bucketsiler:

I got a great anonymous ask last week from someone who wanted to know how to identify weak spots in their writing. One
of the things that comes with time and experience is finding the
language to identify, discuss, and address the feeling that something
isn’t quite right or that a story is “missing something.” Not
knowing them or their writing, of course I couldn’t help them figure out what
specifically the problem was. But I did share with them a list of things I’ve done
over the years to be able to identify weak spots and improve my writing. 

1. Analyze your favorite writers.

Figure
out why you like the writing that you like. Ask yourself: What are they
doing here? What are they doing that I’m not doing? Why do I love their
writing so much? Take notes on their stories. Plot them. Write in the
margins. Read them slowly. Read their reviews—both good and bad. Did
that writer you love once write something you hated? Great, even better.
Figure out why that particular book was different from the others.

2. Analyze your own writing.

Do you have an older story you wrote that you love? Figure out why.
What did you do differently in that story that you’re not doing in the
current story you’re writing? Make notes. Draw maps. Reverse engineer
everything.

3. Develop a language to talk and think about writing.

Read
craft books, blogs, anything you can get your hands on. Learn about
point of view, conflict, character development, dialogue, story
structure, syntax, metaphors. Get your advice from good sources, and
don’t believe everything you read. If something doesn’t sit right with
you, throw it out. But be open to everything.

4. Journal and write about your writing.

Over time, you will identify consistent weaknesses that you have. Then,
in the future, when you feel like “something is missing” from your
writing, you can reference your notes and remember, for example, that
you often have difficulty with your protagonist’s motivation, with
theme, with dialogue, etc., and you’ll have a better idea about where to
go looking.

5. Share your writing with someone you trust, ideally a more experienced writer than you or an editor or mentor.

Be very careful about who you share your writing with. Friends and
family are not always the best choice. You don’t want someone who’s just
going to throw around their uneducated opinion about your work, who has
a big ego, or who won’t be honest with you. Remember: “I liked it” or
“I didn’t like it” are useless pieces of feedback. You want someone who
can read your work and say, “Your protagonist’s passion for music made
them really likeable to me. I was dying to know whether they would get
into the conservatory or not!” or “My attention wandered on page two,
when you described the couch upholstery for three paragraphs.”

6. Analyze the areas of your writing which are commonly problematic for new writers (and writers in general).

In
my experience as an editor, the most likely culprits are unclear
character motivation and lack of conflict. There are a lot of good
resources (books and blogs) about this. Try a Google search for “most
common mistakes beginning writers make.”

7. Trust your intuition.

Do you keep coming back to the same page or scene in your story, feeling like it isn’t right? You’re probably onto something.

8. Take time away from your writing.

You’d
be amazed how much more clear everything will be after a break. Give
yourself at least a week for a short story, 3-4 weeks for a novel. It
could also be the case that your ambitions for this particular story
don’t yet match your skills, and that you’ll have to wait even longer to
successfully finish it. I’ve known writers who have given up on a story
only to come back to it months or years later once they’d gained the
skills and insight to complete it. And then suddenly writing that story
seemed really easy!

Very good advice!!

tlbodine:

jenroses:

tlbodine:

So I’ve been reading a lot of amateur writing lately, and I’ve noticed what seems to be a common problem: dialogue. 

Tell me if this looks familiar. You start writing a conversation, only to look down and realize it reads like: 

“I’m talking now,” he said. 

“Yes, I noticed,” she said. 

“I have nothing much to add to this conversation,” the third person said. 

And it grates on your ears. So much ‘said.’ It looks awful! It sounds repetitive. So, naturally, you try to shake it up a bit: 

“Is this any better?” He inquired. 

“I’m not sure,” she mused. 

“I definitely think so!” that other guy roared. 

This is not an improvement. This is worse. 

Now your dialogue is just as disjointed as it was before, but you have the added problem of a bunch of distracting dialogue verbs that can have an unintentionally comedic effect. 

So here’s how you avoid it: You mix up the dialogue with description. 

“Isn’t this better?” he asked, leaning forward in his seat. “Don’t you feel like we’re more grounded in reality?” 

She nodded, looking down at her freshly manicured nails. “I don’t feel like a talking head anymore.” 

“Right!” that annoying third guy added. “And now you can get some characterization crammed into the dialogue!” 

The rules of dialogue punctuation are as follows: 

• Each speaker gets his/her own paragraph – when the speaker changes, you start a new paragraph. 
• Within the speaker’s own paragraph, you can include action, interior thoughts, description, etc. 
• You can interrupt dialogue in the middle to put in a “said” tag, and then write more dialogue from that same speaker. 
• You can put the “said” tag at the beginning or end of the sentence. 
• Once you’ve established which characters are talking, you don’t need a “said” tag every time they speak. 
• ETA: use a comma instead of a period at the end of a sentence of dialogue, and keep the ‘said’ tag in lower caps. If you end on a ? or !, the ‘said’ tag is still in lower case. (thanks, commenters who pointed this out!) 

Some more examples: 

“If you’re writing an incomplete thought,” he said, “you put a comma, then the quote mark, then the dialogue tag.” 

“If the sentence ends, you put in a period.” She pointed at the previous sentence. “See? Complete sentences.” 

“You can also replace the dialogue tag with action.” Extra guy yawned. “When you do, you use a period instead of a comma.”

So what do you do with this newfound power? I’m glad you asked. 

• You can provide description of the character and their surroundings in order to orient them in time and space while talking. 
• You can reveal characterization through body language and other nonverbal cues that will add more dimension to your dialogue. 
• You can add interior thoughts for your POV character between lines of dialogue – especially helpful when they’re not saying quite what they mean. 
• You can control pacing. Lines of dialogue interrupted by descriptions convey a slower-paced conversation. Lines delivered with just a “said” tag, or with no dialogue tag at all, convey a more rapid-fire conversation. 

For example: 

“We’ve been talking about dialogue for a while,” he said, shifting in his seat as though uncomfortable with sitting still. 

“We sure have,” she agreed. She rose from her chair, stretching. “Shall we go, then?” 

“I think we should.” 

“Great. Let’s get out of here.” 

By controlling the pacing, you can establish mood and help guide your reader along to understanding what it is that you’re doing. 

I hope this helps you write better dialogue! If you have questions, don’t hesitate to drop me an ask 🙂

This is goddamned exactly right and exactly how I strive to write.

Not only that, but when I first write something, often it’s “said” all the way down, and then relatively late in the process, I go back and fluff it up with action and intonation. It’s okay to let it be simple the first time around, and then add in the complexity where it is warranted. This lets me work faster, so that I’m not shifting gears between dialogue and description constantly.

This is some of the most nuanced dialogue advice I’ve seen on Tumblr, and all writers should read it. 

That is a supremely kind thing to say and I am very grateful to be of assistance 🙂 

This is soooooo helpful! I consider myself a fairly seasoned writer and I still struggle with this. THANK YOU for the wonderful examples @tlbodine and thanks to @jenroses for pointing out you can write everything with “said” and fluff it up later!

rumpuswriters:

Writing Tip:

If you don’t feel like actually writing, prepare for writing:

1. Open your WIP Word doc
2. Read the last page again
3. Scribble notes on what happens next

Once you’ve done this, you might just find yourself wanting to continue after all. And if you don’t, no worries. You’ve made it easier to jump back into it later. 

So simple, so brilliant