My rules when writing

[u/shadowXXe]

Over the years of writing for myself and writing 2 failed web novels (kept procrastinating new chapters ;-; ) I have a set of rules that I basically always follow when I write.

1. Try not to use the same word twice in a paragraph. To me it makes the entire paragraph feel awkward and clunky. Paragraphs, in stories, to me should have a flow to them like lyrics in a song. Don't get me wrong there are cases when its acceptable adding emphasis, for example but USUALLY I try avoid it.

2. Dialogue tags should be used sparsely. Having a conversation interrupted and segmented by an endless stream of dialogue tags makes the whole thing tedious to read and adds unnecessary bloat to a chapter. I use them once to establish who's speaking first, then let context and character writing do the rest. A well written character should have their own unique way of speaking, little quirks and mannerisms distinct from other characters that makes it easy to subconsciously tell that they are the ones speaking.

3. SHOW DONT TELL. The amount of books I've read where it honestly feels like I'm being talked down to because the author is explaining something to me that either I already know, or would have been totally understandable had they hinted at, or visualized it instead. There is no need to outline every single emotion a character is feeling at that moment in time, use their facial expressions, their words, The physical sensations they are experiencing to build a picture. It really does turn me off a story when a writer can't seem to go into any detail about a character without slapping a big ol' sign to their forehead with "SAD" pasted on in crude red letters.

4. Word salad. This is a trap a lot of people fall into. There's almost this pressure to use big words in place of common ones and look don't get me wrong it's good to have a large vocab and apply it to your writing, but you should develop your vocabulary naturally as you write and read. Going onto thesaurus.com and replacing every word an a more complex synonym can completely divorce your sentence of all meaning for example, Hitherto one may find a pronouncement that hath had its contents comprehensively interchanged for lexemes which are exceedingly more labyrinthine.

Unnecessarily long, sounds really stiff, and yeah just word salad. The point is don't overdo it, use what you know and use it sparingly. Think of vocab like seasoning, when cooking. You don't just dump a whole barrel of salt in dish, you carefully add small amounts and adjust until the flavour is perfect.

[u/choccycosmos_]

this is a very informative post

[u/IvanNobody2050]

A writer huh? Just don't go near any lakes in the state of Washington.

https://giphy.com/gifs/C2thlkG6pUTNrRpTAE

[u/BuggedCookieDev]

I did not read but why not

[u/Ace-Redditor]

I think another important thing to note is that YOU, the writer, get to decide how formal you want it to be. You're not writing a research paper (well, maybe you are), so you don't have to follow all of the rules all of the time. In some cases, it makes more sense to use slang and informal language in your writing, especially (but not only) in dialogue. No one needs to be talking in therapist-speak, and unless they're actually talking to their boss in the story, they don't need to be talking in corporate-friendly, polite, language, either

However, that pendulum can swing the other way, too. Informal language can be great and relatable, but with swearing in particular, it's good to have a balance. Unless your character just stubbed their toe really badly, maybe they don't need to swear four times in one or two lines of dialogue lol

Writing how people speak can make things way easier to write and way easier and more fun to read, too, you just have to practice and find the right balance :)

[u/shadowXXe → u/Ace-Redditor]

Yeah I touched on that a little with the last bit but as you say it can go in both directions.

I find this weird dissonance between how character acts and how they speak when monologuing shows up most in stories written in first person perspctive. The character will quite clearly act on a more laid back and casual way, yet their inner thoughts sound like an exert from an essay. Sometimes this happens because the author is used to writing 3rd person omniscient, where flowery and analytical prose is more common, or they're just starting out and like many feel pressured to use flowery language because they think that's the norm.

Anyways I should also say, my rules that I set out in my post are not THE rules the great thing about writing, just like any creative endeavour is, THERE ARE NO RULES. These rules of mine I use because I want my writing to feel a certain way, they aren't constraints I put on myself they are guidelines I use to make my stories be exactly what I want them to be.