I'm sure we all know the timeless classics of:
Write every day or often, in chunks, etc
Show, don't tell.
Try and aim for 1500-2000 word count, yadda yadda.
How much of this type of advice has helped you?
Or rather, which ones ended up wasting your time or even made your writing worse?
Is there a specific tip or technique that unlocked new creative possibilities for you or improved your writing in general? Such as helping with writing consistency, character development, pacing, or anything else.
Then there could be advice that just sounds overrated and ultimately winds up being ineffective. For example. some “golden rules” everyone swears by that just didn’t work for you.
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For myself, personally, I browsed around when I first found scribblehub and adapted to the shorter paragraphs. It is definitely not my style by any means, but I was able to understand the appeal and viewed it as a challenge to 'say more but write less', if that makes sense. lol
'Show don't tell' has been a hit or miss for me. In my opinion, I feel that sometimes 'telling' is necessary when you need to convey certain information. Trying to show all the time every time can definitely bog down pacing occasionally.
Best example of 'telling' would probably be in the harry potter books. (first thing I can think of)
J.K. Rowling frequently uses 'telling' to get through world-building or to give backstory quickly, but then she shifts to necessary 'showing', like with Harry's first experience going to Diagon Alley.
Anyway, let me know what you think!
Some of the best advice that I was given early on, (besides the standard) is this:
Description follows Action.
Or in short, don't just describe things statically, immerse the reader by describing what they are doing. It blends with the whole 'Show, don't Tell' side of things but is more specialized and focused.
For example, don't just describe how someone looks, use those descriptions actively through the perspective of the "PoV Character" (usually the protagonist).
So, lets say your protagonist is looking at someone and you want to describe what she looks like as she approaches him.
DON'T say: She was five and a half feet tall, has black hair and blue eyes, and is walking towards him.
INSTEAD say something like: Each steady, deliberate, step she took brought her closer to where he stood. Her clear blue eyes locked on his, belied the icy glare she levelled his way. One only obscured in part by the raven blank bangs that hung over her left eye.
Of course, you can take this kind of thing in any direction you want. What's important is that descriptions are relevant to the actions being performed, that the PoV character is directly perceiving, or interacting with, them.
The next bit of advice is:
Use all the senses. Not just sight.
This bit primarily comes into play when you're describing things. It's not only about what can be seen, but what can be heard, felt, smelled, and tasted. As well as HOW those sensations interact with the character's perceptions and perspective. Utilizing multiple sensory experiences as necessary to the story can deeply immerse the reader in the moment, and help that moment to breathe and come alive on the page.
Breaking it down, those two tips are the heart of my own densely detailed and descriptive writing style, from a technical standpoint. The rest is just understanding, and utilizing, proper grammar and deliberate, varied, sentence and paragraph structures to create a self-contained narrative pacing structure. Once you've got the hang of that, you'll be able to deliberately, and intentionally, control the pacing of your stories. To let the moments breathe as you intend, to speed up, or slow down, and pull your readers along with your desired, and intended, rhythm.
Finally, the last bit of advice was:
Make friends with spell-check and grammar-check tools.
Harsh, sure, but it helped, especially early on. I've made frequent use of those tools over the years as I honed my craft, and gladly pass the advice along to others as well. They're incorporated into just about every word-processor that I've used since, including MS Word 2003 - present, and Google-Docs for those looking for a quick, easy, and free, alternative. Sure there are other tools out there, like Grammarly, but as I've never used those, I can't attest to whether they can help or not.
As for some personal advice for aspiring authors:
Write for yourself, and your target audience. You can't please everyone, so don't bother trying to.
If you write for yourself, and what you enjoy writing about, it will show in your work, and will be that much more engaging for your audience, because they will clearly be able to see that you care about your work.
If you write for your target audience, you'll definitely get your target audience.
If you try to please everyone, you'll end up (in my experience) with a story that has no real direction, weight, or intent, as fumbles to deliver on any of its main story beats, because you're trying to entertain too many different audiences within the same story.
And lastly:
Don't try to be the next (Insert-Famous-Author, usually Tolkien, here). Be the first YOU.
This one's also pretty straight forward. Be yourself. Don't try to be someone else, or mimic them. Define your own style. What makes YOU a unique author, and tell the story YOU want to tell, how YOU want to tell it. That is what will make your stuff unique. Will make it stand out, and will, inevitably, make it memorable. Break the mold, and do your own thing.
