Secret Countdown: The five best bits of writing advice

Ten Days To Go

It’s ten days until SECRETS OF THE DRAGON TOMB is officially published! I figured I’d count down until the big day with a series of blog posts on books, writing, and maybe the odd story. Yes, folks, this may be the only time in my life that I blog ten days in a row.

Today I’m starting with the five best pieces of writing advice I’ve ever received.

1: Everyone is the hero of their own story

Yes, you have a hero for your book. Maybe more than one. But they are not the only heroes. Every single character who appears in your book has their own story and they are the hero of that story. That spear-carrier who blocks your hero’s way at the castle gate? She’s not there for the benefit of your hero. She’s there because she’s living her own story. And in that story she is the hero. She’s got ambitions and frustrations, wants, needs, fears, hopes. If you know what those are, she isn’t a cardboard cut-out. She adds to the story.

The same goes for your bad guy (if you have one). They didn’t go out that morning deciding to be evil and make life difficult for your hero. They think they are doing the right thing, for themselves, even if not for anyone else. They have their reasons and their motivations. Know what those are and you’re well on the way to a rich, three-dimensional story.

(Advice from: George R.R. Martin)

2: Cut 10%

When you’ve finished your book, revised it, polished it, and made it perfect, go back and cut 10% of it.

I’ll admit, when I first read this advice, I was massively skeptical. If anything, I thought, I needed to add to what I wrote, to flesh out scenes and characters. Well, I did have to flesh out some parts. But my editor told me I had to make my book shorter, too. And you know what? She was right.

Even though I thought the book was as tight as I could make it, when I approached it knowing I had to reduce it in length, I found it wasn’t as tight and efficient as I thought it was. There were redundant words and sentences, even whole scenes that just didn’t have to be there.

So give it a go. When your book is done, cut another 10%.

(Advice from: Stephen King)

3: Every Scene Should Do At Least Two Things

It’s easy to write a scene that does one thing, advances the plot or changes your protagonist or reveals something about your world. But a scene that does only one thing is flat and boring. It’s the kind of handle-turning writing that leaves a reader feeling underwhelmed.

But make that scene do two things – creating an arc for your protagonist and moving the plot on, for example – and make those two things be intertwined and then you’re flying.

(Advice from: Nalo Hopkinson)

4: Coincidences Are Bad

In real life, coincidences happen all the time. Unless you believe that every part of everyone’s life is controlled by some external force and we are but will-free puppets, then coincidences are a part of life.

But not in stories.

If you solve a plot or character problem through a coincidence, your readers will throw your book across the room in frustration, and rightly so.

There is one circumstance where you can have coincidences in stories, though, and that is where they make things worse for your protagonists. The coincidence where they bump into the person who has all the answers? Nope. The coincidence where they bump into an enemy looking to waylay them? Yep. Make things hard for them!

The only coincidences you should have are bad coincidences.

(Advice from: Connie Willis)

5: What’s the Worst That Could Happen?

Whether you’re a plotter or a pantser, ask yourself in every scene, “What’s the most awful or embarrassing thing that can happen to my hero?” And then make it happen.

Humiliate them. Drop them into hell. Make everything go horribly wrong. In each scene, your character should have to deal with the disaster created in the previous scene and then something even worse should happen. Rinse and repeat, and at the end, you’ll have a book. (Obviously, your hero will have to win eventually (unless they don’t), but not until the end.)

The kind of story where your character drifts through easy successes is the story that nobody is interested in.

(Advice from: Stephanie Burgis)

That’s it. The five most useful pieces of writing advice that I have ever received. They might not all work for you, but if you’re wondering why your story doesn’t work quite as well as you were hoping, give them a go. You might be surprised.