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Writing Basics

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Burquette
Bug
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I found this article about seven broad-stroke ways that you can improve your story-telling.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-noll/7-craft-lessons-every-wri_b_3920676.html

The only point I disagreed with was point seven.

There is no magic to writing in short sentences. In fact, I think if you use too many of them, you get a staccato feel and an inability to vary the pacing (short sentences are great for action, less so for description, in my opinion). Poetic language only works if it doesn't get in the way of the story.

Avoiding the chronology trap is something I have to remind myself of. The reader doesn't care what's going on every second. Nor is it important to the story how many steps it is to the bathroom....

Anyway...enjoy. I hope getting a reminder of the basics helps you as much as it does me.
Guest
Lurker
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Quote by Burquette
I found this article about seven broad-stroke ways that you can improve your story-telling.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-noll/7-craft-lessons-every-wri_b_3920676.html

The only point I disagreed with was point seven.

There is no magic to writing in short sentences. In fact, I think if you use too many of them, you get a staccato feel and an inability to vary the pacing (short sentences are great for action, less so for description, in my opinion). Poetic language only works if it doesn't get in the way of the story.

Avoiding the chronology trap is something I have to remind myself of. The reader doesn't care what's going on every second. Nor is it important to the story how many steps it is to the bathroom....

Anyway...enjoy. I hope getting a reminder of the basics helps you as much as it does me.


I have a problem with, when to use a colon. Does it really? If so, please tell me when use it.
Verbal
Gravelly-Voiced Fucker
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Quote by Burquette
I found this article about seven broad-stroke ways that you can improve your story-telling.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-noll/7-craft-lessons-every-wri_b_3920676.html

The only point I disagreed with was point seven.

There is no magic to writing in short sentences. In fact, I think if you use too many of them, you get a staccato feel and an inability to vary the pacing (short sentences are great for action, less so for description, in my opinion). Poetic language only works if it doesn't get in the way of the story.

Avoiding the chronology trap is something I have to remind myself of. The reader doesn't care what's going on every second. Nor is it important to the story how many steps it is to the bathroom....

Anyway...enjoy. I hope getting a reminder of the basics helps you as much as it does me.



This is excellent advice.

I fall into the chronology trap too. I gotta tell myself to leave the boring crap in the spaces between the paragraphs. Have the strength to jump ahead.

And you are absolutely right about sentence length. Structure and length need to vary, unless you are using similar sentences to build toward something. I LOVE long, soaring, looping, twisty sentences.
Burquette
Bug
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Quote by Adagio


I have a problem with, when to use a colon. Does it really? If so, please tell me when use it.


A colon? Does this help?

http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/colons.asp

My favorite punctuation may be the semi-colon. I way overuse it to string short sentences together.
noll
"insensitive prick!" – Danielle Algo
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Quote by Burquette
I found this article about seven broad-stroke ways that you can improve your story-telling.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-noll/7-craft-lessons-every-wri_b_3920676.html

The only point I disagreed with was point seven.

There is no magic to writing in short sentences. In fact, I think if you use too many of them, you get a staccato feel and an inability to vary the pacing (short sentences are great for action, less so for description, in my opinion). Poetic language only works if it doesn't get in the way of the story.

Avoiding the chronology trap is something I have to remind myself of. The reader doesn't care what's going on every second. Nor is it important to the story how many steps it is to the bathroom....

Anyway...enjoy. I hope getting a reminder of the basics helps you as much as it does me.


Haven't read the article yet, but based on the author's name I'm inclined to agree with everything he says. And so should everyone!


===  Not ALL LIVES MATTER until BLACK LIVES MATTER  ===

Frank
Classified
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Furst thins furst. It wood be grate if moor peepel wood yoos reel inglish an proof reed storeeze.

Maybe one should drink a Heineken during those times!

Of all our inventions for mass communication,
pictures still speak the most universally understood language.

Walt Disney
Unknown User
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Quote by Burquette

The only point I disagreed with was point seven.

There is no magic to writing in short sentences. In fact, I think if you use too many of them, you get a staccato feel and an inability to vary the pacing (short sentences are great for action, less so for description, in my opinion). Poetic language only works if it doesn't get in the way of the story.


Agreed. There are times when you want to describe or develop a feeling and need more words, there are times when you want to give the feeling of movement and action. It isn't a matter of long or short being better in general but which one is best for the job at hand. And there is, as in many things, a middle ground. Just because you aren't saying something in 5 words doesn't mean you're bashing out a 40 word run-on.


Quote by Burquette

Avoiding the chronology trap is something I have to remind myself of. The reader doesn't care what's going on every second. Nor is it important to the story how many steps it is to the bathroom....


Usually about the third run-through of a story, I find myself tossing large chunks of writing because I realize there is no point to it being there. That said, sometimes you need to get down to that level of detail to explain a scene or set a certain mood. So, as above, it isn't necessarily always wrong to have a lot of detail, but you also need to make sure that the detail is needed to develop plot, character, and mood and isn't just filler.
Burquette
Bug
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Quote by seeker4


Usually about the third run-through of a story, I find myself tossing large chunks of writing because I realize there is no point to it being there. That said, sometimes you need to get down to that level of detail to explain a scene or set a certain mood. So, as above, it isn't necessarily always wrong to have a lot of detail, but you also need to make sure that the detail is needed to develop plot, character, and mood and isn't just filler.


I agree. I think that also goes to point one in the article above about using the setting in more than one way. In many genres (Gothic, horror, Urban fantasy) the setting is almost another character and really cements the tone of a story. Check out the winner of the Gothic Competition; I think it's just a beautiful use of setting to set tone.
ChuckEPoo
Chuckanator
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Quote by Burquette
I found this article about seven broad-stroke ways that you can improve your story-telling.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-noll/7-craft-lessons-every-wri_b_3920676.html

The only point I disagreed with was point seven.

There is no magic to writing in short sentences. In fact, I think if you use too many of them, you get a staccato feel and an inability to vary the pacing (short sentences are great for action, less so for description, in my opinion). Poetic language only works if it doesn't get in the way of the story.

Avoiding the chronology trap is something I have to remind myself of. The reader doesn't care what's going on every second. Nor is it important to the story how many steps it is to the bathroom....

Anyway...enjoy. I hope getting a reminder of the basics helps you as much as it does me.


Thank you I'm dedicated to learning the writing craft. I'm finding using dialogue to convey the characters attitudes is more effective than a narrative. I agree with you that action scenes should be short descriptive sentences. I find that the longer almost poetic descriptions are better suited to first person reflections or establishing the mood of a scene.

Reading your work is almost educational in itself. My strength is in story telling. My weakness is in mechanics. I find reading my stories aloud helps in the edit. When I'm alone of course. Lol
Burquette
Bug
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Quote by ChuckEPoo


Thank you I'm dedicated to learning the writing craft. I'm finding using dialogue to convey the characters attitudes is more effective than a narrative. I agree with you that action scenes should be short descriptive sentences. I find that the longer almost poetic descriptions are better suited to first person reflections or establishing the mood of a scene.

Reading your work is almost educational in itself. My strength is in story telling. My weakness is in mechanics. I find reading my stories aloud helps in the edit. When I'm alone of course. Lol


Aww, Chuck, thank you.

I read my stories aloud before I publish them, too. I also read the dialog back and forth to try to make sure it isn't stilted.

I do love those classic books with the beautiful prose. I love to read those aloud, too, just for the love of language. But you can't write that way. The modern audience doesn't typically have the patience for 120 words to say, "It was a time like any other time."

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."
Just_A_Guy_You_Know
Certified Mind Reader
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Great advice. The best points are 2, Develop a character's interior life & 4, Build suspense. Without these, stories fall totally flat. Stories on LS doubly so. You should empathize as much with your villains as you do with your heroes, and you need to give everyone involved reasons for doing what they're doing. And there should always be something at risk, some obstacle to be overcome, some danger to be feared before you grant your characters' wishes. Otherwise, it's not a story, it's just bragging.

Post-avant-retro-demelodicized-electro-yodel-core is my jam.