Advice & Tricks for my fellow Writers

Blackwinter-witch

You can take Writing courses, and I recommend such, but always check them out first, make sure you are getting what you want and need for your money.

Study already-published works by your favorite authors, or just your favorite books. Another good route is to study the works found by assorted authors in anthologies, then you can borrow and learn from the technique evidenced by more than a single author.
BUT, Studying such is tricky, as you will find yourself slipping into READING. ;) It takes a while to learn how to Study and Learn while Reading, but stick with it.

Your first-draft, DO NOT try for Perfect as it won't happen. There's not a single writer in history who ever achieved a Perfect Finished Work on a First-Draft.
DO NOT worry about your First-Draft being messy, sloppy, spelling-errors and all that--it's supposed to be messy, sloppy, and such. The MAIN thing is just focus on getting the Idea and thoughts down. Think of the First-Draft as raw mineral ore. Editing comes later, and that is when the Refining occurs.

Editing is not that hard. The hard part is the First Draft, editing is just adding new ideas you've had, fixing working, spelling and such, adding details or subtracting them, and sculpting the Raw Ore into the final refined form you want.
Editing takes more than one pass, think of it like how expensive car paintjobs are done, they are built up in layers until they look miles deep, each editing pass is a 'layer'.

Don't get caught in the eternal-editing trap. When you feel you've done it to be best you can, then stop. It's like the Statue of David...if one more chisel blow had been made, it would have ruined the work.

Facehuggers

Well said! Thank you for the advice, Blackwinter-witch, upvoted!

dk

BWW

Nice. Brainstorming is just that- you can always throw away a bad idea or hone a marginal one. I would also recommend avoiding flowery language and using one's own writer's voice- unless flowery language is called for.

I used to write and record tunes but the process is similar.

Sometimes you should shut it off, do something else and come back to it with a clear head. Just my two cents.

Blackwinter-witch

Chestbursters!

dk

TY and yw!!

DK, Good additional points!! TY for mentioning them!!

Rick

Chesters where's my Facehuggers?

Something Real

BLACKWINTER-WITCH - This is exceedingly good advice. Thank you ever so much for taking the time to present this to us! :)

Blackwinter-witch

Something Real

You're quite welcome!! I just thought that people might benefit from things that I have learned along the way over time, hoped to give them a head-start and save them time in figuring such things out. :)

Blackwinter-witch

Rick

Well as to facehuggers:

1; do eggs autocompensate for Daylight savings time?

2; the lazy little critters MIGHT have hit the 'snooze' button.
:D

Mr. Nostromo

Advice like this is always fun, but I wonder, what's the worst advice you think is given out there to starting writers?

Blackwinter-witch

Mr. Nostromo

I can't say, but I think the most common and worst thing aspiring writers get told is usually:
"Why are you wasting your time on something that's never going to happen?"

Mr. Nostromo

Mmm, ha ha, true. Although I always thought of that as the "you must be this big to get on this ride" disclaimer, if you don't learn how to dismiss those voices, both internally and from other people, you're probably going to have a tough time of it.

Blackwinter-witch

Mr. Nostromo

Exactly. Self-doubt, combined with getting those words said to you by other people...it's a tough combo to get through.
The only advice regarding such: Batten the hatches and weather the storm.

Ranting Xeno

Great advice! Thank you. I actually quite enjoyed writing that, erm...thing(?), over the weekend. Despite it not being great, its something I might do more of. Practice makes perfect, right? Or practice makes less bad - and, eventually, reasonable. Lol.

Also upvoted/Liked/What-Ever-It-Is.

I.Raptus

Great advice!!! 

I haven't written for awhile (until recently) but as an experienced songwriting musician i can tell you first draft is all about building momentum. The skills are interchangeable.

Get the creative juices flowing, brainstorm some ideas, discard some dead-end, find the styles and angles that works for you. The key is to find and lock in your own working formula    

BigDave

I will one day.... finish my projects related to Alien lol

Been saying that for 3 years now though ;)

But i will take on board this Advice ;)

Blackwinter-witch

Ranting Xeno

TY!!
Practice, well, Perfection is an elusive goal, but Improvement is something we can all attain. :) I am looking fwd to your next works, as-and-when the Muse inspires. :)

Blackwinter-witch

IRaptus

Exactly!! And TY for adding to thr 'advice pool'!!

Blackwinter-witch

BigDave

Glad you found something here that was useful to you!

Writing, well, it happens when the Muse lends inspiration and the 'drive' effect we feel at times.
The Muse though, it works on it's OWN plan and schedule. :) Main thing is that you still have the works to pick-up-on as-and-when the Muse calls.

VivisectedEngineer

How can you know if a writing course going to benefit you or not? Do you think online courses are worth it?

I really like your advice about the first draft. This is something I've been trying to tell myself. Sometimes I just feel embarrassed when writing my first draft.

It reminds me of the Futurama "Scary Door" Narrator who talks like Rod Serling and says something like "You are approaching a door. Behind the door is a monster or something..." Lol. 

But, I keep reminding myself to just get the rough skeleton of the story down first, while it's fresh in my mind, then go back and add the flesh and bones.

Blackwinter-witch

VivisectedEngineer

Never be embarrassed about a First Draft, they're supposed to be ugly and splintery, just make sure you tell folks at the outset it's a First Draft, as that avoids a lot of problems. :)
When writing a First Draft, the MAIN thing to remember is to Get The Ideas On Paper, so to speak, don't feel embarrassed, as there's nothing to feel embarrassed about, it's basically like laying down the Primer Coat when painting a car or a wall, right? Look at it that way. :)

I'd say you have a Good mental outlook/perspective on thing, it is just the 'skeleton' and like a raw diamond, it only shines after the cutting, polishing and such, right?

Writing courses...dunno, never took one. I just studied the Published works of various authors, as I figured if that's the Published work, then that's what to study. ;)

IndyFront

Nice. I've been doing mad research on writing for the past 5 years pretty non stop and this pretty much covers it.

VivisectedEngineer

@Blackwinter-witch

"just make sure you tell folks at the outset it's a First Draft, as that avoids a lot of problems. :)"

I don't think I'm brave enough to ever show anyone my first draft of anything, lol.

IndyFront

@VivisectedEngineer You have to not be afraid. Some of your stuff will inevitably suck, and you have to not be afraid of that. I've already gotten five rejection letters in the past few weeks. It happens. You have to know how to suck before you know how to be good.

Blackwinter-witch

VivisectedEngineer

I know that feeling!

For me, my First Drafts are so messy they're pretty much unreadable, essentially just a slopping-together of 'ingredients', really.

Blackwinter-witch

And as IndyFront says, rejections letters and related comes with the territory, nothing to be afraid of as even the Big Name authors get rejections letters also.