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Rant about writing
4 years ago
Hello!
I've been writing a lot lately. As I wrote (and read the writing of others), I had a few ideas occur to me -- easy principles people may use to improve their writing. This won't teach someone how to be the next Robert Jordan or Mark Twain, but it will help pick the low-hanging fruit.
The number one tip I can give anyone is what I'd refer to as "variance."
Simply put, variance measures how widely your word choice and sentence structure vary across your writing. Unlike intentional repetition, unintentional repetition usually weakens writing.
Unless you've been trained in writing for years on end, there will be words you use far too often. I'm not talking about how there are only so many ways to refer to a man's primary sexual organ -- sometimes, there's no good way to avoid a crucial words in a piece. In this article, for example, there aren't too many other ways to say "word," "paragraph," and "page."
I'm referring instead to words like "sudden" and "suddenly." As an exercise, read through the last story you wrote and count how many times you use the word "sudden" or "suddenly." While their overuse is typically a symptom of weak transitions or pacing, you could at least substitute it for "abrupt," "unexpected," "jarring," "surprisingly," or any other listing you might find in a thesaurus.
Oh, but do not go to a thesaurus and change words out at random. Make sure you know what you're saying. Bigger, fancier words only enhance your writing when you use the right word, one where the finer connotations make sense.
Aside from repetitive word choice (where you'll see the same word many times across pages or even paragraphs), there's local variance. If your last paragraph began with "As the reptile slid down from the tree, ..." you probably don't want to begin this one with "As the reptile slid closer, ...." Try "As the snake slithered closer, ..."; while it still uses a repetitive structure, this opener works far better than using the exact same dependent clause.
Sentence structure is similar to word choice. The more interesting your structure, the better (within reason).
Simple sentences. Compound sentences. Colons, semicolons, em dashes, parenthesis, and lists. How often do you experiment with different grammatical structures across your writing?
Beyond that, there's functional words and structures. Do you use While, As, During, Begins/Began, Starts, Then, and other such "timing words" often in your writing? If so, is it for a good reason, or would the timing be clear even without them?
How do you indicate dialog? Is the quote always immediately followed by he/she/they said? The functional words surrounding dialog can be difficult to vary effectively if for no other reason than how often they are needed. This is one place where you can learn a lot by turning to a novel for examples.
Proper grammar is important!
I'm not reading the smut you quickly scribbled down while "enjoying" your favorite artist's latest piece because I want a well-composed English essay, you are correct. Grammatical errors are generally tolerable: capitalizing words for no good reason is annoying, but not deal-breaking. However, when your grammatical structure has the cohesive ability of a glue stick in water, I don't want to read it. If your grammar is so poor that others cannot understand what you are saying, you need to start worrying about it -- even for hastily composed smut.
Thanks to modern spellchecking, most writers can avoid misspelled words.
The next level up from grammar is proper flow. The next level up from spelling is proofreading.
While some people struggle with it, writing should flow as smoothly as speaking. If you have trouble with making your writing feel natural, study your own ideas. Once you know what you want to say, record yourself speaking about them out loud. Transcribe what you said to paper. You now have a smoothly-written piece!
If you have trouble placing commas and other grammatical indicators where they should go, study each one until you know their proper uses. Reading the works of skilled writers will help, as well. This means reading a book, by the way, not reading well-written porn (but feel free to do that, too).
One of the biggest grammatical crimes I see in porn is an unclear change in subject. This is both when using an ill-composed sentence and when using pronouns so frequently that the reader can no longer follow who is performing what action to whom. "The werewolf took a step forward towards the homophobic team captain who let out a scream of pure terror. He pushed his two "friends" towards the former human and took off running." "who let out a scream of pure terror" wasn't properly appended to the first sentence. All it needs is a comma just before it, right at the end of "captain." In the second sentence, "He" refers to the team captain, but the previous sentence makes readers think that "He" refers to the werewolf.
The next level up from spelling is proofreading.
Reread your writing at least once. Spellcheck flags most things, but the missing T in "Yes, he sandwich was delicious" slips by undetected. Proofreading will also catch a number of other issues, including variance and awkward phrasing.
For a higher level discussion, consider how the ideas flow through your stories.
Does the order you choose to mention independent details create a logical step from one idea to the next? If two characters just kissed, one of them might note the other's smug grin, smoky eyes, and handsome face before tracing down his muscled form and ending with comments about his genitals. The next paragraph might depict that character kneeling in front of the other to proffer oral stimulation. In that case, the ideas follow one another. It makes more sense than if the character started by noting the genitals and moving up from there.
For another example, consider how I wrote this journal. "Grammar and spelling" is immediately followed by "Proper flow and proofreading." That wasn't on accident.
Though I was relatively brief, you must excuse me now. I have a week to prepare for. I hope this helps someone!
--Arben Sear
I've been writing a lot lately. As I wrote (and read the writing of others), I had a few ideas occur to me -- easy principles people may use to improve their writing. This won't teach someone how to be the next Robert Jordan or Mark Twain, but it will help pick the low-hanging fruit.
VARIANCE
The number one tip I can give anyone is what I'd refer to as "variance."
Simply put, variance measures how widely your word choice and sentence structure vary across your writing. Unlike intentional repetition, unintentional repetition usually weakens writing.
Word Choice
Unless you've been trained in writing for years on end, there will be words you use far too often. I'm not talking about how there are only so many ways to refer to a man's primary sexual organ -- sometimes, there's no good way to avoid a crucial words in a piece. In this article, for example, there aren't too many other ways to say "word," "paragraph," and "page."
I'm referring instead to words like "sudden" and "suddenly." As an exercise, read through the last story you wrote and count how many times you use the word "sudden" or "suddenly." While their overuse is typically a symptom of weak transitions or pacing, you could at least substitute it for "abrupt," "unexpected," "jarring," "surprisingly," or any other listing you might find in a thesaurus.
Oh, but do not go to a thesaurus and change words out at random. Make sure you know what you're saying. Bigger, fancier words only enhance your writing when you use the right word, one where the finer connotations make sense.
Aside from repetitive word choice (where you'll see the same word many times across pages or even paragraphs), there's local variance. If your last paragraph began with "As the reptile slid down from the tree, ..." you probably don't want to begin this one with "As the reptile slid closer, ...." Try "As the snake slithered closer, ..."; while it still uses a repetitive structure, this opener works far better than using the exact same dependent clause.
Sentence Structure
Sentence structure is similar to word choice. The more interesting your structure, the better (within reason).
Simple sentences. Compound sentences. Colons, semicolons, em dashes, parenthesis, and lists. How often do you experiment with different grammatical structures across your writing?
Beyond that, there's functional words and structures. Do you use While, As, During, Begins/Began, Starts, Then, and other such "timing words" often in your writing? If so, is it for a good reason, or would the timing be clear even without them?
How do you indicate dialog? Is the quote always immediately followed by he/she/they said? The functional words surrounding dialog can be difficult to vary effectively if for no other reason than how often they are needed. This is one place where you can learn a lot by turning to a novel for examples.
GRAMMAR AND SPELLING
Proper grammar is important!
I'm not reading the smut you quickly scribbled down while "enjoying" your favorite artist's latest piece because I want a well-composed English essay, you are correct. Grammatical errors are generally tolerable: capitalizing words for no good reason is annoying, but not deal-breaking. However, when your grammatical structure has the cohesive ability of a glue stick in water, I don't want to read it. If your grammar is so poor that others cannot understand what you are saying, you need to start worrying about it -- even for hastily composed smut.
Thanks to modern spellchecking, most writers can avoid misspelled words.
PROPER FLOW AND PROOFREADING
The next level up from grammar is proper flow. The next level up from spelling is proofreading.
Proper Flow
While some people struggle with it, writing should flow as smoothly as speaking. If you have trouble with making your writing feel natural, study your own ideas. Once you know what you want to say, record yourself speaking about them out loud. Transcribe what you said to paper. You now have a smoothly-written piece!
If you have trouble placing commas and other grammatical indicators where they should go, study each one until you know their proper uses. Reading the works of skilled writers will help, as well. This means reading a book, by the way, not reading well-written porn (but feel free to do that, too).
One of the biggest grammatical crimes I see in porn is an unclear change in subject. This is both when using an ill-composed sentence and when using pronouns so frequently that the reader can no longer follow who is performing what action to whom. "The werewolf took a step forward towards the homophobic team captain who let out a scream of pure terror. He pushed his two "friends" towards the former human and took off running." "who let out a scream of pure terror" wasn't properly appended to the first sentence. All it needs is a comma just before it, right at the end of "captain." In the second sentence, "He" refers to the team captain, but the previous sentence makes readers think that "He" refers to the werewolf.
Proofreading
The next level up from spelling is proofreading.
Reread your writing at least once. Spellcheck flags most things, but the missing T in "Yes, he sandwich was delicious" slips by undetected. Proofreading will also catch a number of other issues, including variance and awkward phrasing.
PROGRESSION OF IDEAS
For a higher level discussion, consider how the ideas flow through your stories.
Does the order you choose to mention independent details create a logical step from one idea to the next? If two characters just kissed, one of them might note the other's smug grin, smoky eyes, and handsome face before tracing down his muscled form and ending with comments about his genitals. The next paragraph might depict that character kneeling in front of the other to proffer oral stimulation. In that case, the ideas follow one another. It makes more sense than if the character started by noting the genitals and moving up from there.
For another example, consider how I wrote this journal. "Grammar and spelling" is immediately followed by "Proper flow and proofreading." That wasn't on accident.
Though I was relatively brief, you must excuse me now. I have a week to prepare for. I hope this helps someone!
--Arben Sear
