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| Ashley Rose |
Write Poetry – Ever hear someone describe a
book as written in lyrical prose and then wonder how you can write in lyrical
prose? Lauren Oliver’s writing is often described this way and I think her
writing style is a big part of why her books are so beautifully descriptive.
One way to learn how to write more lyrically is by writing poetry. Poetry makes
you look at the way words sound and how they can project emotions and how they
make you feel. When you write poetry you search your vocabulary for a word that
rhymes, or has a certain amount of syllables, or just feels right. Writing
poetry will help you think differently about the words you use in your stories.
Read Everything – Stephen King once said, “There
are books full of great writing that don't have very good stories. Read
sometimes for the story... don't be like the book-snobs who won't do that. Read
sometimes for the words--the language. Don't be like the play-it-safers who
won't do that. But when you find a book that has both a good story and good
words, treasure that book.” If you want to write a book that can do both then
read both. But go beyond just stories and language, read books that are in your
genre and read books outside of it. Read contemporary and fantasy, horror and
romance, books written in first person and third, present tense and past, those
that are published under big names and indies. We are inspired to write by what
we read and if you read a little bit of everything you may find yourself
inspired by something entirely new and different for the type of story you like
to write.
Write for the Newspaper – I wrote for my school
newspaper in college and the biggest thing I learned from it was how to edit.
Now, writing articles didn’t spark my creativity like writing fiction, but
having to keep my articles under a certain word count taught me how to cut
unnecessary material. “Dead words” were what we called them in my creative
writing class in high school. See what words, sentences, even paragraphs you
can cut. If it doesn’t move the story along you don’t need it. Mark Twain once
said “A successful book is not made of what is in it, but of what is left out
of it.” This is a lot harder of a thing to do than most people think. When
you’re writing a first draft of a novel you tend to just want to write without
thinking and then suddenly you’re going into great detail about what your main
character is eating for lunch. Details are great, but once you get your first
draft done go back and make sure you details don’t side track your reader.
Take a Class on Shakespeare – A real Shakespeare class where
you talk about what Shakespeare was
trying to say with his work, not some Woman’s Study’s course where feminists
get their panties in a twist reading Taming
of the Shrew. The truth is there are some wonderfully strong female
characters in all of Shakespeare’s works (Including Taming of the Shew), ones
that any woman could be proud of if she truly understood what William was
trying to say. But that’s not exactly why you should read Shakespeare, why is
because Shakespeare looks at all sorts of different themes in his work from
feminism, to liberalism and anarchy, to
justice and mercy and of course love and sacrifice. If you take a course, and I
say a course because Shakespeare can be hard to figure out on your own, even
with cliff notes, but with others who you can talk with and discuss things with
as you read his plays, you will find they relate so perfectly to the world we
live in, even now so long after they were written. And, they just might inspire
you.
Study Psychology – One of the most important
things to me when I’m writing is having characters act in a way that is
believable, and after studying Psychology for the past few years I feel like I
have a better idea of how and why people react the way they do. Understanding
human nature helps me create human characters. It’s easy to write characters
that are like us, but it can be hard sometimes to figure out what someone else
would do. If you don’t have time for a psych class Google some of the basics
and create character profiles. Is your character an introvert or an extrovert?
How do they deal with stress, do they internalize things or make inappropriate
jokes? And, most importantly why do they do what they do? Is your character
guarded, what happened to them to make them that way? Also when I’m looking at
paranormal aspects, like Ivy’s telepathic ability in Into the Deep, understanding the human brain was helpful as well.
Study Philosophy – Maybe not logic so much, but
my Ethics course was incredible. Thinking about right and wrong and how we
decide what is right or wrong will blow your mind a little, but it was a really
helpful course in showing me how people justify their actions, how people make
bad decisions, and how different people look at the world differently. Along
with Psychology this went a long way in helping with my character development.
It also made me want to say something with my writing.
Watch Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along
Blog – If you
don’t have the time to take a class on Philosophy watch Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog. This short little side project of
Joss Whedon’s, like most of his work, will have you looking at your characters
in new ways. With a villain as the main character who really only wants to
change the world and a superhero who’s the antagonist and is really only a tool
this movie will help you break away from clichés in your writing and show you
that you should look deeper into the motives of all your characters. What do they
really want, hope, dream for? Some of the best stories out there make you
sympathize with the bad guy. Having all of your characters deeply written and
well-rounded is important. I also highly recommend watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Avengers.
