to achieve.

9 Remember some sentences need to be longer

10 Your ability to layer meaning, to ice the surface with subliminal messages, will only work if the links are fluid and the cracks are invisible.

In general, when it comes to writing, if not to mansions, less is more.

RETURN: YA Paranormal Romance

I was running late. But, it was nothing I couldn’t make up with a bit of effort. I shook my head. Confident and happy? I smiled. Increasing my stride, I pushed until the muscles in my legs burned. I kept up the pace even when the hill grew steeper.

Magpie Lane was hardly wider than a ribbon that edged the woods but that didn’t stop traffic using it to get to the motorway quicker. Large trucks and fast cars loved Magpie Lane. They sent vibrations running through me rising from the soles of my trainers. I felt the disturbance in the ground, even before the air pressure tried to knock me off balance. I hunched my shoulders as the cab hauling a container spat stones up at me.

Jogging on the spot, at the entrance to woodland, I ached to leave the road and go inside. My Mum was probably still asleep but I could hear her you-never-know-what might-be-in-there lecture buzzing on repeat inside my head. I should run safe. Not even I would argue that running through the woods on my own was the best definition of safe but I wanted to run-wild and the woodland offered me that. This early, I should be safe from axe murderers or perverts in the trees and besides, I was fast.

I jogged down the slope into the trees. From two paces in, I felt different. Freer. It felt so right. Running in the woods did great things for my style. Avoiding the roots and dodging branches forced my stride longer, I had to step higher. The woodland, The Weald, was only a sliver of ancient woodland that the developers forgot to build on but it felt like it could have been anywhere. Everywhere. At any time. The oaks and beech trees dominated the space and the skinny, silver-birches squeezed up beside them. I laughed. For a second, the woods reminded me of school and I needed to run a lot faster.

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Wednesday, 4 August 2010

WRITE IT'S WEDNESDAY