Welcome back to another Writing Tips Tuesday! We are lucky enough to be joined by one of my favorite writing bloggers around, Margo Berendsen! Her blog is veritable treasure trove of tips for everything writing. I highly recommend that you pay a visit.
Today, Margo shares her tips on using tips. So basically, we have a top tip treasure trover treating you with tips about tips here on Writing Tips Tuesday. What more could you possibly want?
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Ever since I discovered writing blogs in 2010, I’ve been
keeping a Writing
Tips page, a long list of links to posts that have taught me (or reminded
me) of some worthy writing tips or advice. After a while my list got long enough I organized
it into categories like Starting a Story, Setting, Characters, etc. Then as I
got further along in my writing process I added categories like Critique Partners
and Pitching and Querying.
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| Margo and her daughter |
I figured that compiling this list of links might be of
benefit to other writers who wanted to look at, say, “story structure” from
several points of view. The list has also benefited me because when I’m stuck
on something like a plot point, I can get a fresh perspective on plot by
revisiting a few links.
Sometimes it’s easy to incorporate a writing tip right away
into your work in progress, but other times you have to let it sort of percolate
in your subconscious for a while… and sometimes you need to be reminded of it. When I got feedback from several agents that
my first pages needed more characterization, I revisited some of those posts
and they helped me brainstorm some new ideas.
In the process of revisiting those posts for tips on characterization,
I turned what I was relearning into writing checklists. Each day I re-read a
post on characterization (or a chapter from a writing book) and took notes. A
couple weeks later I had a checklist that I posted as “38
ways to check for character life signs”, with links to my sources.
A few months later I did the same thing for all the posts on
plot and came up with “21
ways to make your plot more compelling”, and then “17
tips for starting a story”. I figured I’d continue with a checklist for
setting, another one for dialogue, and then one on editing, but I never did
finish those. (Maybe someday). I ran my work-in-progress through those three checklists and
made notes on how my story was answering each question or not answering it –
with ideas on how I could fix the gap.
After revisions and feedback from critique partners, I
started querying the story again and got more requests and rejections, and more
feedback from agents on different things this time. Recently I revisited my old
checklists and realized that no checklist can capture everything you need. A
checklist can help you pinpoint a few things than can help with voice, but it
can’t give you a unique writer’s voice or give your characters their unique
voices. Some of those things just take time and rewrites, fresh new ideas, free
writing exercises, inspiration from books you’re reading and from life itself.
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I love getting a glimpse into another writer's process. What could be better to help you examine your own?
Please check back next week for a very special WTT from my 7-month old daughter, Amelia!
Interested in contributing to WTT? We'd love to have you. Just shoot me an email at adamgaylordwrites
We've got a lot more great tips coming up so stay tuned!
Thank you!
ReplyDeleteNo, thank you!
DeleteIt really is easy to assemble such a large assortment that finding the right tip at the right time is as challenging as implementing the tip it took forever to find. Rest assured, Margo, I've bookmarked your Writing Tips tab. I like the way you've organized it too.
ReplyDeleteIt's very well done.
DeleteSome great tips, thanks for sharing:)
ReplyDeleteThanks Mark!
Delete