by David Smale, chief creative officer, Storyteller Publishing, LLC
- Have a topic and a point
There’s a difference between the two. The topic is what you’re writing about. That can be a novel, a short story, a biography or a motivational piece. Your topic should be obvious very quickly.
Your point is equally as important. It’s what you want the reader to take away from your project when you’re done. What good have you done if the reader is not changed in some way by reading your book? Even if your point is underneath an entertainment umbrella, if you don’t accomplish your goal—your point—you’ve wasted your time and that of your reader.
Figure out what you want to accomplish. Then do everything from that point on to accomplish that goal.
- Entertainment? Make sure you keep the reader entertained.
- Informational? Is the reader more knowledgeable about the subject than he or she was before reading the book?
- Motivational? Is the reader inspired to use what he or she read and go out and change his or her corner of the world?
Your point should be definable. Don’t stop with the broad categories listed above. Be specific.
If you want your reader to be inspired to solve homelessness in your community by donating time and resources to the local soup kitchen, then use descriptions to inspire them.
If your point is that Wilt Chamberlain is the best athlete we’ve ever seen in our country, compare him to other basketball players as well as other athletes in other sports. Include athletes from different generations, pointing out the differences in sports, eras and training methods.
Make sure everything you write adheres to the point. It doesn’t have to be directly related, but it can’t be opposed in any way.
- Use an outline.
An outline accomplishes multiple purposes. First, it helps you put things in order. You probably have many thoughts running through your head that you want to include. Trying to keep them straight in your mind is difficult if you don’t write them down. It doesn’t matter where you put them in the initial outline. Moving things around the outline is much easier than trying to figure out where something fits when it’s only floating around your brain.
It prevents writer’s block. When you have time to add to your manuscript, one of the most frustrating things to have happen is to not know what you want to write. You might have to massage it later, but an outline tells you exactly what you’re going to write about in that writing session. If you don’t feel like writing about that topic, find another topic in the outline and write about that. Then save that section and plug it into the manuscript when you get to that point.
It allows you to reorder easily. If you have a 10-chapter manuscript and you think of something that’s related, but you’re not sure where to fit it in, having an outline allows you to figure out easily where it fits better.
An outline will help develop new concepts that fit. A topic might not have been part of your initial idea might come to you when you’re reading through your outline. Just add it to the outline and then go back later and write about it.
- Don’t be fashionably late to the party
Don’t string the reader along. Grab their attention and then hold onto it. Most readers aren’t patient enough for the plot to develop. With fiction, you don’t have to give the plot away too early, but you still have to grab their attention quickly, and then hold it.
Conflict (tension) engages the reader, but not for the sake of conflict. This is especially true in fiction, but it applies to other styles of writing as well. Resolving conflict is very effective, because it makes the writer look like the expert. Even if the reader disagrees with the conclusion, proper construction of the conflict and the resolution gives authority and keeps the reader engaged. You just don’t want to make the reader mad, or they’ll put your book down and never pick it up again.
- Write like you talk
It’s okay to use attention-grabbing words, but don’t be someone you’re not. The easiest way to describe it is, “Write like you talk.” If you use big words in your casual conversations, use them in your writing. If not, don’t. The reader should be able to “hear” you saying what you’re writing. It should sound like you.
It also makes it easier to write, because you’re not trying to think about “how” to say something in a clever manner. Most people like to have casual conversations. A manuscript written in that way is easier—thus more enjoyable—to read.
Keep the energy by staying on point (using your outline). Variations off that outline, other than a brief excursion for clarity or entertainment, will distract the reader and subsequently risk losing them altogether. If you do take that excursion, make sure to get back on the path (your point) quickly.