What's The Best Writer Advice You've Ever Received

[luv2custrip]

Write for yourself, and If you're blocked on a story, just keep writing. Good, bad, mediocre, it doesn't matter. Change to a different story, or just babble in the one you're blocked on, but just keep writing.

That’s it. So your first story only got threes and fours. It was the best you had at the time and now you’ve learned what you can do.
Keep writing!

 

[intim8]

There needs to be a conflict. Without a source of tension, or something for the characters to react to, fight against, struggle to overcome, you just have a boring pleasant fantasy.

I agree, but I was talking with someone else on this the other day, and I think there is a case to be made for a slightly more general statement of it.

There has to be stakes, something really important that is at risk. Or an important opportunity that is at risk. That is, essentially, a conflict, but it does not have to be so obviously one. Conflicts are man against man, man against nature, man against himself, and any kind of stakes that are in question, the obstacle can technically be boiled down to one of those. But I think starting with the conflict first can constrain a writer too much. Starting with the stakes, then determining what it is that is in the way of them, even if it is something abstract and subtle, gets you the conflict that every story needs.

And worse, if you start from designing a conflict, you can end up creating one that doesn't matter. Or that the characters lose track of why it matters.

 

[intim8]

"Your second draft is where you make it look like you knew what you were doing when you wrote the first draft" --Neil Gaiman.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I haven't had much advice, but I had an English teacher who I remember vividly telling us to "Let it sit." That is to say, write it, leave it overnight or a couple of days and then re-read it. I do this always and I constantly find fixes and edits and embellishments. I often let the edits sit as well and edit again, honing and refining. This advice has been invaluable. If you're not taking a break to get some distance and a fresh perspective on your work, you're cutting yourself terribly short. When you write in the moment it feels so good, but you have to remember that you're in a blindspot. You can't see all the stuff that you're leaving out because the idea is so clear in your head. You need to read it back when the idea is gone so that you can see how it will reform in the reader's head from scratch.

 

[ronde]

Like, if the (18 yo) Catholic school girls are measuring the MMC in their anatomy class.

Well, I didn't go to a Catholic girls school, but maybe that is part of the anatomy class. If so, it's a valid reason.

 

[StillStunned]

Well, I didn't go to a Catholic girls school, but maybe that is part of the anatomy class. If so, it's a valid reason.

I had ten years at Catholic schools, but I must have been off sick for those classes.

 

[forgotmyantidepressants]

Someone once told me, "You are not writing to please other writers. You are reading to please readers." It's especially helpful after a brutal critique.

That and, "Nobody wants to read your writing until they do." which is kind of asinine, but I have found it encouraging when I want to give up.

I came up with this one myself. "Harsh feedback hurts like hell, but it WILL make you a better writer."

 

[Paul_Chance]

Someone once told me, "You are not writing to please other writers. You are reading to please readers." It's especially helpful after a brutal critique.

That and, "Nobody wants to read your writing until they do." which is kind of asinine, but I have found it encouraging when I want to give up.

I came up with this one myself. "Harsh feedback hurts like hell, but it WILL make you a better writer."

I agree with the harsh feedback comment. I think it applies to other professions as well. Don't be afraid of feedback. Even if it sucks.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I'm pretty sure this is paraphrased Steven King.

When you receive feedback that something isn't working, believe it. When they tell you how to fix it, ignore them. You are the writer.

I live by these words in my everyday non-writing career.

AFAIK that one's from Neil Gaiman: "Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong."

https://www.themarginalian.org/2012/09/28/neil-gaiman-8-rules-of-writing/

 

[Paul_Chance]

I haven't had much advice, but I had an English teacher who I remember vividly telling us to "Let it sit." That is to say, write it, leave it overnight or a couple of days and then re-read it. I do this always and I constantly find fixes and edits and embellishments. I often let the edits sit as well and edit again, honing and refining. This advice has been invaluable. If you're not taking a break to get some distance and a fresh perspective on your work, you're cutting yourself terribly short. When you write in the moment it feels so good, but you have to remember that you're in a blindspot. You can't see all the stuff that you're leaving out because the idea is so clear in your head. You need to read it back when the idea is gone so that you can see how it will reform in the reader's head from scratch.

I'm an advocate of letting it sit. When writing, it's easy to get too close to the writing and lose your ability to look at it with a critical eye.

 

[tenyari]

Give yourself a quota on key fetishes, don't over use them.

The reader in me wants to flip this.

I get annoyed all the time when I'm reading a story and the write has "lost the fetish".

If the hook you got me on was some particular erotic kink - reference it often or I'm losing interest.

 

[Stimtheone]

I was talking with a good friend and he told me that the first book will always be a banger because you've had a LOT of time to think on it and are unleashing what might as well be years of thoughts, inspiration, and ideas. But if you try to repeat the deed in just a few months, ya don't have enough in there to really make it stand out. So the advice was that the best thing to do with writing is go and do something else for a while and not chase that high. I always thought that my second series was not AS good as the first, though it still got some good reviews.

So, the best writing advice is to go and live your life a bit before coming back to writing. Good writing is like love, which is also like a fart... if you have to force it, it's probably shit.

 

[intim8]

I was talking with a good friend and he told me that the first book will always be a banger because you've had a LOT of time to think on it and are unleashing what might as well be years of thoughts, inspiration, and ideas. But if you try to repeat the deed in just a few months, ya don't have enough in there to really make it stand out. So the advice was that the best thing to do with writing is go and do something else for a while and not chase that high. I always thought that my second series was not AS good as the first, though it still got some good reviews.

So, the best writing advice is to go and live your life a bit before coming back to writing. Good writing is like love, which is also like a fart... if you have to force it, it's probably shit.

I find that this is very true. A good story takes a lot more time to write than the time spent typing and editing. But I'll temper it a little bit. I sometimes enter contests where I have to write a 3kw story to a specific theme over a weekend (while having a life). I think I've written some decent stuff that way. But, even then, they always bring in a lot of experience, idle thought, and sometimes more concrete ideas that I've been kicking around for maybe my whole life. Not specifically about that story, but a whole lot of pieces that can be brought in and applied to the specific task.

So yeah, the advice is generally good, and if doing a follow up to a series, a sequel, etc., it pays to sit on it a while and let your right brain start working on it long before you start typing. Especially if it is going to be a longer thing with the characters, and/or world already set in stone. But it's not always absolutely necessary that you've right-brained the specific story you want to work on.

 

[Nellymcboatface]

So, I was reading on the internet this morning and I ran across an article that asked the question - what's the best piece of writing advice you've ever received?

The article had a piece of advice I'd never heard but resonated with me.

Write for yourself and edit for your audience.

Writing for yourself allows you to unleash your creativity. Editing for your audience means crafting the finished draft in such a way that it hits your audience Goldilocks zone.

I thought that was a pretty good piece of advice.

What is the best advice you've ever encountered?

Yeah - every time - write for yourself...etc...

The best bit I had was from another author on here...
"Save it for next year's competition, don't rush it... Finish it properly..."

Ha ha ha, I wish I'd listened - lesson learned...

 

[Euphony]

The reader in me wants to flip this.

I get annoyed all the time when I'm reading a story and the write has "lost the fetish".

If the hook you got me on was some particular erotic kink - reference it often or I'm losing interest.

I wonder if @ElectricBlue and you aren't both right, just picturing different scenarios.

Yours you were sold into reading a story by its Fetish. So, if it feels a quick bolt on to snag fetishist eyeballs, it's like buying a product but all the features in the advertising not being there or clearly of a different nature than they were portrayed.

Maybe EB is more considering the balance of the necessity that is writing for yourself (including your kinks) but keeping in mind the general reading audience.

If I'm really into model trains, writing profusely on minutia of fast v. slow rail switches does add a ton of "write what you know" authenticity. But it also can end up a net negative for most readers b/c, unless they are into it in the same degree, it ends up a net loss by being a slog. We can be blind to our fetish writing b/c it totally flows to us.

There are a lot more readers laser focused on your flow than getting an even deeper dive on a fetish.

You're both absolutely right, it's just a matter of which audience we are imagining.

 

[Paul_Chance]

I was talking with a good friend and he told me that the first book will always be a banger because you've had a LOT of time to think on it and are unleashing what might as well be years of thoughts, inspiration, and ideas. But if you try to repeat the deed in just a few months, ya don't have enough in there to really make it stand out. So the advice was that the best thing to do with writing is go and do something else for a while and not chase that high. I always thought that my second series was not AS good as the first, though it still got some good reviews.

So, the best writing advice is to go and live your life a bit before coming back to writing. Good writing is like love, which is also like a fart... if you have to force it, it's probably shit.

I think this is a good piece of advice it you're trying to improve the quality of your craft. I see some of the highly prolific writers, read a few stories, and can't help but that that if they had just published a small percentage less, they'd have greatly increased their quality.

Though, it's an authors choice. For some people, quantity is better than quality. There are plenty of readers who seem to enjoy formula stories, so I can understand the appeal of finding the formula that works and sticking to it.

 

[KeithD]

Best advice on developing as a writer I got: Learn to touch type and keep your keying rate up to your mental computing speed.

 

[intim8]

Best advice on developing as a writer I got: Learn to touch type and keep your keying rate up to your mental computing speed.

I don't know what I would do if I hadn't learned in high school. Both my job and my hobby require it.

 

[samhasstories]

One of the obvious and most useful pieces of writing advice that I think often goes ignored is to read. Read a lot, read widely. Read it all.

 

[alohadave]

I don't know what I would do if I hadn't learned in high school. Both my job and my hobby require it.

I never got past 25 WPM, but I've been able to touch type since then, so it was worth learning.

 

[Razzyricho]

Too many descriptive words in a sentence, minimises the impact upon the reader.
Read back on your creative writing often and minimise/remove unnecessary words.
Unless you’re struggling with a word limit in an assessment…

 

[BgDaddy33]

Too many descriptive words in a sentence, minimises the impact upon the reader.
Read back on your creative writing often and minimise/remove unnecessary words.
Unless you’re struggling with a word limit in an assessment…

This, along with reading to expand your vocabulary will go a long way. Having *that* perfect word that says exactly what you are trying to convey will beat all the flowery words you could squeeze into a sentence.

 

[BgDaddy33]

Remember that you are telling a story, not writing a college dissertation. Huge blocks of text can be off-putting and even intimidating. Have your writing match the mood and pace of what is happening in the story.

Best compliment I received on a fanfiction I wrote was, "this felt just like the TV show, with commercial breaks and everything." I remember that when I get too wordy.

 

[Paul_Chance]

Remember that you are telling a story, not writing a college dissertation. Huge blocks of text can be off-putting and even intimidating. Have your writing match the mood and pace of what is happening in the story.

Best compliment I received on a fanfiction I wrote was, "this felt just like the TV show, with commercial breaks and everything." I remember that when I get too wordy.

LOL - I wander what made them think you got the commercial breaks right?

"And now, a word from tonight's sponsor..."

 

[intim8]

LOL - I wander what made them think you got the commercial breaks right?

"And now, a word from tonight's sponsor..."

I'm guessing it meant that the reader got a bit of a break, time to wind down and assimilate after an intense scene. A chance to go to the bathroom or the fridge.