Let’s talk about the eight tips any writer can implement into their work today to write better stories. With these small changes, you’ll start to build up your writerly toolbelt and gain that story-writing confidence. I’ve gathered these tips from trial and error and reading lots of books and articles about writing.

Read often

You’ve probably heard that to become a good writer you need to read often and read broadly, right? Well I’m going to tell you again, because it is such a great piece of advice. I don’t think you can hear this one too often. So, to become a good writer you need to read often and read broadly. When I say ‘read broadly’ I mean try different styles, different authors, different genres, cultures, story structures, character types. Everything you read should be different from the last in some capacity.

When you read, you want to read like a writer. There’s a great book by Francine Prose called Reading Like a Writer. Prose talks about close reading, which is the act of reading from an analytical perspective. You’re looking at how this author constructed their sentences and paragraphs. You’re noticing the word choice and the diction. What plot elements is this writer using? How did they pull off raising your heart rate? Why do you feel so attached to the main character within the first page?

Even if you don’t close read every single time you pick up a book, it’s important to read often. You’ll read good writing and absorb it. It’s like learning a language. Listening to the language helps you learn the pronunciation and rhythm. You start to subconsciously pick up on cadence and inflections. The more you read, the more you’ll pick up on the tricks authors are using to hook you.

Write often

When you listen to a language you can start to hear the subtleties of it. But the only way to put what you’ve heard into action is by speaking it yourself. The same is true for reading and writing. You can read all day and analyze other writing like nobody’s business. But if you don’t practice the skills you’re picking up on, what’s the point? I’m assuming you’re here because you want to write amazing stories, not just analyze them.

Simply put, the more you flex your writing muscles, the stronger they get. Even writing for 10 minutes a day will help you write better stories. 

Write something bad! Give yourself the gift of no pressure. Don’t sit down every time you write and think it needs to be perfect. 

It can be really helpful to have a writing routine in place to help with the discipline and habit of writing daily.

Do some prewriting

Prewriting is a great way to warm up. This helps you sort out what’s happening in your story, but it isn’t the actual story itself. 

Prewriting can look like a lot of different things, but what you might be most familiar with is the character profile and outlining. I do have a training on how to effectively use a character profile without it just being another form of productive procrastination. The technique I teach in this training helps you take what you learn in your character profile and actively use it to craft a character arc or plot a story around your character.

Some other examples of prewriting might look like writing scenes that don’t actually fit into your story, but help you better understand your characters. It might be worldbuilding exercises that help you really dive into the setting of your story. You might keep a list of ideas that come to you throughout the day so you don’t forget them by the time you sit down to write. 

Just because we have the prefix ‘pre’ on prewriting, doesn’t mean you have to do all of this work before drafting a story. You can do this at any point in your writing process to help you make sense of the story in your head.

Use craft elements wisely to write better stories

To really write better stories, you’ll want to strategically pick out what craft elements to focus on and how to use them. As a refresher, craft elements are things like plot, structure, dialogue, characterization, point of view, pacing, voice, mood, the list goes on. Basically a craft element is anything that you use to help convey your story in a certain way.

When done well, craft elements are invisible in a story. You get wrapped up in the turn of events and the rollout of new information, but you’re not necessarily thinking “Wow, the structure of this plot is amazing!” Well, if you’re reading like a writer, you might be.

It’s important to intentionally pick why you write in 3rd person vs 1st person. Why does your character speak the way they do? What tone does your narrator gives off? But, this also shouldn’t be overwhelming. These things will come naturally the more you write and the more you educate yourself on the craft of writing.

Develop your characters to write better stories

If you’ve seen any of my videos or read any of my blog posts, you know what I’m about to say. Your characters are everything. If your reader can’t connect to your character, then you might as well not even have a story. That might sound harsh, but I say it to get you to focus on your characters. Well developed characters are the bread and butter to every story. If we didn’t like Katniss and Primrose, would we even care that Prim’s name got called at the lottery in Hunger Games? If Blair and Serena weren’t well rounded characters, how could we have put up with all the bad choices they made in Gossip Girl (Chuck…)?

What I’m getting at is, your plot can be stellar, your craft elements can all fall into place, but if your characters aren’t developed, your reader will lose interest. We want to read to connect to other people. 

Elevate your dialogue

Dialogue is a craft element I wanted to pull out and look at specifically because it really can make or break a story. Dialogue is hard to master. It’s really hard to authentically show the speech of another person. But I do have a few tips on elevating your dialogue no matter what kind of characters you’ve created.

Despite what you’ve heard, it’s okay to tell and not show sometimes. As an example: When two characters meet, you might be tempted to show them being introduced to each other. But if your reader already knows who those characters are the introduction is repetitive and slows your story. You can use one sentence to say “Mikey introduced Pete and Sam” rather than having us sit through a bunch of “Hey how are ya”s. 

Always use the word said in your dialogue tags. I know there’s a lot of writing advice out there like “100 words to use other than said” and “said is dead”. I’m here to tell you that “said” is very much alive. Said is an invisible word in your writing. You could use “he said” one thousand times in your story and your reader won’t bat an eye. If you say “he laughed” or “he smirked” even 10 times your reader might get fatigued with the repetitive words.

And lastly, for now, keep dialogue short and sweet where you can. If your character has paragraphs of dialogue all on top of each other, find another way to convey the scene. Bricks of dialogue can get overwhelming, and sometimes your reader might forget who’s talking if you go on too long.

Edit mercilessly to write better stories

When you’ve got a first draft done, you’ll want to edit mercilessly. If something isn’t working, it’s okay to cut it out rather than trying to salvage it. It’s really easy to get into a sunk-cost fallacy after you’ve written a story. Just because you spent time on a scene and enjoyed it doesn’t mean that it automatically moves your story forward. Be honest with yourself, or have someone else read your work if you feel too close to it. Editing is going to be your best friend as you learn to write better stories.

Trust your gut

And that brings me to my last tip for today, trust your gut! As you continue to read and write you’ll develop a writer’s intuition and these things will come naturally to you. It’s okay to not get it right at the very get go. You should trust that you’ll be able to edit and make decisions and the story will come together as you chisel away at it. You’ll write better stories in no time.

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