Editing: Super Tips

Dear Writer,



here are some golden tips for shaping your writing, whether you're polishing a short story or a fifty book series:

1. Remove dialogue tags such as "said" - most of these are redundant or to put it another way, dialogue should speak for itself.

2. Delete weasle words such as:

• very
• little
• pretty
• really
• almost
• seem
• even
• that
• up/down
• in/out
• tried to...
• reached...

3. Use positive terms, not negatives e.g. instead of "he didn't come" write "he was absent".

4. Use concrete nouns. Stay away from the abstract.

5. Remove as many words ending in -ly.

6. Remove as many -ing words as you can.

7. Construct "active" sentences - not passive. If you notice yourself writing something like, "he was thrown by the horse", switch the sentence round to, "the horse threw him".

8. Reduce the number of adjectives.

9. Avoid prepositional phrases.

10. Show don't tell, that is, paint a picture, show me what you see, hear, feel and I'll become you. If you don't you'll just bore me.

Print this small list off and I guarantee you this, by following these guidelines you'll add zing to your writing.

ZHZ. 

A Writer's Life: 16th July 2008

So where am I today in my wordsmithery? Well, I'd say I'm in the middle of lots of projects:

1. I'm writing the follow-up to the The Curry Mile .
2. I'm working on drafting my first screenplay...big budget.
3. I'm thought-showering another screenplay...small budget
4. I'm planning the next edit of a children's book

I've been in the process of moving house for the last couple of months which has meant everything's been up in the ether.

I write regularly, but changing my writing space has has affected my work and it is only today that I'm in a position to say that, "Zahid, I'm back on track, welcome back!"

Oh, it's good to be yourself ;)

ZHZ. 

How to use Robin Hood to Write Your Own Story

One of the biggest challenges any writer faces is determining which "voice" is apt to tell his or her tale.

Now, when I talk about "voice" I'm not referring to "Point of View", that is, whether a story is told through a first person narrative, a third person omniscient perspective and so on. No, I'm referring to the character behind the voice. The "voice" itself could be told from different Points of View.

ROBIN HOOD STORY

Let me clarify: if I said to you that we're going to write a story together, you and me, out here in the lonely landscape of the imagination where dreams are formed into tales by writers, young and old, fledgling and experienced...and then if we spun away allowing characters and plot and locations to coalesce...and if, to speed things up, I were to suggest using the Robin Hood tale, but I wanted you to rewrite it set in today's world, in your neighbourhood, on your street where there's a fella called Robin and a lady called Marion and a vile person called Mr. Sheriff who rules the town...I'm sure, I wouldn't need to tell you anything more in order for you to spin your contemporary tale.

USING OTHER VOICES...FOR THE SAME TALE

And once you'd written you tale, if I asked you to retell the story using the "voice" of Tony Blair or Mother Teresa or Bob Geldoff or Angelina Jolie or Nelson Mandela, each time, the "voice" would be potent and the tale would change. And if instead of using famous people you were to use people who are friends and family, aquainances or enemies, you would imbue your fictional characters with real flesh. Sans doute.

IF YOU HIT A WALL...If one of your creations is lacking in spirit think of someone who is spirited - they can be fictional characters from novels and movies or TV. If you need someone who is witty think of someone who embodies those characteristics and incorporate them into your creation.

Finding characters is actually quite easy: just open your eyes and look and feel and listen. After all what are writers other than conduits of the imagination?
ZHZ. 

The Spoken Synopsis

Novelists invariably have to write a synopsis. It is true that many great writers probably never wrote one, but I can assure that agents and publishers always want to see one.

Many who have chosen the world of the pen as their journey, sometimes find it difficult to understand what a synopsis is, why it is the way it is, why it's even needed. Other writers wouldn't write home without it.

You could say that it's the literary equivalent of a business plan. And it is true that the map is not the territory, the synopsis is not the book.

Here are some questions:

1. How do you write a synopsis?
2. How long should it be?
3. When do you write it?
4. What makes a good synopsis?
5. What makes a bad one?

I say forget these questions.

Think of it like this: have you seen or read the Robin Hood story. Well, tell me the story. Go on, say it out loud, write it down. Guess what, the telling is very quick. Now when you were narrating the story, did you describe the colour of Robin Hood's tights or the look in Maid Marion's eyes when she was flustered by him? No, of course not, because those are the details that aren't really the big pulsing themes of the story. And that's what a synopsis is: it's a gist. The easiest way for me to do a synopsis therefore is to tell someone else the story. That's it. Tell it to yourself, your cat, your dog, your spouse, your best friend, your mum. Anyone who'll listen and not quarrel too much with you.

And guess what: we do this sort of storytelling all the time when we're relaying information about movies, television series, soaps. We don't tell everything - we stick to the main points and that's it.

So if you think you've got a story, get a stopwatch and time yourself and describe it in 60 seconds. Your tale might go something like this:

The story's about a guy called Noah Jenkins and he wants to be an astronaut, but he's claustrophobic - it's a comedy. Anyway, he works in a dead end job in London that's slowly been sapping his life juice away - then one day the wife he's neglected leaves him for his boss. In a fit of helplessness and rage he signs up for a...

Is that so hard to do?

And once you've laid down the foundation that make up your synopsis you can edit and rewrite to your heart's content until it sings true. Of course, it still means you have to write the book...

ZHZ. 

What Published Writers MUST do

If you are a published writer then there is something I strongly recommend you do that could absolutely alter - for the better - your experience of the writing life.

I believe it's a sad world we live in when those who create entire worlds for others are paid a pittance, but such is our reality. For those of us who are writers we must do what we can to get by comfortably so that we can continue creating new worlds of words.

Firstly, join The Society of Authors. I cannot recommend that enough. They help provide legal guidance, access to databases of agents and so many other things, too many to mention here, but they are all listed on their web site.

Secondly, join the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society. If you join the Society of Authors then your membership of ALCS is free. ALCS collects the royalties from your published work.

Each time your book, essay or photo is reprinted, photocopied, borrowed from a library it generates income. That tally of income is what the ALCS calculates and collects and repatriates to the writer...as long as they are registered.

The creative impulse which produced the work now in print accrues value. Writers rarely have a good business sense, although some do, and the advice they receive is lacking.

I know poets and authors who despite having been published many time have never registered with any society such as the two above. If you are amongst those who believe that you don't need to register with anyone, you're right: you don't have to.

But why not?

What do you lose?

For a few pounds each year you easily recoup the cost of membership and you can access excellent professional advice. Don't waste any more time: go and visit those web sites and decide for yourself whether you should join. I simply believe that you should continue to be rewarded for what you created which has now become become part of the world's inheritance.

ZHZ.