Writing Advice

Courtesy of Katsu no Miko (www.katsudon.net)

Katsu's got some advice for everyone!

Self Critique

Don't have a beta reader? Want to make your story better, but not send it in for a critique? Become your own editor in five easy steps.

Don't be afraid to rewrite. This is the cardinal rule; I know that every story is your baby, and every word is precious, and every scene is something you wanted...but you also have to realize that it's not perfect. To carry the metaphor further, stories are like kids--you might think that yours is perfect when you look at it, but everyone else in the world sees it as a misbehaving brat. Don't be afraid to look for things to fix. Don't be scared to restructure your sentences. No story is perfect in the first draft, or in any successive draft--but it gets better each time you rewrite.

Kill your darlings. It's nearly a law that a story should lose 20-30% of its original size when it goes from first draft to final draft. First drafts contain a lot of unnecessary words, strings of adjectives and adverbs, or bits of purple prose that you are extremely proud of. Going through your drafts means tightening up your story, and making it more readable. I don't care how twitterpated you are with one of your flowery metaphors--if it doesn't fit, kill it. You adore the scene where two of your characters go for a midnight stroll and find a ring, right? But it doesn't really fit in with the story--it has to go. Your readers will thank you.

Spell check, then spell check your spell check. To start with, do the world a favor and spell check your stories. Nothing drives readers into distraction more than strings of obviously misspelled or type-oed words. Once you've spell checked, that's great--now go over your story and check it yourself, without the aid of a program. There are some words you may have misspelled into other words, which no computerized spell checker can catch. Also, sometimes computer spell checks will see a strange misspelling, and just pick the word that it thinks is right--which almost never is right. There's nothing more disconcerting than reading along in a story and finding a phrase like this. "The boy smiled, an expression full of mystery. 'If you want to find out,' he said, 'you'll have to talk to him yourself. Please come this wad.'" I rest my case.

Read your dialogue out loud. This is the best indication you'll ever have of if it sounds right, makes sense, and flows properly. If it feels weird to say it, chances are that it'll feel very weird to read it.

Let it percolate. If you have time, let it sit for a few weeks, then read it over. Without what you think your wrote in fresh in your mind, you'll have a much better chance of catching strange misspellings, nonsensical sentences, and other problems. If you've just written the story, it's very difficult to edit it yourself because you know exactly what it should say; so you read what you think you wrote, rather than what you actually wrote.