HSES Monthly Writing Workshop: The basics

Are you planning on being an upcoming writer? 

Becoming the next Bradbury or Hansberry? 

Do you aim to become a great playwright?

I, the author here, do too but it is quite a ride. 

Writing books today is extremely competitive. Attempting to create meaningful and memorable stories in a time where ideas and projects are always blooming and withering will make people uncertain about where to start. But don’t fret, many famous and well accredited novel writers had humble beginnings. This special News Chapter will introduce you into the world of writing stories and novels alike. 

Let’s kick it off with understanding the line between Fiction vs Nonfiction. 

Unlike what you have been probably working on for most of your work-life, writing a novel 

is a completely different experience from writing research papers or informational articles. 

The biggest goal for essayists, analysts and researchers is to express information connected to the subject as quickly and efficiently as possible. You can’t bore your reader with packed statistics if they don’t make sense.

Stories on the other hand must tend to the audience. They should introduce the reader into the setting and build up the themes and conflicts so the people can close the book walking away with something memorable. It is also important to only give exposition when you feel like it’s needed.- more on that later.  

Would you tell someone the exact street you live in the first moment of meeting them. Probably not? Think about it like that. A good tip is to constantly re-read your story with the lens of a reader or the audience. 

SCHEDULE

Most of your life is essentially a schedule, your worklife, what time you go to bed, what you even do when you are playing a game. So it should be expected that having a schedule to write your novel is mandatory. Well here’s the truth. 

You don’t. It is completely up to you how much you will write in a month. For some people it does work to have a rigorous schedule where they'll loyally write consistently. For other folks like myself, writing long blocks of text when they get the idea or even a few sentences will be more than enough to continue progress. 

The most important thing is to make you have fun while writing. Getting burnt out because of over-exertion leads to absolutely nowhere.  

SHOW not TELL 

If you have written narratives or have done your research before you have probably heard every single writer repeat this rule at least once before.  However this rule is very important to take note of. Everyone writes differently however it is important when writing dialogue especially, you make the conversation feel human.  Let us write an example right here; the story of quite an unfortunate man missing the train that he'd usually take for morning commute. 

The man walked to the conductor with his briefcase. “ Good morning sir. One ticket for the train to Newark. What time is it” 

“Oh good gracious it is 7:02 PM. The bright red train you need to get on in track 03 is departing now.”

 “ Oh no really. Can you please hold the train off till I get there.” 

“ I apologize sir but I cannot do that. I am further sorry to hear about your predicament that is occurring to you. The next train is coming in twenty five minutes. You are going to need to find something to do I suppose.” 

“ But I'm going to be late.” The man whimpered to the conductor 

This right here. Is bad writing. It tells you everything right there and then. This wouldn’t be classed as exposition because everything is spoon fed to the reader, even the unnecessary information. Certain parts that the reader already knows are expressed again for no reason. Mistakes like these seem egregious and easy to catch but it occurs more to writers then expected. 

Let us see how this segment can be improved.

“Good morning,” the man clutched his briefcase and looked around, eyes shifty, “One ticket to Newark please.”

“Right away sir,” the man behind the counter nodded, fat fingers clicking against the keyboard, “All set, your train should arrive in about twenty-five minutes.”

“Perfect, have a good-” he paused, hands frantically checking his watch, “I could’ve sworn there was a train arriving now.”

The fat man looked at a chart obscured from behind his glass screen, “The train just left sir.” Looking at the man’s expression, he smiled in mock sympathy, “It departed about five minutes ago.”

“Oh no.” 

You notice how this segment with a few simple changes allows the reader to witness three massive developments. The relationship between the characters, the character’s personality and the conflict. Specific details are removed because they break the reader’s immersion of the setting. 

The most important takeaway is to make sure you convey information correctly and naturally. Think like you are the person in the conversation, what would be their personality, their style of talking, their mannerisms.

Writing is a tricky subject that even I still attempt to learn. Come back to the HSES Newspaper monthly for more tips to further improve your planning and writing capabilities.