I have written articles about the benefits of working with writers in residences at local and regional universities and public libraries. Overall, I’ve found these experiences, as well as the results they yielded, invaluable to my work.
A recent session with Queen’s University writer in residence Diane Schoemperlen produced a surprising outcome: a reminder that my poetry writing process is easily transferrable to prose.
Where I am usually focussed on the process of writing, her comments and advice got me thinking about the practice of writing. The wisdom of her remarks made such an impression on me, that I’d like to shar them.
If you read widely and broadly about the practice of writing, it is likely you’ve come across these tips, but do you apply them to all forms you write? To your poetry? Non-fiction? Fiction?
Read you work aloud. Always. Do it and listen to how it sounds.
- Find the spots that do not work and rewrite them. Where you stumble, the reader will stumble, too. Where you find the work halting and slow, so will the reader. I often record what I read, not to listen to it later, but because my inflection changes to a narrative style when I read aloud, I don’t skip ahead. Try it.
- I like to stand, too. My voice projects better and my pace automatically slows. Sometimes, I imagine that I am on stage, in front of a microphone, reading my work to a rapt audience. I will always find spots where errors trip me up.
Remain detached. As a technical writer, I am detached from my work. Although early in my career this was not the case, it is now. I transferred the same objectivity to my creative writing practice. If you do not, you will have to learn how.
- Share your work with someone you trust. It is always good to have another person’s point of view. I am not referring to cheerleader types—close friends and family members—but to discerning readers who will stand in for the eventual reader. (Of course, the caveat about carefully selecting supportive readers applies.)
- Do not avoid sharing your work because you have had unfavourable responses in the past from envious classmates, blocked writers, or mean-spirited instructors who attacked your work, but don’t leave it all in their hands, either. You have to do the work.
- Read and re-read your work with objectivity, without emotion. Have patience. This is a learned skill that takes plenty of practise.
Nitpick. Go after the words are not working. Correct the grammar.
- Do not be afraid to re-work the piece until it feels right, sounds right, and looks right. As writers, we are hyper-aware of grammatical errors. We see them in business documents and online articles, we spot typos in newspapers and sometimes in poorly proofread novels, but we overlook them in our own work. We read what we intended to write, not what is written.
- Do not rush the edits because you are in a hurry to send your work for publication. Carefully, and that means slowly, too, consider each—and every—word.
Focus on writing one good sentence after another.
|||
This piece was first published in Byline, Canadian Authors Association (Ottawa branch) newsletter.