Unbreaking my brain

Academic writing is often quite dry, with some forms (eg. journal articles and textbooks) having the potential to be really long winded. I suspect most academics have the desire to write in a clear and concise manner, but at some point, many of us have fallen into the habit of waffling to make a certain word count or to make the passage we're writing sounds more intellectual. I have absolutely been guilty of this myself. My PhD thesis came in at just over 80,000 words, and a good portion of that was when I was trying to bulk out my literature review in the early days of my candidature. I did go back and cut some out in the lead up to submission, but I'm sure there would be at least another few thousand words I could cut if I set my mind to it. Hell, this whole blog is basically me waffling to procrastinate from whatever I should be doing. But while crapping on to meet a word count was (sometimes) a useful strategy in academia, that's not the case in creative writing. Problem is, I'm having trouble switching from academic mode to novelist mode.

In fiction-writing, quality is far more important than quantity. Prose can make or break the book just like plot and characters, though the extent to which is more critical may depend on reader preferences. ie. some people I know will happily read what they consider to be beautiful prose even if the story doesn't actively hold their interest, while others (like me) can tolerate mediocre writing if the stories and characters are interesting. The one time I made an exception to this rule was for a book where aside from one or two of the side characters, I just didn't like or care for anyone in the story, and there were a number of plot holes which had obvious resolutions (at least to me) so it didn't make sense how the characters couldn't have found their way around them. Normally I'd have bailed out after a few chapters, but the writing style was so captivating and evocative I kept reading, hoping the story would get better, but it didn't; after I finished it I couldn't help but feel like I'd wasted my time. The book was met with almost overwhelmingly positive reviews when it was released, and while some of those reviewers did enjoy the story itself, a lot of the praise seemed to be targeted more at the writing style (though funnily enough, a lot of reviewers also criticised the writing for being overwrought and flowery; I suppose this highlights how everyone likes different things, and what one person loves about a book may be something that another person hates). So while there has to be a balance and you have to have compelling a compelling story and characters, having an engaging 'voice' as a writer is also important.

Over the years, I've picked up a few books on writing. King's On Writing was interesting, but as it was a couple of chapters of writing advice squished between two large slabs of memoir, it's not something I'm likely to re-read. Though The Tough Guide to Fantasyland isn't a guide to writing, exactly, it is still a fun exploration of all the tropes and clichés used in fantasy novels (though after you read it, you won't be able to stop picking apart every fantasy novel you try to read). I like it because it makes me think about which conventions of the genre to lean into and which conventions to avoid. 

By far the most useful writing book I had come across was Strunk and White's The Elements of Style. It focuses heavily on grammar and sentence structure, but also on conciseness and clarity. Reading it again recently has been useful for reminding me of the need for cutting out unnecessary fluff, and even a few rules of grammar I admit I'd forgotten.

A couple of weeks ago I stumbled upon a Reddit post asking for recommendations of books about writing. Some I'd already read after borrowing them from teachers or friends in my writing course, and hadn't found particularly useful, but there were a few that sounded promising. I decided to order Ursula K Le Guin's Steering the Craft as it was one of the most common recommendations, and it arrived yesterday.

I haven't had time to read it thoroughly yet, but from flicking through it, I can see that it looks like a useful companion book to The Elements of Style. While it also focuses on rules of language and grammar, it also provides example passages from existing literature that show these rules being applied (or in some cases, how the writing can be effective even if these rules are broken). Le Guin also provides several writing exercises or challenges throughout the book, which are useful at pushing you out of your comfort zone. I had a go at doing one of the exercises - where you have to explore two characters through dialogue alone, as if you were writing a film script, with no description or explanation - with a scene from my WIP. What came out isn't going to win any prizes, but it was useful in making me think more specifically about how to differentiate the characters' voices and avoid having everyone sound the same in their dialogue. If nothing else, it has helped me start to break down the wall between thinking about writing and actually writing.