Writers On Writing (Book Reviews For The Rest Of Us)

Here's a quick read for a little refresher on how to keep your writing crisp.  The book is Bonnie Trenga's The Case of the Misplaced Modifier, subtitled: How to Solve the Mysteries of Weak Writing.  True to its claim, it does get right down to the flaws in passive voice and weak sentence structure.  Additionally, I found it fun to read, in its hard-boiled detective language. 

One the best reminders for me continues to be modifiers.  Their placement, revisions and removal sometimes cause my head to swim.  Trenga gives some fairly concrete examples of what to do if you are like me when you revise.  Or should I say, "if you are like me when you revise, you will be glad to find many clear examples offered by Trenga."

It is important to keep your craft concise.  Trenga has an entire chapter devoted to flushing out vague clauses and replacing them with tantalizing and descriptive clauses that bolster clear subjects.  She also gives examples of weak writing and shows how to tweak things just so, creating more pop from your conflicts, more depth in your prose.  By the time I completed this read, I felt as if I could approach my own writing anew.  It had been a long time since I paused to consider active sentence structure.

Sure there are likely other, more current books out there, but I found The Case of the Misplaced Modifier to be just what I needed as a light refresher.  It also serves as a pretty good reference book for a quick change.  I'm sure we have all come across a sentence or phrase in our writing that doesn't sit quite right.  Trenga's book has afforded me a nose to help sniff out the "culprit" and directions on how to make the necessary corrections.

I give it 4 out of 5 "hoorays!"

Where To Go From Here

Good news!  The last possible publication I sent one of my short stories to has officially rejected me.  The reason why this is cause for celebration is because I am now knee deep in revisions that are leading toward the development of the 'Ignorance Is' project into a book. And, as always, I have found a few new things along the way to researching e-publication marketing in preparation for the change from short story to novel.  I will detail these over the next few blogs; but I wish to share two now.

One of such things is the standard for writing length for the Hugo Awards (see here).  It seems that I only need a mere 40,000 words for the work to be considered a novel in my genre.  No, I am not considering aiming for a Hugo.  At this point, I am simply trying to expand the work so that it fits the category of novel, thus enabling a credible e-publication on Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP).  Still, a pipe dream has a tendency to smoke in all directions.

Another thing I have learned is about the craft of story writing.  The devices employed in a short are much different that those perhaps used in a longer work.  For the short, economy if key.  However, in a novel, I am free to give more flavor and texture.  I do not find myself asking "does this directly relate back to my protagonist on the ledge of a building?"  It doesn't have to.  Instead, I can dabble in the emotions of the character, giving her more depth and ennui.  I can stir the back story, motivating the conflict.  I can even add extraneous bits so that my reader doesn't think I am taking them for granted.

So, stay tuned.  I have a story to tell.  And I have just discovered I need more than 7,500 words to properly tell it.

Version 2 of the cover.  Note for those making their own cover: letters must be much more conspicuous than this.

 

WordPress vs. Blogger

I have been asking several people now about blogging for writers.  I have also been following some great blogs on the subject.  I keep hearing the same thing: as a writer, I should be blogging on WordPress.  Now, I am not sure if this holds any water.  I have been blogging for a few years here on Blogger and I have learned a some tricks of the trade just by charting my experiences on running.  Now that I am more purposefully engaged in blogging with the hopes that it will amount to some marketing aid once IGNORANCE IS hits the public, I am looking more seriously at this avenue.  I continue to hear about WordPress.  So, I think some investigation is in order.  I will use the comment section for my findings and I encourage your comments as well.

Good hunting!  Write Now!