The Rollercoaster of a Writer's Journey: Navigating the Ups and Downs

jjalleson
Dec 27, 2023
4 min read

Remember when I said I thought writing was a doddle? There was nothing to it, right? You just picked up a pen and paper, or some other fancy implement and you began with Once Upon a Time. Wasn't that how all the best writers did it?

Well maybe back in the Jurassic Age, when they could probably hit you over the head with their implement too. In this post we have a look at some of my newbie errors and how to avoid making them yourself.

1. Irreverence

When I started writing, I took no subject seriously—everything had to be imbued with a sense of humour and some irreverence. My voice was cynical. Which also meant it sounded more arrogant than a science-fiction writer who wants everyone to know they got the A in Physics. My advice: Show some respect.

Thankfully, I learned this early and took my characters more seriously. Actually, I'd say that more serious characters came up, slapped me round the head a bit, then sat down and had a good chinwag about serious writing.

2. Lack of Clarity

Because I was being witty and clever, I paid no attention to plot and continuity. I was writing a drivel of dialogue. It was flitting back and forth with my own internal brilliance of wit, where no one but me could have possibly known what the hell I was talking about.

So I spent a lot of time getting very upset—ok dammit, angry!—at those fools who didn't know what I was saying. And going through line by line so they would understand everything.

3. Trying to Explain Your Story Line by Line

Here's a word of advice. Don't.

No one cares, and you'll only make things worse. They look you in the eye and say, "Oh yes, of course! I get it now."

Actually, no, they don't. They're just saying that to stop you from killing them. Don't try to explain your story. Let someone else do it for you. That's what the canon of English Literature is for—not that I'm being so ambitious, but the whole point of learning about creative writing is to at some point in your life be able to Analyse and Account for "whatever the hell it is this whack on crack writer's talking about" ... (recalling a colleague's frustration with James Joyce's Ulysses.)

Put simply, stop explaining. You're only adding more fuel to the runaway fire.

4. He Said, She Said, He Said

So you've got five characters from both sexes in a room, speaking to or across each other. You'll have to distinguish them at relevant points. If you don't, you will be confusing the reader, the writer and the world. If you don't throw in the odd name now and again, you're literally blindfolding the reader. They won't know what's going on.

And they won't care.

The flip side of this is John said, Jane said, John said, Jane said when there are only two people in the room. We think we can work out the male from the female if you say: he said, she said. If you have more than two people then you will need to insert a name now and again so that the reader has an idea of who's currently in the spotlight. But after that, there's no need to repeat the name in sentence after sentence:

John picked up the cup again. The other two watched curiously as John examined it. John turned to them and said, "This isn't lipstick. It's blood."

Instead:

John picked up the cup again. The other two watched curiously as he examined it. He turned to them and said, "This isn't lipstick. It's blood."

5. Academia

Like the Physics student with the A, you don't need to demonstrate to your readers that you chowed down a dictionary for breakfast and will now regurgitate the entire thing for their stimulated pleasure. Sometimes all you need to do is simplify.

Readers might have complex working lives full of legalese. When they pick up a book they may want nothing more than to chill and breathe. They don't need to be tramping off to the local eclectic and only remaining bookstore to find the tome that speaks to your vernacular—angry at you because Google couldn't help them out.

Actually, none of that would happen. They'd just stop reading your story and move on to the next writer. Academia is great within context; however, you don't want to be trying too hard in creative fiction:

It was against a perfunctory whisper of the the wind that the snails wound down their luminescent trail like hyperbole on a silk sail rushing over the ocean waves; deep down into the souls of the planet. It was Machiavellian schadenfreude; he thought it so ... and it was so.

It would be early morning before he would sense her, feel her scent blowing over his burgeoning resentment, his desperation and need for her. ...her thing as the snails sang their glorious songs in the wind...