Character Questions

I'm sure these things to know about your characters can be useful. Most are things I don't know until I get to them in the writing. But even more problematic for me is that they're things I don't really know about myself as they're not relevant. When they become relevant in my life or in my characters' lives, then I figure them out. But other people might find them a good character exercise.

Worth Reading

Patricia Wrede makes some good points re: fanfiction.

Ten Things

This list of ten things for science fiction writers is pretty darn good.

The Rules

Patricia Wrede on the rules of writing.

Writing Advice that Annoys Me

I haven't written much, if anything, actually, in the last couple of years, but that doesn't stop me from looking at writing advice. And if I'd try to follow this advice, I would have given up trying to write years and years ago. In fact, it reminds me of the advice that did make me give up for a decade or so back in the '80s.

First, it compares writing to climbing a mountain. Uh, no. Mountain-climbing is a pretty standard activity. There is standard equipment and there are standard procedures one should follow. It's a clearly defined task. See mountain, climb mountain. But a book? No. Because while some people can see the mountain/end point of their book, vague or clear, not everyone can. Some people write so they can find the mountain/story/conclusion.

Second, it's kinda vague. Suggestions include reading novels to see what works and reading books on writing craft. Which of course can lead to frustration if, like me, you can't analyze books as to what works and if, like me, you find books on writing craft don't apply to you. No actual, practical tips on how to do anything is offered.

The author of the advice touches on pov, character, style. The suggestion to consider what your characters would do if they were to meet a relative they didn't know about might help some writers develop their characters' personalities, but for others, like me, it's just an exercise and I never was good at those. I always discover my characters as I write them doing the things that come up in the actual story set in the actual reality they live in. My characters reveal themselves to me. They can surprise me months down the line as I write about them.

I really shouldn't look at writing advice. It usually just annoys me. But there's always the chance I'll read something that makes sense to me. So I keep reading these articles, and hoping.

Five Step Writing Advice

These tips on turning bad writing into good writing might actually work for some folks. It would help if you're good at editing things down into more succinct passages rather than the sort of person who's better at succinct and can expand as needed.

Useful Advice

I usually have problems with writing advice, especially when the writers present the advice as rules, but this post has some really helpful examples of ways around "said/asked" issues that I'll forgive the comment that using said with an adverb is amateurish because I've read sentence structures with that in quite nicely written novels.