Easy Writing Makes Hard Reading

Writing well is simply hard work. Earnest Hemingway said it best: “Easy writing makes hard reading.”

I will never forget one of my English professors whose daily habit was to open class in prayer. One of her requests was simply “to be clear.”

We as writers would do well to pray for clarity of writing. We should not write to impress. We should write with clarity of message and with simplicity of meaning that readers can relate to and appreciate.

Easier said than done. Writing in such a way that reading becomes effortless is in fact, hard.

Music presents an analogy that speaks to this reality. Having sung in choirs since I was thirteen, I can appreciate the importance that practice plays. Soloists and instrumentalists often puts hours of preparation into their music. During a well-polished performance, the audience simply listens and lets the music speak to them. Their focus is on the song, the melody, and the words. And that’s as it should be. However, the music can get lost in the performance when the musician makes a mistake – misses an entrance, forgets the words, or sings a flat note.  

The same is true with writing. When readers pick up a well-written book, they become so involved in the story that they hardly notice how the words sound on the page. On the other hand, the reader gets distracted when grammar isn’t right or the wording becomes clunky. In this case, the story becomes lost in the medium of the English language due to a sloppy presentation.

That said, we could shift the words around in Hemingway’s quote to say, “Hard writing makes easy reading.” The same is equally true.

Therein lies a challenge for every writer – the challenge to write well so that the story doesn’t get muddied by mechanics.

So go write hard.

Find Your Time to Write… And Stick to It.

Today, I had the inspired idea to wake up early (on my one day to sleep in), turn on my computer and write before having breakfast.

I quickly discovered that this scenario might have some problems after hitting snooze twice and reluctantly rolling out of bed thirty minutes after my planned writing rendezvous.

I wasn’t encouraged after staring at my computer screen for twenty minutes without having written anything I liked.

After 30 minutes, I started to warm up, but by then, I was getting distracted by the Publix blueberry muffins sitting on the table. I gave up.

Perhaps you are thinking: This writer is such a slacker.

Actually, I am a very task- and goal-driven person. Right now, there are at least three lists on my desk, and I’m happily scratching away at them as the day progresses.

I realize that writers can become guilty of making excuses and letting their writing schedules start to slip, but that’s not the point of this post. In fact, I decided to try this morning’s exercise because I had already met my weekly writing goal and wanted to experiment a little.

And what I learned is that I must clear away distractions before I can fully give myself to writing. The blueberry muffins were a distraction to my empty stomach. My unstarted lists were a distraction to my task-oriented mind. Before I could settle into my writing zone, I needed to tend to these distractions first.

Maybe some people actually work better with lots of things going on simultaneously. Everyone is different.

The moral of the story is in the title. It’s good to try new things – like a new writing schedule – but if you discover something doesn’t work, don’t waste your time. Just get back on your game, and stick to the writing routine that works for you.

For me, that means early mornings on Saturdays are probably out.

Hungry for More: Sequels, Series & Suspense

You’re on the edge of your seat. You’re dying to know how the story ends. And then it ends. And you’re still so involved that the first thing you do is go on Amazon.com and search for the sequel.

This was just my experience. I recently finished the first book in Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games trilogy. I had heard good reviews about the series and saw the trailer for the movie coming out in March, so I decided to buy the first book.

From page one, I was hooked. First, I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen first person used so effectively. Second… Well, let’s talk about what elements of The Hunger Games – and other well-scripted stories – leave readers scrambling to find the sequel.

Make us care

The author has to make us care about the characters. Collins starts on page one. Her heroine has to hunt food illegally just to keep her family alive – after her father was killed in a mine explosion. On top of that, the evil Capitol harvests two young adults each year to fight in the annual Hunger Games. Think of the Roman coliseum concept but on steroids, and you’ll get the idea. When her younger sister is selected to participate, Collins’ heroine Katniss volunteers herself to be tribute instead, knowing full well that fighting in the games means almost certain death.

Hands down, Collins has made us care.

Create a cause

Successful TV shows are much like good sequels in that they make you want to come back. One that had me hooked last season was Terra Nova, a sci-fi drama that follows a family who risks everything to stay together.

The saga starts in 2149 when having more than two children is considered a crime. Jim Shannon’s family manages to hide their third child for a time, but eventually, the authorities discover their secret and imprison Jim. Meanwhile, Shannon’s wife, a trauma surgeon, and their other two children have been selected to join a lottery of people and travel back to a prehistoric world through a “fracture” in time. She stages a daring plan to break Jim out of prison, smuggle their third child onto the 10^th pilgrimage, keep the family together, and start a new life.

You want a cause? From episode one, you’ll find yourself rooting for this family to survive and help create a new world.

Leave unanswered questions

Readers expect plot resolution, so when something is left unsettled, they start asking questions. Perhaps the most basic and yet effective question to make the audience ask is, “What’s going to happen next?”  

Unanswered questions not only propel the story’s plotline, but also provide the driving force for a sequel.

For example, look at the Anne of Green Gables novels by L. M. Montgomery. There are eight books in the series, and the first book closes with Anne thinking about the future and beyond what she can see. The second to last sentence reads, “And there was always the bend in the road!”

What question does that raise? Naturally, what’s beyond the bend in the road?

Another great example is how C.S. Lewis ends his first book in The Chronicles of Narnia: “And that is the very end of the adventures of the wardrobe. But if the Professor was right, it was only the beginning of the adventures of Narnia.”

Even if the last sentence doesn’t raise a question, an unfinished plot detail may demand further exploration. Maybe the villain gets away, or the love triangle remains unresolved.

I won’t tell you how book one of The Hunger Games ends, but I will say that I just received the two remaining books in the trilogy a few days ago. The second book kept me up most of Friday and part of Saturday night. And I’m not going to touch the third one until I get caught up on my sleep.

What good reads have kept you up at night? And what endings have left you unsatisfied and looking for more?

A Hero to Cheer for

I’m in the process of writing my second book, and for a moment, I want to pause and think about what makes a good hero (or in my case, heroine).

Take a look around in real life, or pull a book off the shelf to find someone who makes you want to cheer wildly. While you do that, here’s my short list of what I think makes a good hero – fiction or non.

A hero leads without fear. By that, I don’t mean that a hero never gets afraid. That’s unrealistic. No, I mean that he leads without fear for himself. He lets go of self-love and purposes someone else’s good instead.

Anyone who has bravely served in our military belongs to this category, my older brother included. These men and woman have given up so much – their homes, their families, their normal lives, sometimes even life itself – because they want to protect the interests of the people they love.

A hero does what’s right, no matter the cost. I’ve been listening to the story of John Bunyan on my ride home from work each day, and as I’m thinking about what makes a good hero, he comes to mind. Here is a man who was unfairly imprisoned because he refused to compromise his faith and stop preaching – because he believed that God had called him to preach.

He spent 12 years in prison. Twelve years! But God didn’t forget him. Instead, God used this hero of faith to write – while in prison – the best-known Christian allegory of all times: Pilgrim’s Progress.

A hero doesn’t want the glory. I would never call myself a football fan, because anything I know about the sport I owe to my dad. Nonetheless, I am a fan of Tim Tebow.

He probably wouldn’t want someone to call him a hero, and ironically, that is probably what makes him one. I saw him in an interview where, in response to the media’s flattery, he gave the credit to his team, acting as a spokesman rather than taking the spotlight. Ultimately, he gives God the glory for his success. Anyone who follows Tebow knows he is famous for his references to John 3:16.

A hero fails and gets back on his feet. Scratches make heroes stronger. A few weeks back, I watched the old Tyronne Powers’ movie The Mark of Zorro. In a dual against his antagonist, Captain Pasquale scratches him on the shoulder. “I needed that to wake me up,” Zorro says before finishing off his foe.

Heroes will fall. They will get dirty. They will make mistakes. And that’s what makes people relate to them and care about them.

A hero sacrifices himself. Ask my family, and they will tell you that I can cry at a pin drop. Yes, I even cry for Pixar movies. But I have to say that Pixar finally got a hero right with Tangled and the character Eugene Fitzherbert, alias Flynn Rider.

If you haven’t seen the movie, I don’t mean to spoil it for you, but Fitzherbert nearly dies so that the girl he loves can be free. “You are my new dream,” he tells Rapunzel with what appears to be *sniff* his dying breath. (And yes, since we are talking about Disney/Pixar, you can guess there’s still a happy ending.)

All heroes aren’t the same. There’s not a one-size-fits-all mold, which is certainly the case with Abby Grant, the protagonist of my Wings of the Dawn series. But ultimately, there is one common thread they share: they make us want to cheer for them.

Who are the heroes you love and why?

Will Self-Publishing Compete with or Complement Traditional Publishing?

I ask myself this question after reading a variety of articles on the future of self-publishing. The statistics show that it isn’t something traditional publishers can ignore any more. Publishers Weekly shows that in 2009, 76% of newly released books were self-published.

Self-publishing has certainly come a long way. An article from the Wall Street Journal made this observation: “Much as blogs have bitten into the news business and YouTube has challenged television, digital self-publishing is creating a powerful new niche in books that’s threatening the traditional industry. Once derided as 'vanity' titles by the publishing establishments, self-published books suddenly are able to thrive by circumventing the establishment.”

But is self-publishing really a “threat” to traditional publishing? In a Wall Street Journal poll, the majority at 49% said that it is a “big threat” – probably due in large to the increasing popularity of digital books and electronic devices that lend themselves well to accessing self-published works.

Yet there also appear to be ways in which the two poles are trying to connect.

HarperCollins launched a writing community called Authonomy.com. In their FAQ page, they explain their purpose is “to find new, talented writers we can sign up for our traditional book publishing programmes.” The community invites unpublished and self-published writers to participate.

There’s a novel idea.

Yet a community like this does run the risk of becoming a popularity contest with writers vying to reach the editor’s desk. Author Carla Acheson warns of some potential problems users could encounter with the community in her post Is Authonomy just a Con-omy?

Will traditional publishing and self-publishing camps continue to compete or find ways to work together? Will traditional publishers get creative and discover fresh talent from the pool of self-published authors? Will self-published authors start to view themselves as independent of traditional publishing or look to publishing houses to one day pick up their works?

I don’t know the answers to those questions, but one impression my research left me is that digital publishing is going to play an ever increasing role in how books go to market.

Would you agree?

Perhaps digital publishing will be the tool that brings self-published works a larger readership and the attention of the traditional publishing establishment.

Time will tell.

 

Be SMART: Prioritize Your New Year’s Goals

With the new year only days away, many people will be making resolutions that they probably won’t keep, regardless of their good intentions. I don’t mean to sound pessimistic; after all, I like to set goals each year too. However, I’ve observed that if people actually kept their resolutions, the media probably wouldn’t report on the same ones every year.

That raises the question: Why don’t people keep their resolutions?

A couple years ago, my supervisor introduced me to the SMART mnemonic for setting and achieving objectives. Whether you’re applying it to your professional or personal life, it may help you define your goals or refine them as the year progresses.

In short, SMART stands for:

“S” – Specific

“M” – Measurable

“A” – Attainable

“R” – Relevant

“T” – Time-bound

Here’s a practical example: You’re a writer. Your goal is finish your rough draft by July. That sounds like a specific goal and a time-bound one. However, it lacks “meat.” You have to flesh out the details. How are you going to measure your progress and attain the goal? Perhaps you have to reserve so many hours a week to write or set word count benchmarks.

By nature, I am a planner, so creating a list of SMART goals isn’t difficult for me. I’ve discovered that the heart of the matter is setting priorities. As the year begins, I find myself “taking on” too much– and I know I’m not the only overachiever out there.

For 2012, the magic word for me be “prioritizing.” Perhaps it will be the same for you.

As I look back on my list of goals for 2011, I am happy to say I was able to cross several off the list and honest to say that some will be rolling over to 2012. But that’s the beauty of a new year. As Anne Shirley told Marilla in Anne of Green Gables, “Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?”

What are your goals as a writer this year? How do you intend to stick to them?

What We Can Learn from “A Wonderful Life”

One thing I enjoy this time of year is watching the Christmas specials like “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.” One of my friends recently reminded me of a line that guardian angel Clarence tells George toward the end of “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Clarence says, “Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives. When he isn’t around, he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?”

We as writers can get easily discouraged. An e-newsletter I receive from American Christian Writers noted that writing is a profession with a 99 percent rejection rate. Ouch.

By nature, we want to succeed. As writers, we want to make a difference. However, many times, we simply can’t know what impact our writing is making in other people’s lives.

I like what Helen Keller said. Though she was not talking about writing, I can see an application for writers. She said, “I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.”

That reminds me very much of something Jesus told his disciples in Luke 16:10. He said, “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much.”

As Clarence told George, we may never know what an “awful hole” we would leave if we weren’t around. We may not be able to see the impact of our writing, but we can trust that at least in some small way, our writing is touching someone’s life. So press on.