Day 65

Writing well

…

I guess this means don’t write badly, but whether your writing is bad or not subjective.

But there is such a thing as bad writing. There are rules, and as long as you try not to break any, or more than a few, and then everything’s OK.

Of course, there’s always the fallback, sending the manuscript to an editor and paying for them to iron out all the spelling, grammatical and other errors. It will cost you but it is worth it.

The last thing you want to do is offend the reader charged with deciding whether the publishing house will publish your novel or not.

Then there’s that other problem, especially if you do not have a comprehensive time scale, and extensive character definitions, such as family trees with dates that make sense, and continuity.

I am guilty of that, starting a character with one name and ending with another, forgetting the names of other characters, getting plot points out of order, having things happen before they’re supposed to, and even worse, weaving an actual event into the story and get it wrong.

Even very expensive Hollywood productions sometimes get things wrong, and the research on what’s available, like a 1920s Rolls Royce Phantom, a particular watch, or a certain item of clothing.

There’s no substitute for meticulous research.