Muses of a 21st Century Writer

Top Writing Tips I’ve Received

thedancingwriter:

Whether I’ve received these tips through the sage advice of others or have read these in the stack of books on writing on my shelf, I have several favorite writing tips that have always stuck with me throughout my writing journey, tips that I’ve never felt the need to revise.

1. Show, don’t tell. Now this little piece of advice doesn’t mean you need to show everything, but what it does mean is to show when necessary. For example, you don’t need to show what someone shopped for at the grocery store if it’s not going to advance plot or character. You can simply tell readers what your character bought and be done. But also what your character bought can show readers who your character is. For example, if your character bought a Mario game, that shows readers she likes Mario without your having to tell readers that she does. I especially love this piece of advice to show a character’s emotions instead of telling readers how he or she feels. It has made my writing much more poetic.
   
2. Said is not dead. I love to use said as my primary dialogue tag or not at all. Since said is so invisible, it hardly registers with readers. The most skilled of dialogue can also show the tone without having to use an adverb to tell readers if the character is shouting or saying something sarcastically.
   
3. Limit adverbs. Adverbs can make a sentence clunky. For example, instead of writing, “She hurriedly ran to the door,” you can say, “She raced to the door” instead. For one, the latter sentence is a form of showing, and for another, it sounds and reads smoother.
   
4. Trust the reader’s imagination. You don’t have to describe every single thing in your book. Readers have a sharp imagination and can imagine what a television looks like without your having to describe every single facet of it–unless it’s an extraordinary television that no one can even begin to imagine. You don’t have to describe your characters in ridiculous details or their clothes or the layouts of the places they live and so on and so forth–unless you’re working in a fantasy-esque setting that requires more world building. You also don’t need to spew details all over the place without your character having even seen what you’re detailing. It’s best to describe in bits and pieces as your character moves through the story.
   
5. Keep the pacing steady. You want your story to be more fast than slow-paced, but you don’t want it being so fast that nothing develops. A story with slow pacing can drag and eventually bore readers. So when you start your novel, a key rule is to keep up the pace with your first five chapters, then you can slow down a little bit from there; not too slow, though.
   
6. No cliches. Cliches can work when used well, but more often than not, they make your writing appear lazy and unoriginal. Cliches are cliches because you hear them all the time, and while they can be effective for a lot of life situations, you want to keep them out of writing. They’re so generic that they lose their effectiveness. Just use different language to explore familiar concepts.
   
7. Keep it short. Try to convey your ideas using as few words as possible. This doesn’t mean every single thing needs to be super short, but what it does mean is that you need to get to the point before you lose your readers. Unless you’re using stream-of-consciousness as a style, keep it simple.
   
8. Let yourself write poorly. This is the best tip I’ve ever received. Spew word vomit all over your first draft. Once you’ve written that draft, you then have permission to go back and perfect what you’ve written as much as possible. 
   

(via thedancingwriter)