on writing

How to write a story or fiction?

I have read Stephen King’s memoir, which is about the craft of writing. I love it from start to end. It’s like listening to a piece of good music. Melodic, beautiful, and entertaining. I cherry-pick 3 quotes from the book, to sum up On Writing for you to have a quick read.

• Write what you like, then imbue it with life and make it unique by blending in your own personal knowledge of life, friendship, relationships, sex, and work.

• The practice is invaluable (and should feel good, really not like practice at all) and that honesty is indispensable. Skills in the description, dialogue, and character development all boil down to seeing or hearing clearly and then transcribing what you see or hear with equal clarity (and without using a lot of tiresome, unnecessary adverbs).

• If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.

Show the story: narration, description, and dialogue

I have jotted down the points to note, for you to keep in mind while writing a story. These are the writing tips from Stephen King and his ways of writing fictions.

• Ask “what if” to build the narrative
• The good description usually consists of a few well-chosen details that will stand for everything else
• The use of simile and other figurative language is one of the chief delights
• You must tell the truth if your dialogue is to have resonance and realism
• The basic rule of vocabulary is to use the first word that comes to your mind if it is appropriate and colorful
• Use active voice instead of passive voice
• Avoid adverbs
• Leave it for at least 6 weeks before editing
• Check the spellings, unclear pronouns
• Look for what you meant and reinforce that meaning

Add metaphors or similes like a pro

I enjoy reading Stephen’s unique metaphors or similes, which he is good at using so as to enrich his writing. Here’re some examples:

• Writers are carpenters; writing skills are tools
• As your mind and body grow accustomed to a certain amount of sleep each night so can you train your waking mind to sleep creatively and work out the vividly imagined waking dreams which are successful works of fiction
• I believe stories are found things, like fossils

How do you like it if I show you a metaphor source which you can access online and get many good references? Dr. Mardy has created one for us, for free!

Happy reading!

Comedy writing

How to write comedy?

If you’re wondering how to write funny or you’re getting stuck on writing, go through the quick summary from Writing Comedy, which may help you break out of the prison in your mind:

Start writing what you want to write, what amuses you. Then learn to modify and improve it to reach a bigger audience.

Get inspired:

• Work with other people 
• Stay up to date with popular culture
• Have an opinion on everything
• Be a comedy consumer (watch sitcoms, comedy movies)
• Keep note of funny materials 
• Anarchy: let yourself be anarchic and childlike, have crazy ideas like “The modest proposal” by Jonathan Swift (a satirical essay suggesting that problem of famine in Ireland could be solved by poor people selling their babies to rich landlords to eat.)
• Freethinking
• People watching
• Daydream
• Negative emotions like frustrations of everyday life, which are great materials
• Gather comedy materials from socializing with friends, family, and all sorts of media
• Networking (find publisher, editor)

Create incongruity:

• Opposites (funerals and weddings; big and small)
• Misdirection (a twist in the end)
• Misunderstanding
• Exaggeration
• Double entendre
• Rule of three

Comedy format:

1. Set up
2. Small laughs
3. Punchline (the surprise)

Create comedy characters: 

• Deadpan/jester
• Fish out of water/neurotic
• Innocent/know-it-all
• Klutz/loser
• Social climber/vulgarian
• What’s the characteristics and desires of characters?
• Give the character some sort of conflict—inner conflict, conflict with other people and conflict with society
• Give crisis and obstacles to characters

Write it:

• Set time aside for writing 
• Show in a comedic way, don’t tell 
• Get personal (insults, embarrassment)
• Use specific vocabulary
• Don’t be too direct
• Read your work out loud to feel the rhythm (pause before punchline)

Edit it:

• Edit the draft
• Mark the laughs
• Fine-tune the ending 

 

In short, entertain yourself first, get the joke done, and laugh out loud.

Creative doing!

writing style

How to craft your writing?

If you would like to craft your writing, reading The Element of Style by William Stunk Jr. and E.b. White is a must. This September, I have been reading books about the craft of writing. I would like to recommend The Elements of Style. This is a good book about grammar rules and the style of writing, even Stephen King has highly recommended it as a good one without bullshit.

I’ll tell you right now that every aspiring writer should read The Elements of Style.

— Stephen King 

Here are some of the suggestions, for helping writers or bloggers to develop their own style:

• write in a way that comes naturally
• write with nouns and verbs, not with adjective and adverb
• revise and rewrite

For more tips on how to craft, check it out and dive in.

The writing style of great writers

Ernest Hemingway’s simple and succinct writing style is the opposite of James Joyce’ complex and stream-of-consciousness writing. Style is like beauty. It’s subjective and has various ways. Writing style is your identity. It’s a part of you. So the takeaway point here is to write what you know and be yourself. That’s what Hemingway and Joyce did.

Happy reading!