Friday 29 March 2013

On Writing

A few things about my writing in general today. I've been practicing writing action in detail, because I tend to skip over it. I picked a movie scene with which I was very familiar (the opening of The Matrix) and wrote the detail and action as if it were my own story. I need to keep doing this.

Something else I've been practicing is writing without adverbs. Adverbs are one of those word classes that are frowned upon. You're allowed to use them, but it stands out a lot once you're made aware of them. I tend to overuse adverbs, and my writing suffers. Quite often, nothing is lost when an adverb is cut, but sometimes it takes more effort to replace it. So I'm working on that, too.

I've also been listening to a lot of I Should Be Writing, Mur Lafferty's podcast "for wannabe fiction writers". It's good advice, and I'm enjoying it, but it also makes me realise how much I've been holding back or being lazy. In some ways, my Friday Flash Fiction is me being kind of lazy in my writing. Rather than really polishing up a piece, getting feedback, seeing if I can get it published anywhere, I just slap it up on the blog on a Friday and hope someone notices. If I want to make a go of this and be a real author, I'm going to have to put in some hard work beyond what I've been doing. I'm also going to have to think about the impression I'm sending online. If I put up sloppy work, that will reflect a bad image of me and make it harder to go pro. From that point of view, I'm thinking about stopping Friday Flash Fiction. Maybe just for a little while, until I know what I want from it.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I think this week's story reflects that a little bit.
PPS - And it contains no adverbs!

No comments: