I tried writing.

Discussion in 'Author Discussions' started by Uselessdead23, May 6, 2021.

  1. Uselessdead23

    Uselessdead23 〘Dead but alive at heart〙

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    So first of all, for the love of GOD and my rationality I tried writing just because.

    And there is one thing I understimated
    WRITING IS HARD AF.
    I spent my whole day writing just ONE CHAPTER and I almost died-
    It's hard to find words that can perfectly execute the scene that you had in your mind.
    It's even harder to structure it so the description is not all over the place.
    As to not confused the reader on what is happening.

    And as a complete beginner.
    Who literally have no experience writing.
    Like seriously writing a story.
    And as someone who's english is my second language.
    It's even difficult for me.

    Y'all have any advice?
    Any tips base on your experience?
    Wanna share the knowledge y'all held????
    :blobsob: - it's a cry for help
     
  2. hansora

    hansora Someone Who Seeks Fluff & Heartwarming Stories

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    English is my second language as well so I understood how hard to write a story completely in English

    what I did before, I would start with simple sentences and maybe a few paragraphs, after I've done I'd read them again to make sure the paragraphs didn't sound too rush or look messy
     
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  3. jinxs2011

    jinxs2011 [Rebel Against Normality][Writer of the Unusual]

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    Heh, yeah.

    A couple of the first things you'll need to decide starting out are your tenses and your perspectives - that is, whether you're writing as if it's something that has already happened, or as something that is currently happening, and whether it's being told by a person (usually one of the main ones in the story) or more by a narrator. Once you decide this, make sure to stick to it. This is one of the things I found difficult starting out.

    Reading over your chapters after you write them, whether in your head or aloud (whichever feels most natural) can help you quite a bit to notice mistakes or just when things don't quite sound right.

    Also, if you actually intend to keep writing this story, I would advise planning out the story beforehand, even if it's just a rough outline. Like the big bads, how it's gonna end, the important bits in-between and so on.

    And this may sound obvious, in a sense, but realise that your characters are not you. What they say doesn't need to necessarily need to be something that makes sense to you or that you would say, so long as it makes sense for them to say.
     
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  4. Lucenda

    Lucenda Well-Known Member

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    Post your hard work and feel the agony, using it motivate yourself to do better in the future, even if by the slightest bit.
    Continue to post chapters under such stress until you reach your breaking point. It'd probably work? Sums up my three years of scarce posting at least.

    In more serious words, reading is the biggest step to becoming better at writing. There are all sorts of writing styles and techniques out there, just reading about them won't help too much, but watching them in practice would let you get an idea of how other people write. Acting out characters is always a helpful thing if you ever have trouble writing from their perspective, though you will still need to know what words to describe their perspective, which is where reading comes in. Don't think anyone would want to read a dictionary to improve their vocabulary.
     
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  5. applelollita

    applelollita Well-Known Member

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    You really need to put your writing out there . I know very well that even when a well intentioned reader tells you how to improve your writing it can sometimes feel like they are questioning the entirety of your potential but don't give up . Believe in yourself . Plant that bitter seed in your heart and build that foundation .
    Secondly if you feel that your English isn't strong enough just read . Take a word you just found out about like two seconds ago and keeping throwing it in your conversations . Even using the word wrongly will let you remember it as you're gonna associate it with certain conversations .
    As for grammar , some find applying tenses whilst writing a story incredibly difficult even when their understanding might be perfect while talking so when you're planning the events of your story , you can create a timeline . I feel this is important for people who have english as their second language or are not exactly clear with it because wrong tenses don't only make the writing awkward but also make the story incoherent .
    Hope you do well blobmelt_thumbsblobmelt_thumbs
     
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  6. Aldnonymous

    Aldnonymous Male Member

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    Advice you say?

    If you are beginner, you should start with Slice of Life, as a start, don't try to make anything too complicated, make it daily lives. If you are a bit brave, add Fantasy to the Slice of Life, it's the easiest and carefree to write, not to mention people can't criticize Slice of Life for "PLOT".
     
  7. demongordon

    demongordon Active Member

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    1. Write everyday - even if what you write is garbage and will later have to rewrite it before posting it, the importance is to keep writting and create the habit is said that this is the difference between pros and newbies. It will also help with write block and make you write faster.
    2. Are you doing X or are you being lazy? - Is easy to be lazy, normally we find excuses to not write. "Reasearch"; "look for inspiration", "taking a time off" is not different than workout you can't stop it or is easy to stop. So first you ask yourself if you are really doing it what you said or being lazy. Looking for 3 days cool images of dudes in armor and fantastical places on pinterest for "help worldbuilding" may not be the best idea.
    3. Worldbuilding and Magic-craft are bottomless pit traps - and you can spend your whole life making the perfect world and magic system and that is fine if that your point but if you did to a novel them you to stop and start writting the story. Most stories the world and logic don't need to be too sound to work.
    4. Decided technical aspect of the work before starting - Deciding if is 1st or 3rd person, if there is a narrator omnisient or narrator limited, happening on the present or past and stick to it. I can't elaborate much because I suck at grammar stuff, as you can see.
    5. Plot your Plotline and Character development (hehe)- The most basic is know the most important points as well how it will end. After that you start to make sub-points between this major events to try to connect it, you can decided how much detail you want to do. Then you see how the character development line can be integrated into the Plot element, remmember Plot serve the Characters and Characters serve the Plot, so you can change one another if better fit
    6. Decided you Tone and Promise - The start of the novel is when you tell to your reader what kind of story they are there is the "Promise" you do between for and try to stick to that or if there is change make it gradual to make it coerent with the character and plot development. The more abrupt the change the more chance of alienate your previous audience, ofc you can do it for comedic effect you know what you are doing. Example: Great Demon King start super brutal setting, but when the juvenile comedy hit you get out of the loop)
    7. Make a World for the Character or make a Character for the World - Most often than not stories have difficult balancing between character centric story and World/Plot centric story and so a story has a clear divided on the core elements and auxiliar elements. The CORE elements are the ones that the reader are there for and would stop reading if the quality or amount of it start to drop too much. Meanwhile a Axuxiliar Element are the ones that are there to mostly enhance the CORE, and should at least not lessen the enjoyment of the core. Some Novels need a strong world but can have mediocre cast, while others the world is just a place holder and the cast personality and interaction is the meat of the story. For example:
      Xianxias
      -The CORE is action, adventure in new places, cultivation and worldbuilding.
      -The Auxiliar is character personality and character development are all most unidimensional and boring, the loyal brother is always loyal, the jade beauty has screen time only until is conquered by the MC and most side character are quick forgotten as the cultivation progress. However, the MC personality has to be at least ok to not get in front of the core of the action.
      - obs: This doesn't mean that you shouldn't make a good world and plot as well interesting character, but you should beware where that different generes has different focus and be able to blend good world and good character is what make a good story.
    8. Never blame the Reader and Never trust the Reader - If your story is not getting much attention or alot of bad feedback, don't put the blame on the reader, they aren't all trolls, just keep writting and try to improve. However the reader that comment or rate your novel is but a minority of the ones that read it and their words are valid but should be taken with a grain of salt, both positive and negative feedback.
    9. Show don't tell - easy to say, very hard to do. The rule of the thumb is that to ask if when you state something about a place or character if there is a way to instead of telling that you can make a situation where that fact is showed to the reader throguht the action of the character. Is the villain powerful? well make a scene where the villain trash a enemy that the MC had alot of trouble dealing with. Is that guy really shy? make a scene where the character stutters when people are talking to him and blush for anything. However, beware that sometimes you need to tell me what is going on because of pacing issue for exemple or maybe you want to show the difference between how people percieve the character and how it really is.
    10. What to reveal and what not reveal - The reader only need to know what is relevant to the story at the moment in detail, try withold any information about other things that the character aren't interested now or in a near future. Because aside from give you the chance to change it later, it will make the story alot more focused on the current plot and not ramble about how things that you think is cool and important. So if you want you can just make some small comments about things outside the current scope of the plot like raising a flag to your reader that you will visit this plot point in the future.
    11. Vague Description and Info Dump - Unless you are trying to set the atmosphere there is no reason in going too deep in unrelated description. Not every tree on the road to adventurer need a 3 line description, nor when you introduce a new character it you imediatly spend a phragraph describing his socks and the earlobe. The reader is pretty good in filling the details with their mind and if you want you can give small details as the conversation goes along. The same way that you can some times do with Info Dump. Some exemples:
      - First, read 10, see if what you are going to say are needed to be told now and how much detail.
      - You can then try to cut the info dump in smaller info chunks, and spread on the chapter(s)
      - Try to tie the info dump with the current plot, like have the character ask someone else
      - leave some information hidden inside the dialogue or backstory of someone else that will be the hook for further explaination of the infodump.
    12. Lack of well define goal - the MC don't need just the main goal of defeating Main Badguy, but also smaller goals that build up to it but is not just wandering around skyrim style as well a good reason why they are doing it instead of taking the easier route. Can be something dumb as pride but need to make sense with the character and situation. Slice of life novels don't have main goal, but they do have a goal of the day where the confusion revolve around and at most people are fine just enjoying it.
    13. Repeating trope and Variety of Conflict- Story is all about conflict, there will be some problem that the MC is trying to do, even if just enjoy is new OP powers and travel the world. there may be thematic motif but if the only plot point in each arc is the same( evil young master in all cultivation realms) then you need to stop and think on others problems or at least different solutions. That also one of the reason people like the DAO Talk in xianxia novels because it break from the constant fight, the same goes for kingdom building even if in the story it play small to no role.
    14. Look for resources in others works - Go back to your favorite author and serie, and look close in some stuff that you missed, how start their story, how long does it take for you to notice a new plot point, how they make sure the info dump is delivery in a more organic manner, how much time they spend describing the ambient or how a character looks, etc... You will not read it to enjoy but to notice his tricks and try to understand or just copy as a template. Dialogue for exemple is a very important point in how they write it, how much description there is between each new sentence for example, how long before there is some introspection.
    15. Look for resources online - There is a variety of youtube tutorials/guide/tips on how to write as well whole courses like the one made by brandon sanderson, that break some elements of writting. With Screenwritting analyses being the one most enjoyable to watch. And I also recommend to try some books like robert mckee story andjohn truly the anatomy of story, while they are made to screenwritter they are important material in how to break a story in understandable chuncks.
     
    Last edited: May 7, 2021
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  8. ClydeJohnson

    ClydeJohnson Active Member

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    Thank you, it's great writing tips! I also think that the most important thing is to write more. It's imperative to do this every day and even if the result is not very good. Now this is exactly what I'm doing, although the result is not yet noticeable.
    I still use the services I find at OnlineWritersRating. But I hope that soon I'll write any task well on my own.
     
    Last edited: Jul 4, 2021
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  9. Xian Piete

    Xian Piete Author of many mediocre stories

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    Keep it simple. You aren't writing Lord of the Rings and if you are it is probably full of shit you are borrowing from other writers. Just think about the story you want to tell. Is it a story about a dude that gets powerful while killing anyone that offends him or is it a story about getting the hot girl(s) while becoming a ____? Is it a revenge story? Is it a murder mystery? What is the very core problem your main character is there to solve. That is your story, not the setting, not the fluff, and certainly not some half stolen system.
     
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  10. GDLiZy

    GDLiZy Wise Deepsea Mermaid

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    Just cry and write. If there were a shortcut, everyone would be taking it.

    Welcome to the grind.
     
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  11. Gandire Alea

    Gandire Alea [Wicked Awesome Translator]

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    Writing is easy, it's like riding a bike.

    Except, you're on fire.

    And the bike is on fire.

    Everything around you is on fire.

    And you are in Hell.
     
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  12. Deleted member 348269

    Deleted member 348269 Guest

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    XD lol.

    Eh. Hellow. :D
    And that is why im on a writing block without a deadline..
     
  13. Gin_Hindew

    Gin_Hindew Well-Known Member

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    Begin by writing small stuff, opinion on things, short stories, micro fictions
    Never go for the big thing on the first try unless you are a genius
    Write with lots of problems so you can advance, then rewrite so its good