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Fiction Tip: Write With Intention To Avoid Aimless Storytelling

Don’t take your readers on a meandering Sunday afternoon drive in the country

Liberty Forrest
The Novelist’s Journey

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write with intention; avoid aimless storytelling
Image by author in Canva

One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen writers make is to start writing without having a clue where they’re going. I’ve seen this a lot; they throw in random plot twists or ideas, simply because they don’t know what comes next. They ramble and jump from one thing to another, introducing ideas or twists that make absolutely no sense.

It’s beyond frustrating and a complete waste of time to read a bunch of disconnected thoughts that are irrelevant to one another and don’t actually tell a story.

Being spontaneous can spark creativity, but in the context of not knowing where you’re going and throwing in unrelated or loosely connected ideas for no good reason, it’s much more likely to lead to incoherent plots, underdeveloped characters, and a story that doesn’t make any sense at all.

You don’t need to draft an elaborate outline, especially if it’s a short story or if it’s not your style. But you do need to understand your characters’ motivations, the central conflict in the story (you MUST have a conflict!) and the resolution you want for the character(s).

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