The Final Key to Writing

The Key to Writing –Part 3
By Lindsey with Katie
Hello,
I am picking up where Katie left off in “The 3 Keys to Writing Series”. The first two keys according to her were writing and revision. The final key is editing. In her previous article she stressed that rewriting and revision were different from editing. She described rewriting and revision focusing on flow and editing more being focused on the grammar and correctness of your writing. For me however, they are one in the same. I do both at once so it’s hard for me to differentiate one from the other. So, here is how I would suggest how to edit your work.

The thesis is the most important part of any paper. It’s where you declare the purpose and reason of your paper. I would also argue that a thesis plays an important part in creative writing. It doesn’t have to look like a thesis statement that you would find in a persuasive essay but if your story doesn’t have a clear purpose or idea that you’re trying to convey then why write it? As you’re editing making sure your main idea and/or purpose is identifiable.

Beginning and endings are equally important as well. You could have the best story on planet with interesting characters and an amazing plot but if you have a sub-par introduction, no one will read further than the first page or so. Write an introduction that catches the reader. Avoid focusing on something that the reader could care less about. (EX: A character waking up and going through their morning routine, the weather, eating etc.) Show us something different. Once you have nailed the introduction don’t neglect the conclusion. The worst kind of endings are those that feel contrived or tacked on with unresolved tensions and loose ends hanging all over the place.

Make sure your writing has a consistent tone and voice. An author always needs to have their audience in mind; you don’t want to alienate them by confusing them. Also, never come off as condescending to your audience or assume superiority over them. They will leave you. The voices of your narrator and other characters need to fit their personalities.

Grammar is important. English is a very complicated language, and for me it is hard to remember all the correct rules. Luckily, we are better off than writers of the past, we have spell-check, dictionary.com, thesaurus’s etc. This also means that we are held to a higher standard of writing. Today, we have no excuse for a misspelled word and these tools also can help you with correcting your grammar. Another great way to correct grammar is through peer editing and writing groups. Be open to new ideas. Another perspective can help you catch the mistakes that you didn’t find.

Editing is the longest and most frustrating process of writing. As humans we are always striving for perfection. Though we will most always find fault somewhere in our writing, the editing process will bring our writing closer to that unattainable perfection.


- Lindsey

The Key to writing (Entry 2 of 3)

This took a long time (much longer than I thought) but after many false starts,I have found out what the second key of writing was; rewriting. I know that I'd already stated this in entry 1 but honestly, I was having a huge problem differentiating rewriting and editing, and figuring out if one came before the other in the writing process. But I finally found a reaffirmation of what I'd already thought, heh heh.

What makes rewriting and editing different? Because they are two closely entwined steps in the writing process! You may disagree with me about which one comes first, (that's what the comment bar is for at the bottom of the article, to give me feedback...Please!) but I think that this might just be up to personal preference! Rewriting is looking at the entire paper and to see if it "flows". Editing entails looking much more closely at every sentence and fixing it up with the precision of a Surgeon.

How do you go about determining the vitality of the flow of your paper? I think that the goal is for every thought to seem connected, logical, and coherent. If you need to rearrange paragraphs and sentences or delete whole passages from your paper to do that, go right ahead like a Lumberjack wielding dual chainsaws trying to down a pine tree! Do whatever you need to do to create the exact flow you want. It's okay to leave the spelling mistakes and grammatical errors in for now, you'll be taking care of them soon enough. You just have to make sure that the ideas and emotions that you're trying to convey through this "diamond in the rough" will shine after being cut and polished.

I guess you could say that I lumped rewriting and revision into the same "key", but I consider them to pretty much to be the same thing anyways...The end result makes the paper better in the end doesn't it? Who cares about those darned technicalities? Sorry again for taking so long for putting this out, (or even just plain updating the blog...) but I needed time to think this one over. After all, I should be learning too!

-Katie

The key to writing (Entry 1 of 3)

Here after much ado, The first key of writing according to Katie:

The first great secret to writing is funnily enough, writing. Probably because of the simplicity of this truth however, most people will just disregard it...and get nothing done.

When writing it's important to remember that your rough draft is only that; a rough draft. By all means, write for quantity and follow your mind through every tangent it thinks up. This is true creativity. A great rule to remember about writing: less is less; and more is more. Always. This is true because when you find yourself in the editing stage you'll discover that editing a blank piece of paper is practically an impossible task when compared to patching up a not-quite-perfect literary composition.

-Katie

P.S. The next two entries will deal with rewriting and editing, so stay tuned!