Writing Tips.
Grammar, Punctuation, Style, Publishing Options, and much more.
Writing doesn’t have to be for commercial gain. Many writers began with a diary, logging their loves, traumas, and disasters as they negotiated their childhood years.
The more you write, the easier it becomes. The “flow” is more natural, and you’ll discover that inspiration can strike anywhere. Literally anywhere. Don’t inhibit yourself by doubting yourself, or by thinking you have to ask permission. These thoughts are yours. Your creativity is nobody else’s business. Write because you love to write, then perhaps it could develop into a career. Have fun with it, and don’t stress about “making it”. You can’t edit a blank page, so get on with it. Write like nobody’s watching. Go on! What’s stopping you?
Getting Started.
Where do you begin? What are you going to write about? Are you a beginner or a more experienced writer creating a new manuscript?
(For the purposes of this site, we’ll focus on fiction writing, but the tips can be applied to non-fiction too).
It might be a good idea, if you’re completely new to writing fiction, to take a short course. There are plenty around, including http://www.futurelearn.com which offers a selection of free short courses in writing of all kinds. Screenwriting, poetry, and fiction writing, to name but three.
Paid courses include http://centreforexcellence.com which has a wide range to choose from, starting from £29 per course, which also give you a diploma at the end as a reward.
Knowing what to write about can be tricky. Inspiration comes from everywhere. Current affairs. Relationships. An argument. A passion. A nugget of an idea can germinate into a manuscript. T
here are a few tips that might help you do that. Writing an outline. Keeping notes. Editing. Beta readers. Scroll below and take a look at a few points that may help.
Taking Notes and Creating an Outline.
Whatever your writing style, if you’re serious about wanting to write something longer than a short story, it’s useful to create an outline, and take notes along the way.
An outline can be a brief list of bullet points describing your plot, goal of the story, main character (protagonist and antagonist), and obstacles to the MC’s goal.
i.e. A teenager wants to find his father but his mother forbids him because she knows his father is a bully, and deliberately hides any clues to the father’s location.
Free writing is a fun way to get a story started, particularly if you have an idea in your head and don’t want to lose it. Putting it into words is great…but often the idea dries up, or perhaps doesn’t coalesce into a longer story, which is where taking notes, and writing an outline (even after you’ve already started) can help gel that idea into a more solid plotline.
Using the example above, you could write your initial outline, in bullet points, then add to it. Annotate what kind of person the father is. Why did the mother split from him? Why is the teenager so desperate for answers? Why now? You can add more characters, too. A bff or a gang of bullies. A mean bus driver, or a gangster with a grudge. Go wild…but make sure it’s credible for your reader. Even if you’re dealing with aliens, there has to be a germ of “truth” to storyline.
i.e. it wouldn’t be likely that the mother in the example above is hiding the father’s whereabouts because she’s trying to hurt her son (unless she’s a sadistic psychopath - which is a whole other story). A more credible reason might be that she’s frightened of losing her son. Or that the father might hurt her son.
As you enlarge your story, take notes as you go, so you don’t forget your characters. Occasionally I’ll freewrite an entire novella, because the idea is so clear in my head that I don’t want to stop until it’s written down. I’ll then go back, once that first draft is done, and annotate the details, which also helps me to draw new inspiration.
Editing and Proofreading
Once your first draft (the first manuscript written, warts and all), it needs fine tuning to make it presentable.
Even the best writers edit their work. Editing involves reading the manuscript and looking out for plotholes (missing pieces of your story or inconsistencies); grammatical errors; spelling and punctuation; repeated words; missing words. There’s plenty more, but essentially you’re polishing your work so that, if you decide to continue to the next stage, publishing, the manuscript you’re working on is in the best shape.
NB: A manuscript is the term used for anything from a novella to an epic saga over 100,000 words long. Until it’s published, your book is called a manuscript. After that, you can call it a book.
Editing and proofreading (the final stage of checking for niggly errors once the main editing has been completed), are time consuming and attention to detail is critical. Imagine that your manuscript is an advert for you as a writer. If there are errors when it’s sent to a publisher, or even if you go down the self-publishing route, the reader or publisher won’t want to read your work. They’ll think you don’t care enough about your writing. Take that time, mundane as it is, to correct your work as much as you can. Having someone take a second look can be useful, too. Someone who knows what they’re doing, preferably. Use sites like http://upwork.com which advertise freelance editors and proofreaders.