Basic Tips I Have For Writers
Don’t worry about making the perfect sentence. Focus on the story not the sentence
Don’t worry about finding that perfect word, just write the word that comes to mind. Fix it when you edit.
Know when to show and when to tell
Allow for character relationships to form naturally. Let their relationships take their course. Don’t force anything, when you do your readers can tell.
Research, research, research. Respect your audience. They are smarter than you think. When you half formed/incorrect information your readers will know. It not only makes you look lazy and inconsiderate for your own writing, it makes you look inconsiderate to your readers.
Characters drive the plot. Make sure your characters are really strong before writing. Strong characters can carry a weak story, a strong story cannot carry weak characters.
Allow yourself to write terribly. Sucking is the first step to being good. Don’t worry about being perfect the first time around. First drafts are always going to be terrible.
Make sure dialogue moves along plot; it should be to reveal character, reveal plot, or add to the drama. It shouldn’t be just there to add conversation. When you have too much dialogue it drags and becomes dry.
When stuck; ask yourself what can’t happen if you don’t get past this scene. Somewhere in there is your answer for how to get through it.
Read a SHIT TON of the genre you plan on writing. You’re only as good as your background. The more you know on the topic the more you know how to break away and be more original.
When to show and when to tell basics:
Character traits: Personality through interactions with other characters. How they talk to some and how they talk to others. What they say when others aren’t around.
Character relationships. If they’re so in love or fated enemies we should be able to see it in their interactions. Give us a why, a tangible visible why in their chemistry. Don’t just tell us how fantastic a character is.
Appearances. We should be able to decide as readers if a character is beautiful by how they’re described. Not just THIS PERSON IS SO BEAUTIFUL AND SO PERFECT. We should know how they smile, the pitch of their voice, how they carry themselves, how they move. Describe their features without being vague. Such as: sculpted like a greek god.
Mood: describe the atmosphere, describe the character and how they’re reacting (heart rate, breathing, trembling, temp, ect), how other characters are reacting, and how everything feels.
How a character reacts in adverse situations, how they struggle, how they succeed. We need to see and observe their struggles.
The strength of a character. We should be able to see they’re strong in their emotions/mentality, or physical strength. We should see how they work for it, how they use it, and what they intend on doing it.
How to gauge that strength. (I see this a lot with people who base their writing off of anime) everyone keeps getting stronger, better, and badder. Then we can never see if that character is as strong as they’re being described. Don’t tell us they’re the strongest without being able to show it and for us to observe it. If readers can’t do that they’ll never appreciate the characters strength.
Where. Tell us where they are, the season, the time of day
When. The timeline of events, how long ago they happened. (this will let people know how new an event is or how old it is which changes the context of how characters react to it).
Who. We should know names almost instantly. Try to avoid relying on ‘the blonde boy’ ‘the pale boy’ use names when you can. Especially if there are multiple characters of the same gender. A bunch of he,he,he,him,him, his. Gets confusing after awhile and you can’t keep up.
What. We should know what is going on.
Why. (save for if you’re leading up to why) we should know why something is happening in the midst of describing the reactions to it.
Ethnicity or nationality (this is arguable) if you’d like to leave it a mystery do so. But it might help if we know if your character blends in to the background or sticks out like a sore thumb.
Age. You don’t need to describe them in vague things like young woman. That can be arbitrary. Someone who’s 30 might see young as 18 where someone who’s 60 might picture a 30 year old. Just give their age.
I hope this helps. These are some things that can be confusing for others. I especially see people mixing up when to show and when to tell.
