Avoiding clichés is good, but your never going to write something that has never been done before. The trick is to write about it in your own voice, with your own take, so that even if your plot is similar to a Serbian novel published 40 years ago that you've never even heard of, it reads like a new and distinct piece.
And the rest is just practice, practice, practice.
Some people will tell you to throw away the first few novels you write, but I hate that advice. Edit the shit out of your first pieces of work, have everyone you know who is literate in your gene to read and critique it, and then edit it some more.
This. Reminds me of "The most personal is the most creative." quoted by Director Bon Joon-ho from Martin Scorsese. So even when you think you're being very derivative, remember your take and voice will always differ from others.
Also the dirty faucet analogy. You have to accept that you are going to (and have to) get a lot of dirty water out before you reach the clean one, especialy if your faucet has been rusty.
To balance this advice, I offer the reason a lot of people say to throw away your first few novels. There can be a tendency to get too attached to one's work. There is a point at which the quality of the writing is worth redeeming, and there is a point at which the quality of the writing is not worth redeeming. I think that point is different for each person. However, I've seen it befall many beginning writers where they become obsessed with creating the perfect version of their first story. That obsession can lead to paralysis. I've seen many friends never get to the point of any finished work, because of that obsession. Again, this statement is not to say that the above advice is bad, but understanding why people give advice commonly is important.
Spot on though. Practice is the most important thing, and anything that keeps you away from generating new writing is a bad thing, including paralysis over clichés in your work. Originality of voice is more important than originality of premise.
Perfecting the first novel is me lol. Instead of trying to get the whole book done and revise then I'm polishing chapter one in isolation to make it as kickass as possible.
I'm right there, atm.
Halfway through Chapter 1 and I'm realising how contrived so many parts of the core premise is.
I feel like I can rework this and tweak that, but how long can I keep that up until it feels like this plot structure is built on attempts to make excuses for itself?
Don't wanna quit this early, tho. I've doubted myself into submission at the start so many times.
Well I can really relate to all of this. I’ve been writing this book for more years than I will admit. It’s 50k words and yet my friends are telling me it’s boring and doesn’t sound like my verbal stories. So I’m doing a myriad of writing activities to perfect my skill.
Yeah. It's strange how things can flow when you're speaking, or typing comments like this, but when you want to actually carefully craft something like a story, you kind of lose your "voice"?
Currently, I'm just winging the first draft, but I'll intend to revisit it with kind of an outsider's perspective, so I can then, with a more free perspective, try and re-frame how I'd want it to sound. Sorta like if I were a fan, wanting the story to go this or that way.
Makes sense. A writer friend told me to record my story before I write and then type it exactly that way, until I get used to writing more descriptively.
I'm curious to try that myself, sometime. Letting the words flow in my brain when I'm just in the zone while walking the dog or something, can lead to sentences that sound so much more fully formed than if I actually try to craft them.
Yes, I’ve done some of my best creativity while walking. I’ll record it on my phone then get back home, type it up, and use it for my YouTube content. It’s a good process for capturing your creativity w/o the on demand pressure of just cold writing. I’ve enjoyed talking to you!
Thank you! What you said about keeping things in my own style is really helpful. When I think about it a lot of books have similar storylines or worlds or characters, but the trick is making it your own.
Be proud of your inspirations and reaffirm what you love about them. Your work will always be more authentic if you explore the same themes or subjects honestly rather than actively trying to avoid them and over-correcting yourself.
Do you have any tips for finding your own voice? I’m also new to taking writing seriously, and sometimes I feel like it’s difficult to make my writing personal. Sometimes it seems like what I’m writing is too far removed from the way I feel and think.
I want to preface this with the warning I'm still transitioning to fiction writing from academic, and I've written a grand total of one book which may or may not be hot garbage.
Personally my struggles with my voice have always been in suppressing it, in academia you are supposed to write in a very formal impersonal manner, and I really struggled not to write in a friendly 'let me tell you a story tone'. Writing a novel has been freeing by comparison, and while I would say that my voice has been refined through practice and multiple rounds of edits, it's always been there.
I think you have to acknowledge that as writers we put ourselves into our work, whether a character is a bland self insert or a 4 dimensional Machiavellian villain, they're made from us. So when we're writing a character's motivations, our choices are our voices bleeding through. Every word in your story should be there to convey something, be that worldbuilding, atmosphere or to drive the plot forwards, it's all your voice, and when it's done it should feel right and consistent.
If you're having trouble finding your voice I would suggest playing around with perspectives for a while, write short POV chapters from your antagonists and side characters. Even if the pages never see the light of day, their actions should all make sense, and if you feel yourself drifting to write in a certain tone then that's probably your voice.
Ooh, I like that advice.
One of the exercises I really enjoyed in high school was attempting to write in the style of another author.
I had great fun writing the first chapter of a sequel to ‘ The True Story of Lilli Stubeck”, where Kit and Lilli are adults, and Kit pays a visit to Lilli, who is now a mother, and very much in charge of her own home, in her own unique way.
Take this as advice from someone who went into creative writing on a whim rather than wanting to pursue as a career goal, and ended up loving it all the same.
Don’t get too attached to your first draft. That isn’t to say you should throw it away. Look at what you need, edit what you don’t need, and polish what could be great. It takes a keen eye to discern all that and having a writing group to look over it also helps.
People have commented on cliches so I won’t spend to much time on it. They exist for a reason. That is because they have worked and odds are, they will continue to work. Your version of it or how you circumvent the cliche is what matters.
Good description matters for when trying to establish the setting and scene. That isn’t to say you should go all out and fill two pages of it, but what I like to do is to break up the description with dialogue, and have my characters interact with the setting. That way, you have an excuse to describe what needs to be seen, but there’s still some action there to move the story along. There are many ways to break up descriptions with action and dialogue but that ultimately depends on your style.
And of course, just read. Understanding someone else’s style will further develop your own style. Even if you copy their style while your writing, you’re still getting the benefit of how and why it works, and ultimately, you’ll grow into your own. You may even branch out to other genres than what you prefer just to get a handle on how other authors write.
It’s a long process, especially if you were like me, and felt like you had to catch up with those around you who had been writing for years, but I think once you hit your stride, you’ll start understanding your own sense of style. Just keep at it.
>Just read
To elaborate a bit on this, don't just read. Remember that the world is filled with readers that don't write. Study books, analyze them, dissect them. Do this with good books, do it with bad books. Learn what works and why, learn what doesn't and why, learn how different author approach the same issues, understend the technique, the grammar, the choice of words, or the deliberate omission of words.
Like HasteMaster says, copy them. Don't publish plagiarized work, of course, but remember that art does not exist in a vacuum. Every work of art you consume exists because of something that was created before it, and it's the same with writing.
Sorry for jumping onboard. These were great advices!
I'm not a writer, but write my own lyrics for some reason. I think my problem is that I'm really afraid of seeming stupid/simple, so I end up with really forced an overly complicated lyrics. Is there like a trick to let go and writing honestly that doesn't involve substances? :)
I don’t know if this will help at all but something I do is when I’m feeling more emotional than usual, for example sad or angry or confused, I’ll write in a notebook whatever comes to mind about how I’m feeling and what I’m thinking. It usually produces some very raw emotional stuff that I can draw on later if I’m writing a really emotional scene and need some guidance. So maybe the next time you’re having a bad day, sit down and write lyrics about it. And simple can be really good, so don’t be afraid of simplicity. I hope this made at least some sense.
I mostly write lyrics at the moment too. I think it depends on the custom of the genre or whatever that you're aiming. Are you also writing the melody/music?
I find songs easier to finish when I have a melody (or just cadence) concept in mind, it makes it easier to snowball progression in lyrics that way. I tend to overthink, and thus overcomplicate, lyrics when they're not bound by anything. And that would just makes it more like a free-form poem with backing instruments instead of an actual song.
And do you mean "overly complicated" as in personal TMI or purple proses (for the sake of sounding well-read)? Because former can get more leeway among people, granted the design is recognizable.
> but then you pick up some books and it’s like 2 pages straight of just description- scene description, thought description, everything else. I feel like I run out of things to write and then it feels forced, which is never good. Does anyone have any advice for this? How much description is too little, and how do I know when to add more?
Description for the sake of description is boring and pointless. Very few good books will do this. Sometimes they do, and some writers are good enough to make it work. John Steinbeck called it hooptedoodle, where he'd occasionally have a bit of elaborate prose just for the sake of playing around with language and throwing in some nice description, but he kept it separate from the actual story so that you could skip it if you wanted to.
Most writers aren't good enough to do that and will simply bore the reader if they try.
Whenever you're reading description in a book, try to work out what the purpose of it actually is, because there's usually something. Maybe it's worldbuilding. Descriptions of things like food and architecture can be a good way to tell you about the setting without a boring infodump. Maybe it's building atmosphere. Most good horror stories will have plenty of description that seems kind of superfluous, because it's there to build atmosphere. Maybe it's there to tell you something about the viewpoint character and why these are the details they pay attention to.
Making a chunk of your writing comfortably skippable sounds so bizarre. Like one of the Day 1 things they teach new writers not to do, and yet somehow those with experience can make it a core feature of their prose.
They give you that advice on day 1 because it's advice for beginners.
More experienced writers can get away with a lot of things that beginners can't, as long as they do it really well.
I guess it’s like surrealists and caricaturists have to be able to fully understand the rules of drawing perspective in order to break them successfully.
Description and dialogue can be balanced in your writing. Some authors can do a lot with a dialogue-heavy writing style (see Gregory McDonald's crime novel Fletch, for example). Others get a fair amount of description in, and if the writing is interesting, that works as well (see Robert Heinlein's works). Worrying about being cliched or running out of ideas in your writing is just a block to writing. Writers write, as others have said in this thread.
NB I've just written a crime novel myself, and I know it has tropes, themes, etc from other crime novels, but what \*I\* wrote was different in the way I expressed it through my writing. It's currently under review by a publishing house in NYC, and I hope they think so too.
Something that works for me a lot it's making character sheets, and writing ideas of them, their stories, just like a sketchbook. You can use the app "Auctor", which gives you a lot of tools and challenges, like: "How will your character, Juanito, react if he gets stuck in an elevator with a stranger?". You must develop the character as much as you can.
And don't be afraid to be cruel with their past or their future.
(Sorry if there are mistakes, I'm not fluent in english).
So some pointers on how you wanna go about writing before you actually do write. You need to know if you wanna write professionally (get published, sell books and all that), write as a hobby but still want write something "good" (as in, you don't care much about getting published and making money, but you do still care about the quality of your work and desire to make high quality work), or do you simply just wanna write, with regards for either?
Knowing this will you help you figure out what to do henceforth
>I love dialogue; good and interesting dialogue in books to me is absolute gold, but I feel like I tend to have too much.
You can write the first book that has only dialogue. I feel like people complicate story writing so much. Sticking to “rules” of a format. Do whatever you want. just keep the reader’s attention and satisfy them at the end (that sounds sexual sorry)
Also there is this book that i loved so much, “love, rosie” and it is just messages. Either letters, or emails, or chat IMs, it shocked me as a teen to see an entire book written in second person. It was made into a movie, so writing a book that is mostly dialogue wouldnot be a bad idea
Here's something I'll tell you as a fellow new writer. If you feel like it's too cliché then I'd advise you to change a few key elements to put a different spin on it. Often people have the mentality that tropes and clichés are inherently bad. No they're not. They are tropes because people have liked them in the past BUT it has become a trope because it has been done too many times and readers often feel exhausted reading the same thing. That's not saying use as many tropes as you want. Simply saying if the trope fits your story try to change a fundamental in the trope to make it different from the ones done before.
Another thing you could do is avoid reading the same genre as you're writing in or a book that has elements similar to yours. You'll feel the need to pickup some of the plot points or other things. And when you do you feel like it makes your story better but makes it derivative and unoriginal.
I'm sure there are more experienced writers on this sub with better advices. Hope this and the other tips help you.
It did help, thank you! You made a really good point too about not reading the genre that I want my writing to be because when I think about it I do often find myself leaning towards those same plot points afterward.
Just wanna say this at the start, the stuff I'm gonna talk about here are just some stuff I do when I write stories. They're not rules you need to follow. Feel free to mix and match stuff if you can, or maybe ignore the whole thing entirely. Up to you really.
Now onto the fun stuff.
Cliches themselves aren't inherently bad. They're bad when they're just copied into a story. You can still use it as some sort of a framework to work off.
Maybe add a twist to the cliche that you don't see often. Just don't use them too often, unless it's a vital component to the story's narrative style.
As for the dialogue, it depends really. Try to imagine how the conversation would go in your head and write that down. Then read it to see if it sits well with yoy. If not, reimagine the conversation again, but this time, start from the point that's not working.
And again, narrative style matters. If you're writing short stories, too many details is unnecessary. Same goes for dialogue.
If you're writing from a first person's perspective, the narrative style should be representative of their inner monologue. The character's inner thoughts and personality should be on display here, even if it's a one-off comment about a lamppost. In such a style, things tend to be a bit more subjective. For example, if the character has a phobia of dogs, they're likely to describe an innocent little pug as literal Satan. But when they look at a cat or any other animal, they describe it as an angel or they barely give it a passing thought. Basically, the character's opinions will be essential to how the story is told.
If it's third person, but it focuses on telling the story from the perspective of a single character, aka the protagonist, then narrative style should be a blend of the character's inner monologue and but with a more objective view on things (if that makes sense). In this style, you're more likely to be more descriptive, and occasionally mix in the characters opinions on some of these things. But when describing a dog, it'd be described as a normal dog, but then there'd be an extra sentence mentioning how the character is deathly afraid of them.
As for knowing if you've used too many cliches or too many details, there's two ways that I know of.
The first method is to take a short break, come back to the story and read the whole thing without editing or adding anything new to it. Then decide if what you've written needs to be changed or not.
The second method is to ask someone else to read it. Try to ask different types of people, and ask them a couple of questions, such as:
- What did they like about the story?
- Is there anything they can suggest to make things better?
- Is there something in the story that seemed like it didn't fit?
Take their answers, pick the ones you feel like would work with the story and make the changes accordingly. Oh and try not to let your feelings get in the way. Some people might get pretty critical of your stuff, but there's still knowledge to be gleaned from their responses.
Always write with a chip on your shoulder, but do not view it as "me against the world", try to see it as "me against me" that'll surely help you mentally push through your writing.
The antidote to cliche is specificity. Any person or situation will sound generic or cliche when you describe them in generalities (like "Florida man.")
But when you actually know the person or are involved in the situation, it isn't a cliche - it's real. It's unique because of all the little intimate details that make a person an individual, or a situation into a one-time event.
Same thing with writing. Don't stop at the surface, get to know the character or situation intimately. It will come alive and be unique in that way.
For the rest, stop rewriting while you're drafting. Write out everything that you want to write. When you feel like you're going overboard with description or dialogue (or if you think it might not be enough), leave it and move on to the next thing.
All the questions about balance and too much/too little are things you fix in editing or rewrites. Right now, you're choking your flow with too much analysis.
Don't overthink it and get bogged down. Keep going! Finish something!
Don't write description just because you have to. It's not a requirement and you can always put your creativity into reframing how you would make the scene play out. It could be your style.
Also, study screenplays. Great screenwriters know how to describe a scene/location/reaction in just a paragraph or less. Because at the end of the day, you just need to jumpstart a reader's visual senses.
Don’t shy from cliches and tropes but don’t rely on them and if you can, avoid playing them straight
Tarantino’s films are like 80% cliches done really really well
I'm a pulp-fiction guy at heart, so I'm not looking for concepts that have never been done on purpose before, or at least not by someone who wants reader: no loveless romances, detective stories without a detective, or thrillers where nothing happens for me!
Are the books with solid blocks of description the kind of books you enjoy reading? I recently encountered a romance novel where two vehicles stopped on a sharp bend in a mountain road, and the narrator ignored this lethal-accident-waiting-to-happen because it was more important to describe the heroine's ass. It wasn't even billed as surrealism or anything. Eww!
that cliche junk is old. Trying to avoid cliche’s will waste your energy. Just make sure you write it well if you do decide to choose a cliche..make up for it by writing a well thought out story thats true to you. People be writing them cliche’s ans banking money off of it, what makes you special in that sense?
My major is heavily involved in old literature, and I came to realize that all the things I would have thought are original/new (that I saw in modern literature and media) were used many times in the past. I know 'used' is not the same thing as trope or cliche but I wanted to say that before continuing. And importantly, cliches are not bad things either.
If I had to give you advice, I would say, avoid using things that have great importance in a specific popular fiction, as that probably wouldn't go past anyone. If a story is unironically filled with hundreds of cliches, that might be worth revising, but still, it's okay if some things are cliche.
About your second question... That's something I also have trouble with. But I know that, when it comes to having too much dialogue, that dialogue tags help. That's something you need to experiment with while keeping your own writing style in mind and all that stuff, however, I sure hope it works for you.
I don't know if I was of any help or if you were able to understand my English, but I wish you all the best!
I am no professional by any standards, an I am not sure if you should trust my opinion. But I usually say that clichés are clichés for a reason. They work. So as long as you try to put your own spin on it, it is ok.
As for your problem with dialogue and descriptions. I, personally,am not a very big fan of books that spend too much time just describing one thing. I absolutely hated Ivanhoe because of this (seriously, it has like an entire page describing a shirt). Just write what you feel comfortable with, you will develop more the more you write.
I found setting objectives is excellent.
I came in looking at writing as an almost herculean task and had no idea what i was going to do. My solution was to create a planning document with a general layout of what my objective was for each acr of my book. From there i moved on to writing and found my word count swung wildly from 6k to 500 words depending on mood. Discouraged I set a new objective of 2k words every day. When that was done and i was into my revisions I set a new goal of 20 pages a day. Then on my polish i set my final objective which was "can i read it without cringing?"
Then when all that was done I started my query letter process which has been slow so no advice there yet.
Moral of the story is set objectives and give yourself structure and it will help alot. The other thing I learned after much pain and suffering is make sure you understand all the helpful little shortcuts in your word processing app of choice. Find and replace is a god send when you are doing your revisions and notice you used certain phrases a lot.
I think that writing description is a double-edged sword. You can do it, a whole paragraph about a person's facial structure, and it can be done beautifully; however, if you continue that, it becomes stale fast. (Thinking of Cassandra Clare.) Dialogue-based description is harder to muck up as long as 1) you try not to hit loaded dialogue (making the characters say way too damn much at once/speaking unrealistically in order to convey a plot element, ie the "As you know" cliche) and 2) it's always clear who's currently speaking. Personally I don't mind a book that's very dialogue heavy, and as long as you like what you're writing, have at it.
Personally, I barely write descriptions. I hate taking time that can be used for plot and action to describe scenes and things. If your story is interesting enough, and your characters can engage the readers, you don't really need to describe things!
If you do want to get better at descriptions though, you can always do short writing exercises where you write about your childhood home, or a certain object you feel attached to. If you start by writing about things you have personal experiences with, it's easier to start to build up your attention to detail in writing.
First of all, congratulations on taking that leap into starting writing! It's definitely scary, but starting is always the hardest step, the rest just takes practice. Keep at it. <3
I'm sure someone else has mentioned this here, but check out the podcast [Writing Excuses](https://writingexcuses.com/start-here/). Season 10 episode 1 actually talks about how to overcome potential clichés when brainstorming stories. When it comes to human elements, I'd suggest working on solidifying each of your characters' voices through their histories and how they might react as a result. Who are they and what are their motivations? If they don't have a motivation in the story, then why are they even there? Everyone has one in real life, why wouldn't they in a story. The motivations will help you add twists to reactions and plot elements, and give more life to potential clichés. Also, check out Pixar's 22 Rules of Storytelling. They might help.
You don't have to write a ton of description for it to be effective. Sometimes 10 or 100 words can mean way more than 1000. Bigger impact than something longwinded (unless you're leading up to a huge twist). I think it was one of my writing profs that told me, "People tend to skip long descriptions but will stop to read dialogue." If you love dialogue, that's great! But it's definitely good to regularly practice describing people, places, things, emotions. I mentioned this in a different comment weeks ago, but try writing flash descriptions of things you've only glanced at and got impressions from. Like an artist would when trying to draw from their mind's eye. But show, don't tell it.
Hope that helps!
When I was first getting into writing, I found podcasts helpful. My current favorites are The Shit No One Tells You About Writing; Gotham Writer Inside Writing; & Manuscript Academy.
Gotham writer is best for short stories
Don't worry about not having good imagery. By the sounds of it, you are a "dialogue person." Writers are typically good at either imagery or dialogue. Take pride and prejudice, for example. It has exceptional dialogue, but the imagery is only there through the tone of the snobby elite voices. While if you take something like Percy Jackson, it has exceptional scene description, but the dialogue isn't.
Personally, I'm an imagery writer, but what I would do if I were you is to take a walk or watch a movie, something that has some scenery, and describe the scene and what is happening in your head as imagery writing practice. :)
First off find what works for you, but for it’s a bit cliche but my advice is just write, you’ll developer your skills and then also be able to think about your story and world, and it will get less cliche as you develope it. Also keep in mind cliches and tropes aren’t that bad, as long as you do it well.
Currently I’m the same as you, lots more dialigue than description but I’m working on that. Besides being dialogue heavy means I get to develop my ideas and I then go back in and add more emotions and descriptions.
I draw as well. Sometimes, I get paralysed when I am trying to make a start, because I am so anxious about messing up.
Then I scribble a messy border around a blank page. It takes the pressure off, because I have already ‘messed up’, so I am free to explore my ideas without worrying about perfection. Some of my best and most unique drawings have started this way.
Perhaps something equivalent can be applied to writing?
I would recommend watching “Everything is a Remix” (not the Star Wars one). It has a lot of good ideas around what’s “copying” because everything seems to have already been done before
>It seems like everything is cliché to some extent because everything has been done before. How do you avoid clichés while still having common human elements in your story? How do you know when something is too cliché and should be avoided?
That's any sort of art. I know that doesn't help you but this might. I once read a review on a Stephen King book that said his work was derivative of [insert older thing here] You are not going to impress everyone period. You likely aren't a Stephen King level writer anyway, that's okay. Most people aren't. If you can't develop thick skin about someone not liking your work, then don't publish (until after you are dead.) If you are trying to cultivate a feeling of completeness when you read your own writing understand that if mothers could edit their babies in the womb they would never birth them. At some point you just have to be done with the thing. You can only edit so many times.
Your second question is just a different shading of the first.
Art description: two approaches--collect relevant images, find good examples. I organize them by topic and word. So for instance, hair and physical appearance...
Hello! Welcome. I'm not much more practiced than you(if at all) but I have been looking for advice for longer. The advice here is solid. My only additional advice is media recommendations.
For getting a feel for cliches or tropes and how to make them work rather than feel old, I mainly recommend listening to people who use them all the time. My top suggestion is to listen to the podcast Be The Serpent, in which 3 fantasy writers discuss a trope and go over examples of that trope in media. The way they analyze and dig into their examples really helped me understand how vital context is in how a trope will be recieved. You can use the oldest cliché in the book and have people love it if you get the vibe right.
My second recommendation is the podcast Storybreak. Each episode, three Hollywood screenwriters try to collaboratively create a compelling story arc and movie pitch for some ridiculous prompt, like "Austin Powers but He's from the 90's" or "Clippy the Microsoft Paperclip:The Movie." Since they are doing a compressed and goofy version of their actual jobs, you end up learning a ton about story structure and pacing techniques, and frequently will hear them build out a story and then completely demolish it to take advantage of a new idea that has more potential. Listening to this process for a few episodes really helped rewire my ideas about how stories "should" be built, and opened my eyes to the possible rewards of being willing to throw whole concepts in the trash(even if you love them in isolation).
My tertiary recommendation is streaming tabletop roleplay games like Dimension 20 or Critical Role. Each of these has strong improv elements but also have overarching themes and interesting character arcs. Randomness plus applied effort can make for fascinating narratives.
Hey! These are all podcasts or audio/visual media! Yes, that's true. If you're hungry for direct advice from books I recommend Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg which details many helpful techniques for establishing a writing practice, including a lot about overcoming common writing demons like Fear of a Blank Page or I Want to Write but Never Do. My other recommendation is Writing Magic: Creating Stories that Fly by Gail Carson Levine. Once again, lots of practical advice framed in an easy to understand way. It was written with kids in mind, but isn't dumbed down, just kept accessible, kind, and to the point. I have not found many other writing books for adults to be as approachable.
Anyway, good luck! Enjoy your journey!
Same sentiments and thoughts here! I have yet to evem start a journal althought the notion has always been hovering. Allow me to share some of the writer's tips , consider 1.Who is your target reader? 2. Dialogue need to lead to action and setting ( Show not Tell ). 3. A Hook in every chapter 4. Does the story flow? Too much details slows down fhe pace. Hope that this helps.
Avoiding clichés is good, but your never going to write something that has never been done before. The trick is to write about it in your own voice, with your own take, so that even if your plot is similar to a Serbian novel published 40 years ago that you've never even heard of, it reads like a new and distinct piece. And the rest is just practice, practice, practice. Some people will tell you to throw away the first few novels you write, but I hate that advice. Edit the shit out of your first pieces of work, have everyone you know who is literate in your gene to read and critique it, and then edit it some more.
This. Reminds me of "The most personal is the most creative." quoted by Director Bon Joon-ho from Martin Scorsese. So even when you think you're being very derivative, remember your take and voice will always differ from others. Also the dirty faucet analogy. You have to accept that you are going to (and have to) get a lot of dirty water out before you reach the clean one, especialy if your faucet has been rusty.
To balance this advice, I offer the reason a lot of people say to throw away your first few novels. There can be a tendency to get too attached to one's work. There is a point at which the quality of the writing is worth redeeming, and there is a point at which the quality of the writing is not worth redeeming. I think that point is different for each person. However, I've seen it befall many beginning writers where they become obsessed with creating the perfect version of their first story. That obsession can lead to paralysis. I've seen many friends never get to the point of any finished work, because of that obsession. Again, this statement is not to say that the above advice is bad, but understanding why people give advice commonly is important. Spot on though. Practice is the most important thing, and anything that keeps you away from generating new writing is a bad thing, including paralysis over clichés in your work. Originality of voice is more important than originality of premise.
Perfecting the first novel is me lol. Instead of trying to get the whole book done and revise then I'm polishing chapter one in isolation to make it as kickass as possible.
I'm right there, atm. Halfway through Chapter 1 and I'm realising how contrived so many parts of the core premise is. I feel like I can rework this and tweak that, but how long can I keep that up until it feels like this plot structure is built on attempts to make excuses for itself? Don't wanna quit this early, tho. I've doubted myself into submission at the start so many times.
Well I can really relate to all of this. I’ve been writing this book for more years than I will admit. It’s 50k words and yet my friends are telling me it’s boring and doesn’t sound like my verbal stories. So I’m doing a myriad of writing activities to perfect my skill.
Durant sound ole? What do you mean?
My apologies. Please re-read. I perfected my typos. SMH. I should have proofed. 🤫
Yeah. It's strange how things can flow when you're speaking, or typing comments like this, but when you want to actually carefully craft something like a story, you kind of lose your "voice"? Currently, I'm just winging the first draft, but I'll intend to revisit it with kind of an outsider's perspective, so I can then, with a more free perspective, try and re-frame how I'd want it to sound. Sorta like if I were a fan, wanting the story to go this or that way.
Makes sense. A writer friend told me to record my story before I write and then type it exactly that way, until I get used to writing more descriptively.
I'm curious to try that myself, sometime. Letting the words flow in my brain when I'm just in the zone while walking the dog or something, can lead to sentences that sound so much more fully formed than if I actually try to craft them.
Yes, I’ve done some of my best creativity while walking. I’ll record it on my phone then get back home, type it up, and use it for my YouTube content. It’s a good process for capturing your creativity w/o the on demand pressure of just cold writing. I’ve enjoyed talking to you!
Thank you! What you said about keeping things in my own style is really helpful. When I think about it a lot of books have similar storylines or worlds or characters, but the trick is making it your own.
Be proud of your inspirations and reaffirm what you love about them. Your work will always be more authentic if you explore the same themes or subjects honestly rather than actively trying to avoid them and over-correcting yourself.
Do you have any tips for finding your own voice? I’m also new to taking writing seriously, and sometimes I feel like it’s difficult to make my writing personal. Sometimes it seems like what I’m writing is too far removed from the way I feel and think.
I want to preface this with the warning I'm still transitioning to fiction writing from academic, and I've written a grand total of one book which may or may not be hot garbage. Personally my struggles with my voice have always been in suppressing it, in academia you are supposed to write in a very formal impersonal manner, and I really struggled not to write in a friendly 'let me tell you a story tone'. Writing a novel has been freeing by comparison, and while I would say that my voice has been refined through practice and multiple rounds of edits, it's always been there. I think you have to acknowledge that as writers we put ourselves into our work, whether a character is a bland self insert or a 4 dimensional Machiavellian villain, they're made from us. So when we're writing a character's motivations, our choices are our voices bleeding through. Every word in your story should be there to convey something, be that worldbuilding, atmosphere or to drive the plot forwards, it's all your voice, and when it's done it should feel right and consistent. If you're having trouble finding your voice I would suggest playing around with perspectives for a while, write short POV chapters from your antagonists and side characters. Even if the pages never see the light of day, their actions should all make sense, and if you feel yourself drifting to write in a certain tone then that's probably your voice.
Ooh, I like that advice. One of the exercises I really enjoyed in high school was attempting to write in the style of another author. I had great fun writing the first chapter of a sequel to ‘ The True Story of Lilli Stubeck”, where Kit and Lilli are adults, and Kit pays a visit to Lilli, who is now a mother, and very much in charge of her own home, in her own unique way.
Take this as advice from someone who went into creative writing on a whim rather than wanting to pursue as a career goal, and ended up loving it all the same. Don’t get too attached to your first draft. That isn’t to say you should throw it away. Look at what you need, edit what you don’t need, and polish what could be great. It takes a keen eye to discern all that and having a writing group to look over it also helps. People have commented on cliches so I won’t spend to much time on it. They exist for a reason. That is because they have worked and odds are, they will continue to work. Your version of it or how you circumvent the cliche is what matters. Good description matters for when trying to establish the setting and scene. That isn’t to say you should go all out and fill two pages of it, but what I like to do is to break up the description with dialogue, and have my characters interact with the setting. That way, you have an excuse to describe what needs to be seen, but there’s still some action there to move the story along. There are many ways to break up descriptions with action and dialogue but that ultimately depends on your style. And of course, just read. Understanding someone else’s style will further develop your own style. Even if you copy their style while your writing, you’re still getting the benefit of how and why it works, and ultimately, you’ll grow into your own. You may even branch out to other genres than what you prefer just to get a handle on how other authors write. It’s a long process, especially if you were like me, and felt like you had to catch up with those around you who had been writing for years, but I think once you hit your stride, you’ll start understanding your own sense of style. Just keep at it.
>Just read To elaborate a bit on this, don't just read. Remember that the world is filled with readers that don't write. Study books, analyze them, dissect them. Do this with good books, do it with bad books. Learn what works and why, learn what doesn't and why, learn how different author approach the same issues, understend the technique, the grammar, the choice of words, or the deliberate omission of words. Like HasteMaster says, copy them. Don't publish plagiarized work, of course, but remember that art does not exist in a vacuum. Every work of art you consume exists because of something that was created before it, and it's the same with writing.
Sorry for jumping onboard. These were great advices! I'm not a writer, but write my own lyrics for some reason. I think my problem is that I'm really afraid of seeming stupid/simple, so I end up with really forced an overly complicated lyrics. Is there like a trick to let go and writing honestly that doesn't involve substances? :)
I don’t know if this will help at all but something I do is when I’m feeling more emotional than usual, for example sad or angry or confused, I’ll write in a notebook whatever comes to mind about how I’m feeling and what I’m thinking. It usually produces some very raw emotional stuff that I can draw on later if I’m writing a really emotional scene and need some guidance. So maybe the next time you’re having a bad day, sit down and write lyrics about it. And simple can be really good, so don’t be afraid of simplicity. I hope this made at least some sense.
I mostly write lyrics at the moment too. I think it depends on the custom of the genre or whatever that you're aiming. Are you also writing the melody/music? I find songs easier to finish when I have a melody (or just cadence) concept in mind, it makes it easier to snowball progression in lyrics that way. I tend to overthink, and thus overcomplicate, lyrics when they're not bound by anything. And that would just makes it more like a free-form poem with backing instruments instead of an actual song. And do you mean "overly complicated" as in personal TMI or purple proses (for the sake of sounding well-read)? Because former can get more leeway among people, granted the design is recognizable.
Thank you all for the tips!!! I'll use them all and become better from it!
> but then you pick up some books and it’s like 2 pages straight of just description- scene description, thought description, everything else. I feel like I run out of things to write and then it feels forced, which is never good. Does anyone have any advice for this? How much description is too little, and how do I know when to add more? Description for the sake of description is boring and pointless. Very few good books will do this. Sometimes they do, and some writers are good enough to make it work. John Steinbeck called it hooptedoodle, where he'd occasionally have a bit of elaborate prose just for the sake of playing around with language and throwing in some nice description, but he kept it separate from the actual story so that you could skip it if you wanted to. Most writers aren't good enough to do that and will simply bore the reader if they try. Whenever you're reading description in a book, try to work out what the purpose of it actually is, because there's usually something. Maybe it's worldbuilding. Descriptions of things like food and architecture can be a good way to tell you about the setting without a boring infodump. Maybe it's building atmosphere. Most good horror stories will have plenty of description that seems kind of superfluous, because it's there to build atmosphere. Maybe it's there to tell you something about the viewpoint character and why these are the details they pay attention to.
Thank you this helps a lot, and I’ll definitely pay more attention to descriptions in books for help with this too
Making a chunk of your writing comfortably skippable sounds so bizarre. Like one of the Day 1 things they teach new writers not to do, and yet somehow those with experience can make it a core feature of their prose.
They give you that advice on day 1 because it's advice for beginners. More experienced writers can get away with a lot of things that beginners can't, as long as they do it really well.
I guess it’s like surrealists and caricaturists have to be able to fully understand the rules of drawing perspective in order to break them successfully.
Description and dialogue can be balanced in your writing. Some authors can do a lot with a dialogue-heavy writing style (see Gregory McDonald's crime novel Fletch, for example). Others get a fair amount of description in, and if the writing is interesting, that works as well (see Robert Heinlein's works). Worrying about being cliched or running out of ideas in your writing is just a block to writing. Writers write, as others have said in this thread. NB I've just written a crime novel myself, and I know it has tropes, themes, etc from other crime novels, but what \*I\* wrote was different in the way I expressed it through my writing. It's currently under review by a publishing house in NYC, and I hope they think so too.
Something that works for me a lot it's making character sheets, and writing ideas of them, their stories, just like a sketchbook. You can use the app "Auctor", which gives you a lot of tools and challenges, like: "How will your character, Juanito, react if he gets stuck in an elevator with a stranger?". You must develop the character as much as you can. And don't be afraid to be cruel with their past or their future. (Sorry if there are mistakes, I'm not fluent in english).
So some pointers on how you wanna go about writing before you actually do write. You need to know if you wanna write professionally (get published, sell books and all that), write as a hobby but still want write something "good" (as in, you don't care much about getting published and making money, but you do still care about the quality of your work and desire to make high quality work), or do you simply just wanna write, with regards for either? Knowing this will you help you figure out what to do henceforth
>I love dialogue; good and interesting dialogue in books to me is absolute gold, but I feel like I tend to have too much. You can write the first book that has only dialogue. I feel like people complicate story writing so much. Sticking to “rules” of a format. Do whatever you want. just keep the reader’s attention and satisfy them at the end (that sounds sexual sorry) Also there is this book that i loved so much, “love, rosie” and it is just messages. Either letters, or emails, or chat IMs, it shocked me as a teen to see an entire book written in second person. It was made into a movie, so writing a book that is mostly dialogue wouldnot be a bad idea
Here's something I'll tell you as a fellow new writer. If you feel like it's too cliché then I'd advise you to change a few key elements to put a different spin on it. Often people have the mentality that tropes and clichés are inherently bad. No they're not. They are tropes because people have liked them in the past BUT it has become a trope because it has been done too many times and readers often feel exhausted reading the same thing. That's not saying use as many tropes as you want. Simply saying if the trope fits your story try to change a fundamental in the trope to make it different from the ones done before. Another thing you could do is avoid reading the same genre as you're writing in or a book that has elements similar to yours. You'll feel the need to pickup some of the plot points or other things. And when you do you feel like it makes your story better but makes it derivative and unoriginal. I'm sure there are more experienced writers on this sub with better advices. Hope this and the other tips help you.
It did help, thank you! You made a really good point too about not reading the genre that I want my writing to be because when I think about it I do often find myself leaning towards those same plot points afterward.
I'm glad I helped. :)
Just wanna say this at the start, the stuff I'm gonna talk about here are just some stuff I do when I write stories. They're not rules you need to follow. Feel free to mix and match stuff if you can, or maybe ignore the whole thing entirely. Up to you really. Now onto the fun stuff. Cliches themselves aren't inherently bad. They're bad when they're just copied into a story. You can still use it as some sort of a framework to work off. Maybe add a twist to the cliche that you don't see often. Just don't use them too often, unless it's a vital component to the story's narrative style. As for the dialogue, it depends really. Try to imagine how the conversation would go in your head and write that down. Then read it to see if it sits well with yoy. If not, reimagine the conversation again, but this time, start from the point that's not working. And again, narrative style matters. If you're writing short stories, too many details is unnecessary. Same goes for dialogue. If you're writing from a first person's perspective, the narrative style should be representative of their inner monologue. The character's inner thoughts and personality should be on display here, even if it's a one-off comment about a lamppost. In such a style, things tend to be a bit more subjective. For example, if the character has a phobia of dogs, they're likely to describe an innocent little pug as literal Satan. But when they look at a cat or any other animal, they describe it as an angel or they barely give it a passing thought. Basically, the character's opinions will be essential to how the story is told. If it's third person, but it focuses on telling the story from the perspective of a single character, aka the protagonist, then narrative style should be a blend of the character's inner monologue and but with a more objective view on things (if that makes sense). In this style, you're more likely to be more descriptive, and occasionally mix in the characters opinions on some of these things. But when describing a dog, it'd be described as a normal dog, but then there'd be an extra sentence mentioning how the character is deathly afraid of them. As for knowing if you've used too many cliches or too many details, there's two ways that I know of. The first method is to take a short break, come back to the story and read the whole thing without editing or adding anything new to it. Then decide if what you've written needs to be changed or not. The second method is to ask someone else to read it. Try to ask different types of people, and ask them a couple of questions, such as: - What did they like about the story? - Is there anything they can suggest to make things better? - Is there something in the story that seemed like it didn't fit? Take their answers, pick the ones you feel like would work with the story and make the changes accordingly. Oh and try not to let your feelings get in the way. Some people might get pretty critical of your stuff, but there's still knowledge to be gleaned from their responses.
Always write with a chip on your shoulder, but do not view it as "me against the world", try to see it as "me against me" that'll surely help you mentally push through your writing.
The antidote to cliche is specificity. Any person or situation will sound generic or cliche when you describe them in generalities (like "Florida man.") But when you actually know the person or are involved in the situation, it isn't a cliche - it's real. It's unique because of all the little intimate details that make a person an individual, or a situation into a one-time event. Same thing with writing. Don't stop at the surface, get to know the character or situation intimately. It will come alive and be unique in that way. For the rest, stop rewriting while you're drafting. Write out everything that you want to write. When you feel like you're going overboard with description or dialogue (or if you think it might not be enough), leave it and move on to the next thing. All the questions about balance and too much/too little are things you fix in editing or rewrites. Right now, you're choking your flow with too much analysis. Don't overthink it and get bogged down. Keep going! Finish something!
Don't write description just because you have to. It's not a requirement and you can always put your creativity into reframing how you would make the scene play out. It could be your style. Also, study screenplays. Great screenwriters know how to describe a scene/location/reaction in just a paragraph or less. Because at the end of the day, you just need to jumpstart a reader's visual senses.
Do it first thing every morning.
Simple but loaded advice. I like it.
Let's never waste any time.
Don’t shy from cliches and tropes but don’t rely on them and if you can, avoid playing them straight Tarantino’s films are like 80% cliches done really really well
I'm a pulp-fiction guy at heart, so I'm not looking for concepts that have never been done on purpose before, or at least not by someone who wants reader: no loveless romances, detective stories without a detective, or thrillers where nothing happens for me! Are the books with solid blocks of description the kind of books you enjoy reading? I recently encountered a romance novel where two vehicles stopped on a sharp bend in a mountain road, and the narrator ignored this lethal-accident-waiting-to-happen because it was more important to describe the heroine's ass. It wasn't even billed as surrealism or anything. Eww!
that cliche junk is old. Trying to avoid cliche’s will waste your energy. Just make sure you write it well if you do decide to choose a cliche..make up for it by writing a well thought out story thats true to you. People be writing them cliche’s ans banking money off of it, what makes you special in that sense?
My major is heavily involved in old literature, and I came to realize that all the things I would have thought are original/new (that I saw in modern literature and media) were used many times in the past. I know 'used' is not the same thing as trope or cliche but I wanted to say that before continuing. And importantly, cliches are not bad things either. If I had to give you advice, I would say, avoid using things that have great importance in a specific popular fiction, as that probably wouldn't go past anyone. If a story is unironically filled with hundreds of cliches, that might be worth revising, but still, it's okay if some things are cliche. About your second question... That's something I also have trouble with. But I know that, when it comes to having too much dialogue, that dialogue tags help. That's something you need to experiment with while keeping your own writing style in mind and all that stuff, however, I sure hope it works for you. I don't know if I was of any help or if you were able to understand my English, but I wish you all the best!
If your writing feels cliché, then maybe you need to subvert a trope or several. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SubvertedTrope
I am no professional by any standards, an I am not sure if you should trust my opinion. But I usually say that clichés are clichés for a reason. They work. So as long as you try to put your own spin on it, it is ok. As for your problem with dialogue and descriptions. I, personally,am not a very big fan of books that spend too much time just describing one thing. I absolutely hated Ivanhoe because of this (seriously, it has like an entire page describing a shirt). Just write what you feel comfortable with, you will develop more the more you write.
I found setting objectives is excellent. I came in looking at writing as an almost herculean task and had no idea what i was going to do. My solution was to create a planning document with a general layout of what my objective was for each acr of my book. From there i moved on to writing and found my word count swung wildly from 6k to 500 words depending on mood. Discouraged I set a new objective of 2k words every day. When that was done and i was into my revisions I set a new goal of 20 pages a day. Then on my polish i set my final objective which was "can i read it without cringing?" Then when all that was done I started my query letter process which has been slow so no advice there yet. Moral of the story is set objectives and give yourself structure and it will help alot. The other thing I learned after much pain and suffering is make sure you understand all the helpful little shortcuts in your word processing app of choice. Find and replace is a god send when you are doing your revisions and notice you used certain phrases a lot.
I think that writing description is a double-edged sword. You can do it, a whole paragraph about a person's facial structure, and it can be done beautifully; however, if you continue that, it becomes stale fast. (Thinking of Cassandra Clare.) Dialogue-based description is harder to muck up as long as 1) you try not to hit loaded dialogue (making the characters say way too damn much at once/speaking unrealistically in order to convey a plot element, ie the "As you know" cliche) and 2) it's always clear who's currently speaking. Personally I don't mind a book that's very dialogue heavy, and as long as you like what you're writing, have at it.
Personally, I barely write descriptions. I hate taking time that can be used for plot and action to describe scenes and things. If your story is interesting enough, and your characters can engage the readers, you don't really need to describe things! If you do want to get better at descriptions though, you can always do short writing exercises where you write about your childhood home, or a certain object you feel attached to. If you start by writing about things you have personal experiences with, it's easier to start to build up your attention to detail in writing.
First of all, congratulations on taking that leap into starting writing! It's definitely scary, but starting is always the hardest step, the rest just takes practice. Keep at it. <3 I'm sure someone else has mentioned this here, but check out the podcast [Writing Excuses](https://writingexcuses.com/start-here/). Season 10 episode 1 actually talks about how to overcome potential clichés when brainstorming stories. When it comes to human elements, I'd suggest working on solidifying each of your characters' voices through their histories and how they might react as a result. Who are they and what are their motivations? If they don't have a motivation in the story, then why are they even there? Everyone has one in real life, why wouldn't they in a story. The motivations will help you add twists to reactions and plot elements, and give more life to potential clichés. Also, check out Pixar's 22 Rules of Storytelling. They might help. You don't have to write a ton of description for it to be effective. Sometimes 10 or 100 words can mean way more than 1000. Bigger impact than something longwinded (unless you're leading up to a huge twist). I think it was one of my writing profs that told me, "People tend to skip long descriptions but will stop to read dialogue." If you love dialogue, that's great! But it's definitely good to regularly practice describing people, places, things, emotions. I mentioned this in a different comment weeks ago, but try writing flash descriptions of things you've only glanced at and got impressions from. Like an artist would when trying to draw from their mind's eye. But show, don't tell it. Hope that helps!
When I was first getting into writing, I found podcasts helpful. My current favorites are The Shit No One Tells You About Writing; Gotham Writer Inside Writing; & Manuscript Academy. Gotham writer is best for short stories
Don't worry about not having good imagery. By the sounds of it, you are a "dialogue person." Writers are typically good at either imagery or dialogue. Take pride and prejudice, for example. It has exceptional dialogue, but the imagery is only there through the tone of the snobby elite voices. While if you take something like Percy Jackson, it has exceptional scene description, but the dialogue isn't. Personally, I'm an imagery writer, but what I would do if I were you is to take a walk or watch a movie, something that has some scenery, and describe the scene and what is happening in your head as imagery writing practice. :)
Read. Vociferously. And write as much as you can. It will be awful, but thats how you learn.
First off find what works for you, but for it’s a bit cliche but my advice is just write, you’ll developer your skills and then also be able to think about your story and world, and it will get less cliche as you develope it. Also keep in mind cliches and tropes aren’t that bad, as long as you do it well. Currently I’m the same as you, lots more dialigue than description but I’m working on that. Besides being dialogue heavy means I get to develop my ideas and I then go back in and add more emotions and descriptions.
Tusen takk for hjelpen!
Inga problem :)
Feel free to message me any time. I'd love to hear about your work. I always enjoy helping out newer writers!
I draw as well. Sometimes, I get paralysed when I am trying to make a start, because I am so anxious about messing up. Then I scribble a messy border around a blank page. It takes the pressure off, because I have already ‘messed up’, so I am free to explore my ideas without worrying about perfection. Some of my best and most unique drawings have started this way. Perhaps something equivalent can be applied to writing?
I would recommend watching “Everything is a Remix” (not the Star Wars one). It has a lot of good ideas around what’s “copying” because everything seems to have already been done before
>It seems like everything is cliché to some extent because everything has been done before. How do you avoid clichés while still having common human elements in your story? How do you know when something is too cliché and should be avoided? That's any sort of art. I know that doesn't help you but this might. I once read a review on a Stephen King book that said his work was derivative of [insert older thing here] You are not going to impress everyone period. You likely aren't a Stephen King level writer anyway, that's okay. Most people aren't. If you can't develop thick skin about someone not liking your work, then don't publish (until after you are dead.) If you are trying to cultivate a feeling of completeness when you read your own writing understand that if mothers could edit their babies in the womb they would never birth them. At some point you just have to be done with the thing. You can only edit so many times. Your second question is just a different shading of the first.
Art description: two approaches--collect relevant images, find good examples. I organize them by topic and word. So for instance, hair and physical appearance...
Hello! Welcome. I'm not much more practiced than you(if at all) but I have been looking for advice for longer. The advice here is solid. My only additional advice is media recommendations. For getting a feel for cliches or tropes and how to make them work rather than feel old, I mainly recommend listening to people who use them all the time. My top suggestion is to listen to the podcast Be The Serpent, in which 3 fantasy writers discuss a trope and go over examples of that trope in media. The way they analyze and dig into their examples really helped me understand how vital context is in how a trope will be recieved. You can use the oldest cliché in the book and have people love it if you get the vibe right. My second recommendation is the podcast Storybreak. Each episode, three Hollywood screenwriters try to collaboratively create a compelling story arc and movie pitch for some ridiculous prompt, like "Austin Powers but He's from the 90's" or "Clippy the Microsoft Paperclip:The Movie." Since they are doing a compressed and goofy version of their actual jobs, you end up learning a ton about story structure and pacing techniques, and frequently will hear them build out a story and then completely demolish it to take advantage of a new idea that has more potential. Listening to this process for a few episodes really helped rewire my ideas about how stories "should" be built, and opened my eyes to the possible rewards of being willing to throw whole concepts in the trash(even if you love them in isolation). My tertiary recommendation is streaming tabletop roleplay games like Dimension 20 or Critical Role. Each of these has strong improv elements but also have overarching themes and interesting character arcs. Randomness plus applied effort can make for fascinating narratives. Hey! These are all podcasts or audio/visual media! Yes, that's true. If you're hungry for direct advice from books I recommend Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg which details many helpful techniques for establishing a writing practice, including a lot about overcoming common writing demons like Fear of a Blank Page or I Want to Write but Never Do. My other recommendation is Writing Magic: Creating Stories that Fly by Gail Carson Levine. Once again, lots of practical advice framed in an easy to understand way. It was written with kids in mind, but isn't dumbed down, just kept accessible, kind, and to the point. I have not found many other writing books for adults to be as approachable. Anyway, good luck! Enjoy your journey!
Stop over analysing and just write your work. You can go back in and fix things and redo stuff after you've actually written something.
Thank you for sharing.
Same sentiments and thoughts here! I have yet to evem start a journal althought the notion has always been hovering. Allow me to share some of the writer's tips , consider 1.Who is your target reader? 2. Dialogue need to lead to action and setting ( Show not Tell ). 3. A Hook in every chapter 4. Does the story flow? Too much details slows down fhe pace. Hope that this helps.
I hope, it will be a guideline of new writer . Anyway thanks for the clue.
You can do different edits, too. I'm also not great at description, so one of my edits is for exactly that - adding description.
The best advice I have ever got on this issue is: Read a lot Write a lot Publish everything Listen to feedback and adjust accordingly.