Lucy Taylor
Read the very best writers you can find and try to figure why what they do works. Be curious about everything--in writing and in life.
Don't take that old adage "write what you know" too literally. In other words, just because your own life is fascinating to you, it may not be to your readers.
Listen to how people actually talk and then create a believable version of that. I've read work that was really beautifully written, but the characters talk as if they're in an English manor i.e. perfect diction and genteel appeals for mercy while the character is being kidnapped by a madman.
Don't take that old adage "write what you know" too literally. In other words, just because your own life is fascinating to you, it may not be to your readers.
Listen to how people actually talk and then create a believable version of that. I've read work that was really beautifully written, but the characters talk as if they're in an English manor i.e. perfect diction and genteel appeals for mercy while the character is being kidnapped by a madman.
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