Category: Writing Tips

One of the best things you can do to improve your writing is to look at other people’s work. Offering to edit other people’s stories will open you up to your own mistakes, other styles, and make you more mindful of what a reader’s reaction is likely to be.

When something looks wrong in someone else’s text, it’s a lot easier to spot.

I personally have a set of blinders up on my own writing. I don’t always see what’s missing or how a phrase is jumbled rather than clear. But sometimes I spot something wrong in someone else’s draft and that becomes something to look out for in my own.

One of my favorite mantras to remind myself in times when I can’t write is a quote I’ll attribute to Bill Pace. Whether or not he said it first, I don’t know. But for 12 plus years I’ve heard his voice in my head when I remind myself:

THE ONLY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN US AND THEM, IS THEY’RE DOING IT.

Keep that in mind when you get down or are procrastinating. Whether it’s about seeing someone else’s success or wanting to have accomplished something but haven’t yet. You have to do it. If you want it, do it.

Stop talking about it. Do it.

Stuck at your keyboard for almost an hour, and you know what you want to write, should write, have to write, but nothing is coming?

The easiest thing to do is get up and get active. Get your brain going by taking a walk outside, or if weather won’t permit, trying tidying something. Something where your mind can wander (not watching TV or surfing the internet).

But set a time to get back to work. Whether you need a timer or just plan to walk a set distance.

Alternatively, setting up a good writing routine is key to any longform writing–like a novel. On occasion, I’ve started writing sessions with a walk around the block first.

I spend this time rehashing what has happened, what will happen, and try to think of the first words that’ll launch me into my writing session.

On days where I plan to write all day, I’ll schedule keyboard time. Every 20-30 minutes of typing, I’ll get up and do something. Whether it’s walking the trash out to the can, fixing hot tea, or walking to the mailbox.

Taking breaks is important.

I’ve always found that just trying to write everything I could all at once always exhausts me and makes it harder to sit down and write the next time.

Plus, you never know when you’ll see something on your walk that’d make a good bit for your story.

I’ve seen a lot of advice that says to come up with your characters first and then the story.

I practice the opposite.

I tend to come up with a concept or even just a scene to incite the adventure. But whatever that initial concept is, that’s what I develop first. there’s usually a clear path to any concept.

Thieves Plan Heist–>Heist Goes Wrong–>Thieves turn against each other

Once I know what I plan to write about, I invent the characters. Starting with the types I’d need. Then I go back through my plot and envision how these characters will react. This changes the story, but not the idea behind it.

Now that I know some of the scenarios, like what they might be stealing, and who from. I’ll think what would make this plot more interesting, and it’s always the characters.

So what if it’s a mother and daughter team and the daughter has always thought her mother was so cool because they live the wildlife without rules. And the mother is someone filled with great rules and quotes about life, who wouldn’t believe she has it all figured out?

A mother and daughter team of thieves planned a heist–>it goes wrong because the daughter hates her potential stepfather–>The daughter turns against them because they cross a line, killing a guard.

Pretty soon, the characters have taken over the story, and that’s when I have the most fun writing.

Maybe it doesn’t even get to the killing of the guard. Once I know the characters and drop them into a situation, once I know those characters, they’ll veer left or right. They’ll demand I change my carefully plotted outline.

And that’s where I have a lot of fun, when the characters come to life.

I actually find it incredibly hard to start with the characters first, because then I’m trying to come up with things to throw at them to keep them interested and interesting.

It’s probably why I have such a hard time writing sequels. The characters are already there . . .

I used to write in first person, almost exclusively. It was very hard when I attempted my first novel to switch to third person perspective so that I could juggle all the different characters and scenes.

But then I got my first notes back from friends and family. I was too omniscient, jumping from one character’s head to the next depending on the line (not chapter).

Luckily, I was steered in the correct path, and a few drafts later, I realized the benefits of THIRD PERSON LIMITED.

By choosing one character to write about in the third person, the reader can get into their head, look out from their eyes, yet also be standing away from them to see what happens.

The writing becomes similar to a suspense film, where the camera might not show you what is lurking off screen or just left of the frame. Your character can be surprised. Someone can stand behind them, and they can tell you how that felt. They can present the characters around them as they see them.

Now, jumping from who your third person limited perspective belongs to from chapter to chapter won’t be too distracting to a reader, and is nice because the change in point-of-view can shed details on this or that character whose head we were just in. How does this person really feel about the other?

Either way, if you haven’t tried THIRD PERSON LIMITED, give it a shot. I think it balances third person omniscient and first person perfectly.