Tips for Writing Fiction
I think I’ve wanted to be a storyteller for my entire life. Since my earliest memories I have told stories to my friends and family, put on performances, acted, been obsessed with books and movies, and have always had some form of website or blog.
So I guess it’s no surprise that when looking back at our (first?) year of quarantine I spent a whole lot of time learning how to tell stories. I would by no means call myself a seasoned expert, however, I have spent the year saying “yes.” Yes to taking classes, yes to writing the newest thing that excites me, yes to learning about screenwriting, sharing poetry, developing characters, and participating in my first NaNoWriMo.
NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month and is a tradition in which writers spend the month of November writing 50,000 words. You can read more about it here.
I recently took some time to reread the work that I wrote during NaNoWriMo in November and I realized how much I learned about writing fiction through that experience and the time since.
Below is my collection of my advice, which I hope encourages you deeply if you are thinking about (or already working on) a story of your own. By the way, I would LOVE to cheer you on if you are working on something. A community, when you’re writing, is everything. Thank you to my new friend Jeni for encouraging me to do NaNoWriMo with her this year!
Here we go.
Let your freak flag FLY. Don’t judge what you’re writing while you’re writing it. Try your best to keep from thinking “this is weird” or “will anyone believe this?” We do a great job of conditioning ourselves OUT of our most creative instincts as we grow up in order to fit in and anticipate what others’ think or are interested in. You can always edit your ideas later, but go as far as you can first.
Don’t be an editor while you’re being a writer. If you stop every 300 words to go back to look at grammar, how the story sounds, what it’s missing, etc. then you're not writing any more. Just keep going. There will be a time to edit: either when you’re done or when the story doesn’t feel right anymore and you need to adjust.
Watch Neil Gaiman’s Masterclass. I watched it while I was in the middle of NaNoWriMo and it gave me so much sound, tactical advice about introducing characters and describing a setting. It was also inspirational to hear an author speak about creating his work and how you can do the same.
If you get stuck, read what you just wrote and think what comes next? The same goes with dialogue, if you get stuck, read the last line and just listen… What is the response? Often getting your reader hat on and just anticipating what should come next will give you the answer. This was one of my favorite, and most used, tips from Neil’s class.
Find a few books by different authors that you feel are similar-ish to what you’re writing and read or listen to them. During NaNoWriMo I was writing a Fantasy story and listened to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and The Graveyard Book on Audible. It gave me inspiration for how to talk about magic and for writing through the eyes of young people. It also gave me practical examples to reference as I was learning and struggling to write my own story, like how to show the passage of time, when to end a chapter, and how to incorporate surprise. I honestly think this would be useful even if the stories you’re reading aren’t in the same vein as the one you’re writing, but for me that was a nice addition.
Take breaks! If you feel like what you’re writing doesn’t sound right or you can feel your writing getting lazy because you’re tired… Just stop. Take a break. Let yourself do something else and come back to it. Note: Just because it feels hard, doesn’t mean it’s lazy or not right. It will be hard. A lot. But if it feels wrong for your story, it’s time for a break. You’ll know the difference.
Find a friend! Easier said than done, i know, but it’s so much more fun if you know someone else who is writing something at the same time as you, or has written something recently. Even if you don’t share your work, it’s nice to have someone to text when you’ve had a great (or really hard) day of writing.
Find a routine. I wrote about this in a previous blog post- linked here. Many writers have specific routines or tricks they use to get in the zone to write. If that makes it easier for you to get in a flow, use it!