krtek a houby
Merry Xmas!
Elmore Leonard wasn't in the least bit pretentious. His stories were engaging, exciting and economic in terms of prose. One of the greatest crime writers of all time.
Book/story writing advice
- Thread starter frogwoman
- Start date
This, and Gromit doesn't really know what he's on about. I don't want to turn this excellent idea for a thread (thanks frogwoman ) into an all-about-Gromit row, so not gonna go any further with him.
Plus, purely as a reader, those rules are absolutely spot on. As a writer, they make me laugh, for similar reasons. I have read and heard some terrible shite over the years, that if the writer had applied those rules, would have deffo improved their work.
Gromit
International Man of Misery
Take your word for it.
Never heard of him till that link.
I wasn't calling him pretentious by the way.
It was a comment about the Guardian, not him.
editor
hiraethified
I was commissioned to write a non fiction book years ago by a major publisher. It was really hard work, and I had to find ways to motivate myself - e.g. get 1,000 words done by this evening and you can go for a pint, or you can treat yourself to a scone and tea once the chapter's done.
During the course of the writing, I ended up with several editors, who grew increasingly useless, so I got some people with different skillsets to look over my material and I got some really useful feedback.
Funnily enough, one of the best lessons I learnt about writing was something I learnt from life drawing class: you may have drawn the hand amazingly well, but if the rest of the body isn't good, bin the lot and start again (i.e. you may have a couple of quite brilliant paragraphs that you're proud of, but if they don't fit in with the flow or the plot, dump them!).
During the course of the writing, I ended up with several editors, who grew increasingly useless, so I got some people with different skillsets to look over my material and I got some really useful feedback.
Funnily enough, one of the best lessons I learnt about writing was something I learnt from life drawing class: you may have drawn the hand amazingly well, but if the rest of the body isn't good, bin the lot and start again (i.e. you may have a couple of quite brilliant paragraphs that you're proud of, but if they don't fit in with the flow or the plot, dump them!).
ska invita
back on the other side
How to Kill Your Darlings: A Guide to Ruthless Editing
Nervous about killing your darlings? Don't be! Check out this post to learn how can self-edit with confidence.
blog.reedsy.com
Good rules ive heard
-use the shortest anglo-saxon routed words wherever possible
-never use brackets (i like that one)
-kill your darlings
Good one. I've had to break my own heart many times because despite being fucking genius, certain lines just will not fit right, one way or the other! To follow on from that, especially for fiction, save the good lines in a document and revisit them now and again. If you're lucky, an idea will pop up some time later that will be able to use them.
krtek a houby
Merry Xmas!
Fair enough. Do recommend him, though. If you like crime fiction, he's the one for you.
Just wondering whether anyone still writes long hand? On a layout pad/blank journal?
Or do you all write direct to laptop, mac, notes section on phone? Or does it depend on what you’re writing? If I’m at the ideas-stage of something, I find it almost impossible using a laptop – the distractions, the continual notifications, emails etc – or do you simply ignore them? Personally, I plan, write, create on a blank A3 layout pad. Once I’ve worked out the idea, structure, important bits, I can jump back onto a screen. But the idea stage, it’s always pen and pad. Is that how you all work too?
Or do you all write direct to laptop, mac, notes section on phone? Or does it depend on what you’re writing? If I’m at the ideas-stage of something, I find it almost impossible using a laptop – the distractions, the continual notifications, emails etc – or do you simply ignore them? Personally, I plan, write, create on a blank A3 layout pad. Once I’ve worked out the idea, structure, important bits, I can jump back onto a screen. But the idea stage, it’s always pen and pad. Is that how you all work too?
mojo pixy
...שלא נמצא בשמאל
I write prose with a laptop, because most of my writing process is actually editing and using libre office writer makes that so much less messy.
Songs and poems, I write by hand with a pencil with an eraser close to hand. I'd like to write prose this way but editing a 100000-word novel is a very different process from editing a 200-word song
General tips.
Write every day even if it's only one sentence: 20 words are better than zero words. 1000 words per day is a nice target but actually I think it's better to have a target you can achieve 99% of the time rather than miss most days, so I aim for 300 words per day minimum and most days I exceed that by quite a margin. Which is better than feeling bad because I set myself 1000 but only wrote 500. Mind tricks
Don't be scared to start a chapter / scene / book again, but save whatever you scrap in a separate file because it might be useful one day.
Nothing else to add that hasn't been said already.
Songs and poems, I write by hand with a pencil with an eraser close to hand. I'd like to write prose this way but editing a 100000-word novel is a very different process from editing a 200-word song
General tips.
Write every day even if it's only one sentence: 20 words are better than zero words. 1000 words per day is a nice target but actually I think it's better to have a target you can achieve 99% of the time rather than miss most days, so I aim for 300 words per day minimum and most days I exceed that by quite a margin. Which is better than feeling bad because I set myself 1000 but only wrote 500. Mind tricks
Don't be scared to start a chapter / scene / book again, but save whatever you scrap in a separate file because it might be useful one day.
Nothing else to add that hasn't been said already.
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