Look at this example of total information overload:
‘Mary, where are those fuzzy red slippers that you gave me last year for Christmas when I was sick with the flu and my aunt was visiting from Scotland?’
If you find your dialogue rambles on in this way, get out your scissors immediately!
How could you present this passage differently? First of all, decide if it is important for the reader to have all this information. Does it matter what colour the slippers are, or that they were a Christmas present from Mary? Do we need to know that the speaker had the flu last Christmas, or that her aunt was visiting, or that the aunt came from Scotland? If not, take out the surplus stuff.
Even if all this information is essential, it could be conveyed in a more lively, less stilted way. How about:
‘Mary, have you seen my red fuzzy slippers? I was just thinking about last Christmas when you gave them to me. Do you remember? Aunt Phyllis was visiting from Scotland and I had the flu. I was so feeble I couldn’t bend down to put the slippers on and you had to do it for me.’
It’s longer, but much less tedious.
Personal Style
Many writers define style as a personal voice that distinguishes their writing from anyone else’s. For many successful writers, their ‘style’ is what attracted a publisher to them in the first place and what makes their fans stay loyal.
But style is also used as an excuse for deviations from writing norms. If you choose to have paragraphs three pages long or use no dialogue tags at all, you can call that your ‘style’. Certainly this can make your writing original, but if it moves it too far outside the mainstream – or makes it too difficult for most people to read – it can also make it more liable to be rejected. If no one understands your style, you have two options: give up hope of publication, or change it.
To work, your style should be a natural extension of who you are. That’s why different people write differently. Style reflects how you see the world around you and how you express that vision back to others. It doesn’t mean that you always have to write in the same way about the same things. Writers can change their style – from one book to another, or as they grow older and see the world in a different way. Many successful writers, including Agatha Christie and Ruth Rendell, have published novels under more than one name to alert their readers to their different approaches or different subject matter. Graham Greene’s attitude to religion changed over the course of his life and that is reflected in his writing. None of that means that any way you choose to write is unnatural. The words that come to you and the characters you create are part of you – and part of your style.
But don’t use this as a crutch. You can always improve your style. If you work to make your writing better, that better style will become natural to you. There is always something new to learn.
Keeping Track
As you edit, try to work through your book consecutively. If a scene from later on in the novel comes to you, write it down in note or rough-draft form and then forget about it until it is its turn. Keeping track of where you are in a story is hard enough; trying to write scenes from all over the plot could end with you being completely confused and your story losing its life. That is what we have been working very hard to avoid. By the time you have worked through everything in this chapter you shouldn’t be tearing your hair out or losing interest in your book altogether; you should have a polished draft, ready for a final edit.
NEARLY THERE …
The Final Edit
Editing your work is a serious job. Some writers really enjoy this part of the process; others hate it, because it means looking out for flaws and they hope they’ve got rid of them all by now. If you refuse to accept the possibility that your manuscript has mistakes in it, hire an editorial consultant to put you straight.
Reading Aloud
If you choose to do the job yourself, one approach is to read your manuscript aloud. This may sound simple, but it isn’t. It takes stamina and focus to read through a 100,000-word book as if it were a children’s story. You have to stay alert, because if you don’t pick up errors as you go, the exercise becomes pointless. It might take you a week or more, depending on how much time you have and how strong your vocal cords are.
As you read, words that don’t sound right will show up quickly. Bad dialogue will become easy to spot. Too much narrative will put you to sleep as surely as it will any other reader.
You can correct mistakes as you go, while they are fresh in your mind. Or, if you prefer, you can take notes and make the changes later, when you have finished reading. The advantage of this is that you may find errors that compound each other. If you try to correct them as you go, you’ll end up coming back again as you spot something else that needs changing.
Ring the Changes
One way to make your work seem fresh as you read it for the umpteenth time is to put it into another format. If you have always worked on screen, print out a hard copy and read that. Or change the typeface so that it looks different. This may help you to pick up errors you’ve missed so far.
Finding Flaws
This can be a painful process, but the more you practise the easier it becomes. To start with, you are looking for things that just don’t feel right, as if you had walked into your living room and found that someone had moved a piece of furniture – it’s subtle, but still noticeable. Typical examples include:
Too many characters introduced too quickly in the opening pages.
Telling your reader what’s going to happen before it happens.
Backstory introduced too early, before the reader is drawn into the narrative.
Mentioning a character’s name more than once or twice on the first page.
Confusion about whose voice is telling the story.
The plot unravels too quickly.
This may seem like a daunting list, but you’ll get better and faster at spotting mistakes as you go along. Learn right away to have confidence in your judgement. But also learn all you can about editing. Read books about it. Read other novels in your field and criticize them. What’s right about them? What’s wrong? Go to lectures given by writers and editors. They can help you hone ways to find mistakes in your work.
Your Own Bad Habits
Looking for your personal demons in your text can be a strange experience. How many times did you use the word finally in the course of your novel? Some writers use the search mode on their computer to help pinpoint their overuse of specific words.
Inconsistencies
it has been known – in a published novel, no less – for the heroine’s name to change from Eleanor in Chapter 1 to Emily in Chapter 2. That’s an extreme example of neither the author nor the editor doing her job, but less glaring inconsistencies will put editors and readers off. For example:
A detective in Victorian times cannot rely on DNA evidence.
A heroine who started out blonde shouldn’t turn into a redhead unless we have seen her going to the hairdresser’s.
A hill that started off being 500 metres high can’t grow into a 5000-metre mountain.
A character can’t get from London to Edinburgh in two hours unless he is a superhero or has his own private jet.
A rose garden can’t be looking its best if your setting is Christmas time.
Keep your notes handy as you edit, particularly if you need to check historical or technical facts. Don’t let this sort of mistake slip through because you didn’t bother to get it right.
Sentence Structure
As you read, think how your sentence structure looks. Is it sloppy or neat? Can you tell the difference between times of great excitement and times when things are going smoothly? Are your sentences grammatical and correctly punctuated? Are they set up in the best way to ensure that readers get the idea you want them to have? This may seem trivial in comparison to solving a murder case, but readers will appreciate your storyline better if they can make sense of your sentences.
This
is another instance where reading your words aloud should give you a better understanding. If you have to catch your breath when you’ve finished reading a sentence, it’s too long. If you feel you have to speak faster to get through it, it’s too long. Break it up into smaller sentences. You don’t have to lose the idea or the train of thought. Just make it more accessible to the reader.
Checking Spelling
Spelling correctly is an important way to make a good first impression on an agent or editor. It shows that you cared enough to make sure everything was in good shape. Remember, you have spent quality time creating this work. Don’t let it go out the door without being the best it can be.
Spell checkers are wonderful things, but they can’t tell when you have inadvertently used the wrong word. They don’t know the difference between to, too and two, or between there and their. It’s up to you – not your computer – to read through carefully and make sure you don’t make this sort of mistake.
Checking Style
The computer also can’t tell if you are using the right words to make your point. It can be hard to know if words are too difficult for your readers to understand. People who read tend to have above-average IQS, but that doesn’t mean that a professor or a lawyer wants to read unfamiliar words for pleasure. Read other authors who write in your field and compare their vocabulary with yours.
If in doubt, keep it simple. You don’t have to talk down to your readers. You’re just trying to give them a good read without straining their brains to understand what you are saying. If you want to write textbooks, go and write textbooks – but don’t put that sort of language in your novel.
And Finally …
Are you satisfied? Is your book really and truly as good as you can make it? Then now is the time to venture out into the publishing world – and that is what the next section is all about.
Part 2
Insiders’ Information
The articles in this section are written by publishing professionals, giving their perspectives on what agents and publishers are looking for and what might happen to you and your book when you are offered a contract. See the first pages for biographical details of these contributors.
STUDYING CREATIVE WRITING
The Course Options Available
Jem Poster
Most of those who think of discovering themselves as writers also imagine being discovered as writers by others: dreams of literary achievement are usually partly – and sometimes primarily – dreams of commercial success and/or critical acclaim. The ambition to be published is natural and entirely understandable, but it’s worth remembering that there are many forms of creative fulfilment. No reputable creative writing course will offer you a guarantee of success in the crowded field of literary publishing but all good courses will help you to advance in your understanding of the craft of writing. For some, this will give readily measurable results – an agent, a publisher, good sales figures – while for others the benefits may be more modest, but no less important: for a student who begins with limited confidence and ability, the eventual production of a handful of well-written poems can represent a very real achievement.
I’m emphasizing this point because even the most basic statistical analysis will make it clear that many of those who complete programmes of creative writing study don’t in fact go on to achieve literary success in the public sphere. But if you bear in mind that publication isn’t the only measure of a course’s value, you’ll be open to the full range of possible benefits.
Short Courses
Many aspiring writers will already have attended at least one short creative writing course but if you haven’t yet done so, this might be a good starting point. Short courses offer an opportunity to get the flavour of working with a small group under tutorial guidance. The best known are those run by the Arvon Foundation at their four UK centres; and you might also look at the courses at Ty Newydd, the National Writers’ Centre for Wales, which works in close collaboration with Arvon. Keep an eye open, too, for courses organized as part of literary festivals: the Cheltenham Festival of Literature sometimes offers two-day courses, while the Oxford Literary Festival offers a six-day residential programme.
It would perhaps be unwise to base any significant decision solely on your experience of a single short course, but it’s fair to say that if you’ve enjoyed one or more of them (and particularly if enjoyment has been accompanied by a noticeable improvement in your writing ability), then there’s a good chance that you’re ready for a more sustained programme of study.
Longer Courses
If you feel that you want to commit to a more prolonged creative writing course, a good option would be one of the part-time certificates or diplomas organized for mature students by the continuing education departments of a number of universities. In London, for example, there’s Birkbeck’s two-year certificate course, while those living in or near Oxford might take advantage of the two-year diploma course offered by Oxford University’s Department for Continuing Education. Other continuing education departments offer similar opportunities. Because these courses are designed to accommodate those with domestic or professional commitments, classes tend to take place in the evenings and at weekends.
Technically, certificate courses operate at first-year undergraduate level and diploma courses at second-year level: the former might therefore seem most suitable for beginners and the latter for more advanced writers. However, there is often some flexibility on entrance requirements, and the standard is in any case defined partly by the quality of your fellow students – so don’t automatically assume that you’re restricted to one or the other.
Useful Websites for Short Courses
The Arvon Foundation
The Cheltenham Festival of Literature
The Oxford Literary Festival
Ty Newydd
University Degree Courses
Undergraduate (BA) programmes mix creative writing with literary study. There are historical reasons for this – creative writing programmes have usually grown out of existing English departments – but there are also sound practical reasons. It’s simple: good creative writers need to be good analytical readers and the intermingling of the two strands is both natural and necessary.
The programme of study is likely to last for three years, and to be dominated by participants of standard undergraduate age (18–21), though mature students are usually welcome. The courses differ significantly from one university to another, so it’s difficult to generalize; all offer guidance on the elements of good writing, while helping students to understand the relationship of their own work to a wider literary tradition.
Masters (MA) programmes offer more specialized training in the craft of writing and they are more likely than undergraduate courses to emphasize the goal of publication. Since they assume a certain level of critical and creative expertise, it follows that the majority of successful applicants will be graduates in English or closely related disciplines – classics or modern languages, for example. But you shouldn’t be deterred if your previous degree is in a subject only loosely related to English studies: if you have a good degree in any subject and can show a convincing portfolio of creative work, it’s well worth discussing your situation with the institution concerned in the hope that it will consider an application.
Useful Websites for Longer Courses
Birkbeck College
Bristol University
Oxford University Department for Continuing Education
Sussex University
It’s often possible to study for an MA on a part-time basis, but those with other commitments will usually need to juggle them carefully since – unlike the certificate and diploma courses discussed above – MA courses normally require daytime attendance. Courses last for a year (two years in part-time mode).
PhD programmes in creative writing are not as widely available as MA programmes, but are offered by a substantial number of universities, including Aberystwyth, Bath Sp
a, Lancaster, Manchester and St Andrews. Typically, a PhD student will spend three years on a major creative project (a novel, a collection of short stories or a substantial collection of poems) together with a critical account that both analyses and contextualizes that work. PhD study tends to be less communally focused than the programmes of study discussed opposite, but a good department will ensure that there are ample opportunities for meeting up with other students.
An MA in creative writing may not be a prerequisite for PhD study, but it arguably provides the best grounding. You’ll certainly need to provide evidence of a high level of prior attainment both as a creative writer and as a critical thinker. If you’re interested in the possibility but have doubts about your eligibility, don’t hesitate to discuss the matter with a representative of the department concerned.
Useful Websites for Degree Courses
Aberystwyth University
Bath Spa University
University of East Anglia
Glamorgan University
Lancaster University
Manchester University
St Andrews University
Warwick University
What Form will the Teaching Take?
Except in the case of PhD programmes, you can normally expect the workshop to figure centrally in your course of study: a workshop is essentially a small-group discussion focusing on writing produced by course members. A good creative writing tutor will ensure that group work of this kind is simultaneously stringent and supportive – that is, it offers suggestions for the improvement of the work under review while at the same time acknowledging its strengths. A successful, well-run group will operate collaboratively rather than competitively, working towards insights which will be useful to all of its members.
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