Ignoring Advice - Breaking the Rules of Writing, with Style

Remember that post from last week about passive voice and how it can subtract from your writing and you should avoid using it when you can? Well, forget about it. That’s right. Usher the thought from your mind. Tell the part of your brain that’s been obsessively replacing ‘was’ and ‘had’ to sit back and relax for a while. Completely ignore everything I told you.

Okay. Maybe not completely. And maybe you shouldn’t forget about it entirely. The truth is, it is a good tip that many people recite when they talk about writing, and using active voice in your writing really can be more effective in gripping your reader and getting your story across in an interesting way. It is good advice.

But it’s just that. Advice. To be taken or left at will.

I recently finished a book that I rather enjoyed, and I’ve just started another book that promises to follow the grand tradition of all such books by that particular author. And something I noticed in both of these books is that they use passive voice pretty often (especially the first one).

Obviously, I noticed, so was it entirely unobtrusive? No. Was it always as gripping as more active verbs might have been? Maybe not. But did it fill me with dread at the thought of reading the book? Did it make me want to chuck the novel in question into the fire pit and roast s’mores over its smoldering pages? No. I liked the book, even if it did use passive language from time to time. Its narrative was very proper, very… formal. And the passive voice worked fine with much of that narrative. It was a good book, with a great plot, and I enjoyed it.

Which brings me back to my point. Advice is advice, and whether it applies to your writing depends on you, your style, the mood and narrative and maybe even setting of the book you’re working on. This isn’t exclusive to passive language, either, people. For every piece of advice you get about writing, there are going to be plenty of published books out there written by successful authors who have taken those ‘rules’, rifled through them, and then tossed them out the window.

Use lots of description. Don’t get bogged down in description.

Use adjectives and adverbs. NEVER use adjectives and adverbs.

Use more interesting words for ‘said.’ Only use ‘said.’

Read everything. Read nothing.

Always use active voice… Except for when you use passive voice.

Even the most rigid ‘rules’ of grammar – the things that your English teachers stapled to your brain with commands to never forget them – are more flexible than you might think. Part of writing is breaking these rules, for emphasis and rhythm and preference of the author. Maybe the grammar Nazis out there will call you out on it. With the short stories I’ve posted online, I’ve had people ask why I use single quotes even outside of dialogue (as I did up above here, when talking about ‘rules’). I’ve had them try to correct stylistic ‘mistakes’ that I’ve made on purpose.

And you know what? In most cases, another reviewer was quick to respond and say, “Hey, actually, it’s fine to do it that way.”

I’m not saying you should completely ignore any and all advice people give you. Chances are, it’ll be good advice. It might address something that you really should try to fix, and most of the time it’s best to go along with the conventions of language and writing.

What I’m trying to say is, advice is not always set in stone.  A published author’s casual tip is not law. It’s up to us – the developing writers – to find our own styles and decide what kind of writing works best for us.

                And it’s up to us to know what kind of writing doesn’t work, and when it’s time to make a change. XD

                So, ladies and gents. What rules do you constantly break, accidentally or on purpose? What conflicting advice have you received? What books have you read that break the rules, but do it with style?

There’s a quote about this somewhere, and I know I’ve heard it before, and I know it has to do with getting conflicting advice… But when I tried to find it online, the closest thing I found was this:

"There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are."

-- Somerset Maugham

Still a very good, very appropriate quote.

Here's another:

"Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself."
-- Truman Capote

And, I also stumbled onto this lovely article:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/creating-in-flow/200906/11-types-bad-writing-advice

Which talks more about ‘bad’ advice, and addresses some of the same things I have in this post. In a more clear, more professional way. ^^
And, half a week before this scheduled post is made public, this lovely writing blog, the YA Lit Six, posted on a similar topic, but focusing more on how to break the rules in dialogue.

 

Fun fact: I wrote this post before the one on passive voice. XD

Problems with Passive Voice

                 Passive Voice versus Active Voice. It’s often talked about, but sometimes hard to understand. Even if you understand it, it can be hard to keep in mind while writing. So, what is passive voice? How about an example?

                The path through the forest was being traveled on by Little Red Riding Hood the day after she had received a letter that was written by her sick grandmother, asking her for some special cookies that were made by Little Red’s mother. Little Red had packed up the treats quickly and had started down the path toward the house that was owned by Little Red’s Grandmother, but halfway there she was stopped by a wolf that had been waiting by the path for hours!

                I wrote that in approximately thirty seconds. There are multiple problems with it, but hopefully one of the things you picked out was the little thing most often referred to as ‘Passive Voice.’ It’s kind of boring, not very gripping, and maybe even a little hard to follow in places.

Let’s try rewriting those sentences in a more active voice, and see if we can make it more exciting. See if you can pinpoint the difference.

Little Red Riding Hood skipped along the path through the forest, a day after her sick grandmother sent a letter asking for some of her daughter’s special cookies. The basket of treats swung against Little Red’s hip as she made her way toward her grandmother’s house. Just as she spotted her grandmother’s front gate, a snarling wolf loped onto the path in front of her, looking hungry. But his gleaming eyes weren’t focused on the basket of cookies.

Still not perfect, but I think we could all agree that it’s better than the first example. Not only does it have a little more action and a little more connection with the events taking place, but it also gives us more detail about what’s going on, even though it’s actually shorter than the first example.

And all I did was replace some of the passive voice with more descriptive words.

Many examples of passive voice follow this basic formula:

form of ‘to be’ + past participle = passive voice

In other words, something like:

                To put off working on my NaNoWriMo novel, I was forced to write a few blog posts.

                Was is the form of ‘to be’ (others include is, are, am, were, has been, have been, had been, will be, will have been, and being).

                And forced is my past participle (a form of a verb that usually ends in –ed).

                Now, passive voice isn’t technically wrong. Sometimes, you have no choice but to use it. In certain kinds of writing, it can even be preferred (science writing, reporting crimes, more ‘official’ things like that, or places where the person who’s carrying out an action isn’t all that important). Even in my example, there was one sentence that I left in a passive voice – “But his gleaming eyes weren’t focused on the basket of cookies.”

                But in fiction writing, you generally want to use a more active voice. Passive voice can be hard to understand, unclear, and even wordy. It’s harder for a reader to get into the action of your story.

                Personally, I noticed the other day that I use passive voice more than I should, which contributes a lot to my tendency of making everything I write long. Really long. T-T It’s a problem.

                Do you struggle with Passive Voice? Is there something I left out that you feel should be addressed? What other problems do you sometimes struggle with when writing?

               

Links to more information on Passive Voice, and sites that explain it better than I do:

http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/passivevoice.html

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/active-voice-versus-passive-voice.aspx

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/passive.htm

By the way, for those of you who are interested...

Current JulNoWriMo wordcount: 30,424 words.

It's going rather well. ^^

Quibbles With Quality and How to Ignore Them: Camp NaNoWriMo

Is there anything more satisfying than writing unfathomable quantities of words in a very short period of time? Perhaps. I certainly wouldn’t complain if those unfathomable quantities actually translated into good writing. But that’s what revision is for!

                That’s right, boys and girls. It’s that time of year again. Kind of. While NaNoWriMo usually takes place in November, this year they’ve begun another venture: Camp NaNoWriMo. Two sessions, in July and August, for those who can’t find the time to write a novel in November, or for those of us who just can’t get enough of the event.

                Perhaps you’ve heard of National Novel Writing Month in the past. Perhaps it’s something you only vaguely understand, or perhaps it’s something that you’d like to do someday but haven’t yet. Perhaps you’re a veteran Wrimo, like myself. But for those of you who aren’t familiar with this grand tradition, one simple sentence sums up the lovely insanity of it all.

                Write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.

                Yup. Pretty cool. I’ve actually blogged about NaNoWriMo and Script Frenzy in the past, back in the posts where I had no idea what I was doing with a blog, but this is a new era of Pro(b)logue, and a new branch of NaNoWriMo, so I figured I’d post about it once more.

                A lot of people have trouble getting started with their novel. Well, that’s not entirely accurate. Getting started isn’t the problem. The problem is the middle doldrums that strip you of your imagination and send you running for work, chores, TV… Anything to keep you from writing, because you just know that whatever you write will be awful and dumb and not worth seeing the light of day.

                That’s where NaNoWriMo and programs like it come into play. For one month out of the year (or two, or three, depending on how many events you choose to participate in) you have permission to write horribly.

                You sit down, open a new word document, and start writing. Very, very quickly. Your first paragraph sucks? Don’t worry. There’s sure to be worse. Your main character is flat? You can fix it later. Or spend three pages info-dumping his backstory, to be more smoothly incorporated at a later date. You have no plot? No problem! Insert ninjas and watch the fun ensue as the pages stack up.

                NaNoWriMo is for people who can’t bring themselves to keep going with a project. People who get bogged down with getting everything perfect. People whose inner editors hold them captive and stop an idea long before it gets anywhere exciting.

                With NaNoWriMo, you can write without worrying, and get something down on paper. Your rough draft will be awful anyway, so you may as well get it out of the way now.

                Take my Camp NaNo novel, for example. It’s the second book in a series I wrote the first book of almost a year ago. I have a rough (rough) plan for it, but not enough of a plan that I was looking forward to writing it. I was sure I was going to screw it up and lose my motivation for the rest of the series. I didn’t even have the first book revised to perfection, so how was I going to write a decent sequel? But a few days before Camp NaNoWriMo began, I thought about the two main characters and realized that they were so adorable, I had to get their story down on paper, soon.

                So, on July 1, I started writing Vermin #2: The Hidden War.

                Now, on July 2, my current word count is 5,206.

                Is it good? NO. Not even close. I have hardly any idea where I’m going with it, my description leaves a lot to be desired, and my narrative sucks. But I’m writing. And I’m writing a novel, which I haven’t actually done in quite a while – I’ve been so busy trying to revise old rough drafts and write short stories that I feel like I’ve gotten a little rusty with my novels. Another reason why I’m glad to be doing Camp NaNoWriMo this year. My hope is that, once I get further into it, I’ll be able to get back into the swing of things.

                Oh, and did I mention that I’m getting a lot of ideas that I want into the story? And I’m already discovering new things about this setting and plot and the aftermath of the first book? So, even if this novel is awful when I finish it (and trust me, it will be) I still think it’ll be salvageable. I’ll have a starting point to work off of, and for I think the first time (maybe second) I’ll have actually written the second book in a series I’ve planned.

                Which’ll be really cool, indeed.

                *sigh* I apologize for this rough blog post. I’m still in NaNo mode, so my thought process is a little jumpy right now, and I want to get back to my novel. Trust me, the whole thing is a lot cooler than I’m making it sound. Hopefully my next blog post will be a little more organized.

                Are you doing Camp NaNoWriMo? Have you done the event in November? What about Script Frenzy, or any other events like this one?

Ebbing Enthusiasm: When Excitement Begins to Fade

                You have it. The perfect story. An idea that makes your heart sing, plot threads that come together like the ones in a beautiful hand-woven blanket, and characters that seem to say, “Hey, you’ve been working hard. Why not let me take over the keyboard for a while? Sit back and relax.”

                Your new novel is on track to be the best you’ve ever written. You’re excited enough to blab about it to anyone who will listen.

                And then things start to slow down.

                You’re past the superb beginning that caught your attention in the first place, and are fast approaching the expansive, sprawling middle regions. You notice a few tangles in your plot threads, and wonder if your first few pages were as brilliant as you thought. Your characters get bored, push the keyboard back into your hands, and make a run for the TV.

You’re tempted to join them.

All writers hit this stage at some point, and it’s one of the largest obstacles to finishing that rough draft we all want to hold in our hands. It’s the stage where a story turns from play to work, and the stage when you’re most likely to let the story slide. There’s always another idea, or activity, or TV show to get excited about.

We all struggle with it. So what can we do?

In my last post I talked about the writers’ conference that had just ended, and how I was all excited and refreshed and eager to get writing.

And then I went to camp for a week, where there were no laptops or internet.

I brought notebooks and a plethora of pens, but there wasn’t a ton of free time. They kept us busy, and while I came up with an idea for a short story/novel and maybe found a few little insights into one of my main characters, I didn’t get a whole lot of writing done.

I got home, checked Facebook, email, blogger, Young Writers Society, and all the other websites I look at from day to day. And then I stared at the screen thinking “What do I work on now?”

Not, “Oh, my word, I have so many ideas bubbling up that I don’t know which one to begin with!”

Just… “Hm. I should write. Ideas, ideas… I should come up with a few of those.”

I was so excited about writing when I left, and I yearned to write all throughout camp, but I could feel the fervor dwindling more and more each day. Before I even had the chance to start something, the enthusiasm began to shrivel.

I’m still going to write, of course. But I might not be as happy about doing it as I would’ve been, had I started earlier.

Which brings us back to that question: What do we do to combat waning interest in a story?

·         Write a little every day. Even if it’s just for fifteen minutes, don’t let yourself stop. Once one day slips past with no changes to your document, it won’t be long before the next slips past. And then the next, and then the next… And your story will slowly become submerged in a pile of expired ideas.

·         Take breaks. This oft-repeated tip also applies to combatting writers’ block. Watch some TV, read a good book, maybe even hop on the treadmill and let the ideas roll around as you combat Couch Potato Syndrome. Remember the first tip, and don’t let your ‘break’ turn into a four-year hiatus, but avoid making your writing time into a chore. If your words are forced, the reader will notice. Take some time out every once in a while to lift some weights, munch some junk food, or go watch some TV with your characters. Maybe it’ll spark a new idea in regards to your story, or maybe just temporarily restraining yourself will be enough to bring back some of the enthusiasm you began with, back when you couldn’t wait to sit down at the computer and write.

·         Look for things to get excited about. Maybe you’ve already finished the section that you’d been planning from the very beginning, but that doesn’t mean your story is over. Whether it’s a new plot twist or the discovery that the villain is allergic to one of the side character’s pets, new revelations about your story will pop up all over the place. Every time you find out something new about your story, get excited about it! Use the small ideas as springboards, launching you closer and closer to the finish line.

·         Spend some time with other writers. Join a website for writers, or read an author’s blog, or – if you have the opportunity – sign up for a conference. Talking with other writers about writing always makes me feel more like a writer myself, and it makes me crave my stories more than ever.

Obviously, this is still something I struggle with, too, but hopefully these tips can help you next time the enthusiasm starts to fade.

Is this something you struggle with? What do you do when excitement dwindles?

Keep writing, guys. I’ll be trying to regain some enthusiasm, and figuring out what more I can do with this blog, and maybe sitting down with some characters to watch some cartoons for a while.

Writing Conferences: The Splendor of Saturation

(There's another new post below this one, actually written more recently, outlining some of my shiny new goals for this blog, so if you haven't seen it you should check it out. ^^)

When my dad called me downstairs Monday afternoon, his tone filled me with dread.

                Oh, this does not bode well, I thought, hurrying downstairs. That’s his ‘My plans have gone askew’ voice.  I’m not going to visit Mom’s writing conference on Friday after all.

                Quite the opposite was true. I would be attending the local conference not just for one day, but for all four. Attending all the workshops, going to the Friday supper, and rubbing elbows with fellow writers all through the rest of the week…

                Unfortunately, I would be doing it all while taking the place of my mother, who would not be able to attend. Her grandma – my great-grandma, a woman in her 90s – had passed away, and my parents would be driving across state lines to go to the memorial service.

                Not the circumstances I would have picked, even though I’d wanted to go to the conference for more time.

                *sigh* Rest in peace, Great-grandma.

                Although I feel bad for my mom, who was disappointed to miss the conference on top of everything else, it has been a fantastic experience to be here, listening to information doled out by published authors, along with the furious scribbling of novice writers. Almost every conversation inevitably turns to “What do you like to write? What are your accomplishments so far?”

                While having this conversation with the woman sitting next to me on the first morning, she mentioned that she was a contributor on a blog.

“Which one?” I asked innocently, pen at the ready to jot down the url.

                “The Writer’s Alley,” she answered.

I laughed, and explained that I’d been following that blog for quite some time. And I had probably read things by her, even if none of them came immediately to mind (Angie, if you’re here checking out my blog, I’ll just say one more time that it was great to meet you in person. ^^)

The whole conference was especially interesting because I think I was one of the more ‘distinct’ attendees. Out of everyone there, I was…

·         The youngest, by far. I’m only a senior in high school, starting this fall, and I don’t think there was anyone from college present, aside from a few people who teach college.

·         One of the only fiction writers. A lot of the workshops were geared toward nonfiction, but still very informative and great for making me think more about ‘What can I publish now that will help me once I start trying to publish a book?’

·         One of the more prolific attendees. A lot of the people there (besides the speakers, of course) considered themselves novice writers, most experienced in small news articles, devotions, letters, etc. Little things in print, if anything. A few published books here and there. So I think some of them were more impressed than I deserve when I mentioned I had four or five rough drafts of novels completed, putting the emphasis on ‘rough’. XD Obviously, though, I don’t have anything published yet, so I still feel like a novice myself.

Even though I was in all these minorities, I didn’t feel out of place most of the time, even when discussions at the lunch table were about writing with kids in the house, or writing alongside your career, etc. Even though I was the youngest, the fiction writer, and (I think…) the only person crazy enough to have participated in NaNoWriMo, there was still a common bond that tied us together for the duration of the conference.

We were all writers. We are all writers. Whether it’s fantasy novels or nonfiction books, or devotionals or poetry, or lots and lots of letters, we all had the same invisible word pasted just below our nametags. One of the first things we did, just a few minutes in, was to say it out loud.

“I am a writer.”

And it felt fantastic.

You could feel the excitement growing with each revelation by the speakers. We listened to the workshops as if query letters and organizational techniques were a matter of life and death. I’m sure some of the newer writers used more notebook paper taking notes than they ever had writing a single project. And during every break, meal, and free time, we talked about writing. Our motivation bubbled over and filled the conference hall  to the brim.

During the first bathroom break, after the writing buzz had first started to kick in, I heard it. The words that perfectly expressed what we were all thinking.

“I feel saturated.”

 Perfect way to say it. What else can you expect from a roomful of writers? I heard that term over and over again. Saturated. Flooded with information, and enthusiasm, and ideas, and all the motivation that so often escapes us…

Bottom line, if you have the opportunity to go to a writers’ conference, do it. You won’t regret it, you’ll make a lot of connections with other writers (some novices, some experts), and by the end of it all, you’ll be saturated with information, and ready to pick up a pen.

Keep writing, folks.

I’ll see you when I get back from camp.

Have you been to a writer’s conference? What was your experience like?

P.S. The other cool thing was that we each had the opportunity to have consultations with some of the (published!) speakers there. I got some great suggestions for revising one of my novels, and some really positive feedback on a short story that I actually blogged about way back when I wrote it. One of them (Thank you, Shelly!) even suggested a magazine that she thought I might try to submit to. Sadly, from the looks of the website, they aren't accepting submissions and haven't been since November/December of 2010. *cries in a corner* Still, she's going to email me a list she's got of places that teens can submit to, so, yay! And I think it's a good sign that - after a little polishing - I might be ready to try and get something in a magazine or something... or something. *eyes repetition of vague words.* So yeah, anyway, that's mah sidenote/update on my writing ventures. And as you may have noticed, I figured out how to make text into links! 8D So, I'm sorry if all the blue was a little overwhelming. ;)

Revamped Pro(b)logue, Coming Soon

I have just returned from a wonderful place. A writing conference full of amazing insights by published authors, and enough creative energy to power a train made of rubber bands and old sinks.

More about that in the next (new!) post.

One of the sessions at this conference was about social media (Facebook, Twitter, and - of course - blogging). The biggest thing that I learned from that workshop was... basically... I had no idea what I was doing when I started this blog.

But now that I do have an idea of where I want to take this, there'll be some changes coming.

Exciting Things to Expect

• New posts. Yeah. Hopefully quite a few. They're gonna be here.

• Less rambling, more deliberate posts, more relevent to writing than just whatever I find interesting.
• More frequent, regularly posted posts.
• A focus on everyone on the journey toward publication. Not just me, who you don't care about. I think that my goal now is to make a place where other unpublished writers can come and feel at home, and we can all kind of work on the prologues of our writing careers... or something. Yeah. I've got to think it through some more. And of course, published authors would be welcomed to share their expertise, if they desire to do so.

 And... more things than that. Once I sit down and spend a leisurely afternoon planning things out.

Unfortunately, I leave tomorrow to spend a week at camp, away from a laptop and internet. Exactly where a recharged writer wants to be, huh? *sighs and shrugs*

So, a post about the conference might come tonight, or it might come when I get back, depending on how much I get done this evening and how much computer time I'll have before leaving tomorrow. Exciting things, readers! All six of you. XD

Another exciting thing: more participation for you!

What do you do when you want to spend time writing, but the everyday 'life' things make it impossible?

As far as my reply goes, I'll be bringing some pen and paper notebooks to camp. Somewhere between s'mores, sports, and singing around a campfire, maybe I'll get that chance to sit down and plan out the new direction for this blog.

 

 

Keep writing. You'll be hearing from me again, soon.

Impending Script Frenzy, Story Revision, and So On...

[obligatory‘It’sbeentolongsinceIlastposted’section] I suck. [/obligatory‘It’sbeentolongsinceIlastposted’section]
Moving on.

Revision on my novel has…slowed. Not stopped, mind you, but it has slowed. I blame manga and anime. Somehow I convinced myself that the crisis in Japan meant I should honor them by reading/watching their lovely (addictive) comics. And… Yeah.

Time I’ve spent revising has dwindled.

I start Script Frenzy (www.scriptfrenzy.org) in April. Brought to us by the lovely people who put on National Novel Writing Month every year, the goal is to write a 100-page script in thirty days. Taking formatting and everything into account, that doesn’t seem like a whole lot. Supposedly a page is equal to a minute of screen time. It doesn’t seem like a whole lot. I think I can do it. I’ve always been able to visualize my stories really well, so… writing a movie? No prob! I’ve got my idea, I’ve downloaded CeltX scriptwriting software…

I’d like to say I’ll be able to write my script and continue to revise my novel at the same time. But this is something new for me, so I really don’t know.

Plus, April looks like it’s going to be extremely busy. I take the ACTs in a little over two weeks, and prom is the weekend after that. Yes, I’m going to prom. By myself. Possibly with my sister and friends. And I’ve got all of this stuff going on that might interfere with my care-fully laid out half-baked plans.

Even when I’m actively revising, it’s a little depressing. Those ‘big changes’ I had in mind for the rewrite? So far, not so big. I feel like it’s no better this time around. I’m not changing things so drastically, which could mean that either A) the first part of my rough draft is better than I’d thought while reading through it, or B) I’m as bad at revision as I am at posting blog updates regularly.

It’s a little discouraging. I have so much I want to write. Old ideas, new ideas… But I want to get something ready to try and publish, ASAP. A girl in my class is self-publishing a book of poems and had one poem published in a legit magazine. My mom’s started looking around briefly for potential agents to send query letters to regarding a childrens’ book she wrote a few years ago.

She’s discouraged because it’s hard to know where to start.

I’m discouraged because I’m not even ready to start.

The thing about novels is that they take time. I can write something in a month, but there’s no guarantee it’ll be decent. In fact, it’s pretty much guaranteed to suck. And then you have to read through hundreds of pages, over and over again, before rewriting them and rereading those hundreds of pages, dozens of times.

After I get one book ready to go, there’s still no guarantee that it will be the book that gets published.

Should I be working on this book, or is it a waste of time?

Should I be working on a different novel instead?

Or should I seriously be studying for the ACTs?

*sigh* For now, all I can do is keep writing (and rewriting, and revising).

But while I’m doing that, I’d also love to be entering writing contests, winning cash and books for doing what I love, maybe getting published in a magazine or something if I’m lucky.

I haven’t been lucky, looking online for places to enter. If anyone knows of some legit, free-to-enter contests open to US teenagers, could you shoot me a link?

For now, I think I might try my hand at writing some Keys for Kids devotional things. I mean, twenty-five bucks to write things I’ve been hearing once a day for my entire life?! Win!



Anybody else doing Script Frenzy? Anyone know of some good writing contests/opportunities?



- Silent Pages