Writing Better: A Blog by Warren Bull

 Writing Better: Tips from Successful Writers and Me Too. A Blog by Warren Bull

Image from Pixaby by Loveprintedvers

https://jerryjenkins.com/writing-tips/#writingtip1

Lisa Cron

What grabs readers isn’t beautiful writing, a rip-roaring plot, or surface drama; what grabs readers is what gives those things their meaning and power: the story itself.

 Joe Bunting

The best way to fail at being a writer is to spend all your time proving you know what you’re doing rather than learning from the people and resources around you.

Randy Ingermanson  

You need to be told when your writing is bad and why it’s bad, because when you start writing, your work will be awful and you will imagine it’s brilliant. You also need to be told when your writing is brilliant, because by the time your writing is brilliant, you will have been told so many times that your writing is bad that you’ll imagine you are the worst writer who ever lived.

Philip Yancey

“Do not attempt this act alone.”

Yes, writing is a solitary act, performed in isolation. But the editing process needs different sets of eyes to help clarify the writer’s vision and meaning.

The grouchiest curmudgeons make the best editors; praise feels good, but only criticism helps me improve.

Michele Cushatt

The writers who endure are those who can’t not write, the ones for whom contracts and publication are secondary rewards.

Rather than aiming at recognition, they chase understanding. They lean into the struggle, learn to marvel at the untangling of complexities and the transcendence of unforgettable stories.

Writing holds the power to transform you and the way you see the world in a way few other human experiences can. This is the real reward, the one that lasts long after the lights go out.

Julie Duffy

Don’t wait until you have something “important” to say. You are living now, and you’ll never be able to recapture the feeling of being 15, 22, 36…not really. The things that matter to you now, won’t matter in the same way when you’re older, and the things that matter to you when you’re older won’t necessarily be more important. You might know more, but that won’t make you more interesting or important. Write now.

Don’t wait, because when you do have something important to say, you won’t want your writing to be rusty. Your writing will change and evolve, and when you get stuck you will seek out the mentors and teachers you need to move you to the next stage.

Don’t wait, because the best ideas come when you’re writing. You will never, never run out of ideas, as long as you keep writing.

Don’t wait for anyone to tell you to write. Whether or not anyone ever pays you to write, or asks you to contribute, or gives you permission to sneak off and steal an hour or two to tell stories on paper, writing is a part of you. You are more fully yourself when you accept and embrace that. You’re easier to live with when you’re writing, so claim the time you need, and don’t wait. Make it a priority to do the writing, rather than to worry about whether you’ll ever make a career of it. 

Warren Bull

I have a number of rules of thumb that I find helpful in critiquing work that I apply to my own writing. 

I am a member of a critique group, which cues me about my own bad habits. A careful reading of other people’s work is a way to practice careful reading. 

!s sound like people shouting inside my head. They can be helpful if used judiciously, and rarely.

Punctuation is no substitute for writing well. It is a sloppy, ineffective substitute for the real work of writing.

If you don’t have the writing chops to pull off what you want in a story, save the story and leave it alone for as long as it takes. You can practice and improve your skills until you acquire the skills to do justice to the concept. I have postponed story ideas for years on end before putting them out for consumption. 

Before I put that soapbox away, presenting work that is not yet ready for prime time is like starting a sailboat race by heaving the anchor over the side of the boat. Readers judge you on what you give them. That half-baked story will float around forever. Readers will, understandably, think the level of skill shown is the maximum level you have achieved. There are writers who I avoid because of what I have been shown. I don’t react as if offended, but because life is too short to waste time reading under-written material. 

Note: I have found some writing that offended me and I avoid those authors too. They are few in number. 

If you don’t have the knowledge to write about something, take the time to acquire the information you need. Then return to the story.

Read your work aloud. After a number of revisions, I only see what I wanted to write, not what I did write.