Article
Every Word Must Serve A Purpose
In this clear and concise article Anna Kassulke (wordstory.com) provides some excellent tips on creative writing.
One of the best books I have read is Groucho Marx's autobiography. It is good because it is economical, and as Groucho put it, he 'uses verbs'. And he uses, rather than utilises them. The book begins, 'The trouble with writing a book about yourself is that you can't fool around'. Exactly right. The comedian realises that writing is a serious business.
Another is Crime and Punishment. Anyone who has read it will know that Raskolnikov spends a lot of time wandering around St. Petersburg trying to justify his existence. It is not a fast-paced work. I even studied Russian so I could read the original. Many of their verbs are richer than ours. You can't just 'go out' in Russian; that is far too wishy-washy. The words for going out (not 'exiting'!) imply that you are coming back, or you are going out with no specific objective and may not return -or something like that. I never found out whether Raskolnikov had an objective; I failed the exam. But I do know that verbs are critical. Without them we would get nothing done.
In fact every word, not just the doing word, must serve a purpose. And it must be understood. Generally we write to be read by others. A lot of the writing that comes to me is 'writerly'; it uses flowery words in abundance. Sometimes we try to impress by digging up obscure words from the thesaurus, such as 'lode' and 'profligacy', instead of the humble 'layer' and 'extravagance'. We shove the words in willy-nilly and cling to the wodges of dense writing, as if they would be orphans if we cut them out. Editing is about being severe. Like fingernails, all writing needs a good cut and polish. So get out that metaphorical pair of scissors and cut. People won't read you if you don't.
The shortest sentence I came across recently is 'Arthur shaved'. The writer could have said, 'Arthur took a new twin-bladed razor from his sponge bag, and rubbed some tangy foam over his five o'clock shadow. He drew the razor across his cheek and watched as his skin was revealed like a path in the snow. He winced when he nicked the edge of his nostril and a droplet of blood bubbled out'. That would be fine, but this Arthur was feeling a little indifferent.
Sometimes we can invent words. This is fun. The other day I heard a famous author say that he goes 'though life swoopingly'. What a great word. We understand it, even though it will be a constant source of confusion for our MS spell checker. It sounds good too. Say it. Every word should be easily understood, not reshaped, like 'efficayshus' or 'bonerfidee'. So keep an eye on those wiggly red lines that crop up under words.
One of the ways to make sure your writing works is to read it aloud. Your tongue will trip when it comes across stylistic hurdles. So fix all the parts that stop you reading as if you were talking to someone. Another way is to look at the patches of black and white. Lay your pages in a row along the floor and stare at it. If there are thick slabs of black, lighten them up.
Getting the words down is only the beginning easy. To edit well, we have to be hard-nosed. Unlike Arthur.