h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I started writing like this 4 weeks ago. I did a 8 hour nightime course so I am very new to this. I hope I have something to say though. Things I learnt on my course were:

1) Write,write,write and take as much criticism as you can stand (Stephen King)
2) Find your own voice, i.e. find what stories YOU want to tell.
3) Consider every word and line and consider how it forms part of the story, if it doesn't add to the story take it out - save it for the next story. Maybe you have 3 stories in one - decide what you are trying to say.
4) Look carefully at the verb 'to be', everywhere you see it being used see what happens if you take it out.
5) Don't use weak adjectives and adverbs, e.g. very small, running slowly - use them sparingly and where they have impact.
6) Consider the rhythm of what you are trying to write, different subjects have diferent paces, e.g. my white bait was an action story and I wrote it in a fit of excitement so its short and pacey, another story would sound awful if you did that - say a love story - if you have 'found your voice' then you know the types of stories you want to write so learn how to write those at the rhythm that suits them.
7) Think of others reading your work, get a friend to read it aloud and see where it sounds awkward and stilted, cut those bits out.
8) Have a story to tell, if you have a theme (e.g. love triumphs over evil) then tell it, don't say it and make sure your story hangs together to get across your points.
9) Don't leave hanging unresolved threads aka 'never put a gun on the wall if it isn't going to go off' - make sure that by the end of your story all conflicts are resolved and all points are explained.
10) Make characters interesting as they need to be, the main ones in a short story need a little depth, the others are 'types', e.g. 'baddie', 'painter' etc. Enough detail to support the story.

I feel a bit pretentious telling you this as I have written 2 stories only. These are other peoples points that I am trying to learn.

If you find such things useful, pass them on - everyone here can learn from everyone else. Which lastly leads me to :

11) Read other peoples work, read the best authors you can find and try to work out why they are good, read others work (e.g. on here)and see how they succeeed and how they fail. Read with a critical eye(not to them).
12) Look for an original style of your own - the holy grail.
13) Have fun, live long and prosper.
14) Do unto others as you would have them do unto you (thats a quote from some book too - a good story teller is a good storyteller).

And definitely lastly, this is a note to myself :
15) Writers write. Don't let reviewing or anything else put you off writing. I avoid writing by reviewing - fear of falling.

Thanks Brassrazoo, Great tips I've printed them out and pinned them up (literally) I couldn't log on yesterday after having a kids sleepover so I'm a little behind. Thanks again I'm sure I'll find them extremely useful

I should do the same.

Just looked for your updated work - did you save and not publish - or should I remember where it was - please remind me.

What I did, was totally edit the Ironic short story in My Work part of My Portfolio. It is still a long way from being perfect but at least its shorter, easier to read and a hundred times better than the one you read last time.