The second installment in my Pretentious Writing Tips series, in which I will probably repeat what I have forgotten I already said, suggest things which work for me but would capsize the work of another individual, and go on at length about the benefits of my sagacious advice. Rather than arraying summaries of my previous works ahead of the tips, I'll simply cut to the chase.
•Remember the reader has to use their imagination as well as understand yours†. Overdescription is a dam to imagination. One character can be wearing a long gown with a shawl and that is adequate description not to merit mention of the apparel's color. Let one's independent reader imagine as they will.
•"Crossed" can be conceived as amateurish. Quite tempting, I grant you, but difficult to imagine and after all, many people don't cut a directly diagonal path through a room do they?
•The regular writer must have seen this so many times it's a cliché, but it is advisable not to think about everything you write -- particularly when you're trying to write out a scene or character or occurrence as not to forget it. Drafts, young Padawan!
•Don't think about drafts, in my professional opinion.
•Adverbs are not the root of all evil, again I opine. "-One said excitedly", or "with an excited tinge to one's voice"? Excitedly is economic, quick, and in my humble opinion superior to the latter.
•For the love of heaven don't say "slightly." "Almost", yes. "Partially", indeed. "Halfway between X and X", sure. But "slightly" is. . . .at the extremity of inadvisable. "Slightly annoyed" "Slightly confused"--Piffle. Platitudes.
•Use your words. "Incidentally" outranks "by the way", even, it has its own meaning as well. . . A side effect; a occurrence of lesser magnitude.
•(Punctuation is also a necessary part of cohesive writing.)
Well, as far as my personal writing goes I am stuck somewhere in the middle of a seventy-page-long notebook, scripting away various scenes from various stories amidst Spotify and Pinterest.
I have begun a certain story set in the world of Breckinedge, a quaint locale in which every town and metropolis is named after an adjective or state--Reverie. Solitude. Tranquil. There are many curious and mysterious constituents which, naturally, have no relation or any manner with which to presently fit them together. Ah well, the lot of a writer.
My earliest conviction that I would be a writer was when I was six, and I decided that my ideas were too amazing not to share with the world. . . I just love myself.
Furthermore, if we writers are lucky, forty years in the future people will still be reading our works; and even if one is reading it a year after the publication date I will count myself an honored lady.
Sentimentally,
Anacostia Mirabow-Marignac.
†In all likelihood, the mind will always have difficulty being understood -- allow me to amend -- That ought to be written "Recognize what you're trying to say."
