Ten writing secrets taught to me by a world-class master!

"The Shawshank Redemption" is adapted from Stephen King's "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption". The film has a Douban score of 9.6. Stephen King has won the Bram Stoker Award six times, the International Horror Literature Association Award six times, the O. Henry Award in 1996, and the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Literature in 2003. He is a prolific, award-winning American bestselling author.

The honor belongs to others. When we look up to them, we should try to learn the writing methods of our idols. Just like yesterday, when Philly fan Scullin looked up to his idol, he finally became like his idol. By reading many articles by Stephen King, the author has come up with ten writing secrets, hoping that these ten tips can help us get closer to our idol.

1. Master the Basics

Nowadays, many people work hard at writing and practicing, but if they don’t have a solid grasp of the basics, they will easily become more and more tired as they write.

The basis of writing is vocabulary and grammar.

1. Vocabulary

Vocabulary is the basis of whether an article is vivid or not.

First, we can increase our vocabulary by consulting and memorizing a dictionary. I remember that many literary masters had the habit of reading dictionaries in their spare time. Mr. Hu Shi once said: "Buying a copy of Webster's Dictionary is better than hiring several teachers. Such teachers will follow you for life and you will benefit from them throughout your life." Secondly, we can pay attention to reading and accumulating beautiful articles in our daily life, and make up for the deficiencies in expression by excerpting excellent expressions.

There are two things to keep in mind when using vocabulary:

A. First impression words

Stephen King once said: The first rule of word choice is to use the first word that comes to your mind, as long as that word is appropriate and vivid.

The first word comes from your instinctive reaction, of course, this instinctive reaction needs to be based on your large vocabulary. When we hesitate and decide to use another word, we find that it is not as appropriate and natural as the word that naturally appears in our mind.

B. Pay attention to the context when choosing words.

Each word has different usage scenarios, and we need to distinguish between positive and negative words. When describing some dialogues and scenes, choose words that are appropriate to the scene to make the expression more appropriate. For example, in a specific scenario, people may say "I'm going to poop" which is more realistic than "I'm going to the bathroom".

Another scenario that requires attention is polite words. When writing dialogues between characters, we should pay attention to choosing appropriate honorifics and humble words according to the other party's identity. This will make your article more outstanding.

2. Syntax

Grammar is the basic element of writing. Bad grammar leads to bad language. An author who does not understand grammar will have a sense of incompleteness in his works no matter how much he writes. In grammar, sentences are composed of nouns + verbs, and the paragraphs that make up an article are also composed of sentences with different semantics connected by reasonable logical words.

In The Elements of Style, Strunk reminds many writers not to put a series of short sentences together.

Frequent use of short sentences can easily lead to fragmented paragraphs and a lack of rhythm in expression. For example: "The wind came, he left. People dispersed, leaves fell." Such expressions are suitable for poetry, but for writing stories or novels, it is very easy to make it difficult for readers to understand and make the paragraphs fragmented and messy.

The famous writer Orwell warned us: Never use the passive voice when the active voice can be used.

The passive voice makes the writing weak, wordy, and often beats around the bush. For example, "Xiao Ming and Xiao Hong moved the table out" is much more effective than "The table was moved out by Xiao Ming and Xiao Hong".

2. Read more and write more

This is the first commandment proposed by Stephen King. Stephen King once said: "I find it hard to believe that people who read very little can write and expect others to like what they write."

Reading is at the core of a writer's life. Literary masters advise us to read more classics. Mr. Qian Zhongshu was not a person who had a photographic memory. When he read more, he repeatedly memorized and took notes, so that the reading could be integrated into his heart.

In fact, it is difficult for a person who reads very little to have vivid expressions and accurate story cases. When Stephen King was in elementary school, he read six tons of comic books, which undoubtedly laid a solid foundation for him to become a prolific writer in the future. The real meaning of reading is that it makes writing easier and brings you into a very urgent and relaxed writing state.

Writing more will undoubtedly improve your writing skills. Creation begins with imitation . At the beginning, we need to imitate the works of masters we like. I remember that when Stephen King first started writing, he copied "Casey the Soldier" word for word on a notepad and added some original descriptions to the original text.

3. Create regularly

We need to cultivate a sense of writing ritual, create in fixed time periods, and cultivate creative inspiration.

British writer Anthony Trollope worked in the post office during the day and was extremely busy. He gets up early every day and writes for two and a half hours before going to work. His time is fixed and unshakable. If he didn't finish writing today, he would make a mark and continue writing the next day. He eventually completed 47 novels and became one of the classic British writers of the 19th century.

Although we cannot compare with famous writers, it would be of great benefit if we pay attention to regularizing our creative time. For example, I am an engineer during the day, and I write from 18:00 to 20:00 after get off work. If you have nothing to say that day, you can write a diary or a work summary. This will also deepen creative memory, make writing a habitual behavior, and make a fixed time period a base for inspiration.

4. Write behind closed doors

Close the door, lock the world out, and the simpler the environment is when writing, the better. We must have the determination and perseverance to write behind closed doors, isolate ourselves from the outside world for a certain period of time during the day, and immerse ourselves in our own world of thinking and writing.

Stephen King writes every morning. When he writes, he takes his computer and mobile phone out of the house and closes the door to create.

For those who are just starting to write, you can set a slightly lower goal. For example, 300 words a day and a day off every weekend. This makes it easier to develop the habit of writing.

Many friends asked, what should be written when the door is closed? Stephen King said: "You can write about anything as long as you tell the truth. You can incorporate your understanding of life, friendship, love and family into your writing."

5. Open door modification

Writing behind closed doors allows you to have space for independent thinking and write for yourself; while revising with the door open is to share your work with readers and enjoy it together.

Stephen King has come up with the golden formula for manuscript revision: “ Second draft = first draft - 10% ”. By opening the door, we can listen more to readers’ opinions and make our expressions more appropriate.

For example, the author’s previous article “Why can’t you remember anything even though you’ve tried your best? ”, the revised draft is as follows:

By using demonstrative words to replace and delete redundant adverbial modifiers, the sentence can be expressed more smoothly.

6. Adverbs are not your friends

We should avoid using adverbs to modify "someone said..."

Stephen King once said, "Adverbs betray the writer's insecurity in expressing himself clearly."

For example: "I'm very sad," Xiaoli said sadly, "What's wrong?" you asked sympathetically.

The above example is irritating and the sentences are redundant and difficult to understand. We can express it directly: "I'm sad," Xiaoli said, "What's wrong?" you asked. Indirectly expressing the character's mood when speaking by setting up the context is more effective than directly using adverbs.

7. Narrative Focus on Context

When narrating a story, use situations instead of plot ideas.

Many world-famous novelists only give a situation when writing and then let the story develop on its own. Stephen King once said: "I never conceive a story in detail. I just give it a situation, and sometimes I can't even imagine the ending of the story."

Creation comes from life, and real stories in life are mostly unconceived. Plot conception and the spontaneity of true creation are incompatible. When we tell a story, we should imagine ourselves as the protagonist of the story, and love or hate according to our own wishes in the story, rather than narrating according to a pre-planned idea.

Stories based on situations are often closer to daily life, adding to the complexity and mystery of the story. Stories that are conceived according to plots are often rigid or the stories are within the readers' expectations and lack novelty.

8. Be Descriptive

Through description, we can really make the reader involved in the story.

We should read a lot so that we know how to describe and how much to describe. The key of description is to distinguish the primary from the secondary, and more words should be used to describe the main parts.

It is easy to make mistakes by either under-describing or over-describing, but over-describing is more common. Excessive description will hinder the development of the plot. We should keep the interesting parts and avoid wasting time on other parts.

The key to good description is clarity of what is seen, clarity of words, fresh imagery, and simple vocabulary.

9. Make the characters vivid

Dialogue is not talking to yourself, but should be a conversation between you and me, and keep the conversation honest like in real life.

When creating a character, pay attention to the real people around you and describe what you see truthfully. We create scenes to set the mood and use figurative descriptions instead of direct language.

For example, in "Dream of the Red Chamber" written by Mr. Cao Xueqin, his portrayal of characters is very vivid. He did not say what the personalities of Wang Xifeng and Lin Daiyu were, but instead used scene creation instead of direct language to make the images more vivid. Wang Xifeng's "asking about her voice before seeing her" when she appeared and Lin Daiyu's "Song of Burying Flowers" fully use the language of the scene to portray the characters' personalities, which is more fascinating than direct narration.

10. The theme should be clear

Any article must have a central theme, and we need to make sure that the theme is meaningful.

When writing, ask yourself a few questions repeatedly: Why am I writing this article? What makes me spend time writing without regrets? What do I want to tell readers in this article? etc. Only articles with clear themes can help us overcome difficulties and move forward courageously.

For example, some people write to share their skills, and the joy of sharing keeps them going; some people write to express their values, and this positive energy infects many people; some people write to export their experiences, and this wealth helps many people avoid detours.

These are the ten secrets of writing:

1. Master the basics; 2. Read and write more; 3. Create regularly; 4. Write behind closed doors; 5. Revise with open doors; 6. Adverbs are not your friends; 7. Focus on context in narration; 8. Be measured in description; 9. Make characters vivid; 10. Make the theme clear.

Finally, I would like to encourage all writing lovers with a quote from Stephen King: "Writing is to satisfy the joy of indulging in it. Writing is not life, but I think sometimes it is a path back to life."

End