ROBERT J.R. GRAHAM: Harriet Silkwood

Showing posts with label Harriet Silkwood. Show all posts

Sunday, 30 March 2014

Write What You Know

by: Harriet Silkwood

We’ve heard the words, Write What You Know, but do we understand what they mean? The words can be misleading and may discourage new writers from branching out to try new genres. Do they mean we should only write about our experiences? No. They mean we should write what we know; and we know more than we think we do.

What needs knowing is what it’s like to be a human being. Everything else–occupations, places, times-everything–can be researched.

Know Your Characters

People are people. It doesn’t matter which time line they’re in or the world you put them on, they are still people. Look at the people you know and use their odd habits and characteristics, along with your imagination to make your characters come alive for your readers.

Know Your History

Researching will teach you all about the physical aspects of your chosen time period. You can learn the modes of dress, speech and the type of government of any time period on earth.

Whether aliens in another galaxy where only your imagination sets the rules, or Earth two thousand years ago, you have to give them traits that humans, your readers, can identify with, or the story won’t work. Can you see your stoic, stern grandfather as ruler of a distant planet? What about the zany aunt who loves to wear loads of costume jewelry? A perfect Queen.

Everyone has experienced love, fear, hate, curiosity, just as you do. Take what you know and turn on your imagination, then mix it with the knowledge you’ve gained from your research. Your characters may be vampires, evil gods or aliens, but they will feel the same pain and fear that you do. They will feel love and compassion.

You know what frightens you. You know the feeling of being afraid. This is what makes the stories believable to others: your fear of dark places, of the unknown, pain and death–primal emotions that everyone shares. If it frightens you, it will probably frighten others. The same with love, happiness, sadness, anger–emotions are universal to all people. You know what causes these feelings in you, and know what happens to your body while under the influence of these feelings.

If a character falls into a icy creek and you’re unable to describe the feeling well enough for the reader to feel it; go jump into an icy creek. This is extreme of course, and I don’t advise it, but you’d only have to do it once to remember the feeling through hundreds of stories. You can use this feeling in many ways, being lost on a frozen mountain, for instance.

Everyone, whether they admit it or not, has felt so angry, if only for a split second, that they could commit murder. Remember that feeling and use it. Fiction is truth – exaggerated.

Readers will identify with the characters, thus the story, because they have felt the same.

Write what you know is good advice, and you know more than you thought you did.

About The Author

Harriet Silkwood is a reviewer of new writers and has written newsletters and articles on the subject of novice writing and reviewing with common sense and encouragement. Her portfolio may be found at http://www.Writing.Com/authors/storytime. She is an author on http://www.Writing.Com/ which is a site for Writers.

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The post Write What You Know appeared first on Robert JR Graham.

Thursday, 20 February 2014

Write What You Know

by: Harriet Silkwood

What needs knowing is what it’s like to be a human being. Everything else–occupations, places, times-everything–can be researched.

Know Your Characters

Know Your History

Researching will teach you all about the physical aspects of your chosen time period. You can learn the modes of dress, speech and the type of government of any time period on earth.

Everyone, whether they admit it or not, has felt so angry, if only for a split second, that they could commit murder. Remember that feeling and use it. Fiction is truth – exaggerated.

Readers will identify with the characters, thus the story, because they have felt the same.

Write what you know is good advice, and you know more than you thought you did.

About The Author

Robert Recommends...

A Writer’s Perspective on Taking Criticism

Think Before You Write

First Step to a Successful Life

Writing Explosive Action Sequences

What Every Childrens’ Author Should Know

6 Tips For Your Writing Journey

The post Write What You Know appeared first on Robert JR Graham.

Wednesday, 8 January 2014

A Writer’s Perspective on Taking Criticism

Feedback, the Beauty and the Bane

by: Harriet Silkwood

I use the words: feedback, review and critique interchangeably to mean the same thing in this article.

I love getting critiques. It makes me feel acknowledged and important. Someone took the time to think about my work and give feedback. What a precious gift.

An online writing group is the place to learn how to take and use criticism in a supportive environment. Criticism is the bane of every writer, but a novice is much more vulnerable. An unthinking, harsh review can discourage so badly, the writer may give it up right then and there. The writing group you choose should be helpful and nurturing. Criticism should be honestly encouraging along with being honestly helpful. If you find no encouragement, find another group as quickly as you can.

Don’t be discouraged if you feel you received a negative critique. If your work were totally hopeless, you probably wouldn’t have gotten a critique at all. The reviewer cared enough to spend time on you – that’s a good sign. A review is not negative just because it contains a lot of suggestions and corrections. It is negative only when it contains no encouragement and doesn’t point out the good areas. There are always good areas, and they should be expounded upon too.

Before revising a second draft, take some time away from your work, then pull it out and think long and hard about each comment. Some things that you may have assumed were clear may not be. Other things may be awkward or incorrect. You are so close to your work and emotionally wrapped up in it that you will naturally miss things. Your reviewers have no such ties – they can help you view your work from a fresh perspective. Pay attention to recurring comments. If more than one person is noticing a potential weakness, you know you’ve more work to do.

Don’t be afraid to ask for clarification of a comment. And don’t think you are obligated to use the suggestions. Just be open to other solutions – they might not be appropriate for one story, but they might spark other ideas. This is your work, but think of what’s best for the story.

If you are constantly feeling under attack, perhaps you’re not ready for critiques. Is it what they said that upset you, or the way they said it? Are they using rude words to describe the flaws or are you just not interested in any negative comments? Or worse, are the reviews always positive and vague, giving you no useful information? Perhaps they don’t even tell you what you did right?

If you are looking for only praise from your readers, you may not be ready for reviews. There’s nothing wrong with this, we’re all at different stages in our writing confidence. As your desire to write grows, you will soon progress to that next stage, and welcome the feedback. In the meantime, reading and offering your help to others is the next best thing you can do for your own writing.

Giving and receiving feedback makes you aware of the basic rules of good English use. If you think you don’t need to worry about grammar, spelling, punctuation, rhythm, focus , syntax, and structure, think again. They are the key to clarity. Writers want to make sense. They want to take the reader into their fantasy world and make them believe. Learn the rules. Break ’em later.

The best rules can’t be taught or put into an easy list, but you can learn them by reading excellent writing. If you know what works, you’ll strive to emulate it. It’s also good to review bad writing. You’ll find that you’re learning and hopefully avoiding the same mistakes.

Reviewers use their time to carefully read an item and plan their review. They offer encouragement and helpful advice, but honest crits can sting. Before replying, think about what was said. A reviewer who has taken much time reading and writing isn’t going to appreciate being told, “So and So read this, and his comments are completely opposite yours. I don’t think you’re qualified to comment on my work.”

How a writer responds to the comments of reviewers will likely determine how he responds to prospective editors and agents. Editors aren’t concerned too much with your feelings. They will rarely comment on submissions. If an editor doesn’t understand a story he simply sends a rejection letter.

Think of the reviewer as your future editor, and listen closely to what they say. They aren’t always right on their technical advice, you need to learn the rules yourself, but their views on the content are views of your future readers and buyers of your book. If they are your intended audience, pay attention.

Feedback provides the writer with something he or she cannot get for themselves: reaction to the piece by someone who doesn’t have these characters and their world in their head, someone who doesn’t know this story inside-out. That’s the beauty of feedback.

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