My writing ability

[Strazio Rockwell]

I would recommend looking online for craft essays, especially those by Chuck Palahniuk and Stephen King, they both have some amazing essays on writing. If you want you can PM me and I can share some of the ones I have saved and direct you to some fantastic resources for improving writing.

Here is an excerpt from one of Chuck Palahniuk's essays that really helped me improve.

In six seconds, you’ll hate me.

But in six months, you’ll be a better writer.

From this point forward – at least for the next half year – you may not use “thought” verbs. These include: Thinks, Knows, Understands, Realizes, Believes, Wants, Remembers, Imagines, Desires, and a hundred others you love to use.

The list should also include: Loves and Hates.

And it should include: Is and Has, but we’ll get to those, later.

Until some time around Christmas, you can’t write: Kenny wondered if Monica didn’t like him going out at night…”

Instead, you’ll have to Un-pack that to something like: “The mornings after Kenny had stayed out, beyond the last bus, until he’d had to bum a ride or pay for a cab and got home to find Monica faking sleep, faking because she never slept that quiet, those mornings, she’d only put her own cup of coffee in the microwave. Never his.”

Instead of characters knowing anything, you must now present the details that allow the reader to know them. Instead of a character wanting something, you must now describe the thing so that the reader wants it.

Thinking is abstract. Knowing and believing are intangible. Your story will always be stronger if you just show the physical actions and details of your characters and allow your reader to do the thinking and knowing. And loving and hating.

Another tip I can offer when it comes to description and filling a page. If you don't know what to write, describe the inside of your characters mouth or their feet. Are they biting the inside of their cheeks in anticipation? Are the soles of their feet sore and pained after hiking 10 miles? Are they nervous and their mouth is dry because of it? There is a gold mine of sensory descriptions with the feet and mouth that mingle fantastically with show don't tell. Starting from within the character and then expanding to their surroundings gives you a really good base for setting the scene and their interpretation of said scene.