Writing Basics

I’ve been a part of the Twitter writing community for a while and I’ve noticed that many people are looking for helpful basics on writing so I thought I would try to fill everyone in on some basics of writing. Writing is no easy thing. Ideas are easy to have but trying to get them down in a clear, concise, readable manner. We’ll step through the basics of writing beginning with good grammar.

Get Grammar

English grammar is complicated. This is what happens when 5 languages crash together and they are forced to get standardized before their time. Such is the nature of English. however, to produce good writing, a strong familiarization with English grammar is essential. Hope is not lost. Now is a good time to pick up a decent style guide and start studying what is wrong. Right now, I’ve just installed the Grammarly app and I love using it. It’s really helping me.

When editing, it’s important to understand some basic English structures to make sure your sentences all make sense:

Subject (who is doing the action) Action (what they are doing)

Example: The cat jumped

Subject (who is doing the action) Action (what is being done) Object (what is receiving the action

Example: Joe threw the ball

Clauses

Then you have different clauses that you can use to spice up your writing. After all, writing simple sentences does not a novel make.

Independent Clauses are parts of sentences that can stand on their own.

Example: The man jumped over the wall and he walked away from the scene.

Dependent Clauses are clauses that can’t stand on their own but add more information.

The man jumped over the wall, breaking his ankle.

You can use these clauses to create dynamic sentences throughout your work. There are 4 types of sentences: Simple, Compound, Complex, and Compound-Complex. Simple sentences have one independent clause, compound sentences have two independent clauses joined together with “and” or a semicolon. Complex sentences have an independent and dependent clause, and compound-complex will have two independent clauses and at least one dependent clause.

Commas

This is an area I struggle with all the time! I think adding commas is something my editors add most to my writing and most of my Grammarly corrections have to do with adding extra commas. There are some areas where you absolutely must add a comma:

• After an introductory clause
• Between an independent and dependent clause
• Before and after a clause where you’re adding extra information
• During items of a list

Final Editing

These are all tools in the arsenal. When editing, you’ll want to check for a few things:

• Spelling
• Punctuation
• Grammar
• Clarity (do you convey the scene well?)
• Story (is the plot consistent?)
• Organization

Show Don’t Tell

This is a really popular piece of advice you’ll see in many writing magazines and writing books. But what does it really mean? The difference between showing and telling is simple, once someone actually defines it for you.

Example 1:

The white, clapboard house stood amongst tall pinion pins that worked as a windbreak for the farm. The wind rustled the branches. The paint on the house was faded. The car came to a stop on the dirt driveway and Glenna stepped out of it and walked towards the house.

Example 2:

Glenna drove her long, blue Buick up the dirt driveway past the tall, pinion pines that broke the wind. She parked her car in front of the white, clapboard house. She looked out the clear glass of the car to the faded paint on the exterior walls. She opened the door and stepped out and gave the house a long look before walking towards the door.

Which of those is more compelling? 1 or 2? The second one is compelling because it describes the scene through the eyes of the character. We’re emotionally invested now. I bet you want to know why she is at this house, why it’s run down and what she is doing. The first example, while plenty well-written is certainly not as evocative as truly great writing. That is the difference between showing and telling.

Plot and Structure

The plot is the basis of all storytelling. If you’re writing non-fiction, then the structure is more important in how you are laying out your ideas. A strong plot will have a strong storyline arc. It’s powered by the actions and experiences of your characters. The basic plot should look something like this:

• Establishing the characters and their life
• A change to normalcy
• Character reaction to change resulting in a goal
• Counter-acting that change
• The reaction to the next change
• Final action to achieve the goal
• Goal success or failure
• Reflection on failure
• The decision to continue to pursue a goal or let the goal go (repeat steps 2-6)
• Goal resolution and ending.

As far as structure goes, you can decide how to structure your story around this basic idea. You can start in the middle of the action and pull us back to what happened before and show us what got us to that action. You can walk us through the story in a linear fashion or you can even do a braided structure (my favorite) where you use multiple storylines to bring us to the flash-point moment. The center of story is conflict. Conflict can take many forms. It can be conflict within your character, conflict with an outside force or person, or conflict with the past. For a story to work, something has to happen that breaks up the characters life and causes them to make a change or pursue something.

For non-fiction structure, you have to clearly layout your ideas and help your reader become education on the subject involved. Each chapter should add to their knowledge base on the subject. You can present research, personal stories, experiences, or other facts that not only build up your argument but convey expertise.

Dialogue

Dialogue is an area that most fiction writers struggle with. Non-fiction writers can skip this bit. Writing good dialogue is an understanding o your character. Where are they from? How do those people talk? What word order might they use? Are they educated? Did they drop out of high school (or equivalent if you’re writing fantasy)? Do they have regional paitois? You’ll want to be careful using a regional dialect, but a peppering of it through your dialogue is helpful. Dialogue can be a great engine of the story so make every word count. Conversations should be rich and should take the reader there. Good dialogue comes with the practice. Try writing a character description and learn as much as you can, they try out the dialogue between two characters and learn as much as you can about how they talk and what their unique speech is during a conversation.

Final Thoughts

I hope that you can use this advice to improve your writing and update your manuscript with these technical changes. A great story can fall apart if the technicals aren’t there. You can even lose a deal with a publisher or agent (myself included) if your technicals aren’t there. Take this basic advice and work on making sure your manuscript is as technically correct as possible. I’ve just gotten a new style guide, Dreyers English, and every writer should have at least one style guide handy at all times. Good luck with your writing and feel free to tweet your grammar questions!