It's been exactly 1 year, 3 months and 5 days I wrote my last blog post. Why I stopped, I really don't know. But I can surely say, laziness has been one of bigger reason. Lately this laziness brought much more trouble than I could handle, and I had it enough. I had to do something, and thus began process of my introspection.
After 5 long days of thought process, 10s of pages of scribbling down, finally I put down plan for my self. Plan to get myself disciplined. Thanks largely to one of my favourite website Reddit. I followed a lot of posts on Reddit on getting disciplined and getting motivated, and few posts helped to draw plan for myself.
Today was first day for me, and for my two best buddies Rahul and Manish to get disciplined. I will write sometimes about it, how I came to that plan. But for today, I will rather talk about one specific item from that plan, and that is to write daily, for 15 mins atleast.
Sometimes back I came across amazing post on Reddit on how to improve writing skills, and I have to share it here. I will write atleast one paragraph, sticking to the advise which was given in the post. So here it goes, the same advice from the post of Reddit;
Tips to improve writing:
Tip 1: Read out Loud
To read your work loud. Reading loud catches the mistakes which your eyes don't
Tip 2: Rhythm and Flow
It has taken from the advice by Gary Provost. In his own exact words, the importance of Rhythm and Flow;
'This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word
sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to
what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it
drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now
listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The
writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short
sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I
am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of
considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with
all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the
cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important.'
Tip 3: Show, Don't tell
It is so good that I have to put it here the way it is. And it comes from the person named Chuck Palahniuk.
“In six seconds, you’ll hate me. But in six months, you’ll be a better writer.
From
this point forward—at least for the next half year—you may not use
“thought” verbs. These include: Thinks, Knows, Understands, Realizes,
Believes, Wants, Remembers, Imagines, Desires, and a hundred others you
love to use.
The list should also include: Loves and Hates. And it should include: Is and Has, but we’ll get to those later.
Until some time around Christmas, you can’t write: Kenny wondered if Monica didn’t like him going out at night…”
Instead,
you’ll have to Un-pack that to something like: “The mornings after
Kenny had stayed out, beyond the last bus, until he’d had to bum a ride
or pay for a cab and got home to find Monica faking sleep, faking
because she never slept that quiet, those mornings, she’d only put her
own cup of coffee in the microwave. Never his.”
Instead
of characters knowing anything, you must now present the details that
allow the reader to know them. Instead of a character wanting something,
you must now describe the thing so that the reader wants it.
Instead
of saying: “Adam knew Gwen liked him.” You’ll have to say: “Between
classes, Gwen had always leaned on his locker when he’d go to open it.
She’s roll her eyes and shove off with one foot, leaving a black-heel
mark on the painted metal, but she also left the smell of her perfume.
The combination lock would still be warm from her butt. And the next
break, Gwen would be leaned there, again.”
In short, no more short-cuts. Only specific sensory detail: action, smell, taste, sound, and feeling.
Typically, writers use these “thought” verbs at the beginning of a
paragraph (In this form, you can call them “Thesis Statements” and I’ll
rail against those, later). In a way, they state the intention of the
paragraph. And what follows, illustrates them.
For
example: “Brenda knew she’d never make the deadline. Traffic was backed
up from the bridge, past the first eight or nine exits. Her cell phone
battery was dead. At home, the dogs would need to go out, or there would
be a mess to clean up. Plus, she’d promised to water the plants for her
neighbor…”
Do you see how the opening “thesis statement” steals the thunder of what follows? Don’t do it.
If nothing else, cut the opening sentence and place it after all the
others. Better yet, transplant it and change it to: Brenda would never
make the deadline.
Thinking is abstract. Knowing and believing are intangible. Your story
will always be stronger if you just show the physical actions and
details of your characters and allow your reader to do the thinking and
knowing. And loving and hating.
Don’t tell your reader: “Lisa hated Tom.”
Instead, make your case like a lawyer in court, detail by detail.
Present each piece of evidence. For example: “During roll call, in the breath after the teacher said Tom’s name, in that moment before he could answer, right then, Lisa would whisper-shout ‘Butt Wipe,’ just as Tom was saying, ‘Here’.”
One
of the most-common mistakes that beginning writers make is leaving
their characters alone. Writing, you may be alone. Reading, your
audience may be alone. But your character should spend very, very little
time alone. Because a solitary character starts thinking or worrying or
wondering.
For example: Waiting for the bus, Mark started to worry about how long the trip would take…”
A better break-down might be: “The schedule said the bus would come by
at noon, but Mark’s watch said it was already 11:57. You could see all
the way down the road, as far as the Mall, and not see a bus. No doubt,
the driver was parked at the turn-around, the far end of the line,
taking a nap. The driver was kicked back, asleep, and Mark was going to
be late. Or worse, the driver was drinking, and he’d pull up drunk and
charge Mark seventy-five cents for death in a fiery traffic accident…”
A
character alone must lapse into fantasy or memory, but even then you
can’t use “thought” verbs or any of their abstract relatives.
Oh, and you can just forget about using the verbs forget and remember.
No more transitions such as: “Wanda remembered how Nelson used to brush her hair.”
Instead: “Back in their sophomore year, Nelson used to brush her hair with smooth, long strokes of his hand.”
Again, Un-pack. Don’t take short-cuts.
Better yet, get your character with another character, fast. Get them
together and get the action started. Let their actions and words show
their thoughts. You—stay out of their heads.
And while you’re avoiding “thought” verbs, be very wary about using the bland verbs “is” and “have.”
For example: “Ann’s eyes are blue.”
“Ann has blue eyes.”
Versus:
“Ann coughed and waved one hand past her face, clearing the cigarette smoke from her eyes, blue eyes, before she smiled…”
Instead
of bland “is” and “has” statements, try burying your details of what a
character has or is, in actions or gestures. At its most basic, this is
showing your story instead of telling it.
And
forever after, once you’ve learned to Un-pack your characters, you’ll
hate the lazy writer who settles for: “Jim sat beside the telephone,
wondering why Amanda didn’t call.”
Please. For now, hate me all you want, but don’t use thought verbs. After Christmas, go crazy, but I’d bet money you won’t.
(…)
For
this month’s homework, pick through your writing and circle every
“thought” verb. Then, find some way to eliminate it. Kill it by
Un-packing it.
Then, pick through some published fiction and do the same thing. Be ruthless.
“Marty imagined fish, jumping in the moonlight…”
“Nancy recalled the way the wine tasted…”
“Larry knew he was a dead man…”
Find them. After that, find a way to re-write them. Make them stronger.”
