[Tips] Writing tips megathread

Vyom

The Power of x480
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Seems good. Have you watched it? What's your opinion?
So you write sci fi or fantasy stories?
 
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Anorion

Anorion

Sith Lord
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^I watched till chapter 5, it is very, very good. He is giving the lecture, and suddenly he starts talking in sentences like one would write in a book. He can make up stories from the top of his head while talking, and these are actually the kind of sentences that can be printed.

And I do, at times.
 
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Anorion

Anorion

Sith Lord
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100 Ways To Improve Your Writing by Gary Provost
Contains this Gem:

This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It's like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety.

Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals--sounds that say listen to this, it is important.

Gold by Isaac Asimov

Part III of the book has a bunch of hints and tips for writers, for plotting, metaphor, symbolism, dialogue, irony and many other aspects.
This is bit, also about sentence length.

It is more difficult to make a long sentence clear than it is to make a short one clear. If, then, you are a poor writer and want to make sure that youngsters understand you, stick to short sentences. Unfortunately, a long series of short sentences, like a long stretch of writing with no “hard” words, is irritating to anyone intelligent, young or old. A youngster is particularly offended because he thinks (sometimes with justice) that the writer thinks that because the youngster is young, he is therefore stupid. The book is at once discarded. (This is called “writing down,” by the way, something I try never to do.)

The trick is to write clearly. If you write clearly enough, a long sentence will hold no terrors. If you hit the proper mix of long and short, and hard and easy, and make everything clear, then, believe me, the youngster will have no trouble. Of course, he has to be an intelligent youngster, but there are a larger percentage of those than of intelligent oldsters, for life hasn’t had a chance yet to dull the youngsters’ wits.
 

cute.bandar

Cyborg Agent
Brandon the GENIUS Sanderson . What an author man :wub:
Brilliant storyteller, and the worlds he create are wow, with entire complex intelligent magic systems.

His Mistborn series was not my favourite book, but my favourite entertainment including movies and everything. Till I started with stormlight , which is now my favourite. ahh good stuff .
btw the best way of enjoying some of his works are in audiobook form created by a company called graphic audio. These are super expensive, even if someone is earning in $$. available on 'ahem' sources though
 

Desmond

Destroy Erase Improve
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I need to watch that. But generally by approach to any fiction is to first visualize some scene or concept and then try my best to describe them in words. My main limitation is that I tend to lose track of all the threads the longer I write something. And I generally don't like to keep taking notes so that doesn't help.
 
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