I'm reading some writing which has made me re-consider my own writing about personal issues and how to deliver my feelings to my own readers.
Often a writer is trying to get at a personal truth and hopes and dreams and wonderment. But what is left on the page is one dimensional. The in-depth soul searching is left in the writer's soul or journal. When a writer most believes she is over-reaching, in truth, she is barely reaching out.
Often, as writers, we may take a shortcut. We tell our feelings, but we don't layer them using descriptions that deepen our readers' understanding of who we are.
As with fiction, self-help and personal nonfiction benefits from additional color and description.
We assume our readers will understand what we're saying by just writing "I felt bad." But we leave out the richness and three-dimensional element of ourselves. "I felt so bad that my heart sped up and my stomach churned" or "I felt so bad it felt as if my blood drained from my face and I ran from the room." While these are basic examples, I think it provides a difference that readers can more closely engage with the feelings the author is having and gives the bad feelings a bit more scale. Maybe even accessing an earlier scene that can bring more depth to the scene at hand.
But as writers, as our draft comes to completion, we shouldn't stop there.
We've all done it--given our writing to someone who understands us or who, at least, knows of our desire to be published. We hand over our writing to someone in our writers' group or someone who has read the previous six drafts. Those someones know or can easily interpret our "shortcut" to our emotions. They often understand the scale when we write "I felt bad."
I suggest that those writing about personal struggles and emotions find a reader not accustomed to the shortcuts. Find someone with a gentle yet critical eye who can find the areas of one-dimension. The areas where the writer is not serving the reader.
Why would this be as important to a writer than finding a reader or editor to ensure that the grammar is correct?
This reader is important in helping find where the writer fails to connect--in depth--with the reader. A reader shouldn't be left at the end of a chapter wondering why read more? Or with the worst question, "So what? Why should I care?" When a writer writing about personal issues fails to connect with the reader--leaving the reader with more questions than answers--the writing may be interesting, but it has delivered a one-dimensional character instead of a full-formed, layered journey of self-discovery.
What reading have you done lately that has changed the way you view your writing or revision process?
Elizabeth King Humphrey is a writer and editor living along the North Carolina coast.
In my newest novel,
Blackbird Flies, I presented my book in a ‘clean’ form of YA. I’m particularly fond of the ‘clean’ category of young adult. There are a growing number of authors writing ‘clean,’ which is essentially delving into the same story lines and plots found in most other young adult or adult fiction but without the graphic violence, sex, or language. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with more graphic reads but personally I enjoy the idea that my books can be read by everyone, everywhere rather than be excluded from larger groups who may be offended or those too young to be exposed to such things. And let’s face it: the same story can be told just as brilliantly without all the detailed bedroom scenes or cursing.
Last week, I was asked to give a few tips for authors and authors-in-waiting who want to make it in this genre. I’d like to share them with our WOW readers, authors and writers too. Here they are:
(1) Research those already ‘making it’. The best kind of research an author can do is learning from those authors already selling books. Go to Amazon and search the top 10 to 15 books in the genre you write in. Read everything you can from those authors. They’re the ones to watch and learn from because they’ve already found what works.
(2) Learn about your audience. Just because we’ve ‘been there done that’ doesn’t mean we ‘get’ how kids are handling the same situations today. And because most of us are adults writing for younger people, we need to be sure we research the groups we’re writing about appropriately. Learn about young adults’ peer groups: how they dress, what they care about, what they don’t care about, how they speak (both to adults and to their peers—we’ll touch on that more closely in a moment), etc. The more accurate you are, the more appealing your story will be to the young adult audience.
(3) Speak as a young adult. Your writing voice needs to be that of a young adult rather than an adult speaking to young adults. Get out there and do some field work by chatting with a few young people in the age range you’re writing in. They offer invaluable insight!
(4) Write clean but not too squeaky. In cleaning up a manuscript we have to be cautious not to make it so squeaky that these age groups will avoid the book like the Plague. ‘Clean’ simply means presenting or saying things in a different way. There are many books my girls bring home from the library that still have the silliness, sarcasm, peer jiving and fart jokes but presented in more generally acceptable way. That’s the whole idea! Simply use more ‘show’ with reactions, facial expressions and body stances. Again, it’s important to listen to how these young people talk and react to one another.
(5) Have a good mix of the five ‘basic story ingredients’. I love using this analogy. To make food taste great, we need to tap into the five basic flavors: salty, sweet, sour, bitter and savory. When writing a great story, authors need to have a healthy mix of, what I call, the ‘five basic story ingredients’: humor, seriousness (or delving into a serious topic/issues), a sprinkle of mystery, a pinch of drama and a surprise (big or small, depending on the specific storyline). Every story I’ve read or have written has a healthy combination of these elements. Some stories will have a little more humor
When I write something, I like to do the best I can. When it is for a newspaper article, I try to keep a balance to the information I put together. When it is for a corporate client, I keep in mind the audience the client is trying to serve. When it is my fiction, I keep my reader in mind.
But while putting in my best efforts, I also need to keep in mind some of the elements that can impact the final product and often a reader's subjectivity is one of the major items that needs to be considered. How will the work be received by the reader?
I'm in a small reading group right now and we're getting ready to share our thoughts about an old British mystery to look at the writer's use of the language of the period. I checked out from the library a copy of this book--published in the 1930s--and it is an edition published in that era. Already, I'm slightly judging the book by its cover. (After all, if it were really popular and well written, shouldn't it have been kept in print and replaced by the library regularly?)
One of my reader friends is British and does not like the class distinctions portrayed within this novel from 80 years ago.
Another reader wants to chuck the book out the window because it is so overwritten--in comparison to many of the books today, which compete in our multimedia society. Something the mystery writer might never have imagined.
Although we are reading it to study the language patterns, we've already taken a novel and determined what we don't like about it based upon our own experiences.
While skilled at looking at a work objectively, if I'm not careful, I might read more subjectively. It's often the default reading standard we have.
So when you are starting your next piece of writing, do keep your audience in mind. But also understand that some will be thrilled with the end result, due to where the reader starts from.
And there are times when, you know, it's just hard to please everyone all the time, especially 80 years from now!
Elizabeth King Humphrey is a writer, editor, reviewer and (often subjective) reader who lives in North Carolina.
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Elizabeth--
Great post, as always. Barry Lane calls what you're writing about as "exploding the moment." I think there are even little videos of him online talking about writing strategies.
I agree. We sometimes skirt around the power of an event or a realization or an emotion. Dwelling on it momentariy with a similie or some sensory details, or slowing it down to "slow motion" the moment (just like a movie director) will make better impact and help the reader connect with whatever's going on.
I try to get my students to see their stories on a movie screen. What would they see? What sounds would they hear? What sorts of things would be going on with the characters' facial expressions and body movements?
Again, thanks for a wonderful post. We ALL need occasional reminders.
Can you paragraph break this please? I keep losing my spot. Don't get me wrong, Elizabeth, you're one of my fave Muffin contributors. Which is why I want to finish reading this.
Great post. I think you are also touching on "authentic" writing. Authors sometimes shy away from the "truth" or want themselves to be better (or worse) in print. Readers will know, even if they don't know they know. You know?
Allena,
Thanks for the reminder. I've returned and added the spaces.
Amber and Sioux,
Yes, it is so important! Great to know about some other techniques to capture and expand those vital moments.
Thank you for visiting,
Elizabeth
Good post really interesting!)