for the -just starting-

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Tue, 2005-03-01 20:19

I haven't been writing too long myself, and just recently decided to do something big about it, concidering all of the compliments that I've gotten for my writing in other places.

It's pretty hard to just start up something like a story. If you've never really done anything like this before, it's helpful to get a general idea of the type of stuff that you want to write. Something that will help you with this choice is looking at the types of books that you like to read. For me, Terry Goodkind's, SWORD OF TRUTH series is my favorite, and is an adventure, sci-fi type series. This is the kind of writing that I started out with. To start out, something else that helps is taking stories that you like, or have an intrest in, and just writing other things with that same story. It gives you a good practice in writing, and gets pretty cool when you come up with some of these things. When I first started, I had read a short story about dragons, and sorta just built off of it. If you read Harry Potter, this is a great book to use, where you can come up with another student and follow him/her in her adventures in the school. Just things like that can help you with practice.

also, one of the first things that helps, is getting a blank peice of paper. Sit down at a desk or somewhere where you be alone and really think the best. Just jot down the broadest, most important aspects of the things that you're going to have in your story, such as characters and setting. You don't have to come up with a full-on plot, but just something that you can build off of in the future. And never be afraid to erase and change stuff; it's your story, do whatever you want with it.

A really important thing that you want to remember in writing, is that somebody is going to read this. You want them to want to, because they're probably not going to have to. One of the most important things that I feel you need to have in a story, is quality of your characters. The characters that you include in your story need to be like actual people. it's going to be really hard at first; I'm still stuggling with it myself. You don't want all of your characters to have the same personality. What tends to happen is that people wont really focus on character development, and all of their characters will have the writter's personality. It's a really hard habit to break, but if you can learn to base character's personalities on real people in your life, it helps to keep you from doing that. It also makes a good variety of personality for the reader, making the story seem more real.

Just some quick notes and pointers for the new writters out there =)

-Raven-

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Wed, 2005-03-02 08:44

Cam F

Hi Raven. I myself have never written anything substantial. In college I was in Business, NOT WRITING AT ALL, and Commerce but I love to write things in my spare time. I had read Lord of the Rings many times before and received the Silmarillion, also by JRR Tolkien about 4 months ago. I don't know what it was but the story of the beginning of Tolkien's world really sparked me to start my own, and oh wow is it complex. I took some time off writing in December but have done about 30,000 words since and really shifted my focus to things that you have pointed out (Ie. character development and story lay out) and am moving along fairly nicely now. But my scope is huge! I was recently asked how long I thought it would be untill I completed all I wanted to and I said two years minimum and then another long while for editing. I know it seems daft to just jump right into writing but I do it for enjoyment more than anything else. All new writers, DON'T BE AFRAID! Even if you get stuck with something you will kick yourself if you throw things out!!! =)

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