How to write an acceptable book?
-
i_love_reading09
- Posts: 23
- Joined: 31 Dec 2009, 01:02
- Bookshelf Size: 0
How to write an acceptable book?
I'm good at coming up with a good story line, but when I re-read it, it feels like everything inside is rushed. How do you add details without boring people with too many or confusing people because there isn't enough?
-
ResearchScholar
- Posts: 130
- Joined: 31 Mar 2010, 21:55
- Bookshelf Size: 0
-
Perrywinkle47
- Posts: 598
- Joined: 31 Aug 2010, 05:51
- Bookshelf Size: 0
-
Perrywinkle47
- Posts: 598
- Joined: 31 Aug 2010, 05:51
- Bookshelf Size: 0
-
Career Novelist
- Posts: 42
- Joined: 22 Sep 2010, 19:15
- Bookshelf Size: 0
If you want to know how not to bore your readers, go and read the bestselling books in your genre, books like the one you want to write. The more you read, the more you get an idea of pacing, the amount of detail you put into a story, etc...
-Information dumps that don't move the story forward tend to bore readers.
-Characters looking at themselves in the mirror to tell us all what they see bores readers.
-Overwriting bores readers. Ex: Her eyes were liquid pools of color, a mid-Atlantic ocean blue that had me thinking of clear skies and fresh air, the kind that filled my lungs with joy. This is too much--it's overwriting. You'll kill the pacing with writing like this. Just say, Her blue eyes shimmered, and moved me." Or even better, "Her shimmering eyes moved me."
-Any writing too heavy in description will bore readers. Try interspersing small but powerful details in with the action. Keep moving the story forward!
-Too much dialogue (rapid-fire dialogue) will bore a reader. Try showing us around while your characters are talking. Are they fidgeting? Are they picking their nails nervously, biting back their rage, feeling their blood pressure rising to a steady boil? If the conversation is tense, add to the tension with a crying baby, a phone that won't stop ringing, the incessant need to go number two if only the character would call a truce, but they won't.
-Overuse of adjectives bores readers and gives you away as an amateur. Just about anything that ends in a "ly" is an adjective and you want to avoid most of them if you can as relying too heavily on these types of words it is a sign of a lazy writer. Ex: "She wrote badly" could be said as "She had no understanding of the written word," or "She never appreciated school and it showed in the poor quality of her writing."
Hope this helps some! Good luck!
-Information dumps that don't move the story forward tend to bore readers.
-Characters looking at themselves in the mirror to tell us all what they see bores readers.
-Overwriting bores readers. Ex: Her eyes were liquid pools of color, a mid-Atlantic ocean blue that had me thinking of clear skies and fresh air, the kind that filled my lungs with joy. This is too much--it's overwriting. You'll kill the pacing with writing like this. Just say, Her blue eyes shimmered, and moved me." Or even better, "Her shimmering eyes moved me."
-Any writing too heavy in description will bore readers. Try interspersing small but powerful details in with the action. Keep moving the story forward!
-Too much dialogue (rapid-fire dialogue) will bore a reader. Try showing us around while your characters are talking. Are they fidgeting? Are they picking their nails nervously, biting back their rage, feeling their blood pressure rising to a steady boil? If the conversation is tense, add to the tension with a crying baby, a phone that won't stop ringing, the incessant need to go number two if only the character would call a truce, but they won't.
-Overuse of adjectives bores readers and gives you away as an amateur. Just about anything that ends in a "ly" is an adjective and you want to avoid most of them if you can as relying too heavily on these types of words it is a sign of a lazy writer. Ex: "She wrote badly" could be said as "She had no understanding of the written word," or "She never appreciated school and it showed in the poor quality of her writing."
Hope this helps some! Good luck!
-
keep.walking
- Posts: 45
- Joined: 25 Jul 2010, 21:53
- Bookshelf Size: 0
Really nice tips above.
In short, you must read lots of books on the same genre you are writting, and think what bores you and what does not. What is exciting, and what is not.
Use it for your own writting style.
I, personally, hate when the author stop telling his story to add lots of unnecessary details to something that really is not important.
A valuable tip I keep for myself is: when you need to describe a place, do it as in the viewpoint of your characters. What they see, what they feel, and such things.
instead of saying "The city was made of old houses and pretty gardens", you will do better saying: "when she walked in the city, she saw beautyfull gardens all over the place, the old houses around passed her a strong feeling of homesickness"
I am not an English writter, i only write at my language, but I hope this may pass the message.
good luck
In short, you must read lots of books on the same genre you are writting, and think what bores you and what does not. What is exciting, and what is not.
Use it for your own writting style.
I, personally, hate when the author stop telling his story to add lots of unnecessary details to something that really is not important.
A valuable tip I keep for myself is: when you need to describe a place, do it as in the viewpoint of your characters. What they see, what they feel, and such things.
instead of saying "The city was made of old houses and pretty gardens", you will do better saying: "when she walked in the city, she saw beautyfull gardens all over the place, the old houses around passed her a strong feeling of homesickness"
I am not an English writter, i only write at my language, but I hope this may pass the message.
good luck
