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Now here’s Carol!
There are lots of things you can do to make your stories stronger and it doesn't take that much effort.
Lucky
Thirteen—Thirteen Tips to Help You Become a Better Writer
Learn to write. People
who dash off a story without thought, practice, or effort, clog the market
place. You might have a fantastic idea but if you don't know how to write,
you're not going to get the attention you could. So learn the craft. Lots of
today’s suggestions can help you improve as a writer.
Come to conferences where
professionals speak, listen to what they say, use their advice to help you
become an expert. And what do you know! This October 24, 25, and 26, Writing
and Illustrating for Young Readers is running a workshop with some amazing
teachers including editors Joy Peskin and Jill Davis. Agents Stephen Fraser and
Amy Jameson will also be in attendance. This 12-hour online intensive will talk
about everything from plotting to voice. You can check out the lineup here: https://www.wifyr.com/online-intensive-workshop-2024
Read like crazy. William
Faulkner said to read everything you can get your hands on and I almost agree
with him 100%. I think you should read the very best books. Bad or weak
writing is easy writing and it’s easy to imitate. Make sure the books you read
are well-told and well-written. You can learn the craft of writing by reading
excellent writers like MT Anderson, Tim Wynne-Jones, Ann Dee Ellis, Martine
Levitt, Holly Black--the list goes on and on.
Write what you know. When I
say this, I don't mean you mustn’t write anything you don't know about.
Research can make an event live and breathe for you.
When you write what you
know (because of experience or research), you put your heart on the page. This
connects your character with your reader. They’ll understand what you're saying
because you have been there, done that.
Exercise: Take
30 minutes to brainstorm all the things you would love to write. These
could be things you want to explore--ideas for books of nonfiction--or things
you already know. As you jot down your ideas, write your connection-your
heart-and why this idea means something to you.
Show don’t tell. Let's
be honest. You can't show everything that happens in a novel. There just isn't
time. But it’s important to let your character be a participant in the novel
and not a newscaster. Your main character should not tell the reader the story.
They should experience the story. Showing important scenes is crucial to the
forward movement of the story.
Setting and sense of place. Have
you ever read a book and you're not quite sure where you are in time and place?
That’s often because the author hasn’t established the setting. We don't need
pages and pages of description to let a reader know where they are in our book
of fiction. But once we have set up where the book takes place and where our
main character is, we must remind the reader. This is when sense of place
becomes important. Use all five senses –sight, hearing, smell, taste, and
touch--to remind the reader where they are.
There are novels that are
written specifically for setting. When you're writing for kids, though, don’t
go overboard setting up place. If your main character is in a desert, let us
know what they see and feel in that desert. Once you've done that, remind the
reader where they are two or three times a page. Yes, every page! They can talk
about the heat of the sun. Or how thick the sand is to walk through. Or how
it's hard to grow a garden in the desert. This will keep your reader grounded
in place.
Exercise:
List ten places you have
lived. Give details. Think about the way it felt to be outside, in your
bedroom, at school. Use the five senses when describing these places.
For me, emotion is the
most important part of a novel. It goes back to writing
what you know. If you understand a specific event then you can put the emotion
of that event on the page. What is it like to lose someone you love? What is it
like to break up with someone you thought you would be with forever? What is it
like to laugh so hard you can't breathe? What is it like to be mortified? We’ve
all felt these things.
As a writer you do all the work that a camera in a film does. You capture
dialogue, place, and emotion. Always ask yourself, “What does this character
feel?”
This means you have to
mine the emotion they experience, not to be a surface level writer. Instead,
dive into the heart of the event, into the heart of the character. When you do,
you connect with the reader.
Exercise: Every
day for one month, allow yourself to experience an emotional event from the
past. Write about this experience. Put every word, emotion, and etc that deals
with this emotional experience on the page. Remember, that later, editing is
your best friend. But right now you are just learning how to mine your emotions
so that you can write a stronger, richer character.
Make Your Words Work. Every
word needs to drive toward the climax of the novel. Anything that is extra,
filled with fluff, or is an aside, etc. etc.? It’s time to get rid of it.
Structurally, you want to get in, get out, and get it over with.
Spend your words like
money. My mom was a writer. She never published a novel, but she wrote like
crazy. Often, in her classroom, she would tell her creative writing students to
spend their words like money. Imagine you're paying five dollars for every word
you put on the page. If you're writing a 40,000 word novel, that means you
would pay $200,000 to write the book. Save ‘money’ and your story, but cutting
the extra words.
Don’t be preachy.
Just tell your story. If there’s a lesson to learn, it’ll come out. I knew
someone who wanted to save the world with her writing. She wept when she told
me her goal. And I couldn't discount that she really believed what she was
saying. But few want to feel like they are learning something when they’re
reading fiction.
Kids read for a number of
reasons. One of them is to experience something they would never experience on
their own and to see a main character survive and do well. No lessons are
needed.
Subhint: Your
truth will come out. Write your heart. Make the reader care and do it in as few
words as possible. My Book of Life by Angel is a book that does just
this.
Ask yourself questions as
you write.
Why is
this happening?
Why is
my character doing this?
Why is
this story headed in this direction?
Why am I
the best person to write this book?
Ask:
Why do I
want to be a writer?
How
important is this to me?
What
matters most to me when I write?
Keep asking yourself
questions through the whole novel.
What
does my character want?
What
does she want more than anything?
What
will she do if?
What
is the hardest thing for her to lose?
Subhint-Torture your character. It’s your job to make hard things
happen. This way your character can change, grow, and prepare to meet the
climax of the novel.
Watch your language. Use ‘ly’
words sparingly. :D I'm not talking about words like family, fly, and early but
those dreaded adverbs. Often the description is weak. So what can you do
instead? The key is to use stronger verbs. ‘He ran quickly’ could be ‘He
raced.’ ‘She whispered softly.’ Whispering is soft, isn't it? When I go through
my manuscript, I find I can lose almost every single ‘ly’ word
Subhint—The following words can, almost
always, be pulled from the text.
· Was-ing
words can go from two words to one. (I was running = I ran)
· Start
and began —I started to cry = I cried. Just let the action happen.
· Words
like “that, well, um, just”
· I
wondered and I thought, especially in a first person manuscript.
· Sit down,
stand up-Unless this is an unusual place, when we sit, we sit down and
when we stand, we stand up.
Tags are the ‘he said, she
said’ of a sentence. A tag’s job is to let the reader know who’s speaking.
Don't use your tag to say somebody spoke quietly. Let your writing do that work
instead. Don't use your tag to say someone barked as it is almost impossible
for a person to truly bark out words – unless your main character is a dog.
They don’t hiss a sentence and they don’t guffaw a sentence. ‘You know what I’m
saying here,” she said happily.
Subhint: Let
the scene around your character help set the stage. Let your writing--those
perfectly crafted sentences--do the hard work.
Make time for what you
love. Some writers won't allow themselves the opportunity to
write until after they have done every other chore/job they have in a day. I've
been like this, too, for the last five years with my full-time job.
This means I'm not giving
my best time to what I love to do most. That’s changing for me now. For the
next few weeks I’m renewing an old habit I had: writing first thing in the
morning.
On October 12, 2024 we
have a free online event with a class on writing every day. www.wifyr.com/wifyrwrimo
My friend Scott
Rhoades has written every day for more than six years. I’m six years behind and
I won’t catch up, but I’ll be writing again and what’s better than that?
Carol Lynch
Williams is the author of more than 30 books for young readers including Waiting, Messenger, and The Chosen One. She teaches creative writing at a local university
and is a mentor. Carol is also the co-founder of Writing and Illustrating for
Young Readers, www.WIFYR.com. The best part of her
life are her five daughters and her incredible Baby Bubs.
Upcoming Interviews, Guest Posts,
and Blog Hops
Monday, September 23rd I have an interview with debut author Dionna Mann and a giveaway of her MG Mama's Chicken and
Dumplings
Wednesday, September 25th
I have an agent spotlight interview with Amy
Thrall Flynn and a query critique giveaway
Tuesday, October 1st I’m
participating in the Scaredy Cat Giveaway Hop
Wednesday, October 2nd I
have a guest post by author Tracy Bilen and a giveaway of her YA thriller
Whisper and my IWSG post
Saturday, October 5th
I’m participating in the Howl-O-Ween
Giveaway Hop
Monday, October 7th I have an agent
spotlight interview with Leslie Zampetti and a query critique giveaway
I hope to see you on Monday!
6 comments:
Thanks so much for sharing your tips, Carol.
I love all of these! What fantastic advice!
I love all of these! What fantastic advice!
Thanks, Carol. This was very helpful.
'Lo, Natalie.
Great list, Carol. Thanks for sharing the exercises too!
Very good advice. And 13, too (although, it's not quite Thursday).
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