As soon as I finished re-reading my novel, I wrote these notes so that the rewritten version would be better. However, the novel is still unpublished. Thus these tips haven't proven themselves yet, but they should still be useful.
These are the notes that have helped me in writing fiction: "1) Don't do anything you find unbearably cliché. 2) If you have some clever dialogue which does not belong, remove it: you are writing literature, not flaunting your wittiness. 3) Make your work one to remember--one that you are proud of. 4) Why would the reader care if anyone in your story died? Create some background for every key character so that the reader mourns, or perhaps welcomes, the death of a character who perishes. 5) Why does this character care about that other character? Present action shows us what two people are doing but not why they are where they are--why they are friends or enemies. 6) Give your readers a reason to care about your main character. Otherwise, they will likely lose interest and stop reading. (I stopped reading The Yearling for this exact reason, and I don't usually abandon books I'm reading.) 7) Don't throw emotion into inappropriate areas in the book because you're bored. 8) Try to make all your events feel necessary to the reader. In other words, at the end of the book, your reader should not say, 'Well, I think this subplot was just thrown in so that the book would have a hundred extra pages. It really bored me and didn't change the outcome of the book.' Rather, you want the reader to say, 'Wow! Look at how this is all connected and how not one event is a waste of time but impacts the whole story.' Finally, remember these expressions: "Never a dull moment," "You reap what you sow," and "All's well that ends well."
If I think of any other good tips, I'll post them; but I'd seem like a hypocrite if I did not post any of my own literary work first. Also, understand that these tips are based on my attempts to correct what was wrong with the first draft of my book Violet Arrow; my work has never been published. Anyway, I hope this will help someone.
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125,018 Literary Works • 672,861 Reviews
Linkzude16, I know I've seen your avatar somewhere. Nice, I think there's a movie about Link and the king and Zelda and Ganon and all that.
The first thing I saw when I clicked on this was that there were no paragraphs. Why? I think it would flow better if it was separated. Maybe between the place where you talk about The Yearling and where you talk about emotion. And here, you should put a quotation mark at the end.
""Wow! Look at how this is all connected and how not one event is a waste of time but impacts the whole story."
A while later, you should capitalize those first letters in these phrases.
""never a dull moment," "you reap what you sow," and "all's well that ends well.""
There is no need for a semicolon in your sentence, just replace it with a comma.
"If I think of any other good tips, I'll post them; but I'd seem like a hypocrite if I did not post any of my own work first."
1) This helped me a lot, 2) "w" is "will".
"Anyway, I hope this w help someone."
I think you have great talent, I just feel it! If I think Violet Arrow is good, and you seem nice, I'll follow you, and like Violet Arrow. Hopefully you'll let me read your work? Please? *attempts cute pleading face* Please...
-wisegirl22
I had meant to add the final quotation mark, my bad. I will resolve the problems with the quotations. Thanks for telling me. I can't get anything by people on YWS. Did I seriously type "w" instead of "will"? Ah! Oh, well, I have some amendments to make.
Wisegirl22, you were so kind to me that I almost want to yes your request, but I'm rather protective of Violet Arrow. Instead, I was about to post a different book idea here to be read or reviewed. I hope you can enjoy that when I post it. Thanks again.
Also, I added paragraphs. Yay! Thanks.
You're so welcome! :3 Please...
Hey stranger whats up? Review time. I think it would be easier for people to read if you bullet pointed your writing tips. Like in a powerpoint. Also the quotes toward the end, I don't know grammar so don't get mad if i'm wrong, but shouldn't they be capitaolized? Also in the ending sentence you forgot "will". And I completely agree with you when people add random sub plots just to add to their page count. I use to do that but its a waste of writting power. Anyway keep going and remeber your awesome. OuO
Thanks for the advice, Romania. I just changed the setup by adding numbers to separate thoughts. No, you're right about the grammar. I just became confused somehow. I know. I feel bad about saying "w" for "will," but I have corrected that now. Thanks for the help.
Hello Linkzude16,
This is really useful, I think I might add it to my favorites so that I can come back to it later. I often push in unexpected drama in my stories because I have nothing better to do, I should remember this so that I don't do that as often. I found one error in here though:
"I hope this w help someone." I hope this will help someone?
Otherwise you did a great job on this.
~Kelpies.
Thanks, Kelpies. Your review is helpful and gives me hope.
Better formating and maybe a bullet point / list system would do wonders for readability. Also, unless you are planning to expand on this, I think it's more suited for the forums.
Maybe I will put it in the forums. That's good advice.