Writing is the training

It’s important to be bold, to start. Sometimes stories ‘keep’ – only you know when something is ready to be written. But often stories can be lost by waiting for the ideal moment to write them down.

Remember, unlike many other kinds of work, writing is your training. A doctor trains for years before qualifying; a writer’s training is the writing itself. Without writing, a person can’t ‘become’ a writer. To say that a person has ‘a great book inside them’ might be true, but it isn’t saying anything more than that there are great stories everywhere, in everything, wherever you look, just waiting to be told. The trick is to tell them. Only that way do they ever become ‘stories’.

Become your own best judge: the aim is to discover your kind of writing.

Editing

• Is it what you meant to say, really?
• Have you found the best way to convey it?
• Would a particular event really have happened that way?
• Would a particular character definitely use that expression or turn of phrase?
• Does an idea or scene really belong where you’ve put it, or would the piece be better if that element was cut? Could it be used elsewhere, or on another occasion?
• What’s missing from your story? Details or background information?
• Is there enough to engage your reader?
• Do events occur in the best order and are significant events given enough weight, or are they lost beneath less important things? If so, is that what you intended?
• Does it read too slow, or too fast?
• Overall, does the writing convey the right tone – does it create the mood you hoped for?

Week 3 editing task

To demonstrate the importance of clarity, focus and the role of editing as part of writing, edit the following passage down to no more than two lines:

The heavy black and blue winter sky groaned awfully with rain clouds that at any moment were really about to fall crashing heavily down upon the street where, because it was rush hour, so many people, wearing all manner of different clothes, hats, shoes, boots, some of them carrying bags, suitcases, briefcases, scampered and strolled about the place as though oblivious to what was just about to happen over their very heads. One of these people was called Hilary and concealed inside her voluminous coat she carried the loaded, snub-nosed gun, and she also seemed to be the only one looking upwards into the tempestuous thundery heavens.

My edit:

Rain clouds threatened those who scampered and strolled below.  The only one looking up was Hilary who carried concealed inside her voluminous coat a loaded gun.

Second go:

Rain clouds threatened those hurrying below. Only Hilary looked up whilst concealing the loaded gun within her coat.

First draft of story from creative writing course

 “Linda, where are you? I am really worried, you're over an hour late. Call me as soon as you can darling.”

Linda hadn't answered her phone since Charlotte had started calling her earlier in the evening. It wasn't like her to be late; or at least it hadn't been like her for some time. The television pulsed its glowing blue tales of death and misery to an indifferent room. Who cared about the tragedies half a world away when the mind could create much worse closer to home?

The familiar nauseous pit began to open up inside of her whilst dark thoughts took flight. Questions tumbled over and over, but always beginning with the same two simple words. What if.

What if she had been hurt? What if she had fallen? What if she was lost? What if she had been attacked?

The momentum gathered as her breathing accelerated. Charlotte paced. Five short steps in front of the sofa before wheeling and returning. Never making progress, too distracted to do more. A visual reflection of the worn tracks that her thinking had now settled into.

“Oh Mark, what if somebody has taken her?”

Mark climbed out of his chair, placing the folded newspaper down and resting his glasses on top. He always managed to appear calm, but a close observer would have noticed the slight tremor in his hand and realised this was a façade. Well practised, potentially convincing to somebody whose thoughts might have been elsewhere, but false nonetheless.

“Come on darling, there is always a good reason. We might not understand the reason, but it's always good once she's explained it.”

This was a frequently used script that served both to control his own anxiety and reassure Charlotte. If he could convince her he wasn't worried, then maybe there wasn't actually anything to be worried about.

But…

His mind betrayed him as that word crept in.

But what if.