Anyways, this series is me giving you writing advice and you maybe listening. My qualifications for doing so is that I write and have been doing so for a very long time. Also, I have a Bachelor of Arts in English with a Specialization in Creative Writing.
Sadly, some things I won't be able to talk about as in depth as others. Such as Points of View...I only do First Person POV so I can't give much advice on any of the Third Person POVs or the very rare Second Person POV.
I'll start this series off by going over three main stages of writing and how to get through them. If you have any difference of opinion please leave a comment and I might even respond to your comment in another part of this series.
Now this is an area where there are some people I want to strangle because they don't outline their story before hand. They'll say how they don't like it since it's restricting and then a few months later they'll complain about how they forgot what they had planned to do.
Do I outline everything? Yes, for the most part.
The Eternal Heart (and its upcoming sequels), S&N, and Sushi, Sake, and Tanuki are all outlined. The only things I don't have a solid outline like those three are The Shormlit Chronicles, The Horny Heart, Animorgy, and The Dawning.
Outlining gives me a chance to leave a story for months and then come back with no loss of time because I can't remember what I meant to do. Plus it allows me to use the great tool of foreshadowing.
I tend to do two set of outlines:
1.) A set of bios. While I do make blogs to help me and my readers remember things, there are things I don't want to reveal at the moment. Little plot twists that I don't want found out just yet. So I have a set of outlines where I give facts about characters, organizations, and other important things in my story.
2.) The actual outline of saying what happens when. On the top I'll usually give a short summary of what I want to happen. For each chapter I will give three main things I want covered. This allows me a large amount of wiggle room to allow me to have fun. Hell, I'll come up with things on the spot that I didn't even consider while originally outlining.
I think this is a big deterrent for many of my fellow writers. I know that, at times, the urge to write isn't there and so it makes it extremely hard to write at times. A lot of budding writers probably think that if they aren't inspired to do something that they should wait until the moment hits them. While that isn't bad for a beginner, if you plan to continue writing you should really shove the concept of "only writing when inspired" to a deep, dark corner.
I work on multiple things in a day for my blog and so I end up sticking to a schedule. I only work on certain things during certain times of the day/night. I also rotate things (such as what I'm now doing with this and Shipping Confessions).
Does this mean I stick to a strict schedule? No. I have a life around me and sometimes life decides to change things up. So what I do is adapt. I sometimes even decide to not work on something as it would stop me from working on a good majority of my intended projects for the day.
I also multi-task which I do because I get easily bored by working on one project at a time. While it allows me to work on more projects at once, if you don't find yourself easily bored dropping this won't have a big negative impact. It might even improve what you're working on as it'll give you a better sense of focus.
Remember to stick to your schedule even when you're not motivated. Some days you'll find yourself just going through the motions to get something done. I'm not saying you can't quit earlier than normal or that you can't take a break, merely that not 'being in the mood' isn't a good excuse to not do anything for a long period of time.
There will be good days and there will be bad days. Just stick to your schedule as often as you can and allow yourself breaks from time to time.
Now on to one of the most dreaded parts of the writing process. Or maybe it's just me. This is a reason I don't go back reading my old writing as I'll feel compelled to edit and again and again and again until the end of time. But it's one of the most important parts of writing, too. It's the part of writing that can turn utter crap into gold.
If you're wondering why my chapters are usually on the short side: it's so that I have an easier time editing them. Shorter chapters means I have less content to edit at a time. I'm able to focus my attention to correct simple mistakes and expand on points that weren't clear in the first place.
I like to keep my chapters of written series to around 1,000 words to more easily edit my content. However, if you don't find this problem feel free to have chapters and/or short stories reaching up to 10,000 words.
Something like one of my Shipping Confessions is much shorter (usually) and I usually work on each part over the course of at least two days.
If you are using Microsoft Word, or any program with a Spell and Grammar Check, here are some things to look out for:
Spell Check
Sometimes you may mean to spell one word but end up spelling a different word. Since the word you didn't mean to use is correct, Spell Check won't pick it up. It can't read your mind and know that you didn't mean to use one word over another.
You may also find your Spell Check marking real words as made up ones. Go to a dictionary (I Google Search [word I'm checking] define) and make sure the word is real. If it is just add it to the dictionary.
Grammar Check
Send it to the deepest level of Hell. This isn't just my opinion, in my years at college I was told by tutors and professors that Grammar Check is a really useless feature. It will mark correct grammar as as a mistake.
All of Jash's Writing Tips
Neat! I agree with nearly all or maybe all of this.
ReplyDeleteThanks :)
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