In a post on Nail Your Novel, Roz Morris urges writers to do a better job listening to their writing. “When we’re learning something – anything – a lot of it is mechanics and rules and principles,” Morris says. “But alongside those technicalities there is another level, a more individual, inspirational level, which holds a work together.”
When your gut tells you that a line is off or a word choice is poor, if a scene is dull or a plot point is predictable, you should listen. “This comes from deep in you, from the way you’re wired,” Morris says. “If you listen to it, it’s where you develop your distinctiveness, your aesthetic, your style. It’s not learned, it’s already there. There’s craft, which is an exoskeleton, and then there is soul, which is how you are in your deep interior, a human being alive with questions and mysteries and curiosities.”
Morris suggests a number of elements we should listen for, including word choice, character actions, pace, and missing scenes. “These are gut-level judgements, but if you learn to listen for them, they will start to speak up,” she says. “You will start to write more by feel, and use your craft with originality, style and sensitivity. Listen also, for when the piece runs smoothly, when you can read a passage or a chapter – or the whole book – and feel everything is just right, just so.”
