Open Novella Journal 2024

Quick Tips!!!

So, I wanted to drop some tips because of feedback I gave someone else who asked for feedback.

First, pacing is important. Writing with a set word count can be a bit daunting, but it helps to break the events into chunks. Have a certain amount for your beginning and end, then for each of your major events, take those events and divide them evenly between them.

For example, let's say you have four major events and you give yourself about 5k for a solid beginning and end to the story. That leaves 15-35k for your events, so for each event, you should be thinking of yourself as having a minimum of 3,750 words and a maximum of 8,750 words for each event.

And, if you're thinking of shoving in over a dozen major events to your story, less is more, and by this I don't mean less words are more but less major events is more. It's why I don't go with specific story ideas for ONC because I know there will be too many major events to focus on.

Next, first-person narrative.

First-person narrative is something that seems easy but, in reality, isn't, and it comes down to not knowing some specific things.

For example,write yourself instead of the character you are writing; making sure to ask yourself what the character is thinking is one issue. Also, third person is often told in the past tense because the reader goes in expecting a story that is done with and narrated out for them to enjoy, while first person is often told in present tense as the story is unfolding in front of the reader as it does the character which is to avoid the first person narrator slipping out of "show, don't tell."

Which, there's nothing wrong with telling something. The narrative flows better for a reader if the story is shown, rather than told to them, which avoiding to be verbs can help with this. Still, places telling works is say utilizing in-world elements like newspapers, dialogue, and things the characters interact with because in the end, you're still showing even though the story would otherwise sound like the reader is being told. A newspaper feels like the character is reading it then and there, the dialogue feels like it is unfolding then and there in front of the character, and the things they interact with feel like it's happening then and there to the character.

And yes, past and present tense, depending on the POV, helps.

Last is Mark Twain's rules for writing. I'm constantly running my writing through that.