Writing, it isn’t as easy as
it looks. It take years to perfect the art of style and eloquences with
words. I started writing when I was twelve and fourteen years later, I still
make mistakes. My first story still lives in a hard drive of a broken
computer in my parents’ basement. It totaled over 50,000 words and was
littered with early mistakes that I have grown out of. Yet, I still find
myself making elementary mistakes, but most are nothing a good editor
couldn’t fix. I often think back to that early attempt at fiction and I
wonder why I ever decided to start this obsession.
I spent four years learning the art of editorial, feature and AP style
writing, but that isn’t where my passion lies. You don’t develop characters
or plots when you’re writing for a newspaper or magazine. What you do learn
is how to describe situations and emotions so the reader feels like their
sitting besides you as you take them on a grand adventure. Good writing
takes the reader‘s breath away.
Tip #1: The Art of Patience
A great writer once told me that I didn’t put enough patience into my
writing. At the time I didn’t have the slightly inkling what he was talking
about. What in the world did patience have to do with writing?
As I look back at some of my early pieces and then to my more recent ones it
finally makes sense. You can’t be quick with your writing. Good writing has
just the right blend of description but is still bold enough to get to the
point. If you focus too much on what a character looks like or what a
situation feels like, you annoy your reader. An annoyed reader stopped
reading, but if you don’t use enough description your reader gets lost and
loses interest.
What makes reading fun is the way the human imagination works. You can’t
leave the reader to guess everything, but you should leave some room. One of
the most common mistakes a young writer makes is trying to tell reader
exactly what a particular character looks like. You don’t have to do this to
get your point across.
An example:
Lily’s red hair was tied neatly behind her head in a tight ponytail. She
was wearing a pair of bellbottom jeans and a shot red tank top. Her friend
Jane had her hair worn loose and she wore a short yellow skirt and a white
button up shirt.
As a reader I think this is unnecessary. You’ve taken all the fun out of the
reading process. Using a more subtle approached is frequently more
appeasing.
An example:
Lily raced down the stairs in her bellbottom outfit with her hair tied
neatly behind her head. Her dorm mate Jane followed close behind tugging on
her canary skirt and pushing her hair back behind her ears.
Both examples say the same things, but the later one is much more subtle and
leaves more to the imagination. You want to leave just enough information to
intrigue them to read more. As a writer your goal is to paint a picture for
the reader to see, but like all great pictures it is up to the observer to
decide what they are seeing.
Tip #2: CONSISTENCY
Consistency! I cannot emphasis this enough. A literary character is a
living breathing being. The oxygen that keeps it alive is the pen that
writes it. Like all living beings, it cannot change its foundations. People
do not change over night and neither should characters.
The most common problem I find with fan fiction I’ve read is character
inconsistency. Now, it’s okay for a character to change, because like real
people they’re allowed to grow. When you decided to write a story you have
to ask yourself, ‘do I want these characters to stay in character, or do
I want to spin them off?’ You cannot change your mind half way through
your story. If you do your story loses consistency and the reader loses
interest.
They way I keep a character true is to find someone I know who is like the
character I’m writing. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't. As
your writing style grows you figure out if this fits your particular style
or not. However, this is a great tool to use as a young writer.
Ask yourself when you’re writing, 'would this person I’m basing this
character off say this or would it be more like them to say something
different.'
You can’t base every character off what you would say or do. In a way you’re
stepping outside your body and thinking about thing from an entirely
different point of view but remember it’s okay to base a character off
yourself.
J.K. Rowling does this herself with Hermione, and when it is done correctly
it works beautifully. Those characters quickly become your favorite ones to
write. Beware, NEVER make this character the main character in your story,
it is such a simple and deadly trap to fall into to.
Another consistency problem in writing is attacking your story from too many
points of view. It is easy to switch around from character to character to
gain the entire perspective of the situation, and it increases the length of
a particular piece. The problem is it takes away from the power of reading.
If you plan on switching points of view, do it tastefully, if you don't you
just leave the reader dizzy with annoyance.
If I’m reading a story through Harry’s eyes I want to feel the anxiety of
not knowing what everyone around him is thinking. Reading is a guessing
game, just like life. Try to remember how you felt as you read Harry Potter
and the Order of the Phoenix. What made that story great was you couldn’t
figure anything out until the very end. In life we don’t have the luxury of
knowing what everyone else is thinking and we shouldn’t have that luxury in
literature.
Tip #3: A Cliffhanger is a Writer’s Best Friend
Leave the reader guessing. The worst thing about reading a good story is a
cliffhanger, but in fiction it can be a powerful tool. Most readers will
fuss about cliffhangers, but as soon as the next chapter is posted they
click on the link because their mind is dying to know what is going to
happen next.
An Example:
Laura nodded miserably.
“Remus is a werewolf, and his friends have known. He didn’t trust me
enough to tell me.”
She covered her face with her hands. Tears squeezed out between her
fingers.
“God, Lil. How can he face this every day? Remus is a werewolf. He’s a
werewolf.”
Lily pulled her close, trying to comfort her. She didn’t know what to
say. There were no words. Remus –someone she considered to be one of her
closest friends –was a werewolf. He was a werewolf. “ --Chelles: A
Marauder’s Tale
Now the passage above is a
great cliffhanger! You always want to leave questions out there to be
answered, but on the same note you have to resolve all those questions at
the end to get a successful resolution.
A great storyteller holds his or hers audience spell bound. You have to keep
them waiting for more, not just waiting, foaming at the mouth. If you do
leave a cliffy, make sure you update regularly because if you don’t the
reader will forget what had them waiting. Remember, if used incorrectly a
cliffhanger can become your worst enemy.
Tip #4: The Beginning and End
Come in like thunder and
leave like a lamb. The two most important parts of a story are the
beginning and the ending. If you don’t have a good beginning you won’t
capture the reader. You have a very short span to actually grab the reader
and make them want to stay with you through your ride.
THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT TIP I CAN GIVE YOU. If you don’t capture
your reader by the end of the first chapter, you’ve lost them forever. On
the same note, you must to have a strong ending that leaves the reader
satisfied. A good ending will have the reader staring at the screen in
amazement. Everything between the beginning and ending is the easy part.
I’ve been known to spend hours of the first four paragraphs of a story or
the last few. It has to be perfect, because it is the lifeline of your
story.
An Example:
Sometimes, I really
don’t get the way people think. Really, I mean that. Two times in my
life, I have saved someone else’s, and what did that do? Make them
dislike me. Now, call me naive, but I was under the impression that
saving someone’s life was going to earn you at least a 'thank you'. But
not in my case, apparently. The first person I saved from a premature
death was Lily Evans. Way back when I could still talk to her without
being scared out of my mind. She was The One, you see. I would look at
her, and all the other girls would just... pale. But this occurred
before that. Back when I still thought girls were worse than vermin.
More precisely, our second year.
It had all been a very stupid idea to begin with. I can’t remember whose
stupid idea, but it was probably Sirius’s. He had a certain knack for
stupid ideas. Anyway, someone had come up with the clever idea of
sneaking out onto the roof, with the school brooms, to have a friendly
little tournament of Swivenhodge. Gryffindor first years versus
Gryffindor second years.
We should have realized right away that it wasn’t a good idea. To start
with, we didn’t have a hedge to play over. The solution? Make the people
who were not currently playing act as one. And yet more stupid – we
didn’t have a decent ball to play with. So we’d used a Bludger instead.
You can all see where I’m going with this, can’t you?
She was lucky I was the one who was currently on a broom, whopping some
poor first year’s butt, because I’m not sure anyone else would have been
able to catch her in time. She hadn’t been too happy when I informed her
of this, though. In fact, I think her exact words were “insufferable
big-head”.
Thinking about it, that could have been the moment she stopped being
worse than vermin and became The One. But that doesn’t really matter,
does it?
The second person I saved was someone far less likeable. So were the
circumstances.” --duva: Chance
The passage above is an
example of one of those great beginning. It leaves me begging for more.
Writing is hard work and you can’t take it lightly. If you’re serious about
it and have a passion you have to work for respect. You can tell those of us
who have a serious passionate about writing and one who half heartily do it.
I admire anyone who has the courage to pick up a pen or sit down at a
computer and write. I respect anyone who had the ambition to place their
work out there for other people to read. Don’t be afraid of what people will
say about your writing. What doesn’t kill you will only make you stronger.
Criticism is the first step in growth. You’re going to fall and it will
hurt, but the most important thing you can do when you do fall is to get
back up and try again. May your pen be your guide.
