Steering the Craft

1. Master the Craft: Writing is a Skill to Be Learned

Craft enables art.

Writing is a making. This book is a handbook for storytellers, focusing on the fundamental techniques of narrative prose. It's not for beginners but for those already working hard at their writing, seeking to refine their skills. The goal is to become so familiar with the tools of language that they become intuitive.

Skill frees the writer. Learning the craft provides the navigational skills needed to steer the story. It allows writers to write what they want and may even reveal what they want to write. While luck and gift play a part in art, skill is earned through practice and study.

Focus on the making. The book emphasizes writing as an art and a craft, a process of making something well. This involves giving oneself to the work, seeking wholeness, and following spirit. Learning this craft is a lifelong endeavor that is deeply rewarding.

2. Listen to Your Prose: The Sound and Rhythm Matter

The sound of the language is where it all begins.

Prose has music. Just like poetry, prose has sound effects, though they are usually subtle and irregular. The noise words make, their sounds and silences, create rhythms that affect both meaning and beauty. A good writer cultivates a "mind's ear" to hear their prose as they write.

Rhythm drives narrative. The chief duty of a narrative sentence is to lead to the next, keeping the story moving forward. Pace and movement depend on rhythm, which is controlled by hearing the prose. Language can express delight in itself, and narrative prose can sound gorgeous in many ways, from exuberant vocabulary to dialectical cadences.

Reading aloud helps. To develop an awareness of sound, read your writing aloud. This reveals awkward bits, faults in rhythm, and helps make dialogue natural. Playing with sound effects like onomatopoeia, alliteration, and repetition (without rhyme or meter) can be a fun and effective way to cultivate this skill.

3. Embrace Punctuation and Grammar: They Guide the Reader's Ear

If you aren’t interested in punctuation, or are afraid of it, you’re missing out on some of the most beautiful, elegant tools a writer has to work with.

Punctuation is essential. Punctuation tells the reader how to hear your writing, acting like rests in music to indicate pauses and breaks. It clarifies grammatical structure, making sentences clear to both understanding and emotion. Relying on computer programs or expecting copy editors to fix errors is risky in modern publishing.

Grammar provides tools. Learning grammar is intertwined with learning punctuation. Understanding terms like subject, predicate, and tense is like a carpenter knowing their tools. Ignorance of grammar leads to incoherent syntax, mistaken words, and misplaced punctuation, crippling meaning and making writing unclear and ugly.

Correctness vs. clarity. While grammar bullies may focus on arbitrary "correctness" often tied to social class, a writer's moral duty is to use language thoughtfully and well for clarity. Breaking rules should be intentional, not a blunder. Clear writing for strangers requires more work than casual speech, especially online where context is limited.

4. Vary Sentence Length: Create Pace and Flow

The optimum is variety.

Sentences must cohere. The primary job of a narrative sentence is to lead smoothly to the next. Beyond this, sentences can do infinite things, but they must hang together. Common problems like misplacement and danglers hinder coherence, requiring careful construction and revision.

Avoid monotony. While short sentences can be effective for tension or impact, prose consisting solely of them becomes monotonous and choppy. Conversely, overly long, poorly constructed sentences can be difficult to follow. The key to good prose rhythm is variety in sentence length, established by interplay with surrounding sentences.

Complex syntax is powerful. Long, complex sentences, when well-managed, can carry the reader along easily, like the muscles of a long-distance runner. They are suited for working out complex thoughts or powerful, gathering emotions. Don't shy away from them due to misguided rules; learn to construct them solidly so their connections are clear.

5. Use Adjectives and Adverbs Sparingly: Strengthen Verbs and Nouns

Adjectives and adverbs are rich and good and nourishing.

Avoid lazy usage. Adjectives and adverbs add color and immediacy but can cause "obesity in prose" when used lazily or excessively. Often, the quality they describe can be integrated into a stronger verb (ran quickly = raced) or noun (growling voice = growl) for cleaner, more intense writing.

Beware of qualifiers. Words like "rather," "a little," "kind of," "sort of," and especially "very" weaken the words they modify. They are "bloodsuckers" in written prose and should be rooted out during revision. Overused words like "great" or transition devices like "suddenly" can also become meaningless.

Every detail counts. While avoiding lazy usage, don't strip your prose bare. Choose adjectives and adverbs thoughtfully and carefully. The English language offers immense richness. Narrative prose, especially for long journeys, needs muscle, not fat. Focus on vivid, exact, concrete details that contribute to the story.

6. Understand Verb Person and Tense: Choose the Right Perspective and Time

When a story keeps sticking or gets stuck, keep the possibility of that change of person in mind.

Person defines the narrator. Narrative fiction primarily uses first person (I) or third person (he/she/they). Second person (you) is rare. First-person narration limits the story to what "I" knows and perceives, while third person allows more freedom, though it can be limited to one character's perspective (limited third) or range widely (involved author).

Tense affects focus. Past tense (she did) has traditionally been the standard for narrative, allowing easy movement through time. Present tense (she does) has become popular for its perceived immediacy, but it creates a tightly focused beam on a single time and place, like a narrow-beam flashlight. Past tense offers a wider field, like sunlight, showing continuity with past and future.

Choose consciously. The choice of person and tense is significant and affects the tone and scope of the story. If a story feels stuck, consider changing the person or tense. Avoid mindlessly switching tenses within a narrative without clear signals, as this confuses the reader and makes the story incoherent.

7. Control Point of View and Voice: Know Who is Telling the Story

Point of view (POV for short) is the technical term for who is telling the story and what their relation to the story is.

POV determines perspective. Point of view defines the narrator – either a character within the story (viewpoint character) or the author. Voice is the metaphorical sound of the narration. Understanding different POVs is crucial for controlling how the reader experiences the story.

Principal POVs:

• First Person ("I"): Narrator is a central character.
• Limited Third Person ("He/She"): Narrator is a central character, but told in third person.
• Involved Author ("Omniscient"): Author knows and tells everything, can enter any mind.
• Detached Author ("Fly on the Wall"): Author reports only external behavior and speech.
• Observer-Narrator (First or Third): Narrator is a character but not the main protagonist, witnessing events.

Reliability varies. In nonfiction, the author is expected to be reliable. In fiction, narrators can be unreliable, deliberately or innocently misrepresenting facts, which reveals something about their character. Comparing different POVs for the same scene highlights how perspective changes the story.

8. Handle POV Shifts Carefully: Avoid Confusing the Reader

Any shift from one of the five POVs outlined above to another is a dangerous one.

Shifts require awareness. Changing point of view is a major decision that affects the narrative's tone and structure. It must be done consciously, with a clear reason, and with care to carry the reader along. Frequent, unannounced shifts, especially momentary ones, can disorient and frustrate the reader.

Specific shift challenges:

• First to Third Person: Difficult in short pieces, can be jarring even in novels.
• Detached to Involved Author: Generally not feasible within one piece.
• Within Limited Third: Shifting between different characters' minds too often or too quickly without signals can confuse whose perspective the reader is in.

Subtle shifts are possible. While clear signals (like line breaks or chapter divisions) are often needed for major shifts, skilled writers like Virginia Woolf can move between perspectives subtly within a passage. This requires immense control and certainty, allowing viewpoints to dissolve into a broader narrative voice.

9. Tell by Implication: Show, Don't Just Explain

The world’s full of stories, you just reach out.

Story is more than plot. Story is a narrative of events involving change over time. Plot is one way to structure story, often through causal conflict, but it's not the only way, nor is it necessary for a story to be compelling. Stories can be found everywhere and don't require elaborate pre-planning.

Convey information subtly. Narrative often needs to convey information (exposition), especially in genres like science fiction or fantasy that build new worlds. Dumping information in large blocks (Expository Lumps) bores the reader. Crafty writers break up information and weave it into the narrative seamlessly through dialogue, action, or description.

Description tells the story. Scenes and characters can be revealed indirectly through description. Describing a room can tell us about its absent inhabitant. Describing a place can imply the mood or nature of an event that happened or will happen there. Every detail in a description should be relevant and contribute to the story's focus and trajectory.

10. Crowd Details, But Leap Boldly: Focus on What Matters

Only the relevant belongs.

Crowding enriches. "Crowding" means filling the narrative with vivid, exact, concrete details, avoiding flabby language and clichés. It means keeping the story dense with sensations, meanings, and implications, interconnected with echoes and moving forward without wandering into irrelevancies.

Leaping omits. "Leaping" is just as crucial – deciding what to leave out. The vast majority of potential details must be omitted. Overcrowded descriptions clog the story. Only relevant details that "tell" something important should remain. Listing is not describing; focus is key.

Revision is key. In first drafts, writers often crowd too much. Revision is the time to cut anything that pads, repeats, slows, or impedes the story. Severe cutting forces writers to weigh words and intensifies style, demanding both crowding (making remaining words work harder) and leaping (removing the unnecessary). Chekhov's advice to cut the beginning often applies.

Last updated: May 19, 2025