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Pointers
for Newbie Writers
By Shon
Bacon
Every
year, I edit between four to eight manuscripts from writers who are
either looking to submit clean novels to agents and editors or who are
looking to self-publish their novels. Through these edits and
through the general "reads" I do from time to time with
writers who want my opinion on their works, I have noticed that there
are regular errors that new, unpublished writers tend to make.
This list is by no means exhaustive; however, I think that by following
these basic pointers, you can help your 'script be on the way to PUBLISH
LAND. :-)
-
PUNCTUATION
- (periods, commas, exclamation marks) Periods and commas
should be placed inside quotation marks. Many times, I see
this in 'scripts: "I cannot believe you said"
Billy said. Or, I see: "I didn't make it to
work today", Sam replied. Or, "I'm not going
there" -- without a period to end the sentence. It is
important to remember that periods and commas should go within
quotation marks. It's a tedious job for an editor to make
these corrections. To throw another punctuation mark into the
mix, it is also very important to lay off the exclamation
mark. I was once told that I could use the exclamation mark
FOUR times throughout my entire writing career. A bit extreme,
but you do want to make sure you don't SCREAM everything to your
reader. In reality, your WORDS should show a character's anger
or excitement. In a way, your cheating the reader and your
character to use marks instead of showing, through your writing, how
a character is feeling.
-
USING
TAG LINES - Tag lines are very important. They tell the
reader when a character is speaking. When you have two
characters speaking, it is not necessary to have a tag after each
piece of dialogue. It's a good idea to offer two
"transactions" of tag lines between two characters, and
then remove the tags. Readers are smart. They will
realize that no one new has jumped into the conversation. Now,
if you have more than two characters speaking at once, then it is
important to place tag lines after dialogue. Some writers
worry about using "said" too much in their tag lines, and
they end up using tag lines such as he laughed or she
sighed. These are action sentences--not tag lines.
Tag lines show who said something. A person doesn't laugh a
sentence or sigh a sentence; therefore, the statement, "I
can't do this," Brenda laughed, is not correct because you
are telling the reader that Brenda is laughing the statement.
People say, state, respond, answer, asked,
yelled, screamed, whispered. Use
"speaking" verbs for tag lines if you get tired of said.
-
IN
& OUT OF POVs - I love stories that have different
POVs. Some new writers, however, attempt to use various POVs,
but they begin new POVs in awkward places in the story. I
recently began reading a 'script that started in a close-third
person. It followed, very closely, a male character's thoughts
and actions. In the middle of a scene, I went from his POV to
a woman's POV, and I was confused. I didn't know why we needed
the shift; as a result, the glitch paused me. Later in my
read, there was a scene break and the new scene began with a new
character's POV. This POV shift was seamless and didn't bother
me at all. The lesson behind this is it's perfectly okay to
have POV shifts in your work; however, you do want to try to place
them at scene changes or new chapters. Readers are expecting
something new to occur with each scene or chapter, so changing POVs
will go down more smoothly there than if you dropped one in the
middle of a scene.
-
PITCHING
YOUR STORY - It is very important that you create a pitch for
each of your stories. The pitch should be 25 words or
less. Why do you need this? Well, it's easy to remember
two powerful sentences about your story than to stutter and look
uncomfortable when someone asks, "So what's your story
about?" If you go to conferences, having the speed-pitch
ready is a great tool. When you're submitting your work to
agents and editors, you always need a pitch of your story before you
get into your spiel. Who is your main character? What is
your main character's conflict? What is the unique spin that
you put into your story? These are three items that you will
want to add to your pitch. Just think of it like this--if I
came up to you and said, "Quick, make me want to read your
story," what would you say? Say it in 25 words or less!
-
SAY
NO TO CAPITALIZATION - Now, don't get me wrong.
Capitalization is good...most of the time. The type of
capitalization I'm talking about is the kind that happens when
newbie writers capitalize all nouns even if they are not
proper. For example, one might write, "They were
entertained by the Stage Play." Or, one might write,
"Susan was a Doctor, so she definitely knew what she was
doing." Both "Stage Play" and
"Doctor" are nouns that are not specifically naming people, places,
or things. I can go to the "ball park," or I can go
to "Oriole Park at Camden Yards." I can be
entertained by a "stage play," or I can be entertained by
the stage play, "Mamma Don' Burned the Peas." Susan
was a "doctor," or Hey, isn't that "Doctor"
Susan Sloan? If a noun is just stating something common like doctor, stage play, my aunt, or ball park, you do not
capitalize; however, if you are talking about a specific Dr. Sloan,
or Mamma Don' Burned the Peas, or Aunt Millie, or Oriole Park, you
want to make sure that these titles/nouns are capitalized!
-
SHOW,
DON'T TELL - Yep, that old adage. You knew it was
coming. It's one we'll hear about for the rest of lives and
then some. It is always important for the reader to feel that
he or she is experiencing your story. If your main
character is angry, don't just tell the reader this. Show
it. Many newbie writers, in their need to get the story out,
will write EVERYTHING that occurs, and it's important to remember
that 1) not everything that occurs is needed to tell the story you
are telling, and 2) you don't want to just tell, point by point,
what occurs. Give the reader action. Give the reader
emotions. Give the reader a story he or she can immerse
him/herself into.
-
CAMPING
AND MARCHING - This is something I was taught in pursuing my MFA
degree, and it goes nicely with SHOW, DON'T TELL. As mentioned
above, many writers, for fear of losing a reader, will explain
EVERYTHING in their story. That's how you will definitely lose
a reader! When you're in a scene, you have to ask yourself,
"Is this scene vital to the understanding of the
story?" This, in essence, is the camping and marching
question. If a scene is important to your story and readers
will be lost if you do not put it in, then you want to
"camp" in that scene for a while and show the reader what
he or she needs to continue with the story. If the scene is
not vital, then you want to "march" right through it,
giving the reader exactly what he or she needs and then moving on to
the next scene of your story.
Like
I mentioned above, these are just a few pointers to keep in mind.
I
would suggest you worry about these things AFTER you have written a
first draft. If you have your internal editor on while trying to
churn out a draft, you probably will take way too long to finish the
book. Turn the editor off, write your heart out, then go back and
slash and burn what needs to be gone from your work!
If you have questions about writing or an idea for an article you'd like
me to write for THE WRITE LIFE, please e-mail me at chickoflit@hotmail.com
and let me know. I'm always here to help the fellow writer.
Keep
Writing.
TTFN:
Shon Bacon
Next:
Article #4: Write
the Damn Book
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