Writing Tips

Most writers plan their novel, but they don't plan their individual scenes. So they sit down with an outline of plot points and no clear idea what actually happens to get from one to the next. Here's the fix.

Don’t try to eliminate filter words from your writing. You need filter words, and if you try to scrub them wholesale, your writing will suffer.

I’m going to take a stand here and say that you can disregard the advice of any writer who says that you should never use an adverb.

If there’s a cardinal rule for writers, Show, Don’t Tell would have to be it. The idea is that authors should spend their time illustrating and demonstrating the key parts of their stories instead of straight-out explaining everything to their readers. Showing, instead of telling, is more immersive for readers, and at the same time, it gives authors more control over how their stories land in their readers’ heads.

Authors love to talk about their routines. Part of the reason we write is that we love the writing life, right? So it makes sense that we’d obsess over the habits that surround our writing. The problem comes when we start to use our routines to measure ourselves against other writers, when we examine our habits (and their results) to determine whether or not we’re real writers. We shouldn’t do that.