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Showing posts from September 16, 2009

Workin' On It Wednesday #29 - Avoiding Mistakes

The most important thing in fiction writing is a compelling story. There are a number of ways to achieve that--character, plot, writing, etc--but it's the most important thing. And no one can tell you how to do it. Seriously. No class, no workshop, no blog by any agent (no matter how awesome) can make your writing compelling to others. It is, or it isn't. Period. But what those other things can do is help you avoid mistakes that everyone makes when they aren't thinking. J.A. Konrath judged a short story contest back in June, and he's got some guidelines about how not to write a story . His list is all examples of things that writers do that slow a story down or make it feel like every other story out there. Prologues, dreams, a character waking up, weather...all things that happen over and over and over again, and are almost never a good idea. My favorite? "Do Not Start A Story With A Setting Description." The funny thing about this edict is that one