Cog, all the advice you ever give is found in the book I mentioned. You obviously learned what is written in a good how to write book, so why shouldn't others also learn that same information?
Firstly, I'm with Cog on this one (shock!), all the writing books I've read are awful and, in the context of contemporary fiction, almost immediately outdated. The only real way to learn to write well is to read a lot and practise. As to how I go about writing, I usually start with some vague idea then write what i can of a plot summary. Also, I write this by hand so that as I'm writing I have time to think about what I'm writing and then as I'm doing that new ideas will come to me and I'll amend things and add bits so that by the time I finish I have a page full of ideas. I can't do that typing though, sometimes I feel like I type faster than I think... When it comes to the actual writing, its probably not the kind of thing that will work for everyone but I like to write just one or two sentences at a time and get them perfect. For instance I find it hard to start writing something if the first sentence isn't absolutely perfect (there are many pieces where I've thrown away perfectly good ideas simply because I can't get the opening right (and since that's what's gonna hook people/publishers, why go on if you can't get it right?)). That said, if it's your very first time and you're just getting used to the idea of 'writing', just sit down and start with a good first line and then just let go and see what emerges. But really, the importance of reading cannot be understated. Its painfully obvious if a writer is ill-read - look around this site and you'll see both sides of the coin I'm sure.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels that they type faster than their brain can handle.. I definitely prefer to hand-write everything so that I don't miss any of the nuances I can get when I'm really thinking about a story. And the best advice I can think to give is to read a lot and just write. The more you read, the better you will write...I've never met a single good writer who wasn't an avid reader and a lover of words. ~Lynn
when I write I usually use a prop for my characters. writing children's stories makes this much easier. I have a house with children's toys in just about every room. If one catches my eye I take him down off the shelf and place him by my desk. He may sit there a day or two with me talking to him. I know this sounds kind of strange but the story develops and when I have a start of one I sit down at the computer and write it. Missy Bear's first story came about from a stuffed bear I bought one christmas and a walk my husband and I took in the bush. Billy Dozer came from years ago when I looked down into the park and saw some toy construction equipment left by kids there over night. So sit down and write what you think of. Anything that would go with the story. Then go over it and make the changes you think will help get your story into some ones Imagination. Then go over it and make it so the grammar spelling and sentences are correct.
If you consider Strunk and White's The Elements of Style and similar grammar. punctuation, and usage guides to be "How to write" books, you are corrext. I refer to those as authoritative sources, along with dictionaries. But the majority of writing advice books require a solid knowledge of good vs poor writing going in, to distinguish good advice from personal preferences from absolute rubbish. In my opinion, most of these booksd do more harm than good for new writers. They would do far better reading a wide variety of fiction. Read a book more than once. Read it the first time for the story and to decide whether it was an enjoyable read. Then read it a second time to understand where the writing works, where it doesn;t, and why. After a while, you begin see patterns - writing habits that make the story work well, and those that drive you nuts or bore you to sleep. Don't only reread the books you loved. Reread the garbage too/ That will teach you far more quickly about what approaches are most frought with peril. We often get members arguing in favor of some technique that are generally considered poor practice. They argue that famous author Suchandsuch uses it beautifully, but they fail to consider the thousands of ither books that fall flat with the technique, even excluding those that never make it to publication at all. Even the How To books will work better after that kind of practice, because you will find yourself thinking, yes, that can work in situation X, but it's invariably awful in situation Y. Or you will find that you sort of agree in principle with a suggestion, but the author of the How To book expressed it in a misleading way. It will always come down to critical reading. Until you can see for yourself what is good writing, and what is not, all the How To books in the world will be as useless as a programming language specification is to a non-programmer.
I'd have to agree with Cog's last post. If you can't see why something works and why it doesn't for yourself then a how-to book isn't going to be any help at all and may actually end up making things worse. ~Lynn
Then why do people keep sharing advice from the good how to write books? All the good advice Maia, Cog, and everyone gives is found in a good book like Between the Lines. They obviously learned from somewhere. They could have learned this from trial and error, experience, school, study, a how to write book, etc. Every beginner should learn the information maia knows, and the fastest way to do that is by reading a book like Between the Lines. Perhaps someone could offer a valid argument why they shouldn't.
Architectus, Cog did explain why a new writer shouldn't use books like that. Look at the bottom of the 2nd page. The Elements of Style by White and the other guy (whose name I can never remember) is a classic on how to write well...it's even required reading for the AP english classes I took in high school. But it won't do anyone any good to read it if they don't understand at a base level what good writing feels like. It's almost instinctual, I think. ~Lynn
My appologies. I didn’t see this post. Sometimes the site doesn’t give me an email when a new post in made. When I clicked the email it took me to page three, so I figured page 2 was filled. Well, a good how to write book, such as Between the Lines, offers all the advice objectively like a professor teaching a class. If there is more than one valid way of approaching something, the professor explains them all. For example: The advice you give on POV. Is that valid advice beginners should follow? I think it is, and that is the kind of advice found in this book. She talks about the weaknesses and strengths in different ideas, and the different views on them. She gives examples that contradict each other from well written novels, so one can see what works when and why. She talks about the importance of foreshadowing, what it is used for and why, and why it works. She gives many examples of foreshadowing. A writer might read and read and never figure out on his own exactly what foreshadowing is. I recently watched this movie based on a Nora Roberts novel called High Noon. The plot was ruined because she didn’t use foreshadowing. She’s a well known author, so just how could she forget something so important? The whole time she sets up this one cop making us believe he is the killer, then bam, take that, it is someone we never heard about, from a case she messed up on that we never heard about. Maybe she got lazy. Maybe she never read a book like Between the Lines that explains exactly why her story failed. If she had followed the advice of foreshadowing, she would have had the MC dwell on that case in the beginning of the novel. Flash back to it a few times. Talk about it with a friend or something. That way when the real killer is revealed, we go OH! She talks about the importance of back story. How it helps round out a character. She talks about the different ways established authors have used back story. I don’t think she ever says this is the right way, and this is the wrong way, but rather she says these are ways that have worked. She even encourages experimenting. But back story is important. A writer might read and read and never realize how important back story can be. But when it is explained and examples are given, it is hard not to see the importance. She explains how important conflict is to plot. How MC(s) need a desire(s). I could go on, but all this advice is advice you and Maia have given to people since I’ve been here. I see the advice in a post, and I am like, hey, that’s in Between the Lines. You know most if not all the knowledge in the book. I think they should as well. And because she gives all the valid ways something works, a new writer wouldn’t have to worry about getting bad information. She sticks to advice on foreshadowing, back story, conflict, etc, that has worked. And she is objective. Whew, that was a mouthful, sorry about that. The author of Between the Lines is a stranger to me. I get nothing from promoting her book.
I don't think the Nora Roberts example necessarily proves your point, foreshadowing is never necessary in a story, and in that case it sounds like the story probably has as much to do with the psychological tension and conflict as with the resolution of the crime. Yes, I agree that knowing the technical aspects of writing is important (POV, conflict), but really, if you need a book to explain how a story is different between 1st and 3rd perspective, then you need to be reading a lot more if you have any hope of being a good writer. Picking up a book like the Elements of Style of Between the Lines may teach you how to put writing together in a technical sense but even mediocre writing has to extend far beyond that. It's like my english lecturer put it: if you show up to every lecture and read all the technical information he gives, you can guarantee yourself a C. If you want anything beyond that, you need to read.
Arron foreshadowing is always needed in such situations or the surprise falls flat. If through out the whole story we are lead to believe the MC is awake or alive, and then at the end of the story we find out they are dead or in a dream, we will feel jipped. If Sixth Sense didn't foreshadow it would have been a lame movie. I would love to see such a surprise work without foreshadowing.
Can we count in Pulp Fiction when Phil Lamarr gets shot in the face? I agree with Architectus that foreshadowing can be necessary, but the best way to handle it that I've seen is to slip it in under the radar. Don't let people know that's what they're looking at. For example- NEVER have a cop that's just two days from retirement. NEVER put a butcher knife onscreen in a psycho thriller. Those are just too obvious for my blood. I also agree that the How To books have a certain amount of validity. Of course, Cogito is right that one must know what to accept and what to dismiss from them, but reading them will not hurt you. The How To books (my writing group calls them "wannabe books") are written by people who have taken time to really consider the theory of writing as a career, and as such, they probably have a few pearls of wisdom. I think that the worst thing that a new writer can do is to close his or her mind off to a potential venue of information. Of course, these How To books must be kept in perspective, and they are certainly not gospel. However, their advice is no less valid than the advice of any member of this forum.
Architectus, what we get here are a variety of opinions on a specific question. My problem wit the How To books is that they are one person'as opinion, and the whole thing is perceived as a method. The implication is that if you do everything the book suggests, you will become a successful writer. My opinions don't come from any single source, even on one particular aspect. Also, I continually look for writing that follows opposing approaches, and revise mys suggestions accordingly. I suspect most other people here who offer a lot of opinions operate the same way. I don't couinsel anyone to close his or her mind. But the How To books givea false impression, in my opinion. You MUST take them with a huge grain of salt, and in order to do that, you really have to test every assertion, or at least seek other viewpoints. I think there can be ideas worth considering in such book. I just do not recommend them to anyone who isn't already reasonably experienced. If you lock yourself into writing habits suggested by these books, they can most assuredly hold you back.
Au contraire, Cogito! (Sorry. I just always wanted to say that in a debate.) Many of the writing books start with the very assertion that there are other methods of writing, and that not every piece of advice will apply. For example, in On Writing, Stephen King states that he breaks his very own "rules," because there are no rules. He also states that all How To books, including his, are full of crap. Of course, if you take all of your opinions from only one source, you're a dupe. Plain and simple. And let's not forget that, "because my writing book said so," is not a valid point in a critique. I definitely understand where you're coming from, and I appreciate your points. I just thought your post sounded dismissive, and I thought I would offer my own experience.
i never read a single how-to book to learn how to write... the only ones i studied [and still consult occasionally] are for screenwriting format... everything else i know about the writer's art comes from what i learned in grade school and high school english classes, and from reading continuously, anything i could get my hands on, from the time i first learned how to read... and, of course, from writing, writing, and more writing...
I've been writing since I was in grade school. Most of it terrible and the result of a very active imagination. As time went on I went from scribbling things down in notebooks to typing them in my lap top. Without backing any of it up. And then...my laptop went tits up. I lost everything. Every poem, every story I'd started and never finished (of which there were several) and one piece that I'd been working on and tweaking since the eight grade, I kid you not. Two pieces--incidentally, the only two short stories I've completed that are not crap--survived because I had a hard copy of them. If I'd anticipated my bad luck I would have said that I'd be devastated. Truth be told it's actually very liberating. Suddenly I can start fresh. All the good ideas that were poorly executed because I couldn't bring myself to frog it and star over; gone. Has this every happened to any of you? I'm trying to figure out which ideas to revamp and which to throw out. I have a new philosophy that I'm trying to stick to. Focus on how you tell the story, rather than the story itself. Because, lets face it, even the best stories are god-awful tripe if poorly told.
Hooray for you! Yes, that's exactly what happened to me about 20 years ago, and I discovered the very same thing you're talking about. Understanding that creativity comes from a fresh viewpoint is not just a "freeing" experience (which it is), it's also intensely reassuring.
I lost 40,000 words. Instead of writing it off, I started rewriting it. About 2 months ago, I found a copy of the original version My new version was superior in every way. start with whatever idea first gabs your attention and then move from there.
I print stuff out to avoid that. It's alot simpler than installing backup, copying and pasting files, etc. Btw, I love your description, "My laptop went tits up." You have restored my faith in humanity
I lost quite a few story starts. Though they were only 1 paragraph to a page long usually. Though alot of my work had been saved on fictionpress/fanfiction so I didn't really lose a whole lot. All I really did was realize my writing folder was less cluttered.
Same thing happened to my old pc. It got shut off during a service pack update, and when I turned it back on everything was missing on the computer. It was like it was right out of the box. My writing was mostly run-on fantasies I had written since the 6th grade, and it kinda felt good to have that embarrassing chapter of my writing career disappear. However, I also mod video games like Call of Duty, and lost hundreds of hours of work. Whats worse, I could have fixed it back to normal for free, but my dad (not very tech savvy) paid Geek Squad a hundred bucks to reinstall the operating system (something which I also could have done for free). Boy, did I rage.
I typically write first drafts on paper, and I almost never have an unfinished first draft. I write short stories, and I think I've written every single one in one sitting (again, first drafts). After that copies end up online here and on my site, on my computer, the first draft still on paper, sometimes I print them out, and then on my Touch. So though it'd take some effort to collect the bits I want (The latest draft, usually) I don't think it'd be possible for me to actually lose a complete piece. Nate
I have an external drive the I back up my stuff on, but only on a bi-weekly basis. Well I crashed and lost a weeks worth of work and that was enough to send me into a tissy. I admire you for taking this in stride.
