Your story is 50% reader. It's that mixture of reader and writer that makes the magic. Which means that your story needs to have holes for the reader to fill in. You need that negative space for the puzzles pieces to fit.
It's not about plot holes, I'm talking about giving one sentence power the power of two. a book that means what it says is a mediocre book. A book that mean more than what it ways is a great book.
Don't overdevelop your characters, having them analyse every feeling, or spelling out what every character in a scene is thinking. Don't follow up a powerful line with an explanation of what make that line powerful. Let your words imply as much as they state.
It can be hard sometimes, but you have to trust your readers. And it can be hard to know which holes to leave. You don't want to leave any 'this doesn't make sense' holes, but you don't want to leave 'insert your interpretation here' holes.
This is my biggest struggle. 75% of my edits are exactly this. It's such a blurry line, for me, trying to figure where it's just enough, and where it just gets unclear. I always need a watchful eye when it comes to this.
If it's easier for you writing process, you can spell everything out in your rough draft and go back and take a hefty pair of hedge trimmer to it later. Sometimes it helps me to just spit out everything I'm thinking, even if it's obvious and uncreative, and then go back and refine it and make it more subtle later. Sort fo like stretching for an artist, lots of messy lines that you'll go back and make beautiful. for others, writing more meticulously and doing the above to begin with is the way to go, and that's totally cool too. But don't feel like if your first or second draft hasn't quite achieved this, that you can't do it at all. Editing is magic.
YOU ARE READING
The Do's and Don'ts of Writing a Story
HumorFor all you amateur writers on Wattpad that want to write a smashing book. Here are the top tips. There are four different sections in here: PLOT - anything incredibly relevant to a book. The backbone. Everything that, usually, you always need. LANG...
