Advice for Aspiring Writers

[Bonecrusher Doc]

So, say somebody has aspirations of someday writing a book. Perhaps a sci-fi or fantasy novel, or perhaps anything else. Anyone have recommendations on how to prepare oneself for that eventual goal? I was thinking maybe take creative writing classes at a college, or join some sort of writers' club, or read certain books about writing books...

[Yoritomo Himeko]

Well, first of all, read. Read as much as you can, especially in the genre you want to write in. Not only will it help you to avoid cliches, it will also help you find out what makes a book really good.

Second of all, write. Practice every day if you can. This is also help you become a better writer. Just sitting down and writing on a regular basis will keep you from getting "writer's block".

And third of all, do not pay to get published. those places are for people who write nonfiction books for very small audiences.

Here are some of my favorite sites for writing.

Nanowrimo (http://www.nanowrimo.org/) - National Novel Writing Month
Hollylisle.com (http://www.hollylisle.com/) - One of the best places to get advice on the publishing industry.
ppenn.org (http://www.legendfire.com/). - A cool site with a lot of writing exercises.

I hope I helped. :smallsmile:

[Semidi]

I've taken a few creative writing classes in college, and they've been fun, but a fun waste of time as I have yet to learn anything new from them.

Read:
On Writing by Stephen King, even if you don't like King, this book is pure gold.
Elements of Style by Strunk & White, again. Gold.
As much as you can by as many people as you can.

Also, write. If you want to write, then start writing.

[Zarrexaij]

I'm interested in some advice myself. However I will pass on some advice I've gotten from books and my current English teacher (who is real horrorshow like):


Write
Rewrite what you've written
Rewrite it some more
Rewrite it until there's no possible way you can get better
And, of course, get constructive criticism before and after each rewrite
I wouldn't suggest your family for criticism. Most friends are pretty biased, too. If you're still in school I suggest an English teacher. They are very thorough with grammar and spelling mistakes, plus they're completely unbiased. :smalltongue:

[averagejoe]

This is a very useful piece of advice, one that's helped me perhaps more as a writer than any other one thing has, yet I've never heard it offered before; I had to discover it for myself. Write something you can enjoy reading, and this will, in the end, be your greatest mark of success. You needn't write such a thing as your first draft, but by the time you're nearing completion you should be able to read it through and say, "Hey, I really enjoyed that." This accomplishes two things: (1) it helps refine that undefinable something that criticism doesn't always help with, but is essential to a good story and (2) it ensures that you will always have some audience that enjoys it. There are a few things I've written that I've really enjoyed, and few things are more rewarding.

[Zarrexaij]

I have a question for you, averagejoe: who the hell writes what they wouldn't enjoy themselves? :smallamused: :smalltongue:

Hehe.

[averagejoe]

I have a question for you, averagejoe: who the hell writes what they wouldn't enjoy themselves? :smallamused: :smalltongue:

Hehe.

You'd be suprised. Maybe that's what they're going for, but it is rarely thought of in that way, and I've found that this is a useful way to think about it. When people ask me to review their work, they will often ask, "Is this good?" and my reaction is usually, "Well, what do you think?" That is, one should get one's own approval before asking for the opinions of others.

Of course, that doesn't excuse one from doing that thing that "artists" do where they refuse all criticism in order to maintain artistic integrity or whatever. That's mostly just annoying, and it accomplishes little.

[EvilElitest]

my family edits, so i'm willing to edit any work that you want to write. could we post stuff here for critiques?
from
EE

[Jorkens]

I don't write, but my girlfriend does.

One piece of advice she's been given is to carry a notebook around the place and write descriptions of more or less everything you see, hear, smell, feel or whatever. If you're trying to describe someone walking through town on a winter's night, it's fairly easy to patch together a bunch of fairly obvious visual description, but if you have the option of adding in odd details of sounds and smells based on what you've actually experienced it'll add a lot of depth and realism.

I think she was also advised to just write a lot. Lots of short stories, accounts of things that happened to her, anything to get practice at writing characters and description and so on...

[Mr. Moon]

Apparently, you should take a note book with you to crowded places, and sit down nearby a group of people (close enough that you can hear them clearly, but not so well that they know you're there), if you write down their conversations, and do this sort of thing often, it gives you a better idea of how conversations flow. I myself haven't had a chance to do it, but I'll give it a try someday. Maybe I'll head down to the school cafateria on monday...

[ocato]

Know your strengths and weaknesses. When I write, I find that I do a better job of overall stories and dialogue than describing things, so I tried some other things and it paid off. I recently got a deal writing up to 3 graphic novels for a company that will remain nameless in a galaxy that will remain far away. Also nameless.

[Vella_Malachite]

My advice as a fellow aspiring writer is:

-Create characters that are realistic. Use pieces of people to get them realistic. Make sure you can see them in your mind walking down the street or buying food at a market. Make sure they're realistic.
-Try making a questionnaire for all the characters with questions like "What's their favourite colour?" "What are their hobbies?" "What do they like to eat?" and answering them. Try and get so that you could really meet the characters and feel like they're real.
-Maybe find music that suits them. Maybe heavy metal, a ballad, or Green Day, Linkin Park or a pop song.
-Make sure that there isn't anything you don't know about the world you've created; history, deities, map, places, people. Trust me, it's worth it.

All this is so worth it in the end. Trust me.

I love writing my favourite part is when the characters become real, like you could meet them on the street and talk to them, and you'd love to have a conversation with them if you could. Then you find it's not the plot driving the story, but the characters. It's the best feeling.
Also the feeling where you're not writing it, you're reading and recording it.
You just want to write it again and again to get that feeling again!
I. Love. Writing.

[reorith]

Apparently, you should take a note book with you to crowded places, and sit down nearby a group of people (close enough that you can hear them clearly, but not so well that they know you're there), if you write down their conversations, and do this sort of thing often, it gives you a better idea of how conversations flow. I myself haven't had a chance to do it, but I'll give it a try someday. Maybe I'll head down to the school cafateria on monday...

i do this in restrooms. people say some twisted stuff to strangers at adjacent urinals.:smalleek:

[PhoeKun]

And third of all, do not pay to get published. those places are for people who write nonfiction books for very small audiences.

With all respect, I don't really consider this good advice for writing. It implies that writing happens with the goal of being published, and moreover being published with the intent to sell copies to large numbers of people and make money. If there has ever been a truly good piece of writing that concerned itself with the publishing process at any point during the process except after the final draft, I've never heard of it.

Actually, that brings up a very valid point: when writing, always remain aware of your intentions, and know them before you sit down to write the first word. What sort of piece do you want to write? Do you have a message? A target audience? What's your story? How does it begin, how does it end, and what sort of path does it walk to get from one to the other? It's not about knowing everything, it's about understanding what you want to come from it all. If you're sure about that, the rest is up to editing and talent.

edit: and while I'm here, a college course that gives you a chance to get a look at your peers' writing and input from a professor is invaluable for growing as a writer. In general, books written on the subject of how to write aren't worth the paper they're printed on. It has to come from you. There's so much more to it than just sitting down and writing, but nobody can tell you how to do it, except in the most general of terms, unless they're speaking in terms of a specific piece. Learning how to craft a worthwhile piece of writing is a journey that is going to take many years and many tries, but the way to get there is really going to be something only you do.

[Amotis]

One piece of advice she's been given is to carry a notebook around the place

Something small to kinda add to everything that's been said (which I think just boils down to write...a lot), I was recently told to change my style of notebook-ing or journal-ing as many writers do (because, point a, write...a lot). I've been quite proud of my menagerie of tiny to mid sized journals, all stuff with some sort of "style" (you know, a nice leather bound one, one with the picture of Picasso' The Old Spanish Guitarist, artsy ones, ones that I thought would spell out my personally if peopled looked at it, you know, self-aware stuff :smalltongue:), but recently someone told me to screw all that and get a big book/notebook/journal of paper that you don't really care about. That way (at least how it works for me) you really just do write through everything. You're not constantly self aware (see: my previous notebooks) of what you're writing and how people will see that. Something you can just write pages and pages of your handwriting, not trying to make it neat or anything (or use up the pages of your precious notebook!), something you can staple things to, insert whatever into there, etc etc. It's really blank slate for me and I've feel, even though it's a small thing, that it's helped how I write and draft things.

I've also felt I've grown tremendously because people helping me on the way. Phoe's right (HA! WRITE! GET IT?!?!) when she says its a personal journey but I feel I'm very lucky for having people help me. Though that's a personal experience and maybe not totally applicable.

[Icewalker]

This'll be a very useful thread for me...A friend and I have already come up with two massive ideas that will consist of probably three collections of short stories and one to two novellas, over the course of maybe 5 months. And a lot of the specifics of them too. I'm probably going to post some of them in the Arts and Crafts section once I actually start the writing.

[CrazedGoblin]

one thing that gave me loads of ideas, was to go into the countryside or something wander around away from normal life, unexplored areas, this might not work so well for sci-fi though

[Felixaar]

A ton of great advice up there, I especially reinforce Semidi's suggestion of getting On Writing by Stephen King.

A good thing to do is to just write. Dont try to write perfect, just write, cause inside every good writer is alot of bad writing (about 10,000 words in my case), and you've got to get it out, make your mistakes and learn from them before you can really start on anything serious.

Make sure to PM me when/if you start with some stuff, I'd be more than happy to read and critique.

[Bonecrusher Doc]

Wow, what a great response from the GiantITP community!

I'll have to look into Stephen King's book. And just read more in general.

At first that whole "write about everything" didn't sound very pleasant to me, then I realized that it's just writing by hand that I don't like - probably has something to do with being left-handed - but I don't mind typing, so I think I can accomplish the same thing with a laptop.

I'm not sure about recording people's conversations. People would probably not appreciate that if they noticed. But I can start listening to people's conversations in a different way, imagining them on paper.

I think one of my weaknesses is that all my characters' voices sound the same. If you took a quote from any of my characters you wouldn't be able to tell which one it came from. Any advice for that?

By the way Ocato, I love your sig. For that very reason this is one of the few posting communities I can tolerate.

[InaVegt]

About differentiating characters, think about there personality and how that affects what they say.

Examples of basically the same situation:

The character is facing a major bad guy who has driven hir into a corner.

Insecure, scared person: "Please don't kill me!"
Selfconfident person: "You'll never be able to kill me."
Person who trusts hir friends: "Even if you kill me, my friends will take you down."

See how even if the situation is the same, their responses to the situation are different. The self confident one would never say any of the other two things.

What also helps is differentiating in mannerisms.

"Your style is, like, so yesterday." (A bit bitchy and teenage)
"Don't you think it's time to buy clothes which are somewhat more trendy?" (Bitchy, but very different, shows a bit of age.)
"You know, honey, you're clothing isn't really up to the latest style." (Trying to be friendly)
"You're free spirited, as far as clothing is concerned, aren't you?" (Could mean a couple of things, but is in itself neutral.)

[Icewalker]

One thing I think would work for that, which was suggested earlier, is that you don't create a scene, and a plot. You create a characters, and a situation, then just write it as it would play out. Create the full character and their personality beforehand as a real person you could talk to, imagine talking to them a little maybe, figure out who they really are. Then when you write as them you'll be able to speak out of their voice.

Actually, I think dnd/RP would significantly help for this.

[averagejoe]

My advice as a fellow aspiring writer is:

-Create characters that are realistic. Use pieces of people to get them realistic. Make sure you can see them in your mind walking down the street or buying food at a market. Make sure they're realistic.
-Try making a questionnaire for all the characters with questions like "What's their favourite colour?" "What are their hobbies?" "What do they like to eat?" and answering them. Try and get so that you could really meet the characters and feel like they're real.
-Maybe find music that suits them. Maybe heavy metal, a ballad, or Green Day, Linkin Park or a pop song.
-Make sure that there isn't anything you don't know about the world you've created; history, deities, map, places, people. Trust me, it's worth it.

I have to disagree with some of these points. Actually, a classic beginners error is to try to focus too much on the details of a character. Favorite color, for example, isn't something that will be important in the vast majority of stories, and it doesn't tell anything about the character anyways. It's a bit of a balancing act; thinking about these things isn't bad, but getting too bogged down in details can be distracting, and can actually make your characters worse. After all, reality is not always realistic, and trying to create a "real" character will mostly be a futile hinderance.

I'm not saying don't consider these details, just be wary of being bogged down in them. On that same note, even if you do work out a ton of details for your character, for the love of god do not try to write them all into your story. While important for you to know, they will be, by and large, irrelevant to your story, and adding them when unnecessary is annoying. Most of what you know about your characters, worlds, etc. will never see your text, but you should know about them anyways. Just don't worry about working out every little detail. Work with broad strokes. Writing is often like a certain kind of painitng, when you don't worry about depicting every pebble of the mountain; instead, you make one brush stroke that suggests a mountain, and that is often just as good.


I think one of my weaknesses is that all my characters' voices sound the same. If you took a quote from any of my characters you wouldn't be able to tell which one it came from. Any advice for that?

There are many tricks for this, some simple and some not so. The above advice is fitting; one of the major goals of characterization is to differentiate between characters. On the simplest level, one thing to do is make each of your characters iconic, the way many cartoons, and especially anime, do. Stock characters can be reused and tweaked, like the cowardly dude or the honorable dude or the emotionless girl. This, I feel, is a good place to start, because you start out with clearly defined and distinguishable characters, and then you refine them to make them complex, interesting, and all that jazz that seems to be in style these days.

Another good place to start is by using concepts/ideas and then creating characters around them. For example, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy were ego, superego, and id respectively, or the fantastic four could be said to be analagous to fire, water, earth, and air. (Whether or not this was intentional is beside the point...)

Remember, though, that both of these are just starting points, ways to generate ideas, and not processes that will hold up on their own. Good characters can be very divorced from the original concept, and there's nothing wrong with that.

[Yoritomo Himeko]

With all respect, I don't really consider this good advice for writing. It implies that writing happens with the goal of being published, and moreover being published with the intent to sell copies to large numbers of people and make money. If there has ever been a truly good piece of writing that concerned itself with the publishing process at any point during the process except after the final draft, I've never heard of it.

I only meant this if the OP wanted to be published. A lot of people use Print on Demand, thinking this is how to get published.

Of course he shouldn't be worried about publishing until after the novel is written. I just wanted to warn him about wasting his money if he wanted to get his work published.

[valadil]

Just write. That's really all you need to do. Don't get stuck worrying about your finished product. Your first book will take more effort than anything you've ever done and it is going to suck. Accept that it will suck and just write it. If you sit around waiting for the perfect plot and perfect characters you'll be waiting forever and will never write anything. Call it a practice book if you like, just so long as it gets written. You need to write for writing's sake, not for the finished product's sake. You will learn way more by writing than you will by reading about writing.

[Bonecrusher Doc]

As far as all this publishing stuff goes, I'm not really aspiring to be a "successful" writer. Just to write a book - that's good enough for me! I'm hoping to get a pension and benefits after 20 years of my current non-writing job, then I'll only be 42, then I just need to persuade my wife to support the family while I try to write some novels - even if my relatives are the only people I can convince to read them! :smalltongue:

All this advice is great, and more complementary than contradictory, really.

[Dallas-Dakota]

Hi, I´m a newbie writer:smallredface:

Describing things just come natural to me.
But on thing just annoys me so much I can´t properly describe it without breaking any from rules.
Its the ´´insert speech here´´ thing. Is there any easy way around it except writing it like : And then they talked about how they were going to go there or he described it into precious detail.
Those ´´-´´ .....:smallfurious::smallfurious::smallfurious::sm allfurious::smallfurious:

[Collin152]

Hi, I´m a newbie writer:smallredface:

Describing things just come natural to me.
But on thing just annoys me so much I can´t properly describe it without breaking any from rules.
Its the ´´insert speech here´´ thing. Is there any easy way around it except writing it like : And then they talked about how they were going to go there or he described it into precious detail.
Those ´´-´´ .....:smallfurious::smallfurious::smallfurious::sm allfurious::smallfurious:

I feel your pain. I hate writing dialogue, because nobody speaks in the same flowering language dripping in proverbs and lavih descriptions that I enjoy speaking with, and it would sound wierd if they all did. And it's a pain to not write them, just like it's a pain for me not to end all my sentances with "dear" and speak in a southern accent.

[Bonecrusher Doc]

Maybe find a couple authors that do dialogue in a way that you like, and study how they do it?

[Niasen]

I'm kind of an aspiring writer myself, and I guess I'll give some of the advice I've been given to you as well (little non-sequitor considering previous comments since most of it doesn't involve dialogue but hey, thats how I am).

1. If going for science fiction classes, get to know a few people that KNOW science and know it WELL. I'm not talking einstein here, but somebody who could tell you the difference between quark particle's and maybe a degree in somethiing would be nice.
2. Don't freak if you can't do number 1, make it up in how your characters are developed. Give them life by thinking carefully "hmm, how would I/my friend react in that situation?...now if I were *insert training or other characteristics of character* would I really act differently?" You'd be surprised how often you'll get a good character that way if your truthful with yourself (and a good imagination anyway). For instance, put yourself in the Hollywood situation of a guy with a gun at point blank range. Normally I'd just do what he says since I personally don't think I could take him in time, though If I'm sure he'll pull the trigger I'd go for the gusto. Now lets say I'm in better shape or THINK I'm in better shape? I'd probably go for that gun like a rabid squirrel goes for a nut, and if I had any training I'd get it to...unless HE had some and then I'm Effed or at least in a fight and such. I might be just stating something you already know, so sorry if I am =P

3. Don't feel bad if your first stuff doesn't get published, some publishers have a huge rod shoved higher than a Lawful stupid Pallidans Keester (No offense to Pallidan lovers). I heard one actually say that "Comedic Phantasy Never sells" ....apparently he missed Terry Pratchett and crew huh? Its kind of like playing roullette sometimes instead of being based on your abilities as a writer, sometimes your on there goodside sometimes on there bad side.

4. Don't ever EVER write an insulting letter to said publishers or yell at them...even if they are jerks.

5. Stea- I mean get inspired idea's by writers like Heinlein, Orson Scott Wells, (if your going for comedic approach Terry Pratchett isn't a bad start), and the like. You'll get your ingenious one of a kind idea's eventually...just get practice writing officially first before you try and get it out there so its better you know?

[Hadrian_Emrys]

The most important thing to remember, I've found, is to keep in mind that your characters are not talking to your readers (usually anyway). No, these hapless chumps are talking to each other, and thus dialogue should look like the literary version of Dueling Banjos as opposed to rich compositions. It's the exact same difference between an texting back and forth over AIM and posting in a forum.

[Collin152]

Bah. My voice is just to strong to conceal inside other characters.
I'm like Zaraki Kenpachi, but instead of spirit energy too massive to contain, its my unique style of speech.

If only I had a medium that wouldn't nesecitate dialogue. Or a context of that persuasion.
Apart from Children's books.
You don't want me to write for your children.

[averagejoe]

Hi, I´m a newbie writer:smallredface:

Describing things just come natural to me.
But on thing just annoys me so much I can´t properly describe it without breaking any from rules.
Its the ´´insert speech here´´ thing. Is there any easy way around it except writing it like : And then they talked about how they were going to go there or he described it into precious detail.
Those ´´-´´ .....:smallfurious::smallfurious::smallfurious::sm allfurious::smallfurious:

I'm not entierly sure I understand your problem; do you just not like quotation marks? If so, I've read several books (most notably Cormic McCarthy, who is good and you should read him anyways) in which the author eschewed quotes altogether. It would read: So I said I'm going to play basketball, and he said can I come with you, and I said sure it's just this way. It's not for everyone, but it's not an invalid choice.

[Jorkens]

The most important thing to remember, I've found, is to keep in mind that your characters are not talking to your readers (usually anyway). No, these hapless chumps are talking to each other, and thus dialogue should look like the literary version of Dueling Banjos as opposed to rich compositions. It's the exact same difference between an texting back and forth over AIM and posting in a forum.
One of my favourite writers, Flann O'Brien, gets enormous amounts of comedy out of writing dialogue that's actually more realistic than you're expecting - rather than talking as a means of exchanging information like people are supposed to, his characters frequently don't pay much attention to what each other are saying, repeat themselves, waffle, get distracted, change the subject to get in something they think is clever, interrupt each other, make points that don't make sense (and emphasize them by banging on the table) and so on...

He plays this for comic effect (by using a degree of realism that's quite unexpected and breaks literary conventions and is thus funny) but it's maybe worth thinking about in serious writing too. Try to avoid overly expository dialogue or five pages of characters exchanging information, taking everything in, and saying exactly as much as needs to be said.

And yeah, remember that the characters are talking because they've got their own motivations - maybe they just want to exchange information, but maybe they're bored, being friendly, trying to impress people, giving encouragement, trying to make jokes, being polite or whatever.

[Fri]

Uh, yeah. I seconded the 'just write' advice.

Some of writer told me, that to be a professional writer, we just had to write everyday. Set at time to write, and don't bother for 'mood' or 'idea' or anything like that. Just write regularly everyday.

[Felixaar]

Differentiating character voices is difficult. I often find that I write what a character says before deciding which character should say it, which is very, very bad. Best idea is to give each character their own phrases or phrases, one's they use frequently. For instance, I might say "Sounds like a plan," "No worries," or "Awesome. Awesome to the Max." The way they talk doesnt have to be totally different accent's and speech, otherwise it gets too complicated, but little famillar phrases in specific characters speech help.

For those of us who have to flowery language for dialogue, try writing first person. While, yes, there is still some dialogue, theres less of it and the main character can have a perceptive-descriptive mind just as you do, and thus speak much like that.

A point I'd like to make is that some of my favourite moments in my stories come from when I screw up and make inconsistencies. some examples...


The last bodyguard fell as the one remaining Therun soldier dug his blade deep into the man’s chest while Affalar stood horrified. Affalar, who had always shunned violence, was left helpless, at his attacker’s mercy.
The others too stunned to function; it fell to Arallo to stop this from happening. With a quick flick of his wrist, he launched a throwing axe – or, for the matter, would of, had he remembered that all his weapons had been confiscated when they were taken to prison. Cursing in the endar tongue, he leapt at the attacking man, who had his blade raised over Affalar.
In one swift movement, Arallo twisted in the air, knocking the attacker off his feet, caught him by the head and twisted it, killing him instantly, and caught the fallen warrior’s blade, seconds before it struck Affalar.

also here


“I’m trapped in the basement!” Sariahsel yelled from below, a heavy thumping exuding from the floorboards. “The door seems to be jammed! I… I can’t get out!”
Salma twisted his face for a moment. “Hold on!” he yelled to her. Seeing a spear, probably owned by Drallendar, hanging on the wall, Salma picked it up and wedged it into the gap of the trapdoor. He groaned, and using all the strength he could muster, tried to use the spear as a lever to pry it open.
The spear snapped clean in half, and Salma stared down at the broken halves for a few seconds. “Hmm. Perhaps not, then. I never understood why we built basements on these houses anyway. So architecturally inept.”
“What was that?” Sariahsel yelled from below.
“Nothing! Just a minute!” Salma replied, also yelling.
(for the matter, they were in a tree top house)

[Cristo Meyers]

If one method of writing doesn't work for you, try another one. If trying to write out the story isn't working, just try writing individual scenes and then go back and string them together, for example.

I like this method: if you're a handwriter (like me), get a multi-section notebook. The first section is whatever scenes you want to write or have an idea for. The second is where you work on stringing them together. The third is everything else: other ideas, notes, whatever.

[Felixaar]

Hey out of curiosity, does anyone have any idea what a SASE is? Some agents are asking for them and I'm flummoxed.

[Bonecrusher Doc]

I believe SASE = Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope.

[Felixaar]

Ohhh, okay. Thats alot easier to obtain than I thought it might be. Thanks!

[Jorkens]

For those of us who have to flowery language for dialogue, try writing first person. While, yes, there is still some dialogue, theres less of it and the main character can have a perceptive-descriptive mind just as you do, and thus speak much like that.
Yeah, that could work. Particularly in a short story, I don't think people would even complain if the narrator summarized most of the dialogue even...

And yeah, as a reader I can think of quite a lot of examples of books that are awesome despite the author not really doing something (dialogue, characterization, whatever) well. The key thing seems to be that they almost make a feature of it - so (for instance) rather than trying to write 'psychological realist' fantasy and being bad at it and ending up with half baked characters who are clearly a couple of cliches hung together, they've gone for a mythic feel and characters who are more like archetypes than real people - so their lack of psychological depth is almost part of the point. Tolkein and Lovecraft and Dunsany all do this to some extent, and obviously myths and folktales are full of it.

Likewise, I guess if you can't avoid writing flowery dialogue then you could maybe avoid centreing your writing cynical street kids, hard bitten old soldiers or tough talking private detectives and set your story among scholars, artists and aristocrats instead, maybe even lampshade the fact that you're doing this...

[valadil]

That's really interesting that you have trouble with non flowery dialogue. I'm the exact opposite. When I'm not doing dialogue I stress over every word being right and interesting. Conversation just flows because characters aren't expected to speak intelligently. Dialogue is where I'm free to write poor sentence, if the character calls for it. Of course my preference for dialogue may come from my background in sketch comedy.

Back to the just writing thing, here's some advice I read a while back. It came from Jerry Seinfeld. Whether or not you like his comedy, he is widely renowned as being one of the most disciplined standups in terms of getting material written.

What he does is dedicate an hour each day to writing. And by dedicate he means dedicate. No email in the background. No instant messenger. No music even. Just writing.

In addition he gets a ginormous wall calendar. On days where he writes for an hour he places a giant red X. The goal is to get as long a string of unbroken X's as possible. I haven't applied this technique to writing but in my experience it definitely helps with dieting and exercising.

[reorith]

What he does is dedicate an hour each day to writing. And by dedicate he means dedicate. No email in the background. No instant messenger. No music even. Just writing.

In addition he gets a ginormous wall calendar. On days where he writes for an hour he places a giant red X. The goal is to get as long a string of unbroken X's as possible. I haven't applied this technique to writing but in my experience it definitely helps with dieting and exercising.

rita dove writes everyday at 3 am.

some one told me that a character should always have a reason for doing something.

[Dallas-Dakota]

Thenks for the help with overcoming my dislike for '' '' with the dialogue.



some one told me that a character should always have a reason for doing something.
QFT.

[Felixaar]

Not even music? That'd be rough. I dont think I could write without Hans Zimmer.

[Telonius]

I'm also an aspiring writer, recently finished my first novel and am working on the second. I've just sent off my first query letter to an agent (wish me luck). A lot of the advice I would have given ("On Writing," Strunk & White, just sit down and start writing) has already been given.

There is one piece of advice that I haven't seen - or at least not stressed to the degree that it ought to be. Here it is: be willing to accept criticism. Especially on you first novel. You are not going to be a Tolkien, or a Rowling, or an Asimov on your first draft. You might not even be a Jordan. But if you are intending to really Be A Writer, you must realize that your work will have to improve over the course of your career. Ask your friends and family to read your first draft and tear it to shreds. Tell them to tell you why it sucks. Don't go looking for praise, or you might miss a major problem. Don't be offended by the response. The goal is to catch those problems early, so you're hearing it from a friend instead of from a rejection letter; or even worse, from a literary critic after the problem has been published. (The critic will always find something wrong. That's what they're paid to do. But there's no sense in making it easy for them).