Craft of Writing

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Craft of Writing

Carter Jefferson

Eschew Participles

The first time I got a critique on a short story I learned a lot. But not what the critter had in mind.

I'd been writing about every kind of non-fiction there is for many years, and was used to newspaper editors changing my copy. When I became an editor, I revised other people's, hundreds of times. Nobody in the business seemed to give the matter much thought.

Then, about nine years ago, I took up writing stories and passing them around by e-mail to various friends, including a few writers. Publishing never entered my mind—writing fiction was just a hobby. People said they liked my work. When my fourth piece went out, though, one of my better-known writer acquaintances took it on himself to send me an e-mail telling me how bad it was. It seemed that it started off all wrong—all "tell," no "show."

Well, that was news to me. I'd never read any how-to books, never been in a critique group, never heard that particular shibboleth, didn't even know what POV meant. I mean I was ignorant, in spades. I just wrote stories. I didn't know there was a way you were supposed to write them. I was horrified; the guy who sent the letter passed for a great writer—he published often, and he did seem to be pretty good.

In those days I churned them out as often as once a week. But that letter stopped me cold. I'd liked the story, but what did I know? Without understanding why, I just quit writing fiction for a while. Finally, I started messing around with that "bad" story, changed the beginning, rewrote the whole thing, fiddled with it for about a month. But heck, I simply didn't like the revisions. I still thought the old one was good.

Then a couple of other people read the first version, and wrote to say how much they'd enjoyed it. Huh? They enjoyed it, when it was all wrong? A glimmer of hope dawned. I wrote to another good writer I knew, and asked what "tell" and "show" meant. He clued me in, and explained about all those rules: eschew participles, never write "was" or "had," avoid adverbs, use only active voice—you know, there are about a million of them.

He also said they amounted to a huge, smelly pile of crap. If people liked my stuff, I should write as I pleased. And under no circumstances should I get one of those books that told me how to do it.

I felt like a fair maiden rescued by a knight in shining armor.

My attitude did change, though. I started worrying more about making the things "good," though I didn't really know how to do any better. I wrote another story. Several people liked it, and the Red Baron didn't bother to shoot it down.

After a while I got more ambitious and decided to ship off a few, just to see what would happen. A couple of submissions got nothing but "no, thanks," but one editor, obviously a gifted critic, actually paid me $20 for a story. That check, framed, hangs by my desk right now—I was so pleased I couldn't bear to cash it.

I finally decided I actually might need to learn some things, so I joined an online critique group, something I hadn't known existed. Some of the members liked my stuff. A few made good suggestions, and I did learn. Lots of them, however, told me I was breaking one rule or another, and couldn't possibly do it that way. I heard all the rules so often I couldn't help learning them.

But I'd already adopted the most important "rule" of all. I did what I liked, not what somebody told me I should do. I'd had my shock and survived. I went blithely on, doing things in whatever way appealed to me at the time. Some critters howled, but not all of them; some put up with my wicked ways and made suggestions that helped me get better. I got rejections, of course—still do—but the acceptances began to come in regularly.

I have not gotten rich. I am not famous. But I sure have had a lot of fun. And I've made a couple of hundred bucks, too.

About the Author
Carter Jefferson, once a naval officer, journalist, history professor, and psychotherapist, now teaches writing in U. Mass./Boston's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. His stories and essays have appeared in T-Zero, The Hiss Quarterly, flashquake, and other e-zines, and his book reviews in the Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune. He even sold one tale, hand-bound and illustrated, in an art gallery. Incidentally, he belongs to the Internet Writing Workshop, a venerable online critique group. His website: http://carterj.homestead.com/.