Writing Observations and Advice that Helped You Improve?

[ShanniiWrites]

In another thread, @anon68003072 and I started listing off advice and observations we noticed/learnt from writing. So, why not create a thread dedicated to the useful stuff?

Post away!

[anon68003072]

I’ll transfer over some of my observations so far to help get it started:

@anon68003072

it’s okay to go back and edit later, take what work for what you want and remove what doesn’t.

@anon68003072

My lecturers have been great with that actually, they said there’s no one way to write a good story, they just said to give your story what it needs and read your work with others to see if it actually does work, they also give advice where needed but mostly they just introduce us to things we never really thought of doing before I never thought I’d write a play.

@anon68003072

Your story can start later than you think

[ShanniiWrites]

Good idea!

@ShanniiWrites

always have a reason for what you’re doing! If you’re using tell instead of show, as long as you have a reason, that’s fine

@ShanniiWrites

You can probably get rid of at least 10% more than you think you can

@ShanniiWrites

make the reader ask questions before you answer them. Otherwise you’re just shoving info down their throat that they didn’t want

[ShanniiWrites]

No one’s first draft is a masterpiece. Don’t beat yourself up if your diamond looks pretty rough at first!

[ShanniiWrites]

Pacing is massively affected by the number of characters you have. If you have many important characters with important character arcs, you’re going to need lots of time to make it work. Otherwise it will throw your pacing off completely.

Lately, there are a lot of Netflix films that have wayyyy too many characters with important arcs. We don’t get enough time to see the growth properly, so it doesn’t feel earned

[ShanniiWrites]

@ShanniiWrites

Lately, there are a lot of Netflix films that have wayyyy too many characters with important arcs. We don’t get enough time to see the growth properly, so it doesn’t feel earned

So if you want to write a Game of Thrones-style epic with 5 main characters and 10 important secondary characters, you’re going to need to do a series of books or a TV series. A 2 hour film or single book isn’t going to cover it.

I’m looking at you Wendell & Wild

[ShanniiWrites]

Usually, the more time we spend with a character, the more we care about them. However, this is not always the case. Some characters are just unlikeable. Plus, you can cheese it a little if we get to see a character’s genuine personality and vulnerability! It shortens the time it takes for you to care about them a bit.

[RainbowCat]

My main advice is to write whatever, whenever and however you want. I feel like there’s so much “writing like this is right and writing like that is wrong” that it keeps new writers from enjoying the process. Do what works for you. And if you tried one way of doing it and realise it doesn’t work, try another way!

Something else I noticed is that your mood can really influence your writing. So, maybe it’s not the best idea to write a really happy scene on a bad day unless you’re good at editing the tone of something you wrote But you can use this to your advantage as well

And I’ll just leave this quote here because I think it’s great advice
“If you have an idea that you genuinely think is good, don’t let some idiot talk you out of it.” - Stan Lee

[WolfGamerGirl37]

Added tags to thread!