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Write This, Not That
Part 1 of 5: Tips for taking your fiction to the next level.
Part 1: Writing Beyond the Obvious
How to write what you don’t see.
“What are we going to do today, Julie?”
“The same thing we do every day, Writer. Try to take over the writing world.”
Writers have a tendency to be focused on one thing: writing the greatest words ever written!
Unfortunately, this may lead to surface writing, or what is known as stating the obvious.
As writers we tend to write dialogue and describe what our characters are wearing, while detailing facial expressions and body movements. This leads to shallow characters and flat prose. Dialogue and action are the things right in front of us that readers need to see, yes, but readers need more. They need to know why the character is saying what they’re saying and why they’re acting the way they’re acting. The why behind the words and actions is what keeps the reader reading.
Getting past what’s right before your eyes — in order to write beyond the obvious — is crucial to crafting quality fiction.
To do this, writers have to write about what they don’t see.
