I know, two posts in one day. But I recently found this article
http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2011/07/25/4-writing-crutches-that-insult-the-readers-intelligence/
and discovered that sadly, I am guilty of all four. But, I have also done research on many of my favorite books and discovered that they use some of these same tools, but it tasteful ways, so just because it says you shouldn't use certain things or techniques in your writing doesn't mean you CAN'T you just have to know.
And I suppose that's the hard part isn't it? Knowing when to use certain techniques and when not to use them. Like ellipses for example... Use them sparingly, but I noticed that in my favorite books I feel the ellipses strengthen the writing and add to it. I suppose then the rule of thumb for the ellipse is that if it can be taken out without changing the writing it shouldn't be there. It should be used to strengthen the writing, not make it weaker. As the article suggests, try strengthening the writing first before adding in ellipses. Something I'm still not very good at.
So what are your writing crutches? What do you struggle with as a writer?
(Oddly enough I've been told to assume the reader is an idiot, which is a very helpful bit of advice, but don't insult the reader either. It has to be balanced. You don't want the reader to become confused, but you should allow them to make intuitive leaps with you. Also something I'm not very good at.)
Aside from that how are you all? How's the writing going? Or if you're not a writer how is life in general?
How have I never seen your blog before? :D
ReplyDeleteI do a lot of qualifiers, and I still struggle with telling, not showing. I was just reading a lecture where the editor used HP as an example of "good telling" and showing. JK tends to give a good, succinct "telling statement" to introduce a paragraph, then spend the rest of the paragraph showing us. I had never really thought about it, but once it was pointed out I realized I really liked that balance. I also tend to use cliches. I find myself trying TOO hard to "show" and end up using a bunch of bad body cliches, like heart pounding and hand sweating, where I might as well just be saying, She's nervous!
@A Leigh W
ReplyDeleteI have no idea. 8D
Ah, that's something I never thought of doing before in my writing, but it's a technique I'm certainly going to try out no and see what happens. I'm glad it ='s not just me then. I really struggle with trying to find new and exciting ways to describe things, but so much of it has been done before. It's hard no to be cliche, or maybe that's just the newb writer in me.