The quest for quality writing

The quest for quality writing

Some writers believe that PR and PR alone, is enough to propel them to success, but I doubt it. Quality is and will always be what readers and editors seek but let me digress a little.
Many moons ago commercial enterprises learned that quality is:
(i) What beats the competition; and
(ii) The costs related to attaining quality are minimal.
That is how the Quality Movement started. The CEO of an enterprise sets the benchmarks for quality and all employees strive to reach these benchmarks. As soon as the enterprise reaches the benchmarks, the CEO raises the bar and this happens continually. The tacit assumption here is that PR alone is not enough to bust the competition but it helps.
Is there a limit beyond which an enterprise cannot improve the quality of its services / products? Of course there is for many enterprises but not for the Learning Enterprises. Because in a learning enterprise the employees gain new skills along the way. And armed with these extra skills they reach the benchmarks set by the CEO. Conversely enterprises that do not increase the skills of their employees can hit a glass wall or a plateau in their quest for quality improvements.
Quality in writing is easily recognized and appreciated. Editors / readers for instance recognize quality of a manuscript by reading the first two to three paragraphs. Borrowing from the quality movement only the learning writer is destined to succeed.
How do we improve the quality of our writing skills? That is a question of interest for all of us.
Experiental learning is great. You learn the writing skills by writing and by subjecting your work to critique sessions. You invite everyone to critique your work. You don’t have to accept everything they suggest but the bits you accept are manna from the gods. More importantly critique sessions keep you humble.
In more general terms experiental writing helps you find your voice. One of my friends claims that you find your voice only after you have written a million words. It might be an exaggeration but it is a view worth remembering.
Reading novels can be rewarding too if you ask the following questions:
(i) What did I learn from the first and last Chapters? After reading the first chapter did the writer convince me to suspend disbelief? Did the last chapter help me decide the book was a great read?
(ii) Did the writer achieve a balance between telling and showing? Here it is worth remembering that if the writer shows everything her book would have 1000 pages!
(iii) How about descriptions? Before the television era, descriptions were mandatory, long and detailed. After many years of television, descriptions are succinct. So succinct in fact that many writers weave descriptive passages into the plot. Was the book full of memorable descriptions but the plot tenuous?
(iv) Am I happy with the length of her sentences? Did she mix short and long sentences or did she use long and longer sentences? Or short and shorter sentences? Short sentences are ideal to describe action i.e. a fight, a love scene, or a chase but if you use short sentences only you would end up with pages and pages of telegraphic English. For narrative a mixture of long and short sentences is appealing and revise sentences longer than say 30 words. One of my tutors told me: One sentence can do one job only not 500 jobs! It’s an exaggeration I’ll never forget.
(v) Did the writer expose you to pages and pages of dialog? Dialogs are windows to the inner world of heroes and villains. Pages and pages of dialog however can be tedious.
We can learn lots from experiental writing but is it the only way of mastering writing skills? Hardly, but it’s a good start.
How about writing courses?
Let us assume that writing skills are likened to islands. One tutor of creative writing can take you to the Bahamas. Another to the Aegean or Canary islands . . etc. One course of creative writing is therefore hardly enough for a writer. Many courses would enrich you.
Books on How to write descriptive passages, How to plot etc are also great. The talented writers of these books would coach you how to lie for fun and profit. Lastly periodicals like The Writer contain a wealth of articles that would tickle your fancy and answer many questions you might have.
Is that all we need to do? No! Because we need to master many computer programs that help us increase the quality of our work. In particular I would like to mention the editing programs that are worth having in your computer. Here I’m assuming that you already have dictionaries and at least one thesaurus in your computer because the era when writers flicked the pages of a thesaurus or a dictionary is behind us.
Is that all? No, it is not but I’d better stop here in case I’d leave you with the impression that it is all too difficult and you give up.