Advice I have read

This adverb meme is my favorite.
No one gives any reason for it. Just don't. Do not.

>>7382758
Yeah, if you're a shit writer you should probably respect all these rules.

>>7382758

To add onto 2b, any kind of temporal description is unnecessary. "And then," "Next," "Slowly", "At length", "Afterwards", "Until", "Before". It's just unnecessary.

>>7382763

Re-read the statement. "Sparingly". Does a reason need to be given? It's one of those things I would hope a reader would just intuitively agree with.

>>7382763
He ran hurriedly quickly through the door. He saw clearly certainly the girl. He undoubtedly generously gave her the absentmindedly lost headphones back.

Does this sound good to you?

>>7382758
Saith the teacher, proudly: "Thou shalt not unnecessarily write adverbially." Suddenly the student improveth dubiously.

>>7382798
Most of these don't even make sense, no one writes like this.

>>7382758
While this isn't entirely Hemingspam, it's still got the main elements

>Don't use adverbs!
Why proscribe an entire word class? Use whatever word classes work.
>Le active voice xD!
Just fuck off

>>7382758
yikes

if you're trying to write the next eragon then i suppose these are good

Adverbs do have a place in text. Smiled grimly can't be described in another way. Sure you could say he had a grim smile but that's just a clumsier adverb too (not all adverbs end in -ly!)

Can I ask is it preferred to say Character said or said Character? "Hello" said Michael versus "Hello" Michael said are there instances where you'd use both? What are the rules around mixing dialogue and description in the same paragraphs?

>>7382758

Annotating books or employing marginalia is like reverse editing, it's great practice

Whatever device is used in the piece should reflect one or more of the major themes, everything should be written with purpose.

Don't force story or progress, try to move in the direction of what you already have

Describe body language, learn about body language

Write the words of other writers, read everything, capitalize on everything, try to find the value in everything and you will get better at doing it with your own work.

Writing is as much about efficiency as it is about beauty. The right word at the right moment can speak several themes, tones, emotions, whatever you've already set up. That's part of the reason English is such a great writing language: words can have many different meanings or nuances. You could actually think of your piece as just one word when you put all of the themes/ideas together. You can think of the story as a machine with main components, smaller components functioning in support of those, and so on. Another way to think of it is like one of those shitty puzzle games people like so much, the ones that have a height limit and build up to it and your job is to find patterns in the structure, add in the perfectly fitting piece, and and collapse that portion of the pile. In the same way, a the right word in the right section after the right build-up will illuminate all of the other ideas you've built in. Think of The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade, by Herman Melville. On page 161 Pitch says to the PIO man "you and the Herb-Doctor ought to yolk together". The word yolk evokes all sorts of relevant themes from slavery to childhood to animalism to hypocrisy and so on. This is the goal. And you don't have to do this in every sentence to be a good writer, but it's worth inserting into your work to layer it with deeper meaning. Assuming that's your aim.

Anyway there's always more but I'm kind of tired and I should write something instead of shitting around on lit. The important thing to remember is that this is all a lot of theory and you can you learn way more about writing from writing and reading than shitty threads like this. You just need to develop any eye for it, to know what to look for. And then there's moving from theory into application, hence the writing. But you'll fail a lot. The important thing is to not get discouraged and to know how to take a fall.

>>7383020
Cruelest post I've seen today.

>>7383029
Noun said is preferred unless it's awkward. For example:

"Smh senpai," said Victor, the undergrad who had just shat on the toilet seat.

>>7382758
Suddenly would make a really fantastic first word.

Read the dictionary. Diction and style are your two best aids, after not sucking and retrieving information from your idea-box.

1. Show most things. Not just emotions. If you want a character who's great with kids, show them interacting with kids. Anything you can show instead of tell is a good thing. Most description is flavor blocks and often pretty boring.

2. Adverbs are fine if you know how, where, and when to use them. Anyone who says differently is parroting.

2b. No. Never use the word "Suddenly" to start a sentence. Actually, this works for most "introduction to a sentence" phrases. "What it is, is," for example.

3. If you want to make your work sound like a pretentious high-schooler's, then yes. Otherwise, the most important thing about sentence structure is style.

There's only one rule in writing.
Every detail, from diction to length to gender to genre to style to whatever else, should serve the story. And that's when it's okay to break the other guidelines. When it serves the story/poem/etc. For example, Flowers for Algernon.

>>7383029
Hint: When writing, the more characters you have in a scene, the more cluttered that scene will be. Try to keep it down to no more than four speaking characters wherever possible. Drop dialogue tags whenever you can. Make it clear who's talking by using WHAT their talking about, or how they talk. Include them in the introduction to a dialogue scene and try to avoid them going on. You can also use the description to give hints. Instead of ending or interrupting a dialogue with "he said," you can interrupt it with "Blah blah blah." Mark picked up his bandaid, rolling it into a ball with his thumb and pointer. "Blah blah blah."
There's no difference between them, though. Kind of depends on feeling and style, if it comes down to it.
The main thing is don't mix two character's speaking lines into one paragraph. You can introduce a paragraph with dialogue or description (though, if description, probably short, just leading into the dialogue), interrupt one with the other (usually a short interlude. Try to keep it to two sentences at most, if that), or end a mostly one thing paragraph with another. Get a good feeling for when to end paragraphs. I tend to aim for 4-6 lines in word for a true descriptive paragraph, whether or not another descriptive paragraph will follow. Usually too long but oh well.