When you read your story, does it sound off, maybe you can’t quite put your finger on it, but you know you’ve done something wrong? Sometimes–maybe even lots of times–there are simple fixes. These writer’s tips will come at you once a week, giving you plenty of time to go through your story and make the adjustments.
Today’s tip: Write in the positive, not the negative
For example, don’t say
There was no light in the room
Say
The room was dark.
This hint made a big difference in the tone of my writing. My scenes went from sounding depressing and negative to uplifting and positive. If you’re a mom, your familiar with this concept because you use it disciplining your children:
Don’t say: Don’t jump in the bed
Do say: Jump on the rug.
It’s the same idea. Without the negatives, what you communicate to your reader is more proactive than reactive. The reader feels like they’re moving forward with positives. They feel like they’re being held back with negatives. When I’ve finished a rough draft, I do a search for all not or n’t words, to see if I can replace them. That’s how serious I am about changing the tone of my writing.
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Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blog,Technology in Education featured blogger, IMS tech expert, and a bi-weekly contributor to Today’s Author. In her free time, she is editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, creator of technology training books for middle school and ebooks on technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blog,Technology in Education featured blogger, IMS tech expert, and a bi-monthly contributor to Today’s Author. In her free time, she is the editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum, and creator of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
This is such a practical hint, and I probably wouldn’t have thought to edit that way. Although sometimes the negative is just right, consider, “frankly my dear, I care far more about other things right now.” It just doesn’t have the same ring to it
By: ryan85 on January 14, 2013
at 6:11 am
Hehe. So true. But as a rule, limiting negatives does change the tenor of your writing to a more uplifting, positive voice.
By: Jacqui Murray on January 14, 2013
at 8:15 am
It seems so easy when you say it, but it can be daunting trying to ‘keep the motion’ of the story going. Simple tips like this can make all the difference. Thank you so much for the reminder
By: diannegray on January 14, 2013
at 1:15 pm
I always do a search at the end of my 1st or 2nd draft for n’t or ‘not’ or words like that. Invariably, I have far too many. I’m not sure what that says about my state of mind while writing!
By: Jacqui Murray on January 15, 2013
at 8:01 pm
I guess it’s the difference between falling down and rising up.
Eventually both ways get you back to earth, but it’s so much harder to stand after you’ve fallen.
By: sharipratt on January 14, 2013
at 11:34 pm
I can see the relationship. Like the cup’s half full or half empty. Yes–that’s a good analogy. State of mind.
By: Jacqui Murray on January 15, 2013
at 8:00 pm
I guess it’s the difference between falling down and rising up. You can get you back to earth both ways but it’s so much easier to stand if you’re not climbing out of a pit.
By: sharipratt on January 15, 2013
at 12:49 am
Hehe. I like it.
By: Jacqui Murray on January 16, 2013
at 6:43 pm
Thanks for the tip – I won’t forget to…I mean I WILL
keep it firmly in mind as I work through my present WIP.
By: Andrew Toynbee on January 16, 2013
at 2:18 pm
It makes a novel more uplifting, if you’re not into the dark genres.
By: Jacqui Murray on January 16, 2013
at 6:42 pm