Bite Sized Writing Tips #2
One night, well past midnight, I was lying awake in bed thinking about writing. As I plan advice articles, I sometimes feel the need to just share random tidbits of information. Is it just a way to keep myself entertained? Maybe. Is it a good way to share some advice? I like to think so!
Here are three writing tips to help you evaluate and evolve your craft.
Aesthetically Pleasing Writing
Very often I see writing guides created online recommending a step dedicated to picking your book’s aesthetics. This is a leap into the detailed act of world building. Creatives may browse online for ideas, create mood boards from Pinterest, and plan what details will appear in their story. This is fun to do but I always want to pop in and say pretty and aesthetically pleasing writing is only one fraction of the work. The most important part of a story is the development of your plot and characters.
A gorgeous ascetic but a thread bare story is not what you want to create. A great example of this (and I know I'm going to get a lot of hate for this!) is the beautiful book, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. The world, style, and details are mesmerizing but, in my opinion, the entire story and even the character development fell short due to the focus on the ascetic over the story.
Multiple Tenses or Points of View
Stories can be written in past, present, and future tenses in either the first-, second-, or third-person point of view. Never pick any of these randomly as you start writing without evaluating what style might fit your story the best. I understand you might have a favorite that you go with every time, but each different tense and point of view has its strengths and drawbacks depending on what kind of story you are writing. What you choose is all about your intention and the kind of experience you want to deliver to your reader.
But did you know you can switch it up in the middle of your book?! While still being careful with your intention and purpose you can choose more than one and change it sometimes. (But be consistent throughout the entire book. Do not have a random chapter that is different, do not start switching around randomly halfway through a book that had been written in one way.) Students or new writers often view this as a taboo but when done right, this can be a powerful tool. I read Han Kang’s Human Acts where each chapter had a major shift. Depending on the character and situation in a chapter, the perspective shifted between first- and third-person point of view. But in the chapters about victims who have been lost in the Gwangju Uprising (the book’s setting) their stories and the characters were in an ambiguous second person point of view. This created a blur emphasizing the many different individuals and voices that shared and experienced the same horrifying story, all while trying to make their voices heard. I think if it had been written in any other way, the same effect would not have been felt.
Embrace The Mess
I love to bring this up as much as I can. Do you know that the first draft is supposed to be messy? Before you say it, “duh of course!” it's so easy to think you must do well or be perfect on your first try. First drafts are literally one of many. First drafts are an opportunity to freely get your ideas down on the page no matter how horrible, disastrous, strange, or whimsical. As you know or can imagine, the first draft is only the beginning! There will be many edits and other drafts as you keep working and each round is an opportunity to improve your work.
Conclusion
The above tips are some of my favorites and are also something I have been thinking about a lot. I hope you find these useful and of course what I am mentioning above is only the tip the iceberg when it comes to these individual ideas. But, I figured I could get you all started by kind of hinting at what you could think about with each topic. All in all, best of luck and happy writing this week!