Tag: How To

Suggestions For Writing Fiction

I have spent many days reading and writing to arrive at this point in my life. Sadly, this point is that grey area where I am simply a writing enthusiast. By a profession standpoint I am not a professional writer, nor do I make myself out to be. I’m neither published or widely popular. But I have done lots of research into the craft of writing and how to be a better one in all aspects from the writing itself to the mentality itself. Since so many people really love top ten lists, I figured, why not give it a shot? But this list is a summary of all of the many tips and hints I have seen along with what has helped inspire me. Some published authors say if you believe your work is fantastic, then it most assuredly is not. I disagree to an extent. Confidence is key in any job, and if you want writing to be your profession, then it is indeed a job. In no particular order, here is my top ten list.

1) Read often, write more.
This should be your main practice. Do I necessarily mean read fiction? No. Expand past what you want to write. Read reviews, poems, essays and even newspaper articles for not only ideas but flow and rhythm. I have found that reading from authors who have as much passion as I do for writing has helped. Ray Bradbury has done wonders for me and I cannot stress reading his Zen in the Art of Writing enough.

2) Be confident and humble.
Be proud of the work you do, it is the love child of your labours and your creativity and you have every right to be. Now that you’ve inflated your ego, take criticisms well. It will sting at first but if you consider every criticism even with a grain of salt then you may find a new spark of creativity for your story. After all, while we write our sub conscious fills in gaps for us. We secretly know the information sometimes even before we know that we do. These assumptions are not evident to the reader and despite your implying of events, they may miss critical information that throws the story for them.

3) Write, Hack, Slash, Re-Write.
You’ve just written a twenty page short story? That’s fantastic. Now go through and cut any word that does not need to be there. You may think we want high word counts to create big books, but if two thousand words in a ten thousand word story were unnecessary, it would fall flat. Cut scenes that don’t move the story, change descriptions to actions or experiences and move words around to create smaller concise sentences.

4) Find a writing group.
This is important. I have only placed one short story up for critique on a web based writing group and while much of the feedback has been positive and cheerful, the ones that have been overly critical have actually stuck out in my mind. Just as my first ten out of ten rating made my heart skip a beat, the first three out of ten made my blood boil. I went straight in and changed many of the things they disagreed with and some of them I passed over as they were meaningless. The whole experience however has been extremely positive, getting feedback on what people not only dislike but enjoy about your writing is unparalleled. Also, make sure you have no friends there. The reason I say that is because as much as we believe our friends aren’t biased, they are. They see our passion for our story and they want to let us down easy. These people critiquing your story should have no ties to you so you can be assured of their honesty.

5) Write everyday.
Pick a number. Ten? Two Hundred and five? One thousand? Pick a goal and stick to it. It must be attainable and you must do it every single day. Don’t have much time? Pick a small number and ensure you make time (You can type two hundred words with one hand on your cell phone over the course of your meals and washroom breaks for the day), write anywhere and everywhere that you can. When you can’t write, think about it. Think about what you are going to write as soon as you get home or near something to write on. Also, if your muse is working overtime, let them. You may have to give them time off in lieu but if you go from writing a hundred words to two thousand for one day, just go for it.

6) Reread your writing aloud.
This can be both fun and annoying. Pick a method for how you will read certain punctuation and stick with it. I prefer to give finality to my voice as I approach a period. Pause at every comma. With an exclamation mark, consider yelling it with excitement. This will help keep your characters from sounding excited all the time, even if they are reminiscing about an awesome summer they had. This also helps with tone, flow and can also spark your creativity amid conversations between characters.

7) Do not do research unless the story is hinging on it.
Research is a fantastic tool. It can provide depth to stories and allow your world to fit into ours. Think of how the Matrix changed the way we considered the world? That being said, Wikipedia is the devil. It is a tool designed as a map leading you away from productivity and into knowledge. Every article has dozens of links which contain more information and better sources. Click on these at your own risk. Every time you research you begin distracting yourself from the main idea of your story and you run the risk of coming up with a newer shinier idea which will leave the other to collect dust. Unless it is absolutely necessary perhaps leave the research for the first edit. This way you may focus on the creative portion of your writing and at least make it through the first leg of the race.

8) Write down

    every

idea.
When I say every, I mean every. What was that? A piece of music just inspired you to see a beautiful garden? Write that down and the song it came in on. In all honesty, keep what is called a creativity or inspiration journal. My method is between a four by three inch notepad and post it notes. I convert them to digital notes on my desktop and then I can see them all the time. Having so many ideas around is also fantastic for your own creativity because perhaps the story you are writing gets caught up and you cannot get past that point for the life of you. Jump into another story idea and perhaps there you will find the solution for your issue.

9) Never limit yourself to one piece of writing at a time.
I cannot stress this enough. It feels great to finish one story, but to make progress on many is rewarding both creatively and mentally. Sometimes we writers are hit with a block that completely destroys our ability to continue. This can most times be avoided by a shift into a different gear or world. If you are constantly working a novel, then by all means set your word goal accordingly. But never forget about the other ideas in your head or other writing that you may feel compelled to write.

10) Follow your heart.
Many of the now considered greatest writers were at one point shunned by publishers and critics alike. If you enjoy a certain simile or metaphor, keep it. This is your writing. Every time we write something whether it be a short story, poem or essay; we pour our blood, sweat and tears into it. Our goosebumps are in these stories. That tingling sensation when something goes according to plan, we put that in there too. Your writing is your writing. As long as you follow the rules of language, then anything is possible.

That about rounds up my own personal top ten list for writing’s helpful hints. As I said in the beginning I have yet to be published aside from a poem, but this is a single stepping stone in my path to becoming a professional writer. I leave you with my poem that was published, its single inspiration was a small photo handed to me in year twelve english with the challenge to write exactly what I felt. I loved the challenge and wrote this in less than a minute to full marks. Sometimes I miss how easy high school was.

    Not Quite Nostalgic

A sea of hope, a beach of sand.
Some have never seen nor heard,
The whispering winds across the land.

Though I have seen many a time,
The lapping waves, in rhythmic beauty,
Rising and falling, almost in rhyme.

The tide across the sandy beach,
No worries or cares, just silent sounds.
No lesson to learn, nor to teach,
Not quite nostalgic, yet my heart still pounds.

Yet Another Sporadic Post: The Writing Process

First off, anyone who has not watched a single episode of Game of Thrones should run out and do so now. The show is shot so beautifully and is extremely well adapted from the novels. This leads me to my next mission: I am currently hammering out my world, my characters and my story. As I do so much research into the process behind writing and organization I realize there is still so much I don’t even know about my own world. I once started a story Wiki in hopes I could get all the information laid out in one spot. What I found there was as you write, you rewrite more in your wiki than you do anywhere else. The idea was fantastic, the execution, not so much.

As I have said in prior articles, I used to “free write” if you would. I would sit at a computer or a notepad and just write. Let the ideas pour onto the page. As I tried to be four steps ahead of myself I found I was finishing less and less, and my writing was actually suffering. In fact, even as I write this article, I am simply free writing. It is one thing that is extremely easy to do, yet also completely and utterly useless. I have planned only a few articles, and they shine above all of my others. One of them almost became published, until they realized that I had already posted the work online. They wanted completely original works. So be careful what you post online, it’s already out there and many people aren’t interested what they can already see for free.

Free writing is the parkour of the writing world, and it is a tough monster to master. It is not for the clumsy, just like parkour! What I mean is having a structure, a plan, a method to the madness is a damn good way to make your writing better. I ramble on and on sometimes about god knows what and it seems like I may even know what I’m talking about. Perhaps I do, and perhaps I don’t, but the one thing that I am sure about is that my structured writing is always much better than my free writing. Why is that? I’m glad you asked!

Structure allows for you to maintain the correct motion for your story or article. As you proceed forward your writing can always look back upon itself, but you must still have a purpose for that. I have been known to occasionally write myself into circles. A story that seems like it is going somewhere is not as good as a story that is going somewhere. Also, keep people’s interest. Two of the most popular fantasy series to date are among the most descriptive stories ever written. I’m talking about Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. Both of these writers knew their worlds inside and out, and I will bet that George R.R. Martin remembers virtually every bit of dialogue from his novels. But in both of these stories there are tremendous amounts of purpose and direction. In Lord of the Rings we have the one ring getting ever closer to its eventual end and in Game of Thrones we have many factions fighting for the throne. In Game of Thrones it is harder to see the progression, but the easiest example to point out is that of Daenerys Targaryen. She is someone who, without spoiling too much, has travelled a long way and has experienced much on the path to obtaining her main goal.

These stories are exceptional pieces of fiction, the same goes for The Hunger Games and Harry Potter.  Do you think any of these stories had no planning involved? Absolutely not. My writing process thus far has been pretty simple and I would say, start with these.

  • Read, Watch, Play, Learn – The more you know, the richer your stories become.
The next questions are actually from Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail.
  • What is your name? – Writing a character you know makes the writing more powerful, but it is easy to make up a character and know them. After all, you did create them!
  • What is your quest? – Do you seek the Holy Grail? Perhaps a shrubbery? You must know what the main storyline is. The character and the plot are what move the story. Is it possible to have more than one point of view? Of course! Does that make it a million times harder? Yes, of course it does. Stick with one point of view until you feel comfortable switching. One of the best parts of a book is being given that bit of information or insight into a character’s mind that may tell you more about them than their actions ever could.
  • What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow? This question seems irrelevant, but that was its point. Keep focused on your story. If something seems out of place, then it probably is. Cut it. Yes it is hard to cut something, especially whole chapters or even characters, but sometimes things just don’t fit in. You must reread your work. Be fruitful with your ideas, harsh with your criticisms and trim the fat.

So you’ve got your character, your plot and a bunch of notes scribbled haphazardly across a page. Fantastic, you’re a writer. There are a few million exactly like you. Now how do you get better? Repeat those steps above, repeatedly. How do you get published? I am still trying to figure that one out myself. You can self publish, especially with eBooks these days. But hopefully you will be able to hone your writing skills a little better with these suggestions.

Also in my previous post, I tossed out a template for keeping track of story information. I have expanded from just two sheets, to a hefty five, and could easily add a creatures sheet as well. I have my Plot Line sheet, and then four mimicking the Character tracking sheet. Those four are Characters, Places, Items and Lore. I hope that if this idea makes it from here to publication, people will be able to read the exact way that I worked it out as I wrote because that is the one thing I cannot find online.

So many writers have a “How To Write” blog, book, app, class or video… but how many of those writers are successful? I swear there is some kind of writer’s guild that forbids successful writers from making useful and helpful tutorials into their writing success. If anyone finds a great one, please feel free to pass it on to me. After reading this I am sure you probably think I need just as much help as you may need!

That is it for now, until this canuck-amuck’s next sporadic update, farewell and feel free to email me or comment below!