“We can’t publish this,” I say to myself as I look at an article that is supposed to go into the next issue of my college’s newsmagazine. The writing is stilted, the facts are wrong and the document is riddled with typographical errors. Even worse, it’s in first person, and in this case it’s definitely not working. I am the editor of the newsmagazine and I determine that this story needs to go on the shelf for a little while. It needs a total rewrite and that is not what I am supposed to be doing at the production stage.
Most of the stories I edit are not nearly this bad, but it seems that several errors are common in student-written articles. Many of these are also relevant to fiction writers. Eliminate these errors from your writing and your prose will sing and maybe your editor will too.
Prose Pitfalls
Check your writing for these mistakes before finalizing your article or paper.
Always writing in first person.
This is a problem in journalism and in academic writing. One of my English professors says that, unless you already have a huge reputation in your field, write in third person. Your reader will take you more seriously. No article should ever start with: I started taking this stupid journalism class and my teacher told me to pick a topic.
Forgetting the who, what, when, where, why and how.
All of this vital information should be stated in a paragraph close to the beginning of your article. This is the journalistic equivalent of a thesis statement. Without it, it may sound like you’re rambling.
Lame or unclear headlines.
No one wants to read an article with a vague title. The title has to sell the article. “Work Hard, Play Hard” does not tell you what the article is actually about. If necessary, use a two part title with a colon in between the headline and the descriptor.
Dull first sentences.
Once your reader decides to give the article a chance, give them something good into which to bite. Don’t say, “There are many food carts in Portland. One of those food carts is…” Continue reading 10 Common Writing Mistakes to Avoid…
Is it just me, or does the name Camp NaNoWriMo make you really want to sing the Camp Anawanna song from the old Nickelodeon show Salute Your Shorts?
I’m absolutely thrilled that tomorrow is the beginning of National Novel Writing Month‘s very first camp themed summer session. I look forward to writing a novel in a month every November, but unfortunately November happens to be end-of-semester time for me.
Although our fearless writing club at my school pushes through and balances both GPA and novel-writing, it’s a challenge. July and August usually come hand in hand with a lighter workload and fewer responsibilities than November, especially for students.
Above: Fearless writers, ready to take on anything; writing a novel in a month? Been there, done that.
That’s why Camp NaNoWriMo is the perfect chance to dive into novel-writing head first, without having any experience whatsoever. You have far less to distract you from one of the craziest creative goals you’ll ever set: writing a 50,000 word novel in a single calendar month.
So, with less than twenty-four hours before it’s time to put your pen to the paper (or set your fingers typing) if you plan to start in July, I have a few tips for beginner WriMos and veterans alike. Continue reading Camp NaNoWriMo Starts Tomorrow!…
Don’t get me wrong. I love the fact that I can churn out essays in a handful of hours and novels in a single month. There is almost nothing in the world like suddenly having a eureka moment in which a plot or a character just descends upon you as if from heaven. But there is a downside, and it’s a major one: you act like a crazy person. For instance…
Writers are always thinking of unexpected ways to kill people (and hide the body)
Just today I went onto the NaNoWriMo forums to find out if my character would die if he was shot in a particular place. The terrible thing is that I didn’t have to go far to find what I was looking for: the answer was in a topic on the first page!
If you look just a little further, you will find plenty of information on poisons that kill, non-lethal arrow wounds, and whether or not a bottle of Pinot Noir to the back of the head would render a person unconscious (note to self: yes it would, but they would also be dead).
See, we writers don’t just want to kill. We want to be original and accurate killers. I could kill someone with a paper cut in my book if I wanted to, but it would be so improbable that my reader would likely disown me (but what if it was a thousand million paper cuts?). So I have to learn how to actually kill people, which could be a disconcerting thought to some people.
Beware. This is the face of a true killer (my friend Daisy).
The good news is that I married the right person. In the fall, a large pile of leaves accumulated next to the staircase leading from the parking lot to the library at my college. The first day I walked by it, I immediately thought, “Someone could hide a body there.” Of course, it might not be the safest place to hide a body, but it’s possible. A few weeks later, I walked past it with my husband. “Hey!” I said to him. “You know what I thought when I saw that the first time?”
“Someone could hide a body there,” he said, interrupting me. Yup, I married a keeper.
People live in my head and I don’t control them
Before you write me off as needing immediate psychiatric help, I am only referring to my characters. The thing that non-writers don’t understand is the fact that characters sure know how to assert themselves. It would be a lot easier to write a novel if they didn’t.
For example, sometimes I write my character into a situation and I’m not exactly sure how to get him out of it. Maybe he could get away from the bad guy if he shot someone, but he won’t. (Or a more likely scenario: he won’t be killed if he shuts up, but he has to keep babbling on, so if the story is to be continued he needs immediate rescuing… /sigh.)
Other times, characters just up and decide to do exactly what you told them not to. Like marry the wrong guy. Or jump six chapters ahead. You can’t do anything about it; it’s what they had to do at that moment.
The weirdest thing is that most of these characters—if they’re good ones—seem to simply show up one day in the mind of a writer, mostly cemented and ready to go. The only thing the writer must do is get to know them.
When writers get together, they have weird conversations
Conversations between writers usually involve endless debates over killing characters in which we often refer to them by name, describing how the character leaped off a building (and survived), and asking other writers seemingly random questions, such as, “What would you do if I told you I was an alien?”
No, seriously. How would you react? I need to know.
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