Improve Your Writing

It is rumored that James Joyce worked on one sentence in Finnegan’s Wake for fourteen years. We don’t need to go that far, but a polished story is the editor’s best friend and is more likely to be published. So if you want to sell your writing, a little revision will make a nice improvement.

If you don’t think you need to do any rewriting, you have a problem and might want to consider working the 12 Steps for Writers.

First, set your story aside for a while so it will be fresh to you when you pick it up again. Then, here are some questions to ask yourself when you do your rewrite.

• Can you sum up the story in one sentence?
• Have you taken out every unnecessary word?
• Have you used the features in your word processor such as find/replace, Thesaurus, spell check, and grammar check?
• Where does the story begin?
• Does it hook the reader?
• Where does the story end?
• Does it say what you want it to say, or does it take a sidetrack?
• Is there any extraneous stuff at the beginning or end?
• Did the characters achieve anything?
• Is the point of view (first person, third person, omniscient) consistent?
• Is every character important to the story?
• Do the characters have an agenda—their own, not yours?
• Are the characters revealed through the choices and actions they make under pressure?
• Does the dialogue have attitude, with each character having his own agenda?
• Is there any “reader-feeder” where you are TELLING the reader something you want them to know? If it’s important to the story SHOW it, if not cut it.
• Is there tension? Unanswered questions? Conflict such as two characters with opposing agendas?
• Does each scene have a beginning, middle, and end?
• Does each scene have a emotion, force, drive?
• Does it flow, build and have transitions?
• Do the readers see wide-angle shots as well as being drawn in with close ups?
• Does each scene play out an emotion that no other scene does?
• Is it of interest to other people and will others understand it?

Before your final draft take it to your writers group, or another experienced writer/editor, for feedback.