Creative Writing Tips

    • Avoid Cliches

    • There are a ton of cliches, there's no denying that. Heck, there's actually a movie genre now which "pokes fun" at movie cliches a la Scary Movie, Date Movie, Epic Movie. Try and avoid falling into using these cliches unless you can come up with a unique twist for it.
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    • Try Out National Novel Writing Month

    • The non-profit organization, National Novel Writing Month, known as NaNoWriMo can be found at http://www.nanowrimo.org/. The organization is for writers and works to get people writing. The objective is to get a novel written in a month, from November 1st to November 30th. Having these deadlines will help keep you focused and get you working hard to get your writing out there.
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    • Experiment Using Writing Prompts

    • We've got a ton of great writing prompts on this site. Use them. These prompts will help you experiment with new writing techniques and can help inspire different ideas in your head. Even if the piece you write based on the prompt isn't the one you're looking for, it can help open the floodgates to a new piece.
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    • Elmore Leonard - Don't Use "Suddenly" or "All Hell Broke Loose"

    • While you might feel like something suddenly happened, it's a waste of space in writing. Suddenly gives the reader no visual understanding of what is being described, it makes something sound magical. Use more thorough descriptions of things and the reader will piece together what happened. Likewise, "All hell broke loose" gives no true visual of what's happening in the story. Don't rely on cheap phrases but instead, provide the visual imagery that will cause the reader to make that conclusion on his or her own.
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    • Let Your Readers Be Cheerleaders

    • To ensure your audience enjoys your book, it's good to provide them with a character they can root for. If your reader feels no sympathy for any of the characters in the book, or never develops an attachment to their cause, then the reader will lose interest.
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