By Rachel Aaron
I love this advice, especially since my writing schedule tends to fluctuate like crazy. Definitely going to implement these tips in the future!
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“Your life story would not make a good book. Don’t even try.”
— Fran Lebowitz (1950 - ) -
TIP: characters thinking
I hate these feelings, she thought to herself.
Cut “to herself”. Unless, *snickering* the character is suffering from multiple personality disorder, and thus we actually need to differentiate among the many selves in the mind. -
-Unknown Photographer (I wish I knew, but I can’t seem to find it.) Holi celebration.
Whenever I feel sad, I search for photos of Holi, the Indian festival of colors, to welcome the spring. I wish all things looked like this. There can be no more beautiful festival.
- Sucheta Das, 2010
And now for an opposite, though a reasonable visual link. Looked at together - the gleeful explosion of colored powder above, the painted faces - and the reverse-saturated images below of the Congo, in which the landscape is saturated and the people are not - this is kind of wonderful. Both ends of the spectrum of experience, literally. Religious ecstasy, and warfare. Rapture and violence.
- Richard Mosse, Congo, 2011 (Infrared film.)
Mosse’s work is quite different from the first Holi photo above (which I stole from some smart commenter on his Facebook page) - he uses infrared film to photograph war zones - foliage reflects the color. The film was originally used as surveillance tool - humans don’t turn pink. The leaves they might be concealed in, do. I fucking love his photos.
- Richard Mosse, Come Out (1966) II, 2011
- Richard Mosse, General Février, 2010
Violence and beauty crushed together into the same frame. No surprise that I like these. Complicated world. And if I’m a good writer, I remember that. God is not only in the details but in the way a good piece of writing can make something within it stand out against a landscape where in life we might have missed it. Writing is like using infrared film, or throwing colored powder on a character. Look at this!
See also, Pale Blue For I Am Lonely; The Child is Born Speaking the Language of Birds
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Never has anyone dished out better advice *sigh*
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Hey! First, congrats on your scholastic writing award, and I love your works! I was wondering if you could give me any writing advice- I've been working on a novel for a while now but seem to get stuck frequently, where it takes me a while just to write a few pages before I get stuck again. I'm so determined to finish it, but am not sure quite how to get through. Thanks!(:
well. hmm. writing advice.
For me, it always helps making an outline. It doesn’t have to be very complicated, just a few bullet points per chapter (or whatever you’re using in lieu of chapters.) It helps you get an end goal in mind and figure out how your characters are going to end up.
Once you have an outline, it becomes very easy to get unstuck—just skip the section you’re working on and go write a scene that really interests you. I rarely write the beginning of the book first. Often I’ll skip to write a high-tension moment first (a fight, a love scene, a major turning point in the plot, whatever) or even just write out the dialogue in script format. Just to get a sense of how the characters will act in that situation. Once you know how your characters behave under pressure, they become a lot easier to work with when they’re calm.
Another piece of advice, and this’ll sound stupid, but make a playlist for the book. Try to find some songs that you already love that fit some of the major moods of the story, or certain situations. I always write better with background noise (but that’s just me), and also, making a playlist is just plain fun. It gives you inspiration when you need it most.
Hope this advice helped. I’m going to make this public, simply because it’s a good question. If anyone else wants writing advice, hit me up!
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The awesome Neil Gaiman addresses to the University of Arts Class.
If you’re an artist, stop now and watch it. I hadn’t the first time someone sent it to me and I regret not listening to this sooner. It’s awesome!
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“And yet to what end shall we ever bring our discussions, or what bounds can be set to our discourse, if we proceed on the principle that we must always reply to those who reply to us?”
— Augustine, City of God (40) -
There are some really interesting quotes in this article.
