here are some tips & tricks to elevate your prose! some tips are told over & over again but i post, with hope, that some tips you haven’t heard before. i won’t call them laws but i want all writers to create a list of prose rules for themselves because rules constrict the way your write & forces prose into a corner where it’s stronger & exceptional.
if you’re writing anything above 50k+, read flash fiction.
of course, read everything, but i recommend & specify flash fiction for the economy of prose. shorter fiction is constrained to a certain amount of words & they’re economical. the prose of short fiction works harder to convey a story, to impact you. there isn’t room for mistake & useless content.
avoid filter words/weasel words.
everyone says this; avoid. those. filter. words. with the words, your prose is less punchy & impactful & as the name implies, your reader experience a filtered version of the story. here’s a list. kill those words.
avoid words ending in -ing if possible.
sometimes, words with -ing are unavoidable but if you can burn them, you should. my creative writing course in university & my current beta/editor banned any use of words with -ing. it’s abrasive to prose & several in a row sound similar to a hive of cicadas. light those words on fire. they’re not pleasant to the ear.
burn passive voice out of your prose.
the “by zombies” rules is great but slap it into a passive word editor since it takes less time. now, why burn passive voice out of prose? passive voice, and filter words, creates a distance between the reader & the work. no one wants that unless it’s to create atmosphere but even then, passive voice can equate to bad writing.
watch your writing for glue content. (my greatest weakness)
now, you wonder, what in the fresh hell is glue content? my personal editor explains it as the two-hundred most common words in the english language & those needless words occupy space. high glue content means your writing is tired, dull, and full of useless content. they might tell your story well enough, but we don’t tread in mediocrity, & a high glue content creates subpar & grey prose. here’s a list! reword your sentences to avoid a glue content higher than 40%.
adverbs (-ly words) as perfume.
i don’t mind adverbs but without them, your prose is crisper & stronger. i’m not my editor as she believes all adverbs should die a fiery death in a volcano but you need to set a limit on how many adverbs you use per (insert number, i use five thousand) words. also, check if your adverb accompanies a word & reduces it to a redundant phrase. (example: she yelled loudly.)
why use bland verbs?
be dramatic, be unapologetic & punch with your prose. your character wasn’t “cut”; they were slashed, they were portioned, any other word besides cut. an economical mindset with prose demands the rise of effectiveness & elevation of a writer’s abilities. bland verbs obliges writers to include adverbs & the use dramatic verbs renders adverbs worthless.
cut your adjectives.
i caution you before you try this; write without adjectives. if it feels sparse or abandoned of stylistic flare, add them in, but one-by-one. with adjectives, your prose is overwrought. cut your adjectives until it tightens prose to an unmatched tautness & impenetrability.
cut your similes.
my editor tried me for the crime of the use of “like” as if it earned me a dollar per use. treat “like” as an adverb. limit your use & omit it from sentences whenever possible. they’re not needed.
example: (his magic brushed against mine like a summer breeze at the beach.) becomes (his magic brushed against mine, a summer breeze at the beach.)
don’t tag all your dialogue.
if the speaker is easy to identify, no need to use a dialogue tag, & if there is an action beat, there isn’t a need for a tag. keep prose economical!
vary your sentence structure.
long fiction full of only short or long sentences drives readers away. you need a rhythm. vary sentences from their structures, lengths, & content as it creates smooth prose & keeps the reader’s attention. lack of variety creates stale prose.
don’t overuse punctuation.
correct punctuation is great but some writers treat punctuation as a style supplement. my editor bans this practice. you can write as you wish but many readers/editors agree that an overuse of punctuation becomes too noticeable & drags your prose down into the dumpster. the use of em dashes & parentheses is the most common offender. commas & semicolons flow easier through prose, but caution with your punctuation.
kill all cliches.
cliches mean you lack imagination with your prose & imagery. cliches mean you use stale references that kill any impact or uniqueness you wish to have. my editor murders any cliche i write with a ruthlessness akin to a hurricane & i’m thankful, most of the time, for it. kill your cliches & replace them with a unique image/phrase.
concrete imagery > vague abstracts
unless your work-in-progress relies on vague abstracts to convey an atmosphere/theme, replace them with concrete imagery. don’t say your character craves happiness; describe their image of happiness & what it means. what do they picture when they imagine (insert blank emotions or vague abstract)? use that instead of “they craved happiness.”
you’re not a writer from 1800s. keep it simple & don’t overwrite.
look at your genres & at the typical word counts of books. now, look at them again. keep to the standard. you might think: but tuyet an! there’s so many writers with word counts higher than the standard! my response: they’re them & you’re you. they’re established authors with a foundation to rely on. agents recoil at debut projects over the standard. keep your word count within range.
Wildfire is such an intriguing story! I'm really looking forward to watching this story progress.
Oh wow, thank you!
But I’m afraid that Wildfire is currently on hold, while I try to figure out if I can write dystopian fiction in a world where reality far outdoes anything I can imagine.
Meanwhile, I’ve started doing some worldbuilding on a new project that is tentatively called Into the River of Stars. There are some random thoughts and pondering about that right here and it will soon be added to my WIP page.
All your WIPs just sound great??? Wonderful??? I'm looking forward to seeing more about them!
Oh gosh thank you so much, right back at you!! This was such a great message to come back to. I’ve loved everything you’ve posted about MotU, your writing is brilliant and your characters are incredible!
Ship me? Maybe. Only if they like small people who must shout to be heard. I'm about as punk as I am math-y (and I'd sell my soul for math, honestly) and I have wayyy too many metal piercings to comfortably work with all the electricity that I work with. I spend a lot of time drawing, a lot of time writing, and a lot of time browsing Craigslist for cool old cars.
I ship you… with… Wyn!
Wyn is a smol. She’s the smolest of smols- an adorable bundle of cuteness, with a lot of spirit- t’s hard to talk her out of anything. She’s very loving and compassionate, and she’s also a smol who must shout to be heard, so you can shout together. And she digs the punk/math vibe. It makes her go, weeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!
She also digs the artistic vibe, even if she’s not very artistic herself. But you can teach her to draw! Her artistic level is stick figures though. She’ll still try to talk you into teaching her because Wyn always has to be doing something- can’t sit still, nope, gotta be cute and smol always.
Honestly, she’s adorable. Lucky you weee
(She’s not all sunshine though. Sometimes, she can play dirty too. It keeps things fun. She says: weeee again.)
HERE WE GO. I'm big on eye contact. I never have conversations in-person without eye contact. I'm always really engaged when doing things, until I'm not, then I'm in a totally different place doing something totally different. There is no in between. I love checking out architecture and machinery, and I'm usually too involved in the moment to take pictures of anything that's neat. I need a lot of sun and a lot of attention, preferably including cuddles and compliments.
You’d get along well with Meri, I think! She lives on the beach so you’d get that sun there, and she’s always happy to provide those cuddles. She’d also probably show you some cool buildings and junk when she sees them!
