Learn to Write by Copying a Book Word for Word

by Kris Madden

Hunter S. Thompson copied over Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, word for word, on his typewriter, because he wanted to know what it felt like to write his favorite book...

When I learned this fact, I thought it a waste of time, to copy a text that was already in print. Upon further investigation, I found Thompson had copied over the “The Great Gatsby” in its entirety not once. But twice. To repeat such a lengthy, laborious and tediously intense task twice over, could only mean that the process had something to offer to writers.

So I tried it myself, and copied over The Great Gatsby from a store bought paperback to Microsoft Word 2007 on my computer. And by the end of the first page, I was already picking up techniques and lessons on writing I had never heard of before. I saw the text in a new way. In re-typing the text, I was able to see what it would have been like if Fitzgerald had written The Great Gatsby in MS Word.

I was fascinated to see words underlined in red squiggles because the computer’s dictionary could not find them. Or lines underlined in olive-green, because they were not grammatically correct. I laughed at the thought of a computer program trying to tell Fitzgerald how to make a sentence better, and then I realized that I was letting the computer do the same thing to me. I thought about all the sentences that I had thrown out on account of them being underlined, and I wondered if I had made a mistake in doing so.

Aside from mental lessons, I also learned several writing techniques. Specifically, in The Great Gatsby, I learned about Fitzgerald’s use of the hyphen. It occurs often throughout the book, but I had never noticed the technique when I read the text. I learned his hyphen-technique—in typing out countless incidents of this—was done to give the reader a quick bit of information, almost in to the reader’s subconscious, and then continue on with the story.

I gained so much through copying the book over that I copied over other texts as well. I copied over texts to learn how to do specific scenes or dialogue., or action sequences in my own writing. Every time, I took in something new. The lessons I learned were greater in their scope than I had picked up from reading dozens of "how to write" books. I not only learned about the techniques, but I also learned how to use them when I was writing. And what’s more? I learned them from the best teachers in the world.

Being a musician and artist from a young age, the idea of learning through copying should have come to me much sooner. As a musician, I spent countless hours in my bedroom playing my records over and over and learning how to play popular songs so that I could learn to write my own. And as an artist I sat at the living-room table with a comic book, copying over every detail, to learn how to draw. Yet, when it comes to writing, many authors do not employ this same learning technique.

As writers, much of the advice we get is: "Sit down at your typewriter, and mash the keys. Repeat until you have 300 pages, and then throw out 150 of them." While this sage advice teaches discipline and aides in developing an author’s style.  I wish someone had said, "Sit down at your typewriter with an award-winning book, mash the keys the same way the author of that award-winning book did, and copy over every character and symbol from start to finish." Then you can learn how to mash the keys the ways the pros do, rather than your amateur chimp writer.

from the PPM Archive Sept 2009

Are You Writing With Style?

by Winonah Drake

Some writers paint or draw to become more observant of detail, and many artists find that music improves the rhythm and flow of their sentences, but can writers learn anything about art from fashion designers? While flipping through Fashion Design Drawing Course, it became obvious to me that there’s a lot more to it than reinforcing behaviors and tossing fabric on a living coat hanger. The author provided some unique direction on how to identify the best aspects of your work while developing your own style, which applies equally to writing.

You should work freely and treasure your rough ideas (they are often more exciting than an overworked concept) but know which ones to reject.

Writers know when their ideas have potential. Often they’re useful in different places other than they were developed for, or with some fundamental changes. Like the fashion designers, writers have to sacrifice some of their ideas to put more work into the ones they can build on the most.

Show your work to family and friends, and accept their compliments.

Don’t set your standards so high that genuine feedback is meaningless to you. It takes courage to put your work out where it can be judged. But an honest answer from a supportive audience will let you know what to do more of and what doesn’t work.

Don’t be discouraged if other designers or members of your class seem to be producing better work than you-just concentrate on developing your own unique style.

Knowing that you want to be a writer is easy. Finding out what appeals to readers is not. It’s a process. Looking at writers you admire for guidance is helpful, as is looking inward to what inspires you, but the key to good writing is not a formula that someone else wrote. Readers will respond to work that shows a balance of inspiration and expression.

Allow yourself to learn…It is through imitation that you will discover for yourself how to make the best use of the techniques.

Just as in the world of fashion design, writers discover themselves through imitation of what worked for others. An author’s voice develops when s/he becomes confident in talking to readers. Your niche won’t be obvious until you’ve had some minor successes. The raw material of each is the success of others; how their writing spoke to you, and how you developed into someone who can contribute to the world of ideas.

A good designer is always curious, always pushing the boundaries. It is only through trial and error that truly original ideas will emerge.

Curiosity defines a writer as well. You write because something caught your interest. If a story or an idea has not been written about before, a new means of expression might be needed. In writing, this has lead to all the formats we’re familiar with plus innumerable genres and works targeted to every demographic. Ingenuity by writers willing to risk missing the mark has resulted in writing that speaks to everyone in an ever-changing world.

Don’t be too fixed in your definition of “success”…So long as you know what the rules are, it can be fun to break them sometimes.

Hearing those words from a successful fashion designer should encourage any aspiring artist. Writers know we need to follow the steps to make our work relevant, but doing so might threaten our creativity at first. Once you can look objectively at what will appeal to your audience, you can change the content without making the piece irrelevant.

Some people will love your work, others will hate it-all you can do is try to be true to your own special take on the world.

Publication is a huge success, but it’s only the beginning. That’s when you discover whether or not your writing hit the mark. Family and friends probably provided your first subjective feedback for longer works, then editors gave you objective criticism to make it appeal to more people. If you publish, you want your ideas to join those of others who’ve inspired you. Doing it means you’re brave. But now you have to put your feelings aside to filter out reactions from your audience. Those who read should be looking for what you’re trying to say. Any other motive can’t produce feedback that can help your writing.

 

Write to Sell

Tweet

by Michael Crawley

Over my twenty years of teaching people how to write genre fiction, I’ve distilled my pontifications on the basics to just over a single page. This is it. We’ll start with some vital trivia. (How’s that for an oxymoron!) There are a few things that I tell all my pupils in their first lesson. If they can learn them, they are 50% of the way towards selling their work.

1) Please format double-spaced, 1 1/4" margins, ragged right, paragraphs indented three spaces and with no gaps. Use a plain 12-point typeface.

2) To sell, write exactly what one specific editor wants to buy. Submit it. To do that, you must know what that editor is currently publishing; have a copy of his guidelines, and follow them! From there on, what I teach is simply the details.

2a) It doesn’t matter what you want to write, if you are writing to sell. If you don’t sell your piece, it won’t be read. Write what the editor thinks his readers want to read. He might be wrong but he has the cheque book. That does not mean ‘selling out’. There are over a million English language publishers. Whatever your pet topic or favorite genre, someone publishes it. Find that someone. Get their guidelines. Adjust to fit them. Write what you enjoy writing - but in their language, following their rules, to their length.

 3) It’s hard work, but write simply. The more readable your text, the more it will sell. Ask Messers King, Spillane, Churchill, Melville, etc.. Convoluted, verbose text is easy to write. We write with ease to show our breedin’ But easy writin’s cursed hard readin’~Sheridan. Your words, sentences and paragraphs should all be, on average short and simple.* Avoid conjunctions and subclauses. Write SVO - Subject, Verb, Object. That’s the natural order in English. Keep your ‘ing’ words to a minimum and in particular, don’t open sentences with them.

4) Write dynamically. If you write fiction, your opening sentence and paragraph should be a) Action, b) Dialogue, c) Intriguing. If it is passive or ‘explanation’, your opening paragraph will be both the first and the last that is read. If you write nonfiction, your opening should either offer a benefit or be intriguing. Every word should do something. If I write anything a reader might skip over, I delete it. Elmore Leonard.

5) Use structure. Unless it is very short, fiction should be three acts. 25% dynamic introduction of the elements. 50% development and complications. 25% unraveling towards a cathartic ending. You should have plot-twists at those 25% and 75% points. If you write nonfiction, you do almost the same. Open by telling the readers what you are going to tell them. Tell them. Tell them that you told them.

6) In fiction, write a plot. Plot is: A sympathetic character has a problem. Her efforts to solve it are thwarted by complications. In the end, out of her character and the circumstances, there is a cathartic resolution.

7) Edit and rewrite. I never write four words but I cross out five. Dorothy Parker. The first draft of anything is ****. Ernest Hemingway. 8) Finish your text and submit it. * In this piece, my average word has five letters. My average sentence has eight words. BTW: I teach people how to write what will sell; not how to sell what they write.

from the PPM Archives October 2009