Robert Gunnings Principles For Writing

NOIRTRASH said:

http://academic.udayton.edu/cmm330/Topics/9_Lectures&Guides/Writing/GunningsTen.htm

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Keep sentences short.
Prefer the simple to the complex.
Prefer the familiar word.
Avoid unnecessary words.
Put action in your verbs.
Write the way you talk.
Use terms your readers can picture.
Tie in with your reader’s experience.
Make full use of variety.
Write to express, not to impress.

Now that succinctly sums up a lot of what my writing workshops cover. The keep sentences short especially. Familiar words - the last thing you want is your readers diving off to a dictionary or looking up "v-card" online LOL.

The write the way you talk's a good one. You read a lot of stories where the conversation comes of as stilted and unnatural. There's that balance between realism and writing a conversation that sounds natural when you read it, coz a lot of people actually talk for real in quite a disjointed way that doesn't translate well into a story, so there's a balance to be struck there.

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NOIRTRASH said:

http://academic.udayton.edu/cmm330/Topics/9_Lectures&Guides/Writing/GunningsTen.htm

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Who is Robert Gunning?

When I Google the name I come up with a math professor, not a fiction writer.

NotWise said:

Who is Robert Gunning?

When I Google the name I come up with a math professor, not a fiction writer.

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I was looking too. I do so look forward to reading the erotica he's written.

If it's Chloe's list, though, it looks like it's useful for fiction. Kindofhere's, not so much.

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http://gunning-fog-index.com/

Gunning is all over the internet.

NOIRTRASH said:

http://gunning-fog-index.com/

Gunning is all over the internet.

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Oh, my gosh, I hope someone lets him out before it gets sticky around here.

I'm not surprised you aren't understanding the point, James.

ChloeTzang said:

The write the way you talk's a good one. You read a lot of stories where the conversation comes of as stilted and unnatural. There's that balance between realism and writing a conversation that sounds natural when you read it, coz a lot of people actually talk for real in quite a disjointed way that doesn't translate well into a story, so there's a balance to be struck there.

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If I were to write the way I talk some of my sentences could be over one hundred words long with four or five commas.

someoneyouknow said:

If I were to write the way I talk some of my sentences could be over one hundred words long with four or five commas.

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And there's the big challenge with writing dialog right there. The way people actually talk does not translate effectively into good dialog that sounds realistic for fiction. There's all those visual cues, jumps, pauses, ums and ahs, changes half way thru a sentence, it goes on and on and on. So you have to balance realism against what works and how it sounds as you read it. And then different characters will speak differently as well and you have to do that effectively as well. Dialog is such fun