tips for writing novels
1.Be passionate about your story.
Tips for writing (in general)
Be passionate about your story.
Be respective of your readers’ intelligence. They will love you for it. Make the effort to be aware not to spoon feed them emotions and step by step plot sequences. Show them only enough of what’s going on and let them draw conclusions. Set them up to figure it out for themself what they feel, and the consequences. Ernest Hemingway’s iceberg theory – only show them the tip.
Be cognisant of keeping your language simple. If they have to read a sentence twice to understand it, they will leave. This is where another reader, less familiar to the story can help. Seek advice. We know our stories so well, it’s hard to see it with fresh eyes.
Read, read, read. Good bad and best.
Write every day. Practice is a teacher you cannot live without. Yes, you need to learn through courses and reading great works, but you need practice. The writing doesn’t always have to have an end goal of publication. Think of an athlete. Consider how much practice he does before going to a competition. Or a singer – stage time vs rehearsal time.
Develop the strength to cut what isn’t working for a particular piece. What you discard isn’t necessarily bad writing. Save it in another file for another story or poem. Even the most brilliant line will be just clutter to the reader if it doesn’t move the story forward significantly.
Write to a person. Your readers are your friends. After all they buy your books. Know who you are writing to - ***specifically*** - research who your audience is. Then tell them your story. Knowing well help you decide what to leave in, what to leave out, how to phrase it. That way you will reach them. Broad generalizations are not attractive.
Shakespeare said, “All writing is bad writing, rewritten. So, don’t let anybody tell you, you cannot write. Just keep writing over and over again and you will become a JK Rowling. There is always a chance because as she said, she rewrote every chapter of Harry Potter, vol 1, 50 times. SO NEVER GIVE UP.
Always carry a notebook and pen. Even to bed.
Your beta reader is your friend, even if you don’t take all their advice. And read your work out loud.
Bonus: always be aware of ALL the senses – hearing, seeing, touching, smelling, tasting, feeling. When you go for a walk, have coffee with a friend, get in the habit of awareness. The many colours of a blue sky. The many colours of cement. Really – the more you work at being aware, the more easily you will detect all things and get realism into your writing. And the happier your reader will be. But beware of balance – a story with not senses is flat. A story with too much is boring.
1.Be passionate about your story.
- Be respective of your readers’ intelligence. They will love you for it. Make the effort to be aware not to spoon feed them emotions and step by step plot sequences. Show them what is going on. Set the up to figure it out for them self what the feel and the consequences. Ernest Hemingway’s iceberg theory – only show them the tip.
- Be cognisant of keeping your language simple. If they have to read a sentence twice to understand it, they will move on. This is where another reader, less familiar to the story can help. Seek advice. We know our stories so well it’s hard to see it with fresh eyes.
- Read, read, read. Good bad and best. Take this tip from Stephen King – it’s vital.
- Write every day. Practice is a teacher you cannot live without. Yes, you need to learn through courses and reading great works, but you need practice. The writing doesn’t always have to have an end goal of publication. Think of an athlete. Consider how much practice he does before going to a competition. Or a singer – stage time vs rehearsal time.
- Develop the strength to cut what isn’t working for a particular piece. What you discard isn’t necessarily bad writing. Save it in another file for another story or poem. Even the most brilliant line will be just clutter to the reader if it doesn’t move the story forward significantly. The same applies to backstories – easy on these. Only if they are necessary to move the story along.
- Write to a person. Your readers are you friends. After all they buy your books. Know who you are writing to - ***specifically*** - research who your audience is. Then tell them your story. That way you will reach them. Broad generalizations are not attractive.
- Outlines are a writer’s saviour. I am not saying you have to be an outline’s slave. But if you have an outline – 1 page – you can see if it is going somewhere. You can see where to change it. You can write any part at any time. Facing an empty page, start at the beginning and progressing to the end may work for 1% of writers. For the rest of us, even the most popular writers in the world, not knowing where you are going can invite feelings of suicide. Ask them.
- Find a list of filler words and phrases on the internet, and get rid of most of them. Could, would, that etc. – there are roughly 60.
- I find it easier to write the main plot completely first. It is easier then to tell what else is needed: subplots, settings, added characters, different characters, more or less description, more or less dialogue.
Tips for writing (in general)
Be passionate about your story.
Be respective of your readers’ intelligence. They will love you for it. Make the effort to be aware not to spoon feed them emotions and step by step plot sequences. Show them only enough of what’s going on and let them draw conclusions. Set them up to figure it out for themself what they feel, and the consequences. Ernest Hemingway’s iceberg theory – only show them the tip.
Be cognisant of keeping your language simple. If they have to read a sentence twice to understand it, they will leave. This is where another reader, less familiar to the story can help. Seek advice. We know our stories so well, it’s hard to see it with fresh eyes.
Read, read, read. Good bad and best.
Write every day. Practice is a teacher you cannot live without. Yes, you need to learn through courses and reading great works, but you need practice. The writing doesn’t always have to have an end goal of publication. Think of an athlete. Consider how much practice he does before going to a competition. Or a singer – stage time vs rehearsal time.
Develop the strength to cut what isn’t working for a particular piece. What you discard isn’t necessarily bad writing. Save it in another file for another story or poem. Even the most brilliant line will be just clutter to the reader if it doesn’t move the story forward significantly.
Write to a person. Your readers are your friends. After all they buy your books. Know who you are writing to - ***specifically*** - research who your audience is. Then tell them your story. Knowing well help you decide what to leave in, what to leave out, how to phrase it. That way you will reach them. Broad generalizations are not attractive.
Shakespeare said, “All writing is bad writing, rewritten. So, don’t let anybody tell you, you cannot write. Just keep writing over and over again and you will become a JK Rowling. There is always a chance because as she said, she rewrote every chapter of Harry Potter, vol 1, 50 times. SO NEVER GIVE UP.
Always carry a notebook and pen. Even to bed.
Your beta reader is your friend, even if you don’t take all their advice. And read your work out loud.
Bonus: always be aware of ALL the senses – hearing, seeing, touching, smelling, tasting, feeling. When you go for a walk, have coffee with a friend, get in the habit of awareness. The many colours of a blue sky. The many colours of cement. Really – the more you work at being aware, the more easily you will detect all things and get realism into your writing. And the happier your reader will be. But beware of balance – a story with not senses is flat. A story with too much is boring.