Criticism

 

    Today's writing tip is based on accepting criticism, or more accurately, determining whether the criticism is worth accepting.  Everyone, it seems sometimes, is eager and willing to tell us what they believe is wrong with your story, poem, or blog post.  People rarely, in my experience, understand what it takes to pour your mind and heart out for examination and listen to criticism.  So, this is for any aspiring writers who are about to face or have recently faced a critique of their beloved work.

    

    First of all, let's talk about the most obvious and most overlooked aspect of criticism when it comes to writing.  Criticism, just like writing is a skill.  It's a skill that gets better with time and practice.  Lots of people think that they have the ability to write a book, a poem, or a story, but a small percentage of the human population actually does it.  Criticizing someone else's work though, no one hesitates for a second to jump into this learned field and do donuts in the mud.  Why?  Why do people hesitate to step into one area of literary art, but jump gleefully into another?  The answer is simple.  You risk nothing by criticizing another person's work.  You will not be hurt, insulted, or driven to give up on your dream after the act is done.  Writing, on the other hand, is risky.  You subject yourself to the possibility of being rejected.  You have to put yourself out there, and risk your dreams.  That's a tough thing to face, the fact that your dreams may never come true.  I'm just not good enough.  We, as writers, face it every day.  Critics, not so much.  So, when listening to criticism, you need to ask yourself a couple of questions.  First of all, is this person a skilled critic, and second, is this person trying to help me improve my craft, or are they just angry at the world and taking it out on me?  If a person tells you they've heard ten stories like yours in the last week, what does that have to do with your writing?  The movie Avatar was a retread of time-honored cliche's but it set box office records.

    Another thing to think about is the generality of the criticism.  Is the critic describing your writing in vague terms like stuffy, clunky, boring, slow, or cliched?  These are all things to pay attention to, especially if more than one person used the same type of descriptor, but these are the tools of the amateur critic.  Now, don't get me wrong, professional critics may use vague terms like this, but they won't rely on them solely.  If the entire critique is written entirely with a broad brush of generalities, it can be dismissed as amateurish and unhelpful.  By no means should you take these kinds of critiques to heart and make decisions about following your dream based on this kind of critique.

    Also, we need to ask ourselves, is the critique correct?  Is it valid?  Writing, as with all art, is a subjective thing.  One person may hate it, but ten thousand more may love it.  So, the trick to acting on criticism is to learn to detect recurring patterns.  If one person says that you have too many commas in your story, and another mentions that your story doesn't flow, there is a very good chance that the two are related.  Pay attention to how the critiques compare to each other, and whether they are related in any way.  One person may dislike your ending, but that does not mean that the ending is bad, or should be changed.  Listening to people and reworking our writing is often more difficult than the first draft, and close behind marketing on the scale of difficulty imho.

    Last, but definitely not least, we need to learn to take criticism for what it is.  As artists, we tend to have our heart and soul wrapped up in our work, and criticism of our writing often feels like criticism of personal self.  "It's boring," is often heard as "you're boring."  Step outside your work and take a look at your writing almost as if someone else did it.  The best Authors and Poets in the world have room to improve, so what makes me think that my writing should be perfect?  It takes courage and determination to pour your raw mind out onto a page, but even more is needed to face an honest review.  If you have a good editor that gives you sound advice about your writing, thank your lucky stars, because they aren't falling off of trees like crabapples.  Accept the advice with a happy heart and use it to make your writing shine.

    As always have a great day and Happy Writing!

The Murickan Saga

 

The Keys To Great Dialog

 

    So, you're character's conversations sound weird and stilted...  Dialog is one of the toughest techniques that we writers have to learn.  We aren't supposed to write words like "thundered" or "bellowed," while writing, but we must make it sound unique and interesting.  How are we supposed to do that when our literary hands are tied with "he said" and "she said?"  Well, that's where I'm going to try to help you out.

    The most important thing about written dialog is the flow.  When people are verbally communicating, there aren't usually long pauses or five syllable words thrown around.  Rule #1 is to keep it simple.  Use words that normal people use while talking.  A construction worker or a waiter would not use words like "preamble" or "hypothesize."  Even if they have the vocabulary, they would sound like they are talking down to people if they use it.  So, if your character isn't talking down to people and making an attempt to show off that vocabulary, keep the big words out, unless your she has a PhD in Literature.

    The next thing I'd like to emphasize is punctuation.  Punctuation is very important for the flow of the dialog.  A comma calls for a pause in the thought, and one that has been misplaced can change the entire flow of the conversation, and even the meaning of the sentence.  The punctuation is normally placed within the quotation marks like so:

    "See Spot run," Jane said.

    Notice that the comma is located within the quotation marks, and it marks a pause in thought.  It says that the character is done talking and the narrator is taking over.  If you are having a difficult time writing dialog, it wouldn't hurt to brush up on your punctuation.

    Our last topic on the subject will be on subjects.  The subject of sentence will be the person talking.  In the above sentence, Jane is the subject.  Naming subjects in our writing can become repetitive.  Having "Jane said" at the end of every sentence can get monotonous in a hurry.  I like to use descriptive words instead of names sometimes, to break up that monotony.  If Jane is the older of the two talking, I would say:

    "See Spot run," Jane said.

    "See  Red run," Sue said.

    "No, see Spot run," said the older girl.  

    The audience must already be aware that Jane is the older girl.  This technique can be used with any descriptive, such as, taller, shorter, wiser, impatient, or stronger. It is a good way to make your dialog varied, but still keep the reader aware of who is talking.  

    That's it for today.  Let me know if you have any questions, I would be happy to answer them.  Leave a comment, and sign up for the feed.  Also you can find me on Twitter at @murickansaga or Instagram @murickan_saga.  As always, have a great day, and happy writing!

Hey Lolli Leave Your Adverbs Here

 

    I think that most of us writing types know that the adverb is a creation of the devil, and is to be shunned at all costs.  The question that some of us have, is why?  Why is the adverb so demonized by the writing community?  What has the poor adverb ever done to any of us?  Well, I'm here on this Sunday morning to explain it to... probably no one.  lol  But, I love to write, so I'm going into heavy detail as to why you should never, well almost never, use an adverb in your writing.

    Let's start off by going over what an adverb does.  An adverb describes a verb.  That's it.  It simply an adjective for the verb.  Like an apple can be red or green, writing can be done quickly or slowly.  So, you may ask, why aren't adjectives demonized as well?  We'll get into that as well, and hopefully reading this article will help you remember the anti-adverb rule when you're writing, and save yourself a lot of time during the editing process.

    The adverb is to be shunned because they are, by and large, unnecessary.  They are fluff and dander that pads the word count, but contributes nothing to the message.  Adverbs are used to describe things that don't need description.  Adjectives on the other hand describe nouns, which are not self descriptive, and need help. 

    Comparatively speaking, and I mean compared to walking, people run fast.  You don't need to add any descriptive words, explaining to the reader, that someone is trying to go fast when they are running.  An apple, on the other hand, can be large or small, yellow or green, light or heavy.  Nouns don't describe themselves the way verbs do, so the adjective is necessary to give the reader a mental image of the scene.  

    When I say, "Mary ran," I can picture Mary running.  I don't need any other words to describe it, unless she is running in a way that is out of the ordinary.  "Mary ran slowly" or "Mary ran awkwardly" may be used, if the context doesn't give us this information already.  You still may not want to write "slowly" or "awkwardly" if the reader knows that she is running through knee deep mud.  The word running, and most other verbs, are self-descriptive, so most words added for description are superfluous and unnecessary.  Even though adverbs may sound good when we are writing, they bloat our work and slow the readers roll.

    I hope that you've learned something that will help you improve your writing.  Every one of us can improve.  That's the wonderful thing about writing, we are constantly evolving and improving as artists.  I hope you're having a terrific weekend, and as always happy writing!

My Story

 

    Today I'm going to share some of my personal writing history with you, in hopes that it will help someone.  This post will be useful to any aspiring writers who are having trouble getting started writing, or any writers who are having trouble getting started on a project.  

    My whole young life, I was supposed to be a writer when I grew up.  Everyone thought that I would be, including myself.  Somehow though, I got caught up in a headgame where I was convinced that I needed to have the entire story outlined, all dialog mapped out, and the story basically written before I could begin writing my novel.  It sounds crazy to me as I write this now, but that is what I believed, so I know that there must be others out there who believe the same thing.  You have to have your novel basically written, before you start writing.  lol  Well, I never could manage to find the time to begin all of the work that I imagined I must do to begin writing my book, so it never got written.

    Once I learned that I could just start writing, I wrote my first novel in about four months, and now I'm half way through the sequel, which will be published sometime this summer.  My advice to all of you aspiring writers out there, is to write.  Put it down, get it out, then get some real HONEST criticism.  That is key.  You don't need anyone telling you lies about your work, no matter how much they love you, or how well-meant the lies may be.  You need honest, even if painful, truth to grow and prosper as a writer.  In this day and age, it is too easy to publish bad work, and waste a lot of your time, energy, and even money putting out unsatisfactory work.  There are scores of unscrupulous marketers out there who will take your money to promote your work, but the hard truth is that only good books sell.  If you are dead set on becoming a writer, you need to improve, and that takes honesty from the people reading it.  Amazon is flooded with self-published work that is mediocre at best.  Don't be that person.  Get some good criticism and let your work shine.

    My final point will be that writing should make you happy.  If it feels like work, well maybe you should rethink your career as a writer.  You have to love it and love isn't work.  You should find what you love to do, whether it be writing or something else, and pursue that.  If you love your work, you will never work a day in your life.  Life is too short to spend our valuable time doing something that we hate, no matter what anyone says.  Also, if you love your work, it will show.  Writers who love to write, are better than those who hate it.  Love shines through everything, from ditch digging to brain surgery.  Love it or leave it is my motto on work.

    I hope someone got something out of this.  I do love to write, so I write on Sunday mornings to no one.  lol  As always, I hope you're having a great day and Happy Writing!

    

Chapter Sixteen

 I started chapter 16 this morning.  I am surprised to find out how much I enjoy writing about the bad guy.  lol  I always thought that it would be difficult to jump into the skin of a truly evil character, but it's actually fun.  That's because no one irl is being hurt by my antagonist.  My wife April is a great help.  She reads each chapter as I write it.  I'm actually writing the story for her, publishing it afterward just makes sense.  lol  Anyway, I like to write my bad guy and then see if he brings out any cringes from my wife.  If I can get an emotional response from her, I figure that the rest of the audience will know what I'm trying to do with the character, at the very least.  I have been really busy with other work over the last couple of weeks, so I haven't posted here daily like I started to in the beginning.  Once I grow an audience, I will fine tune this blog to your tastes.  If you like these small daily posts, I will continue to do them, otherwise I can do articles once or twice a week.  I'm actually going to get back to writing chapter 16.  Have a great day.

Writer's Block, How To Beat It In 7 Easy Steps

 

Writer's Block is a phenomena that stops us writers from doing what we do best, writing.  There are as many different causes of writer's block as there are writers, and therein lies the rub.  Because there are so many different causes, there cannot be one sure-fire remedy.  For most of us, writing is our salvation.  Escaping into our fantasy world, and leaving behind the problems of the real world, is what keeps us going.  Therefore, being refused that escape by the elusive Muse, is frustrating to say the least.  What I will propose in this article today, is not a way to beat, or fix, writer's block, but a way to own and control it.  We cant control the Muse, or dictate to her when she will bestow her gifts, but we can control how we think and what we do about it.

So, I propose that the next time you suffer from writer's block, you answer these questions in as much detail as possible.  If you don't know the answer, then make one up.  If you do this every time, you are afflicted, you may, one day, even find yourself with enough material for a book on writer's block.  Enough rambling, let's get to work.

1:  How does writer's block make you feel?  Are you angry, frustrated, lonely, happy, or sad?

2:  What do you think is causing this particular block?  Pressure from work?  Pressure from a relationship?  Maybe it's just boredom or lack of interest.

3:  Write down some things that you think might help remove the block.  Jogging, video games, reading, meditation, anything that you think might help.  I'm not telling you to do any of these things, just write down your ideas.

4:  How do you think that successful authors have dealt with writer's block in the past?  Did they wait it out, power through it, or just give up and start another project?  You may not know the answer to this for sure, but I want you to write it down, even if you need to make it up.  Its about what you think they did, not what they actually did.

5:  Are you excited about your current project?  If so, why?  If not, what excited you about it in the beginning?  Why did you want to write it?  

6:  Write a few sentences about what is going on in your life right now.  This will be used as a reference later.  You can come back to these pages and look for similarities.  Be as detailed as possible.  Are you happy overall?  Is work going well?  Relationships, are they making you happy?

7:  Write about a book, a movie, or a song that you have enjoyed recently.  How did it make you feel?  What was it that made the work good?  Do you think that the person who created that work suffered from writer's block?  Are you glad that they didn't abandon the project?

You will notice that the main theme of this project is to write.  Writing is the only way to get through a writer's block.  Going through these seven steps and writing down your feelings will help you open the door to your imagination again.  I know that this will help some people, and I hope it helps everyone who reads it.  I know that it can help you, if you apply yourself and write, but in the end it's up to you.  Have a great day, and happy writing!