I am currently writing a horror novel. This is the first novel i have actually managed to get to a second draft. YAY!!! I have been reading the posts on this site and found it a amazing souce of advice and help. I was wondering what is the best piece of advice you have ever got when writing a novel. Sorry about the typing. It's awfull i know.
Best piece of advice
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I'm just going to paste my advice from this thread. I think it's especially appropriate for a horror novel.
Here is the best writing advice I've ever gotten:
Give them what they want -- NOT what they expect.
If a plot goes as expected, it's predictable and boring. A plot needs to be unexpected to truly satisfy. But that doesn't mean you can hurl something at your readers from way out in left field. You have to give them what they want -- even if they didn't know they wanted it in the first place.
And giving them what they want doesn't always mean ending happily. Look at Atonement. It shatters its readers in a completely unexpected way, but it's done so well, and lingers so long, the book is exactly how it should be.
We need twists and turns, minor and major, to keep books interesting (why read the same plot over and over?). But they need to fit with the tone, the voice, the characters and the plot. And they need to satisfy -- even if they devastate at the same time.
Here is the best writing advice I've ever gotten:
Give them what they want -- NOT what they expect.
If a plot goes as expected, it's predictable and boring. A plot needs to be unexpected to truly satisfy. But that doesn't mean you can hurl something at your readers from way out in left field. You have to give them what they want -- even if they didn't know they wanted it in the first place.
And giving them what they want doesn't always mean ending happily. Look at Atonement. It shatters its readers in a completely unexpected way, but it's done so well, and lingers so long, the book is exactly how it should be.
We need twists and turns, minor and major, to keep books interesting (why read the same plot over and over?). But they need to fit with the tone, the voice, the characters and the plot. And they need to satisfy -- even if they devastate at the same time.
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Welcome to AW! 
Advice?
Read the whole library.
Get a copy of Strunk and White's ELEMENTS OF STYLE and READ it often.
Write every day. Write every day. Write every day.
Never invest in anything that needs paint or eats grass.
Advice?
Read the whole library.
Get a copy of Strunk and White's ELEMENTS OF STYLE and READ it often.
Write every day. Write every day. Write every day.
Never invest in anything that needs paint or eats grass.
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All of the above plus every writer faces choices in the writing as we all do in life. Making the correct ones is an art.
Always check for a conspicuous Adam's Apple.
And don't mix your hard liquor.
(Oh, and writing-wise? Trust what works. There are no hard-and-fast rules, just what suits the situation. Trust your instincts, but only if they get good results; if they don't, screw em.)
And don't mix your hard liquor.
(Oh, and writing-wise? Trust what works. There are no hard-and-fast rules, just what suits the situation. Trust your instincts, but only if they get good results; if they don't, screw em.)
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Read everything you can get your hands on, and write every day. Both pieces of crucial advice, says I.
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If you can't decide if you want your story to go path A or path B write them both ways. You might even get two stories for the price of one. Bonus!
The most freeing piece of advice, for writing the first draft:
"Don't get it right, get it written."
"Don't get it right, get it written."
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Not the best, but of current influence:
"We should always remember that the work of art is invariably the creation of a new world, so that the first thing we should do is to study that new world as closely as possible, approaching it as something brand new, having no obvious connection with the worlds we already know. When this new world has been closely studied, then and only then let us examine its links with other worlds, other branches of knowledge." -- Vladimir Nabokov
"We should always remember that the work of art is invariably the creation of a new world, so that the first thing we should do is to study that new world as closely as possible, approaching it as something brand new, having no obvious connection with the worlds we already know. When this new world has been closely studied, then and only then let us examine its links with other worlds, other branches of knowledge." -- Vladimir Nabokov
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There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately no-one knows what they are.
-Somerset Maugham
-Somerset Maugham
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Not so much advice as what I've learned about advice. The best advice I've found is to take all advice with a grain of salt--if somebody says you MUST do something or you MUST NOT do something, examine the issue for yourself, think it over, and see if the advice is right or not for your particular story. A lot of absolutes aren't that absolute at all. Sometimes writers beat themselves over the head for nothing. So you have to learn to judge for yourself.
That, and write, write, write, then write some more, in order to improve.
That's the one piece of advice that, IMO, is never wrong.
That, and write, write, write, then write some more, in order to improve.
That's the one piece of advice that, IMO, is never wrong.
I have no agrument with this, but if someone makes a statement based on experience, you might want to give it a little more weight. Much of what is said here by people who have been through the publication game is more experience than advice (actually, it's both--experience-based advice). Still, in an endeavor as subjective as this, experiences can be very different as well.
A lot of people who ignore the rules or any advice do so not because they desire to properly serve the story but because they're too proud to be told what to do.
Best advice I can give/have been given?
STFU and write.
Best advice I can give/have been given?
STFU and write.
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- There are three elements to success: talent, luck and discipline. The only thing you have control over is discipline, and you just hope you have the other two. (Michael Chabon)
- What is art if no one is going to see it? (Kathy Joosten)
- Don't expect fame and fortune and try to write the next best-seller. Just be the best writer you can be.
- What is art if no one is going to see it? (Kathy Joosten)
- Don't expect fame and fortune and try to write the next best-seller. Just be the best writer you can be.
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