I would like answers that went beyond "show, don't tell", even though I know it's a valid response. I'd like to know a bit about how it changed you too.
As an example, I don't think I'll ever write again without having in mind the Scene-Sequel structure from Techniques of the Selling Writer. It completely changed the way I think about ideas, how I play with them and how I expand on them.
So, how about you?
P.S.:If you see a silly mistake, don't worry, I'm not an idiot, just learned English by myself.
[This message has been edited by Nicole (edited June 27, 2009).]
I should find that book.
Kathleen, do you recall a specific advice or technique you used in your story that came from that book?
But I think learning of it, and learning all the different levels and classifications people have for it has definitely been useful.
Most of the changes to my writing are of a technical nature and have happened a little bit at a time with small details here and there over a period of years. Most have come from people who have read my work pointing things out.
I think bigger changes have taken place as far as my storytelling moreso than in my writing, based on growing and changing as a person.
He felt that stories based on day dreams tend to be fluffy and shallow, but stories based on night dreams (which come from the subconscious, and, supposedly, Jung's "collective unconscious") have a lot more depth and power.
He also talked a lot about the importance of unity in short stories, meaning one-ness: one main character, one setting, one time period, one struggle, and so on. A short story should be about the single most crucial event in a character's life, the biggest turning point, the realization that makes all the difference.
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Our job as writers is not to make the reader understand; it's to make make it so the reader can't possibly misunderstand.
Algis Budrys (again paraphrased, because all of my books but three are packed up):
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A story must have two try/fail cycles, then the protagonist must learn something he didn't know and then he may try and succeed.
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Anything you want the reader to believe, say it three times; no more or less.
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Books are basically a bunch of short stories called chapters.
...of course, he was a fountain of good advice. (RIP)
David Farland:
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The setting must intrude on every scene.
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Trees can march, hills can climb. Use active words in your beginning.
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There are words that resonate with every genre, use them to help identify with the reader. Certain cliches are okay, too, if they help identify the genre.
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Setting a scene with "skeletal trees" that "reach for the sky like a corpse diggin out of a grave" is an example of using the opening to foreshadow danger or evil.
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Replace as many adverbs as you can with stronger verbs, but not to the point of killing the voice.
Lawrence Block:
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The best advice I can give someone who would like to write for a living is: Don't. If they persist, I telle them to get so drunk you pass out on the couch, and when you wake up with a hangover, ask yourself if you're sure you want to do this.
Kevin J. Anderson:
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Don't wait until you can find time to write; make time to write. Bring a laptop with you, or a steno pad, and use every free moment--when you're waiting for a doctor's appointment; a bus; during lunch break.
[This message has been edited by InarticulateBabbler (edited June 27, 2009).]
That was when I realized that I was forcing my characters to do things they wouldn't do to advance my plot.
I have to say probably the biggest change in my writing came when I read Jerry Cleaver's book, Immediate Fiction. What influenced me the most was his model for dramatic stories, and the process of applying the model both in the drafting and revision stages. Some might find the model simple-minded, but for me at the time it was just what I needed.
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I guess one biggy for me would be the point of view thing.
Yes, point of view was another big change for me as well. I was a head-hopper before, not much but enough to disorient even myself.I learned that here at Hatrack. 
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He also talked a lot about the importance of unity in short stories, meaning one-ness: one main character, one setting, one time period, one struggle, and so on.
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What influenced me the most was his model for dramatic stories, and the process of applying the model both in the drafting and revision stages.
These kinds of changes are the biggest for me, because they change the structure of the story you have in your head, so it gets reworked with that perspective in mind.
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That was when I realized that I was forcing my characters to do things they wouldn't do to advance my plot.
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A story must have two try/fail cycles, then the protagonist must learn something he didn't know and then he may try and succeed.
I read the same thing in the book I mentioned. Try is Scene and Fail is a sequel, they go round and round. However, I'm testing that and not all books I considered gripping have the same structure.
The strange thing is, to me, that even though I know all those things we mentioned will help my writing and I want it to, I can't make it appear in my writing.
[This message has been edited by Nicole (edited June 28, 2009).]
[This message has been edited by Nicole (edited June 28, 2009).]
It had an impact on me. I realized I didn't particularly want to write about jerks and boobs and all that. I dropped a couple of stories I'd been working on, and have suppressed some others in the idea stage, looking for that elusive likeablilty in character. (Of course, I think I've only completed two stories since then...)
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Kill your little darlings
Paraphrased as: "Yes, you can build a house with just a hammer, but you first need to know how to cut down a tree with an axe, before you [u]try[/u] it with a hammer."
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Yes, you can build a house with just a hammer, but you first need to know how to cut down a tree with an axe, before you [u]try[/u] it with a hammer
You can cut down a tree with a hammer? Well, I never...
[This message has been edited by skadder (edited June 28, 2009).]
[This message has been edited by skadder (edited June 28, 2009).]
[This message has been edited by A.Windt (edited June 28, 2009).]
I'll paraphrase, because I don't have the exact quote handy. It was from Phillip Pulman, author of the Golden Compass trilogy (excellent series.)
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People often ask me where I get my ideas from. I tell them I have no idea where the ideas come *from*, but I know where they come *to*, and that's my desk. If I'm not there, they go away.
It reinforced to me the importance of that writing habit. I'm not particularly good at this yet, but it's a really powerful line that I have retold time and time again.
And KayTi-I remember that one. It's a good one.
A.Windt: I guess a mentor should be nice, if only because writing is such a solitary craft.
KayTi: That is a very interesting quote. I love Pulman's Golden Compass.
Maybe I need better plumbing because he sits at his desk and gets *those* ideas while I sit at my desk and get...something else, a tingling butt after a few hours maybe.
Before I came here I used to not be able to go more than a few paragraphs without hopping a head. It had completely taken over my writing. One day, during a Fragments and Feedback critique someone did an intervention with me. Until then, I didn't even realize I had a problem. The first step was to realize there's a higher power - the editor. The other steps followed. I am now 200 days clean.
I still struggle with limited perspectives, and I'm also working on my problems with purple prose, but I have to take one addiction at a time.
This place does change you, doesn't it?
Actually the first slap on the side of the head for me was a flash challenge at Liberty Hall and seeing my neophyte writing next to some good stuff. I realized I had a huge amount to learn about recognizing what was bad about my writing. That had more initial affect than subsequent books I've read about writing.
That's when I had to make a decision to really work at writing better or not write at all. I'm still learning, but it's improved from where it was thanks to rubbing shoulders with my betters.
[This message has been edited by Owasm (edited June 29, 2009).]
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Before I came here I used to not be able to go more than a few paragraphs without hopping a head. It had completely taken over my writing. One day, during a Fragments and Feedback critique someone did an intervention with me. Until then, I didn't even realize I had a problem. The first step was to realize there's a higher power - the editor. The other steps followed. I am now 200 days clean.I still struggle with limited perspectives, and I'm also working on my problems with purple prose, but I have to take one addiction at a time.
Just don't get rid of them entirely. omni POV and "purple" prose have their place...its another thing that depends on story type. Those things are tools too.
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The strange thing is, to me, that even though I know all those things we mentioned will help my writing and I want it to, I can't make it appear in my writing.
There are a couple of things you can try to help with this.
First, you can study the things you want to have appear in your writing, by reading how-to-write stuff that talks about them and then by looking for them in the fiction you read (even going so far as to underline them when you find them in fiction, if you like). If you do this diligently enough, some of it will sink into your subconscious, and you will make some of those things appear in your writing without really thinking about it.
Second, you can make a list for yourself of the things you want to make appear in your writing. Then, after you've written out your first draft of a story (please, note that I said "after" because you don't do this until the story is already completely written out), go though the story and make notes to yourself about where you can put those things into the story.
Then, go through the story and rewrite it so that the things go in. The more you do this, and the first approach above, the more likely it will be that some of these things will enter your stories automatically.
It's a matter of teaching your subconscious what you want from it, as well as training your Editor-on-Your-Shoulder to help you watch for opportunities to include things in your story that you want there.
I hope this made sense.
I read about "Kill your darlings" in the Holly Lisle (?) website. I've been a serial killer since then.
Owasm: Hehe. "The betters" is a nice term. Though I flashedback to The Others and Hatrack suddenly seemed creepy.
[This message has been edited by Nicole (edited June 30, 2009).]
And meanwhile, King uses the expression "murder your darlings" which I think has just such a nice little sadistic resonance to it. That's what I think of when I'm going through with the red pen on my WIP. Die, adverb, die! And yes, then I picture that part from the 2nd Harry Potter movie when he stabs the diary with the basilisk fang and the diary spurts ink as it dies. Lovely imagery.
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Will Shetterly told me that if I wanted to write short stories, I should read WRITING IN GENERAL AND THE SHORT STORY IN PARTICULAR by Rust Hills, which I did. The next story I wrote appeared in WotF volume 9.
I biught this book on Kathleen's recommendation and have found it pretty good. It is angled towards a literary style (and anti plot driven stories), but I could do with a little more depth to my stories and characters and so will try and blend the two a little more harmoniously. Certainly it is full of great advice.
Adam
Read, read, read; write, write, write; faster, faster, faster!
[This message has been edited by annepin (edited July 06, 2009).]
1) Reading other peoples' stories.
No, really. I was used to being a passive reader, and this applied to my own stories when I was trying to edit them. As I learned what I did and didn't like in stories, I also started reading fiction a different way, and learned what qualities I wanted in my own writing. Of course, getting those qualities into my story was a whole other trial.
(And yes, learning to accept constructive criticism was utterly crucial, but for me, not as important as the above.)
2)Establishing writing hours
I have a period of time set aside each night when I write (right now, though I do allow myself breaks if I'm stuck. Some nights are better than others). I managed to get into this habit by being obsessed with my newest novel. And by the time I got it done, after many months, I'd managed to form the habit. It's really amazingly true for me the quote that KayTi posted. I can't seek out inspiration; I just have to sit and write every night and practice receiving it.
And none of this would be possible if I hadn't found Hatrack. ::hugs the forum::
I hope it's OK if I mention something that, while not a piece of writing wisdom, has still changed my writing--the software I use to write. When I first began writing a daily word quota, I patched a word processor so that it would update the word count in real time by recounting all the words each time I entered a character.
The algorithm was so wasteful that by the time I got to 1000 words the program would start to hang while I typed. The result was that my chapters stayed short and focused.
Later I went back and made the update more efficient. My chapters ballooned back to a more normal size. I haven't verified this outside of my own opinion, but I think that the slow algorithm actually gave my story a faster pace.
Also I joined a Hatrack group a few years ago, back when they still existed. It fell apart after about a year but it helped a lot to be reading another writer's work every week and learning to critique with a critical eye.
Until I had that epiphany, I hadn't thought much about themes in my writing. If I was including them at all, it wasn't on purpose. Now I'm making more of an effort to understand what my stories are about before I start writing. If I have a theme in mind from the first sentence, the story as a whole (I hope) ends up with a better sense of one-ness (as Kathleen put it).
One thing that make a marked difference in my writing was advice to show characters' nonverbal communication: expressions, gestures, stance, etc. I had to make a conscious effort at first to add it in (and it still occasionally takes me a while to figure out how to best communicate what I intend), but I think it makes a noticeable difference. It makes up most of how we communicate in real life, but for some reason, I didn't always expect it to be as important in narrative.
Another thing I've heard recently and am still exploring is the power of contradictions in a character. Two conflicting emotions for example, or actions/dialogue that directly contradict emotional state.