The truth about writing

2 Words Forward


The Trouble With Writing

One of the reasons I wanted to write a blog about writing was to dispel the myths. Believe it or not, writers are normal, if a little eccentric, people - we have trouble with our work, we get frustrated, and we feel lost sometimes too. Another misconception about writing is that the first draft is a magnificent piece of art which only requires the slightest of tweaking to be made into the book that is sold. Want to know how good my first drafts are? They're so wonderful I actually do a full rewrite. This is not because I have difficulties with spelling and grammar - it's because my first draft is the process of the deluges and trickles that form the first writing of a story. There are times when I can't find the words I need and I put others in their place. There are others where I have a scene so clearly that it falls out of my head faster than I can type. This kind of writing leads to a very handy template for further attempts at the novel, but not the novel itself. It's problems like these which are addressed in this blog which I highly recommend to anyone who is concerned that their writing progress is abnormal or that they are not churning out books as good as Ernest Hemingway with the speed of Stephen King.

1 Word Back

I could of been an editor

The main problem with 'could of' is that it is a bastardised version of 'could've'. It is used by people who don't understand that they mean to say 'could've' or 'could have'. I encountered the problem once; I was in a class and we were workshopping a non-fiction piece by one of the students. He used the phrase 'could of' in a piece of dialogue. All of the trainee editors in the room jumped at it, myself included: 'You can't use 'could of', it's not proper English!' Now, as an editor I think I was wrong; in non-fiction pieces it's important to quote people accurately. If someone said 'could of' you should write 'could of'. Likewise, if you are writing a fictional piece and you can hear your character saying 'could of' then you should write it. Outside of dialogue, however, 'could of' will only make the writer appear  as though they don't understand the words they are using.