The Things YOU Should Be Doing In Your Writing

So I've just graduated with a first class degree in creative writing and one of the first things I've chosen to do is hop on this little blog and share some writing tips - the things that I personally found the most helpful in developing my style of writing while at university. I'm sure that for pretty much everyone, your first draft will be far from what you've envisioned. You could have been planning a particular story for days, weeks, maybe even years with well formed of characters and plot. Alas, when it comes to representing everything you need to on the page, it is a woefully inadequate version of what you were imagining. And that's normal. There's a reason that authors have editors, and even their draft manuscript that they send off will have been reworked numerous times. Step one of improving is embracing the stink of the first draft. Writing something bad is better than writing nothing at all; writing something bad can very quickly turn in to writing something good. The editing is where the good stuff comes out and through this sort of guide, sort of rant, I want to at least give a bit of insight into where I found the 'good stuff' in my own work.

Allow me to preface this with that these are general points, not steadfast rules. Many times, rules in writing are better off broken, but I'll get into that with some of the later points. First things first - you'll be cutting at least 10% of what you've written. Inevitably there's going to be some fluff and you want to get rid of any writing that serves no purpose. This isn't an assignment and you don't have a wordcount. You want to keep your writing as concise as possible without losing any substance. Essentially if it can be cut - cut it. It will make for a better overall reading experience. Not unrelated to this point, you'll want to look out for your adverb usage. Again, this is not an absolute rule. Adverbs can have their uses in your storytelling but generally, you want to seek out stronger active verbs for a greater impact. An example of this would be replacing something like [I said loudly] with [I shouted]. 

Show don't tell is a phrase I'm sure you'll have heard before, and that's because it's incredibly important. It's easiest to give an example. Change [I was embarrassed by how tired I was] to [My eyes filled with tears as I suppressed a yawn]. See the difference? Body language is a great tool for expressing character emotion. When you think about how a character might feel, what they might think, or how they might act, also think about the tell tale signs of this behaviour. If they are nervous they could display some fidgety tendencies (biting their nails, hands in their pockets, a form of tick etc.). If they are angry, how would this be obvious? (clenched fist, vein on forehead, eye twitches, tone of voice). This will not only read better but create a much more engaging experience for a reader who is not just being directly told of everything that is going on in the narrative. This links to the next technique, and my personal favourite - Luminous Detail. 

So, to put it simply, Luminous detail is a fancy name for a quite straightforward idea. Essentially, it is the process of leading a reader to figure things out about plot or characters without saying it outright. It is a way of creating an overall engaging experience for the reader of your work. This detail is why murder mysteries are so popular - the reader is figuring out the same problem as the protagonist. If a writer has been skilled enough to drop hints through foreshadowing, the reader could be able to figure out, or at the very least theorize who the suspect is. This process makes the reader properly engage with what you've written and results in a very satisfying reading experience. Show don't tell is an important part of using luminous detail correctly - they work together. Essentially, think through what you write, starting with where you want to build up to. Then do your best to lead your reader there. Give them the tools to get to the solution, but don't give them the answer.

Back to the editing side of things, you'll want to be going through your draft at least three times in three different ways. Edit as a writer, edit as a reader and edit as an editor. And for god's sake GIVE YOURSELF TIME between these stages. Heck, give yourself breaks from writing if you need it. You can't force creativity. But on the editing side, coming back with a fresh set of eyes and a different mindset will allow you to pick apart your work in different ways. Your work will end up completely unrecognisable from the first draft. And another side note, keep everything you write. Who knows, the piece that you think is rubbish might be someone else's gold. It's a couple of edits away from something great.

Character writing is difficult and you need them to stay consistent in order to not break immersion. The best way I found of doing this something that using the COD outline. Not the fish (tragedy I know), but a helpful acronym which stands for [CHARACTER, OBSTACLE, DESIRE]. If you are struggling with what you think a character might do, reflect on their motivations and if they don't have any then give them some. What do they want, what stands in their way and what will they do to get it? This is a good way of developing any main characters as well as side characters. Something else to think about in terms of characterisation is character voice and idiolect along with general mannerisms. Think about a character's quirks, how they speak, any possible accent? Don't forget to show not tell here when describing your character. Body language can say a lot about a character. For example [Seamus sat in his chair arrogantly as he watched me enter the room.] to [Seamus lounged in his chair and raised a mocking eyebrow at me as I entered his suite.] Simple stuff like 'his suite' instead of 'the room' gives the character of Seamus more power through pronoun usage and possessives. Furthermore, keep in mind the location of your characters and story and what impact this could have on the tone of the story you are telling and the actions of the characters in said story. As a writer, language is your weapon. Use it to your advantage.

If you're writing something that has a basis in something that you've researched, that's great but keep in mind that research should not overshadow your story. First and foremost, you are writing an narrative not a research paper. Find a good balance between the two. On the other side of things, don't write historical fiction without doing enough research to get your facts straight. Your readers will feel insulted if you disrespect what you are basing the story off. Be sensible and judge for yourself what is appropriate. In your editing, it should become apparent.

To finish, make sure your narrative voice and tone is consistent. It can be incredibly jarring for a reader if the tone changes by the chapter, so focus on writing something that feels natural going from chapter to chapter, or even page to page. Also, it should go without saying - check your grammar. Spelling and punctuation errors are the quickest way to interrupt someone's reading experience. Inevitably you will end up missing something, so try and get someone else to read your work if you can and try reading it aloud to yourself as well. This can help you to discern if what you've written comes off as natural.

That's it from me in this first blog post, I hope you've found it helpful. These are the things that helped me to develop my own writing and if you've come across this post then do let me know if you've found it productive too!