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Writing Tips
Writing Tips
Since we're all authors here, I think it would be really helpful if we could exchange and share writing tips! I always find it eye-opening to read these. Here are some of the more important things I've learned throughout my writing experience.
(Note: there is no "right way" to do things, and I am by no means an expert. Take all my advice with a grain of salt.)
Establish rules, especially in fantasy. If you're inventing a new species, or building a world, or creating a magical caste system, you need to have set, unchangeable rules about how they work. I suggest writing them down in a list and then sticking to it, so that these things are forced to operate within the rules. This creates a much more organized, logical fantasy. Even if you don't end up utilizing all the rules, they're good to know about. Making up the rules as you go can lead to inconsistencies and can feel disjointed or random or overly-convenient.
Avoid info dumps. For example, let's say you're writing a magical realism story in which ghosts are a widely accepted part of society. You might have this well-thought-out worldbuilding done around how ghosts fit into human society, and you want everyone to know these rules because they're just so dang cool. And of course, the easiest way to do this is to have your main character explain them.
"Ghosts have been around for as long as humans have. Most people are used to them by this point, but there are still some who want them gone. They look like normal people for the most part, but kind of odd and translucent, and tend to float a few inches above the ground. Plus, they have no eyes. They can't come into contact anything in the physical world, but they can talk and think and perform minor acts of telekinesis."
That's a lot of words and can be tiring for the reader. Plus, it's really boring. It's more intriguing if you present ghosts as a normal part of their society, and make the rules clear by how they act. If that doesn't make sense, here's an example:
"When I got home that evening, Carla was hovering in my kitchen again, rifling through my mom's recipe book. When she heard me come in, she turned and grinned, her empty eye sockets crinkling up at the corners. 'Hey, kiddo!' she said, floating over to give me a hug. Her arms went right through me, as usual, and she frowned for a moment, before brightening once again. 'How was school?'"
You still have pretty much the same information, but written in a much more engaging way that'll encourage the reader to continue.
Next, get feedback, but make your own choices. Some of you might remember TAoSS, the story that I posted on here for a while. A lot of people were reading it, and they gave me a lot of feedback. Most of it was positive ("keep up the great work!"), some of it was constructive ("this part is a little confusing, maybe try not switching perspective so often") and some of it was, frankly, really unnecessary ("I'd like this more if he had shorter hair").
I really wanted people to like my story, so I changed a lot of things in accordance with what they told me to. First I changed one little thing, then another, then another, and suddenly, I didn't know what my story was anymore. I had sacrificed my creative vision in exchange for what was essentially fanservice. It was no longer the story that I wanted to write.
That's all for now, I hope some of this helped you. Sorry for the long post. :P
submitted by Abigail, age Old enough, Inside my head
(March 17, 2018 - 11:13 am)
(March 17, 2018 - 11:13 am)
Oh, I have a couple tips!
In terms of characters. Really know them. My favorite and most developed characters are the ones that I can put into any time period, world, or situation effortlessly. I can outline their whole canonlogical life from beginning to end and write scenes of little moments in between. If you can't do that, you don't know your characters well enough. Set aside a little time to get to know them better. Maybe write out a Q&A, or write how they'd react to being teleported to the moon.
Books dedicated to writing help! My creative writing teacher uses this book called Room to Write, and every Tuesday, for the second half of our double period, we follow a prompt from it and write a short piece. Even if you don't do it daily, a "daily prompts" book or something like that will really help you. I know Room to Write has improved both some of my favorite characters and my writing in general.
When proofreading, read backwards! Your brain has a tendancy to autocorrect. When put out of context, you're more likely to catch typos and grammatical mistakes.
This is more of a personal thing, but I find it helpful when editing in general to print out what you're writing and mark it up with a pen. When I have a solid piece of writing in front of me that I can scribble all over, I'm able to improve something much more than I can looking at it through a screen.
I'll add some more when I think of them!
(March 17, 2018 - 4:55 pm)
Top!
(March 17, 2018 - 6:32 pm)
(March 19, 2018 - 8:28 am)
Great idea!
(March 19, 2018 - 10:34 am)
My one thing I've always had trouble with is creating an emotional connection between your characters and the reader. If the reader doesn't care about your characters, then nothing that happens to them will matter. That's why I believe opening a story on a suspenseful scene is not as exciting as you might picture it being, because the reader does not yet know any of the people involved and thus doesn't care what happens to them. If you take the time to introduce your characters, make the reader love them or hate them, and build the action, then the reader will actually want to keep reading and find out what will happen to them when those suspenseful scenes do pop up.
Also, a kind of obvious one, but everyone needs flaws, and everyone needs motivation. If you're trying to improve your character, think what are their weaknesses? and why are they doing what they're doing? If you can't come up with a straight answer for either of them, that's where you need some work.
Finally, don't forget about the setting. Although I believe good characters should come before a good setting, the latter is still very important and is made all the better when your characters are interesting. Focusing on the environment, especially after a dialogue-heavy scene, gives the reader time to breathe and keeps the story from just being a point A to point B to point C kind of deal.
(March 19, 2018 - 6:04 pm)
Going along with what J.B.E. said about making an emotional connection between charaters, try using a common intrest that is popular at the time or try and come up with a common struggle that the reading group could relate to.
(March 22, 2018 - 11:13 am)
If you can, listen to music.
Some people can't have any noise while they're working. I get that. But I like to listen to music, and it helps A LOT. Personally, I listen to epic, exciting music like superhero movie soundtracks. But everyone has different preferences. If you are writing a sad scene, listen to slow, sad music. If you're writing an exciting fight scene, listen to exciting music. Whatever works best for you! I just get so much more done with music. :)
~Starseeker
(March 19, 2018 - 6:58 pm)
(March 21, 2018 - 11:12 pm)
One thing I've found that helps me edit my stories is copy and pasting it and putting it through a translator like Google Translate and then listening to it. (In English, obviously) It helps me catch little mistakes like its instead of it's.
Another way to edit is to not EDIT, but COMPLETELY REWRITE. Like, open your doc in two windows--one of the doc and another blank and completely rewrite your story, word by word. I know you're thinking, That's crazy! But that's the point. The brain has a tendency to just autocorrect and move on, but if you're rewriting it, word for word, it can't do that.
I find listening to music really helps me write. I have multiple things I listen to: soundtracks from movies, Broadway, a cappella, pop... I find lyrics helpful. But I know some people can't do writing and lyrics. It's distracting--and I get it. In that case, there are two things I do.
1) I use video game music, movie soundtracks, etc. I have two separate playlists--one entitled "Field Music" and the other "Boss Fight." When I'm writing calm, worldbuilding-esque scenes, I use "Field Music." When I'm writing intense fighting scenes or emotional scenes, I use "Boss Fight." The music in "Boss Fight" was actually designed by the soundtrack artists to make you feel just a bit desperate, and that's why I use those for that.
2) Use an ambient mixer! There are plenty of free ones online. I use ambient-mixer.com. What I like about this site is it has themed ambiances too. So if I'm writing a Harry Potter fanfic, I can listen to the sounds of the Hogwarts Library or the Leaky Cauldron while I write. If I'm writing a sad scene? Rain ambiances. Cozy? Fireplaces.
Hope these help some people!
(March 23, 2018 - 12:03 pm)