When I was younger, I used to write wrote a lot often. Some poetry, an occasional story. I still write, nowadays though, it’s mostly email, and sometimes this blog.
I’d like to jump back into it and to get started, I read On Writing by Stephen King.
Write a lot, and read a lot.
The Prime Rule, Stephen King
There is a lot of great advice in this book, mixed in with a brief memoir. I’m a huge fan, and have been for a long as I can remember. When I was 14, my girlfriends and I went to see the movie Sleepwalkers. Did they enjoy it? Probably not. But I had a love for the King, and for the genre and I started early.
Due to a lack of dedication on my part, I have not grown or improved as a writer. Reading this showed me that there’s always room for improvement and that if I want to be a serious writer, I need to be serious about writing.
Language does not always have to wear a tie and lace-up shoes.
Stephen King
I’m already putting some of King’s advice into practice. Adverbs are the enemy, and the passive voice is timid, boring, and as King says, just plain “awful”. You can see this in action where I’ve revised the first sentence.
Sparingly, sparsely, and stealthily is how I shall use adverbs from now on. And that sentence stinks, alliteration not intentional. On a serious note, I do not think I have a tendency to over use adverbs, but we shall see now that I’m paying attention.
And what is it that draws me to the passive voice? WordPress has this SEO tool, Yoast, and it’s always complaining at me that too many of my sentences are passive voice. It also tends to complain about my sentence length (too long).
King also suggests writing (and reading) daily. I certainly have the reading part down. Of course, he is primarily talking about writing fiction, and I’m not sure (yet) if that’s where my passion as a writer lies. Can I write 1,000 words daily?
The scariest moment is always just before you start. After that, things can only get better.
Stephen King