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Thanet Creative: Writers


The easiest way to fix a broken story according to Jed Herne

February 2, 2024 in editing-your-work by Guest Writer

Jed Herne breaks his solution down into three stages:

  • Character arc
  • The three Ps
  • Theme

Character Arc

There are five aspects to a character arc that Herne addresses:

  1. What do they want?
  2. What do they need?
  3. What is the lie they believe?
  4. What is the truth they must come to accept?
  5. What is their ghost?

The Three Ps

  1. Promise
  2. Progress
  3. Payoff

Theme

The moral core of your story that characters must either accept or reject. This does not have to be explicit.

First Writers’ Meet and Critique Evening of 2024

January 10, 2024 in events by Matthew Brown

This Thursday, come along to meet local writers, have your work critiqued or enjoy a drink at a lovely pub with great food. Large car park and buses stop outside.

We are usually at table 8 in The Wheatsheaf Margate. The friendly staff will be happy to point us out.

All writers, all skill levels, all genres. We aim to be a friendly safe space where exploration of writing and the writing life are our only focus.

For work to be critiqued please bring 4 to 5 copies of 3 to 4 A4 pages, ideally double-spaced with 12-point font (or bigger). Other writers can then write feedback on the page next to your text.

Mark yourself as going on Facebook.

Neil Gaiman on the antidote to rejection

October 11, 2023 in being-a-writer by Matthew Brown

In this video, best-selling author Neil Gaiman talks about rejection and how to handle it.

My problem with “was”

August 17, 2023 in editing-your-work by Matthew Brown

The word “was” is an easy fit when writing in the past tense. Along with “had” it is easy to use the word so hard and often that it becomes a distraction.

While “was” is a good word and sometimes the right word, there are many times (such as in the example above) when a rewrite will produce a better passage. These edits – to remove “was” – can be hard. You have used the correct word. Why does it need to change?

Once a reader notices how often the writer uses “was” every further example is going to be a distraction.

Furthermore, the effort to find another way to say the same thing can give your writing more variety, a stronger voice, and more flow. That said, I find these edits hard.

I have added “was” reduction to my editing process. This step can be a lot of time-consuming work. The end product is almost always better and more enjoyable to read. At least I think so.

The way I approach this edit is to use “Find” (Ctrl+F) type “was” (or whatever word I am reducing) and then hit “Find All”. That highlights all examples of the word. I then scroll through looking for clusters as in the example above. The more I can see on the page, the more urgently I need to re-word.

Do you have any over used words that you try and cull in the editing process? Tell me about yours in the comments.

5 hard-won editing tips

July 13, 2023 in editing-your-work by Matthew Brown

Editing your writing can be a hard process. At least, it is for me. Here are five tips that I think might help your editing and have certainly helped mine.

1. Identify your overused words

My overused words include “was” and “has”. By using my wordprocessors find function with highlight all, I get a visual map of where I need to thin down such words.

Here are some other commonly overused words

  • Very: Often used as an intensifier “very” is a weak word choice. Try for a more intense word to begin with. Instead of “very sad” you could try “despondent”; instead of “very cold” you might like “freezing”.
  • That: A word that can be necessary for clarity in some cases, “that” is easy to overuse. Often you can remove this word without losing any meaning.
  • Just: This word is often used as a filler word and can weaken a sentence. Consider removing it or finding a more precise alternative.
  • Really: Another word like “very,” this is a weak intensifier. Again, use a more precise and intense word to start with.
  • Suddenly: Rather than surprise the reader with something happening suddenly, you tip your hand. Instead, skip right to the surprise.
  • Just then: This phrase is much like “suddenly” – extra words that do not add extra meaning and tip your hand to the reader reducing the impact.

2. Flag wordy sentences

I find myself falling into old bad writing habits sometimes. Habits such as run-on sentences, paragraphs of text so complex they only get a full stop at the end of the block of text, and sentences trying to do way too much in one go. I also tend towards gluts of passive voice sentences.

My solution to this is to drop an entire chapter in the Hemmingway App. A free tool that will highlight text that Enist Hemmingway probably would object to.

The app flags up sentences that need my attention. Although I sometimes disagree, most of the time, working on those parts makes the writing better.

3. Don’t fall in love with your own writing

I find it helps to get some time and distance from the first draft. When I go back I can see passages where I thought I was being so clever and extra but really I was getting in my own way.

The truth is that no matter how much I may love a passage I have written, if it does not serve the story it must go.

With time offering some perspective on my own writing, I can see which “clever passages” I should just outright remove. It turns out I was not being clever, I was being a smart-arse and not a particularly good one.

Trimming unnecessary verbiage can be painful. That’s the path to better writing.

4. Read it aloud

Reading text aloud is beneficial for editing as it helps catch errors, improve flow, identify awkward phrasing, and allows for better understanding of the overall tone and rhythm of the writing.

I do not do this as often as I should. This is a shame because reading aloud catches many problems much sooner.

In this case, do as I say rather than my bad habit of as I do.

5. Get Feedback

This was one of the first things I learned about editing. Feedback from test readers and fellow writers can help flag parts of your text that need further work.

I have found that when others say there is a problem with the text (no matter how much I wish to disagree) they are almost certainly correct. When they tell me how to fix it they are always wrong.

I try to do as much editing as possible before I get this feedback so the feedback only covers issues I have missed.

This is something we specialise in on our writer’s nights. Reading and highlighting text that wants attention. I have seen many writers grow from giving and receiving such help.

The TL;DR here is to get others to critique your work. Then note what they say to work on and work on that.

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