Tag: writing advice

prompts-and-circumstance:

letswritesomenovels:

Don’t say it was “delightful”; make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. –C.S. Lewis

I found this great piece of writing advice from C.S. Lewis on twitter today.(courtesy of @thatboycanteach)

I know the phrase “show don’t tell” confuses a lot of people who are new to critiquing/workshops, because all writing is telling… isn’t it? 

But this is exactly what writers are talking about when they use that phrase. 

This is also why, when critiquing your work, writers might tell you to remove adjectives and adverbs, or why you might hear that those two types of words are “bad writing.” It’s not that you’re never allowed to use an adjective or an adverb, but that–like Lewis says–it’s much more preferable to be terrified, than to be told something is terrifying. 

Whenever you tell your reader what the characters in a story are experiencing, instead of letting your reader have an experience alongside your characters, you miss an opportunity to invite your reader into the story. If you miss too many, eventually your reader will stop waiting for their invitation and simply leave. 

Wonderful advice from a wonderful author

the-pen-pot:

halespecterwinchester:

greaseonmymouth:

just-shower-thoughts:

My ability to proofread increases by 1000% after I hit “Submit”.

this is often because when you’ve submitted something (like fanfiction to ao3) it will be in a different font, size and framing than in your word processor. The text will look different in the new environment so your brain stops skipping what looks familiar (like a typo that has been there since the beginning).

So, tip: revise your work in a different font and size. I guarantee you’ll catch more typos and mistakes than otherwise.

For all my writers (ones I follow and the ones that thankfully follow me)

My editing process is 5 stages, and I change font and size before each go around. It works a treat by making your brain actually SEE what it is looking at (and spotting the mistakes you didn’t see the first time around)