The Textbook

Elements and the Two Rules of Writing

Theme: Related closely to the idea of the inner story, theme is about the big picture in what you are writing. It can be a statement like, "Love takes hard work." Or, it can be an open-ended question, such as, "Can two very different people learn to get along?" This is the hidden idea you want your readers to think about after they are done with your story. One hint...keep this well hidden, make your readers work a bit to figure out the theme.

Symbolism: This is when something in your story has more than its obvious meaning and it takes hard work. In order to make good use of symbols in your story, you have to find the balance between making sure readers can pick up on the significance and extra meaning tied to your symbol and making sure that you aren't beating your reader over the head with it. Make it all more complicated by considering the fact that objects, characters, settings, actions and situations can be symbolic.

Dialogue: As opposed to monologue (which means one person talking), dialogue is a conversation between two or more characters. Sounds simple...but this element is all about practice. Getting dialogue to convey important points about the story, the plot and show character choices is tough...especially when you have to make it sound natural at the same time. This takes a lot of work and a lot of polishing, but it's worth every rewrite, because readers can spot bad dialogue a mile away.

Subtext: For now, let's just talk about subtext in dialogue. When so many writers do dialogue, they just have each character be honest and say what is on their mind. But think about it...when was the last time you heard a real human being do that? Who actually says what is really on their mind all of the time? Instead, how many of us say or ask one thing when we really mean the exact opposite? Showing what the character really means when they say something different...that's good use of subtext.

Exposition: This is definitely the double-edged sword of writing fiction. Exposition is the necessary background information that the reader needs to know to understand what is going on. It might be about the setting, the history or about the characters. But...if you get too heavy with it, all the action grinds to a halt and the reader loses interest. Try to space it out and make the reader wait until just the right moment before you reveal those background details.

Description: Is something happening in your story? Is there some action you want your readers to see as they read? Good description walks a fine line between too much and too little detail. Give too many details, go on for too long with your descriptions and your reader will feel bogged down, like things aren't moving fast enough. Give too few and the reader won't know what is going on. Once again, this comes down to practice. Read the best books and stories that you can find and see what you like about the descriptions there. Test your descriptions out on readers and get input. Then keep going on your rewrites.

There is a very brief overview of the aspects of writing that can influence how you tell your story and how your readers interact with what you write. Give them a little thought and check out the homework below.

Chapter 2: The Two Rules of Writing

As writers we often look for advice from authors that we admire, and luckily there is no shortage of input from many of the greats. John Steinbeck, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Michael Chabon, Elmore Leonard, Kurt Vonegut, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman and so many others have given a collection of rules and advice on how to write.

Oftentimes, their advice is not really related to the art of writing. Of Hugh Howey's three rules, two of them are about self-publishing. Margaret Atwood wisely advises you to do back exercises. Hemmingway agrees with Atwood on using pencils, but also says (not surprisingly) to keep things brief. King says to never write with the television on.