I’ve traveled an incredibly long learning curve over the past few months, and what’s helped me the most along the way has been—hands down—the bloggers I follow. It doesn’t matter to me if they’re unpublished or have no agent yet or already have books out or deals made. Even teachers can still be students and vice versa.
This business of getting published is pretty darn tough so to me being unpublished alone says nothing about the writing, although I love to see writers I follow get their agent or their book deal. What counts to me most though is the step up you offer freely to your fellow writers with no signs of backstabby bitchassedness to be found (in public anyway, lol). I’ve improved my writing incredibly because of what you guys give.
What I’ve personally improved on the most:
Deeper POV. I now remove the fat from my sentences to make the action more immediate. For example:
Okay: She saw him walk through the door.
Better: He walked through the door.
Fewer tags. I’ve combed through my WIPs to remove all dialogue tags that weren’t necessary. If it was obvious who was talking, I removed it. If I thought I needed a tag to identify the speaker, I looked for other ways to ID who it was without using a tag. I also simplified as much as possible the tags I did need to keep in. I wanted nothing to distract from the story.
Raise the stakes. I figured out the plot was too shallow in my first WIP, so I’ve raised the stakes and built a better character arc for my MCs. If the plot’s too simple, too easy, it leaves to much space for more fat (aka, scenes that don’t advance the plot) in the book. PS—this takes a lot of work, whew!
Be careful with the adjectives/adverbs. They certainly aren’t off-limits, but they do need to be used sparingly. I railed against this at first, but then I figured it out. If you use a lot, it could be an indication that you’re telling rather than showing, and showing is another way to make action/description more immediate. For example:
Okay: He walked angrily through the door.
Better: He stormed in, slamming the door on his way.
Don’t navel-gaze. This can apply to the writing, but I don’t usually have too big a problem with that. I did learn not to navel-gaze too much when it comes to blogging. I’m not just blogging for myself. I like blogging as a way to interact with other writers. So I try not to be all about my book, my book, my book.
I have to praise the uber-phenomenal Elana J., who was the first blogger I ever followed, before I ever moved to Blogspot to begin with. She inspired me to completely change my blog, and through her, I found Bethany Wiggins, Suzette Saxton, and LiLa. These people got me right on the good track with where I should head with my blog. I’m still really working on it, but I’m getting there.
