I think we can all agree that writing is a challenge, as well it should be. It's not everyday that people sit down and hammer out a manuscript, or short story, or screenplay. Writing takes planning, research, careful thinking, and endless revision, distilling down what you have to what you need. With modern digital publishing, a book could theoretically go on endlessly, but that wouldn't necessarily make for a great read. Through writing and editing, the prose has to be pared down to the root, the core message, that tells a story fully without overstepping. This, the basics of writing, doesn't even begin to approach what I feel it takes to be an effective author (for whatever that's worth).
In my personal view, writing should be painful. Not agonizing, not brutal, but rather uncomfortable. "Art through adversity" is a phrase I use often enough, and I believe it to be true. I like to by physically active. I run, I lift, I teach martial arts. I've done these things for many years, and by now they should be easy. In a sense, they are, as I have become accustomed to the pain. But I still push every time to go a little bit faster, a little bit further. To make progress, one has to step outside their comfort zone, to find out where they fail, and then to practice that part again and again until the failure point moves out. Then you start again, chasing down that failure point. I do it in my physical training, and I've learned to do it in my writing as well.
Take, for example, vocabulary. As a base rule I set for myself, I will not use the same adjective or noun within the same sentence. Even using "same" twice now bothers me. If possible, I will not have that word in the next sentence either. I do this because I think it makes the writing more varied and less stilted, and to challenge myself to come up with new and interesting ways of describing scenes and situations. So the aircraft in the first half of the sentence is the plane in the second. In the next sentence I will describe the fuselage and the paint on the hull, all draped over the frame. These are all nouns that are talking about the exact same object, but they make it feel more complete and more dynamic. It's a personal challenge I put to myself, so that I'm not so comfortable writing. I can't sit back and use the same word over and over, unless it's for a particular effect.
Adding to this, when I describe a setting, I push myself to find new facets to focus on, rather than rehashing a similar description. There's a particular author that I am a huge fan of, but when describing his characters arriving in a new city, it's like hearing about the same city we just came from. I share the challenge of diversifying these paragraphs, but that's the challenge I'm seeking. I still struggle with this one, as it's a new one for me, but I know I will come to master it, becoming more skillful and comfortable. Of course, then it's time to move on to the next challenge, to push for that next level. That alone is one of the things I find most exciting about my writing: that next plateau. The push to go higher is a huge draw for me, and I appreciate being able to look at myself and see growth and advancement in my abilities.
It's your writing. You can either embrace the pain and grow with it, or you can just copy/paste that same description you used the last time.
A.C. Harrison
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In my personal view, writing should be painful. Not agonizing, not brutal, but rather uncomfortable. "Art through adversity" is a phrase I use often enough, and I believe it to be true. I like to by physically active. I run, I lift, I teach martial arts. I've done these things for many years, and by now they should be easy. In a sense, they are, as I have become accustomed to the pain. But I still push every time to go a little bit faster, a little bit further. To make progress, one has to step outside their comfort zone, to find out where they fail, and then to practice that part again and again until the failure point moves out. Then you start again, chasing down that failure point. I do it in my physical training, and I've learned to do it in my writing as well.
Take, for example, vocabulary. As a base rule I set for myself, I will not use the same adjective or noun within the same sentence. Even using "same" twice now bothers me. If possible, I will not have that word in the next sentence either. I do this because I think it makes the writing more varied and less stilted, and to challenge myself to come up with new and interesting ways of describing scenes and situations. So the aircraft in the first half of the sentence is the plane in the second. In the next sentence I will describe the fuselage and the paint on the hull, all draped over the frame. These are all nouns that are talking about the exact same object, but they make it feel more complete and more dynamic. It's a personal challenge I put to myself, so that I'm not so comfortable writing. I can't sit back and use the same word over and over, unless it's for a particular effect.
Adding to this, when I describe a setting, I push myself to find new facets to focus on, rather than rehashing a similar description. There's a particular author that I am a huge fan of, but when describing his characters arriving in a new city, it's like hearing about the same city we just came from. I share the challenge of diversifying these paragraphs, but that's the challenge I'm seeking. I still struggle with this one, as it's a new one for me, but I know I will come to master it, becoming more skillful and comfortable. Of course, then it's time to move on to the next challenge, to push for that next level. That alone is one of the things I find most exciting about my writing: that next plateau. The push to go higher is a huge draw for me, and I appreciate being able to look at myself and see growth and advancement in my abilities.
It's your writing. You can either embrace the pain and grow with it, or you can just copy/paste that same description you used the last time.
A.C. Harrison
Support indie authors! Like me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.
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