Good Writing

The following was sent in by reader and freelancer Rob Loughran, who has been teaching himself how to be a better proofreader by necessity. I’m thankful for his advice and also for the fact that if there are any typos in it, then we both can share the blame.
It’s nearly impossible to get a manuscript operating-theater-clean but following these steps will keep you out of trouble with most editors.
1) PRINT OUT A HARD COPY TO PROOFREAD.
You can write on it. Scratch words out, compose margin notes. Erase, amend, and if need be, incinerate an offending manuscript. Not only is it difficult to compare margins and distinguish mis-used homonyms (spell check won’t underline: Deer Mom, I’m baroque please send me a Czech four fifty dolors…) but I suspect that we also laze a little mentally while proofing on a computer because it’s so easy to change things.

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Bree Nordenson has an interesting essay at the Columbia Journalism Review about whether there is a market for real life sad tales that don’t have a silver lining.

I’m not a big fan of horror as a genre for film or writing. But, there have been a few books that scared the bejesus out of me. Most recently was Devil in the White City by Erik Larson, which literally put the fear of the devil in me. Best of all, the book is nonfiction, so the fear felt especially real.
How can you terrorize your own readers? Mort Castle shares some of his expertise from the book On Writing Horror over at Writers Digest.

At the Evil Editor: “mixed in with five published [historical fiction] openings is an opening submitted by a minion. Choose the opening you think is unpublished and tell us why.”

What’s the best way to write better dialogue? By recognizing crap dialogue (and avoiding it). Gloria Kempton at Writers Digest shows you seven mistakes not to make when you write yours.

Screenwriter Jane Espenson has a nice mini-lesson on how to get story exposition out of one’s characters using dialogue without making it sound too stilted. Her example? The Da Vinci Code. I won’t tell you whether or not it’s a negative or positive example.

The Evil Editor discusses whether it’s really necessary for a novel to begin with action or whether a reader can be brought in with regular old description. He gives several examples why the latter works well–as long as it’s done right.

After my Dad read The Lovely Bones, the part he raved about the most was a scene in which the protagonist, a dead girl, meets her former dog in heaven. Giving character to a pet in fiction can engage readers just like my Dad, so Brenda Scott Royce at Absolute Write investigates some ways to writing good fiction involving animals.

From Ask Metafilter:

I come across sites dealing with a few here and there but there is no great collection I can find. Common examples: Hemingway’s habit/belief of 500 words per day, Faulkner drinking whiskey whilst writing, Balzac drinking 10+ espressos a day, Thomas Wolfe’s habit of writing standing up and his prolixity (so much so that Max Perkins had to substantially edit his work). Certain writers lived philosophies on first drafts/revisions, words/hours per day, etc. I have no problem locating famous quotes, but I’m more interested in info about actual behaviors.

Famous behaviors here.

I don’t know what an outline ever did to me, but I can’t stand doing them–in my day job or in my writing life. To me, it’s easier to write a non-plotted-out 300 page novel at once instead of sitting down and making a plan. Maybe that’s why I haven’t published a major book yet. Martha Alderson at Absolute Write has some tips on how to make the most of your plot outlines so that you too can plan ahead without it feeling too much like homework.