During our first draft, we simply write without any concern for technique or grammar, but we can still use tips for writing well that will draw out our best work. The best single tip I can give for writing well is: as you write delve deep into your imagination and truly experience your story as if you are living it yourself. Craftsmanship can be learned as you refine and rewrite, but if your writing doesn’t emerge from a deep immersion in your story, your writing will be superficial, and superficial writing does not result in engaged readers. A great book is a book that draws the reader right into the scenes, characters and events, a book readers can immerse themselves in, and for that to happen, you as the author must first immerse yourself in your story.
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Live it
When I first started out as an author, I had no idea how to actually write, how to use words to express myself, but I have always had a great imagination, and I was able to immerse myself in the world of Diamond Peak, my YA fantasy series, such that although my writing had a long way to go before it reached a publishable standard, I wrote in a way that evoked the atmosphere of the story. Even in its raw form the story had a rough kind of power. Why? Because I lived it as I wrote it. I placed myself in each scene. I saw what the characters saw, thought what they thought and felt their emotions deeply. I wasn’t just acting the point of view character, I was them.
Though after my first draft I had to embark on a long journey of learning how to improve my prose, I did, at least, have the raw material to work with. And you can do that too.
Set up a conducive environment
Think about where you’re going to write and when. Before my family wakes in the morning is my preferred time because the house is quiet and no one will disturb me, but that’s not the best time for everyone. Choose whatever time suits you and set it aside as your writing time. Write every day, even if it’s only a couple of paragraphs. If you leave it too long between visits to your world, you’ll lose momentum. Preferably find a place where you can shut the door and even place a sign on the door knob saying, ‘Do not disturb.’
Set up your writing space in a way that is conducive to your immersion in the story. Maybe you need a view of the garden, or a clear desk, or maybe you need a dagger beside you, or a crystal ball, or a notice board filled with images to stimulate your imagination. Maybe you need a really good sound system. Set up whatever you need to help you immerse yourself in your story. Make your writing space inspiring.
Stimulating involvement
Writing well is writing such that the reader can hear, see, smell, touch and even taste the character’s world and experience. Of course, to write that way, you must first experience your story through all those senses yourself. Luckily there are ways to help you.
Aural Stimulus
Silence works best for me, but other authors write to music, and certainly if you find it hard to get into the story—this often happens in the sections that are hardest to write—then music can really help. Some authors have play lists that they later share with their fans. If music stimulates your imagination then spend some time making a play list of music that relates to characters, scenes or settings. Simple sounds can also be helpful. If you’re writing a scene in a storm, find a recording of a storm to listen to as you write. You Tube is a great source of sounds. Just search for what you want.
Visual Stimulus
When writing about a journey high in the mountains around a glacial lake and into ice caves, I searched for images of the kind of landscape I envisaged. I placed these images on the notice board above my computer so I could look up at them, not just to help me describe that kind of terrain, but also to help me to imagine myself there.
Images of people can be used to help you with your characterisation. You can even make up characters based on a photo you find online. I had a movie cast for the Diamond Peak Series, actors I’d chosen who could play the roles if the series was ever to become a movie or four—I’m still waiting for that to happen!
Videos are particularly helpful for helping you write actions that you haven’t experienced yourself, things like fighting, racing a motorbike or galloping a horse. And videos come with sounds as well.
Sensual stimulus
If you’ve forgotten what it feels like to stand in the rain, turn on the hose and get someone to spray you! If you’ve forgotten what a café smells like, go to a café. Visit a rainforest if you have a scene set in a rainforest and pay attention to the smell, the feel of the mulch under your feet and the sound of your footsteps. You probably can’t go to the top of a mountain, but you can try to imagine the clean air, the silence and the cold.
How does a straight whisky feel when you down it in one gulp? Go have a shot!
Writing someone swimming? Do you remember what it’s like to float in the ocean? Go have a swim.
When writing fight scenes, I used to get my family to help me. I’d call my daughter or husband into my office and ask them to act out the scene with me to help me envisage just where our body parts would go and what moved might naturally follow another. I did manage to get a couple of bruises from this, but I also got a really clear idea of what my character was actually doing, and what was realistic for him or her to do in a certain situation.
How much to write
Of course, if you immerse yourself completely in a scene such that you experience it with all your senses, you might write more details than you need to, so it’s important to know that we don’t have to describe every single part of an action. Never put in so much detail that you slow down the story. The reader likes to feel that they are in the story, but they also want your story to keep moving along.
As the author you will always have more information than you’ll need to put into the story.
So tell the reader enough to stimulate their imagination, but not so much that you’re leaving nothing left for them to imagine themselves. If there is no reason for the reader to use their imagination or not enough cues to inspire their imagination, then you’ve removed the interactive aspect and much of the pleasure of reading. As with much of writing, it’s all about balance, but at the first draft stage, don’t worry about that too much since balance can be refined at the revision stage, just feel your story from inside your characters and when you write don’t get bogged down with details.
Enjoy
If you enjoy your writing, your readers likely will as well, but many books have unpleasant scenes that you probably won’t enjoy being immersed in; in these cases, enjoy the drama and the excitement. If your heart is pounding with terror, you’ll be more likely to write in a way that makes the reader’s heart pound, and that’s great because readers like to feel immersed in the story.
Do you use these kinds of supports for your writing?
This is part of a series of blog posts on how to write a novel. It won’t just cover the technical details, but also the emotional journey we take and the personal challenges we meet on the road from potential author to author. Join the journey now, and don’t miss a post, click here to sign up to get my Novel Revision Checklist and links to the articles sent to your inbox.
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You’ll also find my book on writing, The Elements of Active Prose: WritingTips to Make Your Prose Shine, very helpful.
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Great post, Tahlia. Now that I think about it, I write best in the morning when no one is stirring in the house. I find that music is the strongest cue for me. Certain songs will inspire scenes very vividly. In my novel, Almost Human, there is a scene in Frank’s Bar that was inspired when I heard a song on the radio.
That’s one of the reasons why your writing gives a real flavor of being in the scenes.
My wife is a school teacher so I have our place mostly to myself all day. The mornings work best for me. I try to do about 1,500 words a day and reward myself afterwards with a bike ride, a walk, or visit to our local coffee shop. I have a writing table looking out on the garden. I play Cole Porter or classical music most mornings. I have portraits of several of my favorite authors taped on the wall: Steinbeck, Hemingway, London, Verne, King, Mitchell, Mayle, Maugham, Ginsberg, Kerouac, and others… My writing books are organized within reach; King’s, On Writing, Elments of Style, The Elements of Active Prose, and many more. My books ends are bottles of my favorite scotch.
Sounds like you have it really nicely organized.