Some Old Writing Tips: Part II

Did I say that I was going to post these *soon*? Because I really meant later. Whoops. Anyway, sorry about so much space between this and 'Some Old Writing Tips: Part I'.

Some all-around tips:

1). Don't be neat. Now, that might seem rather odd, but when I mean to not be neat, I mean to not sweat the details in your first draft. You should be neat in your final draft of your book, but when you're beginning, don't spend half an hour trying to make your first chapter perfect. If you agonize over every single word, phrase, and action, you won't get much done and your work will sound too labored. That is why I like to write my first draft instead of type it. If I type it, I'm tempted to delete and re-delete, which is made very easy by a handy-dandy delete button. If you write with a pen, you can't erase, which keeps you from getting hung up over a mere sentence. If there is something that you know needs editing in your first draft, just make a note of it in the margin and keep going. It doesn't matter if your book is perfect by the first-draft! Because it's not going to be. This is what made the Elandai series [now 'out of print', lol] so hard to write; you guys basically saw my first draft of it.

2). Start out simple. Right now, I'm on a level with some of my books where I have sub-plots and sub-sub plots, supporting characters and characters that support the supporting characters. It's very hard. If you're just writing your first book, I would suggest you start off with just one plot (maybe a small sub-plot, too) and just a few supporting characters. Then you can get more complicated as you go.

3). Talk to other first-time authors. When I was just starting out, I had a lot of friends who wrote--but I didn't know they did. It's encouraging to talk to other young authors, not to mention helpful.

4). Find out what genre you are. I am a fantasy/allegorical genre. Seriously, I can't write anything else then fantasy and allegories. I've tried historical fiction, sci-fi, contemporary, and others, but I can't write those. You can experiment to find it out, or you can think on what books you read a lot of. Read a whole bunch of fantasy? You might want to try writing fantasy.

5). Read. A lot. I think that's self-explanatory, but I'll explain anyway. If you find a really good author, study their writing style. They probably use a lot of strong verbs (like sprinted or dashed instead of ran) and you can copy their ways of making the reader interested.

6). Have other people read your books. The first book I actually let someone read was the first third of Sarea. They probably will be able to tell you if your characters are strong, plot interesting, etc.

7). Get a fair amount of sleep, drink a lot of water, eat healthy, get a good amount of exercise. They're actually important factors of good writing because they keep your brain in good shape.

8). Get your school-work and chores done before you sit down to write. That way there will be less interruptions from siblings or parents asking if your household duties are done yet, and you will be able to concentrate more if you don't have a to-do list hanging over your head.

9). Try to write often, even if it's only for a little while. If you skip one day, it'll be easier to skip a week.

10). Don't give up! No one ever becomes world-best author without a lot of work.

A tip or two on strong characters:

#1. Base them on a real person. A lot of times, I base my main character, at least, on someone I know, including me. Ehra in Sarea for example. She's based on two real people: one friend for personality, and another for looks (with some of her own, too). If you think you'll get too attached to a character you're going to have die, then...I guess you could make up your own personality or something. I don't usually kill my characters, so I'm not much help there. I also base my bad guys on unsavory characters I know, or even historical ones (such as Sisera from Judges 4, or Judas Iscariot from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). Basing them on real people helps when you aren't quite sure how your character would react in a situation; simply have them act like the person they're based on would.

#2. Put some of their background into it. Add something more personal about them, so the reader really feels that they know the character. I added a few pages in Sarea when Ehra is talking to her parents, whom she has a very close relationship with. I also added a chapter when Ehra and her sister are chatting with some gossipy village girls, showing how different they are.

And a suggestion on lightening dark plots:

Add little children into it. They're so innocent and funny; it lightens up the plot right away. I am naturally very optimistic, so I don't tend to have this problem, but I do have it sometimes. Also add some friendly family into it; if your character is an orphan with a sibling who's her mortal enemy, is running away from a cruel slaver while unwittingly falling into a trap their malicious sibling has set, it would make for an interesting story line, but it'd be extremely dark and...not very pro-family.

Izori