Story Writing Tips
- Locked due to inactivity on Aug 4, '16 4:13pm
Thread Topic: Story Writing Tips
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Whelp, I have always enjoyed analyzing writing in order to help with my own works. I will be posting stuff on characters, plot, conflict, etc. in this thread later on.
Before that, I wanted to see if anyone had a particular subject they wanted me to cover? -
How do you write a short story when you have so much to talk about?
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Hmm...I don't know much about writing short stories, but I'll do my best, even though this will be short.
With a short story, you have to trim everything down. I'd estimate that you can handle around three characters, one major conflict, and one theme. It's often good to think about it as a single moment in time, incident, or experience. You can't have subplots, minor characters, or the like clogging up the works.
If you have a lot you want to talk about, the only option is to write separate short stories, or combine everything into a novella or novel. When too many ideas are put in too short a story, none of the ideas get enough time to be developed properly.
Wish I had more useful things to say on the subject. -
Hmm, how do you overcome writer's block especially when you have so many ideas but they don't line up?
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"Hmm, how do you overcome writer's block especially when you have so many ideas but they don't line up?"
I'd suggest abandoning the idea of 'writer's block'. 'Writer's block' sounds like a bizarre creativity disease that infects innocent, unwary writers. Most of the time, it is just a bit of laziness, frustration, or indecisiveness that we can overcome with a little hard work. ( I just say this because I sometimes see people using 'writer's block' as an excuse, or acting like they have no control over it. )
I think you're referring to the kind of 'block' I usually get: paralysis due to indecisiveness. This happens when there are so many possible things that we can put into a story that we cannot actually decide what to put down next.
I may not be the best person to ask when it comes to this one. XD
I'd suggest making a nice, big list of all of your ideas. Nothing organized, but just a list of random incidents, scenes, characters, etc. that you want to show up at some point in your story. Then, perhaps, try some process of elimination. What do you know you'll be saving for later, or can't use quite yet? Mark those ideas off.
Then, try taking a look at what the last thing to happen in your story is. Considering what has just happened, what is/are your main character/characters trying to do? Once you figure out what direction your characters are marching towards, take a look at your ideas again. How can you get the characters to head towards one of the scenes/incidents/etc you have listed?
I suppose that sounds kinda weird. XD I'll try an example.
Let's say that you are writing a generic fantasy story. The hero, a typical knight in shining armor, has just slain a dragon, and you have no idea what to write next. You write out a list of ideas, and figure out that the kight's next goal would be going to find the dragon's lair to take its treasure. You look at your list of ideas, and see that you have a vague idea involving the knight meeting a princess. You choose this one, and connect it to the knight's current goal. Maybe he finds the princess being kept as a prisoner in the dragon's cave. Maybe he finds a royal scepter with the treasure, and goes to the kingdom to present it to the princess.
That was a super generic example, but I couldn't think of anything off the top of my head. XD
If that technique doesn't work for you, just choose any idea from your list and start writing it into the story, even if you aren't sure it's the best possible option. Often, it is better to just start writing, even with doubts or confusion, as those will clear up. Worse case scenario, you just have to edit later. -
Thank you Hamilton, maybe I should do it like a short stories series, it's a series of short stories.
Thanks again! -
Those were all great ideas. Thank you Hamilton that actually helps a lot.
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What do you do if you try to describe something with a name but you don't know what the name is?
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Sorry for not responding earlier. I didn't see your post.
I'm afraid I am not sure I understand what you mean. Could you give me an example...? -
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The house was made of wood and had two poles supporting the roof of the house from the outside. Where you can sit under the shade.
Of course it's a Veranda.
But that was just an example, what do I do if I'm trying to describe something like that, when it has a name but I don't know what it is?
Sorry, LOL, I know it's complicated. -
How do you write a really long story with loads of characters and a mind-blowing plot when you get tired of writing stories after 4 pages or less?
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@I like music
Ah, I see now. (: Sorry; I wasn't sure precisely what you meant before. That's a tough one but here are some ideas to prevent that...
1. Read a lot, and look up any words you are unfamiliar with. Just doing this will improve your vocabulary, so you will encounter this problem less frequently.
2. Ask someone. I do this all the time. I'll forget a word, sometimes a really obvious word, and I'll try to enlist the help of a friend to jog my memory.
3. Look for similar words, then try to find their synonyms.
4. If worst comes to worst, just write around the problem. Maybe you don't have to use that word at all, and can just avoid it. -
@Bambi
Though I don't follow this rule myself, because I'm horribly lazy, writers are encouraged to write everyday. It doesn't matter if you're not feeling inspired, or if you're bored; the work still has to get done.
It might be a good idea to carve out a certain time, everyday, to write. Don't push yourself to do more than you can handle, but make sure to keep writing consistently.
One useful trick is to just promise yourself that you'll write for five minutes. This is often enough to get warmed up, and you'll want to continue writing longer.
Sorry if this wasn't useful. I have some pretty bad procrastination problems myself. -
Thank You Hamilton! That actually helped a lot!
And I get like that, too, but yeah, yesterday I wrote 30 pages of my book, when I hadn't even touched it for a long time, and I want to write some more after I'm done visiting all the forums.
Again, thank you very much Hamilton, that helped me a lot. -
Ta very much Hamilton
It's the effort, though, right? :] I think I'll give up on it anyway; it's 13 pages long and I've already lost the will to live LoL
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