PROTECT YOUR VOICE

I'd like to offer a few thoughts about voice and editing.

There are times for rules and times for forgetting the rules.  Craft is always something to master, even if only to ignore.

Despite my repeated warnings about adhering too obsessively to “rules,” it’s still true that some of my editing clients have craft trip-ups that make for tough reading.  I see clumsy grammar gremlins, over qualifying, unnecessary attribution to POV characters, cart-before-the-horse descriptions, etc. They can be distracting and thus detracting. 

None-the-less, your voice might lead you to break rules,

In my opinion, great voice walks right up to the edge of troubled writing… That cliff and its risk make up the writing sweet spot.

Write brave but keep clarity in mind.  And always be careful to protect your voice.

Remember: It may not be perfect, but it may be right.

Write well.  All best from the Inkpot.

Writing is Like Painting

Richard Diebenkorn's ten rules for beginning a painting:

1. Attempt what is not certain.  Certainty may or may not come later.  It may then be a valuable delusion.

2. The pretty, initial position which falls short of completeness is not to be valued--except as a stimulus to further moves.

3. Do search.  But in order to find other than what is searched for.

4. Use and respond to the initial fresh qualities but consider them absolutely expendable.

5. Don't "discover" a subject of any kind.

6. Somehow don't be bored but if you must, use it in action.  Use its destructive potential.

7. Mistakes can't be erased but they move you from your present position.

8. Keep thinking about Pollyanna.

9. Tolerate chaos.

10. Be careful only in a perverse way.

My good friend and great writer Tony Van Witsen sent this list to me.  

Stay tuned, I hope to apply these rules for beginning as I enter into a new contracted project.  More details on that later.     -  Hugs from the Inkpot