Taken from: Writer’s Digest
This writing tips are from various authors, agents, and editors at the 2018 Writer’s Digest Annual Conference. The conference was held from 10 August to 12 August 2018 in New York City. The Writer’s Digest Annual Conference offers everything you need to advance your writing career creatively and professionally.
If you are a writer yourself or you are a person who really have that roaring passion towards writing, these few tips might be helpful for you in creating a masterpiece of your own; or even help you to get yourself into the writing field. The author of the article had featured 100 tips, but here are my personal picks:
- “Never get up from your computer until you’ve made a note about what you want to write next. That way you can slide right back in.” – Jane K. Cleland
2. You should aspire to write every day, but you have to give yourself permission to not write if it isn’t productive or sustainable for you sometimes. Not writing every day doesn’t mean you don’t have passion. – Jeff Somers
3. “Outlining is done through the conscious mind. Your conscious mind is not designed for creativity. It’s designed for order. It’s the navigator. All the great writing happens in the subconscious mind—the unfiltered child.” – Jacob Kruege
4. “Write in 10-minute increments: Write a paragraph, revise and write another. Then you have a page.” – Jane K. Cleland
5. “The challenge is keeping the balance between writing and knowing that your writing will be read (and critiqued) by others.” – William Kenower
6. “The purpose of your novel is to show by intention how deeply you can go into your mind.” – Walter Mosley
7. “In memoir, you are the hero and the narrator. You must demonstrate how you have changed throughout the story, much like a fictional character arc.” – Rachael Herron
8. “If you find yourself creating extra characters, ask yourself why? Are you filling in issues for other characters? Or is the new character accomplishing something?” – Jeff Somers
9. “Add conflict between allies too, not just with antagonist. Happy characters with happy lives are boring.” – Jordan Rosenfeld
10. “Why do we like stories? Why do we care about stories? … Characters are why we come to a story and stay in a story. … You give every character a problem. The best thing you can do with that problem is make it totally relatable.” – Chuck Wendig
11. “The writer creates herself by telling us a story about someone else.” – Walter Mosley
12. Consider ending chapters with forward movement—a discovery, a decision or a revelation—instead of relying on a cliffhanger that de-escalates when the scene resumes. – Steven James
13. Six cycles of revision:
- 1st draft: Get the story down on the page
- 2nd draft: Deep dive—review for story idea, structure, character, narrative thrust
- 3rd draft: Revise for continuity
- 4th draft: Revise for voice
- 5th draft: Revise for language
- 6th draft: Revise for grammar, spelling, and punctuation
– Paula Munier
14. “When you’re self publishing, you need an objective editor. Do not pay your mom, do not pay your friends. Work with someone who is reputable and known.” – Chris Stollar
15. “Short stories have to have a beginning, middle and end. A flash piece is about this moment right now, and is left on a resonant tone. … Flash fiction is an urgent message and not a throw away. It doesn’t have a story arc, it’s a meaningful moment… about emotion, movement, and resonance (a mic-drop moment).” – Windy Lynn Harris
16. “If you’re writing a novel, try writing a 100-word version to get at essence of story and you may be able to sell as microfiction.” – Windy Lynn Harris
17. Know your word counts:
- Microfiction = 100 words or less
- Flash = 100–1,000 words
- Short = 1,000–20,000 words
– Windy Lynn Harris
18. “Organizations and marketing agencies are good sources for freelance copywriters. Also consider online networks but be careful of offers for super cheap work—make sure you are accepting offers where you are paid what you are worth.” – E.J. Wenstrom
19. “Short story publication is a great way to build platform especially if you want to sell novel later.” –Windy Lynn Harris
20. “Editors at [publishing] houses want you to write from your heart, not from the trends. Write what you love.” – Ann VanderMeer
Source: Writer’s Digest
