Writing the perfect pitch (query letter)

About Writing

I often attend workshops and look for advice on how to improve my writing. Some websites I've found useful are listed down the side of this page.

Here's an article I wrote for the Write4Kids Newsletter:

Dear Aunty T, how do I get started? I've always wanted to write but find it hard to get the words on the page. – New Write4Kids Member

Take heart, I had the very same problem! Until a few years ago I found it almost impossible to do much more than stare uselessly at that annoying flashing curser. My problem? I was convinced that every sentence had to be stunning. I spent so much time making up metaphors and arranging adjectives, I could barely squeeze out a paragraph. What's worse, I was so convinced that everything I wrote was horrible, I'd never shown anyone a single one of my (very short) stories.

Then I was fortunate enough to attend a workshop held by one of my heroes, science fiction writer and author of the marvellous Ender series, Orson Scott Card. The very first exercise he had us do was to write about the most boring thing that had happened to us the day before. Our mission was to tell what happened in the plainest possible way. Just the facts, no embellishment.

Easy. Without the pressure of having to write creative and flowery sentences, I quickly scribbled out half a page of bare bones information. I was happily writing away when he revealed the shocking part of the exercise – we had to stand up and read our piece aloud to the group. The horror! There wasn't a single clever metaphor or artful phrase in the whole sorry scrawl and it was too late to add anything in.

The experienced writers around me were about to discover that I was a rank amateur who shouldn't be allowed to write a shopping list. I was convinced I'd been deluding myself and my dream of being a writer was about to be obliterated.

I was the first to have to rise to my feet and read. If there hadn't been half a dozen people in the way I'd have run screaming for the door.

When I'd stuttered out my piece of writing in a barely-audible squeak, Orson Scott Card cleared his throat. He leaned back in his chair, put his hands behind his head and nodded. "Now that," he declared in a loud voice, "is good writing."

But before my head could swell to celebrity proportions, he went on to explain. Writing beautiful sentences is fantastic. But a storyteller's job is primarily to tell what happened. And to tell it in the clearest way possible. Leave your fancy word tricks to one side if they get in the way of the readers' comprehension. Concentrate on the most important thing, the story, and make that as good as you possibly can.

The message I took away with me? Don't let the way you say things become more important than what you're saying. Start with original characters and tell a riveting story. If your sentences are beautiful, that's the icing on the cake – but make sure you have the other stuff right first. After all, a hog in a Chanel gown is still a hog.

For me it was a liberating message. Finally, I could allow myself to write down the action in my head. Finally I could stop worrying about whether my hero's eyes were darker than burnt chocolate or lighter than the froth on a cappuccino, and turn my attention to suspending him over a pot of boiling oil with rats nibbling away the last strand of rope.
Happy writing!