WriMo Ireland

I promised Laryskun I’d post these – we talked about them when we met earlier today, so at least we talked about writing even if we didn’t get any done!

This list came from one of the NaNoWriMo sessions at the Seamus Heaney Centre (Queen’s University), from Ian Sansom (who was leading the sessions).  They are all things to consider when editing your novel – I think they’re valid when you’re writing it in the first place, too!

1. Vocabulary – are you using appropriate words for your audience, your genre, your characters?
2. Organisation – the arrangement of your bits of story
3. Flow – does your story and its parts (e.g. dialogue) flow well when you read it back?
4. Transistions – more of the above, I think; how well the connections between ideas work
5. Structure – the elements of the story; its beginning, middle and end
6. Audience – what knowledge do your audience have of the story’s setting and characters; what knowledge do they need to have for it to make sense?
7. Tone – the manner and spirit in which your story is written, e.g. lighthearted, serious, sombre
8. Style – the cadence of the story (I can’t remember exactly what he meant by this – anyone? I suspect it was to do with things like whether it’s in first or third person, etc, unless that fits under tone…)
9. Clarity - are your ideas expressed clearly?
10. Accuracy – how well does your story match reality? (not something us fantasy authors need to take into quite as much consideration…)

I remember being interested to see how closely this list matched the things I consider when writing a technical document as part of my work, such as a software user guide…