Writers Tip #55: Don’t Lecture
When you read your story, does it sound off, maybe you can’t quite put your finger on it, but you know you’ve done something wrong? Sometimes–maybe even lots of times–there are simple fixes. These writer’s tips will come at you once a week, giving you plenty of time to go through your story and make the adjustments.
Today’s tip: Don’t pontificate
This is a tip from Writer’s Digest, one I agree with 100%:
Don’t use your fiction story as a soap box for your beliefs. It won’t work. Readers will get turned off. Worse, if they disagree with you, they’ll leave nasty comments on Amazon and scare other readers away. Readers buy fiction to be entertained.
You don’t have to lecture to get your ideas across. Think of your cross section of friends. Are they all like you–Republican or Democrat? Do they all believe/not believe in global warming? Do you still like them? Sure, because you probably avoid politics (and religion and money as mom recommended) and enjoy the person they are. Do that with your characters.
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Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blog,Technology in Education featured blogger, IMS tech expert, and a bi-monthly contributor to Today’s Author. In her free time, she is editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum, and creator of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: characters, writers resources, writers tips Tagged: creative writing, fiction, writers tips
