Learning to Write Fiction (For Beginners)
This article is really aimed at those who are new/ish to the world of writing fiction, although others may wish to read it, if only to disagree with what I have to say.
Most of what I’m writing here comes from my own personal experience, and as everyone is different, what worked for me may not work for everyone (this is where the ‘others disagreeing with me’ thing comes in).
1) Write lots; write fast. When you first begin to write your stories are not going to be amazing. You simply won’t have the experience needed. It is therefore important to get that experience.
At this point in your writing life, you’ll want to write short stories rather than novels. Don’t make them long short stories either - relatively short ones will probably work best for you. You’ll get a chance to try out new techniques, new styles, new characters, new settings, new genres and so on. Try not to get bogged down on a single story at this point. Write a story, see what people say about it, and then write up your next idea.
2) Re-read and edit. This is a rule I ignored when I first began to write (for a rather long time), which is a shame. As soon as I did begin to re-read my stories once I had finished then (rather than just posting them straight up onto the net) my writing improved dramatically.
Go back over your story. Try and improve all the spelling and grammar mistakes you see (but don’t get obsessive about it - at this point, you’ll want to work on your writing style, not your grammar… that can come later). The main focus, however, should be on the writing itself - what reads well? What doesn’t? Change and revise your story as you see fit.
3) Critique yourself. Look at your finished story. What don’t you like about it? Try comparing your short story to your favourite books to get a feel of what you’re lacking. Look at how your favourite authors have gone about that particular area of writing (eg. If you feel your dialogue doesn’t flow well, try having a look at how J.K. Rowling does it - for example, you may notice she uses ‘said’ a lot more than you).
Try and improve this aspect in your next story.
4) Be proud. This is vital for your writing (or, at least, it was for me). If you’re proud of your writing, then chances are you’ll want to write more. Don’t get arrogant about it though - if you do, you may not take the advice of others too well.
5) You don’t need critiques from anyone else. Well, okay - that’s not true. At least, not completely.
At this point, you really should be your own harshest critic. And although the advice of others is certainly useful, you’re unlikely to incorporate all of what they say into your future stories. When you first start to write, you’ll find that you improve with each story if you critique yourself (see point 3). There isn’t a lot that others can help you with.
This is not say you should ignore critiques. Take the advice and edit your story with it in mind. And do try to incorporate the advice into your future writings. But it won’t be until you’ve got a few stories under your belt that the critiques of others will really begin to fully help you.
And that’s it for me. Others may elaborate on my points, add their own, or perhaps disagree with what I’ve said. Like I said, different approaches work for different people - the above is what helped me (or would have helped me if I had done it, as in the case of point 2), but may not be perfect for everyone.
At any rate, I hope you enjoy your new hobby of writing - although I should probably warn you: it’s addictive.
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