A thread to help out beginner writers. Please add any advice you have, you can include examples of commonly made mistakes and boring stereotypes everyone is tired of. Feel free to give guidance as well, what you find interesting and original and how modern literature should be written. Anything you deem important and worthy of being warned about.
Thanks to anyone who replies!

Avoid adding remarks after dialogue like
'I ate today.' Sally said, picking up her bag.
'Oh, really?' Her mom replies as she stirs up the vegetables in the frying pan.
'Yeah, it wasn't that good anyway.' Sally remarks with a slight tone of disgust.

It's not necessary and the way it(dialogue) is spoken can be interpreted by how the dialogue is written.

What I've learned from going to fiction writing class is if you have people having a conversation, just use "said" or "asked" for your speech tags. You don't really need to use anything else.

But wait, you might say. That sounds kinda boring. You'd be right. You can substitute "said" or "asked" with body language. It's going with the above idea to convey ideas and attitudes about the character.

Which leads to the one lesson that people starting off need to know: show rather than tell.

What does that mean? It means you need to convey a character's attitudes and feelings in a way that the reader can figure out for themselves without just flat out telling them.

Here's an example, how to write and not write using my suggestions and the example from #2.

"What is taking him so long?" asked Grayson, who was quite cold and really wished he'd worn something warmer than a sweatshirt.
"I don't know but look at this!" giggled Jessica, shoving her 3DS into Grayson's face because she knew it annoyed him.
"Would you stop!" Grayson growled.

"What is taking him so long?" asked Grayson. He shoved his hands into the pocket of his sweatshirt and hunched his shoulders, trying not to shiver.
"I don't know but look at this!" Jessica took her 3DS and shoved it into Grayson's face. She giggled as he had to take a sudden step backward
Being suddenly assaulted with a handheld gaming device did not really improve the situation to Grayson's mind. Why does she do this me? he thought. Out loud, he said, "Would you stop!"

Something quick and dirty but you get the idea.

>>2then what are you "supposed" to do? Guys, don't just say don't do something and then not give ex of what you consider to be the correct/better way of writing.

>>4 when I made this thread, I asked for mistakes to avoid. These are the most commonly made ones, and though I appreciate you pointing out that criticism should be constructive, it's not what was my point of focus. That "supposed" part, I think, everyone should be able to figure out based on what NOT to do. Please continue to post your ideas, everyone, so far it's been very interesting!
Cheers.

>>5 So... I'm just supposed to "figure out" what's wrong with >>2, when in recent years I've been doing this and no one said anything was wrong with it; friends, family, teachers, no one. Really?
I know what you originally asked in OP, but if questions aren't allowed to be asked in the thread, what's the point? Was >>2 just saying don't have a description after dialogue every time, or were they saying don't do it period? What would they have done?

Here's examples:

Overall, the last couple of days were quiet with an air of disillusioned peace.
The real fun started at around dinnertime.

“I told you all already. I saw it.”
“Seriously?!”
“How big was it?”
“It could look over the wall.”
“What?!”
“I heard it straddled the wall.”
“Me too!”
“I‘ve heard that from my village too!”
“Not really, it wasn’t that big.”

Everyone was gathered around a table behind him as this one kid described his experience facing the titans firsthand. He’s heard plenty of these narratives before, usually a device to gain the center of attention.
______

“Aiyahhh… Seems we’ll be stuck with a few idiots for the next 3 years,” somebody at his table spoke as Jean stood to confront the boy.

“Yeah, but look at `em,” Reiner said, taking a swig out of his mug, “They’re too damn scrawny for this fight to be entertaining. They might as well use fingernails and pull each other's hair.” The people around him chuckled and grinned in agreement.

_____

Which one was better?

>>8 Listen, everyone has their own different style and nobody's forcing you to go by what people write here. I don't want people arguing here in the replies, just stating their opinion so that we can all learn from it.
That said, everyone, please continue. So far it's been interesting to see different views on the matter.

>>9 How. Do. We. Learn. From. It. If. You're. Vague.

Whatever. I'm done.

>>10 Gotta agree with that.

>>5 I know I'll make a jerk out of myself again, but this:
Worst Mistakes to Avoid in Writing: >Not being clear about what you mean by what you wrote< It's just so ironic. XD Damn, I crack myself up. And to crown the whole joke:
- "what are you "supposed" to do?"
- "everyone should be able to figure out based on what NOT to do"
I'm laughing my ass off in the office right now, seriously. I mean you can't get less descriptive than that(let's remember it's a writer's discussion). This just made my day XD

>>11
Alright, alright. I apologize for being so vague. Do as you wish. Write what you want, after all, the thread is to help.

>>12 *bangs head against table*
(How-are-you-guys-not-getting-it? I must've come off as antagonistic again. I'm not defending my way of writing, I want to LEARN, dammit! IMPROVE myself! Please take a look at >>8 and tell me which one you think is better based on the advice you have given. Or don't. Whichever one. I don't want a damn apology (roflmao) I. Want. Adviiiiiiiice. )

>>13 I applogised because I'm a learner here as well. I don't think myself able. If you want an opinion, though, here it is; I like the second one more. It seems a lot more natural and flows better. That's the only reason I can name at 5 am. Sorry for not answering earlier. I must've gotten the wrong impression. Sorry.

>>12 "Sorry for being vague. Do what you want." Please, you're killing me XD, you're fucking killing me XD

>>13 Small advice: lose the "as" parts. It kills action and precedence of plot. Compare:
“Aiyahhh… Seems we’ll be stuck with a few idiots for the next 3 years,” somebody at his table spoke as Jean stood to confront the boy.

Jean stood to confront the boy. “Aiyahhh… Seems we’ll be stuck with a few idiots for the next 3 years,” somebody spoke at his table.

Precedence: Jean stands to confront the boy > Somebody reacts. If you use "quote" said somebody as something happened, you're reversing the flow of events making the reader lose momentum.
Of course IF I didn't misunderstand the flow of events in your snippet.

If you're asking which one I like more, I have to go with the second one though. I think it's a more creative way of describing an event, letting the reader think about what they might be talking.

of.
about what they might be talking of.

I really need an edit function....

>>16
>>Small advice: lose the "as" parts. It kills action and precedence of plot.
You...Genius. I've been having trouble with that for years. Okay, now I see what's wrong. Thanks, I'll work over it some more.

>>17 lol We were just talking about that in suggestions. Weigh in your opinion before that thread is gone.

>>16 "Sorry for being vague. Do what you want." Please, you're killing me XD, you're fucking killing me XD

Please, I'm really not trying to argue, I just want to learn. I apologised to Mag and accepted that I was wrong.

>>19 Dai's just messing with you now~

Back on subject

Before writing a piece, fully flesh out your main characters.

Create a brainstorm of their characteristics and flaws, as well as their strengths and weaknesses.

The process is easier if you don't mind a bit of acting. You could act out a scene you want to incorporate in your story; put some music in the bg if you need.

I needed to write out a funny drunken scene once, so I actually got tipsy enough and let whatever mind wandering dribble type itself on the page to be sorted out the morning after.

You can also use real life conversations as dialogues or a scene that happened during your day. It'll make your writing more natural and give a "realistic" quality to your work.

>>19 It's ok. I just found it funny. I have a very unique sense of humor. I find comedy in the inconsistent and the contradicting. So don't get it wrong, I'm not trying to pick on you.

Also to add to >>20: it's a good practice to know a lot more about your world and characters than the reader does. The reason is because it makes a consistent character if you know his/her background, motivations, flaws and reasons, while you don't necessarily want to rub these under the reader's nose.

>>21 How is that NOT picking on someone. XD
Also, this. ^ Consistency is a beautiful quality in work. ESPECIALLY if you're creating a series. Character development is understanding, but the reader will notice OOC behavior.

>>22 Yeah, inconsistency is also a big SOD killer. Poor sod. (puntastic! For anyone who's unfamiliar with it SOD == Suspension of disbelief)

Also, another thing that came to mind, it's not obligatory for a good story but a best practice. It's not a good idea to kick your story off while you're unsure of the ending. Simply because the ending is where all the elements: the premise, the concept and the theme weave together in a hellish turmoil of "holy crap"s from the reader if you do it right. Alas, it's a good idea to have a basic plot down, so you know what message you want to set with the plot/character development/ending(also somewhat interweaved), what theme your environments and characters follow and what concept frames the events.

This went in a fantastic direction. Mag, your insight was amazing. It actually reminded me of a concept I'd heard before, which improved my writing once... Before it went back to the miserable failure it is now. And also, thanks for your understanding.
(As you might've guessed, I wasn't feeling very well in the past week, turns out I was low on something. I'm a lot better now after stopping the diet.)

>>24 *rolls eyes* All these puns... I can't seem to escape them.
>>25 Be Careful!!
My mum would start a diet that changed her mood and it would have me force feeding her favorite chips. Not good memories.

Great idea. Here are my two cents:

What annoys me to no end are poorly executed characterisations, e.g. a character is supposed to be funny.

How to fail:
Take a look at any cheap romance story. It's rewarding to study a penny dreadful's flaws because they're easy to spot and because they suffer the most from bad characterisations. You'll find plenty of scenes where the characters talk nonstop about how great their love-interest is, but we never get to see him/her act on these characteristics (e.g. a character is described as witty, but you only get to read about their stoic behaviour). Or they are reduced to singular, idealistic traits (cliches). In other words, the characterisations are shallow.

How to succeed:
Like tons of writers have already said: Show, don't tell! It is even better if you aren't only able to write in a scenic style but if you can also help the reader identify with your characters. Therefore, you have to make your characters come to life visually through showing and to make their motives understandable.

If you want to portray someone, you shouldn't narrate it like a local news reporter. Just describe an action or a situation which shows them acting according to their designated character trait i.e. funny character should be seen and heard telling actual jokes, making amusing comments or maybe pulling intelligent pranks on people.

If you have to make others talk about this trait, be careful not to make it too obvious.
Example: Rather than having a side character say, "This person is funny.", you could make them hold their stomach and say, "Great joke! It's been a long time since I laughed this much."

Learning to flesh out a character realistically isn't easy. The best way is to hone your observation skills first, because you can only depict what you have consciously perceived. Theatres or good drama clubs are a great places to observe people. You can ask a small drama troupe to let you attend their rehearsals. Or if you get the chance, try acting yourself. That way, you can learn how actors capture and develop human emotions which you can use as reference material for your characterisations later on.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

II) Another major off-putting common flaw is bad narration or inconsistent storytelling. It's even more unbearable when the plot isn't told chronologically or when it has different kinds of narrative styles, time skips, alternating point of views etc. There's nothing as bad as a horribly written montage.

How to fail:
Put random bits of your story together without pointing out their connection. Employ coincidental events that do not advance the plot at all. Leave wide unexplained gaps between incidents. Change your narrative pace deliberately... The list is endless, but they all have one thing in common: Your audience will quickly feel annoyed and start wondering, whether there is any plot at all, before they stop reading your story altogether.

How to succeed:
Plan beforehand! Make a chronological concept for your whole plot including all storylines and characters, their backgrounds, actions and locations. Don't decide on a point of view until you've finished the planning. You can write the concept in form of a list with an entry for each scene (!), or write a summary or whatever works for you.

Then shuffle your scenes in a way that seems intriguing to you. It's important to make sure that the order retains a kind of logic that can be understood by someone who is not familiar with your story. Maybe you can ask a friend to read your concept after it's done. That way you can check if it's understandable or if there are any major plotholes. As a writer it's easy to overlook them because you know your own story too well. At this stage it's still fairly easy to rearrange everything until it fits.

However, don't forget to choose an attention-grabbing scene for the beginning of your story and to keep up the suspense high throughout your story (the classic would be cliff-hangers at the end of a chapter). In order to succeed, keep the following things in mind:

1) Avoid narrating the same event twice in a similar manner; though, it's fine if you choose distinctively different narratives (e.g. different point of view) for the same scene as long as they complement the readers understanding of the story and as long as they don't reduce the suspense.

2) Build connections between different storylines and drop enough hints (foreshadowing!) to keep the readers curiosity going.

For further reference study some dramatic theories (Aristotle's basics or Freytag's pyramid). They might be boring to read, but their efficiency is one reason why drama has stayed so successful for thousands of years.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

III) And last but not least, know your craft. You should have a solid understanding of literary devices, narrative techniques (stream-of-consciousness etc.), the influence of syntax and diction etc. Only then can you develop and refine your own style.
One step towards a personal writing voice is particularity. Make your style memorable by using uncommon descriptions:

Example:
A couple is making out in a public place, and you want to convey the pedestrians' annoyance:

1) The pedestrians looked at them with a disgruntled expression.
Boring, isn't it? It's a typical example of telling instead of showing the pedestrians' feelings. Let's try some dialogue.

2) Pedestrian: "How annoying."
The dialogue is hardly more scenic than a narrative description because its content is presented in such a plain way.

3) Pedestrian: "Get a room, you two!"
By using an everyday expression, the onlookers' annoyance becomes easily understandable and more relatable. Nevertheless, it still doesn't have any literary quality, because it isn't memorable. Anyone could have used this expression, it isn't characteristic for a certain writing style.

4) Pedestrian: "I think I'm about to vomit honey."
Here you are. This metaphor is particular. It manages to characterise the couple's behaviour as overly sweet and sticky, and it conveys the speaker's disgust. If you take out the honey part ("I think I'm about to vomit."), the imagery would lose it's particular appeal and it would become interchangeable with any other everyday expression (see 3).
Plus, the way the author uses this metaphor also shows off their personal writing style.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Of course, the list is inexhaustible, but these are some major mistakes, you need to avoid in order to write a good story.

>>8 I agree with >>16. The way your two scenes are, the second one is a lot better than the first because there's no artificial separation of the dialogue and the narration. However, if you change a few things, the first scene will improve tremendously.

First, change the opening paragraph. It's difficult to imagine what "quiet with an air of disillusioned peace" feels like because "disillusioned peace" is the omnious(?) narrator's abstract and retrospective judgement. It doesn't have the same impact on the reader as a more scenic description would. I don't know the story's setting, but perhaps you could write something along the following lines:

For a couple of days, life went on as usual. The market place was buzzing with the townfolk's chatter and the vendors' bustling activities. The lady from the fruit stall praised her apples to the coachmen rattling by.
"Apples! Fresh apples! Here try them, young man! This year's harvest! The freshest apples of them all! Got them right this morning from the orchard!"
Her cheeks were as round as red as apples from all her bellowed praises.
On the other side of the road, a pair of housewives consulted each other over the weather.
"It sure got cold over past few days."
Nodding.
"I'm already airing our furs out."
"Oh really? Maybe I should also look for ours. My husband brought back some beautiful wolf's fur last year."
"Right, wasn't he a hunter..."
Only the strained serenity in their voices betrayed the town's quiet.

By showing the everyday life, you can emphasise the peaceful atmosphere and flesh out the story's setting. And small talk about insignificant topics like the weather is well-suited to indicate the calm front that people are putting on.

I'd also change the introductory sentence to your dialogue. The expression "real fun" seems strange in this context unless you let the narrator use it in an inner monologue. It's too colloquial(?) for a narrator's voice. How about something like this (I put character names, places etc. in brackets)?

That evening, a child's voice was the first to break the silence in the [inn, boarding house etc.].

Regarding the conversation itself, it's true that less descriptions can help you hold up the tension, but it only works if you construct the dialogue accordingly. Otherwise, it'll feel out of place without any cues about the situation and the characters' surroundings. In this case, I would leave out the explicit mention of "dinnertime" and just mention few dishes and food.

A great conversation only seems to be realistic, but truthfully, most of them got a tense undercurrent that is so well hidden by the writer that you won't realise the conversation's artificial character at first glance. You can make a dialogues a lot more interesting if you scratch all filler words, redundant phrases (e.g. “Me too!”, ) or everyday comments that don't leave anything to the reader's imagination (e.g. “Seriously?!”, “What?!”). If you leave all these out and add a little conflict to your verbal exchanges (e.g. replying to question with a counter question), you'll create the tension that makes dialogues so enjoyable to the reader. Here's a sketch to illustrate how you could improve your first conversation:

"You won't believe what I saw today."
[Narrator] looked up from his plate and glanced over to the other end of his table. Another traveller raised an eyebrow at the loud-mouthed brat.
"Come on, you must have heard about it! It was all over the town."
"You mean the titan?", another boy chipped in from across the his bowl, "The one looming over the town wall?"
The brat shook his head. "It didn't loom over the wall - it overshadowed it!" He leaned over to his friends. "I saw it with my own eyes. It was gigantic, it stood 60, no 70 feet tall or even more. I was on my way down to the gates, and there it was, towerin-"
"Shouldn't you stop running your mouth off on monsters and finish your soup instead before it goes cold?"
The traveller emptied his mug and rose from his seat. The boy who had been bragging until a few moments ago fell silent. He watched the man pick up his dishes and leave the table.
"What's wrong with that guy? Acting all high and mighty," he muttered.
"Let him be. What happened at the gates? I heard someone saw the titan straddling the town wall."
The brat finally peeled his eyes from the traveller's darkening figure.
"The straddling is ballocks, but what I told you is all true, I swear!" [...]

As for the conclusion or the transition to the next scene, you can link your scenic description with a little narrative to give your dialogue the finishing touch. Here's an example:

By now, the other children had also laid down their spoons, drawing every word from their friend's lips. As [Narrator] looked at the other children's gaping stares, he knew the brat's plot had worked. Whenever someone mentioned the titans, they could be sure to grab the attention of the young and the foolish.

English isn't my mothertongue and I'm getting sleepy, so excuse my language mistakes. I still hope that I could be of help. Tomorrow, I'll continue with the the rest.

There's a typo in the last example: It should be "ploy" instead of "plot".
An edit button would be great for something like this.

>>8 (continued) @Mag

About your second piece of conversation, I like the tone you used, it sets the atmosphere well. Even though, I would change the hair-pulling metaphor to something more practical because it feels a little forced, and if you withhold information about future events (3 years) for a while, you can use it to bridge the slight lack of tension. Here's a rough outline to indicate how you could go about it:

"Aiyahhh… Seems we’ll be stuck with another bunch of idiots.", [speaker] groaned.
"Yeah, but look at `em."
Reiner took a swig out of his mug.
"I bet not even half of them will make it through the first 6 months, let alone 3 full years. I shall be damned if someone manages to prove me wrong."
"Deal! If more than [1/2 of the group's size] stay, you'll get us a bottle of [innkeeper]'s finest wine."
"Make it two," [newcomer] declared as he grabbed a seat behind Reiner. "I say not even a third will make the cut."
Someone in the back whistled.
"Hear ye! Less than a third...! You sure about it? I'll take you up on your word."
[newcomer] gave [speaker] a glance that said it all. His comrades started roaring.

I hope I didn't offend you by taking your text to demonstrate my ideas.

>>31 No, no! These are awesome ideas! :)
I just wonder if you've ever watched the anime Attack on Titan before. The first one was direct dialogue from the show, just so that the readers knew which part of the story we're in, so I didn't bother leave any descriptive details. I'll make some revisions.

I agree with you about the "hair pulling" comment, and what you wrote as a replacement would be a better flowing/more natural insult.
You seemed to have put a bit of a Shakespearean twist on the rest of it, but I don't think these characters would ever talk that way. (Sorry ^__^ ) Thanks so much for the detailed advice and help! >>28 THIS was bloody amazing as well. Are you an actual author? You say English isn't your mother tongue, but I'm having trouble believing you. O.O

>>32 No, I haven't seen or read much of the Attack on Titan franchise, but I automatically assumed that both dialogues were set in a medieval Fantasy setting.

Thanks for the compliment. I wish I were but no, I'm neither a native speaker nor an author. I just love reading fiction, and I have been writing stories and poems as a hobby for more than 10 years now. The first two points on my list (>>28) are the main reasons for me to drop a story. I included the third one about writing as a craft because I got the impression that the most marvellous writers always turn out to have a profound understanding of literary techniques.

.

Ten rules for writing fiction

"Get an accountant, abstain from sex and similes, cut, rewrite, then cut and rewrite again – if all else fails, pray. Inspired by Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing, we asked authors for their personal dos and don'ts"

Awesome ideas in here guys.

Can someone tell me how not to make a mistake while describing something? Or can you tell me any common mistakes.

Z

I never noticed this until recently but whenever writing I would randomly switch between the past and past perfect tenses. When speaking out loud it sounded alright so I just went with it for a long time. An instance was in a short story I was writing where it went :

It was a dark night during a waning moon, the breeze in the air was carrying the increasingly chilly air as the seasons changed for the upcoming winter.

Instead of:

It was a dark night during a waning moon, the breeze in the air carried the increasingly chilly air as the seasons changed for the upcoming winter.

Because the first one made the wind carry the cold before meaning it wasn't any longer, or as I saw it described somewhere as a past tense for the past tense. I don't know if it was just me but always remember your tenses.

Bump.

Bump. Sorry if this is a necropost, but it seems useful.