Writers: What's the best advice you've ever been given?

I mean advice about writing obviously.Writers: What's the best advice you've ever been given?
It came from a very famous bestselling author. Vary the length of your chapters and keep the length of the title at 2 or so words.





The other great advice I got long ago from my grandmother who was a research assistant for a very famous author in the 60's. You can never do enough RESEARCH!!! Pax-C





PS Good advice Kylie - I give that advice out here all the time!Writers: What's the best advice you've ever been given?
I have several gifts of advice that I take to heart and pass on to others. In fact, I think I've even said some of these things in response to people's questions on this site.





'Listen to your characters, they will guide the way. Yes it sounds crazy, and yes, it can be frustrating, but it works. If you ever get stuck because you think something should happen one way and you can't get it to work, it might be simply because your character thinks it happened another way.'





'Write every day, even if it's just one line.'





'If one idea doesn't work, stop and move on to something else. If it is a story worth telling, the story will find its way to you.'
I actually just got the advice a couple of days ago, but it's really good!





About descriptions in books:


Have you ever noticed how no famous authors really take the time to thoroughly describe things? The scenery- one or two lines. How the characters look- one or two lines. The don't spend half a page saying ';The girl had long, straight red hair. Her eyes were green. Her face was covered in freckles.'; See how boring that is!?





So, next time you're working on a story, really consentrate on the story... Not what the main character's wearing!








Good luck with writing! :)
READ. Read read read. Read good stuff. Read bad stuff. Read the classics. Read the cutting edge. Read cereal boxes. Read advertising posters in the subway. Read everything you can get your eyeballs on. And then read some more.





Saul Bellow said that a writer is primarily a reader moved to emulation. I tend to agree with that. I believe it's impossible to be a good writer if one is not a voracious reader.
The best advice I've ever been given on writing, is just to be myself in the page. Write whatever comes to mind and what you know. Though I've taken that to heart, I can never seem to write what I know, but what I feel and that still applys to myself and my heart. That's all that counts.
Write.











Should I have put down some witty BS? Sorry - I forgot, the most obscure advice is always the best, forgive me.








Becky S - The quote is:


';Read, read, read. Read everything--trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a capenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out the window.';


- William Faulkner
Know your characters as well as you know your best friends. If you don't know them well enough, you won't know how they would react to certain problems or issues--and if you don't know that, you haven't got much of a story.
start your first line with a bang so it catches the readers attention.





always leave three minor questions unanswered.





strangely, it not only makes the story more interesting, it makes it more fun to write.
1) rewrite


2) rewrite


3) rewrite after you finish - rewriting too soon and you will always be stuck in the scene, that chapter, that act - any intense notes write down but don't change until you are done.
The possibilities are endless. Use your imagination.
Be politely persistent, meaning that if you don't get it right the first time, keep trying.
If you're not completely dedicated, don't even pick up your pen!
';Put it away for 2 months. Then look at your writing.... Isn't so great now, is it?';
Make sure you've got the write stuff !