Writing Pointers

[PudgeThePug]

Hello everyone,

I'm really new here and just found the confidence to put myself into the writing community. I have met some really supportive people here so far, so thank you so much for that.

Now for the meat of my post. I was wondering about different writing pointers. I know that everyone has their own way of doing things and it varies person to person, but I'm still relatively new to writing and am still developing a style of my own.

I have started writing my first novel and have written a few chapters and find myself, after a few days to a week, going back and doing revisions. I've settled on only allowing three big revisions for a single chapter before moving on. I also need some help with learning to edit because I really don't know what I'm doing with that. I find it hard to clip out parts that may or may not be part of the story. I also would like to understand some of the other processes that go into writing that I'm definitely overlooking.

Thank you for taking the time out to read this. I'll be looking forward to reading your responses.

 

[casval]

As you say, everyone has their own way of doing it, so if you're writing regularly and enjoying the process: stick to it!

The best piece of advice I have is to just write as regularly as you're able to without burning out. Some days that might mean doing more editing or planning, if you like to outline your novel ahead of time, but keep it fresh and keep at it! If you are someone who likes a routine, having a scheduled writing time can be very useful.

As for editing, I will fiddle with wording and grammar as I go, but I save major edits like cutting out scenes or major changes to pacing until I've finished my first draft. It's sometimes easier to see what is truly extraneous and what works as foreshadowing or character building once you have the full picture in front of you. But I've known writers whose first draft is their final draft, just whittled away at as they wrote. If it works, it works!

 

[PudgeThePug]

As you say, everyone has their own way of doing it, so if you're writing regularly and enjoying the process: stick to it!

The best piece of advice I have is to just write as regularly as you're able to without burning out. Some days that might mean doing more editing or planning, if you like to outline your novel ahead of time, but keep it fresh and keep at it! If you are someone who likes a routine, having a scheduled writing time can be very useful.

As for editing, I will fiddle with wording and grammar as I go, but I save major edits like cutting out scenes or major changes to pacing until I've finished my first draft. It's sometimes easier to see what is truly extraneous and what works as foreshadowing or character building once you have the full picture in front of you. But I've known writers whose first draft is their final draft, just whittled away at as they wrote. If it works, it works!

Thanks for the reply. I'm really just not sure what I should do other than write and edit. I'm kind of shooting from the hip and fixing where I've gone wrong in the past. Either no editing and going back to realize that my whole book reads like my third grade essays or I get caught in an edit loop and get nothing done. I'm making rules for how much I edit now and am hoping that it works. I really appreciate the tips though. I really do.

 

[pmmg]

See Goldie's Words of Wisdom for pointers (among other Goldie links)

My best advice for someone hoping to improve is "review the crap out of other people stuff".

 

[Penpilot]

The reason it's generally not the best idea to edit/revise as you go, at least when you're just starting out, is because what will happen is you will spend hours editing/revising. Then later, you'll realize that chapter or that section you spent hours editing/revising will need to be cut or significantly overhauled because something you decided later on in the story requires it. You just ended up wasting hours of your time if not more.

In addition, because you spent all that time on that section, you'll be more inclined to bend over backwards to salvage it. This more often harms than helps the overall quality of the writing.

Also, if you revise before finishing the story, you're doing revisions based on incomplete information. It doesn't matter how well you plan, the story always morphs The variance from where you think you're going and where you end up tends to be quite high on first drafts. There's nothing worst than doing a big revision on the first chapter and then reaching the end and realizing the end you had in mind no longer works because of those revisions, which have also propagated throughout the whole story. Unwinding a mess like that is not fun.

As you get more experiences and finish more and more stories, this can go by wayside. At that point, revise how and when you wish.

As you write, you will have questions. Some of those questions will be answered by simply finishing the first draft. IMHO, after you finish the first draft, your questions will tend be more focused, because you'll have a clearer picture of what your story is, what it may need, and where you specifically need help. Don't put the cart before the horse so to speak.

As a beginning writer, it's important to take as many stories from beginning to end as you can. Too many aspiring writers start a story, stall and give up. If you all you do is start and never finish, that's all you learn to do. There are countless lessons to be learned by simply starting, finishing, and making tons of mistakes along the way. Failure is a great teacher.

 

[ThinkerX]

Writing pointers...

1 - Butt in chair.
2 - Grunt (optional)
3 - Write, ignoring all distractions.

Also...

Write at least a little every day, even if you don't feel like it, even if you think it is horrible.

 

[Prince of Spires]

Welcome Pudge.

Others already mentioned this, but for beginning writers, the best thing you can probably do is to keep writing your story to the end. Finishing a story is a skill in itself, and you only learn that by actually finishing stories.

Beginning writers especially, but also many experienced writers, usually aren't 100% sure where a story will take them and how it will go. You can edit minor details in one chapter, but if the story goes in a slightly different direction, then you might end up completely scrapping that chapter and writing something different. Which makes the edit a waste of time.

Just as an example, I'm currently in the middle of my 7th novel. Finished the first draft and now reading through it and taking notes. I've already come across 2 chapters that need to be added, 3 that need to be completely rewritten, and 2 that need splitting and expanding upon. But I only know I need to do that because I came to the end of the story and now know what story I was actually telling.

What helps me is that I take a lot of notes while I'm writing. Anything I can think of that might need to be done during editing, I note in a separate file so I can return to it later.

As for how to edit, like writing this is a skill in itself, and one that comes with practice. In general it's a good idea to focus on only 1 thing while doing an editing pass. So first fix the plot of the story. Make sure there are no gaps in it and that the story flows logically. In a next pass, focus on making the characters sound real.

Work from big to small. There's no point in starting with fixing spelling and grammar issues in text that needs to be completely rewritten.

Lastly, know that the above is good advice for most writers. Which means that it is bad advice for some. We've got a few members here who don't write like this at all. Mad Swede for instance writes his stories in 1 pass and does little editing and additions to the stories afterwards. It's his process. He also completely thinks the story through before putting pen to paper. From what I gather, he knows almost everything he wants to write before putting pen to paper.

So try a few approaches and see what works best for you.

 

[Mad Swede]

Well, as Prince of Spires has name-checked me I guess I'd better comment.

As others have already said, the key to being a writer is finishing what you started writing. Which also means you must write when you sit down to write. It doesn't matter what you write, the important thing is to develop the discipline that you write when you sit down to write.

All writers are different in the way they write. What you need to do is find the method that works for you. Some make notes and outlines, then write from that. Most re-write and edit several times before they consider the story finished. I don't do any of those things, I just think the story through then write it.

My suggestion would be to write short stories as well as trying to write something longer. Short stories let you experiment, but also require a lot more discipline, in the sense that you need to have very clear story and character arcs for a short story to work. So short stories are a good way of learning and practising some of the writing basics which you can then apply to your longer stories. Short stories are also a bit easier to finish so you can see the complete result, which you may find helps you develop both your writing process (or method) as well your own personal prose style.