What distinguishes a thrilling and engaging piece of work from one that is jarring?
Personal Taste?
Reader Age?
Technique?
The plot itself?
How long they've been writing?
Ask 10,000 writers and they will most likely clash until the place is nothing more than one huge violent onslaught of a debate.
What do readers think? (Readers Comment Here)
Editors believe that they have solved this problem, but again if you ask enough of them the sheer amount of information can be both discouraging and overwhelming.
The truth is this. Writing is subjective and here is where i will prove it.
"For Sale, Children's Shoes... Never Worn."
To me (MrCrowley667) Whenever I read these 6 abrupt words. I feel a deep sadness and respect The Author.
Being able to portray such rich emotions in just 6 words is mind-blowing.
Some of you will read this and feel nothing. Some will read it and visualize a person trying to sell something on Facebook. (The Author Is Ernest Hemingway one of many of his Flash Fictions.)
Yes, Flash Fiction was being used in early 1900's.
Writing is deeply personal to the individual reader. So how do we attempt to reach maximum impact...
There's no grand answer, no easy solution.
Below, I have made a list of agreed material, that has negative effects on readability.
Use at your own discretion.
Alliteration.
Style.
Pacing.
Sticky Sentences. (An over-reliance on Glue Words)
Adverbs (ly)
Passive Voice
Passive Verbs
subordinate clauses
Incorrect use of preposition.
Overused Words
Redundant sentences
Cliche's
Vague & Abstract Words
Repetitive Phrases
Sentence Length.
Paragraph Length.
Chapter Length.
Run on sentencing.
Dialogue Tags and the formatting of said tags.
Dialogue percentage of the chapter.
Consistencies in Writing. E.g Capitalization and such.
Introspection
Backstory
Info Dumping.
Pronoun percentage in the material.
Homonyms (They're Their and There)
There's a lot more but all of the above can be the distinction between a thrilling read and an arduous one.
The trick is the balance. If you mess up the balance then you also make the writing hard to read for readers. We are not saying CUT all of the above from writing we are saying be MINDFUL of them. Learn them and decide if something is making your work hard to read.
YOU ARE READING
#ThemeBusters2017
RandomStuck in a rut? Sick and tired of writer's block? Want to try something new and creative? Want to push yourself to your limitations? Want to meet other writers with the same passions? Then add this to your reading list and join in :P
