If You Give a Girl a Pen... » writing tips

Useful Links for Writers

Damyanti — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:33:02 +0000

I have been browsing writer-friendly sites and articles, and I thought I could share some of them with the girls.

1. Useful links to terrific articles and pointers from agents etc.

2. An Agent’s Wish List

3. Fab Writing Tips

4. Checkpoints when writing scenes

5. Brainstorming Techniques

Some of the links contain links to more useful writer’s resources.

Happy Reading, Girls!

Bookmark This

a random number of tips.

Eden — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 15:11:14 +0000

I have this friend who is a wonderful writer and is sweet and helpful and amazing and any other ‘nice’ adjective you can think of—including smart. Smart, she most certainly is. Oh, and she was taught how to share well. She shared these tips with me and many others, so here I am, paying it forward.

These are Rachel May’s 8 Tips to Better Writing::

1: Read your work out loud.

This one is the most important in RayMay’s eyes. And she’s quite right.

What does this do?: By reading your work out loud, you will pick up grammar mistakes and flow problems. Also, you will hear how your audience is hearing it in their heads. If you trip over a phrase, most likely your reader will as well.

2: Vary your sentence length.

Why is this important?: Sentences that are all the same length tend to make the reader hear your story in monotone. By varying up line/sentence length you add rhythm and flow to your writing. To tell whether or not you have sentences the same length, print out the first page of your story, take a pen or pencil and at the start of every sentence draw a line through the words. When you get to a period end the line. At the next sentence do the same thing. Follow that same system through your first paragraph and subsequent paragraphs. If every line appears to be the same length. Cut some of your sentences down into short ones. Read the entire paragraph out loud to double check that you haven’t taken anything out that’s imperative or shortened a sentence where it should, in fact, be longer.

3: Write great descriptions.

Why is this important?: By writing vivid descriptions, you are involving the reader beyond just words and dialogue. Physically imagine yourself in that particular situation…you already know this I’m sure…but it can’t hurt to remind you.
Also, another way to get descriptions just right is to imagine yourself explaining whatever it is you’re trying to explain to someone who doesn’t have that sense. If I were blind, how would you convey to me a sunset? If I had no sense of smell, how would you convey a scent to me?

4: Dialogue can make or break a story.

Why is dialogue important?: Dialogue is important because when you write great dialogue it adds a whole new level to your story. It gives your characters a voice. Try to think about the people you know—how do they respond to mundane conversations or important conversations? Write dialogue that feels natural. Every person has a different rhythm to their speech patterns; try to give each character a different rhythm to their dialogue. This will help the reader differentiate between your characters.

5: Make (-ing) your friend.

Why are -ing words important?: Sometimes starting a sentence with a gerund helps to add a different feel to a sentence.

Example:

She ran as fast as she could to catch the bus, but still missed it.
Despite running as fast as she could, she still missed the bus.
Running as fast as she could didn’t matter, she still missed the bus.

Basically these sentences are pretty much saying the same thing in different ways. Determine which way flows better with the sentence before and the sentence after.

6: Make each chapter stand on its own.

What does this mean?: This means that a person should feel intrigue in each chapter. That if I picked up your book and turned to chapter 14, I should feel the pull of your story as strongly as if I started from the beginning. And every chapter should end with a hook so that it compels me to read the subsequent chapters.

7: Characters with a point.

What does this mean?: I’m not saying that your characters should have pointy heads or have daggers coming out of their skin. No. I’m saying that you should not introduce a character that has no point. Why? Because if you introduce a character without a real point to push your story along, we as the reader are thinking, “well all that time we spent reading about that unimportant character was wasted.” So, if you have superfluous characters in your story, as cruel as this sounds, KILL THEM. No will notice and no one will care. Well, you will. But your readers will thank you for it.

8: Add moral dilemmas.

Why should you do this?: When I was in school my writing professors told me that stories, especially YA stories and children’s stories, should have a moral. Make sure if you’re writing for the children genre or YA genre that there is some sort of lesson to be learned. Take a cue from Aesop’s Fable’s and Charlotte’s Web. They have a moral. Even the more complex YA tales have morals—they may not be as easily defined as say, a Dr. Seuss tale, but they are there. I promise you!

Hope these tips help you! I know they did me.

What tips do you all have? What are your writing secrets?

Bookmark This

Since winning her first writing competition at a young age, Eden Tyler, has only fallen more in love with the written word. She uses her English, Psychology, and Sociology backgrounds to create depth to her own stories and novels while contributing to and running websites about writing. This is what fulfills her, along with working as Co-Editor for Fuel Your Writing, but she also enjoys the freelance work that puts food on the table (and that ever-essential roof overhead) for her family.

Your first five pages.

Eden — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 07:23:39 +0000

Apparently, as I’m sure you’ve all heard, the first five pages are the most important of any in our books or stories. To tell the truth, the first five sentences are even more important, or so says Noah Lukeman, in his book The First Five Pages: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile.

It’s a given that an established, known author will get read no matter what. The agent, editor—whoever—will be looking for only good things, even overlooking faults.

We unpublished authors, on the other hand, aren’t so lucky. Most likely, our work will be read by an intern who has read so much s/he wants to scream, or by an assistant editor who feels about the same—and both of these types usually only have one thing on their minds. Get through the slush. Just get it done. They are looking for anything and everything that is wrong with a manuscript so they can toss is aside and move on to the next, therefore slowly shortening their pile.

It’s been said before by many different people, and it’s absolutely, positively, categorically true—There are no great writers; there are only great re-writers. And that is what will help get your manuscript read and passed on. Not shredded nor recycled.

Re-writing, of course, comes down to editing. Line by line edits. Focus on your first five lines and go from there. If you hook your reader (i.e. agent/editor/publisher), s/he will continue. Until there’s a problem. So, make sure there are no problems. Easier said than done, I know….

In order to do this type of editing to your own work, tell yourself that you are, in fact, a writer. An author. Make sure you have confidence. Don’t doubt for a second that your work is worthy of being on the shelves next to the greats. Once you have that, the rest is simple busy work. Truly. It’s just inspecting your work to make sure it’s up to par. Even if you think it‘s perfect, keep checking it.

Reading Mr. Lukeman’s book taught me why the first five pages are so ridiculously important.

First of all, whoever is reading your work doesn’t have time to dissect any more than that if it’s not what s/he is looking for.

Secondly, and most importantly, if said reader finds anything wrong on one page, s/he can pretty much assume that the same problem will show up on the next page, and the next, and the next.

So, curb your superfluous adjectives and adverbs. Don’t explain more than necessary. In fact, don’t explain at all. Show through action, whether it be actual, physical action, or dialogue, or a character’s realization of something. But, don’t overuse dialogue to convey your point or feeling. Don’t mess up your grammar. Get a good sense of semi-colons, colons, dashes, and most definitely, hyphens. Don’t have a boring rhythm. Make sure your sentence length varies. Don’t use more words than necessary. Break all sentences into the smallest version possible so they work the best way they can. Make your words work to your benefit. Even the most seasoned writers must do this. Don’t, don’t, don’t. Depressing, huh? But, unfortunately, it’s what we have to deal with.

Once you get sick of all the don’t’s, and your words start running together into an unreadable soup, find beta readers. Use them to your full advantage. Even if only one reader suggests one word that should be changed, it’s worth it. Every word counts. It can be difficult and disheartening, but we unpublished authors are swimming against the current, as it goes. We have to prove ourselves. We have to be that one gem that stands out and is pure perfection.

If you can get those first five pages—the first five sentences—exactly as they should be, and then work from there, you’re doing great! If you can make those first pages just as they should be, it’s much easier to find the faults in the rest of your work. Once you know what wrong and what‘s right, it’s simple to tighten up the rest.

So, get to work on that. Don’t get disheartened. Remember, you are working on something great and worthwhile. Give your writing massive amounts attention and love because it deserves it. And so do you. You deserve to be published if you’ve put that much heart and soul into your work. Then, query away. And get that phenomenal work published. But please don’t forget us little people if you make it before we do!

Just promise to come back and give us your tips and tricks….

Apparently, as I’m sure you’ve all heard, the first five pages are the most important of any in our books or stories. To tell the truth, the first five sentences are even more important, or so says Noah Lukeman, in his book The First Five Pages: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile.

It’s a given that an established, known author will get read no matter what. The agent, editor—whoever—will be looking for only good things, even overlooking faults.

We unpublished authors, on the other hand, aren’t so lucky. Most likely, our work will be read by an intern who has read so much s/he wants to scream, or by an assistant editor who feels about the same—and both of these types usually only have one thing on their minds. Get through the slush. Just get it done. They are looking for anything and everything that is wrong with a manuscript so they can toss it aside and move on to the next, therefore slowly shortening their pile.

It’s been said before by many different people, and it’s absolutely, positively, categorically true—there are no great writers; there are only great re-writers. And that is what will help get your manuscript read and passed on. Not shredded, nor recycled.

Reading Mr. Lukeman’s book taught me why the first five pages are so ridiculously important.

First of all, whoever is reading your work doesn’t have time to dissect any more than that if it’s not what s/he is looking for.

Secondly, and most importantly, if said reader finds anything wrong on one page, s/he can pretty much assume that the same problem will show up on the next page, and the next, and the next.

So, curb your superfluous adjectives and adverbs. Don’t explain more than necessary. In fact, don’t explain at all. Show through action, whether it be physical action, or dialogue, or a character’s realization of something. But don’t overuse dialogue to convey your point or feeling. Don’t mess up your grammar. Get a good sense of semi-colons, colons, dashes, and most definitely hyphens. Don’t bore with a lack of rhythm. Make sure your sentence length varies. Don’t use more words than necessary. Break all sentences into the smallest version possible so they convey the best way possible. Make your words work to your benefit. Even the most seasoned writers must do this. Don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t. Depressing, huh? Well, unfortunately, it’s what we have to deal with.

If you can get those first five pages—the first five sentences—exactly as they should be, and then work from there, you’re doing great! If you can make those first pages just right, it’s much easier to find the faults in the rest of your work. Once you know what wrong, it’s simple to tighten up the rest. To make your work perfectly presentable.

Just promise to come back and give us your tips and tricks….

Bookmark This

Everyone has their One True Writing Tip, so here’s mine:

Sarah — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 13:57:42 +0000

Our guest blogger today, just happens to be the winner of our contest, so congrats, Rick.

EVERYONE HAS THEIR One True Writing Tip, SO HERE’S MINE:

Ask five writers for the one thing that makes their writing better and you’ll get six different answers. Long-winded, needlessly verbose, adverb-laden answers, all in a dramatic tone intended to make you believe that if you don’t do it exactly right then you may as well stick to writing the Nutritional Information labels on boxed food products, you hopeless derivative hack.

Ahem. Anyway.

The popular answer seems to be to READ, READ, READ. Sure, that’s true, but how many authors do you know that aren’t also obsessive readers? To be honest, I can’t stand writers and don’t know that many of them, but each and every one of them reads.

So that’s not very helpful advice then, is it? Instead, let me advocate something that I rarely see other writers do:

SPEAK.

Yep, I am telling you that you need to stand up from your desk or couch and read your work aloud. Read to your cat, dog, kids, significant other, nearest neighbor, or patron deity. Whatever. It doesn’t matter — just speak.

Sorry, but I just lied — it’s not enough to just speak. You need to PERFORM. Yes, I’m talking about a dramatic production of your work. You know how you’d want a professional reader to sound if your work got turned into an audiobook or stage play? You need to recreate that performance. I’m talking Dudley Do-Right versus Snidely Whiplash, arms waving, stomping around in your living room.

Why go through all of that? You’re looking for a few things:

Listen for word transitions that trip you up. If they trip you up while speaking, they’ll trip up your reader.
Listen for places where you have to try a few times to get the inflection and emotion quite right. If you can’t do it in a single pass, neither can your reader.
Listen for places where you’re not sure which voice to make — which character is speaking.
Listen for dialogue that you would never actually find yourself saying, as that’s a sure sign of a terribad infodump. “Because you’re my second son, with one older sister and two younger brothers, and red hair.”
Ditto for narration, inner monologue, etc.

Remember that, in a cognitive sense, reading is based upon the spoken word. We learn to speak first, then figure out what all those squiggly lines mean after that. If you work isn’t smooth and interesting to listen to, then it won’t be smooth and interesting to read.

But wait, there’s more!

I promise you that performing your work aloud will improve your characterization and voice. Getting the characters out of your head and walking around the room will help you solidify the lines between them so that they don’t all sound the same. It’ll also help when you’re blocked — by flailing around and getting into the passion of your characters, writing about them becomes easier.

Oh, and if you write Fantasy, I do expect you to wield a sword as you perform. Anything less isn’t committing to your writing.

–
Rick Osborne

http://rickosborne.org/blog/

Rick’s Authonomy Profile

Bookmark This

Writing and Mind-maps

Damyanti — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 23:38:26 +0000

I am in the middle of a lot of things right now, so my Monday post will be short.

I’ve been using mind-mapping for my upcoming project, and it has helped me a lot. I thought I would link you to a post I’d done some time back, which explains what mind-mapping is, and how it helps in writing.

So here’s how to Mind-map your way to writing!

I hope the tips help you as much as they helped me, and till next Monday, Happy Writing!

Bookmark This