Mar 5 (edited) • Discussion
Make it worth it. In other words Make writing worth the effort.
Believe me it is quite a disappointment to write a whole three-hundred-something page story and have it sit there with no outside interest. Do yourself a favor and make it interesting all the way through, from Title to 'The End'.
Bring each sentence to life with action words and don't dull it down by weak description.
Don't write it lazily, as in, don't put that pen to paper without putting some pizzaz into the words you are using. Did you catch that? I just said the same thing in that sentence twice. The first part was lazy writing and the second part was more descriptive, stronger, meatier.
So, 'write' became 'put that pen to paper'; 'lazily' became 'without putting some pizzaz into'; 'it' became 'the words you are using'.
Did you notice that I did the same thing in the title. Spot the laziness in your own writing before anyone else has a chance to spot the laziness and get bored with you. Don't just throw out a skeleton into the world. That skeleton will just walk down the street appalling and frightening everyone who sees it. Put some meat on those bones and skull-pt (I meant to do that) sculpt it into the statue of David that it deserves to be.
With intention, avoid the 'ly' words as much as possible. I almost wrote that as 'Intentionally' but I gained a whole word by rethinking the use of 'ly'. It is ok to use 'ly' words in some cases but don't flood your writing with them.
Avoid using vague language like basic pronouns, such as it, he, she, they, them, etc., so often that it becomes confusing tor the reader. Use (them) pronouns as little as possible and say what the pronoun is representing.
Avoid starting sentences with weakness. Add some style by changing up the sentence start. Don't do:
'The cat was on the fence with the mouse in its mouth.' and follow that sentence with 'The dog startled the cat with a loud bark.' Can you see how boring these two sentences are. Bring them to life, as in:
'There was that same old scruffy cat sitting on the fence as usual and this time it had a mouse still alive and squirming in its mouth. Ohhh, and was the mouse screaming. Out of nowhere, my dog, Killer, let that feminine feline have such a scare. That mouse hit the ground running, the moment the cat let loose of the poor creature out of fear and shock.'
To end this 'book' of a post I'm writing, let me just say: when possible use alliteration. The poetic connection of word sounds, the symmetry, if you will, of alliteration can really bring joy to the reader without them even knowing it. Did you see that I used it in the above paragraph? Here's what I'm talking about: 'same old scruffy', 'feminine feline', and 'such a scare'.
Happy writing.
P.S. Always let the meat rest. As in cooking, it is recommended to let the peace (of meat) rest before putting out to the customer. Come back to it after a time---how much is up to you---before publishing it and read it again. I guarantee you will find errors and places to add/change description, as I did in this article, and you may even gain inspiration to add whole new parts, like I did with this P.S.
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Make it worth it. In other words Make writing worth the effort.
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