TECH: Basic Blunders!

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting 25 July 2009

Writer's Digest, August 2006, pages 46-47 and 104-105, have an article by Jerry B. Jenkins with the title Beyond Basic Blunders. Jenkins admits that we all make these errors, but we can learn to recognize and avoid them. So here they are.

1. Morning routine cliche.

It seems like such a good idea -- start with the early morning, and then go on from there. The problem is the main character rudely awakened from a sound sleep by an alarm clock, or even a phone ringing, is just kind of cliche. Waking up with a hangover is just about as bad. Consider a fresh way to start your story and describe your character. If early morning routine is part of your plot, consider what's unique about your character. Don't just start your story with a morning like a million other mornings -- make it special.

2. Answering the phone cliche.

Pay attention to how people actually answer the phone. And then consider skipping the back-and-forth hello dialogue. Make your phone dialogue grow your characters.

3. The clutter of detail

Somehow when phones ring, authors are tempted to toss in a big blob of background. In between each ring, we get more description of the house, the clothes, and so on. Or we could just say, "Mary phoned." Honest, readers will fill in all the little details of the ringing phone and so forth.

4. Skip the recitals of ordinary life.

If readers know how to do things, you don't have to tell them step-by-step with all of the gory details. Just the exciting parts, the parts that need to be there.

5. Don't spell it out.

Authors get caught up in explaining to the reader. Let the reader figure it out -- they enjoy that. And especially, don't explain it more than once. Show us the character, let them talk, and let the reader draw their own conclusions. Show, don't tell.

6. Pass on the preaching.

Sermons and other pointed lessons about habits and lifestyles you don't like will make readers run. Strawman points and plots contrived to prove a point don't really work. Again, give the reader credit as a reader and a thinker. Let them draw their own conclusions.

7. Setting the scene

People are very conscious of visual media now. Novelists need to write with visual settings in mind. Don't do too much description, but do provide suggestions that allow readers to visualize the scenes.

8. Coincidences

In real life, we love coincidences. It's fascinating how weird real life can be. But in fiction, you need to be very careful. One coincidence, early on, handled with some care... OK. But if you add more, people get concerned. Readers won't buy it. They see the hand of the author arranging affairs. Make it plausible, add some motivation and foreshadowing, and you may be able to use the same event or a similar one that isn't coincidence anymore.

Those are the ones that Jenkins lists. Feel free to add your own pet blunders, along with ways to detect them and repair them. You'll find them in things you are reading, and I surely know that I add them to the things I'm writing from time to time. As someone almost said once, at least if you're making blunders, you're writing. And you can fix blunders. It's a lot harder to fix something that you haven't written.

Sooo...
WRITE!