Month: September 2005

Keep It Simple (Stupid)

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Have you heard of the KISS technique? No, it doesn’t mean you go around giving everyone a big sloppy kiss in the hope of getting published. It means to keep your writing simple.

KISS = Keep it simple stupid

Some writers feel they have to use big, impressive words to be successful but, often, by doing this you are talking down to your audience. Or, you might be saying “look at how intelligent I am”.

People hate that. It’s a quick way of turning readers away.

Keeping your writing simple means that you use the right words, and the least amount of words, to get the message across. This doesn’t mean you have to stop using big words altogether. Readers like to learn new words, sure, and if you use them sparingly there will not be a problem…but if they need a dictionary to decipher a word from every page of your book then you are doing the wrong thing. You are slowing down the pace and confusing your audience. You are stopping the reader from enjoying your story and you are stopping yourself from becoming successful.

So, keep it simple…er, well you know the drill. 😉

Child Development

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As a writer of children’s stories, I think it’s important to understand how a child develops. Yes, we’ve all been through it but can you remember how you thought when you were five? I can’t.

A writing friend, Scarborough, gave me these two links:

General Developmental Sequence – This site shows the typical activities and achievements for a child aged between two and five.

Erik Erikson’s Personality Theories – This is an in-depth look at personalities of children and culture. About a third of the way down the page is a table that was interesting.

I don’t intend to look into this side of my writing in any great length, but to achieve realism I believe we have to have a five year old doing what a five year old would do. Yes, there are exceptions but we need to know what we are doing in order to be accepted.

If you lose credibility, you lose the reader forever.