Welcome to A Writer’s POV. If someone had told me that writing a novel would cause me to loose sleep, gain weight, snap at my husband, pull my hair out, (literally and figuratively) and kick the dog, if I had one, I never would have put pen to paper. But as they say, ignorance is bliss, and I plunged in and began writing my book with the naïve expectation that I’d be finished in a year. Needless to say, five years and seven drafts later, I’m still on my quest for the Holy Grail, a published novel. Although frustrating, I spent that time growing as a writer. Every rewrite, revision and critique taught me something. Every book I read or workshop I attended offered new insights and ways to improve my craft. My goal with this blog is to share with you what I've learned so far. To talk about issues that plague all writers, to talk about the nuts and bolts of writing. Despite the fact that it's all been said before, each of us has our own way of telling a story and hopefully you'll visit often for help, support or just for the fun of it to read the posts written from this writer's point of view.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Magic Words

Hocus-Pocus. Abracadabra. Fanciful magic words every writer at one time or another has probably wished they could use to solve a problem with their work. Personally, I prefer to wiggle my nose, but that doesn’t help either. The magic words I’m referring to are the ordinary and the plain. The everyday words that can be magic when mixed and blended like pigments on a canvas to paint imagery of a character, location or scenic vista in the mind. Stretch their meaning, push the boundaries, and make them work. Our job as writers is to tell a story in a way that draws a reader in—to keep them turning the pages. Long descriptions, tedious detail and frequent trips to the dictionary only jerk a reader from your tale, breaking the spell you’ve labored to create in the pages of your book. So resist the temptation to overuse flowery adjectives, exotic words and, of course, the dreaded adverb. And like a sculptor, chip away as you edit to reveal the magic words of your story.
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