Tools of The Trade

This is the third in a three-part series of posts concerning The Writers Toolbox and how she can most effectively use these tools to improve her writing. Hope they jump-start your imagination so you can add to these tools with those you have found to be most helpful!

Carpenter’s Pencil

Use this tool to write on the manuscript itself any notes which seem important to a passage as you reread it time and again. It can be in the form of a red pen or pencil or even colored markers, indicating various questions or problems. Perhaps a green one for poor description, or yellow for consideration to be cut, or orange for rewording? Or perhaps all kinds of symbols—such as stars for weak description, triangles for dialogue which needs attention, or squares for material which needs to be cut or reworded. Then when you glance at the pages later, you can easily spot those areas which need revision. I’ve done this with Word Find, to highlight the words which I use too often so I can eliminate them. Don’t be afraid to mark up the pages in early drafts; your mind can’t possibly hold it all and the use of a pencil will alert you to potential problems which need consideration later!

Plane

Use it to smooth out the rough edges of your manuscript. The more obvious needs are to check spelling and grammar usage but less obvious ones might be clichés and metaphors which contradict mood or content and therefore appear to be silly and distracting. Yes, spell check is a marvelous tool but remember to always, always, always follow up with your own keen eye to misspellings. There is a reason for those little squiggly lines under some of your words; find out what they mean and figure out how to eliminate them, don’t simply ignore them. Otherwise, your book will have those rough edges which editors are not crazy about!

Level

Use it to balance everything out once the work is almost complete. Step back and take a hard look at the piece/book to see if it needs an extra chapter or cutting one or more existing ones. Also look carefully at the length of your words and sentences and vary these according to the action. Shorter sentences build tension, for instance, but varying the length will also hold the reader’s interest. Another area to look at is the structure of the sentences; that is, are they all subject/verb/object ones? Try inserting questions here and there as well to keep things intriguing for the reader. Balance is especially critical for a non-fiction book where the length of chapters needs to be somewhat even. Examine the Table of Contents to discover this at a glance and see if your eye catches a glaring hole or excessive material which should be cut. Then check out each chapter as well with the same focus in mind and make sure that bubble stays in the middle!

There are probably many more tools which could be added to this toolbox, for it will be most effective if it is personalized just for your type and style of writing. Use your common sense when putting together the items you need for a specific project and you will find creating your masterpiece will be easier than you ever believed it could be. Having the right tools and the knowledge of how they work will bring your dream of being published closer to reality!