There is an article with this title written by Stephanie London on Writers Digest two days ago.

Originally from Australia, Stefanie lives in Toronto with her very own hero and is doing her best to travel the world. She frequently indulges in her passions for good coffee, lipstick, romance novels and anything zombie-related. She is a multi-award-wining USA Today bestselling author of contemporary romances and romantic comedies.

Excerpts from her article are below.

“1. Show, don’t tell.

We’ve all heard the “moon glinting on broken glass” example of how to show rather than tell. However, this advice often seems to be applied too rigidly. Telling isn’t bad. Telling provides clarity and certainty.

One area where I find telling to be necessary is your character’s goal. In this instance, you can first tell and then show. It’s actually the layering of telling and showing which makes for a powerful story. However, if we spend the whole story showing your character working toward something without ever having the character acknowledging in uncertain terms, the attainment of that goal won’t have the same impact. Or worse, the reader may not actually know what the goal is or why the character wants to achieve it.”

I’ve been reading Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham. Obviously, he never heard of ‘show don’t tell’, but he uses the telling very effectively in giving the reader a clear view of what’s going on inside the protagonist’s head and of what he is feeling. The reader is well prepared when there is action and the showing.

“2. Write what you know.

I understand the theory behind this advice. Yes, we want to get our facts straight and write with authority. But this idea is completely limiting if you don’t ever give yourself room to step outside what you know. Besides, anything you don’t know can be researched. And the process of stepping beyond what we know to learn something new or to investigate an experience that doesn’t line up with our own is ultimately what will make us a more empathetic and well-rounded writer in the long run.”

Of the ten books I have written (eight are published to date), only three are based largely on my own experience, and these three have no extra critical acclaim. Seeking Father Khalik is based in the Middle East, and is about Islam. I spent as much time researching for it as I did writing it. It was well received.

“3. Don’t use a long word when a short one will do.

We want our writing to be clear and to allow the story or message to take centre stage. And we’ve all read prose where it sounds like the author had a thesaurus open on their desk. Some things to consider when it comes to word choice, however, are cadence and character.

Always opting for short words can give the cadence of your writing a very monotonous feel. Just as we should vary our sentence lengths, we should also vary our word length to avoid our writing feeling as though it drags. This is especially important now as many books are being put into audio format where a monotonous cadence is very obvious!

It’s also important, especially for character-driven fiction, that the word choice is appropriate for the character. If all your words are chosen for their short length, then your characters may end up sounding the same.”

I keep a thesaurus handy when I’m writing because now and then the word that comes to mind doesn’t express what I want to say. So I find a better synonym. Hemingway would probably agree with this advice. His novels are remarkable for their simplicity of language

“4. Don’t edit as you go (aka write now, edit later).

I’m going to contradict myself a bit here because I do generally follow this advice. However, this doesn’t work for all writers! That’s because there’s no style of writing that works universally for everyone. Some writers need to tweak as they go in order to fully understand the story they’re telling. I know plenty of writers who do their writing and editing in the same pass, which results in a very clean first version. Editing, for these writers, is part of their creative process.

One time you may want to ignore this even if you usually write now and edit later is if you have a strong feeling the book is going in the wrong direction. Going back to the start of the book can help you get your story on track and save you more wasted time in the long run.”

I tend to edit while I’m writing, edit again when I’ve finished a chapter, and when the manuscript is complete. Then I’ll edit again in response to my editor’s comments.

“5. Write every day.

Similar to the last piece of advice, anything which prescribes a certain way being the correct way is to be approached with caution. If you’re the kind of person who’s motivated by streaks or momentum, then writing every day may work. For plenty of writers, however, even very successful ones, writing every single day isn’t always practical, sustainable, or conducive to a creative work environment.

Personally, I write four to five days per week. I need the weekend to let my stories percolate in the background and when I’ve tried to write to seven days per week in the past, I was actually less productive. I know writers who write less than this with much success. There are also people who “binge write” where they’ll have huge word counts for a few weeks and then not write anything for the next few weeks while they refill the creative well.”

When I’m really engaged with a novel, I try to write every day, but the length of time can vary from between two and eight hours. I’ve started on my eleventh novel, but I’ve set it aside so I can focus on learning Italian. But, I’ll come back to it, incorporating some of the ideas I’ve had in the meantime.