# Learning to Write, A Newcomer's Guide



## kitreshawn (Sep 19, 2008)

William Faulkner's advice to new writers:

"At one time I thought the most importaint thing was talent.  I think now that the young man or the young woman must possess or teach himself, training himself, in infinate patience, which is to try and to try until it comes (out) right.  He must train himself in ruthless intolerance - that is to throw away anything that is false no matter how much he might love that page or that paragraph."


Too often I see that new writers talk about having ideas but that they find writing something is hard.  There seems to be this feeling that while people understand the importance of later revisions that they must produce something new - and something good - on their first try.  That somehow rewriting is cheating.

Let me be blunt.  Rough draft's are called rough drafts for a reason.  They suck.  They will be riddled with spelling and grammar errors.  Even if they are free from those they will be clogged with awkward sentences and useless words.  Even free from those sometimes they will simply just not be the right thing for the story.

Many new writers talk about how writing is hard, and it in fact does take effort.  That said it is much more difficult when you try to get it right on your first go.  By trying to be perfect you find yourself trapped in the same spot and ultimately get frustrated while your current ideas stagnate, growing old and keeping you from moving on to new ideas.

So how should a new writer get started?  I won't lie, it takes discipline.  Sit down at your computer or typewriter or grab a pen or whatever medium you prefer.  Find some idea, or even just a fragment of an idea, that grabs you.  Then start to write about it without any care for how good it is.  First attempts should be shorter, no more than 10 pages.

And yes what you write on your first time through is going to be horrible.  Trust me, what I jot down first reads like a nightmare.  The story reads all stilted and every character sounds exactly the same as the next.  But the thing to realize is that NONE OF THAT MATTERS because the importaint thing is to capture your ideas NOW and get them down.  Once they are out you can always go back and make changes.

It is impossible to edit an empty page.

"But surely Saul Bellow never had to rewrite a thing!" you say, yet Bellow rewrote Herzog start to finish 20 times.  "The opening chapters of Gish Jen's novel flow so smoothly that they had to be correct the first time!"  Gish Jen rewrote the opening over 40 times.

Writing, true writing, is about <i>re</i>writing - two, ten, or forty times.  In one sense it is part of the pleasure of writing, seeing your ideas take a shape that others can look over and enjoy.  At the same time it is a hard journey where you must closely examine every aspect of your story and question it.  Is that sentence needed?  Is that the correct word?  Could this be written better from another angle?  Does this progress the story?

Often times it feels like trying to scale a mountain, reaching a false summit.  The real summit, which had been hidden previously by the false, towers over you ahead... though perhaps once you arrive it turns out to be false as well.  The trick is to not get discouraged because you are making progress and with each successive draft, though it may just be another false summit, moves you closer to completion.

Too often new writers lose interest in revising a story because they simple go from start to finish and make a few changes.  They fail to see that a early draft is fluid - alive.  It can be totally redrafted or rearranged.  A final scene could be moved to the beginning, first person shifted to third, past tense changed to present, characters ripped out or added.  Language used, scene length, setting, description, body language, turns of phrase, all can be evaluated and if necessary changed!

Revision is just that: you have a chance to change the vision of your work.  Revise a chapter or story until it feels finished.  By revision you build upon your rough draft, revising it with various strategies until it becomes a first draft, then continuing to change it until it is at last finished.  It is important to keep in mind that when you finish a revision you put the previous draft aside.  The last thing you want is 7 different versions of the same story floating around.  You want one active draft, but don't throw out the old.  Some advise starting over and over again but I feel that this is a mistake since there is almost always something wonderful in that first spark of the story that MUST be saved and revised around.

Ted Solotaroff wrote an essay called "Writing in the Cold" which says:

"Writing a first draft is like groping one's way into a pitch-dark room, or overhearing a faint conversation, or telling a joke whose punchline you've forgotten.  As someone said, one writes mainly to rewrite, for rewriting and revising are how one's mind comes to inhabit the material fully.  In its benign form, rewriting is a second, third, and nth chance to make something come right, to 'fall graciously into place,' in Lewis Hyde's phrase.  But it is also a test: one has to learn to respect the misgiving that says, This still doesn't ring true, still hasn't touched bottom.  And this means to go back down into the mine again and poke around for the missing ore and find a place for it and let it work its will."

Posts I make after this initial one will be to provide ways to edit and revise your story.


----------



## kitreshawn (Sep 19, 2008)

*Filling out Thin Areas*

Read one of your early drafts start to finish so you are intimately familiar with all events and characters.  Then find a spot that seems to need to be strengthened.  Add one of the following lines (or maybe come up with your own!).


The last few nights (s)he had a recurring dream (or nightmare) about ______________.

Something seemed different _________________.

If someone said make a wish, (s)he would wish for _________________.

The one thing I couldn't say was ______________.

As a child, (s)he had learned _______________.

This time last year (s)he ______________.


----------



## kitreshawn (Sep 19, 2008)

*Details*

Make a list of importaint details in an early draft then consider if there are any details that have unexplored potential in your story.  Could they take the plot in a different direction?  Or open up new possibilities for the reader to consider?  Are there unneeded details that do not add to the story and can be deleted?  Can you reuse importaint details?


----------



## kitreshawn (Sep 19, 2008)

*Cut it up*

Have a story that just does not seem to work right?  Cut it up!  Literally!

Print it out and cut it apart with scissors into separate components of scenes and passages and flashbacks.  Number each so that they can be laid out in order easily as they appear in the story.  Hang the pieces on the wall with tape and just look over what is before you (the pieces don't have to be in order when you hang them, in fact I find it best if they are not).

How many scenes do you have?  Too many?  Too few?

What is the length of the different components?  Are too many the same length?

Does every part accomplish something?  Can you combine any?  Delete any?

Do any scenes seem to be missing or exciting possibilities unexplored?

Is material from the "past" in sections that make sense?

Can you rearrange the sequence of events and if so how does it impact the story?

What happens if you move the ending scene to the beginning, or somehow predict how everything will end?



This is actually a very strong technique I learned in one of my classes (many of the questions are copied word for word from a handout we got).  Cutting up a story liberates you and gives you the ability to look at a part by itself and demand it stand up on its own.  It also makes it easy if there are parts/characters that can be removed without effecting the story.  It also teaches you about the fluidity of a story, showing how different parts can logically fit into several spaces.

You may also try cutting up stories by authors you really like and just look at how they built them, and maybe even compare them to yours.


----------



## kitreshawn (Sep 19, 2008)

*Enhance Conflict*

Take your story and intensify the conflict.  Bring up the tension and shrillness at every turn, even to the point that it is absurd.  Add stress wherever possible, both between your characters and within them.  Exaggerate the obstacles faced.  Be as extreme as you can be.

It sounds silly but it creates an awareness of the need for a high level of tension while at the same time giving you a healthy idea of how easy it is to go over the tip.  This is not meant to improve your story, as such, though it often provides additional conflict ideas and opens up possibilities for more interesting dialogue.  It may also point out minor conflicts you have not noticed the possibility for previously, which can be great to flesh out sections that seem slow.


----------



## kitreshawn (Sep 19, 2008)

*Write Outside the Story*

This is one I suggested somewhere else sometime.  I cannot find the original link.


Does your story not feel finished?  Have your main character do one of the following exercises, as if (s)he owned a notebook.  Act out this as best you can.  For instance, you write on your computer but your character prefers a pen so go with the pen.  Remember the character is doing this exercise!

Make a diary entry for the time of the story.

Make a diary entry for the time BEFORE the story.

Write a letter to someone not in the story.

Write a letter to someone in the story.

This lets you explore aspects of the story that may seem to be on the periphery and also give you a deeper look at what your character thinks like and motive for their actions.  You never lose a thing by taking a closer look at your characters and finding ways to speak and act as themselves.


----------



## Ainoko (Sep 19, 2008)

Those are all great tips and suggestions. I printed this thread and will keep it next to my PC to keep me going when I hit the wall.


----------



## kitreshawn (Sep 20, 2008)

*On Story Plot*

There are those that argue that a story should have a set plot, or at the very least some skeleton of a plot, to guide a writer.  Especially when beginning to write it can really help to keep you on track to where you are going.  However I tend to disagree with this point of view, and for that reason rarely tend to talk about plot.

For me plot is subordinate to characterization.  In my opinion the movement of a story is driven by how a given character observes and then reacts to the events around him, and the more surprising the better.  This is not to say that having a set plot is incorrect but rather that I personally find that it tends to limit my creativity.

Yet I also realize that for a new writer it is vital to understand exactly what plot is.  Even with my point of view character is at best half of the plot dynamics and the actual situation is the rest.  That said it is how the character observes, interprets, and acts (or chooses to not act) that ultimately drives the story forward.  Keep this in mind: in order for the story to develop your characters must DO something.

At the very lowest level every plot is the same.  The reader is presented with a primary character in a situation.  The situation grows more complicated, more dire, and ultimately reaches the point of crisis (commonly called the Climax of a story).  After comes the resolution of the crisis; something happens.  Nearly every time things have changed in some way.

One thing new writers need to keep in mind is that a story actually ends with the resolution of the climax.  They have seen how things turned out and your hold over them after this point will be much weaker.  However if the story was good they will be reluctant to leave the characters and world they have come to know and love so they will stick around to find out what happens after the resolution.  This is called the denouement.  Keep in mind that this section of the story should be brief, your story is over and you should let the reader go gracefully while tying up any minor lose ends that may still exist (all of your major plot points must already be resolved!).

Often it helps to think about your characters in their lives before the story.  When trouble comes looking for them they should already have some life they are living.  It can be a good life or a bad life, but in either case the trouble represents some force that is changing the status quo.  Really a plot should revolve around some unstable situation, though what exactly that means depends on the type of story you are writing.  When it comes to trouble no character should be completely neutral.  Everyone has some sort of agenda of their own and the unstable situation should set them into motion driven by the force of their own personalities and goals.

One of the best plot devices you can have is to create tension.  One of the easier ways to do this is to say something will happen... then put it off for a time.  The reader gains the impression of something being stretched, such as motive.  In the motive example the tightly wound motivation will continually constrict and build up pressure as the reader knows it must eventually snap free and drive the action forward..  Properly done tension will both create suspense and foreshadow.

A final word on plot before I finish this post: when it comes to what happens in a story there are two questions a reader asks.  "Then What?" and "Why?".  A reader wants to know what is going to happen next in a story, but just as importaint to them they want to understand WHY something is happening.  In many cases the answers to these questions will be woven together, however by forcing them apart it is entirely possible to create different effects.  For example, many mystery stories tend to obscure the question of "why?" and then over the course of the story reveal the answer.  Other stories may explain why what is going to happen has happened but leave the possibility for several paths for the story to take, building up the anticipation to finally see what ultimately happened.  It is even possible to use both effects to a lesser degree over the course of a single story.


----------



## Silver-Seren (Oct 4, 2008)

Ah, this is helpful beyond most other things i've seen. I don't believe just beginning writers can take something from this, but everyone.

I especially agree with what you've said about tension. Emotions, to me, are some of the hardest things to portray within writing and find the correct word that fits just right. I took a certain section from one of my chapters and found that it was bland, without the correct horrified emotion that was needed, and corrected it. But all of my works are still at an obviously beginning stage.

I'm definitely going to be watching this for more and use some, if not all, of it. Very helpful indeed, sir.


----------



## kitreshawn (Oct 30, 2008)

Been a long time since I posted anything to this so I figure it is about time again.

One of the biggest problems I had (and have heard of others having) is that sometimes finishing a project is hard.  This happens a lot when you are just starting out and can be especially discouraging since you may have all kinds of ideas but never finish any.

There are many reasons you might not finish a project.  Personally when I was starting out my biggest problem was simply that I thought in terms of too grand a story for me to be able to tell well given my skills.  I had the whole story in mind but because it took so long to get it all out I eventually lost interest or became frustrated.  Other reasons exist as well.  Perhaps you came up with a good idea for a story but not how to end it and all your endings seem silly or stupid.  Perhaps you got busy with something else and never got around to picking the story back up.  Perhaps something about the story just felt off.

It isn't a bad thing to not finish a story here or there.  There are many stories I never finish writing, and some projects I abandon knowing I will probably never pick them back up.  It is only a problem if you never finish any story.  Especially if you are just starting out because it cuts out the joy of finally being able to look over a story and say that it is finished.

This is one of the major reasons I suggest new writers start out with easy projects first.  Personally I think flash fiction is the best way to start just because it is so short but can really be polished up using all the tools you will use on a longer story.  For those of you who don't know flash fiction is a very short story, usually no longer than 1,000 words.  It exists somewhere between the realm of prose/poetry and short stories.

That said only so much of a story can be told with flash fiction.  For most beginners doing a regular short story (~5,000-10,000 words) is a good goal.  This lets you tell a fairly complex story but is not so large it becomes daunting.

But what if you have a great story idea that you really want to write?  You KNOW it will take much longer than a simple short story can provide.

In this case I suggest caution.  On the one hand you can take a lot of notes and save it for when you feel your skills are up to the task, but there is another more satisfying rout to take as well.  Carefully plot out and write your story so that instead of a novel it becomes a short story series.  Each story can stand alone, but they also build upon each other.  It will let you practice the art of weaving a long plot thread, however because each story is stand alone it is also possible to move on in between any two stories without feeling that the work is unfinished.

Another reason this is, I think, importaint is that there are two things you really need when starting out.

1) Feedback.  Unless you find out what people do and do not like you will never really learn what does and does not work.  It is well and good to say "well I like it when things are like this" but if you are the only one who does you will not make much progress in your writing.

2) Praise.  Lets face it, one of the major reasons anyone does any type of art is so that other people experience it and enjoy it.  Hearing someone say something you wrote is great will really make your day, especially since writing is very hard work.  Early on it is easy to get discouraged by how difficult some days (or weeks!) can get, and while you can share an unfinished work most praise will be qualified with a discouraging "cannot wait to see it finished".

So with that in mind I always suggest that new writers start out small and work their way up.  It builds confidence and also makes it easier to learn.


----------



## kitreshawn (Nov 3, 2008)

Dialogue is an importaint aspect of any story.  Does your story have more than one character?  Then they are likely to talk at some point.  Does your story have only one character?  Then they will certainly have to have an internal dialogue.  Is your story first person?  Then pretty much the whole thing is dialogue spoken from the character to the reader.

There are three tricks to doing dialogue.

1) Make it interesting and importaint.

2) Make it readable.

3) Fool the reader into thinking it is how people naturally talk.


The first point is up top because it is probably the one I see violated the most.  It is really easy to write dialogue that is boring or unimportant.  For it to be worth putting in your story it must somehow be relevant to the plot and also be something that will catch the reader's interest.  If you cannot do both then either the dialogue should be removed, redone, or summarized.

In fact summarizing dialogue is probably one of the most under used tools of new writers.  There are a lot of things that can be summarized.  Greetings and good byes are at the top of the list.  Everyone knows how the traditional greeting/good byes go and so they will not notice this being glossed over (heck, in many cases you can simply skip it).  For instance:

"Hello," I said and shook his hand.  "I was wondering when I would see you again."

Can be redone as:

We greeted and shook hands.  "I was wondering when I would see you again."

Another time to summarize dialogue is when it is a long boring exchange or where the talking would have gone on for a long time without much importaint being said.  For example, if you were to write about a car trip you could in the course of a sentence or two quickly list the topics that were spoken about, jump into a brief exchange that is relevant/interesting to the story, then summarize the rest of the conversation.

The biggest thing to learn is when it is proper to give a brief overview of what was said and when it is better to step the reader through it.  This takes some practice to get a feel for so you may want to try it several ways before you decide on any one.  However a good rule of thumb is that if dialogue seems to be dragging on or is uninteresting there is probably something that can be done in overview.  This is especially useful for ending character conversations so that you can move on with the story.


Number two holds its place because dialogue that is difficult to read will hinder your story.  This usually happens when a character has some sort of accent and the writer is trying too hard to show it by using phonetic spellings and so forth to show the accent.

There is nothing wrong with trying to show the accent, but in almost every case it is best done in moderation.  Weird spelling (even if it is phonetic) or punctuation puts an extra burden on the reader.  Make the burden too heavy and they may start to have trouble reading what is said - or worse they may misread.  For light accents it is probably just best to state that the character has a minor accent (or lisp, or whatever) and remind the reader about that fact from time to time.  For heavier accents throw in one or two artifacts of their speech that you think are especially telling and leave it at that.

Oh, and please do be consistent when throwing in speech artifacts.  Don't have your cowboy say y'all half the time and you all the other half.  Pick one and stick with it.  True it is unlikely the reader will notice (unless you use the expression a lot and switch all the time) but there will still be a slight off feeling that will be difficult for them to shake.


Perhaps the hardest thing to do is fool the reader into believing your characters talk like real people.  Written dialogue sounds nothing like actual human speech.  Read a court transcript or tape a dinner conversation and play it back.  There are a whole lot of things like aborted phrases, false starts, and 'thinking' sounds or pauses.  While you can throw these into your story dialogue (very sparingly) for effect overusing them makes your dialogue difficult to read.

Instead you need to aim for a feeling of "that is the type of thing someone would say."  This can be hard because it needs to either be generic or closely matched to the character.  Whenever possible try to carefully tailor what is being said to the personality of the speaker.  Generic things are much easier to write, true, but are better left said by unimportant characters as they will tend to make your more developed ones suddenly fall flat.

So have your racist characters justify their prejudges with self serving 'science' studies.  Religious characters will ignore their own shortcomings or justify them in the frame of their beliefs.  Good people lie 'for the benefit of all' and some villains may be right even if their solution is unacceptable.  Your ultimate goal is to have the reader believe he has heard someone say that type of thing before, or that he has met people who would say/believe that sort of thing.  THAT brings the character to life.


----------



## M. LeRenard (Nov 3, 2008)

You know... number three; it's probably more about cutting all the crap out of regular speech.  Which, frankly, most people do on instinct anyway.  When you're talking with someone, you only remember the important things they say.  Five minutes after your conversation, you're not likely to remember how many times they said 'uh' or 'like' or 'um', or what have you, but you can still recognize someone's manner of speaking through the various rhythms they use, their diction, things like that.  It's those things you should be transferring to your writing.  Once you get the basics down, then you can play with it, by adding in things like 'um' or false starts or things like that, because there's a place for those too.
So I guess, don't concentrate too hard when you're thinking about how someone talks.  Dialogue is one of those things that's often best just played by ear, I think.


----------



## V_D_O (Nov 4, 2008)

Read all dialogue out loud before calling it done, gesticulating and imagining accents and emphasis and everything. DO IT.

"What in the world do you want for me to tell you? You're at fault for this entire bizarre situation in the first place!"
Seems almost okay, until you try attaching it to a character and reading it out loud. Compare it to this:
"What the heck do you want me to say? You're the one who started this whole mess in the first place!"

I can picture plenty of characters who might use the second. I'm having a hard time trying to imagine a tone and personality that would make the first outburst not sound forced and awkward.

Also, for number one, it's okay to use greetings and stuff in moderation to show more about a character. For instance, if a conversation starts off like this:
"Good evening, Bob," John said as he tipped his hat, "how are you tonight?"
"Yo, John," Bob waved back, "great, you?"
You've just learned something about the characters. John is polite, proper. Bob is terse, to the point. If both were going to just say "Whassup," or "Pleasant day, my good man," it'd be something to skip. But the little things that show differences are important, because they define a lot about people.


----------



## ScottyDM (Nov 6, 2008)

I don't read just the dialog out loud, I read the whole thing out loud. And when judging stories in the contest I read them out loud too. That really catches a lot of problems! Should you act out your story while reading? Well, yea sure. But there's the possibility that you'll act out things that are _not_ in the written word. That is, your dialog could be a delight, but perhaps it lacks beats (snippets of action). So your acting could be based on imagination and not an accurate reflection of what you've written.

Silver-Seren mentioned struggling with putting emotion into a piece. That is probably one of the hardest tasks an author can face. We can write with our guts in knots and tears in our eyes--but the reader sees only the words. And when we try to edit the piece weeks or months later we will still feel this residue of emotion rather than reading the words. So how to judge? A useful technique is to get a little tape recorder and record yourself reading that scene. Read with as little emotion as possible and do _not_ act out any parts. If you can manage a monotone and flat pace, so much the better. Then listen to the playback. _It's all about the words._


I recently ran into an interesting book on writing by Bill Johnson, who seems to know his stuff. We've been messaging each other under his YouTube posting (he was marketing his book on YouTube) where we hashed out some clarifications over his basic idea. Rather than repeat what we'd written, see here. He's also got a longer video on the subject of his book: _A Story is a Promise_.

What I've taken from this is that to be effective, your story has to be about _something_. That is, it needs a defining promise. I've figured out the defining promise for a novel I'm writing. I use mind-mapping software to think about and plan my stories and so for this novel I've placed a bubble near the middle of my mind-map. I made it bright yellow, set the type larger than normal, and wrote my two-word story promise in that bubble (in all caps). Thus, I am constantly reminded: _focus on this!_ Every scene must somehow relate to that two-word promise or it doesn't belong.

Bill mentioned beginning writers who write for themselves.

I think we can either write about what interests us, or we can write what we think will sell. Of the two, writing about what interests us has the greater potential to produce a fantastic story. However, the problem comes about when we write _only_ for ourselves.

It's perfectly fine if you write only for yourself, but if you do then please don't show me your self-indulgent story or post it where I might find it, and I suspect other readers feel the same. If you want someone to read your story then you really need to write for your readers. What I mean by that is you need to learn to hone your craft. Now I'm an engineer. I was born to be an engineer, my brain is tuned for it. One of my mental traits is to always look for a better solution, and to see how things work and try to improve them. So I know that no matter how insanely great your (or my) mad writing skilz, there's always room for improvement. So IMO a writer who writes for the reader is willing to try to improve.

Oh yea, and to get back to the subject of Silver-Seren's post, as a reader I really don't give a flip how _you_ felt when you wrote the story. What I care about is how I feel when I read it. The self-indulgent writer will moan and cry and say stuff like, "But my emotions were genuine when I wrote this. How dare you criticize my emotions." Well, the problem isn't your emotions. It's the words you chose and how you put them together--or it could even be what you chose to write about. Your story structure.

Storytelling is a large-scale issue of craft and in Bill's book-long essay he focuses on one aspect of storytelling: _what the story is about_. Some examples: discovering love (or rediscovering love), emotional healing, finding your place in the world, courage, never giving up, etc. It's a lesson I need to _grok_, and according to Bill I'm not alone.

So yea. Figure out what your story is about, then keep focused on that. Oh, and try to let the reader know what your story is about as soon as practical otherwise they might get bored and quit reading.


Have fun writing!

Scotty


----------



## Poetigress (Nov 6, 2008)

ScottyDM said:


> Bill mentioned beginning writers who write for themselves.
> 
> I think we can either write about what interests us, or we can write what we think will sell. Of the two, writing about what interests us has the greater potential to produce a fantastic story. However, the problem comes about when we write _only_ for ourselves.
> 
> It's perfectly fine if you write only for yourself, but if you do then please don't show me your self-indulgent story or post it where I might find it, and I suspect other readers feel the same. If you want someone to read your story then you really need to write for your readers.



The problem is that people can mean different things when they say they "write for themselves."  Some, particularly some poets, mean the kind of thing you're getting at -- that they don't really care if anyone else gets it or likes it, or if it's technically sound -- creative writing is like journaling to them.

When I say, though, that I write for myself, I don't mean that I don't write to communicate or to be read.  Of course, I want what I write to be read and hopefully appreciated, at least by some people, and that does mean paying attention to craft.  But writing for myself, the way I use the phrase, means that I don't choose my subject matter, characters, plots, whatever, in order to appeal to a market or to the audience.  If what interests me happens to also fit into a market niche or appeal to a group of people, then I'm going to run with it -- that's essentially what's happened with my writing in the fandom.  But I'm not going to waste my time and energy developing and writing something that I'm not emotionally involved with, just because I think I could sell it.  Writing is too hard, and life is too short.

I would certainly steer any writer toward writing what interests them rather than what they think will sell.  For one thing, writing to the market is risky -- there are some perennials, but what's popular now isn't going to be by the time your book finds a publisher and gets out there.  So "what will sell" is a moving target anyway.  

But more importantly, for me, as I mentioned above, focusing that way would be cutting my lifeline.  I'm of the belief that when you run across an author who brags about how he only writes for money and only writes what he can sell, and has no problem with that, you've actually found someone who has been lucky enough to enjoy writing what sells.  If you're not interested in and involved with and enjoying (at least on some level) what you're doing, it's not going to come through on the page, even if you manage to get it finished and have a passable product.  I think readers can tell when the writer's phoning it in.


----------



## kitreshawn (Nov 26, 2008)

*Pruining Words*

Been awhile again so it is once more time for a post.

This time I am going to talk about pruning out words from stories.  It may sound a bit odd, but honestly this is one of the best ways to improve your story.  Most writers, especially when they initially put down their ideas, simply use too many words.  The trick is to know which ones to remove.

Specifically you should be trying to remove unneeded words, or what I call "useless words."  To explain, a useless word is one which doesn't pull its own weight, its existence doesn't do anything for your story.  It is possible to write two paragraphs with exactly the same meaning and point, the only difference being that one is riddled with useless words.  In every case the paragraph that has been properly pruned will be cleaner, smoother to read, and in most cases somewhat easier to understand.

A word of caution.  When I talk about pruning out words the goal is not to write ultra concisely.  While it is true that more concise writing tends to be easier to understand and read that is merely because it contains no useless words.  It also lacks flavor which kills a story.  Rather you are aiming to remove any word which doesn't add anything to the story.  Often it is easy to tell, but you will sometimes find yourself wondering if a word is doing something or not.  The only real way to know is experiment on your own, try things different ways, and see what works for your style.

The complicating factor is that any word can be useless if it is the wrong word to use.  For this reason a dictionary (a REAL one) and a thesaurus can be your best friends.  This isn't so you can continually use words with different meanings to say the same types of things.  Rather it is so you can pick the right word to say in each situation.  Yes repeating the same word without end hurts your story, but going the other route is equally bad.

Now with that out of the way, here are some tips:

HAD:
This word is almost ALWAYS useless when I use it, and the same goes for when I see it in early drafts written by others.  There are only 2 times you should use it.  1) When you are talking about having something past tense (I had 16 pennies).  2) When there is no better way to refer to something that happened in the past tense.

#2 will rarely come up.  Usually when using had to tell about events it goes along the lines of "I had gone a full 3 blocks before...".  In most of those cases it is better to just use a single past tense word.  Using the above example: "I went a full 3 blocks before..."


THAT:
Another over worked word.  You will probably find 9 times out of 10 you can simply remove it from a sentence without any consequence at all.  I think this works its way in so easily because it is a pacing word, importaint for thinking but not so much for actually maintaining meaning of a work.


WHICH:
See THAT.  Not nearly as common of an offender, but again can often be removed.  Sometimes THAT will be a useless word but oddly WHICH will improve the meaning.  Try to figure that out.


ONE:
A lot of times this (and several words before it) can be replaced with A or AN.  Not always, but keep it in mind.  Especially for things that go something like "I got a single one of the apples" which should be better written "I got an apple."  The words A and AN specifically mean one.  Also, if you are talking about a specific item this is an instance where you can safely use THAT.  "I got THAT apple."


A little, a bit, slightly, etc.
This is one of the things I personally need to watch out for.  They seem innocent enough, but let them go even a little (haha) and suddenly everything in your story is "a little" this or "a bit" that or "slightly" something else.

There is nothing wrong with writing nuanced actions or thoughts, but try to avoid such a plain way of writing.  If you use any of those phrases there may be a single word which will work better for what you want.

Beyond that I have this to say: overusing these is bad in another way.  Abused these make it sound like you are hedging.  That is not good.  Also keep in mind that readers like decisive action, and the above phrases imply the opposite.  Have someone do something or don't, but never have them do something "a little".  As I said above nuanced actions/thoughts are fine, but make them DECISIVELY nuanced!


Finally, Most Adjectives:
Usually these are used in a way which is not very constructive.  Adjectives are rarely a good addition if they are there to reinforce an already existing meaning.  For example "She ran quickly" is silly, people who are running are normally moving fast so quickly is unneeded.

Likewise using an adjective to merely modify something also often comes off as weak.  Example "She quickly said before I could answer" may look good at first glance until you realize "She said before I could answer" implicitly implies she spoke up more quickly than you did.

"But wait" you say "sometimes a descriptor is correct.  Like walking slowly, not everyone is a slow walker."  That is true, however I would then ask you why is the person walking slowly.  Usually it is something they do intentionally, not because they are inherently slow.  Are they walking slowly because they are trying to stay quiet?  Use sneaking instead (or maybe creeping if you prefer).  Are they worried about danger?  Then they should instead be taking cautious steps, not merely walking slowly.  In many cases it is better to ask about motive and then pick words based off that rather than what simply is happening.

A much stronger way to use words is a way that causes a kind of grating effect (the best I can describe it).  Instead of matching what is happening it is better to have a meaning that contrary to, or at least unexpected, given what is happening.  A good example of an unexpected adjective is "She had a glossy smooth voice."  Now, people's voices cannot shine or anything like that, but this works none the less.  Don't take out all adjectives that match meanings either, just keep them sparse.


----------



## kitreshawn (Jan 26, 2009)

Again, been forever since I posted so I decided it was time again.

This one is going to be a little bit different.  Rather than telling you how to write it is going to be a list of resources I have found useful during my times writing, and why it is useful.


http://dictionary.reference.com/ 

So you are typing something up and, oh no you get the red underline!  So you spell check and select the word you want... or did you?  Spell check makes it VERY easy to misuse words.  As such I always look up a spell checked word before I use it (unless it is one of my common misspellings that I know for a fact what the correct spelling is once I see it).



http://thesaurus.reference.com/ 

Sometimes I find myself using a particular word way too much.  Often times this just means I am being redundant and the word can be removed most of the times it has been used... but sometimes it is better to get out the thesaurus.  Other times you know what you want to say, but cannot find the proper word to convey it.  In this case you can search for words that have similar meanings to some other word you feel is not quite right.



http://www.wikipedia.org/

Sounds stupid as hell, but if you are looking for an overview of most topics wikipedia is the place to go.  Don't trust the information to be 100% accurate, but it can give you a usually good idea of pretty much any topic and even gain ideas for what else you should need to learn about.  Stories (especially long ones) dealing with topics or technology or time periods you do not understand require you do research!  Saying 'its magic' or 'ultra advanced technology' only flies so far.


www.babynames.com

What is the difference between baby and adult names?  Not a god damned thing.  If you are having trouble naming a character look above.  Best used for minor characters, however sometimes you find a good name for a main character.  Google searches like "medieval names" and the like can also give you sites with more specific results.


http://www.dailywritingtips.com/

Sometimes I have found this site useful.  Lots of links that new writers will find useful down the left side.  Sometimes glancing over them is good just to remind yourself about things such as... oh... the difference between "effect" and "affect."  Or the difference between "should" and "ought."



The Elements of Style

Odd one out, this one is a book.  Buy it.  Now.  Seriously.  Reading it once will improve your writing so much you will not believe it, and it is very short.



Library Card

Another odd one out.  As you write you will find that reading makes you a better writer.  Get a library card and go visit the library once a week and try to come back with a new book every time (if you can read that quickly).  Not saying you should read to the exclusion of writing, though it is very easy to do.  Rather as you read you will absorb new techniques to convey ideas and scenes in your own writing without realizing it.  It may even trigger ideas of your own.  Not saying you should copy intentionally, but inevitably some of the styles of your favorite authors will work their way into yours naturally.  Think of it a little bit like being mentored.


----------



## kitreshawn (Jan 31, 2009)

I got bored at work today so I started thinking about names.

Character names can make or break a story.  For minor characters a name may not be even necessary, but anyone that pops up several times should probably be given a name.  And while in real life you cannot pick the name your parents give you in a story you can tailor a name specifically to each character.

How importaint is a good name?  Very.  Consider how romantic the tale of Romeo and Bertha would have been.  Even if the plot is exactly the same the fact that you change a name makes the tale suddenly silly.  Why?  Juliet was a silly, delicate, and overly passionate young lady.  Bertha sounds like she is built like a tank.

In a story the name you give a character carries a LOT of weight.  Your readers can never see your character, no matter how well you describe them (and lets not forget that descriptions that get too lengthy do more harm than good).  Oh they may remember general details like hair/eye/skin/fur color and overall body build, but that is about the extent of it.  Beyond that the readers will build their own image of what the character looks like, probably very different from what you envision.  The name you gave the character will figure very largely into this process.

Every name has inherent qualities that it carries along with it.  These qualities may be part of the word it is based off of, or because of common knowledge folk lore, or simply the sound and rhythm.  Some names sound delicate, others sound harsh, and others sound fat.  Some sound nice and others mean.  The name you pick gives a reader hints into the character's body type, personality, skills.  Beyond that it also gives hints about their culture and even standing in society.

Look at any book you've read that is professionally published, read the names of the main protagonist and antagonist (if there is one).

Example:

Wizards First Rule - 
Protagonist is Richard Cypher.  Richard is a name that has some heroic qualities (Richard the Lionhearted anyone?) and his last name sounds like 'cipher' when you say it.  Given that he becomes the seeker that finds the truth by asking the right questions, his name is well suited to his skills.  By contrast the bad guy is Darken Rahl.  His first name sounds like he brings darkness, darkens things, which is pretty accurate.  Rahl sounds very royal so he is obviously a king or emperor.

This pattern remains true for most every character.  There is a man name Chase who is a type of enforcement officer.  Shota is a witch.  Scarlet is a red dragon.  Rachel is a little girl.


From the writing standpoint you must have a name for characters before you can write about them.  It helps to cement their personality and traits into your mind.  Tells you what type of person they are.  The job is actually a lot easier than it sounds.

You can use one of the naming resources I listed in my previous post, but also don't be afraid to take other words and morph them into something that sounds like a name.  In the modern day the name pool (things you can call a person that everyone would recognize as a name) is absolutely huge and getting larger every day.  Even a name that seems silly at first may seem less so the more you are exposed to it, and it is better to have a name that the person will remember because it seemed silly at first than to pick one that will completely slip through their mind.

Trust your own ear for this one.  And don't be afraid to keep tweaking even if it sounds just a little off.  Remember that for a reader the name defines the character.


----------



## EmoWolf (Jan 31, 2009)

I printed all these tips out and took it to school, and its helped a quite a bit! This isn't even a beginner's guide, anybody can learn from this even
Can't wait for more! 

100th post yay!


----------



## MistyBlood (Sep 14, 2010)

Is it true that while people struggle with getting to the climax, they tend to just slack off with the rest? i have seen a few stories where people start of so strong, but towards the end they just fall.

With saying that, I would like to know if there is better ways to end a story than others. Maybe give an example or two, or ways you could close a story? Would be very much appreciated. (It's the part I struggle most with, and the very beginning as well).

I gotta say, this guide is very well written, and so informal. Thank you for taking the time to write all this, it really helps. ^^


----------



## quoting_mungo (Sep 15, 2010)

I actually have to disagree with you somewhat on the subject of names. You seem to suggest the process of how a character got their name is unimportant, but I at least think that to the (beginning) writer, it's actually important to keep in mind that the character had parents who gave them that name. Yes, you can choose a name that's evocative, and it's often a good idea, but really? Unless red dragons are pretty rare, or zir particular shade is unusual, Scarlet had some grade-A shit parents. Naming your offspring after a trait that 90%+ of the species possesses is like naming your son "Boy" or your infant "Baby". 

Another aspect of naming you don't bring up (and which, to be fair, I'm not sure I remembered to mention when I wrote an opinion essay on character names a while back, either) is that it's usually a good idea to keep in mind that you shouldn't make names too similar. A story where the main characters are Jonathan, Joshua and Josephine is going to slow down generally-fast readers, since the names look so similar on the page, forcing the reader to slow down and read every letter of the name. Ideally you want names which are reasonably visually distinct.

I've collected some further thoughts on that matter here, based on my own experiences with a few references to other sources.


----------



## Taralack (Sep 15, 2010)

kitreshawn said:


> Richard Cypher


 
the only reason I visited this thread :V


----------

