Help me become a better writer!

[Relish in Chaos]

You know, I have a similar problem to you. I've been writing since I was about four, but then when I hit the middle of my teenage years, I kind of just lost inspiration and never even wrote much of a short story. I'm seventeen and studying English Language A-Level at the moment, and while my monologue and film review (complete with commentaries) got outstanding marks from my teacher, I'm struggling on my persuasive writing piece because I only ever wrote that kind of stuff when I was forced to at GCSE.

When I told my therapist about it, he told me to keep a journal telling the events that'd happened to me over the past few weeks and detailing my feelings about them, as well as to practice more free writing (I'd kind-of-but-not-really started free writing after researching a bit about it). Currently, I've written, like, a paragraph about some shitty high school romance, but chances are, I might discard it like so many other short pieces that I've written. I think one of my problems, aside from writer's block and spontaneous self-criticism of my work, is that I don't work well with plans. I prefer to just stuck in and let my story plot out as I go along, but since that hasn't worked, then...I guess I do need to figure out how I'm going to do a coherent plan that I'm happy with.

Last thing I'll say on the subject is that I bloody hate procrastination.

 

[Coppernerves]

*snop*

*snop*

*snop*

*snop*

How can they expect 12 year olds to write a story when people can't even do it after getting an A and an A* in English?

Seriously, I had no idea what to write then, and I still don't, it really bugs me whenever I'm reminded.

Because 12-year-olds aren't being graded as professional writers, just as a GCSE essay isn't graded in the same way a university one is. (I fucking wish.)

Besides which, I would imagine it's much more about getting them to think about literary devices than it is a test of their creative ability.

Creative ability? Caare to explaiin oh saage of aarts and liter-atuure?

(Not sarcasm, an attempt at writing in a friends' glorious/ancient sounding poetry reading style, you seem to know a lot more about writing than me)

Trying to work out what it is has at least given me an idea for a method of coming up with an RP characters' bio.

(Basically I'll steal the background off of a similar character, then adapt it for my own)

"In one word he told me secret of success in mathematics: Plagiarise.
Plagiarise, let no one elses work evade your eyes!
Remember why the good lord made your eyes!
So don't shade your eyes but plagiarise! Plagiarise! Plagiarise!

Only be sure to always call it please: Research"
Tom Lehrer- Lobachevsky

 

[PolarBearClub]

I'm sure I'm simply going to end up echoing points made by people already, but as an aspiring writer I felt I should try and contribute. It will be as much use for me as anyone else, I should probably bookmark the thread, perhaps this could become a general thread on writing tips? (which you could say it is already).

I find that the more I think about it, and do it myself, the less intimidated I become. When we read novels/comics/poetry, or see films and television programmes, we're getting the fully finalised, fully realised version. What I enjoy is finding out about the creative process: the original idea, how the idea was inspired, and how it evolved into what was eventually produced for an audience.

My specific interest is in screenwriting, so I try to read as many scripts as I can. This is a must, especially as film is such a rigid format in terms of your script layout, how you describe or explain things happening in a scene, etc. But as everyone has said, read everything. Stephen King has written a number of books on writing. I do own one but haven't gotten around to reading it yet, but I know a number of people who find them very useful.

When I mentioned about viewing things in their completed form, I was trying to get at the idea that you shouldn't be worried if you're finding it difficult to come up with a story or develop your characters. This is all part of a natural process which starts with you simply writing ANYTHING. When I think of characters, someone like Tony Soprano comes to mind. Such an intricate character, with so much depth and nuance, it can be intimidating feeling like I've to match something like that in my own writing. But when I learned that the writer of the Sopranos started by setting up a number of whiteboards in a room and writing on each one a single bad thing that could happen to Tony, suddenly the creative process is revealed.

Whatever you write, it might seem useless at first, or even when you read back over, but even if you disregard 99% of it, there might be one thing that sticks, or you find could be become the germ of an entire story itself. So never throw anything out!

It's also a good idea to carry around a notebook at all times. The amount of opportunities we all get on a day-to-day basis to use what encounter and channel it through creative processes is huge. So if you see something that catches your eye, or have an interesting, funny, meaningful conversation, make a note of it for future reference. Don't let any ideas slip by!

Plots and characters will be natural developments. Yu could start with just a name, or a place, anything, and just go from there. You don't have to know your character's entire life story the moment you create him/her/it. You might find yourself writing something you didn't expect, but just go with it. You hear some authors say that they feel their characters were revealing themselves to them, as if they were their own entity. It sounds about hokey and romanticised, but I can see where they're coming from as I write.

 

[Woodsey]

*snop*

*snop*

*snop*

*snop*

How can they expect 12 year olds to write a story when people can't even do it after getting an A and an A* in English?

Seriously, I had no idea what to write then, and I still don't, it really bugs me whenever I'm reminded.

Because 12-year-olds aren't being graded as professional writers, just as a GCSE essay isn't graded in the same way a university one is. (I fucking wish.)

Besides which, I would imagine it's much more about getting them to think about literary devices than it is a test of their creative ability.

Creative ability? Caare to explaiin oh saage of aarts and liter-atuure?

(Not sarcasm, an attempt at writing in a friends' glorious/ancient sounding poetry reading style, you seem to know a lot more about writing than me)

Their ability to be creative. I don't really know how to explain it more plainly than it's already written.

I mean, I can't paint for shit. So in that regard, I'm lacking in creative ability/talent.

 

[Jewrean]

1) Any writing you do is practice, even if you're not going to use it. Only about 10% of the writing I did on my book was thrown out.

2) Plan out your story first. Personally, I made a word doco with a few paragraphs for each chapters describing what was happening. Then I wrote one chapter a day. I had the book done in a month (a rough version, anyway). Alternatively, you could be a pantser (someone who writes from the seat of their pants).

3) I recommend joining a forum specifically tailored for you such as:
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/
I'm on there. Keep in mind, unless you ask them not to, their feedback will be very brutal and honest. ALSO, note that you are not allowed to hit-and-run (that is submit your work but never submit feedback yourself). It is heavily suggested that your post-count reaches 50 before you submit your own work.

4) Kill adverbs wherever possible and grammar doesn't matter on the internet but it does in the book.

5) Try and get a lot of the story done before having REAL critics look at it. Critics will be pedantic... because you've asked them to be. And it is for this reason after showing my first and only chapter to critics, I became demoralized and didn't write for another 6 months. Get a bit more done before showing it off.

6) Pry deeper into your beta readers opinions. Give them a feedback sheet with questions... or just have follow up questions prepared. You'll find that there might be SOMETHING they didn't like.

7) Every character (or at least every main character) should have a weakness. By the end of the story they have overcome it somehow. This is what keeps people interested in the story, the characters become more relate-able.

8) Although chapters with wildly varying word counts annoy readers, try and keep it out of your mind. The chapter is as long as it needs to be, no more, no less. It's only when those word counts get excruciatingly high that you may want to consider splitting a chapter at a tense moment. All of my chapters ranged from 1500-4000 words. However, some writers regularly have chapters over 10k (which is a slog!). As for chapters of only 1-3 pages... did they add anything to the story? Why are they there?

 

[Jewrean]

9) Be consistent with your characters. If your character begins inexperienced, then that character diving off a roof into a haystack perfectly for the first time doesn't sit right. Make sure they encounter speed bumps and learning experiences along the way.

10) Main characters (and occasionally ancillary characters) need character-arcs. A quick run down example:
a- Initial state: Your assassin blindly follows his cause.
b- Inciting Incident: He witnesses a betrayal.
c- Escalation: He spends much of the story struggling with this information.
d- Moment of Truth: He finally decides to fight against (or succumb).
e- Aftermath: The character has changed in some way, has learned from the past.

The character arc doesn't need to follow the main storyline. A secondary character, for example, might have an arc for fear of flying, and by the end of the story, conquers that fear. This growth keeps us along for the ride.

Examples:
Waterworld: Main character realizes not all non-mutants are so bad.
The Matrix: Neo accepts that he is the one, and in doing so becomes far more powerful (Neo is an anagram of One).

11) Note that grammar can be fixed later and doesn't need to be perfect the first time around. Once you've written a chapter do not spend longer than 1 day going over it, or you'll never get your story done. Finish the story, go back and fix it afterwards.

12) Like any business, it's not what you know and what you can do, but rather who you know. Start making industry contacts. Ask for a tour of a publisher's office building. See if you can line up a job there. Research what an agent is.

13) Distance yourself from Assassin's Creed. If you ever want to publish your work (and make money) it's probably better you make yours unique somehow. Yes, there are Assassin's Creed books and other works of fan fiction, but without that developers approval, your work will not see the PROFESSIONAL light of day. Perhaps take influences of other stories you like and mold them into your story as well.

ie: Assassin's Creed type brotherhood in a different setting, fighting against something we wouldn't have expected.

If you just make it similar, people will call it a rip-off / cash-in. If you make it a lot more different, people may say it is original. If you make it exactly the same (fan-fiction), only a certain group of people may be interested in reading it.

 

[Jewrean]

14) There is a golden story design that many works of fiction follow. The perfect example is Star Wars.

a- Initial state: Main character is happy, lives with family. Main character is weak, child-like.
b- Inciting Incident: Main charater's family is slaughtered / imprisoned, Main character is displaced somehow.
c- Escalation: Main character trains with his/her masters and becomes powerful. Goes on missions / jobs, and finally confronts the one responsible for family's deaths.
d- Moment of Truth: Main character exacts revenge, OR chooses another option. The decision determines how the story will end. A good moment of truth is when various members of the audience could see it go either way.
e- Hero is victorious, becomes King or returns home.

15) It is natural to make the protagonist and the antagonist have opposite opinions / personalities / points-of-view, but sometimes the most effective stories are when the two characters aren't actually that different... it was just their upbringing and circumstances that brought them to where they are today.

16) Avoid Deus-Ex-Machina (I think I spelled it right?), which is an act-of-god. This is a story-telling mechanism that solves writers block with some unknown power. Our main character needs to find a creative and realistic way to defeat the enemy, it shouldn't just be an angel at the end that does all the work.

17) If the main character is just too good, there is no real threat or sense of urgency. I've only played AC1 and AC2, and I never found the villains to be truly memorable. That was because they weren't threatening in the slightest... Altair (or whoever) was just too good, and so I never felt like I was in any real danger. A story shouldn't be like that, there should be a constant fear / danger that the main character cannot initially fight against. Something that makes us feel we are on the losing side. This makes the villains dialogue much more potent and memorable, because they are too much for us!

 

[NBSRDan]

The parts of writing that I'm struggling the most are:
-Formulating a proper story around an idea

Try distilling your idea into a single event, then figure what has to happen before that event to properly set it up and what consequences it will have afterward.

-Character establishment & development

When I last attempted NaNoWriMo [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Novel_Writing_Month], I found a very useful post on the forums that included a list of character traits:

Spoiler

Name:
Gender:
Age:
Race:
Likes:
Dislikes:
Occupation:
Appearance:
Hobbies:
Quirks:
General Personality:
Special Abilities:
Ordinary Talents:
Family:
Prized Possession:
Other Notes:

If you can fill out that list, you have a character. Once you know all of the information, you don't need to force it into the story. However much needs to come out will come out.

-Variation in descriptive sentences(I start way too many sentences with "The x was y")

Finish the whole story without worrying about it, then do an editing pass where you rewrite those specific sentences.