Can we just find a balance between character and plot?

I can't manage to find a book that isn't unbalanced lately. These authors are putting so much detail and work into their stories, but in doing so, they're somehow forgetting about the characters. How? Well, I'm not entirely sure. Obviously, books can be plot driven and that's fine. But it's generally apparent when it is, which brings me to my point.

All the detail in the world will not make up for poor character development. If your character has the personality of a box of rocks, it's going to take away from all that work you put into world-building. I've read reviews on books by authors guilty of this and I'm not the only one feeling this issue. Of course, it's probably not intentional. Which I guess leaves me with saying (yet again) find some character development sheets. Fill them out for every important character and don't put more into a side character than you do the main. The main character, if the story is character driven is-- as the title would suggest-- the driving force.

Detail is great. Always work on detail, but don't slight the characters while you're at it. It could most definitely be a problem that drives readers away.

Just a quick less technical tip

Ok, so lately I’ve been having some issues. Issues being… I feel like everything I do is mediocre. I sat around all day moping, wishing I were better at something. Anything, really. And after a few hours of this, I thought about where I started.

My writing was tantamount to the writings of a bored, eighteen-year-old’s attempt at writing… Well, "tantamount" is putting it lightly since that's exactly what it was. It was my senior year and I had just come into my love for reading. I had plenty of time on my hands so why not? I didn't note what it was going to be about. I didn't outline. I just... went for it. Oh, what a mess it was.

Three years later and my writing has gotten better. I don’t know how much better, but better, nonetheless. 

So, really, my tip is just don’t give up because you feel like you’re failing. Practice makes perfect. Reading doesn’t hurt either. If you feel like you are at a dead end, read. Read until you are nearly frantic to get back to your writing. 

If you’re serious about your writing, understand that it isn’t just something you jump into and are magically good at. It takes time-- years-- to understand and there is always room for improvement.

Just throwing more tips around

This is just a short list of tips I wrote last year. These, by the way, are lists I originally made on my Tumblr. I figure they may do some good on here.

Let's just get right into it. Your characters need to be dynamic. They need to seem like they could be real people and not robots. Make them cruel. Make them compassionate. Make them individuals. Make them real and remember events they go through will effect them. Character development sheets can help out a lot with this. Just look up “Character development sheet” on google and go. After that, you can write out their characteristics and make it come to life and apply it to your writing.

If you aren’t going to make an outline, at least go into it with at least a basic understanding of what the piece will be about. I made the mistake of just going at it and I paid for it. I had to do so much editing to make something of my first book because I had no idea what I was going to write about. So, please, at least think your story through. Once you have the major details worked out, you can deal with minor details later.

I’m not sure of the amount of people that pay attention to small details, but personally, I think you should make sure there are no holes in the story. When I read books, a lot of the time I’ll notice holes in a story and they’re usually small details but it bothers me that people are that careless. Fill in holes. Make sense of what you’re writing.

That's it for now. I'll post more another time. Have a nice day. :)

Tips from an amateur

Howdy howdy.
As my first post, I figure it should have something to do with what I'm dealing in-- writing. So I've come to give some maybe/maybe not helpful tips for people writing fiction. I know, I know, "You're so young. What information could you possibly have that's helpful at all?" The thing is, as a reader, I've read enough books and spoke to enough other readers to be able to pinpoint the issues people have in writing their stories. It's not rocket science. Enough people have found my tips helpful that I feel like it won't hurt to try, so here they are.

Firstly,you can’t be a successful writer without being able to take criticism. People all the time ask for feedback, but once they receive real feedback, they get defensive. Everyone is going to criticize your writing. Publishing companies, readers, reviewers, agents-- they’ll all criticize your writing. Learn to deal with it and be humbled. Don't get me wrong, there is a difference between someone telling you to change something and someone suggesting you change something to better the story. Learn to tell the difference. In the end, it's your story. You decide what stays and what goes.

The voice in your story is extremely important. If your writing doesn’t have the proper tone or no tone at all, it’s going to seem like the story is just droning on and on. Readers won’t want to read it if you don’t have a good voice.

Diction. Diction is a pretty big deal in writing. If you keep using the same words over and over again, it’ll be a workout for the reader to even get through a small portion of the writing. For example, using the word cold and not using a substitute for it. If nothing else, just get a thesaurus out and do it that way. It’s important enough to waste the time on looking words up.

People seem to have forgotten how paragraphs work or that they exist at all. Paragraphs exist for a reason. They keep the thoughts organized and keep it looking clean.

This is more of a suggestion more than anything. Make your story different from the rest. Books these days seem to be the same thing over and over again, especially in YA books. More often than not, the stories unfold like so: Girl meets strange boy. Girl falls in love with strange boy in the time span of a week or so. Things happen. They break up for some miserable reason. More things happen. They wind up getting back together. End of story. Make your story interesting. Change it up. There’s a reason the books that are popular are where they’re at. They changed it up.

This is a big problem with aspiring teenage (girl) writers from what I’ve noticed. They will write a story that is pretty much the same as another popular YA book, only changing the characters and setting. It’s unoriginal. Too many times I’ve seen young (I mean young) girls post a chapter or so of their writing, saying it’s their “original” story. Then, I read it and it’s exactly like The Hunger Games or Divergent. This is not very imaginative. Don’t do it.

Also, don’t do spinoff stories of a book that isn’t your own. Only the author of the original books should do that. Also not sure if that’s even legal but I’ve seen people do it often enough.

This is it for now. I'll almost definitely be posting more tips like these in the future. If it was helpful, great. If it wasn't, then that's fine too. Ya win some, ya lose some.