Writing tips that stuck with you

[Guy]

Like a lot of things, advice is subjective. The reasons for getting the whole story down before revising and editing are good and logical. I also know it's impossible for me to follow that advice. When I know I have a glaring mistake in the story, it's an itch I can't ignore and will distract me from finishing the draft until I fix it. The story doesn't have to be perfect and I don't feel the need to correct every little detail, but when I know a scene isn't working or there are some major plot holes or problems with the flow of one scene to another, I have to fix them before finishing the first draft. Trying to ignore them while I'm finishing the draft is like trying to ignore a wasp stinging me while I'm driving a car.

 

[Ayaka Di'rutia]

In an advanced English class in High School, the teacher taught us that if writing has violence, the violence needs to be there for a purpose.

I've applied this advice to my own writing ever since, and it keeps me from going overboard with violence and gore in my storytelling.

 

[Tholepin]

One remark that managed to stick is: Start your story as close to the end as possible. Editors love it!

 

[goldhawk]

Don't worry about having an original idea. Idea's are worthless - it's what you do with them that matters.

All original stories have been done before.

Here are some tips that stuck with me although they're about screenwriting, they can be applied to any storytelling.

Andrew Stanton of Pixar (WARNING: strong language) -- The Clues to a Great Story: Andrew Stanton: The clues to a great story - YouTube (20 min)

Michael Arndt of Pixar -- BEGINNINGS: Setting a Story in Motion: BEGINNiNGS: Setting a Story in Motion - YouTube (8¼ min)

John Truby, screenwriter -- How To Make An Audience Care About Your Characters: How To Make An Audience Care About Your Characters by John Truby - YouTube (3 min)

 

[Fyle]

Track your work.

This seems good. About halfway through, I made a notes file that contained information such as character names, where they live, physical descriptions, speech traits etc (and places too).

I also made notes next to them if they lived, died and who they got killed by.

Is this what you mean by track ?

 

[Bluesboy]

Three pieces of advice stuck with me:

a) Characters, at least the main ones, have to have simple or familiar-sounding names, otherwise the reader will have a hard time connecting with them. Take Eddard Stark for example - it sounds similar to Edward, in the book they call him "Ned", nice and simple, his son is Robb, the bastard is named Jon, his wife is Catelyn, best friend is Robert. GRRM often uses the "Y" trick - he replaces a vowl in a name with "Y", but the sound of the name isn't changed much at all - Martyn, Petyr, Brynden, Lysa, Alyce, Alyn, Alyx, Denys. In the Lord of the Rings you have Frodo, Sam, Gimli, Bilbo, nice and simple. If you spice it up with more exotic-sounding names, that's okay, but some of them must be familiar and relatable.

b) Publishers don't like books that are more than 150,000 words long, because foreign publishers won't buy them - translation and printing costs are too high and if you have a book that needs to be translated into let's say Czech, there are only 10mil Czechs and fantasy is still a small market compared to the population as a whole, the potential sales would be too small for a country where maybe about 10,000 people actually read fantasy books. Translating and publishing a mighty tome of a book of 200,000 or 250,000 words is too costly for countries that have small populations. A published fantasy author told me this.

c) Though I still can't bring myself to it, this is what Bernard Cornwell says about writing - he doesn't believe in the writer's block. He gave an example of a nurse calling to the hospital she works in, saying "Oh sorry, I can't come to work today, I have a nurse's block"...that it's utter rubbish. There are people in the world that do far more important work than writing stories and they're not allowed to have a break when they're not feeling 100% okay. But he does list two instances where it is acceptable to not work so hard - 1.) If you have a drink for lunch, it may make you unable to write in the afternoon (Cornwell's case) and 2.) If you're writing your first or second book and you're consumed by self-doubt.

In this way, Cornwell wrote more than 50 historical novels since the early 80s, writing 6,000 words a day, often publishing two books a year.

I am all to often consumed by self-doubt, question like "can I actually do this?" are driving me crazy all the freaking time. Sometimes I write 4,000 words in 4 hours, then I don't write anything for a month, or write 5,000 words in a week or so. It makes me feel I'm not going anywhere with my writing.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

If you believe in Cornwell's assertion about writer's block, and it seems you do, then I advise you to put yourself on a schedule.

Pick a time of day where you can dedicate an hour or two to writing. Set a daily word count goal. Start small. Make it a number that's easily achievable....say 300 to 500 words. Then, track your daily production & watch how it adds up.

Now here's the trick, force yourself to write to that goal for 3 to 6 months. If you can commit and achieve that goal, you'll slowly develop your writing into a habit. Good habits are crucial, in my opinion. Steady production adds up over time and eventually results in more writing than you'll ever achieve with infrequent binge writing...4,000 words here and 2,000 words there.

If you can write 250 to 300 words a day (one double spaced, 12 point font page), you'll write a draft manuscript in one year.

 

[TheCatholicCrow]

I think "writer's block" is easier to ignore (/discredit) if you're a strong outliner in which case you already know what needs to be done and just need to sit and do it (of course easier said than done) but if you don't outline (or don't do it extensively) figuring out how to fill the gaps or where to take the story can be more stressful (and you can get "blocked" from seeing the direction you want to take).

Another bit I like (idk if you can call it advice) is to have a series of prompts/suggestions [I keep 300 on Popsicle sticks in an old tea tin] and when you get stuck pull three (or five) and and figure out which works best. You can (of course) take it out later but it gets keeps you writing ... It can be anything from"use the word laconic and or deluge", "add a color", "add a scent", "how would his/her mother feel about this?", "Kill a minor character", "Add a minor character", "They go to the zoo/beach/bus stop and while there, they see _____" etc.

You can keep different bundles of questions for the different genres you write in (my noir ones suggesting they go out to dance or play the trumpet or that they fought in WWII really aren't helpful in Fantasy so I need to make some new ones discussing magic and such).

Another one that's helped me quite a bit is to cut the first 300 - 500 words from each chapter (which somehow always seems to start w weather and exposition for me) and about the first 10 opening pages. I don't just sit and write miraculously wonderful content and this seems to be about how much it takes for me to write through before I get into that weird transcendental mode where I stop talking about the clouds outside and the smell of the slave's stew on the fire. Rather than telling me not to write these at all, (bad advice in my opinion) I feel free to tell the story EXACTLY how I want to and to set the scene up for myself (in a more Victorian Lit fashion) - I know the reader doesn't want to trudge through two pages of this so I when I finish a scene (or chapter) I go back and highlight the portion in blue. During my 50 page edits I go through and try to figure out if any of the information in blue is actually necessary (usually it's not) and I cut it accordingly.

Which brings me to the advice of 50 page edits- this is really something that makes the difference between how willing I am to take it from a first draft to a second / third / fourth draft. Reassessing my work every 50 pages makes me more aware of where the story is heading, whether it has gotten off track and of course it makes that 2nd draft SO MUCH EASIER!

I also like the quote (you probably all know the one I'm referring to) which says writing a first draft is just telling yourself the story ... this has really helped me to let go of it and work on getting it all down on paper rather than obsessing over rewriting my sentences until they are perfect. I now add notes in for myself (in red) which remind me (during 50 page edits) to go back and check this or that or to consider rewriting a scene from a different perspective, in a different setting or whatever else I'm thinking about. Sometimes I put in placeholders for myself (add a Foreshadow here) or whatever because the first draft is just for me.

 

[Bluesboy]

Set a daily word count goal.

At this stage, my writing is starting to finally pick up. What caused my problems and unwillingness to write until recently was the fact that I felt like my story was moving forward in a way I didn't feel comfortable with. I felt the story was rushed, because obviously, I want to move on to the part where the story doesn't need more setting up.

My main character has a certain arc that I've set up for him and I want him on that path as soon as possible and now I see I have to write scenes that will push my main character embracing his arc into a later part of the book, maybe around the 50% mark, but I'll see. The main point for doing this is that once the main character finally decides to walk that path, his decision has to feel natural, it shouldn't feel rushed or that he decided to go that way just on a whim or out of the blue.

And for a long time I didn't know how to stretch out the pre-arc story, to build up the character's mindset so that he would indeed want to take the road I set out for him. I have a real problem with descriptions, they're usually short and lack any poetic style, at least in the first-draft stage. I'm "a man of few words" when it comes to descriptions of settings and English is not my first language so I lack sufficient vocabulary in certain areas. What usually happens is that if I have a chapter that's 9,000 words long already, I end up adding about a 1,000 or more words into it through rewrites - that means I delete the initial descriptions almost altogether, replacing them with new ones that are longer and more colourful, or I rewrite a dialogue that I felt was too rushed into a longer one.

On Tuesday this week I wrote around 1,300 words, yesterday I planned to write but I found this forum and read through a lot of the threads (which took me all afternoon), today I wrote almost 2,100 words and I know what to write about in the next close to 1,700 words that will end the chapter (I'm aiming for chapters that are 9,000-10,000 long) and during editing I may end up adding more, if I feel any part of those 5,000 words I will have written by the end of this week is rushed. I never feel that I overdid it with descriptions. It's all about the flow and pacing that feels natural to me and that makes me add more things rather than cut them out.

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

Best advice I have ever received is butt in chair and hands on keyboard (BICAHOK).

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

This seems good. About halfway through, I made a notes file that contained information such as character names, where they live, physical descriptions, speech traits etc (and places too).

I also made notes next to them if they lived, died and who they got killed by.

Is this what you mean by track ?

No. I meant to track your daily word count production so you can see how quickly it all adds up, if you're disciplined and consistent.

Even small amounts of daily writing add up fast.

 

[Bluesboy]

This is not advice I learned from an external source, though it certainly stuck with me

This works only if you have an e-book reader - you put your book onto your Kindle or Kobo or Nook, whatever it is you have, and read your book with the mindset that you're reading an actual published work. It gives you distance from your story, a more objective look at your work, because the different medium makes you think it's an actual book and you're deciding whether you wanna stick with it or not. You notice grammar mistakes, words that shouldn't be there, you pay attention to pacing and all that.

Once you're done reading it like that, you can go over it in the morning again, this time with the open manuscript on your laptop and going through all those mistakes you're noticing.

It's cheaper than printing everything out and better than reading it off your laptop or a computer screen. It helps me so it might be something worth considering.

 

[Reilith]

As I can't say for myself to be an accomplished writer, I don't really have the 'go to' advice to share. But there are a couple of things, actually three, that I believe are most important when writing.

1. Don't be afraid of what you write - it looks hard, and it seems as a big mess, but it is your writing, and you have control over it.

2. Write the story that you want to read - I have actually heard this one somewhere, and it helped me evolve enormously and I think it is pretty straightforward.

3. Love your writing/what you write - I think that this is the most important one. If you don't love what you've written yourself, that's gonna show. And others most likely won't love it either.

 

[eposic]

I once had the privilege of meeting Michael Stackpole and asking him for writing advice. Naturally, his advice has stuck with me more than any other I've received or read. To paraphrase, since I don't have an eidetic memory, his advice was to "above all else, know your characters."

For my current WIP, I've taken his advice to heart. I have character sheets for all my main characters and many of my supporting characters as well. When I'm writing, I listen to my characters. I try not to write the story I want to tell, but the story the characters want me to tell. The story is, after all, their story, not mine. I'm just putting it into a readable and hopefully publishable form for them.

I also created a shared timeline for events in their pasts that goes back nearly 40 years before the story begins, noting birthdays, deaths of loved ones, moves from one locale to another, and other important events in the lives of my characters. Some of what's on the timeline will appear in the story, either as flashbacks or in dialogue, but not all of it will. That's okay. It helps me to understand where my characters are going when I know where they are coming from.

 

[Philip Overby]

Best advice I've seen over the years?

"Screw it."

This doesn't mean don't care about your craft, but try not to worry so much about everything being perfect or liked by everyone. Also, I take this to mean so many different things in a succinct two words:

1. Don't be afraid to try new things.
2. Don't edit yourself into oblivion.
3. If you screw up, try something else.
4. Finish your novel and submit it (or self-publish) it.
5. Do crazy stuff now and again. It may be your best work.

Anyway, "Screw it" sums all that up nicely.

 

[TheCatholicCrow]

This is not advice I learned from an external source, though it certainly stuck with me

This works only if you have an e-book reader - you put your book onto your Kindle or Kobo or Nook, whatever it is you have, and read your book with the mindset that you're reading an actual published work. It gives you distance from your story, a more objective look at your work, because the different medium makes you think it's an actual book and you're deciding whether you wanna stick with it or not. You notice grammar mistakes, words that shouldn't be there, you pay attention to pacing and all that.

Once you're done reading it like that, you can go over it in the morning again, this time with the open manuscript on your laptop and going through all those mistakes you're noticing.

I like to use it w Kindle on the computer. I find it easier to highlight & you can add your notes right in.
You're right though - this is excellent advice that everyone should use (and there's the added bonus of seeing if you're properly formatted)