A Bit of Writing Advice

The Next Addition (and Some Other Mathematics of Writing)

Greetings, once again!

So, as asked for in the previous mini-chapter, someone has asked for some advice, and this is my reply.

First of all, I was asked about the book I keep at hand to check dialogue, punctuation etc. A notebook can work, but my preference is to use the whole of "Monstrous Regiment", by Terry Pratchett. It's the work of less than a minute to find dialogue matching what I need to solve my current writing predicament. If I can't find what I need, it's off to the internet for a quick search. The beauty of this is that after writing for a while, while referring to literature that is correctly written, you will no longer need to keep checking and will confidently be able to write uninterrupted by the four rider's of Misplaced Punctuation, Uncertain Capitalisation, War on Line Structure and Death of Reader Interest.

Secondly (and do please persevere here, this is a long one!), I think many people have trouble deciding how much to write (in terms of information, chapter length, description, book length, etc). There are a couple of ways of addressing this, but in the end it should boil down to your personal preference - you need to write in a way that feels good to you, so that your writing doesn't become a massive chore that you dread and despise. The fifth last paragraph has some simple advice that follows on from the previous sentence, while the paragraphs below have some background explanation. You can skip the explanations or have a look through them, your call.

Now, obviously "Write your own way" might seem like the kind of advice that seems good at the time, but is actually bad. Like telling someone to go for their dream at the expense of everything else, when they clearly need backup to support the long slog towards their dream. Let me assure you now, savvy reader, that the above paragraph is not that kind of advice, and I'll prove it.

Let's think about some really popular books. Normally I'd just chuck them in a paragraph, but there are a few, so I think a list will be best:

 Harry Potter
 Lord of The Rings
 George Orwell's works
 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
 Terry Pratchett's works
 The Sword of Shannara series
 The Twig Chronicles
 The Artemis Fowl series
 and, hmm, lets throw in Game of Thrones
 and The Hunger Games as well.

 If you read all of these commercially successful books, you will notice that they each read very differently. Their paragraph lengths, plot progression, amount of description and such varies greatly, as does their use of flowery language (metaphor vs cold hard literally-as-it-is). From this we know that various styles work, so why not yours? 

"Hang on, Mark," some people think, "How do I know my style is working? Or any good? I see what you're saying, but let's face it, sometimes a person's unique style just isn't good."

Very true, but you can improve your work while still sticking to your style. How? Well, that comes down to some self honesty. Can you read your own work and can you be honest about how it reads? Maybe you have you have a mental block, in which case you need to find a friend who aligns with your style, or you need groups of readers who will give you feedback. Use this feedback to grow, but in a direction that you like. If George R.R. Martin had succumbed to the "goody-goody, don't kill your nice characters" mentality of most works, his books would not have had as much appeal.

Now for some bad news. With the many genres out there, and different home languages and personal preferences and such, it's probable that most people won't like your work. However, that's okay! Let me show you why in the next paragraph.

If one person in every set of one thousand likes your work (accounting for all factors, like language, age, preferred reading etc), there are around seven million - 7 000 000 -people around the world who will like your book. Seven million book sales would be pretty successful, right? But this also means that there are around seven billion - 7 000 000 000- people who won't like your writing, to a lesser or greater degree. Now, applying the word genre and such helps narrow down the people who pick up and eyeball your work to those who are likely to be interested, but you will still find most readers won't be that into your work. You're writing for those who like your work, and you're hoping that they find your writing. This is the whole purpose of advertising and branding.

Phew, almost done! So you can be the world's greatest strawberry and some people still won't like strawberries, but what you can do is be a better strawberry. How? read on.

You can improve your own style by cleaning up your spelling and punctuation. You can write in a way that when you say your sentences out loud, it sounds natural. After putting down a load of words, read over it and see what you don't like, and think about why you don't like it, then avoid writing that way in future. As long as you keep writing and checking your work, your ability will grow over time. When you can read your own work and honestly say, "I really like that, I think I may want to read it again," you will find that other's will do the same. If you read it and think something like "Urgh, this intro is taking forever, I want action," you need to edit some action in.

 If you read your work and are uncertain about it, well, chances are that it's alright. Now, perhaps you feel it's flat and you're not sure how to improve it? Then I'd suggest reading something you like and applying a couple of principles within that work to your own until you find some improvements that match the way you write.

To go about this, I'd suggest first choosing a couple of (preferably lengthy) paragraphs from your work, and putting them aside. Now, read the book you really like and pay attention to things like sentence length, tenses, amount of description and so on. As much as you can. Then look at your couple of paragraphs and figure out what about your work is making you feel it's not up the standard of the book you've chosen. Step four, rewrite your paragraphs, perhaps once, maybe twice, possibly many more times. Write until it looks good, then remember what you've changed and start doing it in your future work. 

A word to the wise, though - some people get frustrated doing this or feel like they just can't write well, that their work never matches the book they've chosen to learn from. The point of this exercise isn't to magically make you as good as your favourite author. The point is to find areas in your work that you are unhappy with and to improve them, then one day, when you've written lots and lots, your work will shine in its own right, possibly even better than the author you've learned from.

I think that's enough for now, so we find ourselves at the end of yet another mini-chapter! Bear in mind that I'm happy to answer questions, just comment them below or send me a personal message. I do hope this helps and that you are having an excellent time in life right now, cheers :)