Notes and Links from Today's Meeting

So here are the links for each of the writing advice pages that I had during today's meeting.  I'll also paste in the outline of today's notes as well.

John Steinbeck's Six Tips on Writing


Writing Tips from Elmore Leonard, Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood, etc.

Kurt Vonnegut's Eight Tips to Writing a Good Story

Six Rules for a Great Story

Pixar's 22 Rules of Storytelling


Below are my notes, all of which came from writing lists off of the Writer's Digest website.


Attitude:

1) Take yourself seriously and act like a professional

2) Do not write as revenge


3)  Just start writing, don’t try to wait for perfect moment/perfect mood

4)  Don’t get jealous/competitive

5)  Don’t try to be trendy.

 6)  Don’t be a perfectionist.

7) Write in small pieces


Plot:

1)  Start with a smash, don’t build up to it -- “Bob crashed his car”

2)  Show, don’t tell

3)  There needs to be cause and effect -- do not make people do things only because you want them to or because of the plot

4)  Escalate the stakes throughout the story

5)  Don’t do what people expect you to do based solely on your premise

6)  Avoid prologues

7)  If it’s something you’d skip over in someone else’s book, don’t put it in



Characters/Language:


1)  Dialogue is how you show who a character is -- don’t have everyone talk about how wonderful Mary is, have Mary be a wonderful person and let readers figure it out

 2)  Make sure each character has a voice -- they shouldn’t all ‘sound’ the same

 3)  Be conversational but don’t get bogged down in how people actually talk -- “Hi, how are you?” “I’m fine.  You?” “Oh, I’m okay.”  “That’s good.”

 4)  Try to simplify your character’s lines -- people don’t speak in prose. 

5)  Don’t overemphasize.

6)  Avoid regional dialect

7)  Everyone has to want something/don’t write about wimps

8) Be sadistic


Storytelling:

1)  Do not clutter with detail -- don’t need to show Bob getting dressed, brushing teeth, eating breakfast, driving, then crashing car -- just show the car crash

 2)  Try to make every page interesting -- don’t waste time on filler

3)  Don’t try and telegraph when you’re being funny, thoughtful, serious, etc.


4)  Kill your darlings.




What Not to Do:

1)  Avoid cliches --  the morning routine, explaining a day-to-day routine, start of a phone conversation, etc.

2)  Don’t rely on coincidence

3)  Don’t try to force symbolism/themes

4) Don’t write for the invisible audience

5) Don’t write for your mother

6) Don’t focus on the weather