Pictures of Success in 1,000 Words or Less

This month’s installment of a column brought to you by . . . YOU.

This is where we give up control of what’s said and hand it over to the people who matter most: our clients. Your words appear in this space, once a month.

Why?

Oodles of ah-ha moments.

Some of the writers who appear here didn’t have a clue where to start and subsequently transformed into writing machines. Some started right where you sit today, confused and needing guidance or maybe a little inspiration. And some were seasoned authors who needed a boost.

ALL of them figured it out and wrote epic shit.

This week, meet Suanne.

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When I sent the first chapter of The Man I Love to Becky for a sample edit, it came back with several notes and corrections.

“You’re far too talented a writer to fall into these bad habits,” she wrote, and proceeded to lay down the law. No semicolons, no overused words, such as “very” and “suddenly,” and no starting sentences with “there was” or “there were.” Solid gold nuggets of advice which shaped me as a writer from that moment to present.

Other admonitions were harder to swallow. I got into a rousing, heated debate with Becky over the use of speech tags. I clung to the notion that using only “said” in dialogue was boring and amateur. She insisted if my dialogue was good enough, “said” was all I needed. I grumbled, but tried it her way and I eventually embraced its exclusive use. With few exceptions (such as “whisper”), it’s the only way I write dialogue now.

I will skip over the entire Oxford comma thing, it’s just too emotional a topic and we’ve agreed to disagree.

By far, the greatest takeaway from working with Becky was this simple advice:

Just tell the story.

My first draft of The Man I Love jumped all over the place. Flashing back, skipping ahead. I thought it made a dramatic, riveting read.

Becky said, “I have no idea what’s happening here. You’re introducing people and situations as if I already know them and I don’t. You’re losing me, which means you’re going to lose the reader.”

You’re going to lose the reader. For an author, that’s the equivalent of a cancer diagnosis.

Tell the story, Beck went on to teach me. Don’t be clever, don’t be cryptic. Just tell the story in order, as it happened and let it unfold its own riveting drama. And don’t keep things from the reader.

An almost sacred relationship of trust exists between author and reader, and once the the trust is broken, the book gets closed and your story—and all your work—is dead in the water (minus two points for cliché). “If you’re going to withhold information from your reader,” Becky said, “you better have a damn good reason.”

As with the speech tags, I wasn’t thoroughly convinced. But by this point, I was developing my own relationship of trust with Becky. Noting I didn’t always like her edits and notes, nine times out of 10, she was right. Dammit. (For the record, I prefer damn it, but it’s not a battle worth picking. I’m over it.)

So I rearranged my chapters into chronological order and tried to clear my mind and read it as if laying my eyes on it for the first time. (Any author will tell you this is practically impossible, hence the need for an editor and outside eyes.) I clarified characters and situations, took out unnecessary drama and suspense. I just told the story.

It was better.

Miles better.

Insanely better.

What had I been thinking?

“Don’t think,” Becky wrote later. “Just write. It’s my job to think about that other shit. Just write. With your words. Say what you mean and tell the story.”

Just write.

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Come back next month for another edition of “Pictures of Success in 1,000 Words or Less.” Suanne can be found here.

Confessions of a Dirty Blonde :: Four tips for better writing

Here we are, a hundred and four years after Mark Twain’s death and he can still teach us a thing or two about writing.

Why do I love him so? Because he didn’t shy away from saying what he felt. He was honest and straightforward, two endearing characteristics that modern readers still enjoy.

And I’m from Missouri. Enough said.

Without further ado, here are Twain’s top tips.

“Use the right word, not its second cousin.”

Using synonyms, especially for the sake of sounding smarter, is useless.

People catch onto your vocabulary and style through each word you choose. Salting your vocabulary with something outside of normal is obvious and insulting to the reader. Plus, they’re reading your work because they want to get to know you. Don’t prevent them from hearing your voice by trying to be someone you’re not.

“Substitute damn every time you’re inclined to write very. Your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.”

Never use “very” in your writing. It’s lazy writing, doesn’t do anything for the reader and wastes space.

I am damn tired.

She looks damn happy.

Writing this post has been so damn fun.

And if your editor is anyone on Beck’s team, we won’t cut out damn but very will be history.

“You need not expect to get your book right the first time. Go to work and revamp or rewrite it. God only exhibits his thunder and lightning at intervals, and so they always command attention. These are God’s adjectives. You thunder and lightning too much; the reader ceases to get under the bed, by and by.”

Even Twain said you won’t get it right the first time. Sometimes our words and emotions are more powerful, just as some days I still nail pirouettes and other days I look like Taylor Swift in this video. And if you’re trying to show off, you’ll lose the reader. They’ll be gone because they don’t want to know how smart you are. They want to read a great story.

“As to the Adjective: when in doubt, strike it out.”

This goes along with the third point, though I couldn’t reference Taylor Swift here (so I had to include both). Adjectives can be troublesome in writing for a couple of reasons.

  • They are very damn sales-y.
    We all know when somebody is trying to sell us something. Sales pitches are everywhere and we are practiced at calling out advertisers because of it. While you’re writing, whether fiction or non, adding too many adjectives can make your paragraphs feel sketchy. We’re Pavlov’s dogs, turning away from anything that feels like a pitch.
  • They are vague.

Adjectives can mean different things to different people, so if you’re trying to build one mood for your reader, it’s probably not best to do it with adjectives. What fierce means to me could be different than what it means to you. Eager, good and dirty are three other examples.

Adjectives are okay to use in moderation, but you’re going to run into the problems listed above if you use too many. Put yourself on an adjective diet before your editor does. You’ll feel less guilt and your writing will be clean.

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Got writing questions for Capo? Email capo@rebeccatdickson.com. Confessions of a Dirty Blonde goes out every Thursday.

P.S. Becky’s hosting free training TODAY at noon EST on why writers get blocked, stuck, scared, think they suck AND what to do about it. Click for details. It’s free, and if you can’t make it live, we’ll automatically send you the recording. Your excuse is invalid.