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THERE IS ALWAYS REASON BEHIND MADNESS ... AND TRUTH, TOO
Something to remember in the political aftermath of this past tumultuous election ...
and in the wisdom given to us on how to write well.
WRITE SHORTER
Every extra word makes readers impatient in these short-attention span days.
Got to keep checking on those TicTok posts, you know.
Write as if each word cost you 50 cents. Shorter prose is more powerful.
Hemingway rewrote the last page of A FAREWELL TO ARMS 39 times before he was satisfied with it.
SHRINK THOSE SENTENCES!
Sometimes Tiny draws attention in this big world.
Long sentences make readers work too hard to get to your main point.
Break sentences into bite-size ideas. Be Hemingway not Longfellow.
PASSIVE IS THE NEW POISON
Passive voice sentences hide who is acting, creating uneasiness unconsciously in your reader.
Not good!
Be the detective of your own sentences -- find out who is the actor in each sentence and link him to the verb.
ERASE JARGON. FOCUS ON CLARITY
Jargon and Tech words just make your readers feel stupid.
Way bad.
It doesn't make you sound smart.
It makes you look as if you are talking down to your reader.
Tell your story as if you were relaying it to your mother or next door neighbor.
Tell the tale to make the most impact to the most people.
PUSH TO THE HEAD OF THE LINE
Move key scenes and insights up as close to the front of your novel, chapter, sentence as you can.
You are not making a case in a court of law where you have to lay a foundation fact by fact.
You have only a few sentences to get the readers' attention.
Don't waste those few precious moments.
Grab your audience right out of the gate -- at the first sentence if possible.
Take my short story in A SAMPLER OF SHADOWS where the first sentence is:
"The rape was the best thing to have happened to her."
It makes the reader wonder how such a thing could be, right?
CLUES
Authors use foreshadowing to hint at future important events.
Whether consciously or unconsciously,
readers pick up on these clues if they read and use them to make predictions about what will happen later in the story.
It creates tension and suspense, keeping the reader turning the pages.
AND DON'T FORGET
MY CHRISTMAS GHOST STORY
Whose side he is on
is never quite clear to
his human companions --
or to himself.
Give it a read.
Some very useful advice, some that I have to work on for my own stories, and shortening sentences is one of them! Thanks for sharing!
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