Writing Ideas

After spending a life writing and teaching writers, some aspects of the process have proven to be as close to universal as anything creative can be. I’ve compiled a few ideas or points of guidance that might be helpful to you.

No. 01

Write dialogue that is pointed without spelling things out. Don’t listen to real people to learn how to write dialogue; real people don’t say anything that matters. Instead, figure out what each character in your scene wants. Then, figure out who’s going to get what they want. And then have them talk around it. Readers will understand what they’re saying, and, without knowing why, they’ll feel more satisfied.

No. 02

Pay attention to details of choice - let the details tell us about your characters. What they choose to do when they’re alone should reveal what they care about; what they do in front of other people should reveal what they want those other characters to think of them. Both should move your story forward by deepening our understanding of your characters.

No. 03

Use physicality to draw your reader into feeling what your characters feel, wanting what they want, experiencing what they experience. If you can put emotion into a character’s body, describing where it lives, how it reverberates, and what it causes them to do, your readers will feel like they’re living your story.