Writing on a Diet

Live your dream and write right, it's what we writer's do. Learn from your mistakes and move on. ~joni
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Well I don’t really need a diet, I’m thin by nature. But my words might need a little exercising. What I mean is, words are worth their weight in gold. If used wisely and correctly, every single word you use will compliment the other.

It’s like that nice little black purse complimenting the dress and heels. When we use one word for a sentence it will compliment the others and in this way our writing will take shape and form. It’s like building muscle mass within the words.

So how can we put our writing on a diet? I can go through many people’s writings, find too many if’s, and’s, and or’s; weighty words that have no use being in a sentence, too many adverbs or maybe the use of big words, that make you sound smart, but have no place in the story or the sentence.

We shape our sentences into paragraphs. If a paragraph is not solid it will appear as a floppy disc, just dangling in the wind. Firm up your writing with words that are strong and words that need to be in the sentence to carry it along. I strongly recommend having a thesaurus on hand. Let’s say you can’t think of a word, it has been alluding you to no end. Look us a similar word in the thesaurus and surely you’ll find a word in equal strength as the one you were looking for, or even a better word with muscle.

When you have a writing group behind you, it helps a lot because they can sometimes see things that you can’t. Lets say you’ve read your work, it is perfect to you, you post it in your workshop and someone says, “Hey, maybe lose this or that. Restructure this or that.” Their eyes are seeing something that maybe you did not see. That is why we have second drafts and third, fourth,etc., etc.

So I’m here to tell you to put your writing on a diet. No the first draft isn’t supposed to be perfect, it is supposed to be you, getting your story out on paper. Your second draft, you’re going to trim here and there, to make it appear exercised, so to speak. I would advise not posting a first draft for your workshop, because when they see all the mistakes and errors, or a weighted piece of work, they’re going to pick your work apart making you feel insufficient as a writer.

Why not post your best work and let them see you shine as a writer. So they pick it apart and see things that you didn’t. This is where you’re going to add, delete, walk away with a feeling of security and move on. Write Right, that’s what I always say.

To use or not to use...

A thesaurus...

This quote by Stephen King got me thinking.

Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule. ~~Stephen King

What did he mean by that? When I’m writing a poem or writing anything in general and I keep repeating the same word over and over, and other words are on the tip of my tongue, but I just need to look the word up in the thesaurus to grab a hold of it and use the elusive word.

I think what he meant is that if you need to HUNT for a word to use, then it is the wrong word. He meant that you are not getting your message across clearly if you need to dig for words to use.

If I say, “It was a dirt laden path.” Maybe I want to say, “Before me was a grungy dirt laden path.” or, “I tread upon the dirt laden path that was gravelly and muddy leaving tracks an inch thick behind me.”

Now if I go to my Thesaurus, I’m given a slew of other words to use for dirt. Unsightly,bedraggled, smutty, unkempt and the list goes on and on. Well they were all on the tip of my tongue but with so many other words on my tongue they all got lost along the way. I didn’t need to hunt for them like they were cheese on a mousetrap. They are all there in my mind, sometimes I need a refresher to show me the word I’m thinking of. (Hey, I’m not getting any younger here.) With them, I don’t need to repeat the same word over and over again.

I’m not as educated as Stephen King. I’m far from it. Although I am steeped in knowledge, my words don’t flow fluently like a river. I haven’t written the enormous amount of novels that he has to where the words obviously spring to mind like popcorn on the stove!

To tell the new writer a thesaurus is out of the question, is like telling them to dig somewhere else for gold, this is his spot. I’m sure he’d be the first to tell you that he’s not the smartest man in the world and none of his sage advice is set in stone. I’ve found so many different writing books that contradict one another, I’ve stopped reading them.

The writing world can be crazy and confusing to new writers. They dive in trying to drink in everything and anything there is about writing only to find themselves confused with what is right and wrong. Guess what people, there is no tried and true formula! Writing is a talent, a gift. You either have it or you don’t.

I think if your style is in line, the words are in check, you don’t need a special class to tell you how to write a sentence. My sage advice? Just write RIGHT!