Puck's Top Five Writing Tips

    I've been writing for over five years now. I've not had anything published (I still haven't edited enough or finished enough to submit anything) but I have still been writing. It's where I lose myself when I don't know what to do. I used to not have a particular method to the way I did things. I just tried different things. I wrote an entire draft out of order starting with chapter eight and ending with the epilogue. But then I started reading books about writing and taking writing classes. My writing has gotten better. I no longer want to throw everything out the window. I've only implemented a few of the tips I've read about/heard. These are my five favorites that have really stuck (and where I got them from).

1. Pretend you are looking through a video camera. This will help you show and not tell. You can't get inside a person's mind with a video camera so if you pretend you are looking through a video camera, you will show your reader what is happening in a much more engaging way. (From one of Jonathan Rogers's many helpful writing classes.)

2. Outline your book and each individual chapter. Outlining is a great way to figure out your plot and when certain events happen. But, when outlining your book, don't include everything. Give yourself some wiggle room because characters have a way of changing the story on you and you will change the story yourself. Figure out the beginning, the middle, and the end. And outline each individual chapter with the same method so that you have wiggle room but you still see how the plot moves. It's easy to get caught up in the moment and completely forget what this event sets up later and when you remember again, it's a little too late to get back on track. (From N. D. Wilson.)

3. Write every day. One of the best things you can do is to set a goal for yourself. Write every day even if it's just a paragraph or fifteen minutes. It can even be brainstorming for what happens later if you have a good idea that you don't want to forget. If you can get into the habit of writing every day, your book or story will come along much better than if you just wrote the first chapter and forgot about the book for the next year and a half. (From my personal experience.)

4. Edit, edit, edit. You can always make your story better. When you finish writing a book or a chapter, let it sit for about a week or more then revisit it and edit it. Read it out loud to check for missed words or to see if things sound weird. Remember, you can always make it better even if you think it's good. But you must let it sit. It's always hard to edit what you've just written. Editing will help you out of the situations when you give it to someone and discover that your grammar is wrong or you left out the word "the". If a verb doesn't feel right in the sentence, try a new verb. Use a stronger verb. Eventually, though, you will have to just declare it done. (From the Wordsmith series by Janie B. Cheaney.) 

5. Have your friends and family read your manuscript and give you feedback. The best help to my writing is the criticism I get from my brothers and friends. Especially my brothers. They help tell me where I could use a different word or when my characters don't feel all that real. But I think the most helpful thing about them, is they aren't afraid to tell me what I could do better. My friends are like that too especially when I ask them for their honest opinion. It's always helpful to have someone else read your work because you know what you mean by something but they might not. And if they don't know what you mean after you mentioning the same idea over and over again for the past year, then your reader will most certainly not know what you mean. Criticism is useful. (From my personal experience and my mom.)