Best writing advice...

"Say what you want to say, then say it."

I don't care if it's about the cruelty and inhumanity of the human condition or the way you feel when your dog puts his head on your lap. Say something.

Don't fiddle about creating historical timelines and obsessively filling out character sheets when you could be writing something that means something.

For me, I write to improve where I've received the most helpful feedback to correct my most common flaws. It's fine to dwell on areas where you've been consistently complimented. My strengths have alway been stunning visuals or cinematic narrative, great pace and voice/style, transition and description. I leave those alone--I have them down pat without having to think about it.

My characters need more depth, truer emotional action/reactions. I'm full of passive, so much passive that I clog the pages with incomprehensible passages that make it difficult for the reader to understand what I'm trying to say. Verbosity. Dragging things out, repeating myself.

Forget your strengths, let them only spur you on. Pay heed to your weaknesses. Start hacking away at your greatest flaws. Take notes and put up stickies that warn you of your prose dangers. Strive to even out all aspects of the elements of writing. Find that balance where everything is starting to improve and escalate. Don't shine a few of your most precious jewels in the bag, pull out the works and give all of them the attention they need.

Grease the squeaky wheel. The others can wait.

Tri

"Get it written, not right."

I.e., don't self-edit as you write.

Read widely is some of the best advice.

n3onkn1ght said:

Don't fiddle about creating historical timelines and obsessively filling out character sheets when you could be writing something that means something.

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The two are not mutually exclusive. For some people, the process of writing something meaningful might include fiddling about creating historical timelines and obsessively filling out character sheets.

Writing is such an individual process.

Keep an open mind. Be attentive and receptive to feedback.

whimsical rabbit said:

Keep an open mind. Be attentive and receptive to feedback.

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"Write what you know".

Although some people interpret that as the worst writing advice, to me it is the best, because I read it as "Know before you write" or "Don't write what you don't know."

In other words, do your homework before you sit down at the keyboard. This is important for non-fiction writers because of all of the research involved. Ditto for journalists.

This is also important for novelists, because if you don't have your facts straight, you'll alienate your target market.

Most people who haven't been living under a rock are familiar with Dan Brown's bestselling book "The DaVinci Code".

Not as many people are as familar with the cyberpunk thriller he wrote before that titled "The Digital Fortress".

In The DaVinci Code and the others in that series, he plays fast and loose with historical fact for dramatic effect. I have enjoyed all of them.

In The Digital Fortress it is clear that the author is someone who knows nothing about technology. Considering that the audience for cyberpunk thrillers is largely techies who do know their tech, that was a huge mistake. Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon are good examples of the genre, his book is an example of how not to write a cyberpunk thriller. It is a turkey.

The reviewers on amazon.com are pretty savage when it comes to the second edition of the book that was released in 2008. Apparently it is no better than the original.

Focus

Read, just read. You have to be a good reader even before you consider writing.

"Trust the muse."

There are a couple of writing elements (characters, structure) that I get instinctively. I can't explain how I do them or how I get them, just that I do. Yet, I've had people tell me I'm doing it wrong because I'm not filling out character worksheets or developing them when they think I should develop them.

Work's never wasted.

Don't be frightened to ditch writing that no longer serves the book's purpose. It was worth writing it, just to find out where it would take you.

froley said:

"Get it written, not right."

I.e., don't self-edit as you write.

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This is the advice that took me from a dozen aborted novel attempts to a completed manuscript.

n3onkn1ght said:

Don't fiddle about creating historical timelines and obsessively filling out character sheets when you could be writing something that means something.

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I agree, wholeheartedly. Whenever people tell me they rely on character sheets - more particularly, if they don't make their own up based on their individual character and story's needs and just print up some nonsense list from the internet, I just get this mental image of Charles Dickens pondering over whether Scrooge was more of Tartini or Vivaldi fan, or rolling a d20 on each ghost to see if he'd be convinced to turn good yet ("Christmas Past!" *rolls* "Damn, a 5. Scrooge has a stubbornness level of 18").

Nobody can write your stories, but you and if you don't write them, nobody will.

And

BIC

Take risks.

Never give up

I agree with the advice here, especially getting something written without trying to make it perfect at first.

An artist friend used to say that paintings finished themselves if you left them alone for a while. While somewhat less true of writing, taking a break can help.

Two kind of related quotes:

"Joggers jog, wankers wank, writers write. You can't call yourself a writer if that isn't what you do."

"Everyone has 1,000,000 words of crap in them the sooner you get them out onto paper the sooner you'll write something good."

I suppose they are both ways of saying "Just do it" which to my mind is THE fundamental piece of advice.

-You've got to develop thick skin.
-Butt in chair.
-Write your first draft with your heart, revise with your head.

More for editing/critiques than first drafts, but:

Remember: when people tell you something's wrong or doesn't work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.

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-Neil Gaiman

Write the next book.

Two heads are better than one.

Having someone that loves your story as much as you do helps break writer's block. Going to them for advice or plot-help makes writing a little bit easier than trying to come up with an idea on your own.

"Stories are about character's with problems."

"Fiction is emotion based, not fact based."