Thursday, October 4, 2012

Three Rules of Writing by Catherine McLean

THREE RULES OF WRITING

Many writers have heard W. Somerset Maugham's axiom about there being three rules of writing but no one knows what they are. I've come to the conclusion that, for marketability, my three rules of storytelling are: clarity, brevity, and believability.

Clarity trumps all "rules." After all, the goal in storytelling is to provide a tale that readers will immerse themselves in so they can enjoy the emotional roller coaster ride they crave. Which means, every word, sentence, and paragraph has to be clear and easily understood. No stopping even for a nanosecond to puzzle out who did what to whom and how, or why, it was done.

It's also said by experts that most first drafts can be cut by fifty percent because they are stuffed with fluff, purple prose, and worthless wordage. Fluff runs the gauntlet from prologues to information dumps, from lengthy descriptions to back histories. Worthless wordage includes unnecessary adjectives and adverbs, unimportant qualifying words, scenes that would be better as exposition, exposition that should be a scene, pontificating, author intrusions, and blatant telling.

This happens because writers fail to understand they needed that information to write the story (to discover who their characters were and what problems they faced). However, perhaps only ten percent will be needed in the story itself to provide motivation and validate character and actions.

Clarity means short sentences are easier to read then longer ones clogged with prepositional phrases and clauses.

Clarity means using concrete details, not abstracts, i.e., not a dog but a Doberman; not a red hat but a crimson flurry of feathers masquerading as a pillbox hat.

Which brings me to: brevity, the soul of wit–and wisdom. Brevity is the ability to write with clarity but to do it with a minimum of words. Brevity is picking vivid nouns and action verbs to convey meaning, emotion, and imagery. Brevity means not writing about a war but writing about one person's experience with that war.

Brevity even amounts to "killing off your darlings" by eliminating minor and prop characters so one character multitasks.

And now for believability. In nonfiction, believability utilizes facts and research (the documentation) that supports a premise, an idea, or a hypotheses. In fiction, believability is the means of getting a reader to suspend disbelief and to believe that magic exists, that there are such things as vampires and mermaids, or that space ships can travel faster than the speed of light.

Yet, nothing shouts amateur writing and storytelling like a character doing something without reason or motivation. Inattention to this type of believability comes from not knowing the depths of a character's core values, most deep-seated fears, lusts, hopes, and joys. Thus characters are "flat," two-dimensional puppets.

For success in writing well (and for marketability), clarity, brevity, and believability must work together so the reader can enjoy the story from beginning to end.

When I wrote Karma and Mayhem, believability was my biggest concern. After all, how could Tienan have two souls? How should he react when he finds out his birthright soul has a soul?

As for Janay, the ex-peacekeeper-soldier who falls in love with Tienan, brevity was a priority because it would take hundreds of thousands of words to do justice to what happened in the Valley of Rathe, or how she acquired two twice-blessed dirks with minds of their own, or her ability to converse with angels and see demons. I knew her past, but I strove for the brevity and clarity to reveal only what was absolutely necessary for her motivations, dialogue, and actions to be believable.

It was only after the big issues of believability and brevity were addressed in the manuscript that clarity came into play to refine the work for publication.

So, what are your three rules for writing?

Catherine

P.S. I want to thank Jeff for hosting me today and to announce the Official Online Book Launch Party for Karma and Mayhem will be October 10 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. EST at http://www.karmaandmayhem.blogspot.com. Jeff, and you, his readers, are the first to know that the grand prize at the party will be a copy of the original recipe for 'Choke-berry Shalamiz' (used in Chapter 11) that a chef created especially for my story. Details will be posted on Sunday, October 7 at http://www.karmaandmayhem.blogspot.com

~~~ 

Karma and Mayhem – He's a warlock with two souls and karma issues. She's mayhem personified. When the two face a cauldron of murder, demons, and witches, is their love more powerful than death? Published by www.soulmatepublishing.com and available there and at other e-book outlets.

30 comments:

  1. Loving these three rules! Clarity, brevity, and believability are all definitely key aspects of writing. Even when just one of those things is ignored, I can't help but be jarred from a story while reading. More writers need to keep these things in mind!

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    1. Isn't it amazing how everything can be so perfect and one little thing be off and it pull you out of the story?

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    2. More annoying than amazing, but yes, definitely! XD

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  2. Great rules. I love how they play off each other.

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    1. Like a jigsaw puzzle, each piece requires the others fit the right way in the right spot or it just doesn't come together properly.

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    2. Great analogy Jeff! And, take it from me, writing some stories is like working with one of those all one color jigsaw puzzles!

      Catherine

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  3. The three rules that I give myself for my writing are: it needs to be smooth, each sentence needs a purpose, and there should be a mix of sentence structures.

    These rules are also very important.

    Neither my rules nor your rules, however, seem to touch upon character and plot enough to create publishable prose. Thus, perhaps there should be an additional two rules: personality and complexity (with the caviot that some genres should be less complex than others.)

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    1. Hi, Patrick,

      Smooth. Interesting word choice. I think clarity smooths out writing and brevity gives sentences succinct purpose for effect and believability. Yes, there needs to be variety of sentence lengths and structures, otherwise monotony sets in. However, what the message is or what the story's narrative voice and POV-Viewpoint are have a lot more influence on the actual length of sentences, the variety of structures--and how they get strung together for clarity of purpose. That's why understanding POV-Viewpoint, really mastering it, solves 90% of the problem with show-don't-tell and a slew of other story elements.

      As to character and plot and publishable prose? That's a huge subject unto itself because it has more to do with characterization and POV-Viewpoint of the character-driven story as opposed to the narrative style of a plot-driven story that has complex conflicts and the characters are only "actors" (not puppets).

      Catherine

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  4. Those three rules I can live with.
    Although I am such a bare-bones writer, I do more adding than cutting after the first draft.

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    1. I think I'm a little envious of those who need to add after the initial draft. I'm way too wordy.

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    2. I wish I could recall who said "there is no right way to write, only your way." Methods may vary, but by one means or another, we get our stories drafted and polished so readers can enjoy them.

      Catherine

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  5. I'm not sure those are rules. They are objectives of writing, perhaps. They are needed qualities, but rules, I'm not so sure. Perhaps it's semantics, but I wouldn't call them rules.

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    1. I agree that it doesn't really matter if I call them rules or you call them objectives or if others call them goals, or conventions, or patterns, or aims or whatever. (And so Maugham axiom remain true.)

      Catherine

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  6. Excellent post! What are my three rules for writing? Keep an English dictionary close would be the first one. Believability the second, sure. As for the third, considering all the things I need to do to write in a foreign language about a foreign country with first time genre... Patience. A LOT of patience.

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    1. Believability is a big one, for sure. People are willing to suspend their disbelief so far.

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  7. Great post Catherine. Congrats on your upcoming release :)

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  8. I have one base rule that all others feed off of. it's called Vernors Law (after Vernor Vinge - sf writer)

    All scenes need to accomplish at least 2 of 3 things:
    1 - Provide Background Information
    2 - Develop the Characters
    3 - Advance the Plot

    I didn't discover this law until after my novel was published last year, so with great trepidation I re-read it from this perspective. I'm pleased to report it passed with flying colours!

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    1. Excellent criteria! One more thing to check for now that I'm deep into edits.

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  9. Great post and information. Karma and Mayhem sounds intriguing. I've put it on my TBR list.

    Wishing you much success with your book.

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  10. Catherine, sorry so late for posting a comment, but you have my sincere thanks for such a fine post!

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    1. No problem, Jeff. I'm always glad to help you and other writers and readers. - Catherine

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  11. Oddly enough, my first drafts are usually far shorter than the final draft. I tend to focus only on what can be seen, and little else, in the first draft.

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    1. Libby, is your first draft from an outline or do you "discover" the story that quickly?

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    2. When I first started writing, I'd draft to about 50,000 words and then have to go back and add in, pass by pass, all the stuff I skimmed or skipped. All those elements doubled my original word count. I got tired of going through the story so many times and finally came up with a project bible that works for me. Now when I write a story it goes to 90,000 or more words, and the structural-story-character fixes amount to 3,000 to 5,000 additional words. Unfortunately, polishing still requires the same amount of passes--way too many--but the word count won't fluctuate much during that stage.

      Catherine

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  12. Catherine, thank you so much for your great article! I appreciate your tips and insights.

    Kathy M.

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  13. Great post. I sometimes need someone to tell me to cut out some stuff and make it a tighter story. Look forward to your book.

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    1. It's a thousand times harder to get new material to match the pace and flow to the original narrative. That's why it's far better to overwrite and trim then to have to add. - Catherine

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