Writing Advice Megathread!

[Vyor]

This is a thread for random tidbits and pieces of advice any of you lovely people may have for aspiring writers and creators.

Have at it ya loons!

 

[7 Gold Eye Heals the Wise]

Most important piece of advice:
"There's no such thing as writer's block. That was invented by people in California who couldn't write." -Terry Pratchett

 

[honekitteh]

Reminder to self:

Your writing seems boring and predictable because

• You wrote it
• You’ve read it like eight million times.

A person who has never read it before does not have this problem.


Source

 

[Big Steve]

Reminder to self:

Your writing seems boring and predictable because

• You wrote it
• You’ve read it like eight million times.

A person who has never read it before does not have this problem.


Source

Weird, i actually don't find a lot of my writing boring unless it really does come off to me as boring in some way. Now bad on the other hand, I can find some of it bad.

 

[7 Gold Eye Heals the Wise]

I find my writing to be written by someone on painkillers, because all of my fics have been written while on opioids.

I dropped said fics as soon as I was done taking them.

Not sure if I want to start writing, but I am happy to provide feedback.

 

[GoldRanger]

Nobody likes a Deus Ex Machina.

Nobody likes a Mary Sue.

All good stories are based around some kind of conflict, either internal or external. The conflict should increase as the story progresses toward the climax.

You want to loosely adhere to the classic story structure most of the time: exposition -> rising conflict -> climax -> resolution -> epilogue.

For the resolution to feel satisfactory, its seeds should probably be planted and foreshadowed sufficiently long before the climax (otherwise you get a Deus Ex Machina, and as mentioned, nobody likes that). To do it just clearly enough but not too clear as to spoil the climax and resolution is the balancing act every writer must learn.

 

[Laskar]

Advice I wish someone had shared with me ten years ago:

1) You are here to entertain the audience. That is your primary objective. You can lecture them, insult them, or bore them, but only if you're looking forward to an early retirement.

2) There are no rules for writing, only guidelines. A sufficiently capable storyteller can bend and break the commonly accepted rules, and entertain the audience in the meantime.

3) Bounce your ideas off someone. Don't be afraid to share.
It takes a long time and a lot of mental effort to refine an idea into a story. Sharing that idea with someone and listening to their feedback can save you so much of that time and effort.

Let your friends play with the idea. Let them poke holes in it. Let them show you where you're overthinking things, and where you haven't thought through the implications.

3.5) Nobody is going to steal your ideas. Everyone already has a dozen story ideas that they want to put to paper, so nobody is going to be as interested in writing your ideas as you are.

4) If you have complexity addiction, identify and overcome it. A simple plot executed well is a hell of a lot better than a complicated plot that meanders and loses the reader.

 

[7 Gold Eye Heals the Wise]

 

[CurtisLemay]

Keep at it, if an idea doesn't work? Try something else. Keep notes, keep a diary. Write before you write.

I have two notebooks full of plot ideas and notes for chapters. I use spreadsheets to track troop movements (esp. for Clover Spear). Planning your story will always improve it.

That said, don't get yourself too married to the script you write. Keep it flexible that you can incorporate last minute plot ideas.

 

[GoldRanger]

In the course of reading Shamus Young's (brilliant, illuminating and on the nose) analysis of the Mass Effect game trilogy, I've stumbled upon the following Tolkien quote he uses to illustrate some problems with the franchise, that I think can also serve as useful advice:

“[The Author] makes a Secondary World which your mind can enter. Inside it, what he relates is ‘true’: it accords with the laws of that world. You therefore believe it, while you are, as it were, inside. The moment disbelief arises, the spell is broken; the magic, or rather art, has failed. You are out in the Primary World again, looking at the abortive little Secondary World from the outside.”

J. R. R. Tolkien

Be consistent with your story, and mindful of suspension of disbelief.

This is a more general rule to the "don't do the Deus Ex Machina thing", as that's one possible way of destorying immersion by breaking your own established rules.

My deep seated belief in the quoted concept is also the reason why phrases like "the story has fire breathing dragons/space aliens/telepathic mole people, and THAT detail is what makes it unrealistic? Really?" send me into murderous berserker rage that wouldn't stop until the origin of the phrase has been thoroughly verbally beaten and humiliated.

EDIT:

Another important principle I've remembered is "show, don't tell". Don't say "this character is brave" and leave it at that, rather convince the reader of this truth by having the character do something obviously brave.

 

[7 Gold Eye Heals the Wise]

TELOS!

Why are things happening? What is the motherfucking *purpose* of the story/setting/characters/actions? Reading takes effort, and if I wanted to read a prosaic wiki page, I would be looking for something advertised as such, not a *story*.

 

[SableCold]

If you start something that you hope to make a long project of(as opposed to a plot bunny or one shot), you better have an idea of how it ends and how it gets there.

 

[Nitramy]

If you're writing a polemic towards someone or something, try to at least do a good job disguising what the targets of your ire are, so that people will have difficulty thinking "these enemies remind me of some people, I wonder who this author is specifically referring to".

 

[prinCZess]

Actually write. Even if it's garbage or stuff you have to go back later and correct or expand (or toss out), the best way to get anything done is, surprisingly, to do it.

Also--back up the hell out of everything you do. It might be a pain to take the extra half-minute or so to do it, but if something goes fritzy on you, it will save you all the time you put into things already and a great deal of your motivation to keep going. Losing work sucks.

 

[Deleted member]

A good musical soundtrack to set your mood really helps with tempo.

 

[SableCold]

If you're writing a polemic towards someone or something, try to at least do a good job disguising what the targets of your ire are, so that people will have difficulty thinking "these enemies remind me of some people, I wonder who this author is specifically referring to".

Unless your target audience are people similarly displeased with the target of your ire.

 

[Nitramy]

Unless your target audience are people similarly displeased with the target of your ire.

You still have to do it anyway, because if you're strictly sticking to your target audience, you're just preaching to the choir at that point.

 

[Big Steve]

So what is everyone's preference about scene POV swapping? As in when you're doing limited third person and mostly focusing on one character's perceptions and feelings, do you sometimes swap to third-person unlimited and show another character's thoughts or perceptions? Do you prefer doing just third-person unlimited? Or stick strictly to the POV character in a scene?

 

[Vyor]

So what is everyone's preference about scene POV swapping? As in when you're doing limited third person and mostly focusing on one character's perceptions and feelings, do you sometimes swap to third-person unlimited and show another character's thoughts or perceptions? Do you prefer doing just third-person unlimited? Or stick strictly to the POV character in a scene?

IMO, you should stick to one perspective style but swapping characters within that style in different scenes is totally ok. Changing in the same scene can get quite confusing and hard to figure out; particularly if someone new to writing tries that.

 

[Big Steve]

*nod* I admit I try to stick to one character per scene, but sometimes slip. OTOH, I've been reading Dan Brown, and his bestsellers will swap perspectives in scenes, sometimes.