"You Are Better Than You Know" by Rory Miller

Author Rory Miller

You’re a good writer.  You are better than you can know.  Let’s crunch some numbers.

You’ve been writing since you were six years old.  Even with no college, that is twelve years of formal training.  Is there any other thing in your life where you have twelve years of formal, expert teaching?  Anything?

And writing isn’t like martial arts, where twelve years of training may be combined with an absolute absence of experience.  You have written for real.  A lot.  Maybe not every day… but I will bet that you read every day.  Maybe you don’t have time to read as many books as you like, but I know you.  You’re a reader.  Cereal boxes.  Labels.  Advertisements. You read. Every. Damn. Day.  And reading and writing are the yin and yang of each other.

Is there any other aspect of your life where you have this combination of skill and experience?  You are good.

But here’s the problem.  You have been writing since you were six years old and almost every single thing you ever wrote was judged.  An outside authority figure who didn’t know and care how your friends belly-laughed would say it wasn’t ‘literary’ or ‘concise’ or ‘choose-your-word’.  And you would get a ‘C’.  Or a ‘B’.  Or an ‘A’ or an ‘F’ but it really didn’t matter.  What mattered is that we were taught, as children, that writing was hard, and judged by secret criteria we could never grasp.  No matter how good we are, all of us were taught we sucked, and it is simply safer not to risk.

If you look at your unfinished manuscript right now, you will hear the voices in your head telling you to give up, that it is not good enough.  Shoot those voices.

Let me tell you a story:

A couple of years ago, a special friend got into some medical bills.  Our circle of friends did what we could, but I suggested we put together a book so that there would be a constant trickle of income.  Problem with making a suggestion like that is that it becomes your baby.  I was named editor.

I call these special friends not because of some weird sexual relationship or because we all rode the short bus together.  This particular circle of friends shared some common history that most people really can’t grasp—former cops and former criminal, operators, EMT’s and patients, we hang out together so that we can tell our stories around the campfire with people who won’t have nightmares (or vomit.)  It’s a tight bond, and an exclusive club.  And a great source for stories.

The first thing I noticed was the insecurity.  Messages would come in that were the e-mail equivalent of, “Mr. Editor, sir,” Head bowed and wringing a hat in his hands, “I have an idea and you probably won’t like it…”

Get this—these were people who had survived mental hospitals, escaped cults and abusive relationships, and hospitalized your worst nightmare.  Bad-asses of the nth degree.  And they were so insecure about their writing that they requested permission to give me a gift with all the subservience of a slave in “Gone With The Wind.”

So I’d say, “Hell, yeah, let me see it.”  And a couple couldn’t even do that.  They sent no manuscript and no more e-mails.

But others did, and every last one was good.  They didn’t use prose like Nelson Algren (who does?  That’s why he’s Nelson Algren and not John Keats or Kristine Kathryn Rusch.)  Some were linear and some were scatter shot.  One was simply a list, a list of things you must do to escape an abuser and that list is possibly the most chilling thing in the book.

So I would send back an email that said something like, “That’s fantastic, thank you!”

And every single one sent back a message saying, “Oh, no.  That wasn’t the real manuscript.  That’s just a rough draft.  Here’s the real manuscript.”

These bad-asses, people who had been a gaijin in a Japanese prison or practiced martial arts in Antarctica or trained counter-terrorism had sent me a draft so that if I rejected it, I wasn’t rejecting them.  “It was just a draft, just a rough outline, really…”  Insecurity.

Here’s the part you need to hear: In every single case (including the case where the author had his retired news-editor wife help with the re-write) the second draft they sent me was weaker.  The first draft they were passionate people communicating about something they loved or feared.  It had passion and clarity.

In the second draft, they were trying to be writers.  Whatever that means.  I suspect that each and every one was trying to make a dimly remembered third grade teacher happy.

Go get four glasses of wine and bring them back to the computer.  Go ahead, you’re writers.  One of the job perks is to be able to sit in your underwear while drinking wine and still generate income.  Got the wine?  Good.  Not hard, right?  I mean, four glasses is tough, but it’s just about moving wine.

Now get four glasses of wine and do it like a circus performer.  Go on.  Come on back and finish this article when something breaks.  It’ll only be a few seconds.

Delivering wine is easy.  Delivering wine like a performance artist is hard.  Writing is easy.  It is just communication, just telling a story—and you are good at it.  Writing like it is some kind of performance art, trying to be a writer instead of just telling a story—that’s not only hard, it has a tendency to ruin the story.

Write.  Just write.  If you really, really care your passion will come through and it will be good.  If you don’t care at all, you will be lazy and efficient and your writing will be clear.  And that’s good too.  But if you try to ‘be a writer’ and either put clarity into your passions or passion into your clarity, or if you try to please your long-dead third grade teacher (and what the hell did she ever write, anyway?) you will ruin it.

You’re good at this.  Put your butt in your chair and fill some pages.  Have fun.

MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rory Miller is a veteran Corrections Officer who has worked as a mental health specialist; Tactical team member and leader; sergeant and instructor as well as spending over a year as a contractor in Iraq. He is the author of the award-winning "Force Decisions" as well as "Meditations on Violence" 

"Facing Violence" and "Violence: A Writer's Guide." Though he is reluctantly on FaceBook (For now) he does not tweet.  Or text. There is a blog, though, and a website, since he travels all over teaching people about bad guys.

 

BLOG     FACEBOOK     WEBSITE

 

Amazon Author Page

I hope you will join my class titled

INTRODUCTION TO VIOLENCE

Hosted by

Fantasy-Futuristic & Paranormal Romance Writers

This Four Week class starts November 4th

For more information click HERE

10 RED FLAG WORDS by Catherine E. McLean

Likely you've heard that a writer's goal is to place the correct words onto the page so the reader sees a story unfold like a movie in their mind. In that quest, one trick-of-the-trade is to do a global search for "red flag" words like WAS, WERE, AS, AND, BUT, IT, HAD, JUST, ONLY, and SO. Let's look at why those little words merit the red-flag label.

At the top of every writer's revision cheat sheet should be the dynamite-dangerous WAS and WERE. These two seem to be everywhere in a manuscript. They can pepper a page by themselves, be found in clusters (called "crops of"), and when they are used together, one following the other, they become powder kegs that diminish clarity.

Yes, overuse is a big problem for both, but what constitutes overuse?  From research and from feedback by participants in my workshops, I have gathered WAS statistics. The all-time record holder for the overuse of WAS is one every fifteen words (which equals one every sentence—and, to be honest, that writer's longer sentences had two or three WASes in them).

Now, do the math: 1 in 15 means 6,667 WASes in a 100,000 word manuscript. On a subconscious level, a reader hears all those WASes. At what point do those WASes accumulate and buzz like a hive of angry bees? Which means, subliminal irritation develops and that potential of a five-star story ends up with a one-star. That is, if the reader makes it to the end of the story.

So how many WASes should be used? Some, including me, would adamantly shout the fewer the better. But I'll add that much depends on the narrative. If a character is the sole narrator, then that's dialogue both internal and spoken, so the "rules" of grammar and punctuation don't necessarily apply. After all, a character must be true to their voice and syntax.

But there's more. WAS and WERE are passive verbs. If WAS or WERE are coupled with an "ing" or "ly" ending word, or both, that's a red flag for a passive sentence. Passivity is the chronic weakness of omniscient narratives and "telling" because passivity robs a reader of emotional highs, lows, and instantaneous vividness. For example: The Doberman was quickly chewing through the rope.

Some might say to change "was quickly chewing" to the active-voiced "chewed." But a better choice might be gnawed or chomped. In other words, is there a better verb, a one-word verb, that instantly creates the correct image in the reader's mind for how the dog "was quickly chewing?"

So, it's best to do a search-and-find and check every WAS and WERE, making certain each is the only word that will do at that particular spot.

Next on the list, and second in importance and overuse is the word AS.

AS is trouble with a capital T. My dictionary lists nine definitions. That's nine chances to make an error. Of those nine, the following are giant red flags.

Number one is that AS means "at the same time" (simultaneously). Trouble is, nothing happens simultaneously in a story. That's because a person is reading, and in order to keep the images developing vividly and clearly—which means the action flows like a movie in the reader's mind—every word has to be the correct one in the correct sequence.

The second culprit is an AS-clause that either leads a sentence or is found near the end of a sentence. Here's an example of a lead-in: As John walked into the bar, he spotted Sam. This shouts simultaneousness but since nothing is simultaneous for the reader who is reading, that AS should be changed to show the actions in their sequence: After John walked into the bar, he looked around, and spotted Sam.

Now comes the most AS-clause abuse: an AS-clause near the end of a sentence. Nine times out of ten, finding one means the cause-effect has been reversed. For example: The feeling of foreboding grew stronger as he drove through the countryside. Better is: As he drove through the countryside, the feeling of foreboding grew stronger.

The next two red-flag words are AND and BUT. I think the hardest habit for a writer to break is to stop using AND and BUT at the beginning of a sentence. Another serious overuse problem is using AND and BUT to join sentences, series, and clauses. The result is awkward, long-winded, and run-on sentences.

Next on the red-flag hit-list is IT. Especially when IT is used as a pronoun. Remember that a pronoun refers to the last used noun. So, for clarity's sake, repeat the noun rather than have it become amusing text. Here's an example: The wind numbed his face and ruffled his hair as it blew off the chilly ocean. Did his hair blow off the ocean? Did you spot the AS-clause? Did you realize this is also a revered cause-effect sequence? Amazing, isn't it, how two little red-flag words can muck up the visual for the reader and jar them out of the story.

Another red-flag use of IT is as a contraction or possessive. IT'S means only one thing—"it is." Keep in mind that IT'S is never a possessive. If writing the possessive form, use "its." So, it's a wise writer who does a self-edit for it, its, and it's.

Next on the list is HAD. Think of this ditty every time you type the word: "HAD is a handicap." HAD handicaps by its overuse. Yes, it's a very good choice for getting from the story present into the story past and then out of the flashback scene and into the story now. Trouble is, between entering and exiting the flashback, that scene should be written as if it were actually  happening.

The next three, JUST, ONLY, and SO are overused "weasel words" (words taking up space without adding anything to the passage). Such words could easily be deleted. However, there are exceptions. First, if JUST, ONLY, and SO are part of the narrative character's usual dialogue, diction, and syntax, they can remain—provided they don't pepper a page. The second exception is if the words serves as a transition. It might help if you recite a litany of "weasel words weaken prose."

Now that you are aware of the dangers of these ten red-flag words, it's time you did a safety-inspection of your own writing. Take ten pages or a chapter or a scene and make a note of the word count. Now, chose one of the red-flag words—WAS, WERE, AS, AND, BUT, IT, HAD, JUST, ONLY, and SO—and do a search for that word. How many did you find? What is the ratio of the chosen red-flag word to the total word count? (And, yes, I'd love to hear what your statistics are!)

I know self-editing is hard, but eliminating such red-flag words helps net a manuscript that a reader can visual like a movie in their mind—and you'll become a better wordsmith and writer.

More About the Author 

Catherine E. McLean welcomes questions on the devices and techniques of fiction. She's an author, workshop speaker, and writing instructor. Her next online workshop is "Revision Boot Camp," January 13-31, 2014 (details are at www.WritersCheatSheets.com ). Catherine's been published in both short story and novel length. She's coined the term "Women's Starscape Fiction" for her writing because she likes a story where characters are real people facing real dilemmas, and where their journey (their adventure-quest, with or without a romance) is among the stars and solar systems, and where there's always a satisfying ending. Her home website is www.CatherineEmclean.com.

 

FF&P Writer Workshop Update

The Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal Chapter of the RWA Presents the line up of great workshops for February! Click here to see the full line up for 2013! http://romance-ffp.com/page/workshops








What's Your Brand? --Presented by Kris Tualla

February 8- March 3, 2013

$15.00 for FFnP members and $20.00 for non-FFnP members

In a crowded market, you need to stand out somehow, and that starts with your author brand. In this class we'll look at what a brand is - and isn't - and work together to create your personal brand.

Menage, Polyamory, Swinging...oh my! -- Presented by Dr. Charley Ferrer

February 11-24, 2013

$15.00 for FFnP members and $20.00 for non-FFnP members

Have you ever wondered what the true essence of a ménage was? What's the difference between Swinging and Polyamory? Discover how to set boundaries for your characters within these three distinct forms of sexual expression to enable you to write more credible scenes.

 

Writing your novel Scene by Scene -- Presented by Sally Walker

February 18-March 17, 2013

$30.00 for FFnP members and non-FFnP members

Learn the building blocks of fictional storytelling through brief lecture then writing exercises. In this workshop you will learn how to plan story and prevent pitfalls, one page at a time.

PLEASE JOIN US! 

FF&P Writer Workshop Update

The Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal Chapter of the RWA Presents the line up of great workshops for February! Click here to see the full line up for 2013!   http://romance-ffp.com/page/workshops

Writing Steamy Sex Scenes: Make your Readers Beg for More -- Presented by Dr. Charley Ferrer

February 4-March 3, 2013
$20.00 for FFnP members and $30.00 for non-FFnP members
Writing a good sex scene takes hard work. A great sex scene can give the reader new insight into the characters and their relationship, as well as further the plot or expand a theme.  

Criminal Minds -- Presented by Dr. Charley Ferrer

February 4-17, 2013

$15.00 for FFnP members and $20.00 for non-FFnP members

Have you ever wondered why criminals do what they do? What are their characteristics? How can you make your villains more than just monsters to scare your readers and add life and vitality to them, creating a killer your reader will love to hate or perhaps sympathize with?

Mindful Creating -- Presented by Mary O'Gara

February 4-March 3, 2013

$20.00 for FFnP members and $30.00 for non-FFnP members

How to get the most from your muse when you want it, is a month-long workshop focusing on quieting, focusing and working with your creative mind.

PLEASE JOIN US!
 

 

FF&P Writer Workshop Update

The Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal Chapter of the RWA Presents the line up of great workshops for January! Click here to see the full line up for 2013!

http://romance-ffp.com/page/workshops


 

January 14-February 10, 2013

Tips and Techniques for More Effective Proofreading -- Ally Broadfieldhttp://my.rwa.org/p/cm/ld/fid=599

$20.00 for FFnP members and $30.00 for non-FFnP members

Editing is one of the most difficult tasks a writer faces and even seasoned authors often have difficultly detecting errors in their own work. When writers proofread their own work, it’s not unusual for them to overlook errors because their mind knows how the text should read and automatically corrects it. Whether you’re polishing your manuscript for a contest, preparing to submit to an agent or editor, or planning to self-publish, knowing how to effectively proofread your work is an essential skill. This class will cover tips and techniques for better proofreading, how to identify common errors in capitalization, punctuation, sentence structure, verb tense, and dialogue, misplaced and dangling modifiers, homonyms, and plural and possessive forms. A list of grammar resources will also be provided.

January 14-February 10, 2013

Plotting Fiction - Presented by Sally Walker http://my.rwa.org/p/cm/ld/fid=602

$25.00 for FFnP members and $30.00 for non-FFnP members.

Take this class from Sally if you want to learn how to plan the events of a story or massage the kinks out of a work-in-progress. You will learn how idea, purpose, and characters create “What-if” lists. Research, time line, subplots, suspense, pacing, problem-solving and fine art vs. commercial fiction will all be covered.

In this class you will be challenged to walk through the plotting of a story. Topics include: Clarifying the stimulating idea, identifying essentials of beginning, middle and ending, and how to make “What if” lists. Using logic to your advantage you will get to insert characters into anxiety-causing moments caused by real life or historical events. In the end you will learn what is dramatic and what is not. Are you a storyteller?

January 14, 2013 through January 27, 2013

From Shyness to Steamy Love Scenes -- Presented by Dr. Charley Ferrer http://my.rwa.org/p/cm/ld/fid=441

$15.00 for FFnP members and $20.00 for non-FFnP members

This workshop will take into consideration the various aspects of sexuality, including: sexual desire, fantasy, body awareness, communication skills, sexual development. As we discuss these issues as well as societal and cultural norms, restrictions, and expectations on our sexuality and sexual behavior, participants will dispel misconceptions, address and overcome taboos, embrace a new sensual awareness and unlock inhibitions to allow them to feel comfortable with their sensuality and enhance your sensual writing.

Class 1 & 2: Addressing the participant understanding these issues and addressing it for themselves: desire, fantasy, body awareness, communication skills, sexual development. Dispelling fears and misconceptions. We’ll discuss these issues as well as societal and cultural norms, restrictions, and expectations on our sexuality and sexual behavior. Participants will dispel misconceptions, address and overcome taboos,

Class 3 & 4: Dabble deeper into higher levels of sexual play and briefly touch upon BDSM, erotic massage, sexual orientation including hetero-flexibility, gay/lesbian and bi-sexuality. Discuss these issues as well as societal and cultural norms, restrictions, and expectations on our sexuality and sexual behavior, participants will dispel misconceptions, address and overcome taboos.

PLEASE JOIN US!