Writing Tips and Reviews

Editors

This is going to be a short one.

Many problems I've seen lately are due to a lack of information, or in someone else's case, stating the information with the idea people know what she's talking about but don't because introducing life itself in the story is an afterthought. Or not a thought at all.

What is the easy solution that involves you not doing anything? (But you really should read your work a few days after you wrote it.) It's an editor!

Editors will help you figure out what you need to add in or subtract from your work. The statement "the king had a perfect life until a son disappeared and the kingdom went into lockdown" is supposed to be an emotional scene to get people to cry but non-fans of the series feel nothing? An editor can help you fill in the gaps and help you make the scene emotional.

That magic school is for dragons and treated like knowledge the reader already has but you never introduced it in the first place? An editor can point that out so you add in a little piece about the school being for dragons. (It's not that hard and I know some people have an ego like Greg so won't accept any form of advice BUT I AM TRYING TO HELP YOU. LET ME HELP YOU.)

You stated a word over 80 times in the last three paragraphs and you think that's not going to drive people insane? An editor can tell you to stop doing that. Because don't do that.

You only know Japan through anime and are probably going to screw up the Japanese lifestyle? Get an editor, specifically someone who is Japanese and lived in Japan, or an expert. Else you look like a retard.

You have an entire conversation crammed into a single paragraph with "and then they said" to separate the dialogue. An editor can tell you that it's a horrible idea to do that and just don't. Don't ever do that.

You have a bloated sentence full of "current", "now", and words that should not go together? An editor can weed them out.

My point is to get someone to help you, they can read your work and tell you what's missing, what could be added, and ask questions. Sometimes reading it yourself isn't enough, because you don't catch everything. I know from personal experience I have missed information or repeated myself, so I had friends look it over. I had a part where a character drew a gun twice in the same sentence. I am not perfect.

And neither are you, so get some help, because that quality of work can be improved with someone to guide you. I know there are people whose ego is through the roof and only wants praise, they're not the type who look for advice in the first place, even if they're asking for it, they're just looking for praise. Those people you shouldn't bother with, they'll dance around a question with "it'll be revealed later" then never does because they don't think about making the story fun for others.

Lastly, find people from a writing group, if you only look at the people from the fan base you're in, you might not get the help you need. I got lucky for a while in a Fate Fanservant discord because everyone had writing experience. Then the mods treated me like crap for no reason and I left. That's not important, what is important that if you're looking for help, find people who specialize in the topic.

If you need help with a canon character, the fandom is the best place, but there's no guarantee they can answer every question you have. Sentence structure, missing information, never stating who's talking, development, those things can be improved with an editor from a writing group. They will know exactly how to help and give you suggestions. Some may even rewrite the scene for you to give you an idea.

Whatever you choose to do, get some form of help or look over your writing multiple times. Even if you think it's a perfect masterpiece, some people aren't going to think that.