my 10 holy grail pieces of writing advice for beginners
from an indie author who's published 4 books and written 20+, as well as 400k in fanfiction (who is also a professional beta reader who encounters the same issues in my clients' books over and over)
show don't tell is every bit as important as they say it is, no matter how sick you are of hearing about it. "the floor shifted beneath her feet" hits harder than "she felt sick with shock."
no head hopping. if you want to change pov mid scene, put a scene break. you can change it multiple times in the same scene! just put a break so your readers know you've changed pov.
if you have to infodump, do it through dialogue instead of exposition. your reader will feel like they're learning alongside the character, and it will flow naturally into your story.
never open your book with an exposition dump. instead, your opening scene should drop into the heart of the action with little to no context. raise questions to the reader and sprinkle in the answers bit by bit. let your reader discover the context slowly instead of holding their hand from the start. trust your reader; don't overexplain the details. this is how you create a perfect hook.
every chapter should end on a cliffhanger. doesn't have to be major, can be as simple as ending a chapter mid conversation and picking it up immediately on the next one. tease your reader and make them need to turn the page.
every scene should subvert the character's expectations, as big as a plot twist or as small as a conversation having a surprising outcome. scenes that meet the character's expectations, such as a boring supply run, should be summarized.
arrive late and leave early to every scene. if you're character's at a party, open with them mid conversation instead of describing how they got dressed, left their house, arrived at the party, (because those things don't subvert their expectations). and when you're done with the reason for the scene is there, i.e. an important conversation, end it. once you've shown what you needed to show, get out, instead of describing your character commuting home (because it doesn't subvert expectations!)
epithets are the devil. "the blond man smiled--" you've lost me. use their name. use it often. don't be afraid of it. the reader won't get tired of it. it will serve you far better than epithets, especially if you have two people of the same pronouns interacting.
your character should always be working towards a goal, internal or external (i.e learning to love themself/killing the villain.) try to establish that goal as soon as possible in the reader's mind. the goal can change, the goal can evolve. as long as the reader knows the character isn't floating aimlessly through the world around them with no agency and no desire. that gets boring fast.
plan scenes that you know you'll have fun writing, instead of scenes that might seem cool in your head but you know you'll loathe every second of. besides the fact that your top priority in writing should be writing for only yourself and having fun, if you're just dragging through a scene you really hate, the scene will suffer for it, and readers can tell. the scenes i get the most praise on are always the scenes i had the most fun writing. an ideal outline shouldn't have parts that make you groan to look at. you'll thank yourself later.
happy writing :)
1. show don't tell is every bit as important as they say it is, no matter how sick you are of hearing about it. "the floor shifted beneath her feet" hits harder than "she felt sick with shock."
I'd say this is generally decent advice. The specific examples used here aren't necessarily the best.
2. no head hopping. if you want to change pov mid scene, put a scene break. you can change it multiple times in the same scene! just put a break so your readers know you've changed pov.
I agree with this. If you're writing from any limited sort of POV, it can get confusing and can be pretty jarring to suddenly switch POVs mid-paragraph or even mid-scene without a break. It's generally considered "best practice" to indicate a POV change with a break of some sort.
3. if you have to infodump, do it through dialogue instead of exposition. your reader will feel like they're learning alongside the character, and it will flow naturally into your story.
I understand what they're trying to say here, but this advice could lead to some pretty bad dialogue like "as we both know, we have lived in X city our whole lives" ... If both characters already know a fact, they shouldn't be stating it in dialogue just for the sake of informing the reader.
4. never open your book with an exposition dump. instead, your opening scene should drop into the heart of the action with little to no context. raise questions to the reader and sprinkle in the answers bit by bit. let your reader discover the context slowly instead of holding their hand from the start. trust your reader; don't overexplain the details. this is how you create a perfect hook.
An opening exposition dump can be boring, but I'd say this is far from a hard and fast rule. Starting in the middle of the action is known as "in media res", and it's a choice you can make in your story, not a requirement.
Many very famous classic works of literature start with heavy exposition.
When done poorly, starting in the middle of the action gives the reader no information to care about the characters and why things are happening to them, and by the time enough answers have been "sprinkled in" to the story for them to care, they've already lost interest and stopped reading.
5. every chapter should end on a cliffhanger. doesn't have to be major, can be as simple as ending a chapter mid conversation and picking it up immediately on the next one. tease your reader and make them need to turn the page.
This might work well in certain genres, but this honestly just sounds exhausting to read.
If the only thing keeping your reader engaged in the story is constant cliffhangers, I think that's a sign of poor writing. The reader should be engaged because they care about the characters and plot, and want to see the overall resolution of the entire story. If they're engaged like that, it doesn't matter if a chapter ends at a natural stopping point - the reader is going to come back to reading because they want to know how the story as a whole continues. Not because you awkwardly cut a conversation in half.
6. every scene should subvert the character's expectations, as big as a plot twist or as small as a conversation having a surprising outcome. scenes that meet the character's expectations, such as a boring supply run, should be summarized.
7. arrive late and leave early to every scene. if you're character's at a party, open with them mid conversation instead of describing how they got dressed, left their house, arrived at the party, (because those things don't subvert their expectations). and when you're done with the reason for the scene is there, i.e. an important conversation, end it. once you've shown what you needed to show, get out, instead of describing your character commuting home (because it doesn't subvert expectations!)
I put these two together, because they're related.
I agree that mundane details with no impact on the characters or relevance to establishing the setting don't really need to be included in most stories. The mundane everyday stuff like getting ready, going to the bathroom, driving, eating, etc. isn't usually necessary to show if there's nothing else going on during that activity. It doesn't give the reader any information they couldn't have already assumed on their own, and thus can be really boring - the reader will reasonably assume the character got dressed before leaving their house, so they don't really get that much out of reading about it.
However, you don't need to subvert the character's expectations just for a "boring"/mundane scene to be included.
For example, you could use a scene of the character getting ready to show their negative self-image, or positive take-on-the-world attitude. That's how the character feels every day, so it's not subverting their expectations, but it's showing the reader something important about them (see "show don't tell").
8. epithets are the devil. "the blond man smiled--" you've lost me. use their name. use it often. don't be afraid of it. the reader won't get tired of it. it will serve you far better than epithets, especially if you have two people of the same pronouns interacting.
I mostly agree with this one.
Especially if you are writing in a "close" POV, where the narration reflects the world/events as experienced by a character. Would that character think of the other person as "the blond man"? They might, if they don't know the other character's name yet and there's several people around. But if they know the other character's name, they're more likely to think of them by name rather than generic description.
Another possible pitfall of using epithets is that the reader may not picture the characters the same way as you, even despite descriptions. You might have described the character as having blonde hair, but the reader can only picture him with brown hair because he reminds them of someone they know with brown hair. Or you may see their hair color as the most defining attribute of the character, but the reader thinks of them being tall and muscular and doesn't really remember their hair color. Or they don't have a clear mental picture of him at all. So when you say "the blond man", they have to stop and think, wait, which one was blonde again?
9. your character should always be working towards a goal, internal or external (i.e learning to love themself/killing the villain.) try to establish that goal as soon as possible in the reader's mind. the goal can change, the goal can evolve. as long as the reader knows the character isn't floating aimlessly through the world around them with no agency and no desire. that gets boring fast.
Another one I agree with.
For the most part, a character's wants and desires are the way a reader connects with them. The reader wants to see the character either succeed and get what they want, or fail and suffer.
If the character just floats through life, with the events of the story happening around them but not affecting them, it's hard to connect with that and care - if the character doesn't ever care about things, how does the reader care about the character?
Now, there definitely can be stories where this rule is broken, that could be compelling, interesting stories. But as advice for a beginner, I think this is good.
10. plan scenes that you know you'll have fun writing, instead of scenes that might seem cool in your head but you know you'll loathe every second of. besides the fact that your top priority in writing should be writing for only yourself and having fun, if you're just dragging through a scene you really hate, the scene will suffer for it, and readers can tell. the scenes i get the most praise on are always the scenes i had the most fun writing. an ideal outline shouldn't have parts that make you groan to look at. you'll thank yourself later.
This is pretty decent advice too.
If there's a scene that has to happen for the plot to move forward, but you find the scene boring or tedious to write - try changing it up. Make that critical conversation take place while something more interesting is happening. Make the escape attempt more perilous.
If you're bored with a scene, it can be a sign that there's something missing/"wrong" with that scene.
Now, important caveat since this is aimed at beginning writers: you may only be interested in writing one specific type of scene at this point in the hobby. (Maybe you only like writing scenes where the characters are riding horses, IDK). It's good to expand your horizons a bit and try writing other things that are outside your comfort zone or current interests.
