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 This is a continuation of my blogging here at WdC |
| Our Advice So, I do occasional questions for Lilli ☕’s Question of the Day Forum ("Question of the Day!"  ). In said forum I recently asked people to let us know the best bit of writing advice they had received ("QOTD: Friday 29 August, 2025" ).There some really good stuff there, so I have decided to collate it all for a column here! S 🤦   = Do not compare yourself to others. Either writers at your level (or that you perceive at your level), or the greats, or your writing idols. Comparison is something to be avoided. The only comparison that matters is to yourself last year.deemac  = Read something every day, write something every day, edit something every day.DS  = That, but more succinctly: "Write!"kimauge = Self-study but endless reading is a answer.JASmith = Write the story you want to read.Annette = The best writing advice I found to be true is to read a lot to write better.Sum1  = I can't think of any specific advice I've been given, other than the usual reviews here on WDC.I am not a proficient author, heck I have trouble associating that title with my name! In saying proficient. I mean that English was my worst subject in school. Hand me a paragraph and ask me to identify Verbs, Adverbs, etc in it. Heck you can tell me how many of each are in it. I'll do my best, but I'm sure the grade I'll get will be a C at best. Maybe lower. The two best reviews I've received, best advice given in them, are Review of "The Guide", and Review of "Chapter Two - The Answer". Schnujo's review was more of a copy and paste of the entire Novella with comments added where needed. But these are the two reviews that stick with me the most. JACE  = If you have a thought or an idea, WRITE IT DOWN!If you don't write it down, it never happened. Is anyone else's memory like mine--about 10 seconds long? Robert Waltz  = Same as the best bit advice I've received about painting, dance, singing, stand-up comedy, or making music:"Keep your day job." Dave's trying to catch up = Keep writing.Amethyst Angel h✟k ♡  = The best poetry writing advice I got was from our dear friend Brian K Compton who told me to trim out filler and connector words like "the" and "and." It was so little, but it gave me a whole new way of looking at poetry; I've learned to hone my voice and find unique ways to describe simple things.Story advice...? Hmm... Joey's Ready for the Fall drilled the vividness of "showing" language (including a colorful first person narrator) into my head. Max Griffin 🏳️🌈 reminded me to maintain a third person limited perspective whenever possible. Tobber is becoming a good ally for picking apart deeper issues for consideration. I couldn't possibly give credit to everyone who's given me useful bits and pieces of advice over the years. I hope y'all don't mind being tagged TheBusmanPoet = I read all the reviews and check the comments made against the piece I wrote. If there needs to be a correction of either grammar, punctuation or I may have spelled a word wrong, I will correct them but only if I feel I need to and it makes sense to. Otherwise I stay with what I wrote.Celebratin'Slipslidin'Senior  = Observe. Listen. Read.Apondia = This is more about editing. Edit than put it away and read it again after a few days to see if it needs a rewrite. I always liked WRITE ON!AmyJo-home sweet home = Just keep writing. Whether a story, a blog, or just venting/ranting...practice.🌖 HuntersMoon  = Know where you're going. A story is just a roadmap to that place.Wordsmitty ✍️  = Unfortunately, I don't recall ever getting advice about my writing, but I've never been looking for advice. Maybe I got some and just didn't realize (remember) it, or perhaps not getting any is the advice.Jeff  = My favorite piece of writing advice is from Elmore Leonard, one of my favorite novelists, who is quoted as saying:"Try to leave out the parts that readers tend to skip." Gothic Spud = Be clear who is doing what. My High-school English teacher told me that after I submitted a fairly confusing modernization of Beowulf. I don't remember what but I made too many "he said" dialogue tags in the same paragraph with two speakers. My teacher wrote "who's talking?" in red ink above the last line of that section.From then on I tried harder to differentiate between characters. Detective = "You can't edit a blank page."I need to try to keep this in mind when I struggle during the writing process and get to focused on getting it just right, instead of getting it down so I can edit and improve it later. Silvern = Write daily what you want. That will be the only solution to get rid of the Writer's Block.THANKFUL SONALI Party Hopping!  = "Write yourself to a state of inspiration." - JK RowlingSo thanks to everyone who responded in the QOTD forum, and I hope this can help someone out there. |
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