There’s heaps of websites out there that have bundles of Dos and Don'ts far more detailed than anything here, so go surfing, there's plenty of stuff in them about grammar and character building and punctuation and plotting.
In the meantime, below are just a few
pointers I feel strongly about that may help...
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BE A people WATCHER / LISTENER
First up - study Body Language. Get a book on it and swallow it whole, then practice it - on the bus, at the cafĂ©, at weddings, funerals, shopping malls - anywhere you can catch the human species being themselves. For my money, it’s one of the top skills needed. I didn’t even begin to write better until I mastered this.
Your story will be about people (even an android
will need a personality), so get out there and hear the stories, ask questions,
especially with oldies, because they’ve been around the longest and they’ve
done most of it. And especially don’t waste a conversation telling people about
yourself, hear THEIR story, they all have one, all seven billion of them, and
every one different.
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Do short stories for practice
One of the best practice pieces in honing your skills is the very under-rated Short Story. They encompass all the aspects of a full novel in microcosm, and in a way, if you can master the Short Story format you should be able to get around a full novel. And a Short Story is about the size of one chapter. (See also “Get Some Cred” under “PUBLISHING” below).
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Don't be afraid to make the cursor dance a bit
I don't really touch on HOW to write amongst all this, not the art and craft of it, that's something you have to work out for yourself. You have to develop your own style, so always be ready to explore, to take some chances. Sit at your screen, look at that cursor going blink blink blink, waiting for you to make it dance. It's the most exciting feeling of all, watching that little black line winking there on the pristine page asking you to be bold. So get your creative juices up there in the world of the imagination and fly fly fly. It's where the best stuff comes from.
Dylan Thomas's “Under Milkwood”, Russell
Hoban's “Riddley Walker”. At those moments for them you can just hear their
arrogance saying - “Screw them - I'm writing THIS.” (But always have a long look
at it a few days later.)
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Write heaps - and keep it.
Writing well is like anything else, if you want to be good at it you need practice. Practice practice practice.
So, write heaps. Anything. Anything
creative. Make a short piece out of what happens around you at your morning
coffee. At your Parents and Teachers Night. What the butcher said about his
brother-in-law. Anything.
There's a story at every hand. Load it up
onto a Word file and massage it and massage it until you like what you see. And
keep it, print it off on a real sheet of paper and shove it in a box under the
bed. In time you'll need to look back on your early stuff to see how it's
evolving.
But back up your Word file. And NOT
on the bloody Cloud. I keep a USB stick permanently stuck in a port and I back
up every file I edit. Religiously. Because long ago I didn’t – just the once! -
and something shat itself and I lost about three hours of what I was sure was
utter brilliance.
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READ HEAPS...
Did you ever get to the end of a great book and think “Geez, I'd LOVE to be able to write like that.”, or to the end of a crap one (or just the middle) and think “Geez, I'm NEVER going to write stuff like that.” Each reaction is part of the learning curve. Not that everyone can ever agree on what’s great and what’s not. That bit is up to you.
So, never stop reading. Especially reading
the “successful” writers in your chosen genre, or who tend to use your
preferred style. But don't limit yourself only to them. Be a bit promiscuous
with your favours. You'll learn a bunch of great things from every good novel,
but you'll also learn heaps about what to avoid from a bad one.
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...AND Write what you like to read
You probably will anyway, that is, write the kind of stuff that you personally like to read, because - well, because it's what comes naturally, and it's fun. And it's a damn sight easier. It must be SO much hard work writing to some formula you don't personally go for. I have never attempted Sci-Fi or Whodunnit for instance because they do zilch for me. But if it's that which you love, get stuck in.
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BEWARE OF Long paragraphs
I know I said I wasn't going to offer tips on the actual writing itself, but more than once I’ve hacked through a book that seems to be hung up on loooooong paragraphs. Which I find just a bit - what? - something. I mean, more than a whole page and it's still the same para? For some reason I need to see a dent in the left hand of the text every 10-15 lines. It's like talking and talking and talking without drawing a breath.
Also, it always strikes me as a bit “old-fashioned”
to have lengthy paragraphs when there's plenty of spots in the narrative to hit
the old carriage return. Then again, maybe it's just me, I like shorter paras,
seems to give the page a more - modern? - style. Not sure how you feel about
it, but weigh it up next time you're reading.
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Good dialogue is essential
I actually try out some conversations between the main characters very early in the drafting stage, helps me get inside the characters, forces me to “see” them far more clearly than straight prose can.
It’s
great to know they eat their stew with a spoon and are in the habit of putting
their jumpers on inside out, but having them sustain a conversation, that
makes you really dig around in their personality, puts a subtle bias on their
opinions, forces you to “hear” them talking. And it can't be rushed. As soon as
you get impatient to fly into the action, the dialogue can become stilted and
off-putting.
And write dialogue like it really sounds.
Have an ear for how people REALLY speak and put THAT on the page. Do they say “Yes”,
Yeah”, “Yep”, “Uh-huh”, or “Hmm..alrighty” ? Or something else. Have a listen.
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Psychology, Philosophy, Religion, Myth
It helps to know basic Psychology, to KNOW what makes people tick, so you can use it in your characters, to give them depth. Nothing worse than a two-dimensional paper cut-out character with NO character.
Likewise, a quick grip on some basic
Philosophy helps a bunch. Plenty of books on it you can read. While you’re at
it, have a look at Jung, but steer clear of Freud. Religion is a whole other
source of wonderment when it comes to creativity, but personally I love the
whole Myth and Legend thing, especially Nordic and Celtic, but the Greeks,
Romans, Persians, Etruscans, Egyptians, Indians, Aboriginals, they all had a go
at dreaming up ancient stories to help them come to terms with an overwhelming
reality. And they all pretty much say the same thing, in interestingly
different ways. Check it out.
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TIME AND PLACE
I find it a tad off-putting if I get to about page 27 and I’m still not clear WHERE I am and WHEN I am. Setting is crucial and has to be able to put the reader right there in a few fairly early lines. Get good at describing WHERE, but in not too many words. Learn to nail it but economically. Go for a walk in a big setting and mull over in a handful of words something that catches your eye. And make it interesting. See what’s unique. (Yes, and WHY did it catch your eye?)
Likewise, somewhere in the first few pages,
slip in something that subtly but clearly suggests whether you are in 1740 or
1940 or 2500.
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Don’t get too hung up on grammar
The purists will howl but geez I hated grammar at school. But I always romped in with Credits in English. Pedantically correct Grammar is BORING and mostly distorts what the character is saying, or it can make prose sound cumbersome and sometimes just a bit pompous. Concentrate instead on syntax and clarity, lots of simple clear writing. And get your commas in the right place.
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Keep some sort of jotter at hand
You suddenly think of some brilliant phrase or idea and by the time you get to a pen and paper it’s gone. I HATE that. The current breed of mobiles probably have an app. Either that or keep a jotter and a writing stick on you. I don’t actually do any of these. I recite three key reminder words incessantly till I get home and then scribble it down. People sometimes look at you oddly in passing so learn to not move your lips.
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Try different styles
Experiment, at least a bit or even a lot, see what genre / period / style of fiction you like doing most. Try First Person, try Present Tense, try everything. But don’t waste time slugging away at something that doesn’t grab you just because it’s trendy, faddy, or currently making millions for someone else. Find YOUR voice.
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