forum Writing Rules

Started April 13, 2018 by @ThatBackgroundSlytherin

tune

Stephanie Meyer in general is terrible.

Honestly, no one takes Zombies seriously anymore, so who really cares?

I know. Though they can be good, they're just overused and kinda dumb.

Exactly. If you're writing a serious zombie story, good luck, because the market has become so saturated with them that they've been done to death, excuse the pun.

I feel like elves are overrated… Does anyone here know anyone who plays D&D, or do you play it yourself? I remember sitting in on my friends' game, and they were doing something about elves, and I had to point out, that the elves seemed, just OP as hell, and it's annoying that they're all pale, and/or blonde (Drows are cool, just look at them) and stuff… But I also agree… I don't like pale vampires, or sparkly vampires, I don't like vampires with those tiny little fangs… The best vampires in TV, or manga to me see the ones from Hellsing, because they're not all pretty, or all that other jazz, they're horrid, wretched things, but singular, and when they are clichē, they do it right.

In the story that I'm writing, I'm actually taking the whole "OP elf in both power and culture" thing to it's logical conclusion by showing it lead to imperialism, colonialism, and exceptionalism at the expense of other "lesser" races.

For fantasy races, I don't think its the races themselves that are cliched, its that people are forgetting to make the characters in each race individuals. This trope, "planet of hats" is basically what happens when every single member of a race is the same. I think it's important to remember that while all members of a race will share biological characteristics, not all of them have the same cultural values. I always liked that with the dwarves in tolkien - each one had his own personality outside of their race.

True, that's it!

Yes, this is a very important thing to keep in mind as well

Absolutely!
Alright, next.
The Show don't Tell rule.
I've found that while you should show some things, telling can be used for others. For example, I find it helpful to show emotion and tell surroundings. Thoughts?

This is a PSA: Being overly descriptive is IN! After all, how can you show your readers anything if you don't tell them?

I agree to a certain point. I guess I'll put it this way: "the waterfall was amazing" is telling, while "the waterfall cascaded down the side of the mountain, catching the sunlight as it tumbled into the lake below" is showing.

• Sometimes a character should be changed, but other times, they should be left alone
• if a character is doing something that doesn’t feel natural for them, don’t make them do it.
• don’t force a ‘great quote’ into your story if there isn’t an opertunity to say it, especially if it’s very poetic and your story isn’t, or vice versa
• write characters that you want to see more of in writing
• it’s fine to have a character who’s traits are very represented (white, blond, male, etc.) but don’t have all of your characters be from very well represented groups.
• don’t let your characters all have the same gender, sexuality, race, appearance, body type, mental stability, physical ability, etc. Mix it up a bit!

There's a fine line between 'show, don't tell' and 'on the nose' writing. Both are equally bad. Telling can be a powerful tool. For example, this snip from Trout Nation on Fifty Shades of Grey:

This is one of the biggest problems with 50 Shades of Grey. It’s like a team of cameras is following Ana everywhere she goes, every second of the day, and it’s being transcribed for the reader into the book, no matter how inane the details:

“Mr. Grey will see you in a moment. May I take your jacket?”
“Oh please.” I struggle out of the jacket.
“Have you been offered any refreshment?”
“Um – no.” Oh dear, is Blonde Number one in trouble?
Blonde Number Two frowns and eyes the young woman at the desk.
“Would you like tea, coffee, water?” she asks, turning her attention back to me.
“A glass of water. Thank you,” I murmur.
“Olivia, please fetch Miss Steele a glass of water.” Her voice is stern. Olivia scoots up immediately and scurries to a door on the other side of the foyer.
“My apologies, Miss Steele, Olivia is our new intern. Please be seated. Mr. Grey will be another five minutes.”
Oliva returns with a glass of iced water.
“Here you go, Miss Steele.”
“Thank you.”

Let’s do a little writing exercise, shall we? Let’s see if we can make that chunk of pointless dialogue into something more manageable, to move the story along to literally anything else in literally a tenth of the time. I’l go first:

One of the blonde receptionists took my coat and offered me a glass of water.

The whole point of a book is to tell a story (the plot), and if a scene or bit of exposition isn't defining a character or adding to the plot somehow, then it should be cut.
Write it, by all means, but that's what first drafts are for. By the time it gets to the second or third, most of the pointless fluff should be trimmed.

A few articles for those who enjoy reading about it:

http://www.arbeckert.com/20151109/show-dont-tell-in-moderation/

http://rvananderson.com/writing-on-the-nose-what-it-is-and-why-not-to-do-it/

I think the most important rule of all is that you should take out the time to understand writing as a medium. Rules like "show, don't tell" are nice and all, but if you have no idea what that means and how it applies to your story, than it doesn't mean beans. Not understanding the spirit of a law and following it to the letter is how we got a whole generation of female novel characters who were so afraid of being "mary-sueish" that they went in the opposite direction and somehow looped back around to being unrelatable again. So, understand the rules before you decide to break them, yes. But understand them before you follow them, too, which goes very nicely with my soapbox about learning how to research.

I agree in general, but I thought the advice given here would be more specific than 'buy a style guide and read all the rules'.