Posted December 16th, 2009 by Blog Editor
By: Carmen Ana
Many people confuse being [a] great [writer] with the fact that you have to be published. No. Being great involves that your readers live through your work, that it becomes real and convincing to them, even when it is fiction.
Writing a great story involves many things.
1. Your work must be convincing and real to you first.
This means that you must live your characters in order for you to give them life in your tale. Let me get clearer in my meaning: You MUST become your character, feel and act like them. When you are in tune with that character, then you will write with their passion, personality and feelings. You’ll be writing from your heart with your character in mind and your readers will sense it also.
2. Write a background for your characters.
Yes, I know, there are times I don’t need one to make my story flow. But! There are times when secondary characters can become very important to the story, but when we don’t make a background for them, we end up going back to rewrite and fix our glitches we could have avoided. Background also helps us get to know our characters better, making them more real to us.
3. Analyze your plot and storyline.
Have someone read your work. If you or they can see how your story is going to end before the fifth chapter, be humble to accept you have a weak plot. Give twists to your story, stump your readers and make them work hard in guessing your ending. If you don’t do this, I guarantee you will have unsatisfied readers.
4. Check for inconsistencies.
This is one that we need to be very careful [about] when overlooking our work. I have seen characters change their personalities with no reason. For example, if you have a strong-headed independent woman in the first few chapters, then have her become weak and dependant without something happening in the tale to trigger that change, you are being inconsistent. If you’re writing a tale about someone who’s never seen the outside world and you’re using similes with modern things the character has never seen or heard of before, you’re being inconsistent. If you have your character speaking with an accent, then later on he’s not, uh-uh you’re being inconsistent. If you have a character in a party getting it on and then he/she appears somewhere else without an explanation, then you have another boo-boo to fix.
5. SHOW, don’t TELL.
It’s not a sin to tell a little in a story, and it even happens to the best of us. And if we never told at all, that would great! But too much telling kills the story. For example, instead of telling your readers your character is mad about something, portray it by the use of descriptive actions and dialogue. Your readers have a brain, and believe me, they like to use it. So, show your readers how your character thinks and feels about something by using the above method, without telling them every little detail. It can be annoying to find too much telling in a book.
6. In fiction and fantasy anything goes, as long as there’s a logical
explanation to it.
When inventing the use of technology and sci-fi gadgets, don’t become the scientist who wants to explain the slightest detail of their invention nor who invents things that make your readers roll their eyes and say, ‘Yeah right, whatever.” Nowadays almost everyone knows how time travel, teleportation, laser guns, space ship, identification scanners, etc. works. All you want to do is show your readers what your new device looks like and what it does, without going overboard with your explanations. This also goes with new mythological creatures — please do not overdo it.
7. Writing skills.
You can have strong characters, one heck of a plot and story idea, but if your writing skills are poor or terrible, then you’re getting the boot. I personally have improved tremendously, but I still have my misusage of words and awkward sentence structures to deal with. But I know that without going through them tediously and fixing it, my writing would get nowhere toward getting published. So if you’re one who needs help, take writing classes, be determined to work hard and learn how to get better and better. Be humble to accept constructive criticism to heart and apply it.
My fellow writers, it is good to see you all working hard to share your work and improve. I want to thank BookRix for having me here and for giving us this wonderful site that presents our work professionally and beautifully. May we all continue to grow as writers and human beings.
Always remember, the future of your writing depends solely on you. So don’t give up!
