What Ecology Teaches You About Writing
Nice to see you again! Join in the discussion!Today’s writing tip is about what the science of ecology can teach you about improving your writing and your writing career.
Ecology teaches that organisms optimize their energy resources. We naturally follow the same course. The least amount of time and labor that we can invest to achieve our goal is a good strategy.
Invest your resources proportional to your gain.
In ecological terms, this principle is manifested in r and K-strategists. R-strategists include animals like mice and rabbits. Because of high mortality rate (read: kill rates, rejection rates), the optimal strategy is to produce lots of offspring or product. Generally, the parental investment is minimal.
Young are born helpless, requiring some upbringing (read: marketing) or able to take care of themselves. Small body size is typical. For the writer, this means high quantity of small articles.
K-strategists, on the other hand, invest a lot of time and resources in their few offspring. Offspring are typically larger, that is with a higher word content or better content quality. The offspring (read: articles) are long lived or evergreen.
The resource will move to a state of equilibrium.
Succession is the process by which a community (read: career direction) will be replaced by another, eventually reaching a point of climax or ecological equilibrium.
This may describe the way you work. You begin with low-paying jobs to gain experience. Eventually, as your writing improves, you are able to get better-paying gigs. Finally, you reach a point where you are writing for a wage commensurate with your talent and experience. You have reached your writing climax.
Ecology teaches us that we should make the best use of our resources whether they are energy related or monetary. Apply these principles to your writing and you will achieve optimal growth.
Writing Tip—Active Voice
Today’s writing tip is about making a vast improvement to your writing with one simple tip. Use active voice when writing.
Active voice is more powerful. It creates clearer images in your reader’s mind, helping to visualize the action of your writing.
Subconsciously perhaps, we gravitate to more active people. We may shy away from those passive individuals. We prefer to watch action rather than inaction. Thus, active voice is simply more interesting.
Of course, that is not to say that there is not a place for passive writing. However, its meaning is so much more dramatic if it is enveloped by active voice writing. The stark contrast interest us, draws us in to the plot. We are naturally more curious about what someone will do rather than what will happen to someone.
You’ll find that the more you are conscious of using active voice, the easier it will become. As you learn to recognize and correct it, your writing will improve dramatically.
Give Me Some Gold
Writing mysteries gives you great insight into people. You must delve into a character to discover their motivations, what makes them tick. One of the best ways to do this is to study how they use money.
Of course, you’ll have those types that spend money as soon as they get it. Spending is a foreign word. Then there are those that are truly fascinating. They will take the opportunity to better their situation. They will invest, buy gold. Those characters will be the ones that know all about firms like Goldline International. They will know what to do with their money.
You have to appreciate these characters and their attention to their financial health. I enjoy reading about characters who are intelligent and plan well. The careless characters are just careless. The ones that succeed are the interesting ones.
As you write, think about your character and his concern for the future. Does he live day by day or is he always on the lookout for a way to achieve security?
NaNoWritMo–Day 2 with Writing Tip
I made a little progress today on my writing. Read through a few chapters and did some editing. One thing I found extremely helpful was using BackPack (or whatever web-notebook app you use) to identify the missing elements of my book.
As I re-read my book, I’m finding that there are scenes missing. They can be little things, like a description that is too short. Or it can be something major, like a confrontation between two characters. I add these elements as I find them to my list. Then, when I go back to rewrite, I try and incorporate them into my writing.
I feel as if the work is becoming more well rounded. I’m including the elements that will make the book seem more real and thoughtful. How’s your writing going?
Writing Tip–Get to the Point
As a couple of bloggers have observed, Ernest Hemingway has a lot to teach us about blogging, or just Internet print in general. Today’s writing tip recognizes Hemingway’s style and what it can bring to your writing.
“Never mistake motion for action.”
Don’t just do it to do it. Write and act purposefully. Trim the fluff that leads up to the action. It’s not action if the story isn’t moving forward.
“I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.”
If there’s anything I’ve learned from writing, it is to listen. Listen to how people speak. Listen to how they lie or make love. Listen to know what dialogue is.
“In order to write about life, first you must live it!”
Certainly, firsthand knowledge brings the most life to your writing. It’s not enough to know that bear may attack. How will he attack? What will you do? The last point is key. Writing forces us to view our inner self. What good or evil lurks here?
“I write one page of masterpiece to ninety one pages of shit.”
It’s okay to experiment. It’s okay to run with an idea to see where it will take you. Ride the rapids, and enjoy the show. Everything will be waiting for you when you return. Write with a mind to explore.
Writing Tip–Avoid Needless Words
Today’s writing tip addresses how to tighten your writing. You’ve probably seen the advice about tightening your writing. It’s almost cliche’. The key is simple: lose the useless words. Once you learn to spot them, it becomes easier. Let’s look at some examples.
I do not like liver. –>I dislike liver.
I liked him immensely. –>I adored him.
The crowd laughed hysterically. –>The crowd roared.
A general rule of thumb is to look at the verb-adverb combination. What verb describes this action? Of is also a watch word. Of something can often be substituted with a possessive. The result is a stronger statement. It is an active statement.
Can you see a pattern? Removing needless words leads to tighter writing, which leads to active writing. A more defined picture is created. The more you write, the more you will see. Knowing the traps can lead to stronger writing.
Writing Tip: Achieving Focus
Everyone has their own system. You perhaps have your favorite place to write, your favorite pen, and of course, your favorite background music. That describes my typical writing day. Everything has to be in place, as if the luck of writing depended on it.
One way I’ve found to achieve focus while I’m writing is to listen to white noise or nature sounds as background rather than music. Music is the basis of the soundtrack for other areas in my life, but for writing, I want peace. I want it to be truly in the background. A site I’ve stumbled upon that helps me reach that mystical writing plateau is SoundSleeping.com. The site boasts that it promotes good sleep and relaxation. Perhaps relaxation is the key for my writing.
It makes sense. Writing, fiction writing anyway, is about creating a place, an escape, if you will. Relaxation helps you achieve that zone, that feeling of where-did-all-the-time-go. Like driving, writing leads you to its special place. All you need to do is relax and let it take you there.
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