BWFoster78
Myth Weaver
I love this forum because it's a group of people who like the same thing that I do. I can find people who love discussing whether that one word belongs in the sentence or not. Sometime, however, discussions of the minutia lead to the big picture items being obscured.
Don't get me wrong. If I see a sticky phrase when going through my work, I'll make the correction. At some point, however, smoothing out single sentences leads to diminishing returns. If your writing overall isn't sticky, no one is likely to notice that one word. If they do, either the word is truly dreadful or you haven't done a good job drawing the reader into the story, meaning you have much worse problems.
Here's what I think are the important considerations from a technique (meaning non-story issues) standpoint:
1. The writing has to be clear. If your reader can't figure out what is happening to your character or parse the meaning of a sentence, it's going to be quite difficult to engage them. Removing "Wait, what?" moments is important.
2. Tension. My number one priority of a writer is to not bore my reader. The way for me to accomplish that goal is to keep the tension level high. Anytime I can eliminate an element that robs tension it makes a significant improvement in the writing.
3. Figuring out the best way to show an emotion. Showing makes the reader connect on a far deeper level than telling. I think the hierarchy goes something like this: Unreadable writing is trying to show an emotion and having it just not work. Better is to simply tell the reader the emotion. Best, though, is to show the emotion in a way that connects with your reader. I struggle with this and admit that I take the easy way out a lot by telling. When I do come across that perfect method of showing the emotion, though, it makes a huge difference.
What do you think are the most important techniques/elements to improve?
Don't get me wrong. If I see a sticky phrase when going through my work, I'll make the correction. At some point, however, smoothing out single sentences leads to diminishing returns. If your writing overall isn't sticky, no one is likely to notice that one word. If they do, either the word is truly dreadful or you haven't done a good job drawing the reader into the story, meaning you have much worse problems.
Here's what I think are the important considerations from a technique (meaning non-story issues) standpoint:
1. The writing has to be clear. If your reader can't figure out what is happening to your character or parse the meaning of a sentence, it's going to be quite difficult to engage them. Removing "Wait, what?" moments is important.
2. Tension. My number one priority of a writer is to not bore my reader. The way for me to accomplish that goal is to keep the tension level high. Anytime I can eliminate an element that robs tension it makes a significant improvement in the writing.
3. Figuring out the best way to show an emotion. Showing makes the reader connect on a far deeper level than telling. I think the hierarchy goes something like this: Unreadable writing is trying to show an emotion and having it just not work. Better is to simply tell the reader the emotion. Best, though, is to show the emotion in a way that connects with your reader. I struggle with this and admit that I take the easy way out a lot by telling. When I do come across that perfect method of showing the emotion, though, it makes a huge difference.
What do you think are the most important techniques/elements to improve?
