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Your One Piece of Writing Advice


BellaLestrange87

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If you had one piece of writing advice to offer, what would it be?

 

Personally, I would suggest writing every day, no matter how little. A little a day adds up quickly, and it keeps you in the writing mood and frame of mind, something that I've slipped out of recently.

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Write what you love. Think of all the stories and books out there that you like to read, and incorporate that into your own works of writing. If you like funny stories don't write things that are brooding and serious. Your writing will be so much better if you enjoy what you're doing, and you'll also have more fun with it!

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Write because it's fun and something you enjoy doing. If it ever feels like it's become a chore, take a step back until it's fun again.

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Everything said before me would be my advice but to add something new I present the bellow.

 

18e84af8b56fd28df3c4fa07fa7232ad.jpg

 

I keep this as my personal mantra on my phone lock screen so I see it daily.

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Don't be afraid to explore the darker corners of your mind. What comes out may not be pretty, it might even offend a few people, but it's worth exploring.

 

(and Scooter, that pic of Tom needs a drool-rag warning)

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My advice would be about characterisation and it would be to consider the impact of your characters' traits and experiences. If they are smart, how do they deal with people of much lesser intelligence? Are they impatient, patronising, irritated? If they have lived through the wizarding war, how has that affected them? If they are an exchange student, what do they not know that other students in their year do? If they are stubborn, they should make mistakes because of it.

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Such great advices!

 

My advice is to read :)

I know it might sound strange, but I think reading other stories (or keeping a balance between reading and writing) is the greatest way to improve

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  • 2 months later...

I think my biggest piece of advice would be not to get discouraged because you think your idea is too close to something else you've read/watched/heard. No one can write it exactly like you can and that's what makes it original.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I think my biggest piece of writing advice would be to humanize your characters as much as possible. It's far too easy to understand them from a single perspective, i.e. in the context of their favorite hobby, or their relationship with another character, or whatever quest they're going on, or whatever major trauma has happened to them. Instead, I think that a writer should try to remove their character from their plot and set them as entities that stand on their own, which will make them more three-dimensional and add fantastic new elements to the story.

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My advice is to keep writing no matter how cringeworthy, awful, garbage your rough draft stage is. It's going to be truly hard when your editor side wants to kick in or you feel that you didn't have a character do this and that but that's what editing is for! All you have to do with the rough draft stage is to keep writing and going no matter how much you dislike where it's going in a sense that you want to edit or correct it but trust me, it's better if you keep at it then go back every once in awhile (unless you're okay with not having to worry about the word count progress or goal) and editing it, just keep writing, and don't let your perfectionist editor side, whoever, or whatever tell you that it's trash because in honesty, you're not going to be excel on your first try, and it's the rough draft stages so yes, it's not going to be as good as you hoped but don't stop there now just because of it! Keep writing and don't worry about how bad it sounds! All that matters is that you get what you need and want on that paper so you have an idea of what you want to do much later or see of changes and improvements that can come out of it! 

 

(I hope that helps a bit! I'm struggling through this as well but I'm also learning from it so I thought I'd share this advice too! ;w;)

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  • 1 month later...

My advice is to do one quick edit a day after you finish writing something and then stop. All too often, writers get overly self-critical and way over-edit their work.

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  • 3 years later...

My once piece of writing advice is to separate your drafting and editing process. That way, when you are writing your first draft, you can have a better chance of turning off the inner critique and just writing. Since you know it doesn't have to be perfect, you can just shove all the sand in the sandbox. Later you'll be able to go back and make pretty castles with it. I used to think this didn't make much sense, but over time I've found that, cliche as it sounds, you can always edit bad words into better words--but you can't edit a blank page. Sometimes it can be a lot of fun to just draft too. When things are good, I feel like I'm surfing on words, and even if those words turn out to be sort of rough, I can always fix them later.

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  • 3 months later...

This isn't really advice for anyone else.  It's just something that's important to me.  Even more basic that writing techniques or logistics for getting the writing done is the choice of what to write about.  I put top value on a story that has something new and important to say, something that I am compelled to write because it needs to be said (for personal or universal reasons).  I want to write stories that resonate with people, that they will read over and over again, feeling the same impact with each rereading.  The sort of story that leaves you transfixed, so that after the final page is turned, you just sit there for a few minutes, unable to think about anything else or do anything else.

We've all read lots of stories that are enjoyable enough that we don't quit reading partway through, but they're not unforgettable, and quickly we do forget them.  And there are others that we never forget, ones we are reminded of, again and again, by little sights or happenings in our daily lives that suddenly bring those stories to mind, with all the impact of how we felt when we first read them.  To write something like that is a huge goal, and even when we try, we may attain it only partially. But it is worthwhile to try. 

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I posted in this thread a few years ago with the advice that writing is supposed to be fun. I come today to offer another piece of advice that is something that has been drilled into my head from day one of my school program, it's especially important if you want to self publish or even get a contract with a publishing house one day. 

READ. 

READ

READ

READ

READ

Read anything and everything you can get your hands on. If you want to write screenplays, get your hands on as many spec scripts as you can and study the techniques. learn what works and what doesn't work in your chosen medium and genre. 

For example, if you want to write dystopian fiction, then you need to read dystopian fiction to learn what makes those work. If you want to write mystery/suspense then you need to read as many mystery/suspense stories that you can get your hands on to learn how to successfully use misdirection, foreshadowing, red herrings, femme fatales, etc. to create a world where your reader steps into the shoes of the detective. 

by studying the masters of the genre, you'll learn so much about how to craft a story. by reading some of the self published things that are available for free on Amazon, iBooks, Smashwords, Wattpad, etc. You'll learn what not to do from the bad ones, and even find some indie authors to support. Don't limit yourself to just bestsellers. If you find a great author on some of the free sites, then you can support them through word of mouth for their paid books. (to be fair this is how many authors make it big.) 

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  • 5 months later...
On 12/29/2020 at 9:00 PM, MalfoysAngel said:

I posted in this thread a few years ago with the advice that writing is supposed to be fun. I come today to offer another piece of advice that is something that has been drilled into my head from day one of my school program, it's especially important if you want to self publish or even get a contract with a publishing house one day. 

READ. 

READ

READ

READ

READ

Read anything and everything you can get your hands on. If you want to write screenplays, get your hands on as many spec scripts as you can and study the techniques. learn what works and what doesn't work in your chosen medium and genre. 

For example, if you want to write dystopian fiction, then you need to read dystopian fiction to learn what makes those work. If you want to write mystery/suspense then you need to read as many mystery/suspense stories that you can get your hands on to learn how to successfully use misdirection, foreshadowing, red herrings, femme fatales, etc. to create a world where your reader steps into the shoes of the detective. 

by studying the masters of the genre, you'll learn so much about how to craft a story. by reading some of the self published things that are available for free on Amazon, iBooks, Smashwords, Wattpad, etc. You'll learn what not to do from the bad ones, and even find some indie authors to support. Don't limit yourself to just bestsellers. If you find a great author on some of the free sites, then you can support them through word of mouth for their paid books. (to be fair this is how many authors make it big.) 

Yes!! This makes sense!

I heard to read anything and everything part, but not the part where it's IN THE GENRE YOU WANT TO WRITE! People tried forcing writing down my throat that I'm just plain NOT interested in because it's not the genre I want to write!! THANK YOU! I'm glad I'm not crazy LOL

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