What's the most VALUABLE WRITING ADVICE you've ever been given - in class, from a how-to book, or from any other source?
Tags: advice,how-to,tips

Let's share the best of what we've learned about writing.

In terms of a novel, I would say the basics: don't make the story a monolgue, throw in some action or develop characters so that they come alive, etc. Without those, my writing would be abysmal. So I would say that sticking to the basics is the most valuable writing advice as they provide a base for the entire story.

Whereas with a poem I would have to say: DON'T RHYME. Teachers drilled into my mind that often the best poems do not rhyme; they flow.

Roses are Red

Violets are Blue

A Rhyming Poem

Is all I can DO!

Haa!

Mine came from Stephen King--you have to write EVERY DAY, even when you don't feel like it. ESPECIALLY if you don't feel like it.

Writing is creative but it takes DISCIPLINE to get up, get ready, and get down to business.

I was given the task of driving to Alfred Hitchcock's house in Bel Aire in the late seventies to give him an invitation to a film series we were presenting about his life and movies.

I knocked numerous times at 234 Belligiago Drive, then waited patiently as I admired the beauty and serenity of the Bel Aire golf course's perfectly manicured lawns nearby. I noticed a back hoe noisily digging a trench at the ninth hole, in the middle of a watered-down sand trap. Two nattily dressed golfers in sunglasses were standing with arms akimbo, waiting impatiently on the nearby green, and watching me with interest.

Many long and nervous seconds passed as I chewed down on the fingernails of my right hand...he was the big man, my hero film director ...and myself? I was only a tenderfoot in Tinseltown, a bachelor writer without a published work, an agent, or a dame.

I heard a faint squeaking of a small hinge at about eye level. A single eyeball appeared in the small glass viewing porthole of the heavy oaken door. Before me was an old bloodshot eyeball on a fleshly and puffy face that squinted and blinked out at me with a keen hawkish appraisal. The eyeball slowly looked me over, up and down, up and down, and then quickly to both sides. I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand and tingle. The small viewing porthole closed with what I thought was abrupt anger ...or fear.

I heard the door latch and deadbolt being fiddled with. I surmised that a scuffle has ensued of other side of that thick white wooden door, that a fight had broken out, that I might be in for a tussle with the big man himself, his attacker, a fan, or a disgruntled producer gone berserk.

Slowly the door open, but wedged open tightly by a man's foot, a foot clad in a tartan woven house-slipper that was worn at the heel. Slowly the foot slid out on to the door mat that read ,'God bless this...', the last word having been raggedly torn out of the doormat, as if by a large predator. The foot was now positioned as if to bar forced intrusion or invasion by me, or to keep the evil that now clawed vigorously and scratched frantically, contained within.

A crimson bath-robe clad body suddenly filled the small crack between the very solid door and the ornately routed framework. Hitchock slowly positioned his bald head between the small vertical opening and looked me over with suspicion and distrust. I instinctively took a step back as I peered into the confines of the mansion. I thought I spied the back of a shapely blond in a small balck dress disappear down a stairway to the film-master's basement.

With a drowsy mean scowl on his face he asked me what I wanted. All the while he was fighting with some unknown force on the other side of that door, pushing back some creature that made a maddening clacking sound on the white marble floor, a sound that now echoed in the entryway behind him, and throughout the entire house. It sounded as if a hound or one of the great cats, one of immeasurable size, was on the attack and was getting the best of the old genius.

I explained my mission to him in a somewhat shaky, mystified and quivering voice, still imagining some horror awaiting me on the other side of that thick door. Slowly his hand reached out ...

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The best advice I've ever been given about writint, is that before you even pick up a pen or pencil, or place your fingers on the key pad of your keyboard or typewriter... you must first know who your audience is. You must know who you are writing for. You must know what age group are intending to write to, what educational level are you reaching out to, etc. Once you decide that, then you know what words to use, or not to use; and you know what style you must use. So, don't use big words and write in a way that only the scholarly would understand, and then get mad when the majority of "Average Joe (C) students" don't comprehend or relate to your style. To know what you must write and how you must write it, you must first know your audience.

The best advice I've ever been given about writing, is that before you even pick up a pen or pencil, or place your fingers on the keypad of your keyboard or typewriter... you must first know who your audience is. You must know who you are writing for. You must know what age group are intending to write to, what educational level you are reaching out to, etc. Once you decide that, then you know what words to use, or not to use; and you know what style you must use. So, don't use big words and write in a way that only the scholarly would understand, and then get mad when the majority of "Average Joe (C) students", who you thought would marvel over your work, don't comprehend or relate to your style. To know what you must write and how you must write it, you must first know your audience.

Addictofpassion

I read this one-liner somewhere and it stuck with me: Put your characters up a tree, then throw rocks at him or her.

Show, don't tell.

The Best advice I received is mental than anything. "You're not a writer if you're not writing. It doesn't matter what it is or how good it is. You can fix it later, just write."

don't concentrate on spelling or grammar, just write.

Write about what you DON'T know.

The reader experiences your story as a dream. Don't do anything--bad grammar, implausible plot turns, out-of-character dialogue--that will wake the reader.

I remember being told that "when you write, it is like having a conversation," you do not change anything the first time you say (or type it). Only after you are finished 'talking' d you edit, weeding out the grammatical errors and relishing every unique detail.

I remember being told that "when you write, it is like having a conversation," you do not change anything the first time you say (or type it). Only after you are finished 'talking' do you edit, weeding out the grammatical errors and relishing every unique detail.

Like so..

The best writing advice I have received is avoid cliches. If it's already been used, throw it out-no matter how difficult or frustrating it may be (and usually is) to replace them with your own images and figurative language. Never stifle your creativity by settling for another author's words!

Don't be afraid to let bad things happen to your characters. Conflict is what stories are made of.

"The most important thing for poets to do is to write as little as possible." TS Eliot

Show me, don't tell me.