The best people to get advice from are those who are writers already. Here is some advice by Mark Billingham (comedian turned crime writer) which I got from a writing magazine:
"Finish what your writing - never give up. Keep going and write the book you want to read. You have got to be persistent"
That to me is great advice, especially the bit about writing the book you want to read. Yes you are writing in the hopes people might read your work if it ever gets published, but if you don't like the book itself, then who else will!
And here is more from Elmore Leonard: another very successful crime writer who has had many novels turned into movies e.g Get Shorty
- Never open a book with weather
- Avoid prologues
- Never use a verb other than 'said' to carry dialogue
- Keep exclamation points under control. No more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose
- Never use the words 'suddenly' or 'all hell broke loose'
- Avoid detailed descriptions of characters
- Don't go into great detail describing places of things
No comments:
Post a Comment