Since I have joined my writing group, I have dedicated many hours to learning more about writing and improving my craft. I have, you could say, gotten serious about it.
I've read dozens of books and hundred of articles about writing. I've tried to take what is practical for me from each one. I've picked up a lot of information and while I am by no means any sort of expert (I haven't published anything professionally), I think the writing I have done for my writing group exercises and the writing I've done on my blog and the fiction I have been working on has improved exponentially and continues to improve. I could be blowing smoke up my own skirt, but that's my prerogative and you're here reading, after all, so humor me.
Here are some things I've learned about writing. I'm not going to quote sources because these are all written down in my notebooks and I didn't record where they came from.
These apply mostly to short stories:
*Don't start with descriptions like lighting or weather. Boring! Start with the action or a startling statement or the most compelling aspect of the story.
*Don't make a novel excerpt a short story.
*Get rid of dialog tags and just write "she said, he said," etc.
*Avoid phrases like some, a little bit, started to. Make your statements decisive. Likewise, omit editorial comments like believe me, you know what I mean.
*Take out anything that is not completely essential to the story, especially evil adverbs and adjectives. (That was difficult to do at first. I love a good adverb or adjective. They smell like Napalm in the morning to me.)
A Action
B Background
D Development
C Climax
E Ending
I got this tip from Anne Lamott's wonderful book, Bird By Bird: Jot down writing ideas on index cards as they come to you. If you get stuck on what to write about, pull out your index cards and write 300 words on one of those ideas. I've now accumulated quite a collection of index cards. They also are handy for making to do and grocery lists.
Joining a writers group was suggested in many cases and I have found it a very rewarding experience.
The most difficult thing about writing is the writing, of course. You have to actually sit down and write.
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