What's The Best Writer Advice You've Ever Received

[Paul_Chance]

So, I was reading on the internet this morning and I ran across an article that asked the question - what's the best piece of writing advice you've ever received?

The article had a piece of advice I'd never heard but resonated with me.

Write for yourself and edit for your audience.

Writing for yourself allows you to unleash your creativity. Editing for your audience means crafting the finished draft in such a way that it hits your audience Goldilocks zone.

I thought that was a pretty good piece of advice.

What is the best advice you've ever encountered?

 

[DeeDeeGQ]

My creative writing teacher in high school stressed writing about personal experiences, embellishing details actually lived. She was big on crafting a proper short story with 3 or 4 steps of rising action, the climax, and ending the story with falling action.

 

[alohadave]

What is the best advice you've ever encountered?

There needs to be a conflict. Without a source of tension, or something for the characters to react to, fight against, struggle to overcome, you just have a boring pleasant fantasy.

 

[StillStunned]

I recently listened to an audiobook on fiction editing, and it was more useful than anything I've read or listened to about the actual writing.

One of the tips was that every scene or piece of dialogue, including interior dialogue, should result in a different emotion or attitude than the character had at the beginning of the scene or dialogue.

 

[Euphony]

paraphrasing: The tools, structure, grammar, best practices, etc. aren't there to make your voice sound like others' but to help you sound like your true self.

 

[Euphony]

I recently listened to an audiobook on fiction editing, and it was more useful than anything I've read or listened to about the actual writing.

One of the tips was that every scene or piece of dialogue, including interior dialogue, should result in a different emotion or attitude than the character had at the beginning of the scene or dialogue.

Name NAMES.

 

[StillStunned]

Name NAMES.

"Effective Editing", by Molly McCowan. If you have Audible, you should be able to get it free as part of the Great Courses series.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Give yourself a quota on key fetishes, don't over use them.

I don't always pay attention to good advice. They meant well, but you know rules are there to be broken.

 

[Euphony]

"Effective Editing", by Molly McCowan. If you have Audible, you should be able to get it free as part of the Great Courses series.

This is an excellent tip. Editing-centric books usually get mini-tanked on Goodreads so this being well above the water line is noteworthy.

Never would've thought to dip into a Great Courses book on this particular topic. Guess my brain worried "gig work" issues.

 

[Euphony]

"Effective Editing", by Molly McCowan. If you have Audible, you should be able to get it free as part of the Great Courses series.

Not an audiobook (that I know of) but worth the dead tree penalty...



Admittedly, maybe a lot more "how to make peace/negotiate a truce" with the process, but there is still a ton of valuable information to be had. Yes, more touchy-feely (for the modern market) but that belies a lot of fundamentals building under the icing.

At least thumb it through to see if you might click.

 

[StillStunned]

Never would've thought to dip into a Great Courses book on this particular topic. Guess my brain worried "gig work" issues.

I've also listened to "The Fantasy Fiction Formula" by Deborah Chester (foreword by Jim Butcher, who credits her course for his success as a writer), and "Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques" by James Hynes. Both are in the Great Courses.

I found them both interesting, but like I mentioned, the one on editing has taught me a lot more.

 

[StillStunned]

Not an audiobook (that I know of) but worth the dead tree penalty...

Found it on Audible and bought it. Thanks for the tip!

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Write for yourself, and If you're blocked on a story, just keep writing. Good, bad, mediocre, it doesn't matter. Change to a different story, or just babble in the one you're blocked on, but just keep writing.

 

[Euphony]

Found it on Audible and bought it. Thanks for the tip!

Holy crap. Wasn't even listed on Goodreads editions.

Imma be so broke cause of you...

 

[lovecraft68]

 

[Euphony]

They meant well, but you know rules are there to be broken.

So too Grammar Nazi's femurs.

(oh shit and I'm talking out loud?)

 

[NoTalentHack]

I don’t know if this is a tip, more like something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. On a YouTube series about rip-off’s of Alien and Aliens, they went into the making of the two movies. One thing that really stuck out for me is that the director not only wasn’t a sci-if genre film guy, he actively avoided seeing the films that the writer and producers wanted to homage, specifically 1950s sci-fi horror films. He refused to approach it like a genre film, with the attendant tropes, references, etc. instead making it as a non-genre film that just happened to be in space about a thing killing the workers. I’m probably making it sound a lot more high-falutin’ than it came through on the documentary, but it’s had me really thinking about how I approach stories and how I always have.

 

[Euphony]

I don’t know if this is a tip, more like something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. On a YouTube series about rip-off’s of Alien and Aliens, they went into the making of the two movies. One thing that really stuck out for me is that the director not only wasn’t a sci-if genre film guy, he actively avoided seeing the films that the writer and producers wanted to homage, specifically 1950s sci-fi horror films. He refused to approach it like a genre film, with the attendant tropes, references, etc. instead making it as a non-genre film that just happened to be in space about a thing killing the workers. I’m probably making it sound a lot more high-falutin’ than it came through on the documentary, but it’s had me really thinking about how I approach stories and how I always have.

Stories are more malleable than we allow ourselves.

Jaws was a masterpiece b/c the mechanical shark was a broken P.O.S. It was more Hitchcock than popcorn blockbuster at the time.

Aliens, as you said, lasered in on story that happened to have aliens and happened to be in space.

Nothing draws like story, even if, yeah, Michael Bay is a thing and Fast Fifty Bajillion is already green-lit.

Film study only as a tool for improving storytelling works and is stupid fun man.

 

[Djmac1031]

Jaws was a masterpiece b/c the mechanical shark was a broken P.O.S.

It's why all these modern day CGI shark movies fail. They can not only show the shark, they can have it do anything they want.

Spielberg didn't have that option. So he had to improvise with things like the barrels and POV shots.

 

[HeyAll]

In terms of personally given to me -- cut down on words that end with 'ly' such as very, quickly, happily, etc...

At first I didn't really get it, but the more I thought about it, the more I agreed. And I cut those words out as much as possible ever since. I've since read big name authors giving the same advice in their advice articles.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Aliens, as you said, lasered in on story that happened to have aliens and happened to be in space.

I once heard somebody refer to Aliens as "my favourite Vietnam War movie".

 

[EroticCupcake]

I'm pretty sure this is paraphrased Steven King.

When you receive feedback that something isn't working, believe it. When they tell you how to fix it, ignore them. You are the writer.

I live by these words in my everyday non-writing career.

 

[DeeDeeGQ]

That's why she was a teacher and not a writer. Writing about oneself can be effective in an autobiography or semi-biography, but it becomes stale after a few attempts and reeks of self-indulgent narcissism. There's also a voyeuristic element underlying the advice to write about personal experiences, and I would treat the advice with suspicion.

Delving into unfamiliar territories in writing demands genuine effort, a vivid imagination, a strong sense of sympathy, and a touch of talent.

I interpret this to mean that the best advice you've ever received is to "just make shit up."

 

[ronde]

Write what you know or do enough research that the story sounds like you do.

Never describe characters by any measured physical size, i.e. there should be no 10" cocks in a story and no 44DD breasts. The only exceptions are if the character is describing him or her self or if another character has a valid reason to know those dimensions. Guessing is not a valid reason.

Make the characters real people with all the hopes, fears, and self-doubt all people have. Otherwise, they're just mannequins.

 

[djrip]

Write what you know or do enough research that the story sounds like you do.

Never describe characters by any measured physical size, i.e. there should be no 10" cocks in a story and no 44DD breasts. The only exceptions are if the character is describing him or her self or if another character has a valid reason to know those dimensions. Guessing is not a valid reason.

Like, if the (18 yo) Catholic school girls are measuring the MMC in their anatomy class.