quick poll

[aruan]

Despite reading a lot of good fic in this lovely fandom vast and wide, I blame a combination of journalism and poor nutrition on my inability to feel anything for this story I'm writing and want so desperately to be good.

So, as brief or as detailed as you please, what's the single best writing tip anyone's ever taught you/you've divined/gotten from a fortune cookie? Though maybe not that cookie thing, those aren't usually well-written.

At the moment, I'm going line-by-line and remembering to show, not tell.

Comments

[gjstruthseeker.livejournal.com]

God, yes. Anything of mine that actually gets finished is done in this hazy, self-denying burst of productivity that comes from a nether place I can't even meditate to. I made the mistake of walking away from it thinking that I could use some food and showers help me think, and that was almost the end of it. But a rough draft does exist, only all I've really done since then is change words here and there.

The be brutal part though, I'm getting that. I love that I'm going back and realizing I've basically inserted cliches where I needed to say something important but didn't have the words, so they're there as obvious placeholders for something that hasn't been written a thousand times and again. But yes, finishing the frame always makes that sort of thing easier, because you know what you want to say and how to get there, even if at the moment it's the road less traveled rather than something navigable.

Wow, /bad metaphors.