"Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself." --Truman Capote


He took the words out of my mouth. Having had a 50+ year career as an artist before taking my writing seriously I never felt like a beginner at writing because all I read about how to create a work of good fiction paralleled all I've learned and taught about painting.

1/ Start with a plan. If you fail to plan you plan to fail.  I'm not a seatster.

2/ Create a broad loose block in. That is the same as the first draft. No fiddling, detailing nor correcting at this stage.

3/ Refine. In the case of an oil painting done in the field, this might be removing the insects . This is typos, grammar errors for the writer.
Then as a painter I look for areas where I missed the canvas and I might rub the paint into those areas, though still not detailing, I'm pulling it all together, - read third and fourth drafts of the novel.

4/ Now for the detail. This is where there should be 'more look than put.' I observe composition, colour harmony, light and shade. Only now in the final phases do I tighten up with detail the most important part of the work, the part I want the view to focus on first, the bit that will draw their eye into the painting has to be perfect. That parallels having the opening line, first paragraph, fist page, first five pages, hook, elevator pitch, backcover blurb - perfect.
Then you draw the eye to the next point of interest in the painting - OK this will be the first 50 pages - are they just right, are they moving your eye, not locking it (boring) too long in the one place. Is the colour harmony repeated throughout the work (read foreshadowing for the writer) .... the parallels continue throughout the work. What you learn in one creative profession is easily applied to another.

One more aspect to all this is to know when to stop.
This was something I learned and taught in painting and needed to remember as a writer. It is why I removed 15,000 quite good words from my novel and why I am not going to include the fill in chapter I just wrote, even though it is a good fill in between what happened here and here ...it is not needed.
You only add to the painting 'what it needs.' not 'what else could I add.'

So as I wrote my first novel I felt as if I had the experience of ages in doing it and never once felt like a beginner.
Consider all your own past experiences when tackling something new to give yourself confidence as you learn the new skill and work at it.


Books » Fiction & Literature » Classics
In Cold Blood

A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences

By Truman Capote
Controversial and compelling, In Cold Blood reconstructs the murder in 1959 of a Kansas farmer, his wife and both their children. Truman Capote's comprehensive study of the killings and subsequent investigation explores the circumstances surrounding this terrible crime and the effect it had on those involved. At the centre of his study are the amoral young killers Perry Smith and Dick Hickcock, who, vividly drawn by Capote, are shown to be reprehensible yet entirely and frighteningly human. The book that made Capote's name, In Cold Blood is a seminal work of modern prose, a remarkable synthesis of journalistic skill and powerfully evocative narrative.
About the Author

Truman Capote was born in New Orleans in 1925 and was raised in various parts of the south, his family spending winters in New Orleans and summers in Alabama and New Georgia. By the age of fourteen he had already started writing short stories, some of which were published. He left school when he was fifteen and subsequently worked for the New Yorker which provided his first - and last - regular job. Following his spell with the New Yorker, Capote spent two years on a Louisiana farm where he wrote Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948). He lived, at one time or another, in Greece, Italy, Africa and the West Indies, and travelled in Russia and the Orient. He is the author of many highly praised books, including A Tree of Night and Other Stories (1949), The Grass Harp (1951), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958), In Cold Blood (1965), which immediately became the centre of a storm of controversy on its publication, Music for Chameleons (1980) and Answered Prayers (1986), all of which are published by Penguin. Truman Capote died in August 1984.

Good writing is not a natural gift. You have to learn to write well. Here are 10 hints:

1. Read the Roman-Raphaelson book on writing. Read it three times.
Books » Business » Communication
Writing That Works, 3e How to Communicate Effectively in Business

By Kenneth Roman, Joel Raphaelson, Joel Raphaelson


"Writing That Works" will help you say what you want to say, with less difficulty and more confidence. Now in its third edition, this completely updated classic has been expanded to included all new advice on e-mail and the e-writing world, plus a fresh point of view on political correctness.

With dozens of examples, many of them new, and useful tips for writing as well as faster on a computer, "Writing That Works" will show you how to improve anything you write: Presentations that move ideas and action
Memos and letters that get things done
Plans and reports that make things happen
Fund-raising and sales letters that produce results
Resumes and letters that lead to interviews
Speeches that make a point
To read more, or order book, click link below.

2. Write the way you talk. Naturally.

3. Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.

4. Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.

5. Never write more than two pages on any subject.

6. Check your quotations.

7. Never send a letter or a memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning — and then edit it.

8. If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it.

9. Before you send your letter or your memo, make sure it is crystal clear what you want the recipient to do.

10. If you want ACTION, don’t write. Go and tell the guy what you want.

David

1. Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page for each day, it helps. Then when it gets finished, you are always surprised.

2. Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on. It also interferes with flow and rhythm which can only come from a kind of unconscious association with the material.

3. Forget your generalized audience. In the first place, the nameless, faceless audience will scare you to death and in the second place, unlike the theater, it doesn't exist. In writing, your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person—a real person you know, or an imagined person and write to that one.

4. If a scene or a section gets the better of you and you still think you want it—bypass it and go on. When you have finished the whole you can come back to it and then you may find that the reason it gave trouble is because it didn't belong there.

5. Beware of a scene that becomes too dear to you, dearer than the rest. It will usually be found that it is out of drawing.

6. If you are using dialogue—say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech.

But perhaps most paradoxically yet poetically, 12 years prior—in 1963, immediately after receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception"—Steinbeck issued a thoughtful disclaimer to all such advice:

"If there is a magic in story writing, and I am convinced there is, no one has ever been able to reduce it to a recipe that can be passed from one person to another. The formula seems to lie solely in the aching urge of the writer to convey something he feels important to the reader. If the writer has that urge, he may sometimes, but by no means always, find the way to do it. You must perceive the excellence that makes a good story good or the errors that makes a bad story. For a bad story is only an ineffective story."