The world is full of opinions, and the internet is where they're left to echo.
I'm not an expert. I've simply tried and failed at many things. Maybe that makes this one of those awful opinions you should avoid, but on the off chance this may help, I figured it was worth the time this post will take.
Yeah, that's the tactful way of saying there's a lot of crap out there not to follow. You should try lots of things until your style comes to you and even if you *HATE* your methods, it's hard to stare into success as a denier.
My style is painful. I obsess, and have minor panic attacks because I am sure that I have no idea what happens in this scene.
See, I'm a little bit plotter, little bit pantser. I can see the events at the 5000 foot view. I even know how certain parts play out in my mind, certain things the characters say, but that doesn't always work when it his the page.
I worry about how it is all going to come together and get me to the end of this scene without it being certified crap.
It's always crap.
Maybe you like really rough drafts. I mean placeholders, notes to yourself, ideas that are general concepts, but that doesn't work for me. I save those for my outlines.
When I *draft* I tend to write the scene as far as the events go, maybe some base emotions, and it is stilted and wrong. I stop when the scene or bank of scenes that fit together are done and then I wait.
Hours.
Days.
Even weeks at times. I know, it's so frustrating.
But I've gotten better enough to where the time between can be shorter unless I've gone so hard I burned myself out and can't even get in touch with what my characters are feeling or why...
That's when I have to step back and I hate that even more, because of all the pressure people say where you have to write. You HAVE to write. Every day.
I call BS on that, but I digress. (Fairly stated, it helps if you get into a pattern of writing more often, because it is easier not to write if you've not been writing).
When I come back I look at word choices. See things like repetition and overstatement and cut those out immediately.
I'm big on something I call cadence, but others call rhythm. [Spelled that right on the first try. Booyah]
The flow of words matters more than what some people say you should or shouldn't do, like use extraneous words or adverbs. This is doubly important when dealing with dialogue.
You don't want things to be florid, or stilted, or just feel like a jumble of onomatopoeia. Maybe you do. I can't speak for everyone. It doesn't work for me, and that's the point of this post.
Find what you do and make that approach better.
Shave off the time between starting and finishing, because finishing is the goal. Getting to The End and having something you can be proud of.
In my case, that means rewriting a scene several times over. Fixing. Adding in anecdotes and observations rather than constantly stating how someone feels.
Maybe my first draft isn't a first draft at all. Maybe I kill my first draft one scene at a time, and that's not how you write.
Good.
Do it how you work best.
