Write Honestly, but Avoid "ly" Adverbs - And More Paradoxes to Help Your Writing

Write all the time, even when you're not writing. If you're anything like me, you always get your greatest ideas in bed, just before you're about to drift off to sleep, and there's no pen, paper or keyboard in reach. What do you do? Well first of all, any writer worth his/her salt would have a pen, paper or keyboard within reach. But for the rest of us, there's a simple solution: Write it in your head. Scribble it on the inner walls of your skull, close to the area of the brain that controls memory. Get on the thought train and see where it takes you. It just might lead you to your writing space.

Sometimes you do your best writing when you're not writing. This paradoxiom. (I just made up a word!) both contradicts, and reinforces the above...but you expected that, right? The point is, even when you're doing nothing, you should be writing. Quite often, when you're not writing the writing is better than when you are writing, because as long as it's in your head, you avoid the agony of ever having to see its flaws. So write on! Be still, and let your character talk your ears off from the inside out.

When you write, you're not really writing. In those inspired moments when the words are pouring forth like Victoria Falls, I like to think that every sentence, paragraph and page is handed down from the gods, the muses, or some great hereafter (or herebefore) that is simply using me as a vessel. When it gets really good to me, I can barely keep up. So in a sense, I'm not really writing, I'm just dictating. When you're just the messenger, it kind of takes the pressure off a little bit.

If, after your second draft, you believe that your work was handed down by the gods, muses (or the great hereafter) in a state of utter perfection and you wouldn't change a single word if your life depended on it, then your story probably sucks. Put it away for a long, long time. Let the euphoria die down. In fact, let some serious self-doubt and self-hatred creep in. Pull it back out when you're in a slump. If you still love it, then it probably still sucks. But then again, you might be on to something.

Proofread with your ears. Ralph Ellison only wrote one novel during his lifetime, but that was because of his painstaking revision process. He knew that the key to good revision is reading the work out loud. Ellison "wrote" into a dictaphone, played it back and rewrote until the cadence, pitch and tone of every sentence and paragraph was just right. He wrote like a musician, which, by the way, he was.

Write honestly! And avoid "ly" adverbs. Writers lazily opt for "ly" modifiers when there is usually, clearly, a better verb that more explicitly states the action being described. "He raced across the room" is more precise than "he moved quickly across the room," and so on. Don't "ly" in your writing. Or, in other words, be honest.

Write what you know, but keep learning. Face it: you really don't know much about anything. And you're not that interesting. That autobiography or memoir you've been contemplating? Narrow it down to a personal statement. The amusing anecdote you've been trying to fashion into a novel? Use it at happy hours and family gatherings. That gripping experience that changed your worldview? Put it in your diary and save it for later, when you can write about it it with wisdom and not just emotion. In the meantime, read. Live. Experience. Master everything that your character has mastered, learn everything your character needs to know, and then write an amusing anecdote with some powerful emotion, wisdom and heart.

Don't write what you know, write when you know. We've already established that you don't know anything, right? So while you're out there living, learning, and thinking, the urge to write will take hold of you. Follow it with blind, stupid faith.

There are no rules, but follow them. Read. Study the craft. Listen to other writers. Go to workshops, critique groups, conferences. Seek advice. Then purge it all from your consciousness and begin to write.

Take your time. And hurry up! Don't procrastinate. Be diligent and disciplined. Remember that patience is also a discipline. But don't waste time! The world is waiting to hear your message. Write on!