Wednesday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

DO YOU WRITE LIKE A READER?

By: Glenn Mori

I am chagrined when I critique someone’s writing and point out a lack of tension and emotion (the grit under interactions, the differences in perspectives, the micro-tension on the small scale, crisis and conflicts on the larger scale, and ask ‘where’s the anxiety, worry, irritation, miscommunication?’), then discover the same failing in my own fiction.

The source of the problem (for me at least; I’m not sure about my writing partners) is usually multifaceted.

Writing from plot. I don’t always write from plot, but when I do, I can be in a hurry to move up the story ladder. Quantity of description falls, line-by-line writing quality drops, characters become inconsistent or cardboard or boring. I’m not putting myself in my character’s skin to look around and experience their world.

I’ve failed to communicate what I intended. When I proofread my writing, I read between the lines and don’t realize it.  Instead of seeing what’s written, I re-experience what I was thinking when I wrote it. This kind of writing is useful only if no one else reads it; a diary, for example, or a personal blog.

These problems can occur simultaneously. I might design characters around a plot and believe that I’m ready to write, but in reality I have flimsy character sketches zap-strapped to my plot skeleton and I don’t see weaknesses because I sense more in my words than I’ve actually written. I suspect this happens often with beginning writers who try to patch it with “interesting traits” or “examples of conflict” from a website to fill the story out.

Also…

Read the full article HERE!

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If you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they are again:

• Video Tutorial: MS Word’s Track Changes http://t.co/KYC623cu8Z Blog - Nichole Severn
• Making An Incredible Character Arc Credible http://t.co/OX8cABMFHu
• Writing Crime Fiction - Suspense | Now Novel http://t.co/EdiHw6XgA6
• How @BookBub's Selection Process Works [Infographic] - http://t.co/sz8mSB548X  #pubtip http://t.co/t6kKJBJOJx
• 6 Narrator Types - Infographic | Now Novel http://t.co/OYXkTt8M28
• 5 Ways to Stretch Your Word Count | A Writer's Path http://t.co/uPgpxQgKmi
• Authors and Internet Marketing + Links — The Book Designer http://t.co/VkBca48LIJ
• Author, Jody Hedlund: Why You Might Benefit From Having a Virtual Assistant http://t.co/q3JivusXi2
• Do You Write Like a Reader? « Flash Fiction Chronicles http://t.co/ZXLodByHtN
• 7 Tips for Adding Humor — Guest: Rhoda Baxter | Jami Gold, Paranormal Author http://t.co/0LgaXVX1px

Happy writing and running, Kathy