It's winter in Texas. Yuck. And it's one of the worst winters the country has had in several years. So it means mud, gluck, cold, and no color anyplace. Now, that may seem weird to someone who lives in Arizona, where the amazing rock formations only get more beautiful, or California where the winter winds bring in a better surf, or the Rockies where crystal white snow is simply inspiring. No, Texas in winter, is not all that.
Texas in the winter has rain. Unless you live in the middle of a city, in a well maintained apartment building, you walk through mud. The mud here isn't regular mud either, we call it gumbo. It's sticky, heavy, and won't go away when you try to scrape it off. Yuck. It's work just to take a walk. Have to wash it right away, and to prevent further yuck, plant grass or install gravel walkways, and sometimes those need maintenance. More work.
Texas in the winter has cold wind. Wind that is so cold it sucks the energy right out of you. The wind slices through your best coat and makes you feel bad. And the gloom of an overcast sky makes you want to hibernate. You know, go to sleep.
Texas in the winter has no color. The leaves have dropped, the flowers died, the grass withered. The skies are gray and everything just feels flat.
So I sit down and try to finish the chapter of the novel I'm currently working on....and guess what? Cold, gluck, no color....dang.
Okay, not going to have it! This is just my sorry mood - {runs to get a refreshing drink} - Better, now I'm in a good mood, so I'll give this thing another look. And. It's still cold, gluck, no color.
What are we talking about? Life on your pages. This can't be done using adverbs or adjectives, not even by painting the loveliest scenery. It's by honing the craft and learning the rules. Oh, sure, you can start out by pouring words onto the page. In fact that's the best way. Get the idea out there, get it off your chest. And when you have acres of pages lined out, it's time to slog.
Edit, revise, rewrite, timidly share with a critique group, repeat. It's like slogging through Texas mud.
All those extra words and words like 'was' 'had been' all those 'ing' words and the ever present 'ly' words, yea those, they are like the mud that weighs down your writing. So you have to scrape them off, wash them away, wear out your thesaurus and find those strong words that make your writing float off the page. Sure you need a few of them, just like you're going to get a little dirt on your shoes even on the nicest day. You just don't want too much. That's just yucky.
The next thing you're going to have to slog through is all those time markers.....yea like the one at the beginning of the sentence. And my favorite, the dreaded pronoun. Just get rid of them and see what happens. Oh, you say it sounds choppy, so smooth it out. Restring those words on the page. And that's more slogging. So what in the world do we do when we don't want to use a proper noun twelve times in a row? Dig a little bit deeper, you may even have to dig that line completely out. Write it clean and to the point.
Now you say it's all clipped and short and flat. Yup, just like Texas winter.
So add the color. But think about it when you do. What if you were to dump the can of paint on the wall when you want to repaint it. Same thing with writing. A little goes a long way. And if you write those colorful scenes without all those 'ly' words, then you'll agree; Wow, lookie there. That page is going to run away on it's own.
Is it warming up yet? If not, slog back through. Make your plot arc in the right spot, even if you have to take out those wonderful scenes that you worked on so hard, but if that plot jumps this way and runs that way, it will look just like a flash flood after a heavy rain, and your readers will run away and hide.
Last but not least - all those little , and ; and : figure out which one goes where and get them there! Oh, yea, and get rid of all those !!
And look, spring is just around the corner.
How do you spend your cold winter days?
Texas in the winter has rain. Unless you live in the middle of a city, in a well maintained apartment building, you walk through mud. The mud here isn't regular mud either, we call it gumbo. It's sticky, heavy, and won't go away when you try to scrape it off. Yuck. It's work just to take a walk. Have to wash it right away, and to prevent further yuck, plant grass or install gravel walkways, and sometimes those need maintenance. More work.
Texas in the winter has cold wind. Wind that is so cold it sucks the energy right out of you. The wind slices through your best coat and makes you feel bad. And the gloom of an overcast sky makes you want to hibernate. You know, go to sleep.
Texas in the winter has no color. The leaves have dropped, the flowers died, the grass withered. The skies are gray and everything just feels flat.
So I sit down and try to finish the chapter of the novel I'm currently working on....and guess what? Cold, gluck, no color....dang.
Okay, not going to have it! This is just my sorry mood - {runs to get a refreshing drink} - Better, now I'm in a good mood, so I'll give this thing another look. And. It's still cold, gluck, no color.
What are we talking about? Life on your pages. This can't be done using adverbs or adjectives, not even by painting the loveliest scenery. It's by honing the craft and learning the rules. Oh, sure, you can start out by pouring words onto the page. In fact that's the best way. Get the idea out there, get it off your chest. And when you have acres of pages lined out, it's time to slog.
Edit, revise, rewrite, timidly share with a critique group, repeat. It's like slogging through Texas mud.
All those extra words and words like 'was' 'had been' all those 'ing' words and the ever present 'ly' words, yea those, they are like the mud that weighs down your writing. So you have to scrape them off, wash them away, wear out your thesaurus and find those strong words that make your writing float off the page. Sure you need a few of them, just like you're going to get a little dirt on your shoes even on the nicest day. You just don't want too much. That's just yucky.
The next thing you're going to have to slog through is all those time markers.....yea like the one at the beginning of the sentence. And my favorite, the dreaded pronoun. Just get rid of them and see what happens. Oh, you say it sounds choppy, so smooth it out. Restring those words on the page. And that's more slogging. So what in the world do we do when we don't want to use a proper noun twelve times in a row? Dig a little bit deeper, you may even have to dig that line completely out. Write it clean and to the point.
Now you say it's all clipped and short and flat. Yup, just like Texas winter.
So add the color. But think about it when you do. What if you were to dump the can of paint on the wall when you want to repaint it. Same thing with writing. A little goes a long way. And if you write those colorful scenes without all those 'ly' words, then you'll agree; Wow, lookie there. That page is going to run away on it's own.
Is it warming up yet? If not, slog back through. Make your plot arc in the right spot, even if you have to take out those wonderful scenes that you worked on so hard, but if that plot jumps this way and runs that way, it will look just like a flash flood after a heavy rain, and your readers will run away and hide.
Last but not least - all those little , and ; and : figure out which one goes where and get them there! Oh, yea, and get rid of all those !!
And look, spring is just around the corner.
How do you spend your cold winter days?
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