Writing Writing Advice Needed!!??

[Joelle]

I just started writing few weeks ago and I'm so much loving it, but the thing is, I need professional advice from other writers.
- What makes a book, not only stand out but memorable?
~ Is it the characters?
~ Is it the world or plot/theme of the story?
Overall, I don't know, so I just need some advice from other writers and even readers.

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

This stuff will help you.

Writing - Envy Lesson: Use Stronger Verbs Instead of Adverbs

Do you ever find yourself wanting to say, "she ran quickly?" Don't! Cut out as many of those pesky adverbs as possible. They create needless bloat and make your story harder to read. She ran quickly. < She Sprinted. She pushed hard against the heavy metal door. < She heaved against the heavy...

forum.scribblehub.com

Also, many of us here aren't professionals, though a lot do have experience. Better take a grain of salt when receiving advice; experience will still be your greatest teacher.

 

[Joelle]

This stuff will help you.

Writing - Envy Lesson: Use Stronger Verbs Instead of Adverbs

Do you ever find yourself wanting to say, "she ran quickly?" Don't! Cut out as many of those pesky adverbs as possible. They create needless bloat and make your story harder to read. She ran quickly. < She Sprinted. She pushed hard against the heavy metal door. < She heaved against the heavy...

forum.scribblehub.com

Also, many of us here aren't professionals, though a lot do have experience. Better take a grain of salt when receiving advice; experience will still be your greatest teacher.

Thanks. And you're right, I've gotten some experience in writing. I'll try out the material. thanks again.

 

[Macha]

Just don't write mediocre books. A mediocre book is a story that feels unremarkable. These books usually don’t have anything terribly wrong, but nothing stands out as especially good either. They have generic writing without a unique style or memorable details (like most books generated by AI)

People remember very bad books like My Immortal and very good Books like My Sister the Villainess because of how our brains are wired.

Events that trigger strong emotions activate the amygdala, which signals the brain to store the memory more deeply.
Neutral events don’t trigger this reaction, so they fade faster.

 

[Joelle]

I think I've read most books and I don't even remember the main plot of the story. Thanks for the advice, I'll give it a try maybe putting myself into the shoes of the readers.

 

[McPhoenixDavid]

Have enough knowledge about what you write. Don't go writing Greek Mythology when you don't even know who the mother of Zeus is (example...).

Write what you know or at least what you won't mess up.

Unless you're really good at fooling people into thinking you're an expert, you're good to go.​

 

[Envylope]

Have enough knowledge about what you write. Don't go writing Greek Mythology when you don't even know who the mother of Zeus is (example...).

That's an oddly specific example...

 

[Zagaroth]

If you have to pick which to focus on, IMO, characters are the most important thing.

Characters who are vivid and 'real' enough, whom you can care about, bring you into the story. Even if I don't really care about the plot much, as long as I can enjoy the characters, I can enjoy the story. of course, characters this strong tend to warp the story, and I believe a good author will let such characters warp the original shape of their story to create a new and better version.

Contrariwise, no plot is good enough to keep me hooked if all I feel about the characters is 'meh'. If I don't care about if a character lives or dies, it's hard to care about them saving the world.

 

[Agdistis]

Write what you yourself would want to read. If you wouldn't give the story you are telling any time, you should not expect anyone else to do the same. Enjoy what you are writing, and you will find an audience.

 

[Eldoria]

A memorable book is a book that is remembered as a pioneer of a new sub-genre. Examples:

1. High fantasy (LOTR);
2. Grimdark (A Song of Ice and Fire).

Or it could also be a memorable book is a book that is remembered as an icon in its segment because of its original story premise. Examples:

1. The experiment of becoming a false god when a genius student is given the power to determine death (Death Note);
2. What is the meaning of freedom amidst brutal oppression (AOT);
3. What is the equivalent price paid to obtain power/realize hope (FMA).

The point is, memorable books are remembered because they have a unique identity that makes them worthy of being remembered by readers.

Of course, it is not easy. I am not saying that memorable books will quickly become popular like junk food. LOTR took years to write and took more than a decade to become known.

If you are hungry for validation, don't write a memorable book. It is a difficult path for authors who need creativity, persistence and consistency over many years.

 

[MFontana]

I just started writing few weeks ago and I'm so much loving it, but the thing is, I need professional advice from other writers.
- What makes a book, not only stand out but memorable?
~ Is it the characters?
~ Is it the world or plot/theme of the story?
Overall, I don't know, so I just need some advice from other writers and even readers.

Pour your heart into your story, and write the story that you want to write.
Develop your own writing style. Don't try to emulate another's. (IE: Don't try to be the next Tolkien. Try to be the First YOU.)
None can truly know what the future will hold for ourselves, or our stories. So just do the best you can with the time you have.
Odds are, your work won't become memorable in your own lifetime. (If it does, all the better for you).
Set real expectations for yourself though.

Ultimately, in my experience anyway, those stories that become truly legendary and memorable, are those that do something new, and do it well.
There's no magic recipe to achieve this. No roadmap. Just doing your best to make your own path.

 

[soupsabaw]

All things are important for memorability, I feel. If you have good characters, good plot, good writing, and good storytelling then your story will naturally draw attention. You're new to writing, so I would honestly say focus on one thing at a time to polish a little more--also to avoid giving yourself too much at once. Jump around working on bettering each thing at your own pace, and slowly, you will improve.

 

[LeilaniOtter]

I think good characters are key: those whom we can relate to, watch grow and develop, succeed or fail, fall in love, or die. But it's also the interaction of the characters too; what makes them such a good fit within the book, and how they play off of each other; friends? lovers? enemies? All of these factors are important, which is why doing a character sheet sometimes first is a great idea.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

The thing with creative endeavors is:
1) What works for one person may not work for anyone else, or may yield different results.
2) Success may be independent of quality.
3) Lighting may strike twice, but you have to coax it back.

 

[CalypsoNymph]

Hardly a professional, but here are my thoughts. Could be wrong about them, but here we go:

First, I'm going to go off of your request of writing something that is memorable. I'm not going to say this is general writing advice, just to help with that specific question.

Now, if that is the goal, the way that I would go about it is to make sure it come from you. There are other ways, but I believe that's the most reliable one that doesn't rely on 'be a prodigy writer' or 'get lucky'. It won't ensure it becomes memorable to everybody, but to some people, it will touch and affect them. This is assuming that everything else, at the very least, doesn't take away from the story itself -- so, you know, good grammar, decent language skills, characters that don't make people tear their hair out...

As for what I mean about 'it needs to come from you', I mean it needs to have themes, or ideas, or emotions that are things you personally experienced.

Here's a few examples that I could do to help show what I mean:

I have ADHD and ASD -- this makes for a very frustrating life for me. If I write a story that explores those issues, my experiences with them and what it's like to have a brain that betrays you, then those that have experienced similar things will be able to expand their understanding of their issues from my writing.

I firmly believe that people are, innately, good, even if they have trouble expressing this. I could write a tragedy about the struggle of people to do the right thing and understand each other, explore what it means to be good, to show my thoughts on it. I can make a thesis and defend it, and I've spent a lot of time thinking about it, so I can defend it very well.

I have a fair amount of talent and knowledge with regards to coding. If a story had that as a primary theme or as an element that regularly comes up, I can write it realistically enough that any editing or mistakes I make will most likely not require major rewrites -- and, on top of that, I can make connections and come up with ideas that others wouldn't. Competence, I find, is interesting to read about in its own right.


Beyond that, in general, when you write, try to draw from your own feelings. Don't do something like 'oh everybody has the love interest react this way so --' No. Stop. That is a decent way to fill in your gaps, replace what you don't know or you haven't experienced, but what you're going to be doing is rewording another's story. Which will require something else to help keep it memorable.


Finally, I'm going to note, again, something I've already mentioned. This will not make it memorable for everybody. It will make it memorable for people who can connect with your experiences that don't get chased off by the rest of your writing.

Somebody will always get chased off by something in your writing. Too much description, too little, should be in first person, should be in the present tense, whatever. To mitigate that requires more technical writing skills. It won't ensure that everybody will read it, but it will let more people do so -- and then, you can try to catch them with writing what you know.

(This is probably part of why romance is so common -- it's such an essential part of the human experience, so everybody can write their own experiences there!)

(Except for me, because I am aromantic, so the 'romance' part of stories never hit right!)