Writing Techniques: Master Post
June 23, 2015
In this series, I share writing techniques on various topics. I think it's important for writers to share knowledge with each other, since in most of the creative writing classes that I've attended . . . I wasn't really ever taught any writing techniques.
If you've ever attended a creative writing class you'll know this phenomenon. A friend once described it to me perfectly: In a cooking class, you are taught how to make a soufflé during the lesson. In a creative writing class you're usually asked to make a soufflé at home without a recipe, then bring it in to class, and then everyone sits around and critiques the soufflé, and there's always someone who says things like, "This isn't a good roast chicken". Sometimes you will even discuss soufflé theory. But at no point does anyone ever actually teach you how to make a soufflé.
So writers are stuck learning alone, desperately extrapolating and reverse-engineering techniques from reading other people's books, the same techniques that other writers have learned before them, and before them.
I expect the techniques to range from the simple to the more complex, with topics like pacing, plotting, character creation, dialogue, narrative traction, or just how to achieve specific effects. If I come across an interesting technique in a fiction book I'm reading, I'll try to break it down and work out how it is accomplished technically by the writer in a way that is understandable and reproducible.
A complete list of writing technique posts
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How to start writing when you have no ideas
How to make exposition suspenseful
How to start creating characters
How to create minor characters
How to solve the problems that are preventing you from writing





