forum Writing tips thread

Started September 08, 2023 by Deleted user

tune

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Hey 👋 a thread for writing tips. don't know if this has been made before but I haven't seen one so! here is one.

Mine is that you don't have to write chapter by chapter or have to have your novel fully planned before you start. When I was younger I had it drilled into me that everything had to be linear and planned out before you started, which often meant I made it two chapters in and gave up. You can write your novel whichever way you like, you don't have to follow any kind of structure. The guidelines are there to guide you but aren't rules that have to be followed.

I find that I write best in spontaneous chunks, especially with emotional scenes. I need to be feeling that emotion to write it how I want, so it doesn't make sense to me that if you're on chapter 4 but you have a sad scene in chapter 40 and you feel sad right now that you should wait till you're at chapter 40 to write it.

I find that my work is more thematically consistent and characters more nuanced if i have a vague framework. By bouncing back and forth through the timeline, I find happy little accidents crop up and change my own perspective on certain events prior to the chunk I've written so I can go back and add in more context or nuance to previous scenes rather than waiting for the next draft.

^^^^ That may just be my AuDHD coming through tho

^^^^ That may just be my AuDHD coming through tho

my auDHD is like that as well 😓 I find it helps to write down every cool or important scene that needs to happen whether or not it's in order, have an idea of the conflict then go in. whether or not I get anywhere I usually have a better time once I drop it!

Very useful tip thanks for sharing

Something that I think is very helpful I learned from the channel LocalScriptMan (highly recommend, especially if you write scripts, but he also has stuff that non-script writers can learn. also he's funny.)

"Characters are Not People"

I don't think I'd be able to explain as well as he can (full explanation in this video, "How (Not) to Write Motivation, Complexity and Mental Health" https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mGk-RV_u2oU .) but what I've gleaned from it is that it is very difficult to write like extremely complex people for a story than to write complex characters. Again I highly recommend this video.

I also heard something similar in the book "Seize the Story" (a handbook for beginner writers by Victoria Hanley)- people have many, many traits, and we are inconsistent. To write an effective character, however, they need to be consistent and not have 89 traits so that they can be written.

Everything that you tell the audience should matter, so show what traits in a character matter, if that makes any sense at all.

I've got a book recc full of fantastic tips. It's meant for script writing but it applies to creative writing of any sort:

"The Art of Plotting" by Linda J Cowgill

I picked it up in a library quite a few years ago and it was so good I bought my own copy. She goes over basics like 3 act structure and what to include/omit from plots, how to plot, etc. As well as how to practically implement techniques and how to break traditional writing rules. Fantastic little book and a pretty quick read as well.