Featured: One tip a day, keeps writer's block away!

moon

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    Have any useful general tip or advice for writing? Be it regarding fiction, characters, plot, flow or language itself. Something you've thought of, something you make sure to always do, or something you've had to learn the hard way?

    Please come by and drop your tips here!

    - But no more than one piece of advice per day per person. space it out, yo

    - No discussion in this thread. If you read a post you'd like to discuss, please make a new thread on the topic, instead!
     
    Most living creatures have more than one primary sense. Don't just describe how things look to your characters, describe how they feel, sound, taste or smell too. Our memories and imaginations are linked to our primary senses so invoking more than one is a great way to further increase your audience's immersion into a scene.
     
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    If you're stuck trying to write some section of a story up, relax and leave it be for a while - and jump ahead to the next part instead! Perhaps as you're writing that one, you'll figure out an even better way to segue into it from the first one.
     
    3 key questions to ask when writing a scene/sequence/whatever are

    1) What do I want my character to get from this?
    2) What does my character want to do here?
    3) What could go wrong here?

    1 and 2 are actually quite different most of the time, and 3 is often used to find the way to derail 2 in favor of 1 without things feeling very forced. :) It's a good starting point~
     
    Synonyms may hold the same technical definition as a word you're trying to replace but oh man, they frequently don't hold the same connotations. Find examples of other writing that use the word you're thinking about and make sure that the connotation makes sense! Or ask around! Don't just rely on a thesaurus.
     
    In that same vein, "said" is not dead! It means exactly what you need it to mean! As do "exclaimed" and "asked". Neutral words for neutral situations, that blend into the prose. Again, synonyms don't have the same connotations. "Interrogated" is not the same as "asked", "shrieked" is not the same as "exclaimed", "stated" is not the same as "said". And when they're in the wrong place they can be so jarring! Also, if you want to have the same tone for an entire conversation, why not start off with "They spoke in low voices" or similar so you don't feel the need to clarify that they muttered or whispered every single line?
     
    Combat especially benefits from paying close attention to pacing. But that doesn't at all mean "write fast-paced action all the time"! Don't forget to write pauses or breathers into it. Feel the push and pull of the action and tension. The breath before a shot or the wary circling of an opponent are just as important to the sequence as a flurry of punches or some wild acrobatics.

    i could talk a lot about combat writing but most of it's pokémon-specific
     
    Even thirty words written is thirty words in. Don't knock progress down because it isn't a novel's worth.
     
    When coming up with a character's appearance, you should consider the norms of the society they live in as well as the world around them. What is considered appropriate dress? What's the temperature and the weather like? Which of your world's ethnic groups do they belong to? What is their personal history? All of these things play a part in what your character physically looks like and how they choose to present themselves.
     
    Think about how your writing is complementing your main character, especially from a first person point of view. For example, a sharp-tongued, cynical protagonist who doesn't think much of the world around them would complement a punchy, gritty style. Experimenting with styles is a great way to broaden your narrative skills.
     
    If you're writing a heavily singular character-driven scene or chapter, try to stay in that character's headspace. Get and keep the audience invested in that character's head, and don't jump to another character as it's likely to take your readers out of your main character's experience.
     
    The secret to writing a compelling action scene (combat or otherwise) is narrative weight, not spectacle. A good framework to follow is:

    1. Stakes: What do the characters stand to lose or gain from success or failure? ie. Why should we care?
    2. Tension: Stakes naturally lead to tension, but you can further develop this by keeping it unclear what the outcome will be until it becomes narratively appropriate to make it clear. You can also throw in things like secondary objectives and environmental hazards. Think what might influence the ebb and flow of the action.
    3. Progress: The action has to move the story forwards otherwise it's superfluous. Either characters or character relationships need to change/develop, or the overarching plot has to be progressed by the action.

    You can even use this framework, or something similar, to plan out your action in advance.
     
    When it comes to writing, use the correct tool for the job but also use the simplest tool for the job. If you find focusing on writing in a computer difficult, it might be because computers are kind of designed for *multi*tasking: try to avoid overloaded word processor suites (Office, Libreoffice) and try instead a simple text editor with spellcheck (and live preview if you do formatted writing). For example Geany, Abiword or Typora or even ye olde good classic Wordpad.exe.
     
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