I'm trying to sharpen up my fiction writing and have been trying to learn as much about technique as possible. I'm a big fan of King's On Writing, as well as The Elements of Style, but I'd be interested to hear top tips from other writers. Has there been one piece of advice or a book that made a difference to the quality of your writing? I know that 'Show, not Tell' is a popular one and I'm just getting my head around this (although suspect that I might be implementing it anyway). Are there other nuggets of wisdom that you would be able to share?

Hi there

Apart from the Show don't tell rule, another good one I've heard and try to abide by is Get In late, and get out early. This is basically in reference to the action, so you don't spend ages setting up a scene with uneccessary clutter, or hang around after the action has occured. The best piece of writing advice I've ever been given is Enjoy it, because if you don't enjoy it, that will show on the page.

JB

Thanks for these. The enjoyment one definitely makes sense. For me, that comes and goes without warning. Sometimes, I really look forward to writing a scene and then when I reach it, the passion disppears. It's like I've over-anticipated. Luckily, more often than not, I love the process. Hopefully, this appears on the page!

"Start as near the end as possible" is a variant of "get in late and get out early", and they're both often true. It's amazing how much backstory you as the writer need to work out (even write), but the reader really, really doesn't need to know.

If the only reason a scene is there is to show character or setting, it shouldn't be there: if it's not also advancing the plot and/or the emotional journey of the characters, it's not earning its keep, and you need to throw it out, or make it do the washing up.

Murder your darlings: they're the ones which cost you a lot in effort or emotion, but, see above, don't actually earn their keep in the forward-movement of the story. Get that knife out.

The whole concept of info-dump - i.e., don't do it.

Apropos "show don't tell", and "active not passive verbs", and "cut adjectives and adverbs", and all the other good ideas which have become fetishised, they're tools not rules

Best of all for fiction, which as we all know is neither pure plot nor pure character, but character-in-action: What does s/he want? how does s/he try to get it? what gets in the way? what happens and how does that change what she wants?

More about process than product, but these are good:

Nothing you write is ever wasted.

Don't get it right, get it written

Shitty first drafts are what writers write, so they can write good second drafts and good third drafts.

Emma

Good question.

Avoid using the omniscient point of view (pov). And, if this is your first novel, pick one main character so you have one pov, and use 3rd person, past tense, and that will avoid falling into many writing traps.

Write subjectively, not objectively - so your mc is not just observing what is going on around them, but is an active participant. It will also help you to find the right 'voice' for the novel. A distinctive 'voice' us what Agents are looking for and diffuses through all the writing and so is not something that can be fixed at the end of the first draft.

Start it in present time for your character and leave all their backstory for the second half of the novel, and then use sparingly because readers aren't really interested in most of that information. It will also help to cut down on the 'passive voice' ie, use of 'was', 'had' etc, which are fine when you are conveying things in the past but can be over used if you are using them when writing about things happening in the present.

You'll often find yourself writing yourself into the story - putting in information for yourself, the writer, rather than for the reader (too boring for them), so throw away the first chapter or first 3 chapters if there is any backstory in there or summarised character descriptions. This is a bit like 'show don't tell', but more specific, since the 'tell' is often to be found in these opening pages. They are more use as 'planning', and a lot of it can be mined for later scenes and chapters in their own right.

Cull your darlings - these are often phrases or paragraphs which you love and which even if you threw away and rewrote everything else in that chapter you would keep hold of them and try to shoehorn them into the new chapter. Trust me, they'll stand out like a sore thumb, as they squash up everything around them. Unless you are aiming at literary fiction the writing should be invisible; it should only convey the story, not the words.


- NaomiM


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Oh, and don't simply obey the 'rules of writing' but understand why they are there, what pitfalls they are aiming to stear you round, and then you'll know when and which ones it's ok to break because at that point in time there is no pit to fall into.

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Oh, and keep your adverbs and adjectives, but use sparingly any ending in -ly, especially those used as dialogue tags.

Be careful of emulating great writers. Just because you might like to read Tolkein, doesn't automatically mean you can write like him. Your talent might be writing like JK Rowling, so have fun writing lots of stuff to find where your talent lies; to find your 'voice'.

Avoid using the omniscient point of view (pov)..

I'd say of 3rd person omniscient, it can be tricky so don't do it if you can't do it well. But that's true of anything in writing. But do it if you can and want to.

And, if this is your first novel, pick one main character so you have one pov, and use 3rd person, past tense, and that will avoid falling into many writing traps

If you're worried about handling PoV, then it's much easier to spot it going wrong in first person, because you know much more naturally what that person would or wouldn't see/think etc. And if you're limiting yourself to a single PoV, there's no advantage to writing in third person rather than first, and some disadvantages.

Emma

After you've got 150,000 words under your belt you'll feel you're finally getting the hang of this writing lark. Savour the moment. It won't come again until you've hit the 750,000 word mark.

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Think of your first novel as writing practice. If it gets published you're lucky, but start writing the next one after you've finished the last.

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If you do go for first person, avoid those annoying, whiny, characters who fill the page with their thoughts, and who the reader will find difficult to empathise with.

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Trust the reader - they can fill in half of it with their own imagination, just concentrate on filling the other half with stuff they can't imagine and which is important to the plot.

I think one of the best pieces of advice is to get it down and get it finished.
The world must be brimming with unfinished projects.
Also, I think drawing up a plan is useful when you begin. Even now, on my third book, I like a fairly detailed idea of what the book's about and who will be doing what. I know King advises against this but he's a consumate master and I don't yet have his confidence.
HB x

Wow - thanks for the input here. Now all I need to do is put all this good advice into practice. As you mention, it's the writing that counts - actually getting the words down, revising and re-moulding until the story is as good as it can be.

Some fabulous advice here. I don't know if anyone has said this, but I'd always say when you've edited down always try and lose another couple of hundred words. Links with Emma's "Murder your darlings".

And, make the last thing you write your first sentence. If you can't bear to do that because you've honed it to perfection, then make your first paragraph the last thing you write. (Links with Naomi's(?) Just get it down idea.

Oh I'd say just have fun and try stuff. And then decide if it works later or rewrite until it does. Too many "don'ts" for me in this thread. Writing should be about "dos".

Writers are often told to write about what they know, but in my experience this can lead of self-indulgent writing.

Don't be afraid to write about unknown territory, as long as you research it well.

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or rather, 'can lead TO'

Writers are often told to write about what they know, but in my experience this can lead of self-indulgent writing.

Yes, or even more often just terribly boring writing. I'd say:

Write what you want, and make me believe you know it.

Watch out for off-the-peg language - phrases which may not be cliches exactly but they are how anyone, with no interest in language or its impact, might describe a scene. This is what makes writing dull IMO, far more than writing what you know. You can write about tea with your grandma and make it riveting if the insights and language used to describe it are fresh and original.

Don't (sorry snowy ) think you have to start with action.
Do start with something interesting, something to pique the reader's curiosity, but that doesn't necessarily have to be an action scene.
With action the reader is only curious to know how it ends, it doesn't automatically mean they will care what happens to the main character who's in peril.
However, in the opening pages don't concentrate on setting the scene and describing the character while neglecting to start the ball rolling with the main plot.