Writing Prescription Twelve

Lyndi's 52 pieces of amassed writing advice off my stockpile:

1. Write in a small room - it will make you feel comfortable and secure.

2. The reason we use truth in fiction is so we can tell a bigger, better lie.

3. Your story doesn't have to be real or truthful; it must however feel that way.

4. Write what you like to read most; it is what you will write best.

5. Read anything that will educate you on living.

6. Trust your reader’s intelligence! The story is a participatory exercise that the reader participates in.

7. Good writing is created from strong VERBS and concrete NOUNS.

8. Eliminate unnecessary ADVERBS and ADJECTIVES.

9. Surround yourself with people who are skeptical but not cynical.

10. Advice from most professional writers is "to write in haste; revise in leisure."

11. COPYRIGHT: Copyright Act, No. 98 of 1978 says you can make fair use of 10% of someone's writing/ any extract under 300 words from a work of fiction as long as it includes attribution/ any copying that endangers the sales years of a book is illegal/ quotations should not be so long that they diminish the value of the work from which they are taken. Copyright of a book stands for 50 years if published in South Africa and 70 years everywhere else in the world. Fair use: using material without needing to obtain permission.

News articles: any length can be safely used after three months.

Song lyrics all need permission from copyright holder.

The rule is easy: don't take from another writer something you would resent being used if you were the author.

COPYRIGHT PERMISSIONS:

a) Get permission from the publisher. Be very specific: state full details of your book, specify edition, impression, number of copies, date printed, country to be sold, exactly what extract you want to use.

b) Acknowledge all sources in your bibliography.

12. VOCABULARY - most good writing is easy to understand:

a) Be direct, simple, brief, vigorous, lucid;

b) In the following order of merit - prefer the familiar word over the far-fetched; the concrete word to the abstract; the single word to the circumlocution; the short word to the long; the Saxon word to the Romance.

13. READABILITY SCORES:

a) Measures the length of sentences and number of polysyllables;

b) When Microsoft Word finishes checking spelling and grammar, it displays your readability score - the average number of syllables per word and words per sentence.

HOW TO USE THE READABILITY SCORE IN MICROSOFT WORD:

a) On the TOOLS menu, click on OPTIONS, and then select the SPELLING AND GRAMMAR tab;

b) Select the Check GRAMMAR AND SPELLING box;

c) Select the SHOW READABILITY STATISTICS box, and then click OK;

d) Click SPELLING AND GRAMMAR on the standard toolbar.

What the Readability Scores mean:

a) Gunning Fog Index: aim at a 7-8 score (12 is University degree reading level) TIME magazine is written at level 13;

b) Flesch Reading Index: aim at 7-8 level (15 is University degree reading level.

How to bring down a Readability Score:

a) Make paragraphs shorter;

b) Shorten your sentences;

c) Use fewer words of three syllables and more - use a thesaurus to find words;

d) Turn sentences from passive voice to active voice - in other words, address your readers directly wherever possible. Good writing is always clean and simple.

Passive voice uses - to be, is, are, was, is being/ in the Active voice the SUBJECT of the sentence performs the action.

e) Avoid unnecessary words;

f) Avoid the use of QUALIFIERS especially VERY.

14. Be gender and race sensitive - master the art of not offending anyone (sexism/ racism);

15. Metric abbreviations have no plural eg. kg, mm

16. Use capital letters without full stops eg. USA, SA

17. When preparing your text:

a) Create a separate folder on your computer for your manuscript;

b) Save each chapter as a separate file;

c) Insert page number;

d) Do not underline text: use italics

Do not underline headings: use bold;

e) Avoid TAB. Keep it as simple as possible.

18. STRUCTURE YOUR BOOK

Three structures:

a) preliminary matter

b) main text

c) end matter

Odd page numbers are always on the right, even pages on the left.

19. FIGURES AND NUMBERS

a) numbers under ten/ all numbers in reported speech or dialogue = spell them out eg. eight, ten, one

b) numbers of 10 and above (except if they are at the start of a sentence) write in figures eg. 15, 456

c) in general, books/ novels use per cent (not %)

d) unspaced eg. 1688-1744

20. FOOTNOTES AND ENDNOTES

a) Avoid footnotes - they are expensive to publish;

b) For footnotes, don't number them consecutively, number afresh every page/ if you only have one footnote on a page, use * and ** for second footnote;

c) Footnotes are for explanatory notes;

d) For source references use endnotes;

e) Harvard system (author, date, page - eg. Rankin 1973:109) placed in brackets immediately after appropriate text - full biography is placed at end of book;

f) If you are using many explanatory notes, rather print at end of the book immediately before the index;

g) Use numbers in sequence beginning afresh with each chapter.

21. Why use thing, it, a lot, or went: rather use engage, conundrum, item, issue, conflict, numerous, countless, galloped, stumbled, meandered.

Here are 10 writing tips from the author and the editor.

To write is to talk to strangers. You have to inspire confidence, to seem and to be trustworthy.

It is always prudent to remember that one is not Tolstoy or Dickens.

Don’t concentrate on technique, which can be the same as concentrating on yourself. Give yourself to your story.

The reader wants to see you trying—not trying to impress, but trying to get somewhere.

For a story to have a chance to live, it is essential only that there be something at stake. A car chase is not required.

Try to attune yourself to the sound of your own writing. If you can’t imagine yourself saying something aloud, then you probably shouldn’t write it.

The creation of a style often begins with a negative achievement. Only by rejecting what comes too easily can you clear a space for yourself.

Use words wantonly and you disappear before your own eyes. Use them well and you create yourself.

The best work is done when one’s eye is simply on the work, not on its consequence, or on oneself. It is something done for its own sake. It is, in Lewis Hyde’s term, a gift.

Be willing to surprise yourself.

22. AVOID GRAMMATICAL QUALIFIERS IN YOUR WRITING:

http://grammar.about.com

Definition: a word or phrase that precedes an adjective or adverb, increasing or decreasing the quality signified by the word it modifies.

Eg. VERY, QUITE, RATHER, SOMEWHAT, MORE, MOST, LESS, LEAST, TOO, SO, JUST, ENOUGH, INDEED, STILL, ALMOST, FAIRLY, REALLY, PRETTY, EVEN, A BIT, A LITTLE. A (WHOLE) LOT, A GOOD DEAL, A GREAT DEL, KIND OF, SORT OF.

23. Assume every character in your book has a weird fetish they'd like to keep a secret;

24. Every day, pick an unusual adjective from the dictionary and use it in your writing;

25. Idea: imagine if at the zoo, it was easy for people to fall over fences;

26. Idea: In dialogue, everyone is lying;

27. The stars can be beautiful without forcing themselves upon you. The same should apply to your writing;

28. Readers like mystery. Try to reveal as little as possible during the first two chapters;

29. Write about the things you love the most, and destroy them.

30. CHARACTERS:

Explore the following psycho of your characters:

Spirituality

Physicality

IQ

Mind

Core beliefs/ schemes

Behaviour

Emotions

Conditioning

Personality

Psychopathologies

Beliefs

Environment

History

Family

Culture

Thoughts

Actions

Awareness

Energy

a) do your characters exhibit society's expectations of how they should act, or do they rebel?

b) delve into their inner workings and find out their deepest secrets; why they behave the way they do;

c) what little talents do your characters nurture?

31. Practice is the heart of the matter when it comes to writing;

32. Read widely and deeply and write not just carefully but continually, thoughtfully assessing and reassessing what you write, because practice for the writer as for the concert pianist, is the heart of the matter.

33. Never worry about the commercial possibilities of a project. That stuff is for agents and editors to fret over - or not.

34. If you use a computer, constantly refine and expand your autocorrect settings.

35. Keep a diary.

36. Have regrets. They are fuel. On the page they flare into desire.

37. Have more than one idea on the go at any one time;

38. Beware of cliche's; even cliche's of expectation and conformity.

39. Do it every day. Make a habit of putting your observations into words and gradually this will become instinct;

40. What editors want: the editor wants nothing more than to read something so fresh and powerful and polished there is no question it must be published. Read their guidelines.

41. Best advice ever - NETWORK

42. 2k to 10k writing faster, writing better -

a) Take five minutes at the start of the day to scribble a shorthand, truncated version of the scene you will write.

Don't describe anything or do transitions or dialogue.

Only write a quick description of what you are going to write today.

b) Put aside a solid block of writing time - the longer you write, the faster you write and the better you write

Decide which times in the day are good writing times for you.

c) The days you are writing scenes you are excited about are the days you will write the most.

43. Eliminate the word OF as much as possible.

44. Read your work aloud - if it doesn't have the right 'ring' to it, re-write it.

45. Avoid PASSIVE VOICE.

46. Eliminate THAT or replace with WHICH.

47. Eliminate GET and GOT.

48. Eliminate ADVERBS (contain the characteristic -LY suffix).

49. Run readability statistics: on average you should have: four characters per word, a passive voice score less than 5%, 80% readability score on Flesch-Kincaid Scale, no higher than a fifth grade readability level on Flesch-Kincaid.

50. How to do research on the way:

a) Wikipedia - don't use it as the sole research for your noble,

b) .edu sites or .gov.co.za/ gov.com - reliable

c) academic journals - google scholar

d) JSTOR free to read section

e) http://www.eduplace.com/ss/hmss/primary.html

51. Don't stop until you're reaching something that part of you doesn't want to reveal, and then reveal that.

52. Real life, real people are the only subject worth writing about.