MWG Writes on Q
March 2015
A Thing of Bits & Pieces
practice, until what emerges on the page is something that gives you that “Ah ha!” moment.
Here’s an apposite quote from Elmore Leonard. “If proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I
can’t allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative.”
Furthermore, there is no roadmap for writers. There’s no arrow saying “You are here”, with a lot of
other signs pointing to other places you may or may not want to go. You can only look back at where
others have been and learn. Then you must go into the unknown, the places marked on the map,
“Here there be Dragons”. This is the only way to progress in your journey, because to stay on the welltrodden path is merely to revisit what has already been done. Exploration will find your unique
voice.
Your unique voice, which will only come with enormous effort and practice, is so very necessary,
unless you plan on churning out what used to be called penny dreadfuls and pulp – though pulp is
making a comeback, and the best of its writers do have a talent. Dr. Johnson had a nasty habit of
being right. This is his answer to some aspiring writer. ‘Your manuscript is both good and original, but
the part that is good is not original and the part that is original is not good.’
However, to find that ‘voice’ will mean severe self-criticism and the ability to look yourself in the
face and admit that some of what you’ve done is plain rubbish. Delete, shred, and start again. To
quote Lillian Hellman, “Nothing you write, if you hope to be any good, will ever come out as you first
hoped.” But that can’t stop you from trying, and simply bears out what I’ve just said. Also, Arthur
Quiller-Couch said, “Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it
... and delete it before sending your manuscript to the press.”
I used to show my writing around before it was really finished, in the hope of hearing something good.
Now I realize that was just vanity. I no longer do. I wait, polish it as much as I’m capable of; find all those
stupidities, those absurdities, all that abysmal writing, and then, just maybe I’ll show it to someone who is a
reading enthusiast or another writer I respect, and ask their opinion. Remember, an opinion is just that, and
you can take it or leave it.
And by the way, there are no secrets to writing. Well, they say there are three, but no one knows
what they are.
There is however, one absolute in writing fiction. Never, never, never bore your reader. No matter
how you start your story: whether it’s a slow build up gathering tension, or an explosive start like an
RPG firing, your reader has got to want to know what’s on the next page. Lose that desire, and