Synopsis of Writing Advice

1- Read to Write, and Watch to Describe

2- Imagination builds on itself and often starts with a question raised by someone else.... the what if or why's of life, and yes imagination often re-packages familiar things and ideas to make them unique and special.

3- You don't even have to like something, to learn from its success, and learning how others learned can help you learn in turn.

4- ENTERTAINMENT VALUE and DRAWING YOUR READER IN often trump many other considerations... though there is a wide variety of ways to do that

5- When describing 'HUGE' events one way to do it is to start backed out at the 10,000 foot level and then zoom in to an individuals perspective of what is happening.

**** Acknowledges for sparking these thoughts go to-

ID: 1131572   (Rated: ASR) Thoughts on Writing  Just thoughts I have on the process of writing, characters, world building, etc. by cantbelieveivebeenjaren8years

*****

Learned a few other things from reviews.

6- Tell dont show. Let actions and pictures paint your message. Lectures have limited value.

7- Passive Verbs. Passive Actions. Passive Characters. People want to read things in which the people DO and are not just DONE TO and in which the weight of the verb is carried with energy.

8-Steorotypes are bad. On the other archetypes and making sure people will connect with your characters and understand what they do is good. Consitency matters.

9-Many people connect with characters NOT action. Make sure you give them characters they want to connect to.

10-Give your readers something good to feel about in the end. (Love, romance, whatever fits the genre).

11- Don't begin sentences with BUT.

******** Acknowledges for these thoughts go to the Sci-Fi Landing Pad ******

12- Why use a prolouge? Show it in the story.

13- Useless dialog tag lines that add nothing should be dropped. "he said" "they said". If you want your dialog to move put meaning in your descriptions, or drop them all together. Verbs are good.

14- Character actions that make sense. Work on making your character actions make sense in context and environment. Is someone giggling as their body is hacked to pieces? Better have a good reason for it or your reader will cry FOUL.

15- Stay in POV. Always ask yourself, from the perspective of whomever is seeing/hearing/thinking, would they really be able to know that? Also keep clear who is doing it, so your reader does not think there is a POV violation when none exists.

********** An excellent piece by someone else about writing and grammar ************

ID: 1211795   (Rated: E) The Novel Workshop Writing Tips  General Writing Tips for New Authors Posting to The Novel Workshop forums. by Anastasia Rabiyah