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More Tips For Aspiring Writers

It's been awhile since my first Writing Tips went out, and I think it's time for another edition, adding in things I've learned since then. Hope this'll help some people out!

Get to know your weird English writing rules. Its is not the same as it's! Here's a quick rundown that will hopefully clear up any confusion.

Its - Possessive pronoun. Possessive pronouns are the only words in the English language that are possessive without an apostrophe. Its, their, his, her, ours, my, your etc. (Thanks to [Xi-entaj](%5C) for adding to this.)

It's - Contraction. Replacement for It is, and sometimes It has.

Sample sentence: "It's standing on its own feet now."

Your - Possessive. Belonging to you.

You're - Contraction. Replacement for You are.

Sample sentence: "Are you sure that you're okay with me taking your bike?"

There - Adverb OR pronoun, depending on usage. Generally indicative of a place, one who's name has either already been mentioned, or is esoterically known to the one being spoken to.

Their - Possessive. Belonging to them.

They're - Contraction. Replacement for They are.

Sample sentence: "I heard that they're going over there in their car."

To - Almost always a preposition, indicative of direction, but in some cases can be used as an adverb (By the time he came to from unconsciousness...).

Too - Inclusive adverb. Adding something in. It can also be comparing something. (That's too much!)

Two - A number. One plus one equals...

Sample sentence: "I'm going to the store to pick up two movies. Do you want to come too?"

Ain't - This just ain't a word. What is it a contraction of? Although it's okay to use it in a characters quoted speech.

One final, related note. Keep an eye out fore correctly spelled words used incorrectly! I hid one in that sentence, and I'm sure it sticks out like a sore thumb. Spell checkers won't catch these, unless you have something advanced like Word, and sometimes, not even then. If there is one downside to Open Office, it is that it does not include a dictionary. But there are plenty of them online, so if you are unsure if a word is correct, look it up.

I talked a bit about perspective last time, but I think maybe a more in depth analysis could be helpful. Some quick definitions:

First person - Told from inside the character's head. Uses pronouns such as 'I' and 'My'.

Sample sentence: "Do you guys have any clue what he was talking about?" I said.

Third person - Told from the perspective of a character who sees everything that is going on, but isn't usually involved in the story in any way. A good way to describe it is someone that is sitting on the shoulder of one of the characters. Third person perspective comes in degrees, as to how much knowledge they have, but generally they only know the thoughts of the current viewpoint character, and the observable actions and words of others. In other words, very similar to first person, just with different pronouns.

Sample sentence: He opened the door cautiously, wincing at the ominously loud creak. His jaw dropped at the scene before him. 'What the heck happened here?'

Third person omniscient/narrator - The best way to describe this is a 'god' character. Someone who can see the thoughts and actions of everyone involved in a scene at once. They aren't just stuck in the viewpoint of one character. In some cases, the narrator even has a bit of a developed character of their own, and will break the fourth wall (something I'll talk about later) with his own interjections. Such as in the Series of Unfortunate Events books, where the author inserts sections from his own view. This view can be a difficult one to write, and can be horribly confusing if done incorrectly.

Sample sentence: John just shook his head vehemently, thinking to himself, 'She couldn't be more wrong.'

Sally's jaw dropped at his denial. _ 'How can he say he didn't? I'm going to give him a piece of my mind!'_

Second person - Speaking of breaking the fourth wall, this ENTIRE viewpoint breaks the fourth wall! The protagonist of the story is YOU! The reader. The pronouns reflect this. This is a rather weird viewpoint, and not one you will see or use often.

Now, on the subject of switching viewpoints... It is perfectly okay to do this in the middle of a story, so long as there is proper separation between them, such as a double paragraph space and bolded first word, which is my preferred method, or a line across the page width, or a symbol etc. The only time you don't need separation is when you are writing the omniscient view. The one thing I would caution you against, is switching the PERSPECTIVE of the viewpoints. Swapping from first person when it's your main character, to third person when it's a side character, or flopping between a character and a narrator, is not generally a good idea. It CAN be done, but has to be done VERY well for it to work.

Now, a bit about things like breaking the fourth wall, pulling your reader into the story, giving it flavour, etc.

One thing that is quite important for ANY story, is to build a connection between the characters and the reader. How do you do this? You describe what the character is thinking and feeling, give an idea of whatever they're going through, what it's like. You want to include direct thoughts, as well as abstract thoughts, to show what's going on inside your character's head. What the heck is the difference you ask? A whole lot! A direct thought is something the character thinks specifically, basically talking in their head. And abstract thought is more like unfocused musing.

Sample: 'At this rate, we'll never get out of here,' Frank thought. He didn't see any possible way to reach the tiny window, and the door was out of the question. He idly wondered if Joe was enjoying himself, snickering about how easily he had tricked Frank and Meg into this.

See the difference? All of that is going on inside Frank's head, but only the first sentence is a direct thought.

More on direct thoughts. As with speaking segments, you don't ALWAYS need the bookism, when it's obvious who is thinking. But, you DO need to indicate the direct thought, and the usual convention is to place the thought in italics. I also add the single quote marks.

Quick note on bookisms: even when they aren't necessary to indicate the speaker, you may want to use them anyway, to indicate how something was said. On the issue of punctuating these things... When the quote ends in a direct modifier to the quote, such as 'he said', you end the quote in a comma (or question mark or exclamation point, if such is the case). You don't capitalize the following word unless it is a proper noun. When the text following the quote is NOT a direct modifier, you end in a period, and capitalize the next word.

Sample sentence: "How's it going? I heard you had a cold," he said.

"No, I really don't think this is a good idea." Frank ran his fingers through his hair nervously, trying to put it in some semblance of order.

Breaking the fourth wall. This is something that you need to be careful about. Breaking the fourth wall is when you address the reader directly, shattering the illusion, indicating that, "Oh yeah, this is just a story". You see this in movies like Ferris Bueller's Day Off, where he talks to the camera. However, breaking the fourth wall isn't always that in your face. Whenever you are having a character explain something via abstract thoughts, you are flirting with breaking the fourth wall. You need to be careful that they aren't "talking" to the reader, so much as they are just reviewing knowledge that they have.

Avoid info dumping! Try to break up explanations, spread things out. Maybe something doesn't HAVE to be told RIGHT NOW. It can be referenced again later. The longer you have to have a character think about something specific that needs to be explained to the reader, the closer you come to booting your reader out of a story. Sometimes a good (albeit cliché) technique, is to use an "idiot" character, who the main character can speak to to explain something. The person doesn't have to literally be stupid, and I would in fact caution against that, unless it fits. They just don't have the same knowledge as the person doing the explaining.

Now for some ways to spice up your story a little more. As I've already mentioned, direct thoughts are a BIG help. You also want to indicate what the characters are feeling. The more descriptive you are of their thoughts and emotions, the stronger the connection becomes.

Another way that you can add some zing, is to use figurative speech. Metaphors, similes, personification, etc. This is ESPECIALLY nice when writing yiff, as it just makes a great change from the usual descriptions.

Sample sentence: He powered through another thrust, slamming their hips together, his sizzling cock shoving her walls apart. An avalanche of pleasure crashed through him, like every nerve in his body was on fire.

It can also be very well used when narrating a scene. I'll use an example sequence from one of my own stories to show this.

_Dust swirled in the streets of Hearthome city, the colourful banners on the contest hall flapping and rippling in the wake of a swift moving wind. A young man drew his coat around him more tightly, the Ninetales at his side blinking her eyes closed against the flying grit. The wind rushed onwards, as if fleeing from some predator only it could see and hear. _

_It moaned its way up through the twisting, treacherous passes of Mount Coronet, sounding like the tortured soul of some long forgotten beast. Higher and higher over the peaks it blew, the temperature dropping, small groups of Snover sounding their mournful warning cries at its passage. _

_The gently falling snow was whipped into a fury at the wind's behest, the powdery flakes forming writhing, wraith-like figures in the air. The wind howled against the heavens, climbing to the highest pinnacle, its frigid claws stretching up to tear down the sky. _

By personifying the wind as a howling, lonely beast, I lend a rather bleak, sweeping look to this scene, setting up the following sequence.

So, yes. Be descriptive kids! Show, don't tell. If all you are doing is stating that something has happened, things sound rather flat. I'll write that same scene again, removing the majority of the figurative speech.

_A strong wind sent dust swirling in the streets of Hearthome city. It made the banners on the contest hall flap and ripple. A young man walking down the street drew his coat around him, the Ninetales beside him blinking her eyes closed against the grit. _

_The wind blew its way up through the passes of Mount Coronet. As it got higher, the temperature dropped, small groups of Snover sounding their cries as it passed. _

The falling snow swirled in the wind, the flakes forming writhing figures in the air.

See? Not nearly as interesting.

Some other things you can do are flashbacks. Rather than just having a character tell someone about an event, or think about it esoterically, you can actually SHOW your reader what happened. Just make sure you have a separation between the flashback and the rest of the story. General convention when you are showing something that has happened before, is to place the whole text in italics. The exception would be when you have a more definite separation, such as a: Five years ago... or something. The only text you DO NOT italicize in these segments is text that would normally be italicized. Such as thoughts, or emphasized words.

Some final thoughts:

Do NOT use text speech in your writing. EVER! The ONLY time it's acceptable is when you are showing the contents of a text message in a story. Also, be wary of acronyms. Only use them in their appropriate context.

Take your time! Don't let the rush to post your work detract from the work. Re-read it. Look for mistakes. If you can, have someone ELSE read it. It's easy to miss your own errors, because you know what is coming and skim over things.

English may not be your primary language. There's nothing wrong with wanting to post a story in English, as it is the most common language on the site, but you may want to add a disclaimer at the beginning. English SUCKS, it's one of the hardest languages to learn. People who GROW UP speaking it have trouble with it. As far as I'm concerned, if English is your second language, and you're posting stories in it, you rock! Just be aware that there's probably going to be some errors, and don't get upset if people point them out. In time, those errors will disappear.

That leads into another point. Don't rage against your critics! It accomplishes nothing except making you look like a huge douche who just rolled up in his douche-mobile and exposed his doucheness. If someone is presenting a valid criticism of your story, just take it with a grain of salt. It's rarely a personal vendetta, in most cases, they are just trying to help you out.

Have fun!