The Dos and Do Nots of Writing

Writing is an art, and very rarely is an art also a science. Many writers create their world and their stories all the while adding a piece of themselves into the work. It's often a work of love rather than responsibility, and all too often the writer is too shy about their work to let anyone see it. Unfortunately the writing business can be rather harsh and it can make some very talented people feel discouraged. This article is meant to help writers with their art, not discourage them. Hopefully you'll find some information in here that will be helpful to you and you'll make your art better for it.

I always find it is easier to start with the do nots. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but only a few that I've noticed in my years of writing, editing, and reading.

Do not write your story in the first person point of view. Novel writing isn't the same as conversation writing. It isn't like writing an email or like what I'm doing writing to you now. It's about telling a story about the world you are writing in, the characters you're involving, and the situations that arise. If you are telling a story from one point of view, you are limiting your story in ways that will hinder your storytelling.

First person point of view is kind of like seeing a picture of a box of cereal. If the picture is of the Nutrition side of the box that is all you can see. You can't turn the picture over to see the other side of the box. The only thing that exists in that picture is the Nutrition information. But you and I both know that much more of that box of cereal does exist. But because of our point of view we cannot see any more of it. Now, if the box of cereal was in front of us, we could turn it around to see what brand or flavor it was. We could open it to see what's inside. We could taste it to see if it's a plain cereal or a sugary one. That's what you want to do with your stories! You want to bring them alive and make the reader feel as if they could reach right into your vivid imagination and play around. That's just something you don't normally get with a first person point of view.

Besides that problem, you also run the risk of your character not being credible. Imagine for a moment kids in line at school. If a boy comes up behind a girl and pushes her and then dodges behind someone else in line, it's possible that girl will think the person behind her pushed her. Now, the boy who actually pushed her knows the truth and the person behind her may even know the truth. Maybe someone else that was standing off to the side of the line saw the incident and they know the truth. But if the girl believes it was the person behind her that pushed her, that's the truth according to her. Now think for a moment about a time in your life when you've had an argument with someone who just sees things differently than you. It isn't because that other person is necessarily stupid, but rather because they have a different point of view. When dealing with a first person point of view, the only point that can truly come across, when done correctly, is the characters. Sometimes, this is a good tool, but often it can lead to bad writing if the writer's attempts are clumsy.

I am not saying that there aren't some wonderfully written stories that were created in the first person point of view, and I'm not saying that nothing written in the first person point of view can or will be published by this or any other publishing company. I am merely stating my opinion that the writer must be truly gifted in the art of first person writing, and not only gifted in writing itself. Any writer who takes on the challenge of first person point of view should definitely seek as much collaborative and constructive criticism as possible in order to refine the talent correctly.

If after reading all of this you still want to do a first person point of view story, there is one main thing you should consider. It is often times hard to remember to keep your tenses consistent when writing in the first person. If you are writing in the first person point of view because you have a narrator who is telling a story that's already happened, then you should make sure all of your tenses are past tense. If you are telling a story from a character's point of view as it is happening, that can be very tricky. You'll want to be careful about your tenses and if your verbs all agree with everything. In case I'm not being clear, tenses is referring to past tense, present tense, and so on. I have seen some very successful first person books out there, but they are tricky and I hope this information is helpful to you in deciding whether you want to do first person or how to do first person should you decide to do it.

Do not speak to the reader. This is often a temptation when writing in the first person, but can also happen in other points of view. You are telling a story that might be read by many different people with different backgrounds and different experiences. Speaking to the reader or supposing that the reader will have gone through a similar experience as your characters can be dangerous. I also believe that your goal is to be spinning a tale that the reader is a spectator of, not a participant in. It is as distracting as when an actor looks straight into the camera and talks to the viewers. In some literature there may be a place for that, but in many books it is out of place. Take an example from the books you may have read that were fiction in nature. How many of them asked you questions or spoke to you, the reader?

Do not use parentheses. Parentheses have a place in technical writing, but not in fiction. It has been done before, and has even been done successfully in J. K. Rowlings' Harry Potter series, but it too is distracting. Usually when writers type parentheses, they really mean to use commas. My advice is to just use the commas. Using parentheses is often done to stop the story and make a side note. In my opinion, you never want to stop the story. Your goal should be to keep the reader so firmly entrenched in your work that they forget about all space and time but that which is created in the pages of your story. Anything that distracts the reader from the story or pulls them out of it is, in my opinion, evil.

Do not use run-on sentences. It's ok to break up sentences. You are in no race to see how many words you can jam into a sentence. No one will think you daft or stupid for breaking up your sentences. As a matter of fact, run-on sentences often have the effect of making someone look less skilled or educated than they are. If your reader has to read your sentences more than once to gain its full meaning, you are making them work too hard to understand and stay within your world. It is, to be repetitive, distracting.

Do not ever let your story leave your sight until you have read through it yourself. Don't take for granted that you spelled every word right and that you didn't accidentally put an extra s in desert or use your when you meant you're. These are things that your spell checker may not get, but will make you look unskilled just as quickly as a blatantly misspelled word. Read it over. Make sure all the sentences make sense to you. Make sure you have punctuation where it is required. Be sure that it is the absolute best you can make it before letting people read it, especially if that person is an editor or publisher.

Now as I said before, this is not a comprehensive list. It's just some things I have noticed and have mentioned. I may notice more in the future and write another of these articles, but for now that'll do.

Let's move onto the dos.

Do add in-depth description to your stories, even if your story is "just" a short story. I say "just" a short story because some writers have the view that short stories are so much easier and so less fulfilling than novels. This simply isn't true. It is easier, in my opinion, to tell a story in a novel than it is in a short story. In a short story you must introduce vibrant characters, a distressing problem, and the resolution to that problem all while keeping your writing concise. It's harder than it seems!

Description is very important to your story, though. You must not skimp on it in order to make more room. But, you should explore ways of making your description as in-depth as possible in as few words as possible. This will give you the depth of a novel within the few pages of the short story! Try describing your characters' look while continuing with the story instead of making a laundry list of their attributes. For example:

She flipped her shoulder-length blond hair out of her crystal blue eyes as she readied herself for the interview. She knew she looked the part with a smart navy skirt/jacket combo accented with the bright white of her blouse.

This manner of description is much better than this next example.

Cindy had shoulder-length blond hair and blue eyes. She stood at five foot five and weighted approximately a hundred and thirty pounds. She was athletic looking and her muscles were toned and her stomach was flat. She wore her hair back off of her shoulders. She was wearing a navy skirt suit with a white shirt. She knew she looked the part for her interview.

The second example does say more about Cindy because it tells her height and weight, but that isn't necessary to say in association with her interview. It could be added into the story later where it is needed or whatever. Anyway, it is my opinion that the first example is a much more succinct way of adding description into your story without having to stop everything to get a 'picture' of the character.

Do give your characters some problem to overcome. There is nothing more yawn-worthy than reading a story of a princess that never has anything bad happen to her because she lives in a world where nothing bad happens, everyone is rich, and the sunny climate is always pleasant. That isn't a story. It's a description of a characters life at the moment. A story has a plot that is exciting because there is conflict. A boy loves a girl who loves his best friend. There's loads of conflict there and it'll make a much more interesting story than a boy that loves a girl who loves that boy and they never fight and have a perfect relationship. The end.

Oftentimes people give their characters conflicts but they make the conflicts so easy that the character could well overcome it without a problem. This sometimes happens in superhero stories. They make up a superhero comparable to Superman and then put him in fights with muggers. Now, while I would probably do something similar to this in order to showcase my superheroes attributes, I would not make it the center plot of the story. It's called overkill, people. If your hero or heroine has great power, her adversary (be it person or situation) should be as powerful. There should be a question in the reader's minds of whether the superhero or heroine could defeat the conflict. It creates suspense and drama within your story and makes for some very entertaining reading. So make sure that you don't just add conflict, but add conflict that will pack a punch!

Do give your character room to grow. This is somewhat related to the last 'Do'. If you make your character perfect in every way he/she is going to so outshine anyone else in the story that there will really not be interesting reading or conflict at all. Your character should have faults and shortcomings, just like most people have. Now this is not to say that your character can't be rich. Your character can be rich and be the ruler of the world. But that doesn't mean that she won't or shouldn't have personality flaws that might create some good conflicts such as revolts from her people or some situation that leaves your money-dependent character momentarily or permanently broke.

A character that grows from beginning to end, though, is usually a joy to read and keeps the readers hooked on your writing and your characters. Consider Darth Vader. I use a Star Wars character for this example because I know that many people have seen the movies. One of the things that made Darth Vader so appealing to many generations of fans is his character growth from the first movie (A New Hope) to his third (Return of the Jedi). It also is a recent fascination to watch the journey of his childhood and how he grew to be the villain we all loved back when A New Hope hit theaters. But he went from a man totally devoted to the Dark Side to a father wanting to protect his child. Such a character move has made Darth Vader easily one of our favorite fiction villains and has spawned many books and fan-fiction about the softer side of Darth Vader. It didn't take much, either, did it? He was pretty much full on evil through the first two movies. In Empire Strikes Back he seemed to care about Luke and want his son to rule beside him, but he was pretty much going to kill his son if he didn't turn to the Dark Side. It wasn't until the third movie, in my favorite scene where Luke turns himself over to Vader, that we see some true humanity come through. You could almost feel with the brilliant dialog and blocking of the moving that Vader didn't want to hand over his son, but he felt he had no choice. Then at the end he made his choice and it was for his son and for all that was good and holy and right with.well you get my point. In order to inspire this kind of passion in your readers you need to let your characters go on a journey in which sometimes they will fail or not be equipped to succeed or a journey where they will discover something about themselves they never knew before. Your story will be better for it.

Do let other people start reading your stories. Don't let the editor/publisher be the first person to read your story. You only get better at writing with practice and constructive criticism. By letting other people read your work and inviting constructive criticism about your work you find out what it is you are doing right and what you are doing wrong. You start to discover what is coming across in your story and what readers are having a hard time understanding. While I know that writers are often shy about their art, it is very important to actually do this.

Start off with people you trust first, but make sure they are people who will give it to you straight. Siblings are often a good source for those first times. If you have a good relationship with your siblings, or even cousins, they will critically read through your story and tell you what they honestly think without trying to hurt your feelings or appeal to your vanity. Parents are another good source, if you believe they will be truly objective. You don't need a parent that will criticize because he/she wishes you weren't wasting your time on this "writing nonsense" but neither do you need a parent that will gush over your story and tell you it was absolutely brilliant and nothing needs changing. While the second can often be helpful if you just need some positive cheerleading to keep you going, you can't get a true opinion from someone who wouldn't tell you if they saw something that they didn't like or didn't understand.

The next wave of people should be those who would be a bit more critical, but friendly about it nonetheless. What you need is constructive criticism, not just criticism. If the criticism isn't aimed to help you succeed, but only to tear you down, it is NOT what you are looking for and you should not let any person who tears you or your art down read your stories. It will only make you feel bad about yourself. But this next phase of critics can usually be found in friends or acquaintances that you spend time with and respect. After that, it is my recommendation that you submit it to a website, email group, or message board or upload it to your own website designed for this reason. Get the opinion of your peers. This will help you to refine your story until it is molded into the image of perfection you always knew it could be.

While it is very important that you block out or disregard any criticism that is designed just to tear you down or make you feel incompetent at your art, you should be open to constructive criticism. Try not to take offense at those people who are just trying to help you. Remember that their opinions are just that, opinions. If you like them or believe that they would help your art, use them. If not, disregard them. But be careful what you disregard. You do no one any favors by not taking good advice just because you are upset that someone criticized your work. You also do no one any favors by being upset at your critics. You will make your list of critics shrink like dry-clean only garments in the washing machine if you start taking offense or becoming upset when they try to help you. Be attentive to their ideas and think on them to see if they have any merit. Use what you like and politely decline what you don't. It is your creation after all.

I hope this has been helpful reading. Remember, all of this is opinion based because an art is rarely a science, and writing is definitely an art.