7 WRITING SECRETS TO WRITE WELL AND SELL

7 Writing Secrets to Write Well and Sell

Why only 7 Writing Secrets to Write Well and Sell?  While there are any number of amazing writing secrets, we’ve decided to focus on our 7 best writing secrets.  Now, everyone wants to  know about the latest writing secrets to help make the job of writing an easier and sell their work, but the truth is WRITING IS DIFFICULT.  Now that we know this, it’s time for us to GET OVER IT.

If writing were easy, then everyone would be doing it…right?  Oh…wait…everyone isdoing it, because anyone with a blog is now considered to be a writer.  So…that must mean that writing is easy, right?  No.  Sorry.  Wrong again.  Writing is the most difficult craft there is when talking about the world of arts and entertainment.

Without the writer, what does an agent do?  Without the writer, what does a publisher do?  Without the writer, what does an editor do?  Without the writer, what does the actor, director, or studio executive do?  I’ll tell you what they do, they do nothing.  Without writers, the entire business is just a bunch of people standing around.  Writing is everything and writing well is even more of the everything everyone wants.  (How’s that for a writer writing a sentence about writing).

With all that being said, let’s take a peek at 7 Writing Secrets to help us get past the dreaded blank page and learn how to be a well-written writer of writing that SELLS.

1. ALL GUNS BLAZING: Never, ever leave the best for last.  With the world being what it is today, readers and viewers of our work want instant gratification and something that not only holds their interests, but something that knocks them on their butts.  Without something meaty, the reader/viewer will change the channel, put our books back on the shelf or log onto Facebook without giving our work a second thought.

2. SPICY STORY: Since everyone is now a writer, the market is FLOODED with every kind of story imaginable.  Without a fascinating, compelling and interesting storyline, we have nothing but a document filled with words and phrases.  Forget what other writers have done and do you own thing, but make sure to make it spicy!

3. THE HOOK: The hook is the one thing that makes your story different.  The hook for the Twilight books was a teenage girl falling in love with a vampire.  Without that hook, it’s just another vampire story, right?  I’m not a huge fan of the books, but sure wouldn’t mind their success.

4. OVER-DETAILING CHARACTERS: We need to allow our readers to fill in the blanks.  Readers love to use their own imaginations, so let them.  More often than not, we try to describe down the the very last detail.  Instead, get the point across and move that story!

5. AVOID THICK PARAGRAPHS: Think about the reaction you have when you are reading.  Ever notice how we tend to skim the dense paragraphs on a page and move to the meat?  Knowing this, keep things lean and ultra mean.  Each word must carry something interesting.  The rule we used on Law & Order was this: if the scene doesn’t move the story, cut it.  If you write an entire page to describe what a house looked like, then cut it down to a simple paragraph.  Dean Koontz is notorious for over-describing things that don’t matter, but that’s only my opinion.  Use the reader’s imagination to move the story along and cut the fluff.

6. BE RUTHLESS: We have to be the biggest critic of our own work when we write.  If we KNOW that we are stalling, overwriting, or writing something that isn’t moving the story along, then CUT, CUT, CUT.  This, of course, if for the rewrite and NOT the first draft.  First draft writing rule #1 is to get it all out, then shape it later.

7. BREAK THE RULES: When we break the rules of story, we are moving into uncharted territory.  That’s a great thing.  We can’t discover new waters if we aren’t willing to lose site of the shore.  Think about Charlie Kaufman and what he does with story.  Some oddball stuff, but that’s what makes it great…it’s new and different than the rest of the stuff.