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Never mow the same grass twice — How to improve faster as a writer

One of the most important writing lessons I ever learned came, surprisingly, from my college trumpet instructor.

“Michael,” he’d say with a heavy sigh, pulling off his glasses and rubbing the lenses with the bottom of his shirt. “You know I hate to mow the same grass twice.”

It was a phrase he used a lot, in band and private lessons, whenever someone made a mistake he’d already told them to correct. Because in his mind, once he’d identified a mistake in your performance, you needed to do everything you could to keep it from happening again, for two reasons.

First, because as he said, he doesn’t like to mow the same grass twice. And second (and more importantly), because if you let yourself repeat a mistake, that mistake will start to become a habit.

A bad habit.

And the more you let yourself repeat that habit, the more deeply ingrained it becomes, making it increasingly difficult to fix and slowing your progress as a musician (or artist, or writer). So his suggestion was this: Identify what needs to change, and firmly commit to fixing it now.

Confession Time

So. I was a very average trumpet player. My instructor and I had a great rapport, but he had to tell me to mow the same grass twice, three times, and more often than he ever would have liked, because I just wasn’t focused or passionate enough about trumpet to fully commit to his advice.

But I was focused and passionate enough about fiction to commit to his advice when it came to writing. So I applied his mindset in my creative writing workshops, particularly when I started my MFA.

And I tell you what, everybody. It worked wonders — helping me improve enough in that first year alone to win our MFA program’s top fiction prize and to earn a teaching assistantship.

3 Steps to Quickly Improve Your Writing

With my trumpet instructor’s advice in mind, I put a 3-step process on loop throughout my time in the MFA:

Share a short story with your fellow writers. (A workshop is great, but online writing friends work too.)

Sift through everyone’s feedback to find one high-priority “bad habit” in your writing that they seem to be honing in on.

When you sit down to write your next story, commit to breaking that habit at any cost, even if it means making other mistakes because of it. (New mistakes are better than old mistakes.)

This is How it Went for Me

The first short story I shared in my MFA workshop had a clear issue: the narrator was passive and underdeveloped. One of my classmates called him a “window character,” someone through whom we could observe the other, more interesting characters who actually drove the plot. The rest of the workshop agreed, and looking back at some of my past stories, I realized that passive narrators had become a deeply ingrained habit of mine.

So the next time I wrote a story, I strictly committed myself to writing a more active narrator.

The Result?

A moderately active narrator. Not perfect, but better than I’d done in a long time. It was progress — me chipping away at the bad habit.

The next story I wrote showed much more progress. It had a highly active narrator, and so did the story after that. And that’s when a new, better habit formed: writing active narrators without even thinking about it. And that let me shift my focus to improve upon something else (such as making all my narrator’s actions stem from their core emotional struggle). And something new again after that (using more figurative language, loosening up my writing voice, etc.).

And that’s how you can improve, too. The goal, again, is to use peer feedback to identify habits in your writing you don’t like, and then to mentally commit to replacing them with habits you want, one by one.

It’s a slightly different way to approach feedback. We tend to primarily use feedback as a way to help us improve an individual story — but it’s also a fantastic opportunity to improve your future first drafts.

You’ll be surprised how quickly your writing improves when you do this.

The key, though, is to commit to tackling just one major habit at a time. Why? Because writing is hard, friends, and fiction is a complex tapestry of various techniques, all coming together at once. That means your attention is always inevitably split while writing, so if you try to fix multiple habits at once, you’ll likely spread your attention too thin to succeed.

So identify a single change you want to see in you writing. Make it happen the next time you write a story, no matter what. Then, before you sit down again to write the next story, find something new you want to change or improve.

You’ll love what happens to your writing when you commit to never mowing the same grass twice.

And when you do, far away, in a brightly-lit college band room in Minnesota, my old instructor will raise a hand to conduct a trumpet ensemble, pause — and smile.

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For writing advice and tips on crafting theme, meaning, and character-driven plots, check out the rest of my blog.

And if you’re feeling discouraged, remember this: Every story has something wonderful inside it, including your own.

2 Tips for Adding Emotional Weight to Your Story

As writers, we want our work to hold weight — for our characters’ actions, emotions, and desires to resonate with and impact our readers. But how do we make that happen?

The most helpful advice, in my experience, has been to:

Make the internal become external, and

Make the external become internal.

Let’s talk about what that means and how these tips can help you add emotional weight to your story.

1. Make the internal become external

To “make the internal become external” is to take the interior aspects of your character (their fears, desires, pains, and epiphanies) and find ways to express them with external actions. For example:

If Marcos realizes his girlfriend doesn’t truly love him, don’t just make him mope; have him throw the engagement ring he purchased into the river.

If Amelia feels overworked and stressed at her new job, don’t just show her exhausted in bed; show her bailing on plans with the people she cares about or giving up her favorite pastimes.

If Kara is afraid to get onstage and perform as Lady Macbeth, don’t just have her wait in fear; make her run out on the show on opening night.

By expressing your character’s emotions and realizations through clear external actions, you add weight to what they’re going through.

2. Make the external become internal

The goal here is similar, but reversed. Where before you were taking an internal emotion and accentuating it with action, now you’re taking the external elements of your story (plot, character actions, external conflicts, etc.) and making them have internal ramifications for your characters. For example:

If Thomas gets slapped by his older sister during a disagreement, don’t just move on like it never happened; make it change the dynamic of their relationship for the rest of the story.

If Davy’s new boyfriend excessively dotes upon him, don’t just have him awkwardly brush him off; make Davy tentative and uncertain because he’s never been in a healthy relationship before.

If Anna loses the championship match of a tennis tournament, don’t just have her grudgingly accept defeat; make her feel crushed because of her impossibly high expectations for herself.

By taking external actions or events and tying them to your character’s deepfelt emotions and, when possible, their core struggle, you add weight to what happens in your story. Everything starts to matter, and that makes for captivating storytelling.

A Final Word

I want to clarify that I’m not telling you to make your characters act and react in ways that don’t make sense for them. Always stay true to your characters. 

But I do encourage you to always look for opportunities to merge the internal and external aspects of your story — because that’s the key to telling stories with true emotional weight.

Good luck, and good writing, everybody. :)

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Everyone has stories worth telling, including you. For helpful writing tips and advice, check out the rest of my blog.

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how can i make a plot feel more like a plot rather than just things happening to characters ? i have a general idea for the plot but 1) i dont feel its strong enough 2) i dont know where to end my story (character travels to an unfamiliar place, learns about the place and then what ?)

Fleshing Out Plot Ideas

If you’re writing a short story, original or fan-fiction, you really just need a point or story goal to tie it all together. What are you trying to accomplish with this story? What are you trying to illustrate about the world or the character to the reader? When you figure out what that is, it’s easier to hammer a plot into something that accomplishes that goal.

If you’re writing longer fiction, such as a novella or novel, there are a few things that need to happen in order to take your idea from a “plot idea” to an actual plot:

1. Character Arc/Internal Goal - Your protagonist or their world (or both) needs to transform throughout the story. Most stories follow a positive change character arc, meaning that something negative about the protagonist transforms into something positive by the end of the story. For example: a character who is timid and afraid of the world learns to be bold and courageous.  This thing that needs to change for the better represents their internal goal. Sometimes, with darker stories, the protagonist will go through a negative change arc, meaning that they start out with positive traits (ie: they’re confident and successful) which, through the course of the story, turn negative (ie: they become insecure and unsuccessful). In this case, they may have a lofty or undesirable internal goal which precipitates their downfall. Once in a while, you’ll see stories with static character arcs, meaning that the protagonist themselves doesn’t change, but they create change in their world or another character. In this case, their internal goal is represented by their need to help/change the other character or the world.

2. Inciting Incident/External Goal - Longer stories can’t just be a bunch of random events that happen to your character. These events need to help bring about whatever change you decided upon in #1. The best way to kick off this life changing chain of events is to turn your character’s world upside down. This is the inciting incident… the moment when something happens that changes your protagonist’s normal life forever. In The Hunger Games, it was Prim’s name being chosen at the Reaping, which caused Katniss to volunteer in her place. In Harry Potter, it was Harry getting his letter to Hogwarts. In Twilight, the inciting incident was multi-part, beginning with Bella’s move to Forks, meeting the Cullens, and ultimately figuring out Edward was a vampire. In response to this life disrupting incident, your protagonist needs to form a goal… willingly or because they have no other choice… and this goal is what’s going to carry the rest of the plot. This is called the “external goal” because this isn’t anything to do with what’s inside themselves, this is a real, tangible goal they want to accomplish. In Twilight, Bella’s external goal was to stay alive despite the nomads being after her. In The Hunger Games, Katniss, too, wanted to survive so she could go home and take care of her mom and sister. In The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Frodo needs to take the ring to Mount Doom so it can be destroyed.

3. Antagonist/Obstacles - Your story also needs to have an antagonist or antagonistic force. This can be a literal “bad guy” with “henchmen,” it could be a creature like a rampaging dragon or escaped dinosaurs, a natural disaster like a flood or asteroid, or it could even be your character themselves, wherein they’re their own worst enemy. Whoever or whatever your antagonist is, they or it will create obstacles that make it harder for your character to reach their goal. If the inciting incident was an alien invasion, and your protagonist’s external goal is to escape the occupied city to reach a huge safe zone the where the Earth military is amassing, the aliens (and any agents acting on behalf of the aliens) will be the source of problems or obstacles that your protagonist has to overcome on their way to achieving their goal. Sometimes they will be successful in overcoming these obstacles, sometimes they’ll fail and have to try again or find a workaround. But this struggle to overcome obstacles on the way to achieving the external goal is what creates the action of the story.

4. The Final Showdown - Somewhere in the last quarter of your story, your protagonist is going to have to confront the antagonist/antagonistic force in a big final showdown. If your antagonist is an evil wizard, this will be the big magic battle. If your antagonist is a fire-breathing dragon tormenting your protagonist’s village, this is the moment when your protagonist is going to unleash everything they’ve got to try and kill the dragon once and for all. If the antagonist is a bunch of zombies in a zombie apocalypse, this is the moment when your character leads all the zombies into a field and sets it ablaze. Whatever happens, this is also the moment for your character to demonstrate how they’ve changed. For example, if they were timid and afraid of the world at the beginning, this is the moment where they prove they’re bold and courageous.

5. The Denouement and Ending - In most stories, the protagonist is going to be successful in vanquishing or surviving the antagonist/antagonistic force, though in some stories the protagonist will fail. Either way, the denouement is where all the dust settles following the final showdown. Injuries are tended to, losses are mourned, a promise to rebuild is made. Then, the very last thing we should see is what your character’s life is like afterward. In the beginning of the story, before the inciting incident, we see the character in their normal world, before everything turns upside down. This is the opposite of that. Now you show what our character’s life is like after their world was turned upside down and they tried to right it again. In many stories, this will be a happy ending. I some stories, this will simply be a hopeful ending. In fewer stories, it may be an all out sad or tragic ending. If you take all of these things into account, they should guide you not only through the action of the story, but lead you to a natural ending as well. Good luck!

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anyway most writing advice is frequently contradictory to other writing advice you might receive from people who have just as much/more writing ~expertise~ and a lot of writing advice is just flat-out terrible even if it’s coming from an ~expert~ so if you’re a writer consider this post a reminder that

writing advice that comes up on your dash should be looked at as tips you can choose to follow or discard as it suits you, not hardline rules you MUST abide by or else you’re a ‘bad writer’

you’re allowed to look at a piece of writing advice and say, “wow, that’s a shit idea and i don’t want write like that” and forget about it – even if the post has thousands of notes full of other people agreeing with it

there is no One True Right Way to write, your writing does not have to be just like everyone else’s – if all stories were written the same way and with the same style, reading would be a much more boring thing to do

if you try to write in a way that pleases everyone, you will fail because pleasing everyone is not possible – your own satisfaction with your work, your own desire to write a story, and your own enjoyment of writing are more important than that

the slaughter of finches. a wip introduction.

category. new adult.

genre. apocalyptic, low fantasy.

point of view. multiple, third person omniscient.

themes. apocalypse, man v. human, man v. society, man v. nature, supernatural creatures, mystery, found family, war, humanity.

status. outlining, first draft.

type. standalone.

links. old tag. new tag. inspiration tag. powerpoint. pinterest board.

synopsis & characters.

Lees verder

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i just put together an autistic character profile to help allistic people write autistic characters. have at it

Huevember -green

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WIP: The Hunters

Genre: Futuristic Sci-fi

Themes: Good vs Evil, Right vs. Wrong, Abuse of power, Corrupt government, Guilt, Revenge

Synopsis: At the edge of the universe all hell is about to break loose. Victor Romanov, the man responsible for The Attacks, has escaped maximum security prison and is out for revenge. Captain William Marlow and his team of bounty hunters plan to bring him in and collect their biggest award yet. However, Marlow’s past catches up to him in the form of Eve, a defective AI, and he soon begins to question who the real villain is. Maybe Victor Romanov should get his revenge.

Excerpt: Before him kneeled a young woman. Her big blue wondrous eyes were skyward. It annoyed him that she wasn’t focused on the gun in his hand that was pointed at her face. It angered him that he was annoyed. But above all else this was not the face his gun should be pointed at. But he had orders. And the law came before everything else. Order before everything. And yet this felt… wrong. Sweat rolled down his temple. Don’t pull the trigger. He screamed inside himself. His body didn’t listen. He squeezed the trigger. Before the body could hit the floor Marlow woke up.

Eve was sitting on his bed looking down on him with those big blue eyes. “What is this noise?” she asked over the music which was still playing. Marlow sighed “They call it music if you can believe.” He rubbed the sleep from his eyes. “Oh, I don’t like it.” She stated matter of factly. “Music off” he commanded and the ship obeyed. Now in silence, Marlow sat up and found his face mere inches away from Eve’s. This close he could smell her. She smelled warm with an underlying sweetness. She lean forward, her sweetness was a little overwhelming and brought unease to his stomach. That’s when it dawned on him that he was only wearing boxer shorts and nothing else. He pulled the covers closer and leaned away from her. Her eyes searched his face. He wondered what she was looking for. He wondered if she would find it. He tried to remember what her kind were capable of. All of the destruction he witnessed. But being face to face with her… well he was having a hard time wrapping his mind around the idea of her being capable of any kind of carnage. But that’s the point isn’t it? Look non threatening then rip their throat out. He resisted the urge to cover his throat. “You talk in your sleep.” was all she said. He realized that he was holding his breath. “Did I say anything interesting?”

“You said no a lot. No to what?”

He swallowed hard. How the hell was he supposed to deal with this. His eyes landed on the mark on her face. This time he didn’t hesitate. He brought his hand up and cupped her cheek running his thumb over the black cross. To his surprise she leaned into his touch. “Do you remember Aquaria?” he asked. She answered with barely a whisper. “Yes.” Just then the door hissed open and Marlow jerked his hand away. Doc stepped in. “We’re … uh almost there.” He said as his eyes bounced back and forth between Marlow and Eve. Doc, now blushing, turned and left. Marlow scooted around Eve and got out of bed. “Where are we going” Marlow pulled on his black pants and buckled his belt. “Hiemal” he answered as he strapped on his thigh holster. “It’s a hellhole filled with bad people.” He pulled on an old grey Henley. Then he grabbed his boots and sat down next to Eve. He began lacing up his boots. “If we go there does that make us bad people?”

“Depends on who you ask”

“Well I don’t think you’re bad.”

Marlow straightened up and chuckled. “Thank you” He noticed she wasn’t wearing her shoes and saw an opportunity to get rid of her. “Now go put on your shoes and meet up in the control room.” She hopped off the bed and left the room. The tension Marlow didn’t realize he was holding left him. He run his hand through his buzzcut. What the hell just happened? Marlow had seen a lot and been through a lot but this was taking the cake as the weirdest. He grabbed his gun from underneath his pillow, checked that it was loaded, and holstered it. He pulled on his coat and left his room.

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“One of the biggest, and possibly the biggest, obstacle to becoming a writer… is learning to live with the fact that the wonderful story in your head is infinitely better, truer, more moving, more fascinating, more perceptive, than anything you’re going to manage to get down on paper. So you have to learn to live with the fact that you’re never going to write well enough. Of course that’s what keeps you trying – trying as hard as you can – which is a good thing.”

— Robin McKinley

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