Best Writing Advice You Heard

[cows]

This thread might be useful to new users or struggling writers. Hopefully it can be useful to some. I want to hear the best advice you have all heard about writing.

The best advice I have had came from an English professor in college. He said that writing is something that you shouldn't do regularly if you can help it because good writers can't. He also said the the biggest thing that kills a writer's prose is over complicating the flow. Simplicity is for the text and if you get complicated, let it be with the topics and characters.

I didn't like the teacher at the time, but those words stuck with me.

[B-Mental]

here is a link to a post I started a while back with some advice from Kurt Vonnegut. "http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23807"

[Monica]

I've been told that the most important stuff is to tell a story. And that the reader comes first... which apparently isn't always that obvious. Also there're 10 rules by Elmore Leonard http://www.mysteryinkonline.com/2004/11/10_rules_for_wr.html

[Scheherazade]

Never use an eraser.

[Turk]

Never try to copy another writer, you are not him it will seem quite affectation, write whatever you want to tell us. Try to see the world and try to understand it. Those are few...

[linz]

Never try to copy another writer, you are not him it will seem quite affectation, write whatever you want to tell us. Try to see the world and try to understand it. Those are few...

Everyone trying to be special leads to a bunch of pompous babbling nonesense. You must not believe in objectiveness at all!

[cranberry]

Always write what comes to you immediatley write it down so that what ever you want to tell seems clear.

[chasestalling]

This thread might be useful to new users or struggling writers. Hopefully it can be useful to some. I want to hear the best advice you have all heard about writing.

The best advice I have had came from an English professor in college. He said that writing is something that you shouldn't do regularly if you can help it because good writers can't. He also said the the biggest thing that kills a writer's prose is over complicating the flow. Simplicity is for the text and if you get complicated, let it be with the topics and characters.

I didn't like the teacher at the time, but those words stuck with me.

that's very interesting because writing is always a drag for me but for a three month window during winter when i feel that i can do no wrong.

as for the best advice -- an injunction to rewrite by a teacher's assistant. and he's right as the stuff i turn out during those three magical months is invariably flawed.

[Charles Darnay]

Don't force it....don't write becasue you think you have to, write becasue you think you want to.

[applepie]

The advice that was given to me was by my high school english teacher. She would always tell me "Never write in half measures. Throw yourself into it with all of your heart. Sometimes it will be garbage, sometimes it will be great, but always it will be yours." It was some of the best advice I've ever recieved. She was right and to this day I always submerse myself in my writing. I don't try to imitate others I just write what pleases me, and who knows somtime in the future it may be a pleasure to someone else.

[Visionary3]

I once took a poetry writing class by a published Texas poetry writer. So many of us were sensitive about getting rejections and she told us that the factors might not have anything to do with how good a poem was. In some contests the person paying for the prize can be the judge so it could be chosen because of their personal taste. With regard to magazines the poet has no way of knowing what all else they have published, what is in their files to be published, or what the editor's taste is. With regard to books, not a lot of new poetry books are being published so self publishing is an option. She didn't think we should give up because of rejections.

[Bakiryu]

Always carry a notepad and write when the muse gets you, don't force it.

[PrinceMyshkin]

I like the alteration made by Grace Paley to the familiar "Write about what you know" which she amended to read "Write what you don't know about what you know."

[dzebra]

Stephen King said something like "To be a good author, read 4 hours a day and write 4 hours a day." I don't know anyone who actually does that, but after I read that, I started devoting more time to reading and writing and I felt like I got better.

[Mortis Anarchy]

I took a creative writing summer course at this arts place...well my instructor was rather blunt. He told us, exact words...."DON'T SUCK STUPID!" I think he was referrin to this one person in particular...it has stayed with me since then though.:D :lol:

[Pensive]

The best writing advice I have heard was I think from my mind. :p

It: You are sad, aren't you?
I: Yes.
It: Do something.
I: Like what?
It: Write your emotions down. Write anything, you can mould your condition/emotions into a poem, a play, a short story, starting pages of a novel, anything it can be. You would feel better.

It was right. Most of the poetry I have produced was by following this advice. I wonder if it's a problem? Being able to write only in hard times! :(

[PrinceMyshkin]

Following the example of the estimable Pensive:

The best writing advice I have heard was I think from my mind.

It: Don't do it!
I: Why not?
It: There's no point to it.
I: Thank you! That's exactly what I needed to hear!

[lupilu]

Ben Elton, Write, the only way to learn to write is to write.

Michael Leggett, Paraphrasing whilst quoting someone else. if you have writers block, get very drunk, then write, anything that comes to mind, it will be complete b******s, the next day when you've sobered up, throw the rubbish you wrote in the drunken haze away and your writers block will be gone.

[lavendar1]

From Epictetus: "If you wish to be a writer, write."

From a colleague and friend: "Never lose your voice."

[tudwell]

A couple people here have said, "Don't force it." I have to disagree. I think what separates a real (i.e. published, professional) writer from people who occasionally jot down a poem or a short story are the ones who force themselves to sit down and write. If you wait around till your muse inspires you, you might spend weeks at a time without writing a single word. I find that if I just start writing, I eventually find my inspiration. It may seem like a chore at first, but once I get in the zone, I'm really happy that I've written and usually happy with what I've written.

So, contrary to what most people would probably say, force it!

[toni]

This thread would be helpful too! :)

http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20546&page=2

[hedbanger]

Save everything.

That way, when you're having one of those "OMG I SUCK" days, you can look back at your old **** and realize you used to suck even worse.

[hedbanger]

A couple people here have said, "Don't force it." I have to disagree. I think what separates a real (i.e. published, professional) writer from people who occasionally jot down a poem or a short story are the ones who force themselves to sit down and write. If you wait around till your muse inspires you, you might spend weeks at a time without writing a single word. I find that if I just start writing, I eventually find my inspiration. It may seem like a chore at first, but once I get in the zone, I'm really happy that I've written and usually happy with what I've written.

So, contrary to what most people would probably say, force it!

A-****in'-men.

[amanda_isabel]

i once had a bad case of 'writer's block' and my theater arts mentor told me that i just had to take it easy.

recently another teacher told us that we had to finish everything we strated, unless you have totally lost the feel for it.

[ThousandthIsle]

If you are in the midst of writing something and suddenly overcome by writer's block, I've found that literally demanding of yourself (vocally, non-rhetorically) "Okay, WHAT am I trying to say??!" can be quite effective. :) The self-induced adreneline can prevent you from entirely losing your flow.

[bookclover]

This thread might be useful to new users or struggling writers. Hopefully it can be useful to some. I want to hear the best advice you have all heard about writing.



Kill your darlings - by s. king. I am not a huge fan of his books but that was a very good piece of help because sometimes it's so hard to put ideas on paper that when it's time to edit you just can't let go...

[jhuka]

I had two wonderful pieces of advice from my mentor, Andre Dubus. He used to say: take the thing you love the most and cut it. And: don't let your pen leave the page without knowing what your character is thinking.

[Finn.Rhies]

I'll have to agree with Tudwell: force it. If you force it, it will come.
If you want to write like some great writer that you admire do it, at least you will be doing it consciously. Also you will have to deal with your idols sooner or later, expel them out as soon as you can and that will be done by writing them out. Once they're out you will find your own voice.
You don’t have to be simple, if you want to write in a complex and unreadable way do it, and be ready to deal with the criticism.
Remember, you don’t have to write to anybody, you don’t have to explain yourself to anybody, you don’t have to be understood, you don’t even have to be read and appreciated. Is the fact of writing that makes you a writer.
My last advice is the most important one: don't follow advices.

[Demian]

3 things come to mind:
"I write for my own amazement."
"Turn off the censor in your head."
"If you keep a journal, make sure it is illegible."

[RobinHood3000]

Personal opinion: trying to find a "right" way to write is an exercise in futility.

[Mesalithasamut]

"Omit needless words." - Strunk & White.

[Saynotodrugs]

This thread might be useful to new users or struggling writers. Hopefully it can be useful to some. I want to hear the best advice you have all heard about writing.

The best advice I have had came from an English professor in college. He said that writing is something that you shouldn't do regularly if you can help it because good writers can't. He also said the the biggest thing that kills a writer's prose is over complicating the flow. Simplicity is for the text and if you get complicated, let it be with the topics and characters.

I didn't like the teacher at the time, but those words stuck with me.

"that was really good info" :thumbs_up

[xtianfriborg13]

Never use an eraser.

Oh my God, I love this advice!! :)