Whether you call yourself a young writer, a teenage writer, or just a writer, these tips are guidelines we should all follow. They apply not just to stories, but to writing in general.
Howard Jacobson, author, Man Booker Prize winner and broadcaster gives his tips for successful writing
Whether you call yourself a young writer, a teenage writer, or just a writer, these tips are guidelines we should all follow. They apply not just to stories, but to writing in general.
What is Creative Writing? Creative writing is anything where the purpose is to express thoughts, feelings and emotions rather than to simply convey information. I’ll be focusing on creative fiction in this post (mainly short stories and novels), but poetry, (auto)biography and creative non-fiction are all other forms of creative writing. Here’s a couple of definitions:
Get an accountant, abstain from sex and similes, cut, rewrite, then cut and rewrite again – if all else fails, pray. Inspire by Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing, we asked authors for their personal…
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Showing versus telling
Showing verses telling is a common topic in writing circles, especially among new writers. It can get kind of confusing after awhile because there are soooo many thoughts on how to show and not tell, variations on definitions, etc. It’s crazy.
Will you do some telling? Yes! If you write, “His brown hair curled over his forehead,” that’s “telling.” You just told me what his hair was doing.
Telling in the arena of doing, action, (she walked across the room) description is… wait for it… PROSE. Books are compiled for prose and dialog. So yes, describe things, tell the reader things, except…
For how the characters are feeling. SHOW me emotion. SHOW me action that applied to the emotion. SHOW me the heroine or heros actions.
Imagine you’re sitting in a theater and the star of the play walks on stage. The set is nice and homey, looks like a prairie, the lighting is warm, looks like twilight. The music plays. And your star goes:
“My name is Betty Sue Watson. I was born right here on the prairie and I was planning on leaving for this great adventure, wait til I tell you about it, then I met Jeb. Oh, I fell head over heels for Jeb but he didn’t know I was alive. I kept thinking, one of theses days he’s going to wake up and ask me out.”
Two characters enter stage left.
“See there’s Jeb, isn’t he handsome, with that skank Linda Lou who was such a ho in high school you would not believe but now she says she’s got religion and I don’t believe her for one moment. You know what she said to me the other day? Oh, look there’s my Mama, she’s going to be mad cause I left dishes in the sink. I always leave dishes in the sink. Anyway, so I was really hot for Jeb at the club about two months when Linda Lou just walked up and asked him to dance. He didn’t even say excuse me, to me.”
Don’t know about you,but I’m walking out of this play. Boring. You have to SET THE STAGE. Better to have Betty Sue working at a diner and Jeb comes in with Linda Lou. She hides in the back, refuses to wait on the because they’re at her table.
The other waitress confronts her and we hear part of the story. Use secondary characters to tell the story, to expand the stage. They aren’t just walk ons to say, “Hi” and “Goodbye” but people who impact your protagonist world.
Here’s more on showing verse telling:
Primarily, showing verses telling applies to emotion. Itâs the authorâs job to show the reader what the characters are doing and feeling, to show emotions, feelings, reactions, even what a character is thinking-through-action.
Telling means author is describing emotion and reaction in prose.
Struggling to show verses tell might mean the writer doesnât know what the characters want in a scene or know the scene goal. Mostly likely, the author is trying to savor some great reveal or plot point, or the character evolution, for some slam-bam moment in the middle of the book and until she gets there, she creates a lot of prose for the reader to weed through.
Showing “pictures” the emotion, “pictures” the action – which often is related to emotion. For example, anger is shown when the character slams a door, speaks in terse, short sentences or maybe says nothing at all. But thatâs easy right? Most of writers know to show an emotion.
Where writers get confused and lost is showing the emotion of the scene!
Let’s say our writerâs book is about a woman losing her job and discovers sheâs not a corporate executive with a Suit for a boyfriend, but a cowboy rancher.
There are a couple of ways for our writer to “mess” up showing verses telling.
First option. The author has heroine driving down the high way thinking her way through her problem. Sheâs telling us all the details and consequences.
– Rick fired her. Dirty rotten scoundrel. Marlena fumed as she drove her brand new 2011 Mercedes along I-95 toward home. Sheâd emptied her savings account to buy this car, as well as her downtown loft. What about her cases? Was Rick prepared to just add thirty clients to his docket? Heâd regret his actions tomorrow. She was the best tax accountant in the city. Oh no, she promised to help Dad and Mom put a new roof on their house. They worked so hard to put her through college. And what about the League of Women Against Tossed-out Christian Louboutins? They counted on her monthly contributions. END
Okay, as the reader we get a feel for Marlena. Sheâs chick, smart and kind, but we feel nothing for her. In one opening paragraph we know her fears, her dilemma, her causes but thereâs no emotion, no conflict, no tension, no “let’s turn the page to find out whatâs going on.” Our author gave us an info dump.
The illusion: The author thinks sheâs given us conflict and tension because Marlena is upset. But tis not so.
Second option. The author has the heroine showing up at a gathering of girlfriends. She keeps the disaster in her head while the dialog is about trite inconsequential events that mean nothing to the story or reveal the heart of our protagonist.
– Marlena slapped her hand on the coffee bar. “Give me a tall latte, LuAnn.”
“Hey Marlena, how are you?” The barista reached for a tall clear cup.
“Iâm needing a latte.” She’d just lost her job, that’s how she was doing. Rick Conway would regret his decision tomorrow. The moment he took her thirty clients and added them to his own case load. Then heâd remember she was the best tax accountant in the city.Marlena paid for her latte and joined her girls at their table, the far one in the corner under the track lights. She sat, reaching for the Splenda. “Your hair looks good tonight, Tina.” “Thanks Marlena. Itâs the work of my new stylist.â Tina glanced around the table, sipping her coffee. âSo, what are our plans for the weekend gals.”
Fixing my resume, thought Marlena. “Movies? Pizza. I’m in the mood for something cheap this weekend.” “Cheap?â Tina gawked. âThis from the girl who runs an orphanage for discarded Louboutins?” END
We get a feel for Marlena. Sheâs upset. She got fired. But weâre in the same boat as the first example. No emotion. No sense of her heart, her fears. She âthinksâ it all. Thereâs no reaction from her friends to ease or heighten her fears because they donât know. Instead, she talks about hair.
The illusion: This scene looks like showing because the author used dialog and action, but it’s still telling. As the reader, we never see or “feel” Marlena’s emotions. We never see her reaction, emotionally or physically, to losing her job. Whatâs going on inside her head? Her heart? What âlieâ does she believe about herself that surfaces when sheâs fired. What wound or fear is mined to the surface of her heart? What dream or desires have been crushed?
Hereâs an example of how our author might âshowâ Marlena losing her job. (Depends on the set up and goal of the scene.)
In the parking lot of Taxes R Us, Marlena slipped her keys into the ignition of her car as the evening sun spilled through the windshield and turned the key. The engine clicked but did not fire.
Marlena hit the wheel with her hand. “No you donât, you expensive piece of German engineering. Not today. Not. To. Day.â The beast was brand new but she’d taken it to the shop four times in two months. If she had to take it again, she was leaving it. They could afford it more than she could.
She turned the key again and the engine fired up, rumbling low, matching the sobs of her heart. Checking her review, Marlena shifted into reverse with cold, weak fingers. She paused at the image of her blood shot eyes. She didnât want to cry when she left Rickâs office, but two steps down the hall she had to duck into the Ladies Room. The cold, hard tile room offered little comfort. How did she get here? What happened? From a rising sun to a fallen star. She could still hear Rickâs tone, see his expression. The memory created a dark bond over her heart. She swallowed the bitter bile of rising fear.
Her phone rang, playing Michael Buble, and pulled Marlena from the precipice. She hoped it was Michael. Please, please, please.
âMarlena, Flick Dunham.â
What was left of her heart shattered, leaving a ringing sound in her ears. âI canât talk now.â The phone slipped in her cold, weak grip.
âThatâs what you said the last time.â
âNothingâs changed, Flick.â Marlena checked her review and fired out of her parking slot. Salty tears rolled down the contours of her nose and gathered at her lips.
âI canât wait any longer, Marlena.â
âThen do what you have to do.â She didnât wait for his answer, but pressed End and flung her phone onto the passengers seat, and ran the red light. The angles and lines of the scene beyond her dash bent in the refracted light of her tears and heading home never seemed so dark. END
Here the reader âseeâ Marlena upset. We know something bad has happened to her but not quite sure what. Her job? Her boyfriend? Was she having an affair with her boss? Is someone after her? We get a sense of her emotions, her feelings, her reaction to a disaster. Thereâs tension. Who is Rick? Who is Michael? Whoâs Flick. (Rickâs evil twin, mwwwahhhh.) What does she do for a living? All weâve done here is set up her trouble. Even if the emotion lacks, thereâs enough tension and trouble to make us turn a few more pages to find out whatâs going on with the heroine.
The dialog relates to the action of the scene. It sets up the reader to âfeelâ the tension and wonder about the story question: What has happened to Marlena?
The scene is a combination of action, dialog, and prose with emotion.
The scene also has story world. Marlena in a corporate parking lot. Sun is falling through her windshield â which could be symbolic of brighter days to come after this dark one. The reader knows she drives an expensive car so we get a sense of her affluence.
A showing scene has SHARP components: (COURTESY OF OUR OWN SUSAN MAY WARREN)
S Stakes
H Hero/Heroine Identification
A Anchoring
R Run
P Problem
Stakes – Whatâs at stake in this scene? Our heroineâs life? Her identity? Her relationships? Weâve set the stage for raising the stakes.
Heroine – Who is our heroine? Whatâs she about. Show a small piece of her.
Run â We entered the scene on the run, after the âincident.â Weâre seeing Marlenaâs reaction.
Problem â The author introduced a hint of the problem. We leave the scene with Marlena in turmoil, telling Flick to do what he has to do. Then she runs a red light (which could speak of her own âtossing caution to the wind.â)
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Writing the Action/Fight SceneWhen you’re writing that first scene, you really only need to know three things. Why are these people fighting? Where and with what are they fighting? And what are their fighting skills?
Today we're talking about this big hairy fear: My book sucks, and I'm completely wasting my time because I will never get published...
There's a good way to ask a favor and a not-so-good way. The following advice can also be applied to finding an agent and writing query letters.
Are there signs for when you need to set a story aside?
And how does that lie influence their decisions?
How to write a novel: Award winning author Randy Ingermanson teaches his Snowflake Method for designing and writing a novel.
ten tips
Learning to become a great writer takes time. As teenagers, you are at the beginning of that time. Do not be discouraged! You can learn the tricks to becoming a better writer now and by the time you’re my age… well, let’s just say, “Move over Christopher Paolini, here you come!”
These tips are rules. Once you learn the rules, you, as a great and extremely talented crafter of the written word, will know when it is okay to break them. Truth? I still am not sure when to break them. Don’t tell anyone, okay? Yes, there are lots of rules to becoming a great writer, and you may tire of hearing them all over and over, but once you understand them, your writing will greatly improve and an editor or agent will notice the difference.
So here they are, drum roll please, my Ten Tips to Becoming a Better Writer…
Tip #1– Read, Read, Read
One of the easiest ways to learn great writing is to read great writing. Pick up books like the kind you want to write and read them. This will help you learn what works and know your competition.
Tip #2– Know Your Reader and Genre
When you are ready to begin writing, decide who you are writing for and what you are writing. Write a picture book for kids. Write a junior detective reader. Write a young adult fantasy. Write a young adult historical coming of age story. If you try to write all of these things in one book, it’s going to be very confusing and there will not be a market for it. If you are writing for fun, then, hey, do what you want. But—if you are writing to become a great writer, then start by following the rules. Once you are up there with Lois Lowry and J. K. Rowling, you can do what you want.
Tip #3– Point of View
Decide which person’s head you will be telling the story from. I suggest telling the story from a single persons head, or point of view, for your first novel. Head jumping can be a very tiresome thing, and usually makes me want to toss the book in the trash. What I mean by head jumping is this:
Kate looked at Edward. He was a silly little boy. Why did he think he could get away with taking her things all the time. It was a real pain having him for a little brother. She wanted to ship him off to Australia media mail. That would teach him.
If she wouldn’t always boss him, then he would behave more. He really only wanted Kate to play with him. The other kids in third grade didn’t have a big sister as cool as her, but she always yelled at him. It made him sad when she did, but at least she was paying some attention to him.
Mr. Jones always took his son’s side. How could he not? Kate was going through some bizarre teenage girl phase that he didn’t understand. She constantly tortured the family, especially Edward. As a good father should, he stepped in, but Kate always took it as a personal attack.
See what I did? In the second paragraph I went to Edward’s point of view, then in the third I went to Daddy’s. That’s a no no because it confuses the reader. Yeah, it’s true that there are lots of published authors out there who do this, but I think it’s very confusing. If you want to use more than one point of view in your book, switch at chapter breaks or at least at scene changes.
Tip #4– Problem?
I’ve read books where I was in the third chapter before I knew what was happening. I’m not talking about a great suspense novel, I’m talking about rambling on and on without any sign of a plot. A story must have a plot. The easiest way to explain this is to give your main character a major problem to solve. Maybe they chose to get involved in the problem like Nancy Drew nosing around in a crime, or maybe it was thrust upon them like Harry Potter becoming a wizard, Eragon finding a dragon’s egg, or Anne Shirley being an orphan. Readers need to know in the first five pages, preferable the first page, what the character’s problem is. Then the reader can decide whether or not they want to read on. If you don’t have a problem, you don’t have a story. Sorry.
Tip #5– Show, Don’t Tell
Okay, this is the first time you will hear me say that. It took me at least a year of desperate searching to understand what that meant. You’ll hear it a thousands of times in your quest to becoming a great author, so commit it to memory now.
Honestly, at first, authors think they are being clever and poetically descriptive. What they are really doing is being lazy and littering their work with red flags that scream, “HELLO, I’M AN AMATEUR!” As an author, we want to SHOW our readers what is happening so they feel like they are actually one of the main character and they are getting excited, scared, cold, sick, or hungry along with your character because you write in a way that draws them in.
Why? Because today’s generation of readers were raised on television and movies. They want to be entertained and that has translated into book writing. If you want to be a great writer, you’ve got to get used to it.
Tip #6- Delete Adverbs
An adverb is a part of speech that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. For
example: “She was beautiful”; “He drove perfectly”; “They played very well.” Adverbs are often formed by adding ‘ly’ to an adjective. Ex: Weakly, hungrily, or tirelessly.
Amateurs love to use lots of adverbs.
For example: She was beautiful. –This doesn’t really show us much. We as readers have no choice but to take your word for it. We may believe you once, but if your writing is filled with you telling the reader what to believe, we’ll get annoyed with you. We want to see her beauty.
Better example: She was small, with big brown eyes and lashes that seemed to blink in slow motion. Her hair fell in black waves over her shoulders and down her back.
Yak! FYI: I will never put “Good example,” because that would insinuate that I can write good examples, but I hope that you see what I mean. Readers need specifics. Once you give them to us, we can see her and we believe she is beautiful without you ever having to tell us so.
Tip #7– Be Specific or CUT, CUT, CUT!
When you are writing your first draft, just write it. Zip on through and get the story in the computer. (Yes computer. The days of writing by hand are in the past.) As you go back through, look for those boring snoozer words that really mean nothing of interest. Good writing is in the details and specifics.
For Example: John climbed the tree and looked at the mountain.
Zzzzzzzzz. Snort. Drool. Zzzzzzzz. Oh! I’m sorry. Must have dozed off. Tee hee.
Better example: John shimmied up the swaying willow and gazed at the monstrous peak of Mt. McKinley.
Okay, so I replaced the boring, non specific words with concrete ones. Ones that help the reader see what you want them to. Instead of climbed, John shimmied. Instead of tree, I used swaying willow. That is very specific, and if you ever tried to climb one, you would know they sway. Instead of looked, I used gazed. It just seemed more right for the scene. Instead of mountain, monstrous peak of Mt. McKinley. Yep. Mt. McKinley is monstrous, the second tallest peak in North America, and that alone tells the reader (who knows his geography, anyway) where the story takes place.
This is true with any word. Be specific, but if you feel that being non specific is the right thing to do, go right ahead. Like I said, once you know and follow the rules, you can break them when you want to. Confused yet? Ha ha ha ha ha!
Tip #8– Get Rid of, or Make Simple, the Said Tag
This is another one of those places where and agent or editor will take one glance at your manuscript and scream, “AMATEUR!” The dreaded said tag. And even worse, the dreaded said tag with even more dreaded adverb attached.
For Example: “Get out!” Sharon screamed angrily.
Ick, ick, ick! Here’s why: “Get out!” Does that look like someone might whisper those words? Nope. So you don’t have to tell us that Sharon screamed. And angrily is even more redundant. You’ve only got so many words to write a good story. Wasting them on saying the same thing over and over is a bad move. Watch out for redundancies and lazy telling.
Better Example: “Get Out!” Sharon slammed the door.
This example uses an action tag. Not only does the action fit the words she has spoken, but it tells us that she spoke them without using the word ‘said’ at all. Whoo hoo! Have a party. ‘Said’ is one of the most abused and over used words in literature. That being said, it is far better to write, ‘“Get out!” Sharon said,’ than to write ‘“Get out!” Sharon said angrily,’ or ‘“Get out!” Sharon clamored.’ When in doubt, ‘said’ works best, but I know that you can do better using action tags.
Tip #9– Avoid Flashbacks
There is nothing more confusing that a flashback in the middle of nowhere except, two or more flashbacks spread throughout a novel. If you must tell a past event, get creative. Put it into dialogue or put little pieces here and there throughout the story. This is far more mysterious than blurting it out by going back in time for three pages, and let’s face it, I skip over it anyway. If you absolutely are itching to tell a character’s past, do it in a prologue, or sneak it in another way. If you refuse and must have a flashback, make it short. Please!
Tip #10– Write, Write, Write!
You would think this would be obvious and yet, I waste more time thinking about nothing, biting my fingernails, writing to do lists of what I’m going to write, and eating in front of the computer, than actually writing. Randy Ingermanson, a really smart writing guy, said it takes the average writer a million words typed to get published. That is the equivalent of ten novels. Currently, I’m closing in on 500,000. Sigh! So, you best get typing now and stop wasting your time reading this e-zine!
Bonus Tip #11– Rewrite, Rewrite, Rewrite!
What’s this? A bonus tip? How thoughtful of me! It is also said, by many wise writing guru people that the real magic, the real amazing gift of the writing craft comes in the rewrite. So write your story. Put it aside. Write something else. Then come back and rewrite that first one. Rewrite it until you feel real good about it. The problem is, some people (like me) never feel real good about it and we could go on picking the poor book to death until it is just a sad skeleton of a former healthy novel. That, however, is a different kind of problem altogether.
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Title: Suggested creative sources for writingUser rating
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In need of creative suggestions beyond Blast?
Blast may no longer be active, but that doesn't mean that your creative aspirations should also go on ice. Here are suggestions of other websites which encourage creative writing.
Also, don't forget that all our Behind the Scenes, How Tos, user uploads and tour highlights are still on this site for you to enjoy.
Elsewhere at the BBC
External organisations
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external Internet sites.
The Perfect 10 When we head around the country for our BBC writersroom roadshows , one of the team will give a little talk about The Perfect Ten. We read the first ten
BBC writersroom is always on the lookout for fresh, new, talented writers for a changing Britain . When we find them, we do everything we can to get their voice heard
Write because you love it and not because it is something that you think you should do.
Always write about something or somebody you know about – something that you feel deeply and passionately about. Never try and force it.
The most important thing is to live an interesting life. Keep your eyes, ears and heart open.
Talk to people and visit interesting places, and don't forget to ask questions. To be a writer you need to drink in the world around you so it's always there in your head.
Read a lot – poems, prose, stories, newspapers, anything. Read books and poems that you think you will like and some that you think might not be for you. You might be surprised.
Always write your ideas down however silly or trivial they might seem. Keep a notebook with you at all times. (I use school exercise books that teachers and children give me when I sometimes visit schools!).
Write and re-write your poem or story to try and perfect it but also to help you find your voice and your own way of expressing yourself.
Try and live inside your story, hear and feel it all around you and become the characters.
Don't worry, we won't post anything.
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