3 Writing Killers – What NOT to Write
Everyone has a way TO write–what about the key ways to NOT write? Here you go:
Don’t meander – If you want to enjoy writing without a focus or goal or plan, fine, but write it for yourself, not for others to read. Writing in a free flow is marvelous as a cathartic exercise and practice. But readers actually like to have arrived at some destination at the end of a book.
Don’t forget a main character – Believe me LOTS of writers avoid dealing with the complexities of writing in a main character by sprinkling in lots of people and thinking that will do the trick for readers. It won’t! An ensemble cast of characters sounds like fun, a party of sorts, but let one character STILL be the main one for readers to grasp and follow.
Don’t use all techniques – not all at once, anyway! Although skipping about with perspectives and tenses can be done it should ONLY be done with clear and consistent transitions. Just switching here and there as the muse tickles a writer’s fancy leaves readers floundering. Great fun for the writer, but the result is something that belongs in the writer’s bottom drawer, not handed to readers.
Bottom line: Not everything we write needs to be–or should be!–for public consumption. Enjoy writing! And sometimes just write for yourself. But when you write for readers, connect to them with a purpose, a character and methodology that BOTH you and the reader can grab hold of and nestle into.
