Introduction-Where to Start as an Aspiring Writer

One thing only, I know and that is that I know nothing. (Socrates)

There are different interpretations to what Socrates meant here. As for me, it has only ever meant one thing and as of my writing this, it’s truer now than ever.

I released my debut novel — Twilight Wolf. So, I at least have a notch on the ole writing belt. But that’s not to suggest I know much about writing. That’s the thing with knowledge; its companions are fickle. Learning a thing only leads to finding five other interconnected unknown things. And that’s what I take Socrates to mean.

I often find myself looking up a definition only to look up a second word that was used two define the first. Suddenly, I’m needing to understand two things simultaneously in order to answer my initial question. And sometimes there is even trouble in looking up a word. Recently, I had trouble with ‘ichor,’ which is obvious in hindsight. But more often than not, foresight doesn’t provide the same level of clarity.

My ‘ichor’ trouble started in attempting to look up its spelling. Is it icore, ikor, eyecore or… grrr, why can’t I spell this close enough for my search engine to give me what I want? While you probably haven’t had the same trouble with ‘ichor,’ I’m sure a similar issue has plagued you at some point.

I share this to emphasize my student-status in the writing craft. Over the past year, I’ve had a few Aha! moments where some nugget of writing wisdom finally aligned within the puzzle of my writing constructions. But I don’t know everything, nor will I try to. Still, I’d like to share the things that have helped me along the way.

My writing journey has had an issue and it’s something that’s avoidable. I’m not sure if this was a flaw in my learning pursuit or if it’s a main stream problem with the information presented to aspiring writers. Take this book title as an example:

‘Your Complete Guide to Writing XYZ’

Early on, I might have be drawn to this title as I entertained the idea of writing professionally. Or consider this potential video title:

‘5 Newbie Mistakes Writers Make’

Given my experiences thus far, now I know that these titles are not a starting place for an aspiring writer. And the actual place to start is something I would have never considered as a new writer. The place you want to start is with sentence and paragraph construction.

I know. That’s very boring. I get it. But the surest way to get your potential audience to check out is to distract them with bad writing. And I’m not even speaking on grammar here. Your grammar can be flawless, yet you can still use a lot of words to say nothing at all.

Writing isn’t the point of your project. It’s the means, not the end. And it’s why my focus has shifted more into flow instead of other writing characteristics. The point of writing is what you’re communicating, not the communication itself. While the latter is vital, the first is the purpose for writing to begin with.

Let’s look at two writing examples of flow by describing a longsword. Just know that the first will illustrate my point.

It had a three-foot blade with a double edge. The pummel was a wolf’s head. Its cross guard was v-shaped and leather wrapped the handgrip.

These images are a reference for what I just described with the second being the order I described them in:

When I described these parts to you, I moved your thoughts along in a 1, 4, 2, 3 order instead of a 1, 2, 3, 4. So, this back and forth description is an easy way to lose your reader. Here’s what I should have done:

It had a three-foot blade with a double edge. A v-shaped cross guard sat atop a leather wrapped hand grip and a wolf’s head formed its pommel.

Both descriptions include the same details but the second will help your reader consume the information easier. And this applies to far more than simple object descriptions.

What if you’re describing a character in a place or a specific spot within a city? Well, you can’t go wrong by using this same method. Instead of your eyes moving along an object, think about it like the zoom from an overhead camera. Either describe bits on the character, the vicinity, then the greater area or do this in reverse. Start close up, then move to a wider view or start with the overview before moving to your character within the setting.

For a rough example, consider your character being at a store within a specific city. So either describe things in a character-store-city order or the reverse. Your narrative can get convoluted if — in a single paragraph — you describe store-city-character or maybe character-city-store.

Lastly, I’d like to touch on rules and techniques. What I just described was a technique that I use in trying to minimize my words from getting in my reader’s way. If you’re telling a story, aside from unrealistic details, the quickest way to make a reader lose interest is by allowing your words to hinder them in some way. As before, I’m not referring to grammar. The purpose of writing rules is to meet your reader’s expectations. If a piece reads exactly like they expect, then the wording won’t even enter their thought process and this should be the ultimate goal for all writers.

But nothing is absolute. It’s important to learn writing rules and techniques but do so with the aim of breaking them. Knowing a writing-rule, then deliberately breaking it can be a rewarding experience for you as a writer, while being satisfying for your readers.

An example of this can be found in fight sequences. As a writer, you are to never use fragmented sentences, right?

Wrong.

Fight sequences are perfectly good times to use fragmented sentences when you do so deliberately while still communicating the chaos and flow of the events. So, learn rules/techniques in a way to help your reader but know that none are absolute. The most common piece of writing advice offered is ‘Show. Don’t tell.’ But this is something you should never apply always. Sometimes, the ill-advised is the best thing you can do.

I hope this was helpful for your own writing aspirations. The above advice is what I wish I had sought and focused on earlier in my writing endeavors. It’s not as glamorous as the aforementioned titles but is far more useful. In the future, you’ll find my experiences recorded here. I have lots of similar things I wish to share and plan to do so. Until then, whatever your project, I wish you well!

Happy reading and happy writing,
JT