On this day, in 1934, Diana Wynne Jones was born. It is also worth noting that, yesterday, in 1987, I was born. But because so much of what Jones did influenced me, I prefer to write special birthday posts about her rather than myself.
Unfortunately, this year events have conspired against me and I only have a few minutes to put something up. So I’m going to link to you guys to an article she wrote some years ago. It is advice on writing, and it is the only advice on writing that has ever been helpful to me, and it has been immensely helpful. It’s not an exaggeration to say I probably wouldn’t have finished my first book had my Wonderful Mother not found it and printed it out for me (when I was 13).
The article is called Hints on Writing and you can read the whole thing here. If you’re interested in writing, even if it just reading what other people have written, I highly recommend you do.
There is so much right about it that I couldn’t possibly add anything. Today when people ask me for advice on writing, I generally just point them to this article. However I want to highlight the one part that, perhaps more than anything else, helped shape me as a writer:
(On going over your initial draft, emphasis mine)
First, you must read your story AS IF YOU HAD NEVER SEEN IT BEFORE. Yes, this is difficult. You are going to read it and admire all the bits you like instead. But, while you admire, you will come across bits that make you sort of squiggle inside and say ‘Oh, I suppose that will do.’ That is a sure sign that it won’t do. So, secondly, think hard about these bits, what is wrong with them and how they ought to go to be right.
I cannot tell you how often I have been reading one of my newly completed stories and I’ve stumbled across a bit that makes me do exactly that. I find myself sort of squiggling inside and going “Oh, I suppose it’ll do…”
And I hear this voice in my head, and it says: “That is a sure sign that it won’t do, dear…”
So I think extra hard and fix it.
Thanks, Diana.
Happy birthday!
