GENERAL TIPS:
"Writing is a lonely job. Having someone that believes in you makes a lot of difference." (King 77)
TOOLBOX:
1. On the top shelf should be vocabulary
2. Grammar should also be at the top of the toolbox, one should absorb the grammatical principles of one's native language.
The adverb is not your friend. The act of using them is someti called "Swifties", after Tom Swift, who wrotethings like "Utterson said contemptuously". If you don't know if to use them, ask yourself if you want to write the kind of prose thet might end up in a party game.
One should avoid passive tense, the passive voice is safe.
"You should use anything that improves your writing and doesn't get in the way of your story." (King 231)
3. Never tell anything if you can show it instead.
"When you write a story, you are telling yourself the story. When you write your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story." (King 56)
4. It is simpler to understand a complex thought when it is broken into two parts.
5. Description begins in the writer's imagination but should finish in the reader's.
"The writer's original perception of a character might be as erroneous as the reader's. [...] Sometimes you have to go on when you don't feel like it, and sometimes you are doing good work when it feels like all you are managing is to shovel shit from a sitting position." (King 82)
"The best stories always end up being about people rather than events." (King 224)
"If you continue to write fiction, every character is partly you [...] Added to those versions of yourself are the character traits, [...] which you observe in others." (King 225-226)
"If you do your job, your characters will come to life and start doing stuff on their own." (King 230)
"Symbolism exists to create a sense of artificial profundity" (King 237)
6. Fear is the root of most bad writing. You will not be payed to be self-indulgent.
"Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open. Your stuff starts out being just for you, then it goes out. Once you know what the story is and get it right, it belongs to anyone who wants to read it. Or criticize it." (King 56)
"Writing isn't about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid or making friends. In the end is about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life as well. It's about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy." (King 326)
7. Think about the paragraph. They are maps of intent. It's not about setting anyway, it's about the story.
8. Write whatever you want, as long as you tell the truth. Writing is refined thinking.. If your master's thesis is no more organised than a high school essay titled "What I did in summer" you are in big trouble.
"I distrust plot for two reasons: first, because our lives are largely plot-less. Second, because I believe that plot and the spontaneity of creation aren't compatible. My basic belief in the making of stories is that they pretty much make themselves." (King 188)
"A strong enaugh situation renders the whole question of plot moot. The most interesting situations can usually be expressed as a What if question" (King 196)
"If you expect it to ring true, then you must talk yourself. Even more important, you must shut up and listen to others talk." (King 222)
9. Words have weight.
"Words create sentences; sentences create paragraphs;sometimes paragraphs quicken and begin to breathe. Imagine if you like, Frankenstein's monster on its slab. Here comes lightning, not from the sky but from the humble paragraph of English words. Maybe it's the first really good paragraph you ever wrote, something so fragile and yet full of possibility that you are frightened. You feel as Victor Frankenstein must have when the dead conglomeration of sewn-together spare parts suddenly opened its watery yellow eyes.
Oh my god, it's breathing, you realize. Maybe it's even thinking. What in hell's name do I do next. [...]
Sometimes even a monster is no monster." (King 153-154)
10. Eliminate every possible distraction and concentrate on your goals, concrete goals. To become a good writer all you have to do is practice and practice and practice. There is no shortcut.
"By the time you step into your writing space and close the door, you should have set a new daily writing goal." (King 178)
"Research" (King 273)
WHEN YOU SEND YOUR STORY OUT:
1. Very brief cover letter on top of the script, telling the editor where you have published other stories.
2. Submit on a good grade of white bond paper.
3. The copy should be double-spaced.
4. Put your address in the upper left corner of the first page and a phone number.
5. Add a word count in the right corner of the first page.
THINGS I DON'T AGREE WITH:
1. "It's important to get the back story in as quickly as possible, but also to do it with some grace." (King 268)
One should build and elaborate his/her own story in as much time as he/she needs. There is no set time to get a definitive idea.
2. "A strong enough situation renders the whole question of plot moot. The most interesting situations can usually be expressed as a What if question" (King 196)
Without an organisation to the story, even if one has the best question ever and a super original idea is going to come out a mess. There is always the need for some plotting.
3. "As a reader, I am a lot more interested in what is going to happen that in what already did." (King 269)
This is true of a character I have just discovered and am not really familiar with. However, especially for series it is really interesting to set up events that happened previously to the story, allowing the reader to understand why a certain character acts a certain way, coming in contact with the experiences that shaped him. This allows the character to become a person. Here I am talking of significant experiences, not of everyday boring life.
SUGGESTED BOOKS:
Warriner's English Grammar and Composition
Writer's market
Literary Market place
SECONDARY SOURCE:
King Stephen, On writing a memoir of the craft
YOU ARE READING
How to write a book - advice and techniques
Non-FictionI am an aspiring writer and really wish to become someone in the literary world. I therefore decided to start learning the craft, learning from the ones that learned it before me, sharing their secrets. This is my personal guide and journey to writ...
