Words matter, a small tip that makes big changes

Hiya

I’m always loathe to hand out writing advice, because so often what is meant as ‘here’s a helpful tip that works for some writers’ can be turned into ‘you should always follow this writing rule or you will never be published.’

Look, writing advice exists for good reasons. Some things rarely work as well as other things. Advice is there to help you avoid overused and awkward scenes, or weak writing. This doesn’t mean you have to follow a strict set of rules. If you want to start your story with your main character waking up (I have!), and pepper your prose with an excess of ‘SUDDENLY!’ (please reconsider) then you should go for it. You should also be aware that some of this will make your writing harder to sell, possibly. As in all things publishing: it depends.

After that disclaimer, a thing that works for me when I’m writing is to be specific rather than generic. You don’t have to do this while writing first drafts - sometimes you just need to get the sketch down - but it’s definitely a thing to consider when revising for setting and language. Being specific when naming things not only makes your world-building stronger, more visible, but it allows you scope to play with language and rhythm.

I touched on this tool in a twitter thread, but I’d like to expand a little here:

When I’m first drafting - which is often little more than a rough scribble to get the shape of the story in place - I will write sentences like this: ‘The city was filled with birds.” Which, yanno, fine. That totally works as an image. But when it came to later drafts of The Nameless, I wanted to embroider a richer world. Especially with secondary world fantasy, I like to give readers an image that is both real and recognisable, while also a little off-kilter.

Laughing doves are an actual species of dove which I am very familiar with. You may not be. But here’s the rewritten passage:

“Pal-em-Rasha was filled with laughing doves and the sound of their throbbing good humour cooed around him. They erupted in surprised flocks from under the hooves of horses and oxen, only to settle in brown and lilac drifts over the walls and roofs.”

Whether it’s better or not is a matter of what style of writing you prefer. That’s why I say not all advice works for all writers. In this case, it works *for me* because I’m aiming for a very specific tone and style in this book. If I were writing, say, a hard-boiled thriller, I’m pretty sure that “the city was filled with birds” would be a better choice.

Even then, I think specificity would make that line stronger. The city was filled with pigeons. The city was filled with ravens. The city was filled with seagulls.

Each line places me in a different city.

I hope that was a little helpful, or gave you some ideas for your next round of edits.

Til next time,

CL Corona