There are many books on writing, so why another? What can be learned from yet another book on the subject? As we thought of this question, we wondered . . . what if a prolific writer, and veteran editor (and sometimes writer) joined up? What if they gave their perspectives, so to speak, from both ends of the writing process?
Perhaps, we decided, we have a few tricks to share.
What I (coauthor Randy Dockens) discovered as I began my writing journey was that knowing the rules and applying the rules are not necessarily the same thing. When I started my writing journey, I read all that I could so that I could become a “good” writer. I tried to implement everything I read. Yet I discovered that my writing actually got worse rather than better! How could this be? I was doing everything the experienced writers, editors, and agents told me to do. For example, one article said to never use the word was because that made sentences passive, and one should try and make sentences stay in active voice. One agent posted and said if he saw an exclamation mark in a piece of writing, it went directly into the trash because if one could not write an exclamatory sentence without having to use an exclamation mark, that person just didn’t know how to write. Another post said to never use adverbs as these show the writer does not have a good grasp of adjectives and the English language. And on and on it went. Trying to incorporate all this advice became exhaustive. Then, lo and behold, I discovered that one article began to contradict another. What was a beginning writer to do?
What I began to discover was that these posts were not necessarily giving advice for authors but providing pet peeves that these authors, editors, or agents had. While good advice, to a point, the advice was not comprehensive enough to guide a beginning writer. I mean, really, can a person truly write a 70,000-word novel and never use a single was? If an exclamatory sentence is written, wouldn’t the reader expect an exclamation mark to follow? And, yes, while using too many adverbs is likely not a good thing, adverbs are, after all, words found in a dictionary and have their place in both verbal as well written use of language. What these “advisors” should have said was that, in general, using the word was can make a sentence passive. Yet that is not always the case. Often a better verb can be used instead of was that gives the reader a better context or visual cue. But, again, not always. And, yes, an exclamation mark does not necessarily make a sentence exclamatory if not written to be one. Also, adverbs should be used sparingly but are sometimes helpful to qualify the intensity of an adjective. For all of these, it is their judicial use that makes one’s writing “good.”
Whether a writer does or does not do these things is not the determining factor, but the key is how the writer uses them. Words are a writer’s toolkit and color palette. Just because an artist has a million colors to choose from does not make her a good artist. It is how the artist uses and blends the colors together that makes the difference. In the same way, this is true for writing as well.
This book is an endeavor to pay forward many of the things both myself and my editor (Bob) have learned on our writing journeys so that others can start, learn, or refresh what they know but may have forgotten about the different aspects of what goes into good writing. It is hoped that the elements in this book will help those who read it develop a methodical approach to creating habits of good writing that can enhance one’s artful style of writing no matter the genre.
You’ve heard the expression: rules are made to be broken. Well, that is certainly true when writing a book. I wish someone had told me this truth in the beginning. In this book we aim to explain some important rules, but just as importantly, we aim to tell when they can be—gently—broken.
The other thing missing from so many books on writing is the author themselves. The author is what makes their stories, their writing, unique from all others. The author should include themselves in their writing. So we’re giving beginning and developing authors what we (Randy as an author; Bob as an editor, writer, and author) wished we had known and understood when we started our writing and editing journeys.
Let’s be truthful: writing is hard. It is laborious. Both of us know how difficult (and lonely) writing can be. From my (Bob’s) perspective, I wanted to share tips that help a writer grow in confidence, consistency, and creativity. So we made the book as much about attacking and even enjoying the mental battle of writing as about tackling the mechanical (including, once again, those rules!) side of things.
Last: we wondered how we might have a bit of fun with this book. Anything that makes the process fun, or at least more enjoyable to undertake, is needed. Thus, we decided to end each chapter in this book with a grouping of our favorite tips (writer’s, editor’s) to work as a sort of summation of that chapter. Then we decided to begin each chapter with each successive letter of the alphabet. (We make this work better than might be guessed.) And we wanted to add plenty of extra sidebars and ending resources to help the new and developing writer, so we did.
Title: Mastering the ABCs of Excellent Writing
Author: Randy C. Dockens & Robert Irvin
Pages: 250
Genre: Fiction Writing Reference/Authorship/Writing Skill Reference
The authors of this book (one a writer/author; one an editor) explain
what they wished they had known when they began their writing journeys.
This book will speed up your writing proficiency and aid your goal of
being published with excellent material your readers will enjoy.
Why
this book on writing? There are two things we learned the hard way and
want you to gather the easy way. One, rules are made to be broken—but
you want to break them only with intentional purpose. And two, you, not
the rules, are what make your stories, your writing, unique from all
others.
We cover various writing techniques and how to make your
writing something readers will keep enjoying, but we also help you with
the artistic side of writing, meaning what’s inside you, your writing
technique, and your brand.
This easy-to-enjoy manual is written
in a unique alphabetical style, filled with tips and extra-information
boxes at the end of each chapter, and has a number of helpful additions
following the final chapter.
Buy Links:
After completing his bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from Auburn University he went on to graduate school at Auburn and completed his first doctorate degree in Pharmaceutics. He began his scientific career as a pharmacokinetic reviewer for the Food and Drug Administration and later joined a leading pharmaceutical company as a pharmacokineticist, which is a scientist who analyzes how the human body affects drugs after they have been administered (i.e, absorbed, distributed, metabolized, and excreted).
Through the years, he has worked on potential medicines within several disease areas, including cardiovascular, fibrosis, and immunoscience to seek and develop new and novel medicines in these therapy areas.
He has also had his attention on the academic study of the Bible. He earned a second doctorate in Biblical Prophecy from Louisiana Baptist University after receiving a master’s degree in Jewish Studies from the Internet Bible Institute under the tutelage of Dr. Robert Congdon.
Randy has recently retired from his pharmaceutical career and is spending even more time on his writing efforts. He has written several books that span dystopian, end-time prophecy, science fiction, and uniquely told Bible stories. All his books, while fun to read, are futuristic, filled with science to give them an authentic feel, have a science fiction feel to them, and allows one to learn some aspect of Biblical truth one may not have thought about before. This is all done in a fast-paced action format that is both entertaining and provides a fun read for his readers.
He has also written some nonfiction books as well. One is to show how all humans are connected from God’s viewpoint by looking at biblical prophecy. This book shows how all scripture is connected and inclusive of everyone. In addition, he and his editor have written a book about writing. This book not only addresses the techniques of writing, but what makes writing unique to each author. It conveys not only how to better hone one’s craft of writing but also the brand an author wants to portray. This helps an author make their writing unique as well as captivating for his/her audience. A companion book to this one regarding self-editing techniques will also soon be available.
You can visit Randy’s website at www.randydockens.com. Connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads and Instagram.
In 2005 he chose publishing and went to Standard Publishing (Cincinnati) where he worked with authors from across the nation and internationally on youth ministry materials for the former Christian-based publisher, which had a rich history serving American and Canadian churches dating to 1869. In 2011, Robert went independent. He helped develop a homeschool curriculum site for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine during a two-year period in which he worked for this trailblazing homeschool organization. He does the majority of his work with Christian Book Services. He has ghostwritten long portions of books for authors and entire books for a World War II veteran’s memoirs (written 2013-2015 at age 89-91!) and a former NFL quarterback’s story of mentoring his high school football star son.
Robert has edited virtually every type of book, from business to novels to theology to sports to memoirs to abuse survival stories, and much more. His credits include scores of books. He has spoken at or served as faculty at various writing conferences.
He enjoys family, running, the outdoors, bad golf (like many, he has the bug, which just won’t go away), a heated game of Scrabble, virtually any sport, and reading any book that even remotely interests him.
Robert has a BA from Ohio State University in Journalism. He and wife Joan have four children. Reach Bob at bobirvin642@gmail.com.
Visit him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/bobjoan.irvin/ and LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobirvin31/.
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