The lesson is know your characters. Know what makes them tick. Know what drives them wild and what drives them crazy. Know them as well as you know yourself otherwise your audience never will.

By creating a thorough outline on each characters before you begin writing, decisions are made for you. You will know your characters well enough to know what they would and wouldn't say and how they would say it. More importantly, your readers will believe in them and in you.

Our final common writing myth (though there is no shortage of such myths, we are limited by space): slower you write, more time you spend with each and every word, better your writing will be.

The catch to this one is simple: there's a time and place for writing, and there's a time and place for editing.

When you mix two activities (which are very different in their requirements and purpose), you rarely do either one justice. If anything will suffer, it will be your writing. Because suddenly you'll be under constraints of editor sitting on your shoulder. You'll be fretting over words while losing perspective on more important elements of story. Does scene work? Are your characters being true to their nature? Does this move story forward?

The truth is this: your writing will ALWAYS be better when you write in moment. Remember when you were a child? When you could spend hours building a sand castle or playing catch or flying a kite? Those were moments when nothing else in world existed because you were completely absorbed in activity. Write with that same captivation, as if each scene were unfolding right before your eyes, and you'll find your writing will not only be vivid and powerful, it will flow faster than you ever imagined possible.

Writing does not have to be a torturous, exacting process.

Allow yourself to have fun with it, and you'll be a better writer for effort.

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Copyright 2003. All rights reserved. David B. Silva is a professional writer, editor and publisher. For a FREE mini-course on best way to make writing that novel faster and easier, Click Here ==> mailto:easyway@thesuccessfulwriter.com?subject=TRAArticle