Bisky's Twitterling's Scribbles! discussion

Is there ever a point in time where you've read a book and realised where it went wrong? But of course main stream authors are out of reach to talk to.

Or have you ever had advice told to you thats resonated with you for years? Whats the best thing you've ever been told?

Let me know :3

My advice to any would be author is that you can never write anything significant until you have lived. Go out there and get a life then worry about being a writer!

Best advice? Don't quit your day job. :>

No but seriously... (I WAS SERIOUS! :P)

Don't rush the end.
We all hear about slow first pages, or saggy middles but don't forget that the end is also important. It's what stays in the reader's mind after the last page is read and the book closed.
You will publish your novel. If it's not this month, it might be the next, so what? Take your time and make it worth while for people to finish reading it.

Get if edited and proofed - and I mean proofed. There's not much that's worse than reading a book full of mistakes and partially changed sentences. It really puts me off the book.

Don't do the same thing over and over and over again in your books. If you have one plot twist in your first book, don't use the exact same twist in your second. It's great the first time, but all the other times it just gets boring and repetitive. (Sorry Dan Brown, but I'm looking at you!)

@Anthony, I don't agree with that, infact I find it a bit insensitive. I wrote my first novel at 21, I'd had more stuff happen to me then than most have in 60 years. Most people turn to writing for a reason.

Besides, if you have to experience everything you write about where the hell is the talent for story telling?

@G.G Aye, time is important, I'm awfully stressy with mine :p

@Harmony, I am terrified of having mistakes in my book. Some of them I really can't see :p

@Topaz LOL!

I think I'd want to tell some authors so stop writing for the market and write for themselves. I've been terribly bored with some authors I really used to like because they are obviously just writing shocking things so it will sell well. Snores!

@Bisky True. It's tempting to follow the trend, but then again, it doesn't mean the book will be noticed. After all, that also means there will be tens of thousands of other books competing for the same market. Also when you write for yourself, it's easier to put your heart in it, thus the result is a better product.
For fans of Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse), I've heard that her latest book was just an alphabetic rehash of what happened to the characters after the last story. Talk about sucking the fans dry.
That leads me to one more advice: Know when to stop and move on! :P

"Know when to stop and move on."

Ooo that one is good!

P.S I've always thought Sookie Stackhouse sounds like an insult I'd use in a pub.

"Such your face you bloody Sookie Stackhouse!"

LOL personally, I never understood how she came up with a name like Sookie. Especially that in True Blood when Bill says her name it sounds more like Sucky. I guess it's fitting for a vampire's girlfriend. :>

Or Wookies in socks?

hmm is that an example of cockney rhyming slang? ;)

No, just a random Bisky thought :p

The best thing I've ever been told?

Write the first draft of fiction without editing. Having written poetry for decades I always edited as I went. You can do that with 12 lines. But for fiction it's death because the story and/or characters get lost. So I had to learn to let go editing. Thus my fiction rough drafts are crap. I hate them. But then I begin editing.

This fall I've been editing several short stories that I wrote last year and they're coming together quite well. I'm going to look at first and final draft--after readers critique these--and see the changes. It ought to be amusing and exhilarating.

I always say that! Glad someone else thinks like that :p Does take me ages and ages to edit though haha

I just sit and write, I don't edit or censor. When the first draft of the MS is finished, I literally ignore it for at least 3 weeks, and then I read it - away from the computer (so I can't be tempted to tweak it here and there). I listen to my gut reaction at this point - how is the book/plot as a whole? How does it leave me feeling? Then it gets put away again, for another 3 or 4 weeks. Then the editing begins. And then the proofing. So after all this long spiel? My advice: Patience :D

Harmony, useful reminder to ignore new drafts.

I've always thought it a bit presumptuous for me to try to advise people when I have had next to no success at all. But I can tell you what puts me off as a reader when I see other writer's tweets:

1. Don't compare your book to the best book ever in its genre. Even if its a reader review you're quoting, "100x better than Lord of the Rings!" should never be a tweet.

2. Don't compare your character to characters from the most popular work in your genre. There is one author I see who keeps saying how her villain is far worse than Voldemort. Just stop it. JK Rowling is a genius and you can't even write an original 140 character tweet.

3. Don't post the same advertising tweet all day all night all week all month ad infinitum... nothing will make me vow never to read your book so well as that. ESPECIALLY if the line you quote is really BAD.

Okay, I'll stop my rant there...#4 should probably be "don't rant about other author's tweets" lol...but oh well, I did it and I'm glad I tell ya! GLAD!

Actually I agree with you. There are lots of people who write tweets like "Move over Harry Potter..." Wtf. No.

Would J.K Rowling say the Harry Potter series is better than Narnia? No. Doesn't make me want to read them at all.

A bit like how that band Trivium died after saying they were better than Metallica.

(Reference to Bisky's angry guitar playing teenage years)

People who tweet the same promotional tweets all day long get unceremoniously unfollowed.

Claire, yes. Unfollow serial promoters.

Has anyone here read Stephen King's 'On Writing'? I know horror isn't everyone's bag, but this memoir of his contains the most useful advice about writing I have ever come across.

The one idea that has stuck with me is about writing first with the door closed, then with the door open. Or in other words, write the first draft for yourself (just write it, have fun, don't edit), then do the second draft for the reader (make it a professional and enjoyable read).

I think you can tell the writers who write with the door open - the work feels self-conscious and showy-offy. The ones who write with the door closed - those are the books I don't bother to finish.

I'm with @Harmony on this one. Getting outside editing is absolutely essential, even if it's just friends and family. I used to consider myself pretty good at self-editing my writing, but after seeing all the mistakes I missed in what I thought was my final draft of a novel... let's just say it numbered in the hundreds. Readers, me included, are often turned away by the smallest of errors.

Helen, I think Stephen King's, On Writing contains the best advice going. And it's fun.

I would tell George R. R. Martin, "find yourself an editor who can trim mercilessly."

@Anthony I agree. Living an interesting life can only help your writing become more interesting.

I absolutely love Stephen King's On Writing, but I think it contains the worst advice I've heard. This is paraphrased, but he basically said, "Oh, you *have* to set aside four hours a day in a quiet, dark place. You can read it snatches on the bus and waiting for the doctor, but you can't write that way."

No, Mr. King, most of us don't have that luxury. So I say: Get yourself a tiny laptop that fits in your purse (which I did), write on the train, write while you're in a waiting room, just WRITE whenever you have the time.

So the best advice I've ever heard would be: Find what works for you.