“It May Be The Wrong Decision, But Fuck It, It’s Mine.”

Writing Tip #209

With miniature narratives, have a gentle/delicate ending. You don’t need to have an explosion or anything dramatic, the story should gently build up to an ending that seems natural.

“Speak only when your words are more beautiful than silence.”

— Imam Ali 

“Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things.”

— Robert A. Heinlein 

#3: 5 things to add more interest to Writing

Alright, real talk. Naturally a lot of writers overlook this part of writing but to me, I find it essential when it comes to writing fiction even though many times writers are already aware of these things. Your book may be doing fine with its technicalities but may lack interest. Below I’m going to list five ways to make your writing more interesting and hopefully, it does help out. 

1) Tension

One of the big reasons a story isn’t interesting enough is because of Lack of Tension. See, without this, none of the characters really want anything from each other so therefore no one is really prevented from achieving their goal. Might as well just resolve the conflict right there because nothing is holding them back, which if you can realize is not an interesting narrative. 

Your characters interests and goals should conflict with each other even if certain characters are on the same side because then readers are truly more interested to see the play of events. 

2) Purpose

When a scene has no purpose, it essentially just slows down pace and kills the momentum. Readers are interested in the story, not the other details of the story that really don’t add much importance. Usually also known as filler which is something that bores readers if they really don’t own any sort of purpose. 

3) Voice 

This is really important but extremely overlooked. Without any voice, it seems like the story is just laid out for the reader without any touch to it. Remember, the character is there because they can see the world different than anyone else. Really, without voice the story is just like a textbook. There’s no presence, no life, no humanity. Adding voice really sparks interest. 

4) Specificity

Specificity is like saying there’s a stack of books or saying there’s a stack of comic books and graphic novels messed up on the shelves. Or that there’s a painting on a wall vs a oil painting on the wall. These are really simple example but adding specificity helps really add to the character or the atmosphere. Specificity adds interest to the story, for example: A stack of books on the shelves really doesn’t say much but specifying that there are comic books and star war novels messily shoved into a book shelve defines the atmosphere and the character itself. 

5) Originality

So, when you write a story, write something that has a taste of originality rather than something familiar. See, what I mean by this is it is okay to write something relatable. Though not to the point its familiar with real life. Okay example, 

Think about reading a text where I, theoretically was the writer, that had a graduation scene describing waiting in line in a gown, shaking hands with the dean and taking my diploma. This is familiar so the reader’s first thought is “why am i being told this?” Everyone has a general idea on what a graduation is even if they never been to one so there’s really no point for me to writing that. To combat this, you can just delete it from the narrative itself, write it in a way where the reader wouldn’t be able to predict that sort of event.

Hopefully this does help and wasn’t super confusing. Peace.

“Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.”

— Madeleine L’Engle

This week’s writing tip comes from the legendary Alice Walker. 

Remember, self-care is as important to the writing process as it is to life.

“Without goals and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination.”

— Fitzhugh Dodson