Some helpful hints from Jackie French to help you get started.
Writing Criteria
Always remember that you are writing for your readers, not yourself.
What to Write
Write about what you love. Write what you think needs writing.
THINK before you write. The more you think, the better your work will be.
Why is this interesting? (If it bores you, it will bore everyone else)
Has anyone else written a story, or ideas, or characters like this before? (Second hand ideas are like second hand clothes. The more often they are used, the more faded they become.)
Can the reader predict what is going to happen next?
Be original. The more original your ideas or characters or plot, the more the reader will think 'I have to keep on reading!'
How to Write
Good writing tells its story as clearly and vividly as possible.
Imagery helps make writing vivid, but too much hides what you are trying to say.
Images and adjectives and adverbs are like salt: a little bits helps. Too much, and food just tastes salty.
Slow your story down, too. It's called 'narrative pacing.' If you say 'last night I was chased by an axe murderer but I jumped out the window' it isn't frightening. Slow it down, so you hear each footstep, and the reader will stop breathing till they know what happens next.
How Do You Know If What You Have Written is Good?
If you feel like saying 'wow!' when you read it back, it's good.
Wow! can be because it's funny, exciting, interesting, an absorbing story, is so real you think you are there, or makes you look at the world as if it's had its windows washed.
But as long as it's 'wow!' it's good.
Judging Criteria
- originality
- vivid imagery, not too much or too little
- a well paced story or essay or poem, slow enough to build up tension or to explain the ideas step by step, but not so slow it is boring
- "Wow"