Tips and tricks for writing a book?

Oh, there’s something.

1 – Don’t just write

Many beginners make the mistake that they have a daring basic idea and think that this would be enough, so they write directly on it without having a real plan. This often leads to the stories running in the sand or even being broken off. Some of them just go ahead and never really come to the destination, but so or so, the reader notices your lack of planning.

Therefore it is highly recommended to plan its history in advance. How much you want to go into detail is more an individual thing, but the least you should know are beginning, main conflict and end of your story.

If you need some help for plotting, look at the following methods:

• 3-act structure
• 5-act structure
• Heroes’ Journey
• Snowflake method

To go more into detail, for example, help things like:

• Scene planner (e.g. as Excel table)
• Time ray
• Mind map

2 – Creating three-dimensional figures

Figures also need planning. You should not perfect and in itself logical be. Small details are always useful to make a figure appear more vivid. But you should also be able to write your characters authentically with all the features you distribute. Just when you write figures with mental illnesses or physical limitations, something caution and fingertip feeling is required. If you do not have any experience with such things yourself, then pre-research how people behave and feel with depression, for example.

Otherwise, it always helps to create character arches for every more important figure. These should include both the corner data of the respective figure (name, age, appearance, place of residence, profession, etc.), as well as deeper information (moral, environment, relationships with other figures, past, wishes, dreams, fears, weaknesses and strengths, preferences and dislikes, etc.). These features should, at least for the most part, be meaningfully linked to the past of the figure, so that it gains depth and is inherently conclusive.

3 – Pay attention to spelling and grammar

No, this is not a German schoolwork, but write whether a story or an essay now also includes spelling and grammar. One doesn’t go without the other. And if you want someone to read your spiritual delights, it is only fair to adhere to the applicable rules in this respect. It should also be borne in mind that every mistake can tear your readers out of the reading flow and that, with frequent errors, becomes more annoying.

These include things such as the tempus, composition, interpointion and co. Thus, the records are not rudded animals and commas should not simply be arbitrarily set. Whether you write in the present or preteriority is no matter, but choose for one of both.

4 – Formatting

Each text needs paragraphs. At best, reasonable paragraphs. These have the purpose of facilitating life or at least reading.

This usually distinguishes between a line break (no empty line) and a paragraph (with empty line).

Line breaks are used, for example, if…

• … the talking figure changes
• … a dialogue begins
• … a mindset is finished and a new one begins
• … to highlight a set

Paragraphs are used, for example, if…

• … the place of action changes
• … a time jump takes place
• … a new scene begins
• … the perspective is changed

A well-structured text not only makes visually more than a block text that literally strikes, it also provides a pleasant reading experience.

5 – writing style

It is known that style can be contested, but there are a few things that are more of bad style.

For example, it is often recommended to use as many adjectives as possible to give the reader a clearer picture in mind. And yes, adjectives have their right of existence and they are important, but you should enjoy them more in dimensions than in masses. It is a bit of a sense of how much too much is, but as a rule of thumb it is basically: as little as possible, as much as necessary.

Often (and should) adjectives can be replaced by strong verbs. This applies to:

• “fast running” vs. “run”
• “Less Talk” vs. “flüstern”

Just as bad as adjectivitis are filling words that inflate the text unnecessarily. Maybe, somehow, at some point, maybe, simple, etc. Such words should be mercilessly deleted as they rarely contribute to the respective sentence.

Continuous word repetitions or repetitions are also included in the category “small writing style”.

And also the length of the sentences falls below this category. From long, much to nested box sets you should take as much distance as just using short, short sentences. A mix of long (long means not 10 lines long) and short sentences is always the best option.

In fact, the length of a sentence also has effects on the mood that you generate. Short sentences increase the reading speed and are therefore suitable for setting up tension for, for example, war or combat scenes, while long sentences tend to throttle reading speed and are very suitable for romantic or emotional scenes. However, this is now very flat-rate and does not always match 100%. However, this would lead to far.

There are, of course, a lot more things that fall under the category “writing style”, but there is a lot of taste here. And if you want to focus more on it, I would recommend you to put one or the other enroller or browse through the internet on this topic.

For example, topics such as:

• How do I use “Show, don’t tell” correctly?
• General descriptions
• How do I write good dialogues?
• How do I create mood/atmosphere?

6 – Edit texts

This is probably one of the most important points that is unfortunately very neglected among hobby authors. In principle, every raw version is not very good. The great writers also have to revise their texts and at best do it not only once but several times.

This is not only about correcting errors, but also the optimization of the set-up, the finding and flicking of possible plot gaps, the deletion of superfluous words and sentences (as much as comes together at the end!), the checking of the reading flow, and, and, and.

This revision alone greatly increases the quality of a text. You shouldn’t underestimate that. Of course, you have to spend time for it, but it has never been said that it would be easy to write good stories.

7 – Theory and Practice

To complete the whole thing (I’m back at 4 Word pages…), there are, of course, much more tips and guidelines than the ones I’ve just touched on here. There are not countless writers, blogs and columns that deal with this topic for nothing.

However, you shouldn’t stay too much with theory at first. Reading into the topic is quite sensible, but the implementation needs exercise and you only get it by writing regularly.

I’ll give you some free columns that I find very good for beginners. If you want to read in or not, you can decide yourself.

• From word scraps and mental thin-shots – A | Chapter 1 | by Opisthocomus | Prosa > Columns | FanFiktion.de
• | Chapter 1 | by AngelinaSchaedler | Prosa > Columns | FanFiktion.de
• Fanfictions write in good. A writer for critics – StoryHub Ratgeber
• P.C.’s Writer – Pim Cline – Wattpad

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