It's a well accepted fact that talent rarely makes a good writer by itself. No one immediately bashes out a perfect first draft, and even if a misguided writer thought they had and did no further work on it, I imagine it would be difficult to find an agent, publisher or film studio that would take on that piece of work. Today I want to take a look at some factors other than a good instinct for writing that help to create great pieces of writing- not just acceptable first drafts, but great finished pieces. PracticeLet's start with the cliche: practice makes perfect. It's another well accepted fact that writing a lot makes you better at writing, so I won't labour the point. Whether your initial aptitude for writing is high or not, practice will develop it. LearningThis one I am a huge, huge advocate of, and it's one people don't think about a lot. 'I've read a few novels, so I could write one.' True, you could. But would it be the best you could do? You'd do infinitely better if you were to learn about the craft first- by reading online articles, maybe doing an online course, and yes, reading lots of books, but also analysing them and figuring out exactly how they do what they do. If you want, you can go on your instincts to write your novel or other project, then do your learning and use your newfound skills and knowledge when you're editing. I'm currently midway through a two-week online Intro to Screenwriting course on FutureLearn, and I would highly recommend this sort of thing. Screenwriting is a totally new area to me- most of us don't read screenplays in our free time, after all- and the course has so far helped me to get to grips with not simply what a screenplay is and does, but the actual craft of what goes into one- what makes a good one, how to create plots and characters, how it differs from other forms of writing. Yes art is a form of expression, but skill goes into it as well, and those skills have to be learned. Not all writing is the same- if you've written 26 bestselling novels but don't know anything about screenplays, you won't be able to write the latter straight away without learning the craft because they're completely different. It's important to know the difference. So if you're trying a form of writing that's new to you, pick up a book on it, or try an online course. Take responsibility for your own learning, because it's writing, and you write because you enjoy it, right? PlanningI'm a meticulous planner. I never start writing a project until I have some basic character outlines and a plan for a plot, however vague and hole-filled. For the screenplay I'm currently writing, I've become a big fan of index cards with scene details written on blu-tacked in order and covered in post it notes with extra things I've thought of. However, some people prefer not to make initial plans, and that's fine. Different people work different ways. But when it comes to editing, that's when I believe plans really come into play. Structure is an integral yet often overlooked aspect of storytelling, especially when it comes to screenplays, and nothing beats a plan to try and work out how best to use it, even a plan made in hindsight. Editing, editing, editingThis is my favourite bit- the part of the writing process where you start to craft your creation into something great. My favourite saying (credited to several people including Robert Graves, although I found it in Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld) is 'there is no good writing, only good rewriting' and it's something I remember every time I get downhearted about my writing when working on a first draft. The initial writing is only the first step- it's filling up the sandbox so you can make the castles later. Stocking the fridge so you can cook something.
Editing is where you stop creating and you start crafting- you pull in all that learning you've done and use it to your advantage. You start to be meticulous and careful- everything in your work needs to be on purpose. 'Good enough' doesn't matter anymore, you make everything the best it can be. This is also where your plan comes in again. Have you stuck to it? Could it be improved? If you have no plan (or the draft differs from the plan significantly), make (a new) one! This will help you to plot character arcs, see which characters are getting most of the action, look at your pacing, the amount of locations you have... There's no end to how many editing thoughts you can gain from looking over a plan. I'd just like to reiterate my point from earlier: art is a form of expression, but as with drawing and playing musical instruments and other forms of art, writing has craft to it, and different forms of writing have different requirements. Learning the craft is not only fun, but necessary in order to create a great piece of work.
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"After nourishment, shelter, and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world."- Philip Pullman Archives
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