100 Things You Should Know About Writing (Part 3)

55) The Timing of Technique

I've been thinking about writing technique a lot lately. Yes, I know that this book is supposed to focus on technique, but bear with me. 

Knowing when to use writing technique is a technique in itself. 

I can think of two ways in which knowing when to use writing techniques helps a person's writing. Literally and figuratively. 

But before I get into that, I just want to define what I mean by technique for the purposes of 100 Things Part 3. 

In my mind, writing technique returns to the finer details of good writing. I mean, I don't think any of us won't be writing stories if we didn't think the plot and characters (or at least one of them) are awesome. More often than not, though, our actual writing somehow falls short in comparison. Technique is knowing when and how to fine-tune plot and story aspects in order to improve the quality of the final product. 

The words "fine-tune" should give you an idea of what I mean by "literally knowing when to use techniques." Because by "fine-tune", I tend to mean editing. Yes, as we get better at writing, techniques do slip into our writing, which does cut down on editing time later. (It's brilliant.)

But for the purposes of editing, you need to find out for yourself when you need to edit. Some people find they simply can't keep writing unless they edit as they write. Others (me included) will never finish a book until they keep edits and drafting separate.  

If you're serious about becoming a published writer, you need to learn what works for you. I've touched on this a few times throughout 100 Things up to this point, so I'll leave this line of thought here for you to figure out.

Instead, I'm going to go over to the figurative sense of knowing when to use technique. It might sound rather strange, but it's important for a writer to be aware of their use of technique at all times, be it in edits or during the drafting stages. But not in the way you think. 

It's important for writers to not force too much technique into their work. 

You'd think that one couldn't have too much technique in one's work, but you'd be wrong. The over-use of technique can damage the quality of a work in two ways:

1) It can make the writer visible. 

Unless you're purposely aiming to let yourself be seen in your writing (E.G. acting as a narrator to your own memoirs), the general goal is not to let your own voice compete with your character's. 

Yes, I know people are all "find your OWN voice", but if you're writing fiction, I really believe the good writers (especially of genre fiction) must be more focused on finding their PoV characters' voices. The reader spends time getting to know the character (not the author), through the character's voice.

Too much technique could trigger what is known as author intrusion. When this happen what has been written draws attention to itself, and draws the reader out of the story. 

A great example that I can think of is the over-use of the technique of avoiding repetition. Yes, it's a good technique to know. (And I will be writing about it later.) However, it becomes a problem when a writer literally tries to find EVERY. SINGLE. SYNONYM. IN EXISTENCE. In order to avoid using the same word more than once or twice. 

It just doesn't fall on the reader's "ear" naturally. (More on this later.) 

Things that don't sound natural draw attention. 

You don't want that. 

2) Technique can kill your story's soul. 

Which isn't to say don't edit your book ever. But. Editing too much (editing is all about technique) can kill your story. 

Really. 

Being technically perfect means your story will lack character. It can also literally prevent your story from going on. 

This might sound melodramatic, but this is the real reason why I draft by hand. I get so focused on being perfect that, if I edit as I go, I remove everything that's interesting about my character's voice. I also remove plot points that I don't know is important until much later. 

So I've taken to holding back on edits until I'm very familiar with both plot and character, so I know which bits to improve and which ones are as they should be. 

Saves me a lot of heartache. 

In short, I'm not saying that you should never edit, but I am asking you to keep balance in mind in your writing and editing. Especially when it comes to reading the advice I'll be sharing. NOTHING is good when used in extremes. 

Thanks for reading everyone! If you have any questions about this section or writing in general, do ask in the comments. I'll answer in reply, and if your question inspires me to write a new section, I'll dedicate that section to you. 

Coming Up in 100 Things: 

The difference between Revisions and Edits

When to rewrite

Improving through revision

Revision Advice

Editing Advice

Copy-editing Advice

Proofreading Advice