Fiction A Writer's Guide- By Drew Wagar

Darren Grey

Darren Grey
No no, one is the right way and one in the wrong way and must be ignored and/or flagrantly insulted! Who cares if they're paying?! :p

I've had a few "debates" in my time about language use in lore I've written for games. If changes were made by the developer that I disagreed with then I'd sneak the same word/grammar use somewhere in a new piece ;)
 

cmatraki

C
drew said:
Don’t worry about replacing ‘said’ with lots of different words. Either don’t use it at all or just use it. Don’t expectorate, rejoin, exclaim, interject, snarl, whisper, shout, blare, chortle, hiss etc. It just looks contrived.
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My favourite is from E.E. Smith novels where on occasion the hero 'ejaculated' a sentence. Of course it is more than 80 years since the stories were written: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20869 and http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21051
 

Apatura Iris

Apatura Iris
cmatraki said:
My favourite is from E.E. Smith novels where on occasion the hero 'ejaculated' a sentence. Of course it is more than 80 years since the stories were written: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20869 and http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21051
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Capt. W.E.Johns was a great one for a profligate, clunkily homoerotic ejaculation too.

"What ho!" ejaculated Biggles triumphantly. Ginger wiped the moisture from his face.
"Golly sir, you came quickly! It was getting pretty steamy in here."
"Yes, I can see that," replied Biggles, pushing the limp German to one side. "That leaky pipe from the boiler is positively gushing! Now let's get cracking, there's no time to lose. We need to get you back in the saddle and humping Jerry by nightfall!"

etc

I exaggerate, but only a little.

Jon
 

Mullhew

Mullhew
I agree with Drew on most points. However my writing methods differ.

Personally I take a 'run' at writing. I use notepad for this. I personally find Word a massive distraction. It means well, but the creative process is just that - creation. When your in the midst of a dialogue spurt, that sounds realistic and human, the last thing you want is a computer putting corrective squiggles under every second word. Once it's out and your document exists, then you can add it to Word and edit it/grammar check/spelling check etc.

As Drew says though, Word's corrections are not always correct. Must be because it's American...;)

Drew also says backup as many times as you can. This can not be overstated enough. Too many times has a late night writing spurt been foreshortened by me accidentally shutting down my laptop while it was mucking about with my SDHC backup card. Much swearing ensued the next day I can assure you. Plus I recently lost a copy of my number two backups (the SDHC drive again). Thankfully my tertiary backup (random copy to a NAS) still existed. If it hadn't I'd currently be singing a more morose tune for sure.

I heard a story that Terry Pratchett wrote a book - at the time "the next Discworld novel" - but unfortunately it was lost due to PC issues. The lost Discworld novel. Do not lose a potential story of yours!
 
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Nvmb3rth30ry

Nvmb3rth30ry
Thanks Drew and others for posting this neat collection of advice and useful writerly links. Even though I'm familiar with much (but not all) of this advice, it is such a practical agglomeration of tips I am certain I'll be popping back many times in future for a quick reference. Settling matters of style is great for everybody.

Drew, I'll see your paean to Microsoft Word/.docx and willingly raise you an earnest rant about open source -- and wonderful alternatives like LibreOffice Writer (especially for folk like me who live in a mostly Linux environment, although LO is available for all popular platforms). Your mileage may vary, but I have never had much of a problem converting from a Libre doc.

I would especially like to wave a flag for the new breed of 'minimal-distraction' word processors, which personally I enjoy using. Quite deliberately, these often have few formatting options, allowing you to focus more on the actual writing. After all, elaborate formatting is best left for the editing stage:
For Linux : PyRoom
For Windows : Q10, WriteMonkey
For Mac OS : OmmWriter, WriteRoom
Online : Writer
Mobile (android) : Pillarbox
Mobile (ios) : WriteRoom

See others discussed in this article.

The use of single-quotes for dialogue is something new for me too, but I guess I should start using them!
 

deMangler

deMangler
I second the advice about distraction free editors.
I use writemonkey for my fiction writing.
It is good to install to a Dropbox folder and just run it from there and keep your work there too. That way everything is always backed up and accessible from anywhere there is an internet connection.
Also, haven't read the whole thread so sorry if this has been said, but Orson Scott Card has written some great books on fiction writing that I think are an essential read for anyone who wants to write good fiction especially science-fiction.
 

Allen Stroud

Allen Stroud
Card's book on writing is very good and gives some great tips on how to make things suitably strange "The door dilated" is one of my favourite examples from that book.

Lisa Tuttle is also very good. She was a collaborator with George R. R. Martin on some of his earlier novels. Her cautions on the 'Waldrop method' are important for anyone a bit too caught up in the world they are writing about.

I have a lot of books on writing, some are more constructive for the writers than others. There is a tendency for some to get a bit too analytical in terms of structure, rather than concentrating on what makes something readable.
 

Darren Grey

Darren Grey
Thanks for the links!

I've checked through my book collection and they all use single quotes for dialogue. So it seems I'm going to have to switch styles! Ah, this will be painful...
 

Susimetsa

Susimetsa
Darren Grey said:
Yeah, I know, having painfully re-edited for my e-reader. But it wasn't very professional overall.
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You would not have happened to edit the sequel (further stories...) as well? I edited the first part, but have yet to try editing the second for my Kindle...
 

Cody

Cody
drew said:
In real life people never make long speeches...
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You should hear some of my pals when they get going on their pet subjects.

Lots of good advice in there, Drew... much of which I tend not to follow. <chortles>
You are right about the grammar checker... hateful thing.
 

SnowGhost

S
I'm not a writer. I'm an IT guy. So I'll only make one point.

So, just in case you missed what Drew said. I'll spell it out for you

BACKUP

today
yesterday
tomorrow
EVERYDAY.

Not one
Not two
But LOTS

Use dropbox
And SkyDrive
And Google drive
setup a Gmail account and email yourself your manuscript. Every day. That way you have an on going stream of what you did.



Did you do a Backup? Are you sure?

Go and check it. Use a different computer to make sure you can get to it. (Try the public library). You'd hate to have only one and find out that you can't actually read it.


O, and Drew, I just want to point this out from your original post
Be suspicious of words ending in ‘ly’. Do you really need them?
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It's funny because it's funny.
 

Cmdr Andy B

Cmdr Andy B
Reading drew's post for a second time Andy shivered in anticipation of the possibility's ahead, his first quick scan through had stirred a long forgotten yearning to write and been all that was required to light the fuse of his ambitions.

As he began to write the ideas started bubbling up from his subconscious; bursting forth like gas through volcanic mud, splashing plot and dialog across the pool of his mind. reaching critical mass this eruption of creativity spilled from his fingers as word after word poured onto the page, speeding over the keyboard in a blur as idea became reality and the world that existed behind his eyes sprang to life before him.

he would have to find some way of thanking Drew for his creative inspiration, his tribute to Elite and its fellow fans being the story itself but until he could shake him by the hand for taking time out of his own writing to share his valuable wisdom with us mere mortals all he could do was wish him well in his current and future endeavors and issue a heart felt thanks on behalf of all that have and will benefit from it.

AndyB
 
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Darren Grey

Darren Grey
AndyB(EDB50) said:
Reading drew's post for a second time Andy shivered in anticipation of the possibility's ahead, his first quick scan through had stirred a long forgotten yearning to write and been all that was required to light the fuse of his ambitions.

As he began to write the ideas started bubbling up from his subconscious; bursting forth like gas through volcanic mud, splashing plot and dialog across the pool of his mind. reaching critical mass this eruption of creativity spilled from his fingers [mixing analogy of mind and fingers unwise] as word after word poured onto the page, speeding over the keyboard in a blur as idea became reality and the world that existed behind his eyes sprang to life before him.

he would have to find some way of thanking Drew for his creative inspiration, his tribute to Elite and its fellow fans being [makes no sense - revise] the story itself but until he could shake him by the hand for taking time out of his own writing to share his valuable wisdom with us mere mortals all he could do was wish him well in his current and future endeavors and issue a heart felt thanks on behalf of all that have and will benefit from it. [sentence too long - break down]

AndyB
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C-, improve ;-P
 
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