I've been told about 'show not tell' but I was wondering what other ways people think work when trying to improve their work. I have a piece uploaded entitled 'Angel in the Snow' that I wrote at 16 and know it needs improvement but am at a dead end in which techniques would work well for the piece. What techniques do you use and does this go for any genre or specific ones?
Stephen KING, that should be. Woops. Ahem.
Good question. There are certain books a lot of writers have found useful - Stephen Kind's On Writing, or Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules Of Writing spring to mind. One of the best ways I found was simply to read and reread my favourite writers and focus, not on the story, but on their style; Why did they phrase it like that? What were they doing that was so good, or that I didn't like and wanted to avoid? With so many great writers having 'gone before', it's akin (in a way) to doing basic grunt work just to read, and consider that research.
As for specifics of techniques, you can try various exercises to challenge different aspects of your writing: short stories make you very aware of pacing, poems help you with scansion (the beat of the words, formed by metre, etc), plays improve dialogue, etc. Experiment and see what you like - and good luck!
Hello Victoria, I found your work so I will get back soon.
Best wishes.
James.